Muller

SS Major General and Lieutenant General of the Police Muller was the chief of Bureau IV of the State Security Main Bureau and deputy of the chief of the State Security Police and of the Secret Service. Muller was an officer during World War I, and afterward, when Hitler came to power, was transferred to the Bavarian Political Police and served under Best,

Who took him to Berlin in the Gestapo Headquarters.

He soon became a leading figure in this office under Heydrich and finally became the chief of the Berlin office himself.

Muller was a policeman by nature. He didn’t join the police until Hitler came to power and was taken relatively late into the SS. His specialist knowledge in police work, his continued experience in an executive position, and his talents came in handy in the development and improvement of Gestapo Headquarters. He was also influential in organizing the Gestapo.

Muller always remained in the background. He did not like to be connected to any events or actions. Yet, he was the one who organized and led all of the important police actions and made certain they were carried out.

After Heydrich’s death he became the leading figure in the Security Headquarters. Kaltenbrunner was only the chief and occupied himself primarily with the SD [Security Service].

Muller was always well-informed about all the important political occurrances in Germany. He had many undercover agents in all possible government positions, mainly in the economic sector. He kept in touch with his agents only through intermediaries. He was a master in camouflaging his work.

Muller visited the concentration camps only a few times, but not all of them. Nevertheless he was always well-informed about all of them. It wasn’t for nothing that each chief of the Political Department was also a member of the Stapo [state police].

Eicke and Muller understood each other very well, even as far back to the time when Eicke was Kommandant of Dachau.

It was never learned what Muller’s views were concerning the concentration camps and the prisoners. All his remarks concerning these questions always started with, “Himmler wishes that...” or “Himmler ordered. . .” It was never possible to find out what his views were.

When I was adjutant at Sachsenhausen, then Kommandant of Auschwitz, and later director of inspections, I had to conduct business with him very often. But I never experienced him saying even once that, “I’m deciding that. . .” or “I order this. . .” or “I want. . . .” He always covered himself and hid behind Himmler or the chief of the Security Police or the Secret Service, even though everyone who knew the situation realized that he was the one making the decisions and that Himmler and Kaltenbrunner depended completely upon him in all matters concerning prisoners. Muller decided who was sent into the camps and who would be released. He was the only one who decided on executions, as far as those ordered by the Security Headquarters. In important cases he presented the execution orders to Himmler for his signature.

He had numerous and very sensitive cases of the special prisoners precisely in his memory. He knew exact data about every single one of these countless prisoners and he knew where they were kept and their weaknesses.

Muller was an incredible, versatile, and tenacious worker. He made very few official trips, but we could always reach him, even on Sundays or holidays, either in his office or at home.

He had two adjutants and two secretaries whom he kept busy by alternating them in day and night shifts. Every inquiry was always promptly answered by him, mostly by telegram, “because he always had to ask Himmler for his decision first!”

From Eichmann and Gunther, who worked more intensly with him than I did, I learned that Muller made all the important decisions concerning the roundups of the Jews, even though he let Eichmann have a pretty free hand.

As 1 have stated before, he was well-informed about all the concentration camps, including Auschwitz, which he personally never saw. He knew all the details, whether it concerned Birkenau, or the crematories, or the number of prisoners, or the death figures. He knew the facts so exactly that I was often astounded.

All of my personal complaints to him to slow down the roundups in order to ease the terrible conditions were always unsuccessful because he always hid behind Himmler’s order, “The ordered roundups are to be carried out ruthlessly and without consideration!” 1 tried everything with him to convince him, but it was useless, although 1 got a lot accomplished through him where I had never succeeded with the others. Especially later, when 1 was director of inspections, he relied on my judgment a great deal. Today 1 believe that those who were higher up did not want to alleviate the terrible conditions in Auschwitz in order to increase the number of deaths in a “cold way” rather than by the gas chambers.

Muller had the power to stop the roundups or at least slow them down. He would also have been able to convince Himmler. He did not do it, although he knew the exact consequences. It just was not wanted. This is the way I see it today. At that time I was unable to understand the behavior at headquarters.

Muller told me repeatedly, “Himmler is of the opinion that the discharge of prisoners during wartime must be refused because of security and political reasons. That’s why discharge petitions have to be limited to an absolute minimum and only considered in special cases.” Muller also said, “Himmler issued orders that all prisoners of foreign nationality categorically must be denied discharge for the duration of the war!”

“Himmler wants foreign prisoners executed for even the smallest attempt at sabotage in order to intimidate the other prisoners!”

After reading the above it isn’t hard to guess who was behind these orders and wishes.

All in all, one can say that Muller was the real hand behind all the consequences caused by SS Headquarters, or rather their executives.

Personally Muller was a correct person, very obliging and full of camaraderie. He never acted like a boss or insisted on rank, and yet, it was never possible to become friendly with him. This was confirmed again and again by his coworkers, who had been with him for years.

Muller was the ice-cold executive and organizer of all the necessary measures ordered by Himmler for the security of Germany.