The order to transfer the prisoners from the camps to the prison ships came from the Hamburg Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann who was himself acting on orders from Berlin. Although Kaufmann later claimed during the war crimes tribunal that the prisoners were destined for Sweden, the head of the Hamburg Gestapo, Georg-Henning Graf von Bassewitz-Behr, said at the same trial that the prisoners were, in fact, slated to be killed in compliance with Himmler's orders.[24] It has been suggested that the plan itself called for scuttling the ships with the prisoners still aboard.[25]