M. DUBOST: Did you make autopsies on the people who died while en route?
BLAHA: Yes, particularly for the transport from Compiègne my services were demanded because the rumor was spread that the French Maquis and Fascists had attacked and killed each other in the cars. I had to inspect these corpses, but in no case did I find any signs of violence. Moreover, I took 10 corpses as a test, dissected them thoroughly and sent special reports on them to Berlin. All these people had died of suffocation. I was also able to note during the autopsy that these were prominent people of France. I could tell from their identity papers and uniforms that they were high-ranking French officers, priests, deputies, and well-nourished people who had been taken direct from civilian life to the cars and sent to Dachau.
M. DUBOST: After the reports which you sent to Berlin did the conditions under which the transports were made remain the same?
BLAHA: Nothing happened, as usual. Always long reports were written but conditions did not improve at all.
M. DUBOST: You indicated that some French generals had been put to death shortly before the liberation of the camp. Do you know the names of these generals?
BLAHA: Unfortunately I have forgotten these names. I can remember only what I was told by the prisoners who were kept in the bunkers with them—that they were the prominent personalities from Germany and other countries: Pastor Niemöller was there, also a French prince, Schuschnigg was there too, and members of the French Government and many others. I was told that one of the generals who had been shot was a close relative of General De Gaulle. Unfortunately I have forgotten his name.
M. DUBOST: If I understood you correctly, these generals were prisoners of war who had been transported to this concentration camp?
BLAHA: These two generals were not in the concentration camp. They were kept, along with the other prominent personalities, in the so-called “Kommandantur-Arrest,” that is, in the bunker separated from the camp. On various occasions when they needed medical attention I came into contact with them, but that was very seldom. Otherwise they did not come into contact with the other prisoners at all.