Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremburg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946, Volume 07 (part 3 of 3)
Firstly, with regard to the deliberate encouragement by the major war criminals of the lowest instincts of German officers, men, and officials detailed to the Eastern areas where they were incited to murder the civilian population and to indulge in every form of violence against it. They also created that atmosphere of impunity which surrounded the murderers and legalized the regime of terror. Secondly, with regard to the special training and selection of units designated to put into effect both the mass murders and the regime of terror inflicted on the civilian population. Thirdly, with regard to the extent of the crime, the ubiquity and the immense degree of the German fascist atrocities. Fourthly, with regard to the gradual development and perfection of methods for the realization of the monstrous crimes, from the first shootings to the creation of the special extermination camps. Fifthly, with regard to attempts to conceal all traces of the crimes and the special measures taken for that purpose by order of the higher authorities.
I shall now submit documents to prove the first two of the points just mentioned.
The Tribunal has already received evidence that the actual orders, circulars, and the so-called laws, promulgated by the Hitlerian criminals for the legalization of terror directed against the peaceful population and for the justification of rape and murder, are directly connected with the inhuman theories of fascism. The Chief Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R. has twice quoted from a book by the former president of the Danzig Senate, at one time a very close friend of Hitler’s, Hermann Rauschning, published in 1940 in New York under the title of The Voice of Destruction. The same book (Document Number USSR-378) was published in various other countries under different titles, such as, What Hitler Told Me, or Conversations with Hitler, and so on.
Two quotations were made from Rauschning’s book, which I have submitted to the Tribunal, in the speech of the Chief Prosecutor of the U.S.S.R. The first is on Page 225 of the original. Your Honors will find it in the last paragraph of Page 14. The contents of this quotation can be summarized as follows: Hitler told Rauschning that he was freeing mankind from the humiliating restrictions imposed by the “chimera of conscience and morality.” The second quotation is also extremely important. I will endeavor to prove by a series of concrete facts the apparently abstract contents of this quotation. You will find it on Pages 137-138. It concerns a conversation between Hitler and Rauschning on the subject of a special technique of depopulation essential for the physical extermination of entire nations and about the right of the victor to exterminate entire populations.
And indeed, in order to murder millions of innocent and defenseless people, it was necessary not only to develop the technical formula of “Cyclone A,” to construct gas chambers and the crematory ovens, nor yet to elaborate an elaborate procedure for mass shootings. It was also essential to educate many thousands who would carry out these policies “not in the letter, but in the spirit”—as stated by Himmler in one of his speeches. It was necessary to train persons deprived both of heart and conscience, perverted creatures who had deliberately cut themselves off from the basic conceptions of morality and law. It was necessary to legalize and theoretically establish the conformity to law of the substitution of the concept of “guilt” by the concept of “preventive purge of undesirable elements for political purposes,” of the concept of “justice” by the concept of “the right of the master,” and of the concept of “law” by an apologia of arbitrary administration and police terror.
It was necessary, by orders, regulations, and decrees, to instill in the minds of hundreds of thousands of human beings, trained as the bloodhound is trained, to carry out the premeditated atrocities of the major criminals, that they were in no way responsible for the crimes committed. That is why Hitler freed them from the “chimera called conscience.”
But the theoretical foundations laid down for the purpose still did not constitute official instructions, nor did they introduce definite retaliatory measures against those who were unduly mild and those who did not fully recognize the “joys of cruelty.” This is why, even before the beginning of the war with the Soviet Union, the German fascist criminals issued a number of so-called handbooks, sermons, and similar documents to the Germans who were being sent East. I submit one of these documents to the Tribunal. Of all the documents in my possession I have deliberately selected this small document, and I dwell on it because it is not intended for the SS or police. It is intended for the so-called agricultural leaders. This document is entitled, “The Twelve Commandments for the Behavior of Germans in the East and for Their Treatment of the Russians.”
I submit this document to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-89 (Document Number USSR-89), and Your Honors will find it on Page 17 of the document book. From these “Twelve Commandments” I shall quote just one, the sixth, which has a direct bearing on my present theme. . . .
DR. NELTE: Mr. President, the words “Twelve Commandments for the Behavior of the Germans in the East and for Their Treatment” have been written on Document Number USSR-89. That is all that is in my copy. This document has no heading and no signature. As the question of responsibility is involved, it would surely be desirable for the Prosecution to name the author of these “Twelve Commandments.” So I respectfully ask the Tribunal to decide whether this document is admissible as evidence in its present form.
THE PRESIDENT: Can you inform us what the source of the document is?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: This document is included in the documentation of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union for the investigation and determination of German fascist atrocities. It was received from the following sources—I must interrupt my further presentation.
The Counsel for the Defense has pointed out that this document bears no signature. If Your Honor will turn to the original of this document, which I have submitted to you, you will find the signature of a certain Backe. Unfortunately I cannot say who this Backe was, but I discovered this signature on a whole series of German, or rather of German fascist documents which, in rather peculiar juxtaposition, usually discussed two subjects—cattle breeding and the Russian soul. Evidently the author of this document was considered equally competent to deal with both questions. But what his official position was I really cannot say.
I repeat, this document was captured by field units of our army, in the region of Rossoshy, handed to the Extraordinary State Commission and the original of this document is now being submitted to the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: I have the original before me now. It is dated Berlin, the 1st of June 1941, and has a signature which looks like B-a-c-k-e. Perhaps Counsel for the Defense would like to see the original document. It is, as I understand from the prosecuting counsel, made a part of the Soviet Government report; and if so, we must take notice of it.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: That is so. I have information concerning Backe’s official position. He was Minister of Food and Agriculture. I did not know that before, because in practice I did not have the occasion to come across this branch of German fascist life.
DR. NELTE: Mr. President, I believe I can identify the signature as “Backe.” Backe was in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, was indeed State Secretary at the time.
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps this would be a convenient time to break.
[A recess was taken.]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, have I your permission to proceed?
I now quote the sixth commandment of the twelve which have just been submitted to the Tribunal. This sixth commandment, which is on Page 17 of the document book of the Tribunal, reads as follows:
“6. The areas just opened up must be permanently acquired for Germany and Europe. Everything will depend upon your behavior. You must realize that you are the representatives of Greater Germany and the standard-bearers of the National Socialist Revolution and of the New Europe for centuries to come. You must, therefore, carry out with dignity even the hardest and most ruthless measures required by the necessities of the state. Weakness on the part of an individual will, on principle, be considered as just cause for his recall. Anyone who has been recalled for this reason will no longer be eligible for a responsible position in the Reich either.”
For what “hardest and most ruthless” measures the criminal Hitlerite Government was preparing those whom it named “the standard-bearers of the National Socialist Revolution,” and what crimes were committed by them, we shall show later on.
In this manner the theoretical, abstract discussions were followed up by official orders quite definite and allowing of no ambiguity. Execution squads were trained in special educational institutions. The network of these institutions extended almost to the lowest ranks.
I shall submit to the Tribunal the indictment drawn up for the Prosecutor of the U.S.S.R. by the examining magistrate of most important affairs on the subject of German fascist atrocities in the city and region of Kharkov. This document has already been fully confirmed by the verdict of the military tribunal, which has also been submitted to the Tribunal. The Tribunal will find this verdict on Page 20 of your document book. The indictment and sentence are submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-32 (Document Number USSR-32).
There is on the first page of the indictment an extract from the testimony of the Defendant Retzlav. It is on Page 24 of the document book of the Tribunal, last paragraph. I quote an excerpt from the testimony:
“The accused senior corporal of the German Army, Reinhard Retzlav, who received his training in the special battalion ‘Altenburg,’ testified in the course of his interrogatory:
“The course of training even included several lectures by leading officials of the GFP”—Secret Field Police—“who definitely declared that the peoples of the Soviet Union, especially those of Russian nationality, were subhuman and should be destroyed in an overwhelming majority, although an appreciable number was to be employed by the German landowners as slaves. These directives were the result of the policy of the German Government toward the peoples of the occupied territories; and, it must be confessed, were put into practice by every member of the Armed Forces, myself included.”
Such were the courses dedicated to the training and education of junior police officials.
But the fascist training school for murderers acknowledged other forms of education as well, forms specially dedicated to the technique of destroying all traces of the crimes committed. The Tribunal has already received the document registered as Exhibit Number USSR-6(c) (8) (Document Number USSR-6(c) (8). This document is one of the appendices to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on German atrocities perpetrated on the territory of the region of Lvov. The document is the testimony of the witness, Manusevitch, interrogated by the senior assistant to the prosecutor of the Lvov region, by the special request of the Extraordinary State Commission. The minutes of the interrogatory are recorded in conformity with the legal code of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Tribunal will find these minutes on Page 48 of the document book.
Manusevitch was imprisoned by the Germans in Yanov Camp, where he worked in the prisoners’ squad for burning corpses of murdered Soviet citizens. After the 40,000 corpses murdered in Yanov Camp were burned, the squad was transferred for similar purposes to the camp in Lissenitzky Wood.
I now quote from the record of the interrogation, which the Tribunal will find on Page 52 of the document book, Paragraph 2 from the top, Line 26. I begin:
“In the death factory of this camp special 10-day courses on corpse burning were organized, on which 12 men were employed. Pupils attending these courses came from the camps of Lublin, Warsaw, and others whose names escape me. I do not know the surnames of the pupils, but they were officers from colonels to sergeant majors, not soldiers from the rank and file. The instructor at these courses was the officer in command of crematories, Colonel Schallok. On the site where the bodies were exhumed and burned he explained the practical manner of their burning and how to set up the machinery for bone crushing.”
Later on, photographs of this machine will be submitted to the Tribunal together with a description, or rather, I should say, technical directions.
“Schallock further explained the manner in which the pit was levelled over, the earth sifted, and trees planted over it, and how the ashes of the human corpses were scattered and concealed. Courses of this nature continued for a considerable period. During my sojourn, that is, during the 5½ months that I worked in the camps of Yanov and Lissenitzky, 10 groups of military students graduated successfully.”
For the education of adolescents, the German fascists created a special organization, the so-called Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend). The Defendant Baldur von Schirach was for quite a long time the head of this organization.
What kind of methods were used for the education of German youth by the fascist criminals is described by a French subject, Ida Vasso, the directress of a hostel for aged Frenchmen in Lvov. During the German occupation of Lvov, she had an opportunity of visiting the Lvov ghetto. In her statement to the Extraordinary State Commission, Vasso described the local system for the extermination of human beings.
From Vasso’s statement it is obvious that the Germans educated the Hitler Youth by training these young fascists to shoot at living targets—at children specially handed over to the Hitler Youth to serve as targets.
Vasso’s statement was checked by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union and fully confirmed. In confirmation of this evidence I will submit to the Court Exhibit Number USSR-6 (Document Number USSR-6), which is a report by the Extraordinary State Commission, entitled, “German Atrocities Perpetrated in the Territory of the Lvov Region.”
I now quote from Vasso’s statement in this connection. It is included in the text of the report as a certified document, on Page 6-c of the document book. The Tribunal will find Vasso’s statement on the reverse side of Page 59, Paragraph 5, beginning from Line 14 from the beginning of the paragraph:
“. . . the little children were martyrs. They were handed over to the Hitler Youth who used them as living targets while learning how to shoot. No mercy for others, all for themselves—this was the motto of the Germans. The whole world must learn of their methods. We, who were the helpless witnesses of these revolting scenes, must speak of those horrors in order that everybody should know of them and, what is more important, should never forget them since no vengeance will ever bring the millions of dead back to life again.”
Your Honors can turn to the same Page 59 of the document book, Line 10 from the beginning of the second paragraph. Here the Tribunal will find the official confirmation of Vasso’s statement. The Extraordinary State Commission established that, in Lvov, the Germans:
“Spared neither men, women, or children. The adults were simply killed on the spot; the children were given to the Hitler Youth for target practice.”
In this manner were created, educated, and trained the amoral monstrosities who were called upon to materialize the program of the major war criminals for the actual destruction of the population in the Eastern European countries. The fascist government had no need to fear that the “Standard Bearers of the National Socialist Revolution” in the East would show any traces of humanity at all.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, I hope you will forgive my interrupting you; but as I had to point out to Colonel Pokrovsky just now, we really don’t want any comment upon each one of these documents. The passage you have just read to us now is nothing but comment upon the frightful document which you have just read. It all takes time. If you could find your way to cut out the comment after these documents and simply to present us with the documents, it will save time.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I will now quote an excerpt from the testimony of the witness Manusevitch, previously submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-6(c) (8), the passage where he speaks of the activities of the Yanov Camp administration. He was a witness of these activities when working in a special squad of prisoners employed for burning the corpses of people murdered in this camp—Page 3 of the minutes of the interrogatory. The Tribunal will find this document on Page 50 of the document book, Line 25 from the top. I quote this passage as an illustration of the execution squads created by the Hitlerites and of some of the atrocities perpetrated by them:
“Apart from the shootings in Yanov Camp various forms of torture were practiced, namely, in winter a barrel would be filled with water and a man, with hands and feet tied, would be thrown into the barrel, where he froze to death. Yanov Camp was surrounded by a barbed wire entanglement consisting of two rows of barbed wire, 120 centimeters apart. A man would be thrown in and left there for several days on end. He could not extricate himself from the wire and he eventually perished from hunger and thirst. But prior to being thrown into the barbed wire, he would nearly have been beaten to death. A man would be strung up by the neck, hands, and feet. Dogs would be set on him and the dogs would tear him to pieces. Human beings were used as targets for shooting practice. This was mostly done by the following members of the Gestapo: Heine, Müller, Blum, Camp Commandant Willhaus, and others whose names escape me. People would be beaten till they nearly died, dogs would then be set on them who tore the victims to pieces. A man was given a glass to hold and was then stood up to serve as a target in shooting practice; if the glass was hit, the man was spared, but if he was shot in the hand he was immediately killed after being told that he was no longer fit for work. Men would be taken by the legs and torn in two. Infants from 1 month to 3 years old were thrown into buckets of water and left to drown. A man would be tied to a post facing the sun and kept there till he died of sunstroke. In addition, before men were sent to work, they were subjected to a so-called examination for physical fitness. The men were made to run a distance of 50 meters and if one of them ran well—that is—rapidly and without stumbling—he remained alive while the rest were shot. There was, in the same camp, a small, grass-covered plot. Here, too, footraces were run and anybody who stumbled in the grass and fell was promptly shot. The grass grew higher than a man’s knee. Women were strung up by the hair, after first having been stripped naked, swung in the air, and left to hang till they died.
“There was also the following case: a Gestapo man, Heine, made a young lad stand up and cut pieces of flesh from his body. Another man was wounded 28 times in the shoulders with a knife. The wounds healed and he worked in a death brigade. He was subsequently shot. Near the kitchen, during the distribution of coffee, the executioner Heine, whenever he was on duty, would go up to the first man in the line and ask, ‘Why are you standing in front of the others?’ and shoot him dead. In this way he shot quite a lot of people. He would then go to the end of the queue and ask, ‘Why are you the last in the line?’ and shoot him as well. I personally witnessed these atrocities during my imprisonment in Yanov Camp. . . .”
The testimony of the witness Manusevitch, which I have read into the record, was fully confirmed by the official report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union entitled, “German Atrocities Perpetrated in the Lvov Region.” Further on Manusevitch speaks mainly about the activities of officials in the lower and middle rank of the camp administration. It is evident from the official report of the Extraordinary State Commission that a system of the vilest ill-treatment practiced upon the helpless people was initiated and organized by the upper ranks of the camp administration, who invariably set their subordinates personal examples of inhuman behavior.
I will not make any comment on this document, although I do beg the Tribunal to take note of a certain Obersturmführer Willhaus mentioned in this document.
The Tribunal will find the excerpt which I shall now read into the Record on Page 58 of the document book—on the reverse side of the page, Column 1 of the text. I quote:
“SS Hauptsturmführer Gebauer established a savage system of murder in Yanov Camp, which, after his transfer to another post, was perfected by the camp commandant, SS Obersturmführer Gustav Willhaus and SS Hauptsturmführer Franz Wartzok.
“A former inmate of the camp told the commission:
“‘I have seen with my own eyes how SS Hauptsturmführer Fritz Gebauer strangled women and children and froze men to death in barrels filled with water. The hands and feet of the victims were shackled before they were lowered into the water. Those doomed to die remained in the barrels until they froze to death.’
“According to the testimonies of numerous Soviet prisoners of war and also of French citizens held in German camps, it was established that the German thugs invented the most vicious methods for exterminating human beings, a fact which they considered as particularly praiseworthy and in which they were encouraged both by the higher military command and by the government.
“SS Hauptsturmführer Franz Wartzok, for instance, loved to hang internees by both feet on posts and leave them in this position until they died; Obersturmführer Rokita personally slashed open the bellies of the prisoners. The chairman of the investigation section of the Yanov Camp, Heine, pierced the bodies of internees with sticks or a piece of iron; he would tear out the finger nails of women with pliers, then he would strip his victims, hang them up by their hair, swing them out and shoot at the ‘moving targets.’
“The commandant of the Yanov Camp, Obersturmführer Willhaus, systematically shot with an automatic rifle from the balcony of his office room the prisoners employed in the workshops, partly for sheer love of sport and partly to amuse his wife and daughters. He would then hand his rifle to his wife and she too had a shot at the prisoners. Sometimes, to please his 9-year-old daughter, he had children between the ages of 2 and 4 years tossed in the air and then took pot shots at them, while his daughter applauded and shrieked, ‘Papa, do it again; do it again, Papa!’ And he did it again.
“The internees of this camp were exterminated for no reason at all, often as a result of a bet. A woman witness, Kirschner, informed the Investigating Commission that a Gestapo Commissar, Wepke, bet the other camp executioners that he could cut a boy in half with one stroke of the axe. They did not believe him. So he caught a 10-year-old boy on the road, made him kneel down, told him to hide his face in the folded palms of his hands, made one test stroke, placed the child’s head in a more convenient position and with one single stroke cut the boy in half. The Hitlerites heartily congratulated Wepke, shaking him warmly by the hand.
“In 1943, for Hitler’s birthday—his 54th—the commandant of the Yanov Camp, Obersturmführer Willhaus, picked out 54 prisoners of war and shot them himself.
“A special hospital for prisoners was organized in the camp. The German hangmen Brambauer and Birman checked up the patients on the 1st and 15th day of each month; and, if they discovered that among the patients there were some who had been in the hospital for over 14 days, they shot them on the spot. Six or seven people were killed during each investigation.
“The Germans executed their tortures, ill-treatments, and shooting to the accompaniment of music. For this purpose they created a special orchestra selected from among the prisoners. They forced Professor Stricks and the famous conductor Mund to conduct this orchestra. They requested the composers to write a special tune, to be called the ‘Tango of Death.’ Shortly before dissolving the camp the Germans shot every member of the orchestra.”
Later on I will present to the Tribunal, as a photo-document, photographs of this “orchestra of death.”
What took place in Yanov Camp was in no way exceptional. In exactly the same manner the German fascist administration behaved in all concentration camps in the occupied area of the Soviet Union, Poland, Yugoslavia, and other Eastern European countries.
I submit to the International Military Tribunal Exhibit Number USSR-29 (Document Number USSR-29). It is a communiqué of the Polish-Soviet Extraordinary State Commission for the investigation of the crimes perpetrated by the Germans in the extermination camp of Maidanek in the city of Lublin. The Tribunal will find this communiqué on Page 63 of the document book. I quote Section 3 of this document, “Tortures and Murder in the Extermination Camp”—Page 64 reverse side of the document book, beginning with the last paragraph of the first column of the text:
“The forms of torture were extremely varied. Some of them were in the nature of so-called jokes which frequently ended in death. They included mock-shooting when the victim was rendered insensible by a blow over the head with a blunt instrument, and mock drownings in the pond of the camp which often ended in actual drowning.
“Among the German executioners were specialists in particular methods of torture. Prisoners were killed by a blow with a stick on the back of the head, by a kick in the stomach, in the groin, et cetera.
“The SS torturers drowned their victims in the dirty water flowing from the bathhouse through a narrow ditch. The head of the victim was plunged into the dirty water and kept under by the boot of an SS man until he died. A favorite method of the Hitler SS was to hang prisoners with their hands bound behind their back. The Frenchman, De Courantin, who suffered the torture in question, stated that a man hanged in this manner lost consciousness very rapidly, whereupon the hanging would be interrupted. He was hanged again as soon as consciousness was recovered and the process was repeated several times.
“For the smallest offense, particularly for any suspicion of escape, the camp internees were hanged by the German fiends. In the middle of each field stood a post with a cross beam 2 meters above ground, from which the victims were hanged. ‘I saw from my barracks,’ said witness Demashev, former camp internee and Soviet prisoner of war, ‘how people were hanged from the beam in the middle of the field.’
“Close to the laundry, in the entresol between the first and second floor, was a special shed with beams from the ceilings where prisoners were hanged in whole groups.”
The women interned in the camp were subjected to the same ill-treatment and torture; they suffered the same forms of control, of work beyond their strength, of beating, and ill-treatment. The greatest cruelty was exercised by the female personnel of the SS. The worst were the chief woman supervisor Erich, and the supervisors Braunstein, Anni David, Weber, Knoblick, Ellert, and Radli.
The Commission has established many facts of unparalleled brutality perpetrated by the German executioners in the camp.
The German, Heinz Stalbe, chief of the camp police, at a plenary meeting stated that he had seen with his own eyes how the director of the crematory, Oberscharführer Mussfeld, tied the arms and legs of a Polish woman and threw her into the furnace alive. The witnesses Yelinski and Olech—workers in the camp—also stated that internees had been burned alive in the crematory ovens:
“An infant was snatched from its mother’s breast and dashed before her eyes against the wall of the barrack”—stated witness Atrochov—“I saw for myself how infants were taken from their mothers and murdered before their eyes: One small leg would be seized by a hand, the executioner would stand on the other and the infant would be torn in half”—stated witness Edward Baran.
“The deputy camp commandant, SS-Obersturmführer Tumann was particularly noted for his sadistic tendencies. He forced groups of internees to kneel in a row and then killed them by blows on the head with a stick. He set Alsatian dogs on the internees. He participated actively and energetically in all executions and killings of the prisoners.
“Thus hunger, work beyond their strength, torture, torment, ill-treatment, and murder accompanied by unheard-of sadism were employed for the mass extermination of the captives in the camp.”
To prove that these sophisticated and sadistic crimes were not exclusively characteristic of the SS or the special police units, but that the major war criminals had deliberately plunged whole strata of the personnel of the German Armed Forces into the very depths of moral degradation, I turn to the contents of a note by the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R., V. M. Molotov, dated 6 January 1942, which was submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-51. Your Honors will find the passage I am about to quote on the reverse side of the document book, Paragraph 4, Column 1 of the text. I begin the quotation:
“There are no bounds to the wrath and indignation aroused among the Soviet population and in the Red Army by the innumerable and despicable acts of violence, the foul outrages perpetrated against the honor of the women and the mass murders of Soviet citizens, both men and women, carried out by the German fascist officers and men. Wherever the rule of the German bayonet begins to hold sway, an unbearable regime of bloody terror, agonizing torture, and savage murder is introduced. The robberies committed everywhere by the German officers and men are invariably accompanied by the beating and murder of immense numbers of entirely innocent people. For failure to deliver up food supplies to the very last crumb, and all clothing, down to the very last shirt, the occupants torture and hang old and young, women and children. At forced labor they beat up and shoot for all defective execution of the established quota of work.
“On 30 June Hitler’s thugs entered the city of Lvov, and on the very next day they started a massacre under the slogan, ‘Kill the Jews and the Poles.’ After hundreds had been put to death the Hitler gangsters arranged an ‘exhibition’ of the murdered citizens by building an arcade. The mutilated bodies, mostly of women, were laid out along the walls of the houses. The place of honor in this ghastly ‘exhibition’ was occupied by the corpse of a woman whose baby had been pinned to her with a bayonet.
“Such were the monstrous atrocities of the fascists from the very outbreak of the war. Wallowing in innocent blood, the Hitlerite blackguards are still continuing their dastardly crimes.
“In the hamlet of Krasnaya Polyana near Moscow, on 2 December, the German fascist dastards assembled all the local inhabitants between the ages of 15 and 16, locked them up in the icy premises of the district executive committee building in which all the window panes had been knocked out, and kept them there for 8 days without food or water. The infant children of the women workers of the Krasnaya Polyana factory, A. Zaitseva, T. Gudkina, O. Naletkina, and M. Mikhailova, died in the arms of their mothers during this ordeal.
“Numerous instances are on record of Soviet children having been used as practice targets by the Hitlerites.
“In the village of Bely Rast, in the Krasnaya Polyana district, a gang of drunken German soldiers put 12-year-old Volodia Tkachev up on the porch of one of the houses as a target and opened fire on the boy with an automatic rifle. The boy was riddled with bullets. After that the thugs began to fire random shots at the windows of houses. They stopped a collective farm woman, I. Mossolova, who was passing in the street with her three children, and there and then shot her and the children dead.
“In the village of Voskressenskoye of the Dubinin District, the Hitlerites used a 3-year-old boy as their target, firing at him with their machine guns.
“In the regional center of Volovo in the Region of Kursk, where the Germans stayed for a space of 4 hours, a German officer killed the 2-year-old son of a woman named Boikova by dashing the child’s head against a wall merely because it was crying.
“In the village soviet of Zlobin, in the district of Orel, the fascists killed the 2-year-old child of a collective farmer, Kratov, because his crying disturbed their sleep.
“In the village of Semenovskoe, in the region of Kalinin, the Germans bound with twine the arms of Olga Tikhonova, the 25-year-old wife of a Red Army man and mother of three children, who was in the last stage of pregnancy, and raped her. After violating her the Germans cut her throat, stabbed her through both breasts, and sadistically bored them out. In the same village the occupants shot a boy of 13 and cut out a five-pointed star on his forehead.
“In November the telegraph operator of the town of Kalinin, Ivanova, went to visit relatives in the village of Burashevo, near Kalinin, together with her 13-year-old son Leonid. When they left the town they were noticed by some Hitlerites, who began shooting at them from a distance of 60 meters; as a result the boy was killed. The mother made several attempts to carry away the child’s body, but whenever she tried to do so the Germans opened fire and she had to leave the body there. For 8 days the German soldiers would not let her remove the body. It was only removed and buried by the mother when the place was occupied by our troops.”
Mention is made, further on in the note, of another child victim of the fascists. The Tribunal will see this murdered boy in our filmed documentary evidence. I would ask the Tribunal to pay attention to the further words of the “note” which I shall read into the Record:
“In Rostov-on-Don a pupil of the commercial school, 15-year old Vitya Cherevichny, was playing in the yard with his pigeons. Some passing German soldiers began to steal the birds. The boy protested. The Germans took him away and shot him, at the corner of 27th Line and 2d Maisky Street for refusing to surrender his pigeons. With the heels of their boots the Hitlerites trampled his face out of all recognition.
“The village of Bassmanova, in the Glinka district of the Smolensk region, liberated by our troops early in September was one mass of ashes after the German occupation. On the very first day of their arrival, the fascist fiends drove into the fields over 200 schoolboys and girls who had come to the village to help in the harvesting. There they surrounded them and savagely shot them all. A large group of schoolgirls was abducted to the rear ‘for their lordships, the officers.’
“The seizure of towns or villages usually begins with the erection of a gallows on which the German executioners hang the first civilians they can lay their hands on. Moreover, they leave the bodies hanging on the gallows for days and even weeks. They do the same with the people they shoot in the streets of the towns and villages, leaving the bodies untended for days on end.
“After the seizure of Kharkov, the German thugs hanged several people from the windows of a large house in the center of the city. Furthermore, in the same city of Kharkov on 16 November 19 persons, including one woman, were hanged from the balconies of a number of houses.”
The bestial acts of violence perpetrated against the women everywhere testify to the profound moral corruption of the criminals. I shall quote from that passage in the note which Your Honors will find on Page 4, Paragraph 4, of the document book:
“Women and young girls are vilely outraged in all the occupied areas.
“In the Ukrainian village of Borodayevka, in the Dniepropetrovsk region, the fascists violated every one of the women and girls.
“In the village of Berezovka, in the region of Smolensk, drunken German soldiers assaulted and carried off all the women and girls between the ages of 16 and 30.
“In the city of Smolensk the German Command opened a brothel for officers in one of the hotels into which hundreds of women and girls were driven; they were mercilessly dragged down the street by their arms and hair.
“Everywhere the lust-maddened German gangsters break into the houses, they rape the women and girls under the very eyes of their kinfolk and children, jeer at the women they have violated, and then brutally murder their victims.
“In the city of Lvov, 32 women working in a garment factory were first violated and then murdered by German storm troopers. Drunken German soldiers dragged the girls and young women of Lvov into Kesciuszko Park, where they savagely raped them. An old priest, V. I. Pomaznew, who, cross in hand, tried to prevent these outrages, was beaten up by the fascists. They tore off his cassock, singed his beard, and bayonetted him to death.
“Near the town of Borissov in Bielorussia, 75 women and girls attempting to flee at the approach of the German troops, fell into their hands. The Germans first raped and then savagely murdered 36 of their number. By order of a German officer named Hummer, the soldiers marched L. I. Melchukova, a 16-year-old girl, into the forest, where they raped her. A little later some other women who had also been dragged into the forest saw some boards near the trees and the dying Melchukova nailed to the boards. The Germans had cut off her breasts in the presence of these women, among whom were V. I. Alperenko, and V. H. Bereznikova.
“On retreating from the village of Borovka, in the Zvenigorod district of the Moscow region, the fascists forcibly abducted several women, tearing them away from their little children in spite of their protests and prayers.
“In the town of Tikhvin in the Leningrad region, a 15-year-old girl named H. Koledetskaya, who had been wounded by shell splinters, was taken to a hospital (a former monastery) where there were wounded German soldiers. Despite her injuries the girl was raped by a group of German soldiers and died as a result of the assault.”
I omit one paragraph and continue:
“But, the Hitlerites do not stop at the murder of individual Soviet citizens. Among the most appalling atrocities in the history of Hitlerite lawlessness and terrorism on German occupied Soviet territory are the nightmare mass murders of Soviet citizens which usually accompany the temporary seizure by the Germans of Soviet towns, villages, and other inhabited centers.
“Here are a few instances of wholesale bloody murders carried out by the Germans against entire villages. In Yaskino, a village in the region of Smolensk, the Hitlerites shot all the old men and adolescents, and burnt the houses down to the ground. In the village of Pochinok of the same region, the Germans drove all the old men, old women, and children into the collective farm office, locked the doors and burnt them all alive. In the Ukrainian village of Yomelchino in the region of Zhitomir, the Germans locked 68 people into a small hut, sealed the doors and windows and asphyxiated to death everybody inside. In the village of Yershevo, of the Zvenigorod district in the Moscow region now liberated by our troops, the Germans prior to their withdrawal drove about 100 peaceful citizens and wounded Red Army men into a church, locked them in, and blew up the building. In the village of Agrafenovka of the Rostov region, on 16 November, the fascists arrested the entire male population between the ages of 16 and 70 and shot one man of every three.”
The subsequent part of the note deals with the mass German crimes known as “actions” and particularly to the “actions” in Kiev. I invite the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that the figure of those murdered in Babye-Yar—as mentioned in this note—is an understatement. After the liberation of Kiev it was established that the extent of the atrocities perpetrated by the German fascist invaders far exceeds the German crimes as stated in the first instance.
From further information submitted to the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union, in connection with the city of Kiev, it is evident that during the monstrous so-called German mass “action” in Babye-Yar not 52,000 but 100,000 were shot. I now continue to quote from Page 4, of the document book, Paragraph 3:
“Terrible massacres and pogroms were carried out by the German invaders in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. In the course of a few days the German bandits tortured and murdered 52,000 men and women, aged people and children, ruthlessly doing to death all Ukrainians, Russians, and Jews who in any way displayed their loyalty to the power of the Soviet. Soviet citizens who succeeded in escaping from Kiev give a shattering picture of one of these mass executions: A large number of Jews, including women and children of all ages, were assembled in the Jewish cemetery. Before shooting them the Germans stripped them naked and then beat them. The first group marked for execution was forced to lie, face downwards at the bottom of a ditch, where the Jews were shot with automatic rifles. The Germans then lightly sprinkled some earth over the dead bodies, made the next batch lie down in a row over the first and shot them in the same way.”
I skip a paragraph and continue with the quotation. You will have the opportunity of seeing the Hitlerite crimes mentioned in the note. The German atrocities in Rostov are shown in great detail in the filmed documentary evidence.
“The Nazi blood-thirstiness towards the citizens of Rostov has become well known. During their 10 days’ sojourn in Rostov the Germans not only wreaked vengeance on separate individuals and families, but in their blood-lust they annihilated tens and hundreds of inhabitants, especially in the working-class districts of the city. Near the premises of the Railway Board, German machinegunners shot 48 people in broad daylight. Sixty people were shot by the Hitlerite assassins on the sidewalks of the main street of Rostov. Two hundred people were murdered in the Armenian cemetery. Even after their expulsion from Rostov by our troops, German generals and officers publicly boasted that they would return to Rostov purposely to vent bloody retribution on the inhabitants, who had actively helped to drive their mortal enemy from their native city.”
On the immediate initiative of the command and officers of the units and formations of the German fascist armies, the advancing and retreating movements of their troops were often protected by the peaceful citizens, preferably by women, old men, and children.
I make no comment but I do consider it necessary to stress the fact that only those people acted like that who had perfectly understood Keitel’s directive—so well known to the Tribunal—that human life “in the countries to which the directive refers, is worth exactly nothing at all.”
I quote further from the note of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Page 7 of the document book, the last paragraph:
“In addition to all that has already been stated, the Soviet Government have in their possession documentation bearing on the systematically repeated monstrous atrocities of the German fascist command, such as the use of Soviet civilians to cover German troops during battle with the Red Army.
“On 28 August 1941 German fascist troops attempted to force the River Ipput. Powerless to overcome the stubborn resistance of the Red Army units, they assembled the population of the Bielorussian town of Dobrush in the Gomel region, and by threatening to shoot those who refused, drove women, children, and old people before them, using them as a shield when they attacked in battle formation.
“The same dastardly crime against the civilian population was repeated by the German Command in the Vybori Collective Farm Sector of the Leningrad region as well as in the district of Yelna, in the region of Smolensk. The fascist thugs continue to resort to this brutal and cowardly method right up to the present day. On 8 December the Hitlerites made use of the local civil population to cover their retreat from the village of Yamnoye, in the region of Tula. On 12 December, in the same region, they assembled 120 persons—old people and children—and made them march in the vanguard of their troops during engagements with the advancing units of the Red Army. In the fight by our troops for the liberation of the city of Kalinin, units of the German 303rd Regiment, 162d Division, attempting to launch a counter-attack, assembled the women of one of the suburban villages, placed them in the vanguard of their troops, and then went into action. Fortunately the Soviet troops succeeded, when beating off the attack, in driving a wedge between the Hitlerites and their victims thereby saving the lives of the women.”
In order to satisfy the needs of the German fascist armies and in violation of all international conventions, the criminals employed the civil population for particularly dangerous work, especially for clearing the mine fields. I will quote an extract from the second part of this note, which the Tribunal will find on Page 2 of the document book, Paragraph 4. I quote:
“Wherever German troops and German authorities made their appearance on Soviet territory, a regime of brutal exploitation, tyranny, and arbitrary rule was immediately established as far as the defenseless civil population was concerned. With a complete disregard for age or conditions of health, and after having taken or destroyed the houses of the Soviet citizens, a great number of these were brought to concentration camps by the Hitlerites and were compelled, under threat of torture, shooting, or death by starvation, to perform, gratuitously, various kinds of heavy labor, including work of a military nature. In a number of cases, civilians employed on one or another job of a military nature were summarily shot to ensure secrecy.
“Thus, for instance, in the village of Kolpino, in the region of Smolensk, the invaders drove all the farmers off to work on building bridges and dugouts for German units. Upon the completion of the construction of these fortifications, all these farmers were shot.”
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps this would be a good time to break: off.
COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, sir.
[The Tribunal adjourned until 15 February 1946 at 1000 hours.]
SIXTIETH DAY Friday, 15 February 1946
Morning Session
THE PRESIDENT: There are certain matters of a procedural nature which the Tribunal desire to consider before they consider the question of an adjournment. Accordingly they will not sit tomorrow in open session for consideration of the question of an adjournment, but they will sit tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock in closed session for consideration of these matters of a procedural character, and they will sit on Monday morning at 10 o’clock for half an hour to hear argument in open session on the question of an adjournment, one counsel being heard on each side and only for 15 minutes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I interrupted the quotation of a document on Page 3 of the document file, second paragraph, first column of the text. I consider it possible to skip many items contained in this document, as these facts simply confirm further the general conclusions which were expressed in the beginning of the document and which were already confirmed by many facts read into the record by me yesterday. I only beg the Tribunal to allow me to draw their attention to one of the stipulations in the note which the Tribunal will find on Page 3 of the book of documents, second paragraph, first column of the text. It states that the civilian inhabitants were forcibly sent to concentration camps, thus artificially and illegally increasing the number of prisoners of war and subjecting the peaceful population to the inhuman regime which was established by the German fascist authorities for the prisoners of war.
I submit to the Tribunal further an extract from the minutes of the court-martial of a military tribunal of the 374th Liuban Infantry Division, held on 29 October 1944. This document is submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-162 (Document Number USSR-162). The Tribunal will find this document on Page 67 of the document file.
DR. KURT KAUFFMANN (Counsel for Defendant Kaltenbrunner): I would like to make two motions regarding the questions relative to the submission of evidence in this case as well as to the general procedure. The first motion is that I would like to ask, with reference to Article 21, that the submission of documents to the investigation commission, as well as any reference to them, be prohibited inasmuch as these documents do not contain definite information about the source of the information discussed here; secondly, that the written statements, which contain only summary information be read without any personal observations, and that the reading of such statements be permitted only if the cross-examination of the author as a witness is possible.
I should like to submit the following reasons: Article 19 of the Charter permits all evidence which has probative value. Article 21 gives the Court the right to ask for proof regarding documents submitted to the so-called “investigation committees.” The purpose of both articles, however, is to facilitate the submission of proof. The admission of written statements of various kinds leads to the danger that such statements would discriminate against an entire people and an entire nation. Then the demand of the Defense that only such proof, such documents where this danger has been eliminated, as far as possible, be admitted, seems to be justified.
Many of the written statements and excerpts from committee reports read by the Russian Prosecution have had no probative value; but, furthermore, since they cannot be checked—their contents cannot be checked—they design to give a wrong impression about historical events.
THE PRESIDENT: Why does it not come within the last two lines of Article 21: “The records and findings of military or other tribunals of any of the United Nations?”
DR. KAUFFMANN: Yes, the Defense is of the opinion that Article 21 permits an interpretation. Article 21 permits the reading of such documents and such reports, but does not say anything about the extent to which it has been necessary for the defendants’ counsel to check the sources upon which these reports of the investigating authorities are based. We are of the opinion that the witnesses who have been questioned, for reasons of compassion, of vengeance, et cetera, have not been in a position to describe the events objectively. As jurists we know that it is exceedingly difficult to describe even simple events truthfully. Therefore, we have the duty and the responsibility for the German people to try to check these sources and to help thereby to explain and clarify the real course of events, which we see somewhat differently.
THE PRESIDENT: Defendants’ counsel will have the opportunity at the proper time of criticizing any evidence which is offered by the Prosecution. They will be able to point out whether it is possible that certain evidence was given out of sympathy; they will be able to criticize the evidence which is given in any way they choose at the proper time. But this is not the proper time.
Article 21 is perfectly clear, and it directs the Tribunal to take judicial notice of the various documents which are there set out, and expressly refers to the records and findings of military or other tribunals of any of the United Nations. This is a record and finding of a military tribunal of a Soviet court. Therefore, the Tribunal is directed in express terms by Article 21 to take judicial notice of it. That does not prevent defendants’ counsel, when they make their speeches in defense, from criticizing the evidence upon which that record and findings proceed; but to say it ought not to be admitted appears to me, at any rate, and I think to the other members of the Tribunal, to be really entirely unfounded as an objection.
DR. KAUFFMANN: I thank you.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: May I continue, Mr. President. Thus the document which has been submitted to the Tribunal will be found on Page 67 of the document file in their possession. I shall allow myself to repeat in my own words the biographical data concerning the Defendant Le Court, who was brought before a court-martial.
He was not an SS man, but a non-Party senior corporal of the German Army, 27 years old. He was born and lived, before the war, in the town of Stargard; was owner of a cinema, and was later mobilized in the army, where he served in the 1st Company of the 4th Airborne Division. I begin to quote the statements in evidence given by Le Court contained in the section entitled “Judicial Investigation” beginning with Paragraph 2. The Tribunal will find this place in the document book on Page 68, fifth paragraph. Le Court stated:
“Prior to my capture by Red Army soldiers, that is, before February 1944, I served as laboratory assistant in the 1st Bicycle Company of the 2d Air Force Infantry Regiment of the 4th Air Force Infantry Division at the headquarters of Air Field Service E 33/XI.
“In addition to photographic material, I handled other work when not on duty, that is to say, I spent my free time for my own pleasure in shooting Red Army prisoners of war and peaceful citizens and soldiers. I used to jot down in a special book the number of prisoners of war and peaceful citizens I had shot.”
I omit three paragraphs describing the shooting of prisoners of war by Le Court, and continue the quotation. . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, the passage that you read a moment ago about jotting down the numbers in his book does not occur in the translation which is before me. I do not know whether it is in your original. I suppose it is. Are you sure it is in the original?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: It is there, Mr. President. Mr. President, I just verified this extract which I am quoting with the original book of documents. It corresponds exactly to the text.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. I only wanted to be certain that it was in the original, as it did not occur in the translation before me. You can continue.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I interrupted the quotation on Page 68, and omitted three paragraphs. Thus, I came to Page 69. Perhaps this is the reason why the President of the Tribunal could not find the sentence I quoted. I continue the quotation:
“Besides the shooting of prisoners of war, I also shot guerrillas, peaceful citizens, and burned houses, together with their inhabitants.
“In November 1942 I participated in the shooting of 92 Soviet citizens.
“From April to December 1942, while a member of the Air Force Infantry Regiment, I participated in the shooting of 55 Soviet citizens. I took care of the actual shooting.”
I omit a paragraph and continue:
“In addition, I participated in punitive expeditions when I personally set fire to houses.
“Altogether more than 30 houses in various villages were burned down by me. I arrived in the village with the punitive expedition, entered the houses and warned the population that no one was to leave the houses, which were going to be burned. I set fire to a house, and when anybody tried to save himself—nobody was allowed to leave—I drove him back into the house or shot him. In that way I burned more than 30 houses and 70 peaceful citizens, mainly aged men, women, and children.
“Altogether I have personally shot 1,200 persons.”
For the purpose of saving time I omit six paragraphs and quote further. You will find this on Page 70 of the document book:
“The German High Command promoted in every way the shooting and killing of Soviet citizens. In recognition of good work and service in the German Army, which found expression in the shooting by me of prisoners of war and Soviet citizens, I was promoted before my promotion was due, on 1 November 1941, to the rank of senior corporal. This promotion should have come about on the 1st of November 1942; at the same time I was awarded the East Medal.”
Le Court was in no way an exception, and in confirmation of this I shall now refer briefly to the verdict of the trial held in the town of Smolensk by the district military tribunal against a group of former members of the German Army who were brought to justice for committing atrocities against peaceful citizens and prisoners of war in the town of Smolensk. This document was submitted to the Tribunal by my colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, as Exhibit Number USSR-87 (Document Number USSR-87), and joined to the record of the present Trial. The Tribunal will find this document on Page 71 of the document book.
I omit all the general part of the verdict, and beg to be allowed to draw the attention of the Tribunal to that part of the verdict which is in the ninth paragraph on Page 71 of the document book, which says that in 80 graves alone, which were opened up and examined by legal-medical experts in the town of Smolensk and in the district of Smolensk, over 135,000 corpses of Soviet citizens—women, children, and men of various ages—were discovered.
I skip the second page of the verdict and come to that part of the document which gives a description of the criminal deeds of individual defendants brought to trial under these charges. I shall not quote data regarding all 10 defendants, but only 2 or 3 of them.
The Tribunal will find this part on Page 73 of the document book. This is the sixth paragraph of the text. I quote:
“Hirschfeld was interpreter for the German Military Command in the District Kommandantur of Smolensk. He personally beat and seized for treason perfectly innocent Soviet citizens, without consideration for sex and age, and forced them to make false statements. On receiving these false statements forced from them by beatings, the arrested persons were shot by the Kommandantur troops. Hirschfeld participated personally in the annihilation of Soviet citizens in Smolensk in May 1943, by means of asphyxiation through carbon-monoxide in gas vans. In January and February 1943, he participated in punitive expeditions against guerrillas and against peaceful Soviet citizens in the district of Newel-Uswjati. While he was commanding the German punitive unit, he committed, together with his soldiers, acts of violence against the peaceful population.”
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, in the Tribunal’s translation into English, we have missing pages from 34 up to 45. Do you think that those pages could be found? On our pages—I think your pagination is different—but the document that you are now referring to, USSR-87, begins on Page 34 of our translation, and the translation then skips to Page 45.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I am not quoting the numbers of pages of the translation, but the pages of the document book.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I follow that, but I was only wondering whether, by a slip possibly, that these pages had been translated and perhaps had not got into our copy of the documents and whether they could be found. You see, we have all pages missing in the translation.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I have not yet seen the translation. If the President will allow me, during the intermission I shall verify the translation, and shall put the translation file into complete order.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly. Go on in the meantime.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Together with his soldiers, he burned nine Soviet villages and hamlets. He plundered farmers and shot innocent peaceful Soviet citizens who came out of the woods to get to the piles of ashes remaining from their burned-down homes in order to search for food. He participated in the deportation of Soviet citizens into German slavery.
I shall allow myself to quote still another excerpt concerning the defendant named Modisch who was a medical assistant in the German Military Hospital Number 551. The Tribunal will find this part on Page 73 of the document book, in the last paragraph:
2. “Modisch was a medical assistant in the 551st German Military Hospital in the city of Smolensk from September 1941 until April 1943. He was an eyewitness and immediate participant in the killing of prisoners of war, wounded soldiers, and officers of the Red Army, upon whom the German professors and doctors, Schemm, Gette, Müller, Ott, Stefen, Wagner, and others carried out, under the pretext of a cure, various experiments with previously unknown biological and chemical medicines. After that, the wounded prisoners of war were infected with septicaemia and killed.”
And what had Modisch personally done? I quote further from the same document:
“Modisch himself killed, by means of injections of great quantities of strophantin and arsenic, no less than 24 prisoners of war, both Red Army men and officers of the Red Army. In addition, he used, for medical treatment of German military personnel, the blood of Soviet children, ranging in age from 6 to 8 years, by taking great quantities of blood from them, after which the children died. He extracted from Russian prisoners of war the spinal fluid, whereupon because of emaciation they suffered paralysis of the lower extremities. He participated also in the plundering of Soviet medical institutions in the city of Smolensk.”
I skip another page in the document. The Tribunal can convince itself that every one of these 10 defendants brought to trial committed such a long series of crimes that, according to the laws of any civilized country, they would be condemned to death. I quote as an example one of the charges proved during this trial regarding the Defendant Kurt Gaudian. The extract referring to him will be found by the Tribunal on Page 74 and on Page 75. I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that Gaudian raped seven young girls and then killed them.
I conclude this part by quoting only three lines which state:
“In the month of July 1943, with his participation, 60 inhabitants of the district of Osipowitschi were burned in a stable. The village itself was also burned.”
I skip a part concerning Hentschke and quote only five lines, on Page 75 of the document file from that part of the verdict which concerns Müller, a lance corporal in the 335th Guard Battalion:
“At various times, the Defendant Müller killed 96 Soviet citizens, among them old men, women, and babies. Müller raped 32 Soviet women, of whom 6 were killed after having been raped. Among the women raped, several were 14- or 15-year-old girls.”
I do not know whether it is necessary to continue this quotation. I believe that the nature of these criminals, 7 out of 10 of whom already have ended their lives on the gallows, has been made clear to the Tribunal. However, in order to characterize, not the ones who committed the crimes, but those who were actually responsible for the lives of the population of the occupied territory in the East, I beg the Tribunal to allow me to turn to the diary of the Defendant Hans Frank, which has already been submitted to the Tribunal by our American colleagues as Document Number 2233-PS. We quote certain extracts from Frank’s diary as Exhibit Number USSR-223. The Tribunal will find these excerpts on Page 78 of the document book. I quote that part of the excerpt which the Tribunal will find on Page 86 of the document book, third paragraph, the first column of the text.
On 6 February 1940 Frank gave an interview to the Völkischer Beobachter correspondent, Kleiss. I quote that section of the interview which was already pointed out to the Tribunal. I begin the quotation:
“Interview given by the Governor General to the Völkischer Beobachter correspondent, Kleiss, on 6 February 1940, Page 3:
“Kleiss: ‘It might be interesting to develop the thesis which distinguishes a Protectorate from a Government General.’
“The Governor General: I might state a striking difference: In Prague, for instance, there were hung up red posters announcing that seven Czechs had been shot that day. I then said to myself:
“‘“If I wished to order that one should hang up posters about every seven Poles shot, there would not be enough forests in Poland with which to make the paper for these posters. Indeed, we must act cruelly.”’”
The offensive on the Western Front, which began on 10 May 1940, diverted the attention of world public opinion from the crimes committed under the personal direction of Frank and permitted Frank to have several thousand representatives of the Polish intelligentsia condemned to death by court-martial and physically exterminated.
I quote Frank’s statement at the police conference held on 30 May 1940, where this crime was finally decided upon. I begin this quotation on Page 86 of the document book, sixth paragraph, first column of the text:
“The offensive in the West began on 10 May. On that day the center of interest shifted from the events taking place here. It would be a matter of complete indifference to me whether the deeds attributed by atrocity propaganda and lying reports all over the world to the National Socialist authorities in these districts worried the Americans, the French, the Jews, or the Pope in Rome for that matter. But it was terrible for me and for all of them to be told unceasingly during all these months by the Ministry of Propaganda, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, and even the Army, that ours was a regime of murder, that these crimes of ours were to cease and so forth. And we had to say, of course, we would no longer do it. It was equally clear that up to that moment, under the cross-fire of the whole world, we could not do anything of the kind on a large scale. But since 10 May we are completely indifferent to this atrocity propaganda. We must use the opportunity in our hands.”
I skip now two paragraphs and continue with the quotation:
“I frankly admit that it will cost the lives of some thousands of Poles and that these will be taken mainly from leading members of the Polish intelligentsia. In these times we, as National Socialists, are bound to ensure that no further resistance is offered by the Polish people.”—I draw the attention of the Tribunal to this sentence particularly:
“I realize the responsibility we are thus assuming.”
I skip one paragraph and continue the quotation, which the Tribunal will find on Page 86 of the document file, fifth paragraph.
“Furthermore, SS-Obergruppenführer Krüger and I have decided that appeasement measures should be speeded up. I pray you, gentlemen, to take the most rigorous measures possible to help us in this task. For my own part, I will do everything in my power in order to facilitate its execution. I appeal to you as the champions of National Socialism, and I need surely say nothing further. We will carry out this measure and I may tell you in confidence that we shall be acting on the Führer’s orders. The Führer said to me, ‘The handling of German policy in the Government General and its establishment on a firm basis is a matter which devolves personally on the responsible men in the Government General.’
“He expressed himself in this way: The men capable of leadership whom we have found to exist in Poland must be liquidated. Those following men must . . . be eliminated in their turn. There is no need to burden the Reich and the Reich police organization with this. There is no need to send these elements to Reich concentration camps, and by so doing involve ourselves in disputes and unnecessary correspondence with their relations. We will liquidate our difficulties in the country itself, and we will do it in the simplest way possible.”
I conclude this quotation and pass on to Page 87, second paragraph, first column of the text. I think that this quotation is characteristic, for it was precisely Frank, as the diary proves, who first thought about the creation of special concentration camps, later officially known as “Vernichtungslager” (extermination camps).
I quote the same speech of Frank, Page 9, first paragraph:
“As to the concentration camps, we know perfectly well that concentration camps in the true sense of the word are not going to be organized in the Government General. Every suspected person must be immediately liquidated. Internees from the Government General at present in concentration camps in the Reich must be handed over to us for ‘Operation AB’ or liquidated there.”
I quote further from the same speech in the section—further excerpts from the diary of Hans Frank concerning the year 1940. The Tribunal will find this place on Page 94 of the document book, fifth paragraph, first column of the text. I quote:
“We cannot burden the concentration camps in the Reich with our affairs. We had terrible trouble with the Kraków professors. If we had done the thing from here, it would have been different. For this reason I would ask you most urgently not to send any more people to concentration camps in the Reich but to liquidate them here or to impose punishment according to regulations. Any other method is a burden for the Reich and a perpetual source of trouble. We have an entirely different method of treatment here and we must adhere to it. I must point out expressly that even if peace is concluded, this treatment will not be altered. Peace will mean only that as a world power we should continue more intensively the same general political operations. . . .”
I deem it opportune to draw the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that all the major extermination camps were indeed located on the territory of the Government General.
There was its own periodicity or cycles in the fascist crimes and in the proportions they assumed, and if in 1940 Frank made a long speech to the policemen justifying the so-called “actions” with regard to several thousand Polish intellectuals, then on 18 March 1944, in his speech at the Reichshof, he stated—I quote from Page 93 of the document file, third paragraph, second column. I begin the quotation:
“18 March 1944, Speech at the Reichshof.
“Dr. Frank: ‘If I had gone to the Führer and said, “My Führer, I have to report that I have destroyed a further 150,000 Poles,” he would say, “All right, if it was necessary.”’”
This fascist specialist on legal questions annihilated 3 million Jews in the territory under his jurisdiction which fell only temporarily into the hands of the fascist invaders. On this occasion Frank said—I quote his speech at a business meeting of the NSDAP orators in Kraków on 4 March 1944. The Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 93 of the document book, second paragraph, second column of the text; I begin the quotation of Dr. Frank:
“If there are any woebegone souls today who bemoan the fate of the Jews and say with tears in their eyes, ‘Isn’t it awful what is being done to the Jews,’ we should ask them if they are still of the same opinion now. If we had there 2 million Jews carrying on their activities and opposed to them the few German men in the country today, we would no longer have control of the situation. . . . Jews are a race which must be eradicated. When we catch one of them, it is the end of him.”
I pass on to that part of Frank’s diary. . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Shall we adjourn now?
[A recess was taken.]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I received information from our staff that the 11 pages which were not incorporated into the English text in your possession were handed to you. Is it true, Sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: May I continue?
THE PRESIDENT: Please do.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I am quoting now from Frank’s diary at the place which the Tribunal will find on Page 93 of the document file, in the second column of the text, second paragraph below the title, “Meeting of Political Leaders of NSDAP in Kraków, on 15 January 1944.” It begins thus, Dr. Frank, “I did not hesitate to say that for every German killed, up to a hundred Poles would be shot.”
In these dark days the Polish people regarded the victims of Frank and of his henchmen as martyrs. That is the reason it seems to me that, on 16 December 1942, at a government meeting in Kraków, Frank stated—I am quoting excerpts from the diary on Page 92 in the document book, third paragraph after the heading, the first column of the text. I begin the quotation:
“We must consider whether, for practical reasons, executions should be carried out as far as possible on the spot where the murder of a German was attempted. It might also be as well to consider whether special places for execution should be set up, as it has been established that the Polish population streams to the places of execution, which are accessible to everyone, for the purpose of filling vessels with the bloodstained earth, and taking them to church.”
I brought Frank’s diary to your attention, Your Honors, because he was one of Hitler’s closest associates and because this very well-known “learned” jurist of fascism was actually a positive alter ego of those who cut in two the bodies of children in the Yanov Camp. At the same time he was one of the creators of that part of the legal code of the German fascists which completely negated justice. After all, the whole miserable juridical wisdom of Mein Kampf fundamentally comes down to just one wicked formula, that is, that “might is right.” I studied this book and found no other sense in the text. I quote the 64th edition, Page 740.
Frank was to Hitler that necessary evil gnome of jurisprudence whom Hitler needed to clothe in legal form the inhuman theories of fascism. In support of the fact as to how far the profanation of the basic ideas of justice incorporated in the criminal and civil law of all civilized people went, I submit to the Tribunal the original copy of one of Frank’s directives published in the official bulletin of the Governor General for 1943. It is dated 2 October 1943 and is being presented by the Soviet delegation to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-335 (Document Number USSR-335). The Tribunal will find the document quoted on Page 95 of the document book. I quote the document in full:
“Decree: The combating of attacks on German construction work in the Government General, issued 2 October 1943.
“On the basis of Paragraph 5, Section 1, of the Führer’s decree of 12 October 1939 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, Page 2077) I decree, until further notice:
“Paragraph 1.
“(1) Non-Germans who violate laws, decrees, official regulations, or orders with the intention of hampering or interfering with German construction work in the Government General will be punished by death.
“(2) Section 1 does not apply to nationals of countries allied to the Greater German Reich or those who are not at war with the Reich.
“Paragraph 2.
“The abettor and the accomplice will be considered as equally guilty with the perpetrator; the same penalty will be exacted in the case of attempted violations as in the case of those actually committed.
“Paragraph 3.
“(1) The summary courts of the police will be competent to pass judgment.
“(2) The summary court of the Security Police may pass the matter to the German Public Prosecution if there are special reasons for doing so.
“Paragraph 4.
“The summary courts of the Security Police will consist of an SS-Führer belonging to the office of the Commander of the Security Police and Security Service and two members of the office.
“Paragraph 5.
“(1) The following shall be recorded in writing: 1. The names of the judges; 2. the names of those on whom sentence is passed; 3. the evidence on which judgment was based; 4. the offense; 5. the date on which the sentence was imposed; 6. the date on which the sentence was put into effect.
“(2) In matters not covered by the above, the summary court of the Security Police will decide upon its procedure after proper consideration.
“Paragraph 6.
“Sentences passed by the summary court of the Security Police will be put into effect without delay.
“Paragraph 7.
“In cases where an offense against Paragraphs 1 and 2 of this decree also constitutes a further offense which must be dealt with by the summary court, only those paragraphs of this decree are applicable which relate to procedure.
“Paragraph 8.
“This decree will come into force on 10 October 1943.
“Kraków, 2 October 1943; The Governor General, Frank.”
In this manner, Point 1 of the first paragraph established one single punishment, that is, death, for practically any action of a “non-German,” regardless of whether such action was classified by the German overlords as constituting a breach of law or a violation of an administrative order. The same punishment was to be administered for any attempt at similar actions in which the police officials could include practically any actions or expressions of a suspected person—Paragraph 2 of the above-quoted document.
The defendant was deprived of any procedural rights and guarantees. The document which, in accordance with Paragraph 5, was to take the place of the court verdict was, as is evident from the series of questions which had to be recorded in writing, actually for the purpose of registering individual cases of summary justice and not for the purpose of finding justifiable bases for the application of punishment. Every possibility of cassation or appeal to the higher authorities was excluded. The verdict was to be carried out immediately.
And finally, even the “court” procedure itself, founded on Frank’s directives, was actually merely a mockery of justice. The court—and it seems to me the word “court” should be in quotation marks—consisted of three officials of the same SD which kept arresting innocent people on the streets of Polish towns and organizing wanton mass shootings of hostages.
How justified are the conclusions which are made by me on the basis of the aforementioned document, you will see from the text of another document submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-332 (Document Number USSR-332). In the document file which is being submitted to the Court, is contained the original copy of the minutes of interrogation of the attorney, Stefan Korbonski. It also contains a translation of the document into Russian, which was certified by the members of the Polish Delegation. Stefan Korbonski lives in Warsaw and, according to information received from the Polish Delegation, should the Tribunal consider it necessary to call Korbonski for cross-examination, he can be brought to the Tribunal session.
I shall take the liberty to express in my own words the introductory part of the document. After having been sworn in Warsaw on 31 October 1945, Stefan Korbonski, who is a lawyer, was interrogated and testified that he was one of the leaders of resistance among the Polish people against the German invaders. This place can be found in the first paragraph of the text of the minutes. In the second half of the minutes the Tribunal will find a place in the document book on Page 98—and it goes on to Page 102—where Stefan Korbonski speaks of exactly the same directives of Frank’s which were read into the record by me just now. In Paragraph 1 of the interrogation minutes he states that in the beginning of October 1943 the Germans posted on the walls of the houses in Warsaw and other cities of the Government General the text of that particular order which was read into the record by me.
I continue the quotation to the end, omitting the first part on Page 99 in the document book which is in the possession of the Tribunal, because it seems to me that this document is very characteristic. I begin the quotation:
“Soon after the publication of this decree and quite independently from the increasing number of executions performed by the Germans in secret in what used to be the Warsaw ghetto, in the Warsaw jail, which was called Paviac, the Germans began to introduce public executions, that is, shooting of whole groups of Poles ranging from 20 to 200 persons in each.
“These public executions were performed in various districts of the city, in streets opened to normal traffic, which were surrounded by the Gestapo guards immediately before the actual executions, so that the Polish population caught within the surrounding district would have to watch the executions either in the streets, or from the windows of the houses situated right behind the backs of the Gestapo men.
“During these executions the Germans shot either people from the Paviac jail where they were confined after their arrest during raids in the streets, or people caught immediately before the actual execution. The number of these public executions, as well as the number of persons executed each time, kept increasing until it reached 200 persons who had to be shot at every execution. These executions continued until the very beginning of the Warsaw insurrection.
“At first the Germans transported the Poles to the place of execution in covered trucks. They were clad in civilian clothes, and sometimes their hands were tied behind their backs. However, as the victims thus brought to the place of execution usually shouted, ‘Down with Hitler,’ ‘Long live Poland,’ ‘Down with the Germans,’ and similar things, the Germans took steps to prevent the possibility of any such disturbances and began to fill their mouths with cement, or seal their lips with adhesive tape. The victims were brought from the Paviac clad in shirts, or in clothes made out of paper.
“I often received information from our underground organization through our agents who were working in the Paviac jail, that shortly before the execution the Germans usually performed operations on the condemned. They bled them and injected various chemical substances to cause physical weakness, thus preventing any attempts at escape or at resistance.
“This was the reason why the condemned were brought to the place of execution pale, weak, and apathetic, and barely able to stand on their feet. But even so, they acted as heroes and never begged for mercy.
“The bodies of those who were shot were loaded into trucks by other prisoners and were taken to a former ghetto, where they were usually burned. The prisoners whose duty it was to transport and to burn the corpses were mostly those confined in the Paviac prison. It was their steady assignment.
“The Polish population immediately covered with flowers the blood spots which were left on the ground. Lighted candles were placed where the corpses previously had lain, and crosses and ikons were hung on the surrounding walls. During the night members of the underground organizations would put an inscription in lacquer on the walls, such as ‘Glory to Heroes,’ ‘Glory to those who perished for the fatherland,’ and so forth.
“When the Germans noticed these inscriptions they arrested all those who happened to be on the spot and led them to the Paviac prison. Sometimes the Germans shot at groups of people kneeling and praying at the execution spots. Such an incident took place on Senator Street where several people were shot at and quite a few were wounded.
“After each public execution the Germans would put on the walls of houses lists of the names of those who were just executed; the names of hostages who would be shot in case the German regulations were not obeyed were given below.
“In Warsaw alone the Germans shot several thousand Poles by means of these public executions. This does not include the victims who were shot in other towns. In the Kraków district several thousand men were similarly shot.”
Thus was put into action Hans Frank’s directive which was already submitted by me to the Tribunal. In the light of Korbonski’s testimony it becomes clear why, on 16 December 1943, there appears in Frank’s diary. . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Shouldn’t that be 1942?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The 16th of December 1943, Mr. President. One minute—I shall check that.
THE PRESIDENT: It reads “1942” in our document.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Your Honor, evidently the translator put the wrong date into the text before you. I repeat that, in accordance with the text in my possession, this statement was made by Frank on 16 December 1943 at a government meeting in Kraków. If you will permit me I shall again verify the text of the quotation.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, in our statement of the document itself it is translated as 16 December 1942. Evidently it is wrong in one place or the other.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: In the testimony itself, in Paragraph 1, Korbonski mentions that in the beginning of December 1943 the Germans posted these lists on the walls of the houses. If the Tribunal will refer to the original of the document it will find “at the beginning of December 1943.”
THE PRESIDENT: I see, it is 1943. It was wrongly translated in the first place.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, 1943. May I continue?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Thank you, Sir. I shall speak of the change in the procedure of the executions. It was on the Polish territory that the criminal code introducing special rights for the “master race” and Draconic laws for the other nations whom the fascist “masters” considered completely vanquished, was put into practice for the first time.
The report of the Polish Government which had already been submitted to the International Military Tribunal by my colleagues as irrefutable evidence in accordance with Article 21 of the Charter gives a brief description of the regime of lawlessness and despotism which reigned in occupied Poland under the guise of special legislation.
To characterize this legislation I shall take the liberty, if Your Honors please, to refer to two excerpts from the report of the Government of the Polish Republic, which has already been presented to the Tribunal by my colleagues as Exhibit Number USSR-93 (Document Number USSR-93). I shall first read into the record a paragraph which will be found on Page 110 in the document file in possession of the Tribunal, the section dealing with “Germanization of the Polish Law.” It is the fourth paragraph after the heading, and I shall quote only two paragraphs of this section:
“In the Government General the machinery of justice was changed particularly by a decree of 26 October 1939. It bears the signature of Frank. (Encl. 2)
“Polish courts became subjected to supervision of German courts established in the Government General. Their jurisdiction, heavily curtailed, was confined to those cases only for which the German courts had no competence. New ideas of law were introduced. Punishment could be inflicted by intuition; the accused deprived of the right to choose a counsel and to appeal.
“German law was introduced, and Polish law germanized.”
I omit the entire section of the report which deals with this subject and continue the quotation on Page 51 of the Russian text. The Tribunal will find it on Page 129 in the document book in the third paragraph of the text under “Judicial Murders.” That is Page 129, the third paragraph of the text. I begin the quotation:
“a) On 4 December 1941, Göring, Frick, and Lammers signed a decree referred to above which virtually outlawed all Poles and Jews in the incorporated Polish territories. The decree made Poles and Jews a different and second-rank group of citizens. It meant that Poles and Jews were obliged to obey the Reich unconditionally; but on the other hand, as second-class citizens they were not entitled to the protection given by law to others.”
I omit one paragraph and I continue the quotation of the part which deals with the application of death sentences. It begins this way:
“Death sentences could be passed in the following cases:
“1. For removing or publicly damaging posters set up by the German authorities.
“2. For acts of violence against members of the German forces.
“3. For lowering the dignity of the Reich or harming its interests.
“4. For damaging furniture to be used by the German authorities.
“5. For damaging things intended for the work or public order.
“6. For causing disobedience to regulations and orders issued by German authorities—and several other cases which in fact justified imprisonment for a short period at the most.”
I shall omit one passage and I shall limit my quotation to the following two paragraphs:
“b) No Pole”—stated the official Nazi instruction—“was allowed to approach a German woman to stain the noble blood of the Herrenvolk. Those who dared to do it or even those who did not get beyond the stage of attempting to do so, were inevitably facing death. But it was not only a court but the German court which was called upon to pass sentence in these cases. It was found superfluous to arrange trials—a simple order of the police proved sufficient to deprive people of their life.”
I conclude this quotation and pass on to a subject which in my opinion is very correctly referred to as the “Judicial Terror of the German Fascists in Czechoslovakia” in the report of the Czechoslovak Government. In this country we can systematically follow the ever-increasing destruction by the Hitlerites of all the accepted moral and legal standards.
The report of the Czechoslovak Government, already submitted to the Tribunal by my colleagues as Exhibit Number USSR-60, describes this process in detail, beginning with the so-called “people’s courts,” up to the organization of the so-called “Standgerichte.” I do not know what would be a correct translation of this term, so I shall use the term “Standgerichte” throughout. They are already familiar to us as organs of the Nazi arbitrary rule in Poland.
This process of the deterioration or rather collapse of the entire judicial system under the fascist rule is described in the report in great detail; I shall quote only a few short excerpts. I shall begin my quotation on Page 162 of the document book in the possession of the Tribunal, the last paragraph. I begin:
“The power to proclaim a state of emergency was applied not later than 28 September 1941. In accordance with a decree issued on the same date and signed by Heydrich, a state of civil emergency was proclaimed in the ‘Oberlandrat’ district in Prague; and, a few days later, in the remaining parts of the protectorate. ‘Standgerichte,’ which were set up immediately, were active during the entire period and pronounced 778 death sentences. All were executed and 1,000 people were turned over to the Gestapo, that is, sent to concentration camps.”
I omit the end of the paragraph, and I quote the following paragraph:
“The only directive as to the administration, organization, and rules of procedure at the ‘Standgerichte’ is contained in the decree of 27 September 1941.”
I omit the rest of the paragraph and I continue the quotation on Page 163, fifth paragraph of the book of documents.
“The decree does not indicate as to who may fill the position of judge in Standgerichte, whether the judges should be professional people or laymen, and whether the sentences are to be pronounced by a jury or by the judge alone. The decree merely states Standgerichte may be set up by the Reich Protector; he is competent to choose people who are to perform the duties of a judge.”
I omit the rest and continue the quotation on Page 163 of the book of documents, the last paragraph:
“On the basis of the information that we have at hand at present the judges at the Standgerichte were professional judges only in exceptional cases.
“The most important attribute was political reliability. This is the reason why the judges were, one could almost say without exception, members and executives of the NSDAP or other National Socialist organizations; that is, people who with rare exceptions, possessed not the slightest knowledge of law and had no experience in criminal trials.”
I omit the following excerpts and continue the quotation on Page 166 of the document book, at the beginning of the last paragraph; from there I go on to Page 167:
“Standgerichte were never held publicly. Inasmuch as the public was excluded from the preliminary investigations of the Standgerichte, the very existence of this tribunal increased the feeling of insecurity under the prevalent law. There was no appeal against sentences passed by Standgerichte. The records of the investigations of the Standgerichte contain only lists of names of the judges, defendants, and witnesses as well as descriptions of the crimes and the dates of the sentences (Section 4, Paragraph 2, of the decree). Directives permitting and even encouraging such meager records can have only one aim—to prevent any control and to keep secret everything that took place during the investigation, thus covering up all the traces of what had been done.
“According to Section 4, Paragraph 1, of the directive, the Standgerichte could only pass death sentences or turn over the defendants to the Gestapo.”
I omit the following paragraphs containing certain general comments on the same matter and continue my quotation on Page 168, the first paragraph:
“Sentences passed by the Standgerichte must be carried out immediately. (Section 4, Paragraph 3, of the decree). Numerous examples demonstrate that this brutal National Socialist legislation was never toned down. At the end of the so-called trial, it was left to the judges to decide whether the condemned should be shot or hanged. (Section 4, Paragraph 3, of the decree). The condemned person was not granted even a short respite to prepare for death. There was not even a question in the decree about a reprieve. In any case, the brutal haste with which the sentence was carried out, made any reprieve impossible.”
I conclude this excerpt, as well as the entire section devoted to the terrorist legislation of the Hitlerites in Czechoslovakia, with a quotation from Page 169, the fourth line from the top, and further. It is stated there:
“It is quite evident that the Standgerichte did not possess the characteristics which, in accordance with the general opinion, are those of a tribunal and that the trials of the Standgerichte in reality violated all the principles which should be observed in the legislations of all civilized people. Standgerichte cannot be called tribunals and its court examination cannot be called a trial and a decision. I think the proper term would be ‘verdict.’
“The executions resulting from the verdicts of the Standgerichte differ in no way from executions performed without trial. They should be classified as murders.
“It is impossible to find in the regulations which determined the methods of procedure of the Standgerichte even a trace of humanity. For instance, the rule which imposed immediate execution and accorded practically no time to the condemned to prepare for death, is a form of cruelty which, just as the entire institution of the Standgerichte, had as its aim the terrorization of the population.”
I shall conclude the quotation with this excerpt, and I shall take the liberty of remarking that the institution of the Standgerichte did not countermand or exclude simple police sentences passed by means of a procedure similar to the one which was established by Frank in Poland.
It seems to me that all the laws which were cited by me above testify to the fact that the Hitlerites tried to turn the legislation, intended to punish crimes, into one which commits crimes. This is the sole purpose why their “laws” were created.
If Your Honors please, I shall now turn to the terroristic laws and directives of Hitlerite criminals which were issued for the civilian population of the Soviet Union.
Having started the criminal war against the U.S.S.R., the German fascist gang of bandits considered even these laws and “legal” principles especially created for the justification of their crimes, insufficient.
Most of these documents had already been submitted to the Tribunal and I shall confine myself to some very brief quotations. With the Tribunal’s permission I shall read only three lines from a previously submitted document. I am referring to Document Number L-221 submitted to the Tribunal by the United States Prosecution. It contains a brusque reply made by Hitler to Göring at a meeting on 16 July 1941. The Tribunal will find the place on Page 189 in the document file in the first paragraph, first line.
THE PRESIDENT: That document has been read already.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, Your Honor. I shall take the liberty of quoting only three lines of this document.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, go on; but I think that the rest of the page which you are reading is all comments, and you could go straight on to the next document. Read these three lines and then I think you will find. . . .
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: This is not quite correct, but I shall now quote those three lines. Hitler said, “The gigantic territory must be quieted as soon as possible.” I am quoting from the next sentence, where Hitler said, “The best way to attain this objective is to shoot everyone, even those who only cast an ugly look.” I am citing these lines because they are the “Leitmotiv” which passes in all the directives and orders of Hitlerites.
THE PRESIDENT: Now, what I am suggesting to you is that the rest of the page which you are now passing in our translation is quite unnecessary to read and you can go straight on, at any rate, to the directive of Keitel of the 16th of September 1941.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: All right, Mr. President. May I continue?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I quote a directive of Keitel. This directive was submitted to the Tribunal by the United States Prosecution under Document Number C-148 (Exhibit Number USA-555). I quote, on Page 190 of your document book, Paragraph 3, Line 4.
“One must bear in mind that human life in the countries concerned is often of no value whatever, and that intimidating reaction is only possible in the form of application of extraordinary hardness.”
I am further presenting to the Tribunal a photostat of the document which was already submitted as Document Number 459-PS. I shall not quote a single excerpt from it; but I shall take the liberty to remind the Tribunal that point 6 of this document states that any sort of resistance will be broken, not by means of juridical punishment, but if the occupying authorities will succeed in instilling in the population a fear which is the only thing capable, as it is said in the directive, “of depriving the population of any will to resist.”
I take the liberty to confirm this by quoting very briefly just two lines from the directive of the Commander of the 6th Army, General Field Marshal Von Reichenau, which was already presented to the Tribunal by my colleague as Exhibit Number USSR-12 (Document Number USSR-12). The Tribunal will find it on Page 194 of the document book, Line 19 from the top. It is said there, “The fear of German countermeasures must be stronger than the threats from Bolshevist remnants still wandering around.”
I wanted to read into the record one document which bears the seal of the pseudo-legal argumentation of Hans Frank and which is so characteristic of his ordinances and directives. It has been pointed out that this document had already been presented to the Tribunal and I do not wish to retain the attention of the Tribunal on a document which had already been read during a Tribunal session. I am referring to the circular order of the Reich Security Main Office, Number 567-42-176, dated 5 November 1942. It develops that this document has already been presented by the American colleagues as Document Number L-316. I just wish to remind the Tribunal that this document states that even the principles used for determining the activities of non-Germans should be different and that any actions of a non-German should be examined not from the point of view of justice but exclusively from the point of view of prevention. I think that this document is well known to the Tribunal and I shall refrain from quoting it.
Thus in those territories of the occupied countries where the SS followed in the footsteps of the aggressors’ troops, the peaceful population was abandoned to the arbitrary will of the specially trained and fierce representatives of the police forces of German fascism.
I shall take the liberty, while presenting the photostat of the document previously submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number 447-PS, to quote only one line of this document, which the Tribunal will find on Page 197 of the document book, fifth paragraph, after the heading, “The Region of the Operations.” It deals with the special powers of the Reichsführer SS and indicates that “within the scope of these assignments the Reichsführer SS shall act independently and under his own responsibility.”
It is well known what the Reichsführer SS really was. Of the many statements of Himmler, I shall limit myself to only one quotation which is, however, rather characteristic as a leading directive to the responsible officials of the SS who were subordinated to Himmler. On 4 October 1943 at the conference of the SS Gruppenführer at Posen, Himmler said—this document was submitted to the Tribunal by the United States Prosecution as Document Number 1919-PS and was read into the record on 19 December 1945. I shall quote six lines from Page 23 of the photostat of this document. The Tribunal will find the document on Page 201 in the document book. There figures a short quotation.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal feels that if a document has already been read, it should not be read again.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: It seems to me that this particular excerpt was not read into the record. The document was submitted on 19 December 1945 as Document Number 1919-PS. But this particular excerpt which I wish to quote now, was not read into the record of the Tribunal. It contains only six lines.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, of course, if you have verified that and can state that with certainty, then you can certainly read it.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I perused the transcript and could not find this excerpt. Therefore it seems to me that it was not read into the record. I shall confine myself literally to six lines. The question at present is only a matter of six lines.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you better go on and quote it then because these interruptions take up a very long time.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I begin the quotation:
“Whether other nations live in prosperity or starve to death interests me only insofar as we need them as slaves for our culture. Otherwise I am not interested. I am not interested whether 10,000 Russian females die of exhaustion while digging an antitank ditch, as long as the antitank ditch for Germany is finished.”
A document was already submitted to the Tribunal which establishes that the legalization of mass murders and extermination of the peaceful population of the Soviet Union carried out by the Army with a view to terrorizing the population was begun by Hitler and his clique as early as 13 May 1941, that is, over a month before the beginning of the war. In this case I refer to a directive already well known to the Tribunal. This directive emanates from Keitel and is entitled, “Application of Military Jurisdiction in the Barbarossa Region and Special Army Measures.” This document was already read into the record as Exhibit Number C-50 by the United States Prosecution on 7 January 1946. I shall not quote this document because I think that it is well known to the Tribunal. I merely wish to remind the Tribunal that this document categorically denies the necessity for establishing guilt; suspicion alone was sufficient for the application of a death sentence. An official system of group responsibility and mass repressions was set up. Furthermore, it was stated that the “suspect” should be exterminated in any case. This is plainly said in Paragraph 5 of the first section of the directive.
THE PRESIDENT: We better adjourn now.
[The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours.]
Afternoon Session
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: In accordance with your instructions, Mr. President, I omit the following documents to which I wished to refer and which have already been submitted to the Tribunal—Document 654-PS, for instance.
I now proceed to the next document, which was submitted to the Tribunal yesterday by my colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, as Exhibit Number USSR-3. It is the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union, entitled, “Directives and Orders of the Hitlerite Government and the German Military Command Regarding the Extermination of the Soviet People.”
My colleague read into the record yesterday a short excerpt from the fourth part of this document concerning the carrying out of mass executions, the so-called executions in camps, where both peaceful citizens and prisoners of war were interned. As this section has already been read into the record, I omit it and proceed to other sections of this report, dealing with the organization by the German fascist criminals, from the very first days of the war with the Soviet Union, of the so-called Sonderkommandos (special task forces).
The document which I am quoting refers to the organization of Sonderkommandos in the camps where prisoners of war and peaceful citizens were interned. I quote this excerpt because the term “Sonderkommando” acquired in the early days of the war a terrible meaning among the civilian population of the temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union. It was one of the most cruel and most brutal organizations ever created by the German fascists for the wholesale slaughter of human beings.
I request the Tribunal to revert to Page 207 of the document book, Column 1 of the text. I begin the quotation:
“It is evident, from the documents discovered, that even before the attack on the U.S.S.R. Hitler’s butchers had compiled lists and index files and collected the necessary information about such leading Soviet workers as their bloodthirsty plans had doomed to extermination. In this manner they prepared the following: ‘Special Index Files for the U.S.S.R.,’ ‘The German Index File,’ ‘Lists for Establishing Domiciles,’ and other index files and lists of the same kind which would facilitate the work of the Hitlerite murderers in the extermination of progressive circles within the population of the U.S.S.R.
“However, the document entitled, ‘Appendix Number 2 to Operational Order Number 8 of the Chief of the Sipo and the SD, Berlin,’ dated 17 July 1941 and signed by Heydrich, who was at that time acting as Himmler’s deputy, emphasizes the lack of such lists and index files and stresses the importance of not hampering the initiative of those who perpetrated the murders. The document states:
“‘There is no possibility of lending any assistance to the Kommandos for the realization of your plans. The “German Index File,” “Lists for Establishing Domiciles,” and “Special Index Files for the U.S.S.R.” will only prove useful in a few cases. The “Special Index Files for the U.S.S.R.” are therefore insufficient, as only an insignificant number of Soviet Russian nationals, considered as dangerous, have been entered in these files.’”
I omit one paragraph and continue:
“For the realization of their criminal plans the German invaders created Sonderkommandos, both in the transient and permanent camps for prisoners of war, on German territory, in the so-called Polish Government General, and in the temporarily occupied territory of the Soviet Union.”
I further omit seven paragraphs and continue the quotation on Page 207 of the document book, Paragraph 6, Column 2 of the text:
“The procedure in the formation of the Sonderkommando is described in Appendix Number 1 to Operational Order Number 14 of the Chief of the Sipo and SD, marked state top secret, Copy Number 15, dated Berlin, 29 October 1941.
“The formation of the Sonderkommandos of the Sipo and SD is carried out in accordance with the agreement of 7 October 1941, reached between the Chief of the Sipo and the SD on the one hand and the OKW on the other hand.
“By virtue of special powers the Kommandos will act independently in conformity with general directives, within the scope of the camp regulations. The Kommandos, of course, maintain close contact with the camp commandants and the officers of the Intelligence Service.”
I omit the following text and continue the quotation from Page 208 of the document book, Paragraph 1. The Tribunal will observe how much the Reich leadership extended the installation of these highly dangerous police organizations. The Sonderkommandos were organized all the way from the town of Krasnogvardeisk—a suburb of Leningrad—to the town of Nikolaiev on the Black Sea. I now continue with my quotation:
“The order of the Chief of the Sipo and SD of 29 October 1941, regarding the organization of the Sonderkommandos, was sent to the operational groups in Krasnogvardeisk, Smolensk, Kiev, and Nikolaiev, and for information to Riga, Moghilev, and Krivoy Rog.”
I would also point out that during their attack on Moscow the Hitlerites organized in Smolensk a special Sonderkommando Moscow, entrusted with the task of mass-murdering the Moscow citizens.
Mention has previously been made of the wide range of authoritative power granted to the Sonderkommando. In the document which I am quoting it is said:
“The tasks of the Sonderkommandos are outlined in the operational directives attached to Decree Number 8 of the Chief of the Sipo and SD, dated Berlin, 17 July 1941, which, under the pretext of a screening of civilians and suspected prisoners of war captured in the Eastern campaign indicate that:
“The special nature of the Eastern campaign calls for special measures, to be carried out on personal responsibility beyond the range of any bureaucratic influences.”
I omit the next extract from this document, since it is merely a repetition of the basic rules which I have already read into the record.
Having launched their criminal war, the Hitlerites directed it towards a mass extermination of the peaceful citizens of the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe. I have already read into the record several documents depicting the character of the Hitlerite murderers and the nature of their crimes. The latter consisted in the formation of large criminal units, specially trained by the leaders of the Hitlerite gang. It will, however, be clear to any criminologist that it is not sufficient to create these foul and criminal gangs—it is essential that once the crime has been perpetrated the criminal should feel that he has acted with complete impunity. In order that the crimes envisaged by the major criminals be fulfilled in their monstrous entirety, it became necessary to create for the minor criminals an atmosphere of complete impunity. In accordance with your wishes, Mr. President, I shall not quote the document previously read into the record as Number C-50 by the United States Prosecution, entitled, “Instructions Governing the Application of Martial Law and Special Measures To Be Adopted by the Army in the Barbarossa Area.” But it appears to me that the contents of this document should be firmly borne in mind, for unless the meaning of this document is clearly understood it is quite impossible to envisage the series of wholesale crimes perpetrated by the Hitlerite criminals on the territory of the Soviet Union.
This order, signed by Keitel, though issued in Hitler’s name, was accepted by all the soldiers and all the officers of the fascist army as a personal order from Hitler. What conclusions the German soldiery drew from this order of Keitel’s is confirmed by a communication of the Extraordinary State Commission, to which I shall now refer. It deals with the atrocities committed in the city of Minsk by the German fascist invaders.
I submit this document to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-38 (Document Number USSR-38). It contains an excerpt from the testimony of the president of the military tribunal of the 267th German Rifle Division, Captain Julius Reichhof. I would ask the Tribunal to turn to Page 215 of the document book, to Column 1 of the text. I quote from the communication of the Extraordinary State Commission on the subject of Julius Reichhof’s testimony:
“According to an order issued by Hitler, German soldiers could not be committed to trial by court-martial for acts committed against Soviet citizens. The soldier could be punished only by the commander of his own unit, should the latter deem the punishment necessary. By the same order Hitler granted even more extensive rights to all German Army officers. They could destroy the Russian population according to their own discretion.
“The commander had full right to apply punitive measures to the peaceful population: He was allowed to burn down, in toto, villages and towns, rob the population of supplies and livestock, and, on his own responsibility, deport Soviet citizens to Germany for slave labor. Hitler’s order was brought to the attention of every single soldier of the German Army on the eve of the attack on the Soviet Union. In accordance with Hitler’s order, the German soldiers, under the leadership of their officers, committed all sorts of atrocities.”
But even this appeared insufficient to the Hitlerite leaders. In 1942 they considered it necessary to reconfirm, by a sharp directive brooking no exception, that any crime perpetrated by the German fascist soldiery against the peaceful citizens of the Soviet Union should go completely unpunished. The Reich and military leaders particularly emphasized the fact that atrocities committed should so remain unpunished, even if the victims of these atrocities happened to be women and children.
THE PRESIDENT: What was the reference to what you called “sharp directive”?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I will at once submit to the Tribunal this directive as Exhibit Number USSR-16 (Document Number USSR-16). It is a photostatic copy of the document certified by the Extraordinary State Commission. The Tribunal will find the text of this directive on Page 219 of the document book. This directive is signed by Keitel and entitled “The Combating of Guerrillas.” The document is dated 16 December 1942. I will quote this document practically in full, starting with the title.
“Subject: The Combating of Guerillas; top secret.
“The Führer has been informed that certain members of the Wehrmacht who took part in the struggle against the guerilla bandits were later called to account for their behavior while fighting.”
My colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, Mr. President, explained to the Tribunal yesterday that any resistance movement on the part of the peaceful population was termed “banditry.” I will therefore not detain the Tribunal’s attention any longer in an attempt to decode this German fascist term.
“In this connection the Führer ordered. . . .”
I omit one paragraph and continue the quotation, Page 219 of the document book:
“If the repression of the guerillas in the East, as well as in the Balkans, is not pursued with the most brutal means, it will not be long before the forces at our disposal will prove insufficient to exterminate this plague.
“The troops therefore have the right and the duty to use, in this struggle, any and unlimited means, even against women and children, if only conducive to success.”
I emphasize that the directive mentions all possible means of retribution against women and children. I continue to quote:
“Scruples of any sort whatsoever are a crime against the German people and against the front-line soldier who bears the consequences of attacks by guerillas and who has no comprehension for any regard shown to the guerillas or their associates.
“These principles must serve as a basis for using the ‘Directive for Combating Guerillas in the East.’
“2. No German participating in combat action against guerillas or their associates is to be held responsible for acts of violence either from a disciplinary or a judicial point of view.
“Commanders of troops engaged in combat action against the bands are obliged to see to it that all officers of units under their command be immediately and thoroughly notified of this order, that their legal advisers be immediately acquainted therewith, and that no judgments be passed which are in contradiction to this order.
“Signed, Keitel.”
I hereby conclude the presentation of the documents referring to the first two sections of the list read into the record at the opening of the report. The materials which I have hitherto submitted to the Tribunal were to prove three facts:
1. Direct instigation, by the major criminals, to the perpetration of appalling crimes against wide circles of the peaceful population, by the German Armed Forces.
2. Special education by the Hitler leadership of mass criminal units for the practical realization of its plans for the extermination of peoples.
3. General unleashing of the criminals’ basest instincts in an atmosphere of complete impunity for the perpetrators of the crimes.
These purposes were fully achieved by the major war criminals. The Hitlerites committed crimes against the peaceful populations in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union and in the Eastern occupied countries which, in their extent, in the cruelty of the methods applied, as well as in the cynicism and brutality of purpose of the organizers and perpetrators of the crimes, are without precedent in the history of the world.
I should like to submit evidence which characterizes the extent and the methods of these crimes of the German fascists. I should like to show exactly what Keitel’s order for the “pacification” of the occupied territories meant in the lives of the peaceful population.
The introduction of this regime of terror was the first sign of the arrival of the fascist authorities, whether military or civilian, in the territory of the U.S.S.R. or of other Eastern European countries. Moreover, this regime of terror was not exclusively confined to more savage forms of brutality. It also assumed the form of shameless outrages perpetrated against the honor and dignity of the victims of the German fascists. At the same time the terrorists primarily vented their misdeeds on the heads of such citizens whom they considered politically active and most capable of resisting them.
In confirmation of this fact I refer to a document which I have previously presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-6 (Document Number USSR-6), which is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on “Crimes Committed by the Germans in the Territory of the Lvov Region.” The Tribunal will find the passage to which I am referring on Page 58 of the document book, in the first column of the text, in the last paragraph. I begin the quotation:
“Even before the seizure of Lvov the Gestapo detachments had at their disposal, pursuant to an order by the German Government, lists of the most prominent representatives of the Intelligentsia doomed a priori to annihilation. Mass arrests and executions began immediately after the seizure of Lvov. The Gestapo arrested a member of the Union of Soviet Authors, an author of numerous literary works, Professor Thaddeus Boi-Dhelensky, a professor of the Medical Institute; Roman Renzky, the principal of the University; Vladimir Seradsky, Professor of Forensic Medicine; Roman Longchamp de Berrier, Doctor of Juridical Science, together with his three sons, Professor Thaddeus Ostrovsky, Professor Jan Grek, and Professor of Surgery Heinrich Gilyarovich. . . .”
There follows a long list containing 31 names of outstanding intellectuals of the city of Lvov. I omit the enumeration of their names and continue quoting from the next paragraph:
“Groer, a professor of the Medical Institute at Lvov, who fortuitously escaped death, has told the Commission what follows:
“‘When I was arrested at midnight of 3 July 1941 and placed in a truck, I met Professors Grek, Boi-Dhelensky, and others. We were taken to the hostel of the Abragamovitch Theological College. While we were led along the corridor the members of the Gestapo jeered at us, hitting us with rifle butts, pulling our hair, and hitting us over the head. . . . Later on I saw, from the hostel of the Abragamovitch Theological College, the Germans leading five professors under escort, four of whom were carrying the blood-bespattered body of the son of the famous surgeon Rouff, murdered by the Germans during his interrogation. Young Rouff, too, had been a specialist. The entire group of professors were taken under escort to the Kadetsky Heights, and 15 to 20 minutes later I heard rifle fire from the direction in which the professors were taken.’”
In order to humiliate dignity, the Germans resorted to the most refined methods of torture and then shot their victims. Goldsman, an inhabitant of Lvov, has testified before the special commission that he personally saw how, in July 1941:
“Twenty people, including four professors, lawyers, and physicians, were brought by the SS into the courtyard of House Number 8, on Artishevsky Street. One of them I know by name, Doctor of Juridical Science Krebs. Among them were five or six women. The SS forced them to wash the stairs leading from the seven entrances to the four-story house, with their tongues and lips. After those stairways were washed, the same people were forced to collect garbage in the courtyard with their lips. All garbage had to be transferred to one place in the courtyard. . . .”
I omit the end of this paragraph and continue from the next paragraph:
“The fascist invaders carefully concealed the extermination of the intelligentsia. To repeated requests of relatives and friends concerning the fate of these men of science, the Germans replied, ‘Nothing is known.’
“In the autumn of 1943, on the order of Reich Minister Himmler, the Gestapo men burned the bodies of the murdered professors. Mandel and Korn, former internees of the Yanovsky Camp, who dealt with the exhumation of the bodies, have told the Commission the following:
“‘During the night of 5 October 1943, acting on orders from the Gestapo, we opened a pit between Kadetskaya and Bouletskaya streets by the light of searchlights and took from it 35 bodies. We burned all these corpses.
“‘While lifting the corpses from the pit we found the documents of Professor Ostrovsky, of Otoshek, Doctor of Natural Science, and of Kasimir Bartel, Professor of the Polytechnical Institute.’
“The investigation established that during the first few months of the occupation the Germans arrested or killed more than 70 of the most prominent scientists, technologists, and artists in the city of Lvov.”
What I have just said does not in any way infer that the leaders of local organizations and representatives of the intelligentsia alone were victims of the fascist terror. I only wanted to make it clear that the fascist terror was directed in the first instance against these people.
But one of the characteristic features of Hitlerite terrorism was the fact that it was decreed by the German fascist leaders and materialized by the executioners as a general reign of terror.
To confirm this I refer to a document previously submitted to the Tribunal but not read into the record. It is Document Number USSR-63, which is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission for the investigation of German atrocities in the town of Kerch.
Kerch is a comparatively small town. It is separated from Lvov by many hundred of kilometers. Although the German invaders arrived in Lvov in the beginning of July 1941, they only reached Kerch in November. In January 1942 they had already been driven out by Red Army units.
Thus, the entire period of the first occupation of the city of Kerch—the city of Kerch has been occupied two times—by the Germans was short-lived and did not last more than 2 months. But here are the crimes perpetrated by the German fascists in this town. I begin the quotation. The Tribunal will find the passage in question on Page 227 of the document book, Column 2, Paragraph 5:
“After capturing the city in November 1941, the Hitlerites immediately issued an order to the following effect:
“The inhabitants of Kerch are ordered to deliver all family food stocks to the German Kommandos. Owners of undelivered and detected supplies will be shot.
“By the next order, Number 2, the town council ordered the inhabitants to register immediately all hens, roosters, ducks, chickens, turkeys, geese, sheep, cows, calves, and cattle. Poultry owners were strictly prohibited from using fowl and cattle for their own needs without special permission of the German commandant. After the publication of these orders a wholesale search of all apartments and houses began.
“The members of the Gestapo behaved outrageously. For each kilogram of beans or flour discovered in excess, the head of the family was shot.
“The Germans initiated their monstrous atrocities by poisoning 245 children of school age.”
Later on you will see the small bodies of these children in our documentary film. The infants’ bodies were thrown into the city moat.
“According to instructions issued by the German commandant, all the school children were ordered to appear at the school at a given time. On arrival, the 245 children, school books in hand, were sent to a factory school outside the town, allegedly for a walk. There the cold and hungry infants were offered coffee and poisoned pies. Since there was not enough coffee to go round, those who did not get any were sent to the infirmary where a German orderly smeared their lips with a quick-acting poison. In a few minutes all the children were dead. School children of the higher grades were carried off in trucks and shot down by machine gun fire 8 kilometers outside of the town. The bodies of the first batch of murdered children were brought to the same spot—a very large, very long, antitank trench.”
I continue the quotation:
“On the evening of 28 November 1941 an order, Number 4, of the Gestapo was posted in the town. In compliance with this order the inhabitants who had been previously registered with the Gestapo were to present themselves on 29 November between 0800 and 1200 hours at the Sennaya Square, with a 3 days’ supply of food. All the men and women were to appear, regardless of their age or state of health. Those who did not present themselves were threatened with public execution. Those who arrived at the square on 29 November were persuaded that they had been summoned in order to be sent to work. At noon over 7,000 people assembled in the square. There were young boys, young girls, children of all ages, very old men, and pregnant women. All were transferred to the city prison by the men of the Gestapo. This monstrous extermination of the peaceful population in the prison was carried out by the Germans according to a previously formulated plan of the Gestapo. First of all, the prisoners were asked to hand over the keys of their apartments and to give their exact addresses to the prison commandant. Then all the valuables were taken from the arrested people, including watches, rings, and ornaments. In spite of the cold, boots, felt-boots, shoes, costumes, and coats were removed from all the persons incarcerated. Many women and girls in their teens were separated from the rest of the internees by the fascist blackguards and locked in separate cells, where the unfortunate creatures were subjected to particularly outrageous forms of torture. They were raped, their breasts cut off, their stomachs ripped open, their feet and hands cut off, and their eyes gouged out.
“After the Germans had been thrown out of Kerch, on 30 December 1941, Red Army soldiers discovered, in the prison yard, a formless mass of bodies of young girls, naked, mutilated, and unrecognizable, who had been savagely and cynically tortured to death by the fascists.
“As a site for the mass execution, the Hitlerites selected an antitank ditch near the village of Baguerovsko where for 3 days on end autobuses brought entire families which had been condemned to death.
“When the Red Army entered Kerch, in January 1942, the Baguerovsko trench was investigated. It was discovered that this trench—1 kilometer in length, 4 meters in width, and 2 meters in depth—was filled to overflowing with bodies of women, children, old men, and boys and girls in their teens. Near the trench were frozen pools of blood. Children’s caps, toys, ribbons, torn-off buttons, gloves, milk bottles, and rubber comforters, small shoes, galoshes, together with torn-off hands, feet, and other parts of human bodies were lying nearby. Everything was spattered with blood and brains.
“The fascist savages shot down the defenseless population with dum-dum bullets. Near the edge of the trench lay the mutilated body of a young woman. In her arms was a baby carefully wrapped up in a white lace cover. Next to this woman lay an 8-year-old girl and a boy of 5, killed with dum-dum bullets. Their hands still gripped the mother’s dress.”
The circumstances of the executions are confirmed by the statements of numerous witnesses who were lucky enough to escape unharmed from the open grave. I am going to quote two statements. Twenty-year-old Anatol Ignatievich Bondarenko, now a soldier in the Red Army, states:
“When we were brought up to the antitank trench and lined up alongside this fearful grave, we still believed that we had been fetched in order to fill in the trench with earth or to dig new ones. We did not think we had been brought there to be shot, but when we heard the first shots from the automatic guns trained on us, I realized we were about to be murdered. I immediately hurled myself into the trench and hid between two corpses. Thus, unharmed and half fainting, I lay nearly until the evening. While lying in the trench I heard several of the wounded call to the gendarmes shooting them, ‘Finish me off, blackguard!’ ‘You missed me, scoundrel! Shoot again!’ Then, when the Germans went off to dinner, an inhabitant of my village called out from the trench, ‘Get up, those of you who are still alive.’ I got up and the two of us began to drag out the living from underneath the corpses. I was covered with blood. A light mist hung over the trench—steam arising from the rapidly-congealing mass of dead bodies, from the pools of blood, and from the last breath of the dying. We dragged out Theodor Naoumenko and my father, but my father had been killed outright by a dum-dum bullet in the heart. Late at night I reached the house of some friends in the Village of Baguerovsko and stayed with them until the arrival of the Red Army.”
Witness A. Kamenev stated:
“The chauffeur stopped the car behind the airdrome, and we saw Germans shooting people near the trench. We were dragged out of the car and pushed toward the trench in batches of 10. My son and I were among the first 10. We reached the trench. We were lined up facing it, and the Germans began their preparations to shoot us in the nape of the neck. My son turned to them and shouted, ‘Why are you shooting the peaceful population?’ But the shots rang out and my son instantly jumped into the trench. I threw myself in after him. Dead bodies began to fall upon me in the trench. About 3 p.m. an 11-year-old boy stood up from among the pile of corpses and began to call, ‘Little fathers, those of you who are still alive, get up. The Germans have gone.’ I was afraid to do so, since I thought that the boy was shouting by order of the policeman. The boy called out a second time, and then my son answered him. He stood up and asked, ‘Dad, are you alive?’ I could not say anything and merely nodded. My son and the other boy dragged me out from under the bodies. We saw some others who were still alive and who were shouting, ‘Help us.’ Some were wounded. All the time, while I had been lying in the trench, under the bodies of the dead, I could hear the shrieks and wails of the women and children. The Germans had started shooting old men, women, and children after shooting us.”
I interrupt the quotation here. Although the subsequent text does deal with many other appalling atrocities committed by the Germans, it is, in substance, analogous to the passages which I have already read into the record, relating to crimes perpetrated by the Germans in the town of Kerch. I would, however, invite the Tribunal’s attention to the part referring to the ill-treatment of children. On the whole, these crimes are highly characteristic of the German fascist terror. I quote:
“The German barbarians, in their atrocious ill-treatment of the Soviet people, did not even spare the children. A school teacher, M. N. Kolessnikova, stated that the Germans killed a 13-year-old boy for taking an old car tire and trying to swim in it while bathing in the sea.
“The following incident happened, according to the testimony of E. N. Sapelnikova:
“Maria Bondarenko, who lived in the village of Adjimushkaya, in an attempt to save her three children from starvation, appealed to some Germans working in the kitchen, for a little food. They poured some thin gruel into a small bowl. The Bondarenko family ate it greedily. A few hours later the mother and all three children were dead. The fascist henchmen had poisoned them.
“It has been ascertained from the testimony of N. H. Shoumilova that in July a German officer shot a 6-year-old boy merely because he was singing a Soviet song in the streets of the town.
“Practically all summer long the dead body of a 9-year-old boy dangled in the ‘Sacco and Vanzetti’ garden; the child had been hanged for plucking some apricots from a tree.”
Here I end my quotation from the report on the town of Kerch.
In my statement I have dwelt on the example of Kerch not because the atrocities committed by the Hitlerites in this town were on a particularly large scale or because they stood out, by reason of their cruelty, among the other crimes perpetrated by the Germans—the documents relevant to these latter crimes are at our disposal. Certainly not. On the contrary, I have quoted the report of the Extraordinary State Commission only because it gives a detailed and objective record of Hitlerite military crimes committed against peaceful citizens of one of the many towns which, as a result of a monstrous war unleashed by the German fascist criminals, were doomed to become the victims of a terrorist regime. Such atrocities were perpetrated by the Hitlerites in all the temporarily occupied cities of the Soviet Union.
In confirmation of this statement I now turn to a document of a general nature, which has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-51 (Document Number USSR-51) but parts of which have not yet been read into the record. I am referring to the note of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, V. M. Molotov, of 27 April 1942. In their introduction to this note, the Soviet Government made the following statement—I start my quotation from Paragraph 2 of the reverse side of the Russian text, Paragraph 3 after the heading of the document book. There you will find the following remarks:
“Fresh information and documents are being submitted to the Soviet Government to the effect that the Hitlerite invaders are carrying on a wholesale looting of the Soviet population and do not shrink from any crimes and acts of cruelty or violence on the territories which they temporarily occupied or which they still continue to occupy. The Soviet Government have already declared that these atrocities do not represent accidental excesses perpetrated by single undisciplined military units or by individual German officers or men. The Soviet Government are now in possession of documents recently seized in the staffs of routed German formations, which prove that the carnage and atrocities committed by the fascist German Army were perpetrated in accordance with carefully elaborated plans issued by the German Government, in pursuance of orders from the German High Command.”
I omit the subsequent parts and continue with Section V of the note. The Tribunal will find the passage which I am about to quote on Page 8 of the document book, Column 1 of the text, Paragraph 5.
I should like to add a few introductory words to the quotation. It is quite evident from the text of this note how the orders of the Reich leadership concerning the establishment of a regime of terror were executed, in the occupied territories, by the various commissioners of the occupied territories, by the Gauleiter, and by the commanders of German military units. I quote the beginning of Section V of this note—Page 8 of your document book, Column 1, Paragraph 5:
“The inhuman cruelty which the Hitlerite clique—begotten in violence and against the will of the German people—displayed against the inhabitants of the European countries temporarily occupied by the German Army was multiplied a hundredfold by the enemy forces after their invasion of the Soviet Union.
“The carnage to which the Hitlerites exposed the peaceful population of the Soviet Union has far overshadowed the most bloodstained pages of the annals of mankind, as well as of the current world war, and fully reveals the bloodthirsty and criminal plans of the fascists, aimed at the extermination of the Russian, Ukrainian, Bielorussian, and other nationals of the Soviet Union.
“These monstrous fascist plans inspired the orders and instructions of the German High Command for the extermination of the peaceful Soviet citizens.
“Thus, for instance, the instructions of the German Supreme Command, entitled, ‘Treatment of the Civilian Population and of Enemy Prisoners of War,’ reads to the effect that officers are responsible that the treatment of the civilian population be absolutely merciless, and commands that ‘force be used against the entire mass of the population.’ The instructions issued by the German High Command as a directive for the occupational authorities on Bielorussian territory read as follows:
“‘All hostile behavior on the part of the population toward the German Armed Forces and their organizations will be punished by death. Whosoever shelters Red Army soldiers or partisans will be punished by death. If the partisan cannot be found, hostages must be taken from among the population.’”
THE PRESIDENT: What is the exhibit number of what you are reading now? What is the U.S.S.R. number of what you are reading now?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: This document was submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-51. It is one of the notes of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Molotov, dated 27 April 1942. All together, four notes have been submitted to the Tribunal under this number. The beginning of the note which I am now quoting is on Page 4 of your document book. The quotation which I am now reading into the record is on Page 8 of your document book.
THE PRESIDENT: It is thought that this is part of the document you read yesterday. Are you sure that it is not?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: No, Mr. President. Yesterday I read into the record a note dated 6 January 1942, and the note which I am quoting now is dated 27 April.
Have I your permission to continue?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: “‘These hostages must be hanged if the guilty parties or their accomplices are not found within 24 hours. During the following 24 hours, double the number of hostages will be hanged on the same spot.’
“Point 7 of Order Number 431/41 of the German commandant of the town of Feodosia, Captain Eberhard, states:
“‘During an alarm every citizen appearing on the street must be shot. Groups of citizens who appear must be surrounded and mercilessly shot. Leaders and inciters are to be publicly hanged.’
“In a directive addressed to the 260th German Infantry Division, concerning the treatment of the civilian population, it is pointed out to the individual officers that ‘sufficient severity is not being applied everywhere.’
“Orders posted by the occupants in the Soviet towns and villages announce the death penalty for the most varied reasons: For being on the streets after 1700 hours; for offering lodging for the night to strangers; for not handing over Red Army soldiers to the authorities; for failing to hand over property; for attempting to put out a fire in an inhabited spot intended to be burned down; for travelling from one inhabited spot to another; for refusing to do forced labor; and so on.”
I continue this quotation on Page 8, reverse side of the second column of the text, Paragraph 2:
“The German fascist High Command not only tolerates but actually orders the murder of women and children. Organized infanticide in some of the orders is presented as a means for fighting the partisan movement. Thus, an order of the commander of the 254th German Division, Lieutenant General Von Beschnitz, dated 2 December 1941, considers the fact that ‘old people, women, and children of all ages’ move about behind the German lines as proof of ‘careless good nature,’ and orders the shooting without warning of ‘every civilian person regardless of age or sex approaching our front lines.’ It also orders that the ‘mayors be made responsible for reporting immediately the appearance of any unknown persons, and especially of children, to the local Kommandantur’ and to ‘shoot immediately any person suspected of espionage.’”
Some data regarding the directives received from the Reich authorities by the fascist authorities in the temporarily occupied territories are also contained in the note. I quote from Page 9 of your document book, Paragraph 3, Column 1 of the text:
“Some of the crimes of the German occupiers committed by them during the very first weeks of their piratical attack on the U.S.S.R., and their savage extermination of the civilian population of Bielorussia, the Ukraine, and the Baltic Soviet republics, have only now been documentarily established. Thus, when units of the Red Army in the district of the town of Toropetz, in January 1942, smashed a German SS cavalry brigade, among the documents captured was found a report of the 1st Cavalry Regiment of this brigade concerning the ‘pacification’ by this unit of the Starobinsk district in Bielorussia. The commander of the regiment reports that besides taking 239 prisoners a detachment of his regiment has also shot 6,504 peaceful civilians. The report further states that the detachment acted in pursuance of Order Number 42 issued to the regiment, dated 27 July 1941. The commander of the 2d Regiment of this brigade, Von Magill, states, in his ‘Report Concerning the Execution of Repressive Operations on the River Pripet between 27 July and 11 August 1941,’ the following:
“‘We drove the women and children into the swamp, but that did not produce the desired result, since the swamp was not deep enough for them to drown. One can usually feel bottom (possibly sand) at a depth of 1 meter.’
“In the same headquarters a telegram, Number 37, was found, sent by the commander of the SS Cavalry Brigade.”
THE PRESIDENT: Shall we adjourn now for 10 minutes?
[A recess was taken.]
MARSHAL: May it please the Court, regarding the Defendant Hess, he will be absent until further notice on account of illness.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I continue the quotation:
“In the same headquarters there was discovered a telegram, Number 37, from the commander of the Cavalry Brigade, an SS-Standartenführer, to a cavalry unit of the above-mentioned 2d Cavalry Regiment, dated 2 August 1941. It mentioned that the Reichsführer of the SS and the Police, Himmler, considers the number of the exterminated peaceful civilians far too insignificant; and it points out that ‘it is necessary to take radical measures’ and ‘the unit commanders conduct the operations too mildly.’ He also orders to report every day on the number of people shot.”
In this connection we cannot abstain from mentioning the criminal activities of the Defendant Rosenberg in carrying out the general instructions of the Reich leadership for establishing a regime of terror in the Occupied Eastern Territories or rather, if we wish to be more accurate, for issuing, in his capacity as chief author of these instructions, a series of laws in Ostland—this, as we know, was the name given to the occupied regions of the Baltic States—while similar orders and instructions of a terroristic nature were also issued by high-ranking officials of the fascist administration set up by Rosenberg.
I submit to the Tribunal Exhibit Number USSR-39 (Document Number USSR-39), the report of the Extraordinary Commission on the atrocities of the German fascist invaders in the territory of the Estonian S.S.R. I quote an excerpt which Your Honors will find on Page 232 of the document book in the first column of the text, Paragraph 3. It begins as follows:
“On 17 July 1941 Hitler issued a decree turning over the legislative powers of the territory of Estonia to Reich Minister Rosenberg, who later turned over this legislative power to the German district authorities.
“Despotism was introduced into Estonia and the peaceful population subjected to brutal terrorism. Reich Minister Rosenberg, the Reich Commissioner for the Baltic regions, Lose, and the Commissioner General of Estonia, Litzmann, completely deprived the Estonian people of all political rights. On the basis of Hitler’s decree of 17 July 1941, Reich Minister Rosenberg promulgated, on 17 February 1942, a special law for people of non-Germanic nationality, providing capital punishment for the slightest resistance against Germanization and for any act of violence against people of German nationality.
“For workers and employees of Estonian origin the occupants introduced corporal punishment. On 20 February 1942 an official of the railroad administration in Riga, Walk, sent the following telegram to the administration of the Estonian railroads:
“‘Every violation of discipline on the part of a native employee, especially absenteeism, being late for work, coming drunk to work, disobeying orders, and so forth, shall from now on be punished with the utmost severity: (a) For the first offense, 15 strokes with a lash on the bare body; (b) if the offense is repeated, 20 strokes with a lash on the bare body.’
“On 12 January 1942 Reich Minister Rosenberg established ‘special courts,’ consisting of a police officer, as president, and two subordinate policemen. The procedural rules were determined by this court at its own discretion. These ‘courts’ pronounced death sentences with confiscation of property. No other penalty was ever decreed. No appeal against the sentences was admitted. In addition to the ‘courts’ established by Rosenberg, death sentences were pronounced by the German political police, and these sentences were carried out on the very same day.
“For the examination of criminal and civilian cases, Commissioner General Litzmann introduced local courts. Judges, prosecutors, investigating magistrates, notary publics [notaries public], and lawyers—all, without exception, were personally appointed by Litzmann.”
I end the quotation.
I further submit to the Tribunal, as our Exhibit Number USSR-18 (Document Number USSR-18), a photostat of a plain-spoken terroristic order of the German military authorities, and I beg Your Honors to accept this document as a relevant part of the evidence. This is an order of the German town commander of the city of Pskov. The Tribunal will find the text of this order on Page 235 of the document book. It is evident from this document that the peaceful civilian population was even forbidden to appear on the highways of their own locality. Any peaceful citizens seen there by the German soldiers were to be shot. I quote the text of the document, beginning with Paragraph 3:
“Therefore, I order:
“1. All members of the civilian population, regardless of age or sex, seen on or in the vicinity of railroad tracks are to be considered as bandits and shot as such. Excepted, of course, are the labor units under guard.
“2. All people mentioned in the first paragraph who cross the fields are to be shot.
“3. All persons mentioned in Paragraph 1 who are found on the roads at night or at dawn are to be shot.
“4. Persons mentioned in Paragraph 1, if found on the roads during the daytime, are subject to arrest and the most detailed examination.”
Such were the terroristic decrees and orders based upon the so-called Leadership Principle that were issued by high-ranking officials and representatives of the military authorities of the fascist German Government. But the right of relentless reprisals against the peaceful populations was not confined to them only; any local Kommandantur, any commander of a small unit, and, finally, any soldier of Hitler’s army acquired the right of reprisal against the peaceful population of the occupied regions.
I shall now submit to the Tribunal several documents which will reveal how the Hitlerite criminals invariably made the most of this right, introducing into the crimes perpetrated against the Soviet people the cruel devices of base and evil creatures who had been granted the right of mocking and murdering with impunity. I submit to the Tribunal, as Exhibit Number USSR-9 (Document Number USSR-9), a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the atrocities perpetrated by the German fascist occupiers in the city of Kiev. The Tribunal will find the passage in question on Page 238 of the document file, Paragraph 5 of Column 1 of the text. I quote:
“The German executioners, from the very first days of their occupation of Kiev, carried out a wholesale slaughter of the population by torture, shooting, hanging, and poisoning by gas in the murder vans. People were seized in the streets and shot either in large batches or singly. Announcements of the shootings were posted in order to intimidate the population.”
I shall interrupt my quotation at this point, and I ask the Tribunal to accept in evidence photostats of several of these posters. Partial mention has already been made of them in the report of the Extraordinary State Commission. From among their number, I would request the Tribunal to accept in evidence the photostat of one such poster, which I submit as Exhibit Number USSR-290 (Document Number USSR-290). The text reads as follows—I ask the Tribunal to excuse me if the translation is, perhaps, slightly incorrect, since the original text is in Ukrainian. I am a Russian, I understand the meaning of the Ukrainian text, but the translation might possibly not be quite correct in every detail. A translation will be made. Here is the text:
“As a reprisal for an act of sabotage, 100 inhabitants of the city of Kiev were shot this day. Let this be a warning.
“Every inhabitant of Kiev is co-responsible for every act of sabotage.
“Kiev, 22 October 1941; The Town Commandant.”
Under Exhibit Number USSR-291 (Document Number USSR-291)—the Tribunal will find the text on Page 243 of the document book—I submit a photostat of the following poster, signed by the commandant of the city of Kiev. I quote the text:
“Means of communication—telephone and telegraph wires—have been damaged in Kiev. Since the saboteurs could not be found, 400 men have been shot in the city.
“This should serve as a warning to the population, and once again I demand that all suspects be immediately reported to the German troops or the German police in order that the criminals may be adequately punished.
“Signed: Eberhard, Major General and City Commandant, Kiev; 29 November 1941.”
As Exhibit Number USSR-333 (Document Number USSR-333), I submit a photostat of the third and last poster in Kiev. The Tribunal will find the text of this poster on Page 242 of the document book at the disposal of the Tribunal. I quote:
“Repeated cases of arson and sabotage in Kiev force me to resort to extreme measures. Consequently, 300 inhabitants of Kiev will be shot today. For every new case of arson or sabotage, several times this number will be shot. Every inhabitant of Kiev is obliged to report any suspects to the German police. I shall maintain order and calm in Kiev by all measures at my disposal and under any circumstances.
“Kiev, 2 November 1941; Eberhard, Major General and City Commandant.”
I refer to another document which has not even been partially read into the record. I refer to Exhibit Number USSR-63 (Document Number USSR-63) of the Commissar of the Djerjinski District Council of the city of Stalingrad. I invite the Tribunal’s attention to the fact that this official act, which was drawn up by the members of the local Soviet authorities and the community of the Djerjinski District of Stalingrad, was approved by the Extraordinary State Commission under the signature of a member of the commission, Academician Trainin, and of other persons. The members of the Tribunal will find the act in question on Page 222 of the document book, Column 1 of the text.
I shall begin the quotation of the report of the commission, which investigated the territory of the Djerjinski District of Stalingrad after the rout of the Germans at Stalingrad. This report contains information regarding the announcements posted in the streets of Stalingrad by the German Kommandantur and concerning the results of these posters. I begin my quotation on Page 222 of the document book in the possession of the members of the Tribunal, in Column 1 of the text, last paragraph:
“. . . the military Kommandantur sowed death everywhere. It posted announcements in the streets, threatening death by shooting at every step. For instance, the following announcement was posted up in Aral Street: ‘Death to him who passes here.’ On the corner of Nevskaya and Medveditzkaya Streets: ‘Right of way forbidden to Russians; for violation of this order—death.’
“As a matter of fact, the Germans shot the citizens at every step: Hundreds of graves along the streets of the Djerjinski District of the city of Stalingrad bear witness to the shooting. The bodies of those who were tortured, shot, or hanged in the Kommandantur proper were at first thrown into a pit near the building of the Kommandantur. After the invaders had been thrown out, there were found 31 corpses in this pit. When the pit was full, the corpses were brought to the cemetery 2 kilometers away from the Kommandantur. At the cemetery there was another pit, 6 meters deep, 40 meters long, and 12 meters wide.
“After the invaders had been thrown out, 516 corpses of Soviet citizens were found in this grave, including the bodies of 50 children who had been tortured to death, shot, or hanged in the building of the Kommandantur and in other places. An examination of the bodies on 25 March 1943 established that the Hitlerites had savagely tortured the Soviet people before murdering them. In addition to the bodies of the children, the corpses of 323 women, 69 old men, and 74 younger men were discovered. One hundred and forty-one corpses bore traces of wounds inflicted by firearms in the head and on the chests; 92 corpses had marks on their necks which showed that they had been hanged. All the other bodies were mutilated and bore traces of torture. One hundred and thirty victims, women and girls, had their arms twisted behind their backs and tied with wire, and 18 of the corpses had their breasts cut off, some had their ears, fingers, and toes chopped off, and the majority showed traces of burns on their bodies.
“An examination of these corpses revealed that 21 women died of torture and wounds and that the remainder had been first tortured and then shot.
“Even the corpses of children were mutilated. Some had their small fingers cut off, their buttocks chopped up, their eyes gouged out.”
I now cease to quote from this document, and, in compliance with the wishes of the Tribunal to the effect that not details but instances testifying to some new data in the system of the Hitler terror be reported, I omit three pages of the report and turn to the following section on the presentation of evidence: “On Tortures Inflicted by the Hitlerites in the Course of Interrogation.”
In general, tortures were officially provided for and sanctioned by the Hitlerites. I present to the Tribunal, as Exhibit Number USSR-11 (Document Number USSR-11), one of the documents testifying to the fact that tortures were sanctioned officially. This document is an official guide for concentration camps, “The Concentration Camp Statutes,” published in Berlin in 1941. You will find the excerpt I am quoting on Page 244 of the document book in your possession. Section 3 of the instructions, for instance, entitled, “Corporal Punishment,” states:
“Between 5 and 25 strokes are permitted on the loins and buttocks. The number of strokes is to be determined by the camp commandant and is to be entered in the corresponding space in the directives governing punishment.”
I should have liked to refer to one more document, but, as it already has been presented to the Tribunal, in compliance with the Tribunal’s instructions, I will omit this document—it was presented as Document L-89—and continue.
Official formulas to be used in “especially severe interrogations” or, rather, interrogations with application of torture, were issued by the corresponding German police departments. I submit it to the Tribunal and would request them to accept in evidence an original formula of such an “especially severe interrogation.” I submit it as Exhibit Number USSR-254 (Document Number USSR-254). It represents an appendix to the report of the Yugoslav Government. This form, as is evident from the certificate attached to it, was seized from the German archives by units of the Yugoslav Army. I shall not describe this form in my own words but shall quote the report of the Yugoslav Government on Page 21 of the document, from the last paragraph at the bottom of the page. The Tribunal will find this passage on Page 256 of the document book, in the last paragraph. I begin the quotation:
“In order to give a clearer description of the savage cruelty in carrying out this plan of extermination, we submit to the Tribunal another original document which was seized in the German archives in Yugoslavia. It is a blank form for the so-called ‘especially severe interrogations’ of the victims of the Nazi criminals. Such interrogations were conducted in Slovenia by the Security Police and the SD.
“On the first page of the form the police office suggests submitting one particular person to an ‘especially severe interrogation.’ On the second page the competent officer of the SS agrees to such an interrogation. The answer to the question—what this special ‘severe interrogation’ consisted of—is found in the following instructions of this form:
“The especially severe interrogation should consist of. . . . Minutes of the interrogation should be kept. A doctor may (or may not) be asked to be present.
“The mention of the doctor and of his presence at the interrogation leaves no doubt at all that the person interrogated was to be physically tortured. The fact that printed instructions existed for these interrogations obviously suggests a wholesale resort to such criminal methods.”
The Reichsführer SS clearly foresaw cases of attempted suicide by persons under suspicion. The SS leader therefore not only permitted but even ordered the prisoners to be tied hand and foot or shackled in chains. I submit to the Tribunal, as Exhibit Number USSR-298 (Document Number USSR-298), a photostat of a directive of the Chief of the German Police, Number 202/43, of 1 June 1943. The document is certified by the Extraordinary State Commission, and I quote the text of the document. The document is dated 1 June 1943. I quote only the text:
“Subject: Prevention of Escape during Interrogations.
“In order to prevent escape during interrogations in all cases where, owing to circumstances or the importance of the prisoner, there exists an increased possibility of escape or of an attempt to commit suicide, I order the hands and feet of the arrested person to be bound in such a way that escape is impossible. Rings and chains should be used if available.”
I have not submitted the official directives of the German central police authorities to the Tribunal merely to prove that the German officials provided for the application of torture and torment during interrogations. This fact is well known and calls for no special evidence. But I am submitting a document, in the possession of the Soviet Prosecution, which will show how far tortures to which arrested persons were subjected in the police cells exceeded even the instructions issued by the criminals and the officially sanctioned forms of torture.
I submit to the Tribunal Exhibit Number USSR-1 (Document Number USSR-1), which is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of the German fascist aggressors in the region of Stavropol. The investigation of these crimes was conducted under the leadership of the eminent academician and Russian author, the late Alexei Nikolaievitch Tolstoy. The Tribunal will find this document on Page 272 of the document book. I begin my quotation from the first paragraph. Academician A. N. Tolstoy, as the Tribunal will doubtless remember, was a member of the Extraordinary State Commission. I begin the quotation:
“Tortures and torments, exceptional in their cruelty, were applied to the Soviet citizens on the premises of the Gestapo. Thus, for instance, Citizen Phillip Akimovitch Kovalchuk, born in 1891 and an inhabitant of the town of Pyatigorsk, was arrested on 27 October 1942 in his own apartment, beaten unconscious, taken to the Gestapo, and thrown into one of the cells. Twenty-four hours later the Gestapo began to torture him; he was interrogated and beaten at night only. For the interrogation he was put in a separate torture chamber equipped with special devices for torture, such as chains with handcuffs for shackling both hands and feet. These chains were fastened to the cement floor of the chamber. To begin with, the prisoners were stripped to the skin and laid on the floor. Then their hands and feet were shackled. Citizen Kovalchuk was subjected to this form of torture. When in chains, he was completely unable to move. He lay on his stomach and in this position was lashed with rubber truncheons for 16 days.
“Apart from these inhuman forms of torture, the Gestapo also resorted to the following: A wide board was placed on the back of the shackled prisoner, and blows were struck on this board with heavy dumbbells. As a result of these blows, the prisoner bled from the nose, mouth, and ears and lost consciousness.
“The torture chamber of the Gestapo was so constructed that while one prisoner was being tortured the prisoners awaiting their turn in the neighboring cell could watch the torture and ill-treatment.
“After the torture, the unconscious prisoner would be thrown on one side, while the next victim of the Gestapo would be forcibly dragged in from the neighboring cell, shackled, and tortured in the same fashion.
“The torture chambers were always covered with blood. The board placed on the back of the prisoners was also soaked in it. The rubber cudgels used for beating the prisoners were red with blood.
“The arrested Soviet people, doomed to be shot after unspeakable torture and beatings, were dragged into trucks, driven out of town, and there shot.”
I omit two paragraphs and continue my quotation:
“Witness Barbara Ivanovna Tchaika, born in 1912, domiciled in Number 31, Djerjinskaya Street (Apartment Number 3), states that during her incarceration in the prison of the Gestapo she had been subjected to incredible torture by the Chief of the Gestapo, Captain Wintz. Witness B. I. Tchaika said on this subject:
“‘I was subjected to ill-treatment and torture by the Chief of the Gestapo, the German, Captain Wintz. He summoned me to the torture chamber once for an interrogation. There were four tables in the cell, wooden grills on the floor, and two basins of water in which leather thongs had been placed. Two rings were attached to the ceiling, with ropes drawn through them, from which the prisoners were suspended during the time of their torment. By order of Captain Wintz I was laid on the table by the Gestapo men, stripped, and beaten severely with leather thongs. I was beaten twice. In all I received 75 strokes of the lash; my kidneys were almost torn out and I lost eight of my teeth.’”
What occurred in the torture chambers of Stavropol was no exception at all. The same misdeeds were perpetrated everywhere. In confirmation I will refer to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission regarding the depredations and atrocities committed by the German fascist aggressors in the city of Kiev. That is Exhibit USSR-9 (Document Number USSR-9). The Tribunal will find this document on Page 238 of the document book, Paragraph 2 from the top, Column 2. I begin the quotation:
“Murders were often preceded by sadistic torture. The Archimandrite Valerian testified that the fascists beat sick and feeble people till they were half-dead, poured water over them when the temperature was below zero, and finally shot them in the torture chamber of the German police, established in the Kievo-Petchersk Abbey.”
I invite the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that the Kievo-Petchersk Abbey is one of the most ancient architectural monuments in the Soviet Union. It is a specially cherished cultural treasure, very dear to the heart of the Soviet citizens as a tangible memory of the far distant past. The torture chamber of the police had been purposely established in the Abbey. The Tribunal will learn of its eventual fate from the subsequent reports of my colleagues.
When the city of Odessa was under the rule of the fascist invaders, interrogations were accompanied by tortures of an exceptionally cruel nature. I refer to a testimony contained in the report of the Extraordinary State Commission, entitled, “On the Atrocities Committed by the German and Romanian Invaders in the City of Odessa and in the Territory of the Odessa Regions.”
I submit this document to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-47 (Document Number USSR-47) and request that it be accepted as irrefutable evidence in accordance with Article 21 of the Charter. I shall quote this document, which is on Page 282 of your document book, Paragraph 4, Line 10. It contains the testimony of Paul Krapyvny, producer of news reels. I quote this passage from the report of the Extraordinary State Commission, Page 282:
“The interrogator had a voltage control switch on the table, and whenever the person interrogated did not answer the question as the examiner wished, the dial of the voltage control would be mercilessly turned to increase the voltage; the body of the person interrogated would begin to tremble and his eyes to protrude from their sockets.
“The person interrogated, with his hands tied behind his back, would be hoisted up to the ceiling . . . where he would be spun round and round. After having been rotated 200 times in one direction, the victim, still suspended on the cord, would begin to turn at an insane speed in the opposite direction. At that particular moment the executioners would beat him on both sides with rubber truncheons. The man became unconscious both from the insane speed of the rotation and from the beating.”
I refer to the document already presented by my colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, Exhibit Number USSR-41 (Document Number USSR-41), which is a communication of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes committed by the German fascist invaders in the territory of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. I shall quote from this document, beginning on Page 286 on the reverse side of the document book, Paragraph 2, Column 2 of the text. I begin the quotation:
“In the camps and prisons the German executioners subjected prisoners to ill-treatment, torture, and shooting. In the central prison the internees were beaten and tortured. Day and night shrieks and groans were heard in the torture chambers. Every day from 30 to 35 people died as a result of the tortures. Whoever survived the ill-treatment and torture would return to his cell absolutely unrecognizable, burned to the bone, with parts of his body torn to pieces. No medical aid was given to the tortured.”
The Hitlerites subjected Soviet citizens to ill-treatment and torture in every town of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Your Honors will find analogous statements in the text of every communication of the Extraordinary State Commission. I shall not delay the Tribunal by quoting any further excerpts, I consider the evidence already presented as sufficient.
I shall now proceed to the next section of my report: murder of hostages.
I shall make a few introductory remarks.
One of the most shameful crimes perpetrated by the Hitlerites in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia was the use everywhere by the German fascists of the bestial system of taking hostages. This system was introduced by the Hitlerites into all the countries that fell as victims of their aggression. The German criminals resorted to particularly ruthless methods when murdering hostages in Eastern Europe. In introducing the hostage-seizing system the Hitlerites violated every law and custom of warfare.
However, it is difficult to speak of the murder of hostages where the Soviet Union is concerned, since the crimes committed by the Hitlerites everywhere in the temporarily occupied territories of the U.S.S.R. go beyond even this criminal practice of taking hostages. To a great extent the same remarks apply to Poland and particularly to Yugoslavia. Here the Hitlerites, under the pretext of the hostage-seizing system, were really perpetrating immeasurably greater war crimes, whose ultimate aim was the extermination of entire nations.
I shall now present some brief data from documents concerning the different countries of Eastern Europe.
I submit an extract from the report of the Government of the Polish Republic. The Tribunal will find the passage quoted on Page 128 of the document book, Paragraph 6. I begin the quotation:
“a) One of the most disgraceful features of the Hitlerite occupation of Poland was the introduction of the hostage-seizing system. Collective responsibility, payment of collective fines, and the bartering of human life were considered to be the best methods for enslaving the Polish people.
“b) Here are some typical cases of mass reprisals; they illustrate the methods employed by the German occupants.
“c) In November 1939 an unknown person set fire to a barn filled with grain on the outskirts of Nove Miasto Lubavske. The barn was the property of a German. As a result of this action, a certain SS-Standartenführer, Sperling, received an order from the higher authorities to resort to reprisals. A number of Poles from among the most prominent citizens were arrested. Out of those, 15 were selected and publicly shot by SS soldiers. Among the victims were the two brothers Jankovsky, one a lawyer, the other a priest, the tailor Malkovsky, the blacksmith Zemny, Major of the Army Reserve Vona, the son of an innkeeper, the publisher of a newspaper, and a priest, Bronislav Dembenovsky.
“d) In October 1939 the German authorities captured a certain number of Poles in the city of Inovrozlav and imprisoned them as hostages. They were brought to the prison courtyard, where they were unmercifully flogged and shot, one by one. Altogether, 70 men were killed, including the city mayor and his deputy. Among the victims were the most prominent citizens of the town.”
I omit the next sentence. I quote further:
“e) On 7 March 1941 the film star, Igo Sym, who considered himself as being of German nationality and who was in charge of the German theaters in Warsaw, was murdered in his own apartment. Although the murderers were never found, the Governor of Warsaw, Fischer, said that Sym was murdered by the Poles and ordered the arrest of a large number of hostages. He also closed the theaters and imposed a curfew on the Polish population. The hostages were taken in order to secure the arrest of the murderers. About 200 people were arrested, including teachers, priests, physicians, lawyers, and actors. The population of Warsaw was given 3 days to find Sym’s murderers. After the expiration of the 3 days, the killers still remaining unknown, 17 hostages were executed, among them Professor Kopetz, his son, and Professor Zakrzhevsky.”
I conclude this quotation from the report of the Polish Government and ask the Tribunal’s permission to refer to a short excerpt from the report of the Czechoslovakian Government. There is one part I would like to read into the record. Your Honors will find it on Page 141 of the document book. I begin the quotation:
“Even before the beginning of the war, thousands of Czech patriots and especially Catholic and Protestant clergymen, lawyers, doctors, teachers, and so on, were arrested. Furthermore, in every district lists were drawn up of persons who were subject to arrest as hostages at the first sign of any breach of ‘public order and security.’ At first these were only threats. In 1940 Karl Frank announced, in a speech to the leaders of the Movement of National Unity, that 2,000 Czech hostages, interned in concentration camps, would be shot if prominent Czech statesmen refused to sign the declaration of loyalty. Sometime after the attempt on Heydrich’s life, many of these hostages were executed.
“Threats of reprisals against directors of factories in case of some hitch in the work at the factory were a typical method of Nazi terrorism. Thus, in 1939 the Gestapo summoned all the directors as well as the managers of warehouses belonging to various industrial firms and informed them that they would be shot in case of a strike. On leaving they had to sign the following declaration: I am aware of the fact that I would be shot immediately should my factory cease working without a justifiable reason.’
“In the same way, school teachers were held responsible for the loyal behavior of their pupils. Many teachers were arrested only because the pupils in their schools were caught writing anti-German slogans or reading forbidden books.”
I now interrupt the quotation from the report of the Government of the Czechoslovakian Republic, and I begin to read the section recording the killings of hostages in Yugoslavia.
I shall just say a few words by way of introduction. These criminal murders of the peaceful population developed on their own particular lines in Yugoslavia. As a matter of fact, it is impossible at this point to speak of the execution of hostages, although the Hitlerites constantly make use of this term in their official documents, which will be presented to the Tribunal at a later date.
Truth to tell, under the alleged killing of hostages, the Hitlerite criminals were realizing, on an enormous scale, the regime of terroristic extermination of the peaceful citizens not only for crimes which somebody or other had committed, but also for crimes which, to Hitler’s way of thinking, might be committed.
I submit the document that confirms this fact. It contains excerpts from the report of the Yugoslav Government, which Your Honors will find on Page 259 in the document book in their possession, Paragraph 1. I begin the quotation:
“The murder of hostages was one of those methods which were used by military authorities and the Reich Government on an incredible scale for the mass extermination of the Yugoslav population.
“The Yugoslav State Commission for the investigation of War Crimes has at its disposal an innumerable quantity of concrete details and original evidence taken from the German archives. We submit only a very limited number of such details and evidence, which are, however, sufficient proof that the killing of hostages was merely an item in the common plan in the systematic Nazi crime.”
Further, the report of the Yugoslav Government quotes an order of the commander of the so-called Group West, General Brauner. I quote the following excerpt:
“In regions captured by partisans, the seizure of hostages from all strata of the population remains in force as the only really successful means of intimidation.”
To confirm the vast scale of the crimes of the Hitlerites in connection with the murder of hostages, the Yugoslav Government presents to the Tribunal six documents, which I now submit to Your Honors, and I ask for them to be incorporated into the record as evidence. I submit the following documents to the Tribunal:
Firstly, under Exhibit Number USSR-261 (Document Number USSR-261), a certified photostat of a poster of the commanding general and Commander-in-Chief of Serbia, dated 25 December 1942, in which he announces the shooting of 50 hostages. Secondly, as Exhibit Number USSR-319 (Document Number USSR-319), a certified photostat of a poster of the same commanding general, dated 19 February 1943, in which he announces the shooting of 400 hostages, which was carried out in Belgrade on the same date. Thirdly, as Exhibit Number USSR-320 (Document Number USSR-320), a certified photostat of a poster of the regional Kommandantur in Pozarevatz, dated 3 April 1943, announcing the shooting of 75 hostages. Fourthly, as Exhibit Number USSR-321 (Document Number USSR-321), a certified photostat of a poster of the same regional Kommandantur of Pozarevatz, dated 16 April 1943, announcing the shooting of 30 hostages. Fifthly, a certified copy of a poster of the military commandant of Belgrade, dated 14 October 1943, in which he announces the shooting of 100 hostages. I submit this document as Exhibit Number USSR-322 (Document Number USSR-322).
I continue my quotation from the report of the Yugoslav Government:
“Planned and systematic murder of hostages is revealed by the following testimonies, collected by the Yugoslav State Commission for the investigation of war crimes on the basis of confiscated German archives and data found in the archives. The testimonies refer to Serbia only:
“Four hundred and fifty hostages were shot on 3 October 1941 in Belgrade; 200 hostages were shot on 17 October 1941, in Belgrade; 50 hostages were shot on 27 October 1941, in Belgrade; 100 hostages were shot on 3 November 1941, in Belgrade.
“Further testimonies show the terrible increasing number of these crimes at that time:
“Ten hostages shot on 12 December 1942, in Kraguevatz; 10 hostages shot on 12 December 1942, in Krusevatz; 30 hostages shot on 15 December 1942, in Brush; 50 hostages shot on 17 December 1942, in Petrovatz; 10 hostages shot on 20 December 1942, in Brush; 50 hostages shot on 25 December 1942, in Petrovatz; 10 hostages shot on 26 December 1942, in Brush; 250 hostages shot on 26 December 1942, in Petrovatz; 25 hostages shot on 27 December 1942, in Krusevatz.”
One really could, I think, agree with the statement of the Yugoslav Government that such figures could be cited ad infinitum. I continue my quotation:
“The shooting of hostages was, as a rule, conducted in a most barbaric fashion. The victims were mostly forced to stand one behind the other in batches, waiting their turn and witnessing the execution of the preceding batch. In this manner the batches were one after another exterminated.”
I shall submit further to the Tribunal, as Exhibit Number USSR-205 (Document Number USSR-205), the report of the police administration of the quisling administration of Milan Nedich. It mentions the shooting, on 11 December 1941 in Leskovatz, of 310 hostages, of whom 293 were Gypsies. I continue to quote the report of the Yugoslav Government:
“By an examination of the site and an interrogation of the Gypsies by the regional administration investigating war crimes in Leskovatz, the methods were established by which this shooting was carried out.”
Before reading the excerpt, I submit to the Tribunal the document which was referred to by the Government of the Yugoslav Republic, as Exhibit Number USSR-226 (Document Number USSR-226), and request it be incorporated as evidence. In the report of the Yugoslav Government, the following lines of this document are quoted:
“On 11 December 1941, from 0600 hours to 1600 hours, the Germans transported the arrested hostages in their trucks in batches of about 20 persons each. All of them had their hands bound. They were taken to the foot of the Mountain of Hisar. From there they were driven on foot across the mountain . . . and then made to stand in ranks near recently dug graves, were shot, and then thrown into the graves.”
THE PRESIDENT: I think this will be a good time to break off.
Colonel Smirnov, the Tribunal appreciates the efforts that you have made to leave out unnecessary detail and to cut down the length of your address, and it hopes that during the adjournment you will continue your efforts in that direction.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Certainly, Mr. President.
[The Tribunal adjourned until 18 February 1946 at 1000 hours.]
SIXTY-FIRST DAY Monday, 18 February 1946
Morning Session
THE PRESIDENT: I have an announcement to make, and I make it in this order, in the form of paragraphs.
Paragraph 1: The Tribunal cannot accept Paragraph 1 of the Prosecution’s motion, as to the evidence of the defendants, dated 11 February 1946, but directs that, in complying with Article 24(d) of the Charter, counsel for the defendants shall confine their evidence to what is required for meeting the charges in the Indictment.
The Tribunal will announce later their decision with regard to Paragraphs 2 to 5 of the Prosecution’s motion.
Paragraph 2: With regard to the naming of witnesses, et cetera, by the Defense under Article 24(d) of the Charter, which is referred to in Paragraph 1 of Dr. Stahmer’s memorandum to the Tribunal, dated 4 February 1946, the Tribunal makes the following order:
In order to avoid delay in securing the attendance of witnesses and procuring of documents, without prejudice to the defendant’s right to make further application at the conclusion of the case for the Prosecution, counsel for the Defendants Göring, Hess, Ribbentrop, and Keitel shall, before 5 p.m. on Thursday, the 21st of February, file with the General Secretary written statements giving the names of the witnesses and particulars of the documents they respectively desire to call or put in evidence, with a summary of the facts to be proved thereby and an exposition of the relevance thereof.
The Tribunal hereby appoints Saturday, the 23rd of February, at 1000 hours—that is to say, 10 o’clock—for the hearing of argument upon such statements in open session.
Paragraph 3: The Tribunal will, in due course, issue directions as to the filing of similar statements on behalf of the other defendants.
Paragraph 4: The Tribunal will announce later their decision on the other matters raised in Dr. Stahmer’s memorandum.
The Tribunal will now hear the defendants’ counsel’s application for a recess.
PROFESSOR DR. HERBERT KRAUS (Counsel for Defendant Schacht): Professor Kraus, representing defendants’ counsel.
The defendants’ counsel are grateful for the opportunity granted by the Tribunal to state in detail the reason for their application of 4 February for an adjournment of the Trial after the conclusion of the Prosecution. This application is the result of a series of proposals with which the Defense have striven to achieve a simple, clear, and as rapid a presentation as possible of its case.
Only a few points of this application call for further amplification.
All the defendants are accused of participation in a conspiracy. That is apparently intended to mean that every act brought up in the course of this Trial, no matter by whom it was committed and to whom it was done, is charged against every one of these defendants, and that he can be convicted on every one of these acts. Even though the individual Defense Counsel finds certain fields with which he must concern himself particularly, there are, nevertheless, no fields at all which he can entirely ignore.
Since most of the Defense Counsel are working with only one assistant and sometimes alone, it can be seen how enormous is the extent of the labor involved in the examination and discussion of the material that is daily presented by the Prosecution. The necessary discussions with the defendants use up the evening hours and the days on which there are no sessions. These discussions are, moreover, because of the security measures that have been taken, very exhausting.
It is, therefore, simply beyond the strength of the individual defense lawyer, along with his attendance at the Trial and his continuous working over of the material presented at the Trial, to make those intellectual and technical preparations that can justifiably be expected in a trial of such significance as this.
The material presented is not yet conclusive. The Russian Prosecution is presenting new evidence daily. In the opinion of the Defense Counsel, it would lead to an incorrect evaluation of the extent and importance of accusations which the Russian Delegation is presenting if the Defense Counsel were expected to conclude their preparations for their defense before they had even heard the conclusions of the case for the Prosecution.
The Tribunal has already been informed in written application of the difficulties involved in obtaining evidence. A few examples might be cited in this respect, examples to which every member of the Defense Counsel could contribute.
One member of the Defense Counsel, in November of last year, applied for a certain witness to be called who was of decisive importance in the presentation of his case. The application was approved by the Tribunal. Although this witness was a very highly placed German official, it was only in January of this year that the camp in which he was interned could be located. The witness has not, as yet, appeared in Nuremberg. Therefore, the Counsel for the Defense has, so far, no idea as to which questions this witness can testify on and what he would testify.
In numerous cases the place of residence of witnesses, whose appearance at the Trial had been requested by the Tribunal in November or December of last year, could not be established. Consequently the Defense Counsel are quite unable to help in locating them in such cases where witnesses, interned in Allied prisoner-of-war camps, have had no opportunity of providing information as to their whereabouts. It has been suggested to some of the Defense Counsel to interrogate witnesses outside Germany by presenting them with questionnaires which would enable them to be interrogated at their place of residence. In no single case have answers to these questionnaires reached the respective counsel for the Defense.
In the case of witnesses living inside Germany, the Defense Counsel have repeatedly been asked either to conduct the interrogation themselves or to present a written affidavit. Since the Defense Counsel are confined to Nuremberg during the sessions, they could only carry out this task during a prolonged recess.
Finally, one member of the Defense had, at the beginning of November, applied for permission to submit a series of documents indispensable to his case. These documents are in the possession of one of the signatories of the Charter. They have been examined by the Prosecution and have been submitted in evidence by the Prosecution insofar as they serve to implicate the defendant in question. The Defense Counsel is still not in possession of these exonerating documents.
We should like to emphasize again the purely technical difficulties that arise from the mimeographing and multiple translations. . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Just one moment, Professor Kraus. You referred to a document which you said was indispensable, which was in the possession of a signatory power, examined by the Prosecution, and put in evidence in this case, and the defendants are still not in possession of it.
What is the reference to that document?
DR. KRAUS: No, Mr. President; it is a collection of documents in which the incriminating parts were presented by the Prosecution; but we, the Defense Counsel, are not yet in possession of the exonerating parts of that documentation. Dr. Kranzbühler, who, too, is affected by this case can give you more detailed information.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, there is an application, I know, by Dr. Kranzbühler; but if it is really a part of a document, the Tribunal has ruled on several occasions that if the Prosecution puts in a certain part of a document, the whole of that document must be available to the defendant’s counsel so that they can criticize and comment upon any other part of it which may throw light upon the part of the document which is put in evidence.
DR. KRAUS: Yes, Mr. President; we are dealing here not with one single document, but with a whole collection of documents and Dr. Kranzbühler only wishes to extract from this collection the documents which would assist him in exonerating his client, after the incriminating documents have been presented by the Prosecution.
THE PRESIDENT: You may continue.
DR. KRAUS: The Defense is grateful to the Prosecution for the readiness they have expressed in assisting the Defense in technical questions. The great difficulties which the Prosecution themselves have experienced in this connection, and which have repeatedly led to discussions by the Tribunal, show, nevertheless, that an efficient solution of this problem calls for a suitable length of time. The Defense consider it important to assure the Tribunal of their readiness and their determination not to prolong the Trial unnecessarily. They are, however, of opinion that an inadequate a priori preparation will lead to a corresponding increase in the duration of the Defense, and that the subsequent results might not at all suffice to allow the Tribunal to give a fair verdict.
The Defense Counsel think they are in agreement with the Tribunal in saying that this Trial, so important in the history of humanity, should be conducted throughout with the peace and reflection which have hitherto characterized its course. Per contra, undue importance should not be attached to the understandable impatience of those who insist on a rapid termination of the Trial. In this sense the Defense requests the Prosecution to support their application. The length of time applied for, that is, 3 weeks, cannot be considered unreasonable in view of the total length of time which the Prosecution have envisaged for the completion of their case. The granting of this length of time would, on the other hand, allow for the fact that the Defense, in the conduct of their case, find themselves both spiritually and materially in a very difficult position. Mention should be made that a number of us have subscribed to today’s application, contrary to the opinion of the defendants we represent, who desire a rapid termination of these proceedings. We feel that we are accountable to none but our own consciences and our professional duties as Counsel for the Defense.
I therefore request the Tribunal to take note that, after serious and thorough consideration, my colleagues and I, without exception, are convinced that the length of time applied for, that is, 3 weeks, is the minimum time which they consider essential for an orderly preparation of the defense.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Kraus, the Tribunal would like to know, if you can answer the question, whether defendants’ counsel have by this time ascertained all, or nearly all, the witnesses whom they desire to call in evidence; whether they have made up their minds, up to this stage, as to what witnesses they desire to call.
DR. KRAUS: I cannot answer this question, since that would call for a general inquiry. I should have to ask my colleagues. The cases to my knowledge vary from one lawyer to another. Some of the lawyers of the Defense are more or less ready in this respect; others are not.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: May it please the Tribunal, I think it would be convenient if I followed the admirably lucid exposition of Professor Kraus by asking the Tribunal to direct its attention to two aspects of the matter: First, what Professor Kraus called the intellectual preparation, and secondly, the mechanical necessities of presentation of the Defense.
On the first point I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the way that it is put in the written application signed by Dr. Stahmer, which was followed in the main by Professor Kraus today. It is stated that a respite is required for the construction of the Defense after conclusion of the Indictment, that is, of the Prosecution; secondly, that the Defense Counsel have, until now, not had the time to prepare their defense in such a manner that smooth functioning is guaranteed; and thirdly, a line or two lower down, in justice it cannot be expected of the Defense Counsel that they will be able to answer on the spot.
I respectfully request the Tribunal’s attention to some matters of dates.
The Indictment in this case was filed on the 18th of October, which is exactly 4 months ago today. The defendants were immediately acquainted with the contents of the Indictment, and it is a document of sufficient public importance to give ground for the belief that Defense Counsel must have, at any rate, had its general contents very quickly in mind.
On that day General Nikitchenko, presiding over this Tribunal, stated at Berlin, “It must be understood that the Tribunal, which is directed by the Charter to secure an expeditious hearing of the issues raised by the charges, will not permit any delay either in the preparation of the defense or of the Trial.”
I remind the Tribunal that the Indictment contains more full particulars than probably any indictment in the history of jurisprudence.
The third point is that preliminary lists of documents were placed in the defendants’ Information Center on the 1st of November. The lodgment of preliminary documents, not complete but amounting to many hundreds, was made on the 15th of November. Except for one, Dr. Bergold, on behalf of the Defendant Bormann, all the counsel representing individual defendants were appointed by the 10th of November.
Next, there have been four detailed speeches by the Prosecution explaining the scope and emphasis of the Prosecution’s case. Every experienced advocate knows that the opening speech giving the emphasis is one of the most important matters for the Defense.
As Professor Kraus said, from the beginning of November there have been applications for witnesses. I shall deal later with certain of the individual points, but I want to say this generally, that any one who has read these applications must be aware that the Defense, from an early date, have appreciated not only the case they have to meet, but the line which they wish to pursue.
My eighth point is that, having heard practically the whole case on Counts One and Two, the common plan and aggressive war, the defendants received a 12-day recess at Christmas, and it was indicated by the President that this was, in part at any rate, for their assistance.
It is a point of fair comment that most of us have been engaged in quite considerable trials where men’s lives have been at stake, when any question of any adjournment at all would not come into the picture. But this case does not stop there.
My next point is that on Counts One and Two, the common plan and aggressive war, the cases against the individual defendants were co-ordinated and the relevant documents collected in the individual presentations. In every case defendants’ counsel had these documents and trial briefs by the latest at the middle of January. All the presentations were concluded by the 17th of January except for four. The matter has been brought up to date by the expositions of M. Dubost, M. Quatre, and by my Soviet colleagues as they went along. In addition, the transcripts, of which each defendant receives a copy in German, show the weight and emphasis which the Prosecution attach to the different individual cases.
We all know, from our own experience, that you cannot prepare any defense in any trial without the burning of midnight oil; but I do impress upon the Tribunal that the assistance which has been given and the time which has been allowed is remarkable in this case.
I want to deal much more shortly with the mechanical side of it, because Professor Kraus has been fair enough and good enough to say that the Prosecution have given assistance. And I want to say this, that we are quite prepared, when there is any question of photostating a German document, or of mimeographing or reproducing a document in any other way, or providing additional clerical assistance, to go beyond what we have done and to meet any request made to us to the utmost of our ability.
Now I want to deal with the essential point which Professor Kraus has made, that the Prosecution have had a long time to prepare and develop their case, and Defense have corresponding rights.
In my respectful submission, there is this essential difference between the case for the Prosecution and the case for the Defense. The Prosecution must cover the whole field; the Defense selects the issues on which it will make its fight.
I respectfully disagree with the contention of Professor Kraus that that is altered by the fact that we are here dealing with a conspiracy charge. Whether the charge is conspiracy or not, there are certain facts which are not in dispute. There are certain facts which will be, as is indicated by Dr. Stahmer’s memorandum, the subject of legal argument or discussion as to the true inference to be drawn from them; and the fact that a case is based on conspiracy does not alter the fact that certain matters are either going to be contradicted by evidence or left uncontradicted.
I, myself, have seen nothing to suggest that, for example, the re-establishment of military forces in Germany, the occupation of the Rhineland, the Anschluss in Austria, the existence and circumstances of concentration camps, many of the actions of certain SS-divisions and bodies under Himmler, are going to be disputed at all, because the defendants’ counsel have had the opportunity of cross-examining witnesses on many of these matters, and there has been no challenge by cross-examination.
I do not question for the moment nor seek to deal with the decision of the Tribunal this morning, which, of course, I accept with the utmost loyalty, but I hope the Tribunal will not think it wrong for me to mention in explanation that the Prosecution were anxious for the Defense to eliminate the matters in issue and would have been prepared, so far as it lies with them, to agree to a certain time being given for that purpose. But yet, the defendants have said—and again I make no complaint—that they are not prepared to do it. Therefore, that reason for adjournment disappears.
I do not want the Tribunal to think that we are either unimaginative or unreasonable. We know, because we have seen the other side of the shield, that there are certain mechanical matters and matters of conclusion of preparation which have to be done before a case is put forward. We quite appreciate that the defenders of Göring, of Hess, and of Ribbentrop may require a day or two to put their tackle in order, but I want to make clear that that, in our view, is quite different from a 3 weeks’ adjournment.
I respectfully agree with every word that Professor Kraus has said about the maintenance of the dignity of the Trial, but it is not essential, in my respectful submission, for the maintenance of the dignity of the Trial that the Trial should take place in slow time. That would not only be wrong, but it would be directly contrary to the portion of the Charter to which General Nikitchenko referred at Berlin.
With regard to the witnesses, there are, as the Tribunal knows, certain difficult matters, in that, to begin with, the defendants asked for many witnesses who were very largely repetitive; and they have, as I judge the application, begun recently to get clear who are the essential witnesses, and the Tribunal will rule on that finally as it has indicated.
I only take one other example. Professor Kraus mentioned the question of certain documents for which Dr. Kranzbühler was asking, which were, as I understand it, U-boat diaries. I have arranged that Dr. Kranzbühler’s assistant will be enabled to go to London and examine these documents at his leisure in the Admiralty. That is on paper in our reply. I respectfully submit that that sort of attitude is the best and most helpful attitude for letting the Defense get what they wish.
Mr. President, I have nearly exhausted my time, and I only say this in conclusion: The Prosecution has had to collate and co-ordinate actions taking place over a long period, certainly 12 years, in some cases 20 years. We have collated and co-ordinated the evidence of these actions. We have presented a case which is grounded mainly on the written statements or written records of statements made by the defendants themselves. The task before the Defense is to give the explanation that what they say is the true color of words that have been proved—and not disputed—to have come out of their own mouths.
They have had the time which I have stated and which I shall not repeat, but that being the state of this case, it is the attitude of the Prosecution, with, as I say, every desire to help in any way that is possible in the actual work, whether it be mechanical or preparing documents or otherwise, that the defense cannot rightfully ask for further time for general reflection and consideration on a case which has that basis. We therefore respectfully but firmly object to any adjournment other than a matter of individual days, not more than a week, certainly—we should say less than that—for the purpose of completing preparations and putting mechanical tackle in order.
That, Mr. President, is the attitude of all my colleagues.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will consider its decision on this matter and it will adjourn this afternoon at 4 o’clock in order to consider the other matters which are raised in Dr. Stahmer’s memorandum.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Very good.
Before I sit down, I am asked by my colleagues to make this clear. I, myself, did not tie myself in my argument to any number of days because a weekend may intervene and different considerations may arise, but my colleagues wish it to be before the Tribunal that their view is that, taking into account the time which will elapse before the Soviet case is concluded, and the argument on the organization for which time has to be allowed, that 2 days is the figure they have in mind, although, as I say, a weekend may intervene which may add to that. I want to make it quite clear that we are quite definite.
I am very grateful.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, will you continue your address.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I continue with the presentation of evidence in regard to Yugoslavia.
In corroboration of the criminal system of hostages which was fully developed in Yugoslavia, the Government of Yugoslavia has submitted a series of originals and certified photostatic copies of different documents. I shall not submit my own comments on these documents which were incorporated into the report of the Yugoslav Government. I shall merely restrict myself to the presentation of the documents themselves, since they are definite and do not call for further comment.
I present as Document Number USSR-256(a) the original of an announcement, dated 12 August 1941, which mentioned the shooting of 10 hostages. The printed poster was signed by the German Police Commissioner in Lasko, Hradetzky.
Further, as Document Number USSR-148, I present a certified photographic copy of announcement of the shooting of 57 persons. This poster, from 13 November 1941, was signed by Kutschera.
Further, as Document Number USSR-144, I present a certified copy of an announcement of 21 January 1942, relating to the shooting of 15 hostages. The poster was signed by Roesener.
Further, as Document Number USSR-145, I present a certified photographic copy of a poster announcing the shooting of 51 hostages, and the date is 1942, month unknown. The poster is signed by Roesener.
Further, I present as Document Number USSR-146, an original announcement printed as a poster, signed by Roesener, which announced that on 31 March 1942, 29 hostages were shot.
Further, I present as Document Number USSR-147 a certified photographic copy of the announcement, printed as a poster, which stated that on 1 July 1942, 29 hostages had been shot.
I consider that the sum total of these documents is sufficient to prove that the system of hostages was widely used in Yugoslavia.
To conclude my presentation of evidence in this particular field, I refer to Exhibit Number USSR-304 (Document Number USSR-304), Report Number 6 of the Yugoslav Extraordinary State Commission for the investigation of war crimes. I read one paragraph of this document into the record:
“A group of hostages at Celje were strangled on hooks used by the butchers for hanging meat. In Maribor, the doomed, in groups of five, had to place the bodies of the hostages already executed in boxes and then load them into trucks. After that they themselves were shot, while the next group of five, in their turn, continued with the loading. This went on continuously. Sodna Street in Maribor was all soaked in blood pouring from the trucks.”
I end my quotation here.
It seems to me that in submitting to the Tribunal a summary of the terroristic regime established in the countries of Western Europe, this summary would be incomplete without some mention of a country like Greece, a country which also was a victim of the terroristic regime which the German fascists had established. Therefore I present to the International Military Tribunal a report of the Government of the Greek Republic. This report is duly certified with the signature and seal of the Greek Ambassador in Great Britain, as well as of a member of the British Foreign Office. This document is submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-79 (Document Number UK-82), and I shall read into the record a few excerpts from this report which concerns the setting up of the fascist terror regime in Greece and which also deals with the same criminal system of hostages.
The war against Greece was declared by Germany on 6 April 1941, and already on 31 May the German commanding general in Athens had published a frankly terroristic order directed against the peaceful population of Greece. The direct pretext for publishing this was the fact that on 30 May 1941 the Greek patriots had torn down the swastika from the Acropolis.
I here quote this order of the commanding general of the German Armed Forces in Greece, from the report of the Greek Government, on Page 33 of the Russian translation. This order threatens severe punishment for the following reasons:
“a. Because in the night of 30-31 May, the German banner flying over the Acropolis was torn down by persons unknown. Those guilty of this act, as well as their accomplices, will be punished by death.
“b. Because the press and the public opinion of all classes still express evident sympathy in favor of the English, now expelled from the continent of Europe.”
Therefore, even sympathy for the English brought the same terrible punishment.
“c. Because events in Crete were not only not condemned, but were even favorably commented on in many circles.”
Here the commander of the German Armed Forces was evidently referring to the patriotic resistance of the inhabitants of the Island of Crete.
“d. Because, although absolutely forbidden, repeated gestures of sympathy, such as gifts, flowers, fruit, cigarettes, et cetera, were made to British prisoners; and these demonstrations were tolerated by the Greek police who did not intervene to stop them with the means at their disposal.
“e. Because the behavior of large number of Athenians towards the German Armed Forces has again become less friendly.”
From that time onwards the same regime of the German fascist terror was established in Greece that characterized the actions of the Hitlerite criminals in all the territories they occupied. In confirmation of that fact I cite the report of the Greek Government on Page 34 of the Russian translation. I quote, beginning with Line 4 from the top of the page:
“In violation of Article 50 of the Hague Convention they systematically punished the innocent, adhering to the principle that the community as a whole must bear the responsibility in full for acts committed by individual persons.
“They used starvation as an instrument of pressure and for weakening the spirit of resistance in the Greek population. Very few people were tried by courts-martial; and these, when held, were a mere parody of justice. They instituted a policy of reprisals, including the seizure and killing of hostages, mass murders, and the destruction and devastation of villages, for acts committed in their vicinity by individuals unknown.
“The great majority of those executed were taken at random from the prisons and camps, without any possible relation to the act, in reprisal for which they were executed. The life of every citizen depended on the arbitrary decision of the local commander.”
It seems to me quite correct to consider the murder, in Greece, of thousands of people by starvation, as one of the most powerful factors of the terrorist regime established by the German fascists in Greece. In connection with this subject, the following statement is made on Page 36 of the Russian text:
“It is an incontestable fact that a great majority of the Greek population lived on the verge of starvation for nearly 3 years. Many thousands suffered from real starvation for several months before relief shipments could reach them. As a result, the death rate increased by 500 or 600 percent in the capital and 800 to 1,000 percent in the Greek islands, as from September 1941 to April 1942. The infant mortality was 25 percent, and the health of the survivors was greatly undermined.”
The report of the Greek Government cites excerpts from reports of neutral missions. I quote one of these excerpts, which is on Page 38 of the Russian text of the Greek Government report. I begin the quotation:
“During the winter of 1941-42 when famine reigned in the capital, conditions in the provinces were still tolerable. During the following winter, however, when Canadian relief for the larger towns had been swallowed up by the unrestricted market, the situation was very different. During our first tours of inspection, when investigating the situation in general, we met in March 1943 populations literally weeping for bread. Many villages lived only on a substitute bread baked with Ersatz flour, wild pears, and acorns—food ordinarily suitable for pigs. In many districts the population had seen no other bread since December. We were taken inside the houses and shown empty shelves and larders; we saw people cooking grass without oil, only to fill their stomachs somehow or other. The inhabitants of the poorer villages were all emaciated. The children, in particular, were often in a pitiful condition with skinny limbs and swollen stomachs. They had none of the vitality and happiness natural to children. It was quite usual for half the children to be unable to attend school.” (Report of the Swedish delegates to the Peloponnesian Islands, January 1944.)
In order to describe the hostage-holding regime established by the Hitler criminals in Greece, I shall also quote excerpts from the Greek Government report. From the text of this report it is quite evident that shootings of hostages during the first weeks of the German occupation of Greece were carried out on a wide scale. I quote, for this reason, an excerpt from the Greek report on Page 41. I begin at the third line from the top of the Russian text:
“Hostages were taken indiscriminately and from every class of the population. Politicians, professors, scientists, lawyers, doctors, officers, civil servants, clergymen, manual workers, women, all those labeled as ‘suspect’ or ‘Communist’ were thrown into local prisons or concentration camps. Prisoners under interrogation were subjected to various ingenious forms of torture. Hostages were concentrated in places of confinement where the arrested persons were subjected to the most unbearable regime.”
The report of the Greek Government—also on Page 41 of the Russian text—states with regard to this matter:
“The inmates were starved, beaten, and tortured. They were made to live under perfectly inhuman conditions without medical help or sanitation. There they were subjected to the refined sadism of the SS guards. Many were shot or hanged. Others died from cruel treatment or starvation, and only a few were released and survived until the date of the liberation of the country. Hostages were also deported to concentration camps in Germany: Buchenwald, Dachau, et cetera.”
The report gives the total number of hostages murdered. The same page contains the following statement, “The number of hostages shot amounts to some 91,000.”
In order fully to understand on what a tremendous scale the Hitlerites committed their crimes in connection with the physical extermination of the Soviet people in the territory of the U.S.S.R., I ask the Tribunal to refer to Page 299 in their document book.
THE PRESIDENT: You are now passing away from Greece, are you, Colonel Smirnov?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: We will take a recess then.
[A recess was taken.]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: With your permission, Mr. President, and in accordance with the instruction of the Tribunal, I shall omit a number of items in my statement. These items, which I shall exclude from the text, amount to a number of pages; and I request your permission to tell the interpreters how many pages I skip. I draw the attention of the Tribunal to a document dealing with the large-scale extermination of Soviet nationals in the temporarily occupied districts of the U.S.S.R. In confirmation of this fact I refer to a document which you, Your Honors, will find on Page 291 of the document book, at the end of the last paragraph of the first column and on the second column of the text. This deals with the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union concerning the destruction, plundering, and atrocities of the German fascist invaders in the town of Rovno and the Rovno region. I submit this document as Exhibit Number USSR-45 (Document Number USSR-45).
I quote the results of the examination by legal-medical experts concerning the bodies of peaceful Soviet citizens murdered by the Germans and subsequently exhumed:
“1. In all investigated burial places in the city of Rovno and its surroundings, over 102,000 corpses of peaceful citizens and prisoners of war, shot or murdered by other methods, were discovered. Out of this figure:
“a) In the city of Rovno, near the lumber yard on Belaya Street, 49,000 corpses were discovered.
“b) In the city of Rovno, on Belaya Street, in the vegetable gardens, 32,500.
“c) In the village of Sossenki, 17,500.
“d) In the stone quarries near the village of Vydumka, 3,000.
“e) In the area surrounding Rovno prison, 500.”
I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the following text, where we read indications as to the distribution of certain methods of murder adopted by the criminals in the various periods. Mass shootings, as shown in the following Subparagraphs a, b, and c, took place in 1941. The extermination of peaceful citizens in the gas wagons occurred in 1943, as shown in Subparagraph d. Shootings followed by burnings of the corpses in 1943, and shootings in the jail occurred in 1944.
I skip the next page, and draw the attention of the Tribunal to that part of the document which is on Page 240, second column of the text; a description of the methodical destruction of the inmates in Rovno prison. I dwell on this point because similar methods of extermination of Soviet people are typical of the terrorist regime established by the Hitlerite invaders in the temporarily occupied territories of the U.S.S.R. I begin my quotation on Page 240 of the document book:
“On 18 March 1943 the Rovno paper Volyn of the German occupational troops published the following announcement:
“‘On 8 March 1943 inmates of Rovno prison attempted to escape, whereby they killed one German prison official and one guard. The escape was thwarted by the energetic action of the prison guard. By order of the commandant of the German Security Police and the SD, all the prison inmates were shot on that same day.’
“In November 1943 the German district judge was murdered by a person unknown. As a measure of retaliation, the Hitlerites again shot over 350 inmates of Rovno prison.”
I will not quote any further examples of the executions in the prisons, since in those documentary films which will be submitted to the Tribunal, Your Honors will find a series of similar crimes committed by the Hitlerite invaders on the territories of the U.S.S.R. I pass on to the following part of my statement: “The retaliatory destruction of village populations.”
In the infinite chain of German fascist crime, there are some which will remain for a long time, perhaps forever, in the memory of indignant mankind, even though mankind will have learned about still graver crimes perpetrated by the Nazis. One of the crimes that will thus be remembered is the destruction of a small Czechoslovak village called “Lidice” and the bestial reprisal against the population of that village.
Many times and in even more cruel forms, the fate of Lidice was suffered on the territory of the Soviet Union, of Yugoslavia, and of Poland; but mankind will remember Lidice and will never forget it, for this little village became a symbol of Nazi criminality. The destruction of Lidice was a retaliation by the Nazis for the just execution of the Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, Heydrich, by Czechoslovak patriots.
The Chief Prosecutor of the U.S.S.R., when speaking of Lidice, quoted an official German report concerning this act of terror, which was published in the paper Der Neue Tag on 11 June 1942.
I will quote a very short extract from the report of the Czechoslovak Government, which the Tribunal will find on Page 172 of the document book:
“On 9 June 1942 the village of Lidice was surrounded, on the order of the Gestapo, by soldiers who arrived from the hamlet of Slany in 10 large trucks. They allowed anyone to enter the village, but no one was permitted to leave. A 12-year-old boy tried to escape; a soldier shot him on the spot. A woman tried to escape; a bullet in the back mowed her down, and her corpse was found in the fields after the harvest.
“The Gestapo dragged the women and children to the school.
“The 10th of June was the last day of Lidice and of its inhabitants. The men were locked up in the cellar, the barn, and the stable of the Horak family farm. They foresaw their fate and awaited it calmly. The 73-year old priest, Sternbeck, strengthened their spirit by his prayers.”
I omit the following two paragraphs and pursue my quotation:
“The men were led out of the Horak farm into the garden behind the barn, in batches of 10, and shot. The murders lasted from early morning until 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Afterwards the executioners were photographed with the corpses at their feet.”
I skip the following four paragraphs and pass on to the fate of the population of Lidice:
“The fate of the men of Lidice has been described. One hundred seventy-two adult men and youths from 16 years upwards were shot on 10 June 1942. Nineteen men who worked on 9 and 10 June in the Kladno mines were arrested later on in the collieries or nearby woods, taken to Prague and shot.
“Seven women from Lidice were shot in Prague as well. The remaining 195 women were deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Forty-two died of ill-treatment; seven were gassed; three disappeared. Four of these women were taken from Lidice to a maternity hospital in Prague where their newly born infants were murdered; then the mothers were sent to Ravensbrück.
“The children of Lidice were taken from their mothers a few days after the destruction of the village. Ninety children were sent to Lodz, in Poland, and thence to Gneisenau concentration camp, in the so-called Wartheland. So far no trace of these children has been found. Seven of the youngest, less than a year old, were taken to a German hospital in Prague. After examination by ‘racial experts’ they were sent to Germany, there to be brought up as Germans and under German names. Every trace of them has been lost.
“Two or three infants were born in Ravensbrück concentration camp. They were killed at birth.”
The fate of Lidice was repeated in many Soviet villages. Many peaceful citizens of these villages perished in even greater torment: They were burned alive or died, victims of still more brutal forms of execution.
I have considerably reduced the volume of the examples which I wished to quote, and I omit the next page of the text, drawing the attention of the Tribunal to the text on Page 295, second column of the text. This document, already submitted to the Tribunal by my colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union on the crimes of the Hitlerite invaders in the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. I quote one paragraph only:
“On 3 June 1944 in the village of Perchyoupa of the Trakai district, the Hitlerites broke into the village, surrounded and plundered it completely, after which, having driven all the men into one house and the women and children into three others, they set fire to the buildings. Those who attempted to flee were caught by the fascist monsters and thrown back into the burning houses. In this manner the entire population of the village, 119 souls in all, 21 men, 29 women”—and I stress—“69 children, were burned to death.”
I close the quotation and beg the Tribunal to turn to another document, which I submit as Exhibit Number USSR-279 (Document Number USSR-279). It is a communiqué of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of the German fascist invaders in the cities of Viazma, Gjatsk, and Sychev, of the Smolensk region, and also in the city of Rjev in the Kalinin region.
I would have liked to dwell more fully on this report but I will now summarize it in order to shorten my statement. I skip two pages of the text and pass on to Page 145 of my text. I quote the sixth paragraph:
“In the village of Zajtschiki, members of the Gestapo drove into one house the following persons: Michael Zaikov, age 61; Nikifor Belyakov, age 69; Catherine Begorova, age 70; Catherine Golubeva, age 70; Jegor Dadonov, age 5; Myra Zernova, age 7; and others—23 persons all told. The Gestapo set fire to the house and burned all the victims alive.”
I omit two paragraphs and quote one more paragraph:
“In retreating from the village of Gratschevo in the district of Geschatsk, in March 1943, the assistant chief of the German Field Police, Lieutenant Boss, drove 200 inhabitants into the house of the peasant woman Chistyakowa.”—The names of still more villages are then given.—“He locked the doors, set fire to the house, and all the 200 were burned alive.”
I will not enumerate the names of the people, but I wish to draw the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that some of these people were 63 and 70 years old, some of the children were 3, 4, and 5 years old.
I omit two paragraphs and quote another excerpt:
“The fascists burned all the inhabitants, both young and old, of the villages of Kulikovo and Kolesniki, of the Geschatsk district, in one farmhouse.”
I conclude the reading of this document.
I now ask the Tribunal to accept in evidence a German document, submitted in evidence as Exhibit Number USSR-119 (Document Number USSR-119). This is a certified photostat of an operational report and other documents of the 15th Police Regiment. Among them we find one entitled, “Summary of a Punitive Expedition to the Village of Borysovka, 22 and 26 of September 1942.” The Tribunal will find this document on Page 309 of the document book.
I quote in brief from this document, which proves beyond doubt that under the guise of the anti-partisan struggle the Hitlerite criminals mercilessly annihilated the peaceful population of the Soviet villages. I quote the first part under the heading:
“1. Mission: The 9th Company must destroy the village of Borysovka, which is infested by partisans.
“2. Forces: Two platoons of the 9th Company of the 15th Police Regiment, one platoon of gendarmes of the 16th Motorized Regiment, and one tank platoon from Beresy-Kartuska.”
I emphasize, Your Honors, that the expedition included a tank platoon from Beresy-Kartuska. Against whom were these tanks and the two platoons supposed to operate? We find an answer to this question in the following item of this report:
“3. Execution of mission: The company assembled in the evening on 22 September 1942 in Dyvin. During the night from 22 to 23 September 1942, they marched from Dyvin in the direction of Borysovka. The village was encircled from the north to the south by two platoons at 4 a.m. At daybreak the entire population of the village was collected by the village elder of Borysovka. After an investigation of the population with the assistance of the Security Police and the SD from Dyvin, five families were resettled in Dyvin. The remainder were shot by a specially detailed squad and buried 500 meters to the northeast of Borysovka. Altogether 169 persons were shot consisting of 49 men, 97 women, and 23 children.”
I consider that these figures are so eloquent that I can conclude the reading of this document and, omitting two pages, pass on to the next part of my statement.
I beg the Tribunal to look at Page 316 of the document book, which contains the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the destruction caused by the German fascist invaders in the Stalinsk region.
Hitherto I have submitted proof of the fact that in the villages the German fascist invaders criminally exterminated the Soviet population by burning their victims alive. In this report we find a confirmation of the fact that people were burned alive equally in the cities and towns. This document is submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-2 (Document Number USSR-2). I quote from Page 316 of the document book:
“In the city of Stalino, the German invaders drove the residents of a professor’s house into a barn, closed the entrance, blocked it, poured oil on the barn, and set it on fire. All those in the barn lost their lives, with the exception of two little girls, who saved themselves by pure chance.
“On 11 November 1943 the members of this commission”—I omit the next part containing the composition of this commission—“made excavations on the site of the barn and while investigating it, they discovered 41 charred human corpses.”
From the very first days of the war against the U.S.S.R. the German fascist terror toward the peaceful population assumed monstrous proportions. This was noted in the reports of several German officers, who had participated in the first World War and who stressed the fact that even in the cruelty of the first World War they had never witnessed anything similar.
I again refer to a German document and submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-293 (Document Number USSR-293), an authenticated photostat of a report from the former commander of the 528th Regiment, Major Roesler, and a report by Schirwindt, who was chief of the 9th Military District. Since this document is of sufficient interest I will read it into the record in full. You, Your Honors, will find the extract on Page 319 of the document book. I quote:
“Kassel, 3 January ’42; Major Roesler; Report.
“The matter entrusted to me by the 52d Reserve Regiment, entitled ‘Attitude towards the Civilian Population in the East,’ prompts me to report the following:
“At the end of July 1941 the 528th Infantry Regiment, then under my command, was on its way from the West to their rest area in Zhitomir. After I had moved with my staff into the staff quarters, on the afternoon of the day of our arrival, we heard rifle volleys, at a short distance from us, at regular intervals, followed a little later by pistol shots. I decided to find out what was happening and started out with my adjutant and the courier (First Lieutenant Von Bassevitz and Lieutenant Müller-Brodmann) in the direction of the rifle shots. We soon had the impression that something was happening, since after some time we saw numerous soldiers and civilians streaming toward the railway embankment behind which, as we were told, executions were taking place. We could not, at first, reach the other side of the embankment for a long time. After a certain definite interval, however, we heard the sound of a whistle followed by a volley of about 10 rifles, which in turn was followed, some time later, by pistol shots. When we finally scrambled over the embankment a picture of horror was revealed to us. A pit, about seven to eight meters long and perhaps four meters wide, had been dug in the ground. The upturned earth was piled on one side of the pit. This pile of earth and the side of the pit were completely soaked in blood. The pit itself was filled with numerous corpses of all ages and sexes. There were so many corpses that one could not even ascertain the depth of the pit.
“Behind the pile of earth stood a police detachment under the command of a police officer. The uniforms of the police bore traces of blood. Many soldiers from the troops just billeted in the area stood around. Some of them wore shorts and lounged about as spectators. There were also a number of civilians; women and children. I approached the grave as near as possible in order to get a picture, which I was never able to forget.
“In this grave lay, among others, an old man with a white beard, clutching a cane in his left hand. Since this man, judging from his sporadic breathing, still showed signs of life, I ordered one of the policemen to kill him off. He smilingly replied, ‘I have already shot him seven times in the stomach. He can die on his own now.’
“The bodies lay in the grave, not in rows, but as they had fallen from the top of the pit. All these people had been killed by rifle shots in the nape of the neck and then in the pit were granted the coup-de-grace of a pistol shot.
“I have never seen anything of the kind, either in the first World War, in the Russian, or in the French campaigns of the present war. I have witnessed many disagreeable things in the volunteer detachments in 1919, but I have never witnessed a similar scene.”
I omit one paragraph and continue:
“I wish to add that according to the testimony of soldiers who have often watched these executions, apparently several hundred persons were shot by these methods every day.
“Signed: Roesler.”
Characteristic is the comment in the covering note from the deputy commander of the IXth Army Corps and commanding officer of the 9th Military District, who forwarded Roesler’s report to the chief of the army armament and equipment department, Berlin. I quote this document which the Tribunal will find on Page 318 of the document book. I quote:
“Subject: Atrocities perpetrated on the civilian population of the East.
“With regard to the news of mass executions in Russia, which we are receiving, I was at first convinced that they had been unduly exaggerated. I am forwarding herewith a report from Major Roesler which fully confirms these rumors.”—The last sentence is also typical:
“If these things are done openly, they will become known in the fatherland and give rise to criticism.
“Signed: Schirwindt.”
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, do you know who was the deputy commander of the IXth Army Corps and commander of the 9th Military District and do you know who was the chief of the armament and equipment department in Berlin? Do you know whether any reply was made to this report?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I can only give an answer on this subject at a later date. These questions are unknown to me and must be elucidated in a supplementary report. I shall shortly clarify them and give the Tribunal the additional information and will submit the documents dealing with this matter.
I beg to be allowed, in presenting this evidence, to submit to the Tribunal a photostatic copy of a document. I present two albums certified by the Extraordinary State Commission; they will be submitted to each member of the Tribunal. (Exhibits Numbers USSR-387 and 391).
I beg the permission of the Tribunal to show certain photographs on the screen. I must admit these documents have not been selected on the basis of the impressiveness of the atrocities shown—the Tribunal will find even more monstrous episodes of mass atrocities in the document book—but rather, all these photographs have been selected because of their typical character.
Before presenting these documentary photographs, I ask the permission of the Tribunal to submit another German document as Exhibit Number USSR-297 (Document Number USSR-297). It is a certified photostatic copy of one of the reports of the chief of the Security Police and SD, prohibiting the photographing of mass executions. It is very typical that in many of these cases the photographs were taken by the Germans themselves. This attracted the attention of the chief of police and therefore photographing was prohibited to the German fascist criminals.
I quote only a short excerpt from this report—Page 321 of the document book:
“The Reichsführer SS has forbidden the photographing of executions by an order of 12 November 1941, Journal Number 1 1461/41 Ads., and has ordered that insofar as such pictures are needed for official purpose that the entire exposed material be collected in archives.”
I omit the following paragraph and quote the third paragraph:
“The leader of the Einsatzkommando or Sonderkommando or the company commander of the Waffen-SS and the section leader of the war correspondents are charged with the responsibility that plates, films, and prints of these photographs do not remain in the hands of individual members of these task force units.”
I skip the following part of the document in its entirety, as I consider that the quotations which have been presented are sufficient proof that the police authorities were uneasy about the fact that frequent photographing of mass executions by the German fascists gave confirmation of these executions. I beg the Tribunal for permission to start the showing of several of these photo-documents. Would you permit me to do so, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT: What are you waiting for, Colonel Smirnov?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The lights should be turned off but apparently there are some technical difficulties which are unfamiliar to me. Therefore I cannot start with the showing of the photo-documents.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you think you can go on with your statement and do the photographs after the adjournment? How long do you think the photographs will take?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I fully agree with you, Mr. President. I beg your permission to present evidence concerning the second part of the statement, namely, the mass annihilation by the German fascists of the citizens of the U.S.S.R., Poland, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia.
The mass extermination of peaceful populations of the Soviet Union and of the countries of Eastern Europe was carried out by the German fascist criminals everywhere, as can be seen from both the official orders and the reports about the carrying out of these executions. In this regard they had the following objectives in mind:
1. Physical elimination of those sections of the population which were capable of resistance; 2. For racial reasons, that is, for the materialization of racial theories inculcating hatred of mankind; 3. For purposes of retaliation; 4. Supposedly “for the struggle against the partisans” whom the German fascists could neither catch nor destroy, and for this reason they vented the full force of their retaliatory measures on the peaceful population.
The execution of children was a particularly cruel method of Hitlerite terrorism. The use especially of torture devices for killing children was one of the prime and most despicable characteristics of the Hitlerite terror regime in the temporarily occupied territory of the Soviet Union.
Immediately after the seizure of power by the fascists, Hermann Göring began to issue laws against vivisection. He pitied dogs, guinea pigs, and rabbits subjected to scientific experiment for the benefit of humanity. In confirmation I refer to Göring’s book Speeches and Articles published in 1940 by Erich Gritzbach at Munich. (Document Number USSR-377). On Page 80 of this book we find Göring’s speech, “The Struggle Against Vivisection.” I shall not quote any lengthy extract from this book and shall only mention one sentence which testifies that for motives, so to speak, of love for animals, Hermann Göring widely exercised his right to intern human beings in concentration camps.
At a certain meeting of SS-Gruppenführer at Posen, as the Tribunal knows, Himmler stated, Document Number 1919-PS, “We Germans are the only people who treat animals kindly.”
But these criminals—from Himmler to Keitel—who sentimentally discussed the tortures of animals, persistently instructed their subordinates to exterminate children senselessly, inhumanly, and cruelly. At the meeting in question Himmler also stated:
“If anyone would come to me and say, ‘You cannot build antitank trenches with children and women, it is inhuman since they will die,’ I should reply, ‘You are the murderers of your own blood.’”
Numerous investigations on the German fascist atrocities in the Soviet Union have shown without any doubt that on occasion of mass shootings many children have been thrown into the grave when still alive. In confirmation of these facts I am referring to official documents, “The German criminals threw into the grave children who were still alive.”
I invite the attention of the Tribunal to a document which has already been submitted by my colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, as Exhibit Number USSR-46. It is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of the German fascist invaders in the city and region of Orel. The Tribunal will find it on Page 334 of the document book, the last three lines of the page, and on Page 335. I quote:
“Those shot in the city were collected and thrown into ditches, preferably in forest areas. In jail the executions took place as follows: The men had to stand facing a wall while the gendarme fired his pistol into the nape of their necks. The shot penetrated the vital centers and death was instantaneous. In most cases women had to lie face downward on the ground and the gendarme shot them through the base of their neck.
“A second method was to herd people in groups into a ditch, with their faces turned to one side. Then they were killed likewise by shots in the nape of the neck with machine guns. In the trenches corpses of children were discovered who, according to the testimony of witnesses, had been buried alive.”
Furthermore, I refer to a document which has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-1, a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of the German fascist occupants in the area of Stavropol. I quote from Page 271 of the document book, Paragraph 3, beginning as follows:
“During the inspection of a ravine in the vicinity of Koltso Hill and a distance of 250 meters from the high road. . . .”
I omit the next sentence.
“. . . a washed-out grave was discovered, 10 meters in depth, from which protruded separate parts of human bodies. As from 26 to 29 July 1943, excavations were carried out at this spot and, as a result, 130 corpses were exhumed. The legal-medical examination proved that the corpse of a 4-months-old girl showed no traces of violence. The child had been thrown alive into the ditch where it perished from suffocation.”
I skip the next phrase and quote from the next paragraph:
“The autopsy performed on bodies of dead infants by the legal-medical investigation proved that they had been thrown into the ditch alive, together with their mothers who had been shot. All the other corpses showed traces of torture.”
I will now refer to the verdict of the Military Tribunal of the 4th Ukrainian Front, which I had already submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-32.
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps we had better break off.
[The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours.]
Afternoon Session
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Have I your permission to continue?
THE PRESIDENT: Please do.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Continuing the presentation of evidence on atrocities of German fascist criminals with regard to children, I refer to the testimony of the witness, Bespalov, included in the document previously presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-32 (Document Number USSR-32). The members of the Tribunal will find the place which I refer to on Page 33, fifth paragraph of the document, Column 1 in the document book. Bespalov testified:
“At the end of June last year I myself saw up to 300 girls and women brought on 10 to 12 trucks to the forest park. The unfortunate women were throwing themselves from side to side, weeping, tearing their hair, and rending their clothes. Many fainted, but the German fascists paid no attention to this. By kicks and beatings with rifle butts and sticks they forced them to get up; the executioners themselves stripped and threw into the pits, those who did not rise. Several girls—among them children—tried to run away, but were killed.
“I saw how, after a burst of machine gun fire, some of the women, swaying and helplessly flinging up their arms, staggered toward the standing Germans with heart-rending cries. At this time the Germans were shooting them with pistols. Maddened with terror and grief, mothers clutched their children to their breasts, running with terrible wails into the forest clearing, seeking help.
“The Gestapo members snatched the children from them, seized them by the arms or legs, and threw them alive into the pit; when the mothers ran after them to the pit, they were shot.”
I quote one paragraph out of Exhibit Number USSR-9 (Document USSR-9), already presented to the Tribunal. This is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union of the crimes of the German fascist invaders in the city of Kiev. The members of the Tribunal will find this document on Page 238, second column of the text, sixth paragraph:
“On 29 September 1941 Hitler’s bandits drove thousands of the peaceful Soviet citizens to the corner of Melnik and Doktorovskaya Streets and from there to Baybe-yar, where they shot them, after taking all their valuables from them.
“Citizens N. F. Petrenko and N. T. Gorbacheva, who lived near Baybe-yar, stated that they had seen how the Germans threw babies at the breast into graves and buried them alive with their dead or wounded parents. One could see the surface of the ground moving over the buried people who were still alive.”
These were not individual occurrences, but a systematic plan. This inhuman terror was practiced on children, since the chiefs of German fascism understood that this form of terrorism would be particularly frightful for the survivors. Compassion for the weak and the defenseless is an inalienable human trait. By applying their particularly barbarous methods to children, the German fascist criminals showed the rest of the population that there was no crime, no cruelty at which they would stop for the purpose of pacifying the occupied territories. Children did not simply share the fate of their parents. The so-called “actions” were frequently directed against the children themselves. They were taken forcibly from their parents, concentrated in one place, then murdered.
I refer to a very brief report of the Extraordinary State Commission, already submitted to the Tribunal, entitled, “Concerning the Crimes of the German Conspirators in Latvia.” The members of the Tribunal will find the place I refer to on Page 286, on the reverse side, in the second column of the document book, Paragraph 5. Here it states, and I quote:
“In the main jail in Riga they murdered over 2,000 children who had been torn from their parents, and in the Salaspil Camp, more than 3,000.”
From the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of the Hitlerites in Lithuania, the Tribunal will learn of the brutal methods employed by the Germans to separate children from their parents incarcerated in prisons, concentration camps, or ghettos—these methods usually preceded the murder of the children. This document has already been submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-7 (Document USSR-7) to the Tribunal. The members of the Tribunal will find the place referred to on Page 295, first column, sixth paragraph of the document book. I omit the first paragraph, which mentions the organization of the camp. This has no direct relation to children, and I begin with the second paragraph, which shows what was done with them:
“In the beginning of 1944 the Germans in this camp forcibly took children from 6 to 12 years old and carried them off. An inhabitant of the city of Kovno, Vladislav Blum, testified:
“‘Heart-rending scenes occurred under my eyes. The Germans took the children away from their mothers and sent them, no one knows where. Many children were shot together with their mothers.’
“On the walls of the camp buildings inscriptions were discovered concerning the crimes of the Hitlerite monsters. Here are some of them:
“‘Avenge us! Let the whole world know and understand how savagely our children were exterminated! Our days are counted! Farewell! Let the whole world know and let it not forget to avenge our innocent children! Women of all the world, remember and understand all the atrocities which befell our innocent children in the 20th century! My child is already dead, I am indifferent to everything!’”
Further, I refer to the document which has already been presented to the Tribunal under Document Number USSR-63. This is an official report on the torture and shooting of children in the Domachev children’s asylum of the Brest region in the Bielorussian S.S.R. The members of the Tribunal will find this document on the reverse side of Page 223, fifth paragraph, first column. I shall quote three or four paragraphs out of this document, omitting the remainder:
“By order of the German occupational authorities of the district, the Chief of the Prokopchuk district ordered the principal of the children’s home, A. P. Pavliuk, to poison a sick 12-year-old child, Lena Renklach. After Pavliuk refused to carry out the order, the child was shot by policemen in the vicinity of the children’s home, allegedly ‘while trying to escape.’
“In order to save the children from starvation and death, 11 of them were distributed among the local population in 1942, and 16 children were taken by their relatives.”
And this was the further fate of those children. I continue with my quotation:
“On 23 September 1942, at 7 o’clock in the evening, a 5-ton truck appeared in the yard of the children’s home, bringing six armed Germans in military uniform. The group leader, named Max, explained that the children would be taken to Brest and ordered them to be placed in the truck. Fifty-five children and their teacher, Grocholskaya, were placed in the truck. One girl, 9-year-old Tossia Schachmatova, succeeded in climbing out of the truck and escaping. The remaining 54 and the teacher were driven away in the truck in the direction of the station of Dubitz, 1½ kilometers from the village of Leplevka. The car stopped at a frontier gun emplacement, 800 meters from the River West Bug. The children were undressed—which was proved by the fact that the children’s clothes were found in the truck after its return to Domachev—and shot.”
I omit the remaining part of this official report. It has been proved by documents dealing with the shootings that in mass executions of children they were torn in half while still alive and thrown into the flames. To confirm this, I refer to the testimony of the witness, Hamaidas, a native of the village of Lisbenitzky, in the Lvov region, who was confined by the Germans in Yanov Camp at Lvov.
Hamaidas’ occupation in the camp consisted in burning the corpses of those who had been shot. At the same time, he was a witness to the mass shootings of the peaceful population—men, women, and children. The testimony of Hamaidas, together with other documents concerning the Lvov camps, has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-6(c) (Document USSR-6(c)); I quote two lines from the testimony of Hamaidas, from Page 55 of the document book, 11th line from the bottom of the page:
“I was a witness to such facts. The executioner would seize children by the feet, tear them apart while they were still alive, and throw them into the fire.”
Having shot the parents, the German murderers considered it unnecessary to waste ammunition on children. When they did not throw the children into the grave pits they often murdered them simply by hitting them with a heavy object or by pounding their heads against the ground. I refer, in confirmation of this, to the document already presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-6(c), in which are other documents on reports of legal-medical experts employed in the exhumation of corpses in Yanov Camp. I shall quote only two lines of the conclusion. The members of the Tribunal will find the place where I refer to the conclusion of the legal-medical experts on Yanov Camp on Page 330 of the document book, second paragraph at the top of the column, reverse of Page 330. I quote this brief excerpt:
“The executioners did not consider it necessary to waste ammunition on children. They simply killed them by hitting them over the head with a blunt instrument.
“Children were often cut in half with rusty saws and subjected to other forms of torture.”
I ask the permission of the Court to read into the record only one paragraph from a note of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R., dated 27 April 1942. The members of the Tribunal will find the place to which I refer on Page 8, reverse side, second column, third paragraph:
“The invaders subjected children and adolescents to the most brutal tortures. Among the 160 wounded and maimed children, victims of the Hitlerite terror in the districts of the now liberated Moscow region, undergoing treatment in the Russakov Hospital in Moscow, there is, for instance, the case of a 14-year-old boy, Vanya Gromov, from the village of Novinki, who had been strapped to a table by the Hitlerites and then had had his right arm sawed off with a rusty saw. The Germans chopped off both hands of 12-year-old Vanya Kryukov, of the village of Kryukovo, in the Kursk region, and drove him, bleeding profusely, toward the Soviet troops.”
I omit the rest of the quotation—two pages—since similar facts are related in the document which confirm the above—mentioned episodes.
Children were the first victims of carbon-monoxide poisoning in the German gas vans. In confirmation I refer to the material already submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-1 (Document USSR-1), which is the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union on the crimes of the German fascist occupiers in the Stavropol region. The members of the Tribunal will find that brief excerpt on Page 269 in the document book, Paragraph 4:
“It has been established that in December 1942, by order of the chief of the Gestapo for the town of Mikoian-Schachar, Oberleutnant Otto Weber, an extraordinarily cruel massacre was carried out on Soviet children undergoing treatment for bone tuberculosis in the sanatorium of the Teberda health resort. Eyewitnesses to this crime, members of the sanatorium, medical sister, S. E. Jvanova, and medical aide, Polypanova, have testified as follows:
“Before the entrance of the first section of the sanatorium, on 22 December 1942, a German automobile drew up. Seven German soldiers, who had arrived in the vehicle, dragged 54 seriously sick children, ranging in age from 3 years upward, out of the sanatorium (they were too ill to move and therefore were not driven forcibly into the van) and stacked them in layers inside the vehicle. They then closed the door, let in the carbon-monoxide gas, and drove off from the sanatorium. An hour later the vehicle returned to Teberda. All the children had perished. They had been exterminated by the Germans and their bodies thrown into the Teberda ravine near Gunachgir.”
Children were also drowned in the open sea. In confirmation, I refer to the document already submitted, Exhibit Number USSR-63 (Document USSR-63), on the “Indictment of German Atrocities in Sevastopol.” The members of the Tribunal will find the place I am referring to on the reverse side of Page 226, Paragraph 7, second column of the text:
“In addition to the mass shootings, the Hitlerites cruelly drowned peaceful citizens in the open sea.
“Prisoner Corporal Friedrich Heile, of Troop Battalion 2-19 MKA, Naval Transport Detachment, testified as follows:
“‘When I was in the port of Sevastopol, I saw large groups of peaceful citizens, including women and children, brought to the harbor by trucks. All the Russians were loaded on barges. Many resisted. However, they were beaten and driven forcibly onto the barges. About 3,000 people, all told, were loaded on. The barges put out to sea. For a long time the crying was heard in the bay. Several hours passed, and the barges slipped again into their moorings. From the ships’ crews I found out that all the people had been thrown overboard.’”
Heavy artillery fire was openly directed by the German fascist criminals against schools, children’s asylums, hospitals, and other children’s institutions in Leningrad. I present to the Tribunal the summary report of the Leningrad city commission for the investigation of German crimes. This report is being submitted to the Honorable Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-85 (Document Number USSR-85). I shall not quote any long passage from this report. I shall merely draw the Tribunal’s attention to the fact that on Page 347, Volume II, Paragraph 4, in the document book, the Judges may see for themselves the list of targets exposed to German artillery fire, which is testified to by the logs of the fighting units. The following are some of those targets, “Number 736, a school in Baburinsk Street; number 708, Institute for the Care of Mothers and Infants; number 192, Palace of Pioneers.”
I also shall take the liberty of quoting only a short excerpt from the testimony of the director of School Number 218, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 348, Volume II, first paragraph. The director of School Number 218, located at 13 Rubenstein Street, writes:
“On 18 May 1942, School Number 218 underwent artillery fire. A 12-year-old boy, Lenja Isarow, was killed. A little girl, Dona Binamowa, turned white and moaned with pain. ‘Mummy, how can I get along without my leg?’ she said. Leva Gendelev was bleeding to death. He was given aid, but it was too late. He died in the arms of his mother, calling out, ‘Accursed Hitler!’
“Djenia Kutareva, though seriously wounded, begged that his father should not be disturbed because he suffered from heart disease. The teacher and all the pupils assisted the victims.”
I conclude the quotation concerning Leningrad. I omit two pages of the text and draw the Tribunal’s attention to Page 355, Volume II, second column, Paragraph 6. Your Honors will find there a document submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-8 (Document Number USSR-8). This is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on “The Infamous Crimes of the German Government in Auschwitz.” I shall quote several short passages from the second report entitled, “Murderers of Children.” At the same time, however, I would ask Your Honors to pay special attention to Page 47 of the Auschwitz album (Exhibit Number USSR-30), as well as to Pages 48 and 49. The photographs on these pages clearly show how emaciated these children were. I omit the first paragraph, and I quote:
“Investigations have proved that the Germans completely sapped the strength of children between 8 and 10 years of age, by forcing them to do the same heavy work they gave to the adults. Toil beyond their strength, beatings, and torture soon exhausted the children—then they were killed.
“Ex-prisoner Jacob Gordon, a doctor from Vilna, testified:
“‘In the beginning of 1943 at Camp Birkenau 164 boys were taken away to the hospital, where they were killed by injections of carbolic acid in the heart.’
“Ex-prisoner Bakasch Waltraut of Düsseldorf, Germany, testified:
“‘In 1943 when we worked on the construction of a hedge surrounding Crematorium Number 5, I myself saw SS men throw several living children into bonfires.’”
Here is what some of the children, who were saved by the Red Army, themselves testify about the tortures to which they were subjected. I omit the next paragraph and ask the Tribunal, while I read, to refer to Page 50 of the photographic documents of Auschwitz. Here we find the photographs of a 12-year-old boy, Zihmlich, and a boy of 13, Mandel, and the Tribunal can see the deformation of these children from exposure to cold. I continue:
“A 9-year-old boy, Andrasz Lerintsiakosz, a native of the city of Klez, Hungary, testified:
“‘After we had been driven to Block 22 of the camp, we were beaten, mainly by German women who were put over us as guards. They beat us with sticks. During my stay in the camp, Dr. Mengele bled me very frequently. In November 1944 all the children were transferred to Camp A, known as the Gypsy Camp. During roll call it was discovered that one child was missing. Thereupon, the leader of the women’s camp, Brandem, and her assistant, Mendel, drove us all into the street at 1 o’clock in the morning and left us standing there in the cold until noon.’”
I omit the next three paragraphs of the quotation, and I read into the record the last paragraph of this section:
“There were, among the 180 children liberated from Auschwitz and examined by physicians, 52 under 8 years of age and 128 between the ages of 8 and 15. All arrived in the camp in the second half of 1944, that is, they spent between 3 to 6 months in the camp. All 180 children underwent a medical examination, which established that 72 suffered from tuberculosis of the lungs and glands, 49 suffered from the consequences of malnutrition and elementary dystrophy (complete exhaustion), and 31 from frostbite.”
I submit to the Tribunal and request Your Honors to accept as evidence Exhibit Number USSR-92 (Document Number USSR-92). It is a directive from the Administration of Food and Agriculture, entitled, “Treatment of Pregnant Women of Non-Germanic Origin.” I refer this document to the Tribunal because, in their hatred of the Slav race, the German fascist criminals even attempted to murder babes in the womb. The members of the Tribunal will find the document on Page 362, in Volume II of the document book. I shall read two short paragraphs into the record. I quote:
“There has recently been a considerable increase in the birth rate among women of non-Germanic origin. Difficulties have arisen in consequence, not only in connection with the use of these people for labor but, to a greater extent, with a danger of a social-political nature, which should not be underestimated.”
I omit one paragraph and quote further:
“The simplest method for overcoming these difficulties would be to inform, as soon as possible, the institutions which employ them for labor, of the pregnancy of the non-Germanic women.”
I draw your special attention to the last sentence, “These institutions must attempt to compel the women to get rid of their children by resorting to abortion.”
I conclude my quotation.
The analysis of the material connected with the Hitlerite terror in the countries of Eastern Europe is positive proof that the atrocities perpetrated on children will remain forever the most disgraceful page in the history of German fascism.
I request permission, Your Honor, to present now the photographic documentation which, owing to a technical difficulty, I was unable to show before the luncheon recess. With your consent I shall show it at once. Apparently the presentation will now be more successful than earlier in the day. I should emphasize that in selecting the photographs I was not guided, so to speak, by the horror of their contents, but simply by the fact that they demonstrate typical procedures of the German fascist crimes.
[Pictures were then projected on the screen.]*
(1) Here we see one person being shot. This snapshot was taken in the Moscow region during the German advance on Moscow. The man was executed in reprisal for the death of a German.
(2) Here we see four persons being shot. The four youths condemned to death are standing on the edge of a pit which they dug. The members of the Tribunal can see for themselves that the German criminals standing on the outskirts of the wood are laughing at the victims.
(3) This snapshot was taken at the time of the execution. The killing is carried out in the typical German style, that is, by a shot in the back of the neck. You will observe that the victims are crying out at the moment of death.
(4) The snapshots, Your Honors, which I am now showing were taken by the German Obergruppenführer Karl Strock, chief of the Nipal Gestapo. It represents a German mass execution. The victims have been ordered to strip on the execution ground. Here you see a young girl seated, already undressed, and next to her her brother Jacob, who has also been ordered to strip. I wish to emphasize the fact that the snapshots were taken in December, when the cold is intense.
(5) In addition to some native women condemned to be shot, this snapshot also shows a very young girl endeavoring to hide behind her mother on the left.
(6) In December naked women in this snapshot have also been taken to the execution ground. Condemned to death, these women were forced by the same Obergruppenführer Strock to pose before the camera.
(7) Here we have a group of men and with them a small child accompanied by his mother. They are going to the execution ground. The child clutches his mother closely.
(8) This is an amateur photograph, albeit a very clear one. Here, Your Honors, you see a group of people and some dead bodies, with machine guns to the right of them. I would ask the Tribunal to observe the disposal of the dead bodies. The photograph is probably taken during the first months of the German occupation because the bodies have been thrown into the pit carelessly; in the latter months orders were given to lay out the bodies tidily in rows.
(9) This is a snapshot of the same group. Here you see both women and young girls condemned to death.
(10) In Yanov Camp the executions are carried out to the strains of the “Death Tango” played by an orchestra conducted by Professor Striks, an internee in the camp, together with his bandmaster, Mundt. I request Your Honors to observe two points of interest in this snapshot. To the right we see the camp commander, Obergruppenführer Gebauer, in white uniform, and behind him his dog, Rex, known to us through many interrogations as having been trained to harass living persons and to tear them to pieces. It is evident that Gebauer is leading the orchestra to the execution ground.
(11) One of the gallows used by the German fascists in their endeavor to establish a regime of terror in the temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union. The snapshot was found in the files of the Yanov Gestapo. A woman of sorts is seen laughing at the foot of the gallows.
(12) A second gallows erected in the same market place, at Lvov, also taken from the archives of the Gestapo.
(13) I am showing Your Honors the snapshot of an entire street festooned with bodies of Soviet citizens. This is a street in the city of Lvov, and I beg to remind the Tribunal that according to the records of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs the same hangings also occurred in Kharkov.
(14) The same street in Lvov. The snapshot was taken from the archives of the Lvov Gestapo.
(15) The gallows were not the only means of execution. The guillotine, too, was used on a vast scale. In this snapshot you see the heads of victims guillotined in the prison of Danzig. The snapshot was taken in the Anatomic Institute in Danzig, where the bodies of the victims were brought after execution.
(16) I shall not show you too many snapshots of tortures inflicted. I only wish to show a few typical examples. This snapshot was taken from a dead Gestapo soldier. It shows a young girl being flogged. Later you will see what next they did to her.
(17) It is not quite clear whether the girl is being strung up by the hair or hanged by the neck. Judging by the convulsive movement of her hands, I think that a noose has just been placed round her neck. Observe the bestial face of the scoundrel who is hanging her.
(18) Here is a snapshot taken from a dead Gestapo soldier. I wish to emphasize the manner in which the German fascists mocked the chastity of the Russian women. They had just forced these Ukrainian women to run naked before the German brutes.
(19) This snapshot will help you to understand subsequent events. It represents a machine for grinding human bones. Next to the machine stands the prisoner of war who feeds the machine. It can grind the bones of 200 persons at a time. As has been proved to the commission, it has a constant yield of 200 cubic meters of bone flour.
That is all. Photographs are identified as Exhibits USSR-100, 101, 102, 212, 385, 388, 389, 390, 391.
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* Mr. Counsellor Smirnov’s explanations of the pictures were not recorded by the Russian stenographers. They were recorded, however, in English and German, and these notes are used in the English and German editions respectively, even though the two texts differ in some respects.
Will you now permit me to submit further documentary evidence?
In the first part of my presentation I dealt with German mass terrorism and spoke specifically about the extermination of children and the infamous methods used by the Germans with regard to them, since terror applied to children—terror most savage, most brutal—is one of the characteristic features of fascist bestiality.
I now present to the Tribunal evidence of mass extermination of the population in various parts of Eastern Europe. I submit to the Tribunal brief excerpts from the report of the Polish Government, which Your Honors will find on Page 127 of the document book, in the second paragraph of the text. It describes the so-called Anin massacre. I quote:
“At the end of December 1939 a Polish policeman was shot in the vicinity of Warsaw by a bandit. Subsequent investigations showed that the murderer was in a restaurant in Vaver, near Warsaw. Two German policemen tried to arrest him. When the police entered the restaurant, the bandit opened fire, killing one policeman and wounding another, that is, he apparently killed one and wounded another.
“In reply the German authorities, on 26 December 1939, ordered mass reprisals, and a punitive expedition made its appearance in the village.
“A detachment of ‘Landesschützen,’ under the command of an officer, was dispatched to Vaver and to the summer resort of Anin. Both of these localities were surrounded by a cordon of soldiers. The proprietor of the restaurant where the event occurred was immediately hanged, and his body suspended in front of his house for 3 days. At the same time the men were dragged out from every house. Having thus rounded up about 170 persons, the Germans made them stand in the railway station, facing the wall and with their hands held above their heads, for several hours. Afterwards their documents were checked and a few were dismissed, but the vast majority were informed that they would be executed. They were then taken to a field, split up into groups of 10 to 14, and executed by volleys from machine guns.
“The number of individual graves discovered on the execution ground amounted to 107. Among those executed were two doctors, 30 youths under 16 years of age, and 12 old men over 60. One was an American citizen of Polish origin. He was shot together with his son.”
I shall omit the next paragraph of the report of the Polish Government dealing with the massacre in Piastoshyn, and I quote only an announcement from a German paper, the Weichsel Zeitung, of 23 October 1939. This announcement was quoted in the Polish report. I read:
“In the Tuchel district, the farm of a Reich citizen, Fritz, in the vicinity of Pretzin, was burned by Polish bandits in the night of 21-22 October. The citizen Fritz had a heart attack in consequence. By order of the chief of the Civil Administration a punitive expedition was dispatched to this locality, in order to teach the guilty bandits a lesson which would show them that acts of this kind would be severely punished. In reprisal 10 Poles, known for their hostile attitude towards Germany, were shot. In addition an order was given to the Polish inhabitants of this locality to rebuild the burned buildings and to pay for the damage done.”
I shall omit half of the following page, and I quote briefly the circumstances of the Yousefouv massacre in Poland. Your Honors will find this quotation on Page 128, Paragraph 2 of the document book:
“In the middle of January 1940 a family of German colonists in the village of Yousefouv was robbed and murdered by bandits, as the Germans themselves stated in the newspapers at a later date. A punitive expedition set out for Yousefouv.”
I omit the next paragraph, and then I continue:
“The expedition started a large-scale massacre. All the males who were caught in Yousefouv and the vicinity, even 11-year-old boys, were arrested and shot on the spot. Altogether 300 people were murdered.”
Mass extermination of the peaceful population in Yugoslavia was of an exceptionally cruel nature. I quote that part of the report of the Yugoslav Government entitled, “Mass Murder of the Civilian Population and the Destruction of Villages.” I beg the Tribunal to accept as evidence a photostat of the order of Lieutenant General Neidtholt, which is presented as Exhibit Number USSR-188 (Document Number USSR-188). I cite this order, which was quoted in the report of the Yugoslav Government:
“The settlements of Zagniezde and Udora must be destroyed, the male population of these settlements hanged, and the women and children taken to Stoliac.”
I omit the next page of the text and begin the quotation regarding the atrocities of the German fascist criminals in Kragujevac. In confirmation of this report of the Yugoslav Government, we submit to the Tribunal a certified photostat copy of a communication from the commander of the garrison at Kragujevac, in which he admitted the shooting of 2,300 people. This document is being submitted to the Tribunal, and I ask the Court to accept this as evidence under Exhibit Number USSR-74 (Document Number USSR-74). I quote from the report of the Yugoslav Government on the mass murder in Kragujevac:
“This was a mass murder committed on 21 October 1941, in Kragujevac, by a German punitive expedition under the command of Major König. Besides König, the regional commander, Bischofshausen, and the commandant of the settlement, Dr. Zimmermann, participated in the organization and realization of this crime.
“Already 10 to 15 days before the crime in Kragujevac was committed, one battalion arrived to reinforce the German garrison. First of all, the following villages were destroyed in the vicinity of Kragujevac: Mechkovac, Marsic, and Groshnic. In Mechkovac the punitive expedition murdered 66 people, in Marsic, 101, and in Groshnic, 100. All the victims were peaceful citizens of the villages in question.
“When, after the perpetration of these crimes, the punitive expedition arrived in Kragujevac, they began by carrying out their plan to exterminate the citizens of Kragujevac, especially the Serbian intelligentsia. As early as the beginning of October the district commandant, Dr. Zimmermann, demanded of the director of schools in Kragujevac the regular attendance of the school children; otherwise they would be considered saboteurs and shot. After such a threat, all the pupils attended school regularly. On 18 October 1941, in conformity with a previously prepared list, all male Jews were arrested, as well as all persons who were considered Communists. They were imprisoned in the barracks of the former Yugoslav auto-transport headquarters in Stanovlensko Polje. They were kept without any food until 20 October, and all were shot at about 6 o’clock in the evening; approximately 60 persons were killed.
“The same day, that is, 20 October, they began to round up the entire male population of Kragujevac. After every exit from the city had been blocked, the Germans went into every public building and drove out all the employees. After that, all the professors and pupils from the fifth grade upward, together with the school masters, were taken from the high schools and seminaries.”
I omit the next two sentences and quote further:
“Together with the others, all the prisoners from the Kragujevac prison were taken off to the barracks. Then the order was given to them to go into the courtyard of the barracks. Here all their personal belongings were taken from them. The first to be shot were those who were originally incarcerated in the prison—approximately 50 persons. The rest were locked up in barracks. The next day, 21 October, as from 7 o’clock in the morning, they were taken off in batches to Stanovlensko Polje, and there shot down by machine gun fire. Those who did not die at once were finished off by the Germans with automatic guns and rifles.”
I conclude this quotation and continue after the next three paragraphs.
“The relatives of the victims of this mass slaughter were forbidden to visit the place of execution until the burial of the victims had been completed and all traces of the crime eliminated. They were also forbidden to hold any requiem masses or religious services for the victims. In the obituary notices in the papers it was forbidden to mention that the victims had met their death in the mass execution.”
I omit the next five paragraphs and invite the attention of the Tribunal to a short part of the report of the Yugoslav Government dealing with the so-called “death march” or “march of blood,” that march of dire fame which took place in the camp of Yarak. I quote that particular part which deals with this atrocious crime of the Hitlerites:
“In the beginning of September 1941 a large German punitive expedition rounded up all the male population between the ages of 14 and 70 years and drove them from Shabatka across the Sava River into the settlement of Yarak in Sirinya. That was the so-called death march. About 5,000 men had to run a distance of 23 kilometers and back again. Those who could not stand the pace and fell by the way were ruthlessly shot on the spot. Because many were old and weak, the number of victims was great, especially while crossing the bridge over the Sava.”
I conclude this, and I continue the next paragraph:
“On the way back they met another group of 800 peasants who had to cover the same distance, but the treatment of this group was still more brutal. They had to run with their arms raised over their heads. They were systematically murdered on the way. Only 300 men of the group reached Yarak alive.”
I interrupt the quotation here. I omit this page and the next, and, concluding my presentation of the mass murders of the civilian population in Yugoslavia, I would ask the Tribunal to accept in evidence the public announcement of the Chief of the German Armed Forces in Serbia. This document is presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-200 (Document Number USSR-200). Without making any comment at all, I simply quote this document, using the original text incorporated in the report of the Yugoslav Government. In the report the Commander-in-Chief in Serbia quotes the following facts:
“In the village of Skela, a Communist detachment opened fire at a German military truck. It was established that several of the inhabitants had been watching and had seen the preparations for this attack. It was further established that these inhabitants could have warned the nearest station of the Serbian gendarmerie. It was also established that they could have secretly warned the German military trucks against the pending attempt. The inhabitants did not profit by the opportunity and had thus placed themselves on the side of the criminals. The village of Skela was burned to the ground. Supplies of ammunition exploded in several houses during the fire, and this was accepted as a proof of complicity on the part of the inhabitants. All the male inhabitants of the village whose participation in the attack had been proved were shot, and 50 Communists were hanged on the spot.”
I now omit five pages of my presentation, and I invite the attention of the Tribunal to the brief excerpts from the report of the Greek Government, on Pages 39 and 40 of the Russian text of this report, from which we can see that the same inhuman and criminal methods of mass shootings were used by the Hitler criminals in the temporarily occupied territory of Greece. I begin my quotation:
“As soon as the island of Crete was occupied by the Germans. . . . In compliance with this announcement, the first reprisals were made, and several people, most of them absolutely innocent, were shot, and the villages of Skiki, Brassi, and Kanades”—perhaps I am stressing the wrong syllables, since I do not know how these words should be pronounced in Greek—“all these villages were burned down as a reprisal for an attack by collaborators of the Greek police during the invasion of Crete. On the sites where these villages formerly existed, posts were erected with inscriptions in Greek and in German: ‘Destroyed as a reprisal for the brutal murder of a detachment of paratroopers and half a platoon of sappers by armed men and women in the rear.’
“Measures of reprisal, which at first were of a temporary nature, later grew in intensity, especially after the resistance made by organized partisan detachments throughout the country in the beginning of 1943. The technique was always the same. The day after some act of sabotage or any other action committed by the partisans near a village, the German troops would appear in this village. The inhabitants would be rounded up in the central square or some other place suitable for the occasion, to listen to a public announcement, but in reality to be killed on the spot by machine gun fire. After this the Germans either burned the villages or else, in some cases, they would first plunder a village and then open fire on it. The inhabitants were killed openly in the streets, houses, and fields, regardless of age and sex. There were few cases when only the male population from the age of 16 years and over were executed. In other cases, when the men succeeded in hiding in the mountains, the Germans would execute the old men, women, and children who had remained in the villages, hoping that their age and their sex would protect them. The villages of Arachovo, Kalovryta, Gestamon, Klessoura, Kommeno, and Lissovouni may be considered as typical examples. Some villages were destroyed for the sole reason that they were located in some region where partisans had been active.”
I omit the next sentence since it has a direct bearing on another text of the report. I continue my quotation:
“The number of people murdered amounts to nearly 30,000.”
I am now going over to the presentation of evidence of mass exterminations of the peaceful population in the territory of the U.S.S.R. by the Germans.
As to the circumstances of the mass executions, we may now judge them not only by the testimony of eyewitnesses or of the perpetrators of the atrocities; we may, in part, judge them on the basis of the material collected by the legal and medical commission. I say “in part” because, as from 1943, fearing retribution for the crimes committed, the Hitlerites began to destroy the traces of their crimes. They exhumed and burned corpses, ground bones, and strewed the ashes on the fields; they also used the slag formed by the corpses cremated, as well as the bone flour, for repairing the roads and fertilizing the fields. But notwithstanding the efforts of the criminals to conceal the traces of their crimes, it was impossible to destroy all the corpses of the people murdered.
The first mass “action” of the Germans, when tens of thousands of innocent and peaceful people were murdered at a time, was the “Kiev action.” In order to realize the extent of these atrocities I refer Your Honors to a communication of the Extraordinary State Commission already submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-9. I quote from Page 238, on the reverse side of the document book, at the end of the third paragraph from the top. I quote:
“In Kiev, over 195,000 Soviet citizens were tortured to death, shot, and poisoned in the gas vans, as follows:
“(1) In Baybe-yar, over 100,000 men, women, children, and old people.
“(2) In Darnitza, over 68,000 Soviet prisoners of war and peaceful citizens.
“(3) In the antitank trench in the vicinity of Syretzk Camp and in the camp proper, over 25,000 peaceful Soviet citizens and prisoners of war.
“(4) In the grounds of the Hospital of St. Cyril, 800 insane patients.
“(5) In the grounds of the Kiev-Pechersk Abbey, about 500 peaceful citizens.
“(6) In the cemetery of Ljukjanousk, about 400 peaceful citizens.”
I continue to quote from this document, Page 238, second column of the text, Paragraph 6, and I give two short excerpts from this page. I begin:
“In 1943, sensing the uncertainty of their position in Kiev, the occupying forces, in an attempt to conceal the traces of their crimes, opened up the tombs of their victims and began to burn the corpses. The Germans relegated the burning of the corpses in Baybe-yar to the internees of Syretzk Camp. SS officer Topheide was placed in charge of this work, together with members of the gendarmerie, Johann Merkel and Vogt, and the commander of the SS platoon, Rever.
“The witnesses, L. K. Ostrovski, C. B. Berlandt, W. Y. Davydov, Y. A. Steyuk, and J. M. Brodski, who had escaped the shootings at Baybe-yar on 29 September 1943, testified:
“‘As prisoners of war we were interned in the Syretzk Concentration Camp in the outskirts of Kiev. On 18 August 100 of us were sent to Baybe-yar. There we were shackled in chains and ordered to exhume and burn the corpses of Soviet citizens who had been murdered by the Germans. Here the Germans brought granite monuments and iron railings from the cemetery. From these monuments we made platforms on which we placed rails, and on top of these rails we laid the iron grills to act as fire bars. On the iron grills a layer of firewood was placed, and on top of the firewood we placed a layer of corpses. On the corpses we placed a further layer of firewood and poured petroleum over the whole. Following this order the corpses were piled up in several layers and then ignited. About 2,500 to 3,000 corpses were placed in each of these “ovens.” The Germans detailed special crews for the removal of earrings, rings, and also gold teeth from the jaws of the dead.
“‘When all the corpses were burned, new “ovens” were stacked, and so on. The bones were smashed into small particles by bulldozers and the ashes strewn over the Yar, so that no traces should be left. The men worked from 12 to 15 hours a day.
“‘The Germans used excavators in order to expedite the work. From 18 August until the day of our escape—29 September—approximately 70,000 corpses were burned.’”
I interrupt this quotation and invite the attention of the Tribunal to a document on Page 287, Volume II, Paragraph 5 of the document book, second column. This is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on crimes of the German fascist invaders in the territory of the Latvian S.S.R. In the place to which I will draw the attention of the Tribunal it is shown that the Hitlerites systematically carried out executions in the forest of Birkeneck. I make a special point of quoting this because further on we shall present documentary films showing full details of these mass shootings. I begin the quotation:
“In the forest of Birkeneck, on the outskirts of the city of Riga, the Hitlerites shot 46,500 peaceful citizens. The witness, M. Stabulnek, a woman who lived in the vicinity of the forest, stated that:
“‘On Friday and Saturday before Easter, 1942, packed busses went from the city to the forest. I saw 41 busses passing my house from the beginning of Friday morning to noon. On Easter Sunday, many inhabitants—I among them—went into the forest to the site of the executions. There we saw one large open pit containing the bodies of women and children who had been shot; they were either naked or in their underwear. There were traces of torture and ill-treatment on the corpses of the women and children, many of whom had black and blue bruises on their faces and cuts on their heads. Some had had their hands and fingers cut off, their eyes gouged out, and their stomachs ripped open.’”
I now omit one paragraph and continue:
“The commission discovered, on the execution ground, 55 graves covering a total area of 2,885 square meters.”
I quote one more paragraph from this communication:
“In the forest of Dreilin, 5 to 7 kilometers east of Riga, along the highway to Luban, the Germans shot over 13,000 peaceful citizens and prisoners of war. The witness, W. S. Ganus, testified:
“‘As from August 1944 the Germans organized excavation crews to open up the graves, and all through the week bodies were burned. The forest was surrounded by German guards armed with machine guns. On and after 20 August black, closed cars filled with citizens, among whom were women and children—so-called “refugees”—began to arrive; they were shot and their bodies burned immediately. I had hidden in the bushes and watched this fearful scene. The screams of the victims were terrible. I heard shouts of “Murderers,” “Hangmen” and the children crying, “Mama, don’t leave me.” The bullets of the murderers stopped the screams.’”
I conclude this document because it now contains only analogous facts. I wish to invite the Tribunal’s attention to the fact that 38,000 people were shot in this forest.
I further request the Tribunal to refer to a document already presented to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-47, which is the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union on crimes committed by the German and Romanian invaders in Odessa and the region of Odessa. I shall refer to two very brief excerpts of this report. Your Honors will find one of the excerpts I wish to quote on Page 283, Volume II of the document book, first column of the text, Paragraph 5. I begin:
“On 21 December 1941 the Romanian gendarmes proceeded to execute the internees in the camp. The internees were brought, under guard, to a half-ruined building on the outskirts of the forest. There they were forced to kneel by the ravine; then they were shot. From the edge of the ravine those who were killed—and often those who were only wounded—fell to the foot of the ravine, where a gigantic fire of straw, reeds, and wood had been built. The smaller children were thrown alive into this fire by the executioners. The burning of the corpses went on for 24 hours on end.”
Here I interrupt my quotation, since details of these crimes will follow later, and I refer the members of the Tribunal to Page 283 of the document book, Paragraph 3, Column 2, containing a complete summary of the data available:
“According to the preliminary figures, as established by the commission, the Germano-Romanian occupiers shot, tortured to death, and burned, in Odessa and the region of Odessa, up to 200,000 people.”
In confirmation of the fact that during the mass executions, the so-called “actions,” the German criminals buried people who were still alive, I submit to the Tribunal, under Exhibit Number USSR-37 (Document Number USSR-37), a report of the Extraordinary State Commission, dated 24 June 1943. I quote the act, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 359, in Volume II of the document book. The place that I refer to will be found on Page 362 of the document book:
“While excavating the pit at the foot of Chalk Hill (Mielovaya Gora) in the town of Kupiansk, 71 bodies were discovered, including the bodies of 62 men, eight women, and one infant. All the victims were unshod and some of them were quite naked.”
I pass to the quotation of Paragraph 4, Page 362:
“The Commission notes that there were many whose wounds were not fatal; they had evidently been thrown into the pit and buried alive. This has also been confirmed by citizens who passed near the pit soon after the shooting; they saw the ground stirring and heard dull groans emanating from the grave.”
In confirmation of this fact, I would request the Tribunal to read into the record the original minutes, taken from the report of the Extraordinary State Commission, on the interrogation of the witness, Vassilievitch Joseph Ivanovitch, examined by the public prosecutor of the city of Stanislav at the request of the Extraordinary State Commission. We submit this document as Exhibit USSR-346 (Document Number USSR-346). I shall quote only two paragraphs from the minutes of this interrogation:
“In the beginning of 1943 we burned people there in the cemetery, to which firewood was brought for this purpose. There were cases where women and children were thrown alive into the pits and there buried.
“One woman—I do not know her name—begged an officer not to shoot her, and he gave her his word that she would not be shot. He even said, ‘I give you my word as an officer that you will not be shot.’ After the shooting of the group to which this woman belonged, this officer himself took her by the hand, threw her alive into the pit, and she was buried alive.”
Thus, in one whole series of cases, the victims were purposely buried alive in order to add extra cruelty to the misdeeds of the criminals. In other cases this was due to the fact that the Germans did not even consider it necessary to verify whether the people to be liquidated were dead or not.
An investigation of the data on the exhumation of these bodies, when the German fascists no longer had the time to destroy the traces of their crime by burning them, shows that towards the end of 1941 and in 1942 the criminals did not particularly attempt to camouflage the execution grounds—and this despite the instructions, already known to the Tribunal, issued by fascist headquarters on the camouflaging of execution grounds and keeping secret the so-called executions. I am of the opinion that this can be explained only by the fact that the Germans, in spite of some set-backs, were convinced of their final victory, and that, therefore, they hoped that their deeds would not be punished.
I refer to the document already presented with other documents to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-2(a), a report of the Extraordinary Commission of the Soviet Union on atrocities committed by the German fascist invaders in the region of Stalinsk. There we find a report of the medical-legal expert commission on the atrocities committed by the German fascist invaders in the alabaster quarries near the city of Artemovsk, in the Stalinsk district. I shall quote only a brief excerpt from this document. I shall omit the greater part of the indictments.
In the document book, Page 366, fifth paragraph, of the first column of the text, Your Honors will find the following:
“Two kilometers to the east of the city of Artemovsk, in the tunnel of the quarry of the alabaster works, 400 meters from the entrance, there is a small opening walled up with bricks. When the bricks were removed a continuation of the tunnel was discovered. This was a narrow passage rising steeply, having at the end a broad, oval cavern, 20 meters in length, 30 meters in width, and 3 to 4 meters in height.
“The entire cavern was filled with dead bodies and only a small area at the entrance and a narrow strip in the center were free of corpses. The bodies were closely pressed one against the other, with their backs turned to the entrance to the cavern.
“This is typical because it shows the customary German routine of shooting in the nape of the neck.
“The corpses were wedged so tightly that, at first glance, it appeared as though there was just one solid mass of intertwined bodies. The last layers had been heaped on the first, which were then closely pressed to the walls of the cavern.”
I omit the two following pages of the report, and I merely quote the conclusion of the legal-medical expert commission. You will find this on Page 366, Volume II, second column of the text, Paragraph 15:
“According to the testimony of the inhabitants of Artemovsk, on 9 February 1942 several thousand people were driven into the abandoned alabaster quarries, carrying their small household possessions and food.
“As and when the cavern filled up, the people were shot either when standing or kneeling down; then another batch would be driven in and shot down on the corpses of the first batch; the corpses of the victims were piled one on top of another. Some people tried to flee from the impending murder, trampled one another down, and died in agony.”
I further omit three pages of my presentation and continue on Page 209. During the period of the mass executions the German fascist criminals elaborated a definite technique for the execution of their crimes. I would like to mention some of the most typical methods employed, because the Tribunal will realize, on hearing individual instances, how criminally this technique of atrocities was perfected by the Germans and how increasingly cynical was the premeditation of these monstrous crimes. In confirmation of my statement, I should like to present some documents to the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: We shall have to break off now. It is 4 o’clock.
The Tribunal would be glad to know how much longer your presentation will be.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I shall finish my presentation of evidence tomorrow.
[The Tribunal adjourned until 19 February 1946 at 1000 hours.]
SIXTY-SECOND DAY Tuesday, 19 February 1946
Morning Session
THE PRESIDENT: I have an announcement to make.
The Defense motion for a recess cannot be granted. When a recess at Christmas was decided upon, the Tribunal informed the Defense Counsel that no further recess would be granted.
As Counsel for the Prosecution has pointed out, Defense Counsel have already had several months in which to prepare their defenses to a case which depends principally upon documents in the German language, written by the defendants themselves or their associates. They have also had constant assistance from the Tribunal and the Prosecution in connection with documentary evidence and witnesses.
The Tribunal has observed that many of the Defense Counsel have already found it possible, quite properly, to absent themselves from court, and the Tribunal sees no reason why some of the time which must elapse for the conclusion of the case for the Prosecution should not be utilized in preparation of their defenses out of court.
The Tribunal therefore decides that, at the conclusion of the Prosecution’s case against the individual defendants, the argument on the groups or organizations alleged to be criminal shall take place and that thereafter applications for documents and witnesses by those defendants whose witnesses and documents have not already been decided upon shall be heard in open session. In this way several days will be occupied in which many of the Defense Counsel can be absent from court and they can prepare their defenses out of court.
That is all. You may continue, Colonel.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Your Honor, you asked me yesterday who, in January 1942, was the chief of the military economy and armament department of the German Army. I could not answer yesterday but today I can report to you that General of the Infantry Thomas held this position.
As to the second question which you put to me, that is, what measures were taken in regard to the correspondence connected with the report of Major Roesler, I requested information from Moscow, where this correspondence is kept. There are only excerpts from this correspondence in the archives, the rest of the correspondence is in another archive. We requested information from this archive and as soon as the latest disposition of this correspondence is ascertained, I will immediately report to the Tribunal. This will take about a day or two.
Before continuing my statement, I wish to remark that today I should conclude the presentation of all the evidence concerned with my statement. I have to submit a considerable number of documents, and therefore my statement will be rather fragmentary. I will not dwell on particulars and will endeavor not to repeat what has already been said by the prosecutors of other countries. This will render my statement somewhat piecemeal, for which I must beg your indulgence.
I will now proceed with my statement.
The legal-medical expert’s report, drawn up in the city of Smolensk, has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-48 (Document Number USSR-48). It was signed by a member of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Soviet Union, President of the Medical Academy and eminent Soviet physician, Academician Burdenko, by the principal legal-medical expert of the Ministry for Health, Dr. Prozorovsky, and other experts. In addition to the final conclusions which have already been presented by my colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, I now submit to the Tribunal the actual record of these experts’ investigation. From this the Tribunal will be able to judge, not only the final conclusion but also the methods used for this investigation. The Tribunal can see for themselves the detailed description of each burial ground investigated by experts, as well as the detailed examination of the corpses exhumed from the ditches. I will not repeat those parts of the account which have already been partially quoted by Colonel Pokrovsky. Therefore I omit four pages of my statement and pass on to Page 213. The part which I wish to quote now Your Honors will find on Page 377 of the document book, Volume II, Paragraph 2 of the page. The experts describe a typical scene of a burial site of the German victims in 1941 and the beginning of 1942. I quote:
“The ditches from which the corpses were exhumed were not common burial grounds. The corpses were not laid out in a row, one next to the other, but layer upon layer, a solid mass of women’s and men’s bodies heaped together in confusion. In this mass of corpses some were bent or half bent, some were lying on their faces, on their sides, or on their backs, some were on their knees, with faces down or up, with legs and arms interlinked. It was impossible to separate the corpses before they were exhumed from the ditch.”
However, this chaotic manner of burial of the corpses appears to characterize only the mass burials of victims of the first mass shootings which were carried out toward the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942. During subsequent exhumations the legal-medical experts discovered very many burial grounds where the corpses were laid down in orderly fashion, layer on layer.
A typical scene of such a burial ground the Tribunal can find in the album regarding the Lvov Camp. On Page 15 of this album there is a picture of a burial ground of the later period. The bodies are lying in regular layers, and this can be explained by. . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Which album is this?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: It is the album which concerns the Lvov Camp, Your Honor. It was submitted to the Tribunal yesterday. The picture I am talking about is on Page 15 of the album. It is a photograph which was discovered in the Gestapo headquarters at Lvov.
The reason that impelled this regular disposition of bodies will become clear to the Tribunal from an excerpt of the Extraordinary State Commission’s report on atrocities.
THE PRESIDENT: Is this a photograph of the bodies as they lay in the trench or after they had been moved?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: No, it is a photograph taken by some Gestapo official, Your Honor, and was discovered in the archives of the Lvov Gestapo. If you will look at this picture, you will see that the corpses are lying almost in regular rows on the spot of this mass shooting.
What was the reason for this regular laying out of the corpses? The Tribunal will find the answer to this on Page 290 of the document book, second column of the text, Paragraph 8. This is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on atrocities committed by the German fascist invaders in the city and region of Rovno. I quote:
“The witness Karpuk, a worker on a German farm near Belaya Street, testified:
“‘Several times I saw how the Hitlerites exterminated Soviet citizens, Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, and Jews. This took place usually in the following manner: The German butchers brought the doomed people to the place of execution, forced them to dig a ditch, ordered them to undress, and to lie down in the ditch, face downward. The Hitlerites fired at the back of the necks of the victims with automatic pistols. Then another group of people lay down on top of the bodies of those shot and were finished off in the same manner, and then a third row, and so on, until the ditch was filled. Then they poured quicklime over the corpses and covered them with earth.’”
One can judge how widespread was this infamous and cruel method of mass execution from an excerpt concerning the executions in Maidanek. I quote from a Soviet-Polish communiqué already presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-29 (Document Number USSR-29). The Tribunal will find this on Page 65 of the document book, first column of the text, Paragraph 14. I begin the quotation:
“On 3 November 1943, 18,400 people were shot in the camp; 8,400 came from the camp itself, and 10,000 were herded there from the city and other camps.”
I omit the next sentence.
“The shootings started early in the morning and ceased late in the evening. The SS brought the people, stripped naked, to the ditches in groups of 50 or 100 men. They were packed into the bottom of the ditch face down and shot with automatic rifles. Then a new group of people were piled on the corpses and shot in the same manner; and so on until the pits were full.”
I especially concerned myself with determining the exact date when this method was used for the first time. According to Soviet documents this started in the second half of 1942. But in general, it may be stated that similar methods of shooting were already adopted by the German police detachments in Poland in 1939.
Thanks to the kindness of our British colleagues, I submit to the Tribunal a document which was received by our delegation from the British Prosecution. It is a photostat of the document—the original is in the archives of the British Delegation and I think I am safe in saying that if the Tribunal requires the original copy, it can be presented. The authenticity of the information which is contained in this correspondence cannot be questioned. It is a German report taken from the archives of Hitler’s aide-de-camp. I quote one place, which the Tribunal may find on Page 391 of the document book, second volume, Paragraph 2, (Document USSR-342). The German staff doctors considered it necessary to report to Hitler about these shootings because “since these shootings were done publicly, enemy propaganda may derive much material. . . .”
Out of this correspondence I quote a short excerpt from the record of Corporal Paul Kluge’s interrogation. Paul Kluge belonged to a medical detachment stationed in Shwetz. He heard that a shooting of Poles would take place on Sunday, 8 October 1939, in the Jewish cemetery. Out of curiosity he decided to visit the place of execution. I quote only that part of his interrogation which relates the manner of shooting. The Tribunal will find this quotation on Page 393 of the document book, second volume, second paragraph (Document Number USSR-42). I start the quotation:
“We were already of the opinion that we were the victims of silly rumors and had returned to our barracks, when suddenly a large bus full of women and children drove into the cemetery. We returned to the cemetery. Then we saw a party consisting of a woman with three children, aged from 3 to 8 years, led to an open grave about 2 meters wide and 8 meters long. The woman was forced to descend into this grave and took the youngest child with her in her arms. Two men, members of the punitive expedition, handed the other two children to her. The woman was forced to lie, face down, in the grave and beside her three children, in the same manner, on her left. After that, four men of the detachment also climbed down into the grave, aimed their guns so that the barrels were about 30 centimeters away from the napes of their necks. Thus they shot the woman and her three children.
“Then the chief of the detachment called on me to help fill in the grave. I obeyed this order and, being quite near, I could see the next party of women and children being shot in the same manner as were the first.
“In all, there were nine or ten groups of women and children, all shot in the same way, four at a time in the same grave.”
We can therefore see that this method of mass shooting is of very early origin.
I omit the next page of the report as it contains the minutes of another interrogation with similar information, and submit to the Tribunal proof of other, even more cruel methods of mass shootings which the Hitlerite criminals invented, beginning with 1943 and continuing to the end of the war.
The Hitlerite criminals, beginning with 1943, began to adopt different methods to cover the traces of their crimes, in particular, to burn the bodies. It has been proved by documents that the Hitlerites compelled their victims, first to prepare the kindlings and logs, then to lie down on these wood piles. Then the first group was shot. The next party of condemned persons brought logs, laid them down on the layer of corpses, and then lay down themselves on these logs and were then executed.
I beg Your Honors to turn to the album concerning the Auschwitz Camp, where the pictures of another camp, Kloga, are also included. You will find there a typical example of this cruel manner of shooting. In order to prove this, I turn to a document which has already been submitted previously to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-39. The excerpt which I wish to quote is on Page 233 of the document book, second column of the text, last paragraph. I start the quotation:
“On 19 September 1944 the Germans began the liquidation of the Kloga Camp. Unterscharführer of the Camp, Schwarze, and the chief of the office, Hauptscharführer Max Dalmann, selected 300 people from among the internees, and made them carry firewood to a clearing in the woods. Seven hundred other men were forced to build pyres. When these pyres were ready the German butchers began mass shootings of the internees.
“In the first place, those who carried the wood and built up the fires were shot and then the remaining victims. The shooting was carried out in the following manner: At the point of a gun members of the SD Police units forced the prisoners to lie face down on the platforms of the pyres and then they shot them with submachine guns or revolvers. The bodies were burned on the fires.”
To save time I omit the next part of the quotation. In order to prove that the methods in other camps were even more cruel but of the same type as the ones described above, I beg the Tribunal to turn to a document, which has already been submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-38 (Document Number USSR-38). It is the report on the atrocities of the German invaders in the town of Minsk. I refer to a quotation which the Tribunal will find on Page 215 of the document book in the second column of the text, last paragraph.
In the first part of this quotation you will read how, in order to conceal the traces of their crimes, the German Hitlerite invaders built near the camp in Maly Trostianets primitive crematorium installations. I begin my quotation by that passage of the report which speaks of the shootings which occurred in the immediate neighborhood of these primitive crematorium installations. To facilitate the task of the translators, I inform you that I omitted three pages of the text and I read now from Page 223 of the Russian text of the speech.
I begin the quotation with the testimony of the witness Savinsky, who stated as follows:
“Having reached a point 10 kilometers from Minsk, near the village of Maly Trostianets, the car stopped near one of the barns. We all understood that we were brought here to be shot. . . . By order of the German butchers the interned women were brought out in groups of four from the car. Seeing that it was my turn, together with Anna Gobubovich, Yulia Semashko, and another woman whose name I do not know, I climbed on top of the pile of bodies. Shots were heard. I was slightly injured on the head and fell.”
I omit the next part of the quotation which described how this woman saved herself. I quote the last paragraph:
“The legal-medical experts discovered that there were bullet wounds in the necks of these bodies. In the barn and on the stacks of logs the Germans shot and burned 6,500 persons.”
I omit the next three pages of the text and next submit to the Tribunal the proofs of the organization of the German fascist invaders. . . .
THE PRESIDENT: The translation came through to us that 63 people were killed. The translation in writing is 6,500.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The translation in writing is absolutely correct, Mr. President. For the confirmation of this, one could turn to the original document—the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union. This was a gross error on the part of the interpreters. They diminished the number of those shot more than 10,000 times.
So I omit the following three pages of the statement and will present evidence of the existence of special places of mass executions where the number of victims was numbered by hundreds of thousands of persons and where the doomed were brought in not only from the surrounding regions but from many countries of Europe.
By means of brief excerpts I submit to the Tribunal proof of the existence of two such centers, which were among the most famous. They are the center of mass executions of Panary, 8 kilometers from Vilna, and Fort Number 9, the “Fort of Death” in Kaunas, which has acquired a particularly grim reputation.
I quote a report which has been submitted to the Tribunal, the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the atrocities of the Hitlerite invaders in Lithuania. The Tribunal will find this quotation on Page 294, second column of the text, last paragraph. For the convenience of the interpreters I inform you that I am quoting from Page 228. I omit the first three paragraphs which state that the mass execution place at Panary was organized in July 1941 and existed until June 1944. I continue the quotation starting with the fourth paragraph where it is related how the Hitlerites attempted to cover up the traces of their crimes in this place of mass executions. I quote:
“In December 1943”—stated witness Saydel Matvey Fedorovich—“we were forced to exhume and burn the corpses.”
I omit the next sentence and continue the quotation:
“For this purpose, we placed on each pyre about 3,000 corpses, poured oil over them, placed incendiary bombs on four sides, and set it on fire.
“The burning of corpses continued from the end of 1943 to June 1944. During this period, more than 100,000 corpses were dug out from nine pits of a total volume of 21,179 cubic meters and were burned on fires. The last days before their retreat the Hitlerites did not have time to burn the bodies of the shot. . . .”
I omit the next few paragraphs and quote the results of the medical-legal expert commission:
“The corpses that were examined were, for the most part, those of the civilian population. A small number of corpses were found dressed in military uniforms. On some of the corpses were found objects of religious worship of the Catholic and Greek Orthodox faith. According to the objects and documents found, it has been established that among those who were shot, there were physicians, engineers, students, chauffeurs, mechanics, railroad workers, tailors, watchmakers, tradesmen, et cetera.”
I omit the next three paragraphs and pass on to the concluding sentence:
“The medical-legal expert commission has established that the German fascist butchers shot and burned in Panary not less than 100,000 people.”
I quote further proof concerning the Fort of Death in Kaunas. I begin the quotation:
“Fort Number 9 was called by the residents of Kaunas the ‘Fort of Death.’ This fort, located 6 kilometers northwest of the city, is an old iron-reinforced concrete fortification. Inside, there are numerous casements, which were used by the Germans as cells for prisoners. This fort is surrounded by a concrete wall and barbed wire.
“In the very first days after their arrival in Kaunas, the Hitlerites drove some 1,000 Soviet war prisoners into the fort and forced them to dig ditches in a field of over 5 hectares in area, at the western wall of the fort. During the months of July and August 1941, 14 ditches were dug, each of them 3 meters wide, more than 200 meters long, and more than 2 meters in depth. Those who entered Fort Number 9 never survived. In columns of several thousand people, the Hitlerites drove in there women, children, adolescents, men, and aged persons for the purpose of shooting them and burning their bodies.”
I omit the next three paragraphs and continue my quotation:
“In Fort Number 9 people of different nationalities were shot: Russians, Ukrainians, Bielorussians, Lithuanians, Poles, and Jews. The following people were shot in this fort: a deputy to the Supreme Soviet Council of the U.S.S.R., Bydzhinskiene; a deputy to the Supreme Soviet Council of the Lithuanian S.S.R., Zhibertas; and others. Besides Soviet citizens the Hitlerites exterminated French, Austrian, and Czechoslovak citizens in Fort Number 9.
“A former supervisor of Fort Number 9, the witness Naudjunas, testified:
“‘The first group of foreigners, numbering 4,000, arrived at the fort in December 1941. I talked to one of the women, who said that they were being transported to Russia, allegedly for work. On 10 December 1941 the extermination of foreigners began. They were ordered to leave the fort in groups of 100 people, allegedly for inoculations. Those who left for inoculations did not return. All 4,000 foreigners were shot. On 15 December 1941 another group arrived, numbering approximately 3,000 persons, which was also exterminated.’”
I omit the next paragraph on this page, and nearly the whole of the following page, and quote only the conclusive data:
“The Investigation Commission ascertained that the Hitlerites had exterminated in Fort Number 9 over 70,000 peaceful inhabitants.”
In numerous cases the German fascists used methods full of cruel cunning for the mass extermination of peaceful Soviet citizens. In order to prove this statement, I refer to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Stavropol region, which has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-1 (Document Number USSR-1). The Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 268 of the Document Book; I quote one paragraph—the second paragraph, of the text:
“It is established that before retreating from the city of Geozgievsk on 9 and 10 January of this year, by order of the chief physician of the German hospitals in the city, Baron Von Heiman, the German soldiers sold alcohol and soda water at the city market, which proved to be methylated spirit and oxalic acid. The result consisted in mass poisoning of the inhabitants of this town.”
Among the crimes perpetrated by the German fascists on Soviet territory I must mention especially the treatment to which they subjected the inhabitants of Leningrad. I have already mentioned this in speaking of the Leningrad children yesterday.
In order to shorten my quotation from the Extraordinary Commission’s report on Leningrad—although, being a citizen of Leningrad myself, I would like the Court to have an accurate picture of the sufferings endured by the great city as a result of the German fascist terror—I will quote only general data regarding the German destruction and crimes in the city of Leningrad. The Tribunal will find this quotation on Page 345 of the document book, second volume. I begin the quotation:
“During the 900-day siege of Leningrad, when the German fascist invaders were in possession of its suburbs, they perpetrated countless atrocities on the peaceful civilians.
“The Germans dropped on Leningrad 107,000 demolition and incendiary bombs and 150,000 heavy artillery shells. Every minute throughout the siege each Leningrad resident was in the same danger as if he had been on a field of battle. Every instant he was threatened with death or mutilation. Bombing and artillery fire killed a total of 16,747 and wounded 33,782 persons.”
I interrupt my quotation, omit the next page of my statement, and beg the Tribunal to notice Page 347 of the second volume of the document book, an excerpt from the diary of the German artillery men who shelled Leningrad. These notes are most cynical and cruel.
I will now give figures of persons who died of hunger in Leningrad in the terrible winter of 1941-1942. I quote only one line: “As a result of the hunger blockade of Leningrad, 632,253 people perished.”
I omit the following two pages and pass on to evidence concerning the adoption by the Hitlerites of special machines for the extermination of people by monoxide gas—in special machines (Sondermaschinen), by “gas vans” or “murder vans,” (dushegubki) as the Soviet people rightly named them. The very fact of employing such machines for the mass murder of people constitutes a very heavy charge against the leaders of German fascism. The special equipment for mass extermination of people in hermetically closed automobiles in which the exhaust pipes were connected to the bodies of the car by means of special movable tubes was utilized by the German fascists for the first time in the U.S.S.R. in 1942. I would like to remind the Tribunal that these gas vans were mentioned for the first time in a report which I have already submitted to the Tribunal concerning the atrocities of the German fascist aggressors in the town of Kerch. This document was submitted as Document Number USSR-63 and refers to the spring of 1942.
I remind the Tribunal of an excerpt from the statements of the witness Darya Demchenko who saw how from two murder vans German military personnel in Kerch dragged out the bodies of the murdered and dumped them into an antitank ditch.
However, the mass extermination of people in gas vans was ascertained without reasonable doubt for the first time in the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on atrocities of the German occupiers in the Stavropol region. This document was submitted to the Tribunal by me earlier as Exhibit Number USSR-1 (Document USSR-1). Investigation of the crimes committed by the German fascists in the Stavropol region was directed by a prominent Soviet writer and member of the Extraordinary State Commission, Academician Alexey Nikolaevitch Tolstoy, who now is deceased.
This very thorough investigation was undertaken with the assistance of the most prominent specialists in forensic medicine, inasmuch as human imagination, having set definite logical limits to any crime, could only with difficulty then accept the existence of these machines. However, the results of the investigation corroborate in full the testimony of surviving witnesses regarding the murder vans and the German fascist mass murders of peaceful citizens executed by this means.
The report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the Stavropol region gives the first detailed description of the mechanism of these murder vans; and I am reading a quotation which the Tribunal will find on Page 268 of the document book, Paragraph 4. I quote this excerpt in full as the technical matter here detailed coincides with those technical details which the American Prosecution so fully reported to the Tribunal. This is corroborative evidence, and is therefore important. I begin my quotation:
“The mass extermination of peaceful citizens of the U.S.S.R. by the Germans was done by poisoning them with carbon monoxide in specially constructed machines or ‘murder vans.’
“Prisoner of war E. M. Fenchel testified:
“‘While working as a motor mechanic, I had the opportunity of studying in detail the van construction especially adopted for suffocating and exterminating people with exhaust gases. There were several such vans in the town of Stavropol at the disposal of the Gestapo.
“‘Their construction was as follows: The body was approximately 5 meters long by 2½ meters wide by approximately 2½ meters in height. It was shaped like a railway car without windows. Inside it was lined with galvanized sheet iron; on the floor, also covered with galvanized iron, was a wooden grating. The door of the body was lined with rubber and was tightly closed with an automatic lock. On the floor of the van, under the grating, were two metal pipes.’”
I omit the end of the sentence.
“‘These pipes were connected with a transverse pipe of equal diameter. . . .’”
I omit the next part of the sentence.
“‘These pipes had frequent holes a half centimeter in width. From the transverse pipe down through a hole in the galvanized iron floor went a rubber hose with a hexagonal screw at the end, threaded so as to fit the thread on the end of the engine exhaust pipe. This hose is screwed on to the exhaust pipe and when the engine is running all the exhaust gas goes into the body of this hermetically closed van. From the accumulation of these gases, a man inside the van died within a short space of time. The machine could contain approximately 70 to 80 people. The motor of this machine usually bore the trademark “Sauer.”’”
I omit the following part of the quotation, because the data contained therein is already known to the Tribunal and I beg the Tribunal to pay attention to Page 270 of the document book, first paragraph, which says that in the Stavropol region the murder vans were used for the killing of 660 people who were ill in the local hospital. Further I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission regarding the Crimes of the German fascist criminals in Krasnodar. I submit this document to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-42 (Document Number USSR-42). It concerns the mass killing of people in murder vans. I will not quote this document. I pass on to Page 243. I submit to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-55 the verdict of the military tribunal of the North Caucasian Front. I wish only to quote a short excerpt from this verdict in order to save time. The Tribunal will find this on Page 439 of the document book, Volume II, Paragraph 2. I begin the quotation:
“The legal investigation has also ascertained as facts the systematic torture and burning, in the cellars of the Gestapo by the Hitlerite criminals, of many arrested Soviet citizens, as well as the extermination by carbon-monoxide gases in specially built cars (murder vans), that is, the asphyxiation of approximately 7,000 innocent Soviet people, including more than 700 patients from the hospitals of the town in Krasnodar region; among them were 42 children, from 5 to 16 years old.”
I omit the pages of the text.
Next I submit to the Tribunal a report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union on the atrocities of the German fascist invaders in the town of Kharkov and the Kharkov region. I submit this document to the Tribunal under Document Number USSR-43. I will not quote this document, but will go over to another, more comprehensive document, namely, the verdict of the military tribunal of the 4th Ukrainian Front which was pronounced in this case. This document has been introduced to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-32 (Document Number USSR-32). The Tribunal will find this excerpt which I would like to quote on Page 222 of the document book, first paragraph. I begin the quotation:
“For the mass executions of Soviet citizens the German fascist invaders used the so-called gas wagons: Large, closed cars which were known to the Russians as ‘murder vans.’ Into these gas wagons the German fascist invaders drove Soviet citizens and murdered them by special poisonous gas, carbon-monoxide. In order to hide the traces of the monstrous crimes committed and the mass extermination of Soviet people by way of asphyxiation with carbon-monoxide in these gas wagons, the German fascists burned the bodies of their victims.”
I conclude this quotation and omit the next page of the text and another page, and go on to Page 252 of my statement.
In order to prove that the murder vans were used not only at places I mentioned, I now refer to a report of the Extraordinary State Commission which has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-9 (Document Number USSR-9), on the atrocities committed in the town of Kiev. The Tribunal will find there a proof of the fact that murder vans were used in Kiev.
THE PRESIDENT: We have just had handed up to us, in the written translation of your address, Page 234. We already had Page 234. Do you want this to be 234(a)? Is it just one page that you are handing up now?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: There is a different numbering in the English text, Mr. President; and it is difficult for me to talk about the text which is in your possession, because I simply do not know the numbering of the English translation.
THE PRESIDENT: Maybe it is 234(a)?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I am on Page 251 of the Russian text.
THE PRESIDENT: I think the better course will be to adjourn now and perhaps the slight muddle in these translations can be cleared up.
[A recess was taken.]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I have interrupted my report of the wide application of murder vans in the temporarily occupied regions of the U.S.S.R.—that is, I interrupted the report of the Extraordinary State Commission concerning crimes in Rovno and the Rovno region. The members of the Tribunal will find reference to this on Page 291, second column of the text, Paragraph 10 of the document book. I limit myself to one paragraph only. I begin the quotation:
“The extermination of peaceful citizens and prisoners of war in the town of Rovno used to take place by means of mass shooting from tommy-guns and machine guns, murder with carbon-monoxide in murder vans, while in separate instances people were thrown into pits and buried alive. Some of the victims, particularly those executed at the quarries near the village of Vydumka, were burned on special places prepared in advance.”
I end my quotation and go over to Page 253 of the text, Paragraph 3. Further, in conjunction with the same matter, I refer to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes in Minsk. The members of the Tribunal will find this quotation on Page 215 of the document book, second paragraph, second column of the text. I read one quotation from this report. I begin the quotation, “Thousands of Soviet citizens have perished in concentration camps at the hands of the German executioners.”
I omit the following four sentences and pass on to the testimony of witness Moisievitch. He says—I begin the quotation:
“I was an eyewitness to the manner in which the Germans killed people in their murder vans. From 70 to 80 people were forced into a murder van and then driven away to an unknown destination.”
I end my quotation, and I ask the Tribunal’s permission to draw its attention to the fact that in Minsk the principle of the murder van was used for stationary gas chambers, which were installed by the criminals in common bath houses. It is also mentioned in this report of the Extraordinary State Commission.
Further, I refer to the verdict of the court-martial of the Smolensk military region, dated 15-19 December 1945, which the Tribunal will find on Page 72 of the document book. There it is related that in Smolensk the Germans also employed special gas automobiles, the so-called murder vans for killing Soviet people with carbon-monoxide. It seems to me that it is not merely coincidence that murder vans appeared in the territory of the U.S.S.R. in the year of 1942. At that time the chief criminals were still quite convinced of victory and started carrying out in practice their premeditated plans for the extermination of the people of Europe. They were not then afraid of responsibility for these crimes. That is why in 1942 there appeared new links in the long chain of the crimes committed by the leaders of German fascism. The fascist technique of extermination was once again in full swing. It created murder vans, gas chambers in the concentration camps, special electrical appliances for the mass murder of the doomed, crematoria, and also “Zyklon” banks.
Now, I pass over to the next section of my presentation: “Concentration camps for the peaceful population.”
Inasmuch as this subject has already been extensively treated by the members of the Prosecution who presented their cases before me, I shall try to be as brief as possible; I shall limit myself either only to absolutely new information or to the text of the documents which serve as an explanation to the movie films which will be shown today before the Tribunal.
I beg to draw the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that at the end of 1941 and in 1942 the scale of German fascist crimes committed in concentration camps reached vast proportions. In particular, I refer to the report of the Polish Government in confirmation of this statement. On Page 138 of the document book the members of the Tribunal will find the testimony to the effect that in 1942 one of the most terrifying extermination camps, the Treblinka Camp Number 2, was in rapid process of erection. The Germans called this “Treblinka B.” Further, I refer to the report of the extraordinary State Commission on Auschwitz. The members of the Tribunal will find the extract which I am going to quote on Page 353 in the document book, Volume II, second column of the text, Paragraph 2. I quote a short excerpt from Page 257:
“In 1941 the first crematorium for burning the corpses of murdered people was built in the Auschwitz Camp. This crematorium had three ovens. Attached to the crematorium was a so-called ‘special purpose bath-house.’ That was a gas chamber for asphyxiating people.”
I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the following sentence:
“In the summer of 1942 the Reichsführer SS Himmler inspected Auschwitz Camp and ordered it to be greatly enlarged and technically perfected.”
I end my quotation here, and I call the attention of the Tribunal to Page 136 on the reverse side of the document book; this is from a report of the Polish Government, which shows that the Camp Sobibur was founded during the first and second liquidation of the Jewish ghetto. But the extermination on a large scale in this camp really started at the beginning of 1943. In this same report, in the last paragraph on Page 136 of the document book, we may read that Camp Belsen was founded in 1940; but it was in 1942 that the special electrical appliances were built in for mass extermination of people. Under the pretext that the people were being led to the bath-house, the doomed were undressed and then driven to the building where the floor was electrified in a special way; there they were killed.
Usually the concentration camps of German fascism can be divided into two groups: the labor concentration camps and the extermination camps. It seems to me that such a differentiation is not quite correct, because the labor camps also served the purpose of extermination.
I omit two pages of the text and I pass on to the Page 260. In confirmation of what I said just now, I refer to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission relative to Yanov Camp in the city of Lvov. The Tribunal will find this on Page 59 in the document book, Paragraph 5 of the first column of the text. But at the same time, I ask the members of the Tribunal to refer to Page 6 of the album of documents relative to the Lvov Camp. One of them is a picture of “a trench in the valley of death.” The ground is soaked with human blood to the depth of 1½ meters. On the next pages are shown the belongings taken from the executed persons. This picture was taken by the experts of legal medicine about 2 months after the mass shootings.
From the reports of the Extraordinary State Commission on crimes in the Yanov Camp it can be seen that here in what was officially a usual work camp, over 200,000 Soviet citizens were exterminated, according to the findings of the legal experts. I quote only the first paragraph on Page 261 of the Russian text. I begin the quotation:
“In view of the total area of burial grounds and the area of 2 square kilometers in which the ashes and bones were scattered as well the expert commission concluded that in the Yanov Camp there were exterminated over 200,000 Soviet citizens.”
I omit the next part of my presentation, which deals with the regime of starvation in concentration camps. This was already very well presented by the representative of the British Prosecution, Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe. This must be already quite clear to the Tribunal and I don’t think it will be necessary to give any additional proofs. But I ask the Tribunal’s permission for a presentation of evidence on a camp which was created by the German fascists only during the last stage of the war. I refer to Page 265 of my presentation.
Maidanek and Auschwitz camps served as a means of extermination only for those who really were sent to these camps. These two camps were not a direct menace for those people who were outside the walls of the camp; but, in the course of the war, having already suffered grave defeats, German fascism began to practice new bestialities for exterminating peaceful citizens—thus, in Bielorussia camps of death, not only to exterminate the inmates of the camp itself but, first and foremost, to spread infectious diseases among the peaceful population and the ranks of the Red Army. There were no crematoria and gas chambers in these camps but these camps should in all justice be considered as among the most brutal concentration camps which were created by fascism for extermination of people.
I present to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-4 (Document Number USSR-4) the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union for the investigation of the murder of people by means of spreading typhus epidemics. Such evidence was not presented before, and I shall therefore quote several excerpts from this report. I begin the quotation on Page 454 of the document book, first column of the text, first paragraph; last paragraph on Page 266 of the Russian text. I begin the quotation:
“On 19 March 1944 advancing Red Army units discovered, near the settlement of Osaritchi in the region of Polesskoy in the Bielorussian S.S.R., within the limits of German defense lines, three concentration camps in which there were over 33,000 children, women, and old men incapable of work.”
I interrupt my quotation, and I omit one paragraph.
“The camps were really open squares surrounded by barbed wire. The approaches to them were mined. There were no buildings whatever even of the most insignificant type in the camp grounds.”
I call the Tribunal’s attention to the fact that all this happened in March, in Bielorussia, when it is really very cold there.
“The inmates were sitting on the ground. Many of them had lost their ability to move and were lying unconscious in the mud. It was forbidden to the inmates to build fires, to gather brush or branches for bedding. The Hitlerites shot Soviet people for the slightest attempt to violate this order.
“For concentration camps close to the nearest line of defense, the Germans, in the first place, selected sites in such places where they did not hope to retain their position. Secondly, they concentrated large masses of Soviet people in the camps, placing there primarily women, children, and old men unable to work. Thirdly, they placed in these camps thousands of typhus patients who were brought from various temporarily occupied regions of the Bielorussian S.S.R., especially for this purpose. They were kept together with the starved, weak inmates who no longer could serve as labor and who were living there under the most unhygienic conditions.
“Among those liberated from these camps were 15,960 children up to the age of 13; 13,072 women incapable of work, and 4,448 old men.”
I omit the next page and read Page 269 of the Russian text. I quote only one paragraph which reveals the methods used by the criminals to drive into the camps peaceful citizens from various regions of Bielorussia. Witness Mrs. L. Pikarskaya, who was liberated from the camp, testified before the commission:
“On 12 March 1944 late in the afternoon, we, the inhabitants of the city of Jlobin, were forced to assemble within half an hour at the station Jlobin South. Here the Germans selected all the young ones and took them away. Having herded us into railroad cars, the Germans closed the doors tightly. Where we were going we didn’t know, but we all anticipated some evil. . . .
“As we found out later on, we were taken along the Rudobelkovsky railway and unloaded late in the afternoon on 15 March. During the night, knee deep in sticky mud, we were driven into a camp. From this camp were driven into another one. On the way the Germans beat us, and those who lagged behind were shot. One woman was walking with three children. One of the children fell down. The Germans shot at him. Horrified, the mother and the two other children looked back; the monster soldiers shot them down one by one. The mother cried out in agony, but her shriek was interrupted by a direct shot. Another mother and son, the Bondarews, walked side by side. The child could not stand the tiring journey and fell down. The mother bent over him, she wanted to encourage him with a word; but neither the son nor the mother rose or saw the blue sky again; the Germans shot them.”
I omit the next page of this document and I pass to the presentation of some evidence testifying to the fact that the Germans purposely concentrated in this camp the typhus-stricken people. I quote three paragraphs from Page 271 of this text:
“A. S. Mitrachovich, a resident of the village of Novo-Belitza who was liberated from the camp, testified:
“‘We who were sick with typhus were driven to the village of Mikul-Gorodok into a camp surrounded by barbed wire.’
“An inhabitant of the hamlet of Novogrudok, Z. P. Gavrilchik, testified:
“‘During 3 days typhus-stricken patients were brought in motor cars into camp, with the result that many who were healthy also became sick.’”
I omit the next two pages of the document and I pass over to what the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 254, on the reverse side, second column of the text, Paragraph 6. I quote:
“The German Army Command used to send their own agents to the camps near the front line to observe how the typhus was spreading among the inmates and also among the Red Army units.”
Next there is the testimony of one of such agents, the traitor Rastorguev. I omit this quotation.
To conclude the presentation of evidence relative to this matter, I shall only quote a few excerpts from the findings of the medical experts of epidemical diseases. The Tribunal will find it on the back of Page 454, second column of the text. This is Page 274 of the Russian text. I begin the quotation:
“(a) The German authorities placed together in concentration camps both the healthy and the typhus-stricken Soviet citizens.
“(b) In order to expedite the dissemination of typhus in the camps, the Germans used to transfer the typhus patients from one camp to another.
“(c) On many occasions when typhus patients refused to go into the camp, the German authorities used force.
“(d) German aggressors used to move typhus patients from hospitals into the camps and mixed them with the healthy camp inmates.”
And the last paragraph:
“(e) The infecting of the Soviet population with typhus began in second half of February and was practiced to the middle of March.”
The result of it was mass infection of the people interned in the camp, and the members of the Tribunal will find proof of this in the next paragraph where it is said that the Red Army Command sent 4,052 Soviet citizens to the hospitals, among them 2,370 children below 13 years of age, all liberated just from one hamlet of Ozarichi, in the Poless region.
I omit those sections of my presentation where I wanted to give concrete information as to the terrible conditions under which the inmates of these concentration camps had to live, and I pass to Page 277 of my statement where I deal with concentration camps of the “usual type.”
I quote short excerpts only from the report of the Yugoslav Government dealing with Camp Banyitza, near Belgrade, from which it is evident that the Yugoslavian camp, so far as bestial conditions are concerned, was quite identical with the camps in other countries of Eastern Europe. The members of the Tribunal will find this passage on Page 263 of the document book, second paragraph. I quote the third paragraph of this document:
“Camp Banyitza, near Belgrade was established by the German occupational authorities as far back as June 1941. From the captured documents of this camp it is evident that 23,637 inmates were registered there. However, from the testimony of the surviving witnesses, especially the employees of the quisling authorities who worked in this camp, it was possible to establish that in reality a much greater number of victims passed through this camp.”
I omit the next paragraph and continue my quotation:
“The witness Monchilo Demyanóvich”—or Demyánovich, I don’t know where to put the accent—“at the end of 1943 participated in burning corpses of the victims from Camp Banyitza.”
I omit the following part of the paragraph and continue my quotation:
“At the interrogation on 7 February 1945, he testified before the Yugoslav State Commission that during the period of his work there, he counted 68,000 corpses.”
I omit further five pages of the report, as the information contained therein is well known to the Tribunal. I pass to Page 283 of the Russian text. I present to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-193 (Document USSR-193) an excerpt from an official register of the hospital at Camp Saimyshte, near Belgrade.
The report of the Yugoslav Government justly states that this hospital reminds one more of a camp chapel, where the bodies of the dead were brought for the last rites. On some days—I beg the Tribunal to refer to the entry Number 1070—there were delivered the bodies of tens and hundreds of people who had died of starvation. For instance, under the entry note 1070 are listed 87 corpses delivered to the hospital. Under Number 1272, 122 bodies are noted, under Number 2041 there were 112 bodies delivered. I don’t consider that these figures need any comment to illustrate the camp regime, especially as far as living conditions of the inmates are concerned.
In the camps in the territory of the U.S.S.R. temporarily occupied by Germans, the living conditions of the inmates at all camps were of extreme grimness.
I quote a short excerpt from the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union on the crimes in the Lithuanian S.S.R. I begin the quotation:
“In the territories of the Lithuanian S.S.R., the Hitlerites exterminated in great numbers not only the local population but also people who were driven here from the Orlov, Smolensk, Vitebsk, and Leningrad regions. From the summer of 1943 to June 1944, 200,000 people passed through the camp for the evacuated population near the town of Alitous.”
You will see this camp in the movie document which will be presented today.
I omit the next part of the quotation and I read two paragraphs further down:
“Due to the filthy living conditions, the unbelievable crowding, lack of water, starvation, disease, and mass shootings, about 60,000 Soviet citizens perished during 14 months in this camp.”
I omit the two next pages of the text and I quote from Page 288 of the report. It is mentioned here that for the families of Red Army soldiers special concentration camps were set up in the territories of the Lithuanian S.S.R. The following order was posted in this camp:
“For expressing displeasure with German authorities and for violation of the camp regime the Soviet people shall be shot without trial, jailed, or sent on forced labor for life to Germany.”
I omit one paragraph and continue:
“A German woman in command of four such camps, Elisabeth Zeeling, frequently announced to the inmates, ‘You are my slaves; I shall punish you in any way I want.’”
I refer further to the report of the State Extraordinary Commission relative to the crimes in the city of Kiev. This report describes murders in the camps which will be also shown in the films today. I quote only one quotation from this report, which shows the methods of extermination of people in the Syretzk Camp. I quote Page 289, Paragraph 3, of the Russian text:
“Radomsky and Rieder used all kinds of devices for the extermination of Soviet citizens. For instance, they invented the following method of murder: Several Soviet prisoners would be forced to climb a tree and others had to saw it down. The prisoners would fall together with the tree and be killed.”
Further, I quote a short excerpt from the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on crimes in the Estonian S.S.R. This excerpt describes the very severe regime in the Estonian camps. I quote the last paragraph on Page 90:
“Daily in the camp there were public floggings of the inmates on a bench especially built for this purpose. Besides this, for the smallest offense people were kept without any food for 2 days; or, in the coldest weather, they were forced to stand tied to a post for 2 or 3 hours. Not only the SS guards but also the administration of the camp and the German physicians took part in torturing the internees. The German doctor, Botmann, personally beat two inmates, Dr. Salkinson and Dr. Tzetzov. Besides this, Dr. Botmann systematically poisoned sick inmates, injecting the poison (evipan) under their skin. The medical attendant Unterscharführer Gent killed 23 elderly inmates with an ax. The witness I. M. Ranter testified, ‘In February 1944 two children were born in the camp at Kloga. Both of them were thrown alive into the furnace of the crematorium and burned.’”
I interrupt my quotation, as I consider that the regime in these concentration camps has already been sufficiently described. I pass on to the presentation of evidence on the camps of extermination, the so-called “Vernichtungslager.” Numerous proofs on this subject have already been presented to the Tribunal and therefore I shall limit myself to the presentation of evidence which is connected with the documentary films which are to be shown to the Tribunal today. I consider that the Tribunal has had enough proof of the fact that citizens of all European countries were exterminated in concentration camps. People both from Western Europe and from the countries of Eastern Europe were brought into these camps. This is shown not only by official reports on these camps, but also from a board with names of inmates of one of the camp’s sections which Your Honors can find in the album of documents on Auschwitz. The citizenry of all European countries may be found.
A special technique was used in the extermination of the people and in connection with this I draw the attention of Your Honors to one fact, which I especially investigated when I was analyzing the materials relating to concentration camps. I decided to ascertain the number of individual firms in the German fascist state engaged in building crematoria for the concentration camps.
I shall present to the Tribunal the evidence that in fascist Germany there were at least three special firms engaged in building crematoria and crematorium installations for concentration camps. This testifies to the scale of the crimes committed in these camps. I omit the text from Pages 295 to 303. I begin the presentation of evidence relating to this section. I ask the Tribunal to refer to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of German fascist invaders in Auschwitz. I quote the documents, which are on Page 353 in the document book of the Tribunal, and which are quoted in the text of the report. I begin the quotation:
“Construction of new vast crematoria was entrusted to the German firm of Topf and Sons of Erfurt, which immediately began to build four powerful crematoria and gas chambers in Birkenau. Berlin demanded with impatience that the construction be expedited and all work completed by the beginning of 1943.
“In the office records of the Auschwitz Camp there was discovered a voluminous correspondence between the administration of the camp and the firm of Topf and Sons. Among them the following letters:
“‘I. A. Topf and Sons, Erfurt; 12 February 1943.
“‘To Central Construction Office of SS and Police, Auschwitz.
“‘Subject: Crematoria 2 and 3 for the camp for prisoners of war.
“‘We acknowledge receipt of your wire of 10 February, as follows:
“‘We again acknowledge receipt of your order for five triple furnaces, including two electric lifts for raising the corpses and one emergency lift. A practical installation for stoking coal was also ordered and one for transporting the ashes. You are to deliver the complete installation for Crematorium Number 3. You are expected to take steps to ensure the immediate dispatch of all the machines complete with parts.’”
I omit the next document which deals with “bathhouses for special purposes” (gas chambers), and present to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-64 (Document Number USSR-64), a document which is appended to the report of the Yugoslav Government. This is a certified photostat of a document externally having all the official character of a business document from a “sound business firm.” The name of the firm is Didier-Werke. The subject of the correspondence—the construction of crematoria “designed for a large camp in Belgrade.” The document presented by me characterized the firm Didier as a firm with considerable experience in construction of crematoria for concentration camps and which advertised itself as a firm that understood the demands of its clients. For placing the bodies into the furnace, the firm designed a special conveyer with a two-wheeled shaft. The firm claimed that it could fill this order much better than any other firms, and asked for a small advance, to draw up draft plans for the construction of a crematorium in the camp.
I quote a few short excerpts from this document—the first two paragraphs:
“With reference to your son’s visit and his conversation with our expert, Herr Storl, we note that the Belgrade SS unit intends to build a crematorium for a large camp and that you have received instructions to design and construct the building in collaboration with local architects.”
I interrupt my quotation and I shall quote one more excerpt:
“For putting the bodies into the furnace, we suggest simply a metal fork moving on cylinders.
“Each furnace will have an oven measuring only 600 millimeters in breadth and 450 millimeters in height, as coffins will not be used. For transporting the corpses from the storage point to the furnaces we suggest using light carts on wheels and we enclose diagrams of these drawn to scale.”
I interrupt my quotation here and I present to the Tribunal Exhibit Number USSR-225 (Document Number USSR-225). This document will be brought to you presently, Mr. President. May I refer to it? It will be presented to you within a few minutes.
I submit the new document as Exhibit Number USSR-225; it deals also with the construction of those crematoria for concentration camps in Belgrade and contains the correspondence of the firm Kori, G.m.b.H. This is a well-known firm, which considered that even every business letter must be ended with “Heil Hitler!” As its clients were well known to it, the firm Kori once again inquired whether “two furnaces would be sufficient.” The firm, among other things, mentioned that it had already built four furnaces for Dachau and five for Lublin; it emphasized that its technically perfected furnaces gave full satisfaction in practice. I quote a very short excerpt of this document which the Tribunal will find on Page 471 in Volume II of the document book. I quote the first paragraph; this is Page 38, first paragraph of the text:
“Following our verbal discussion regarding the delivery of a crematorium installation of simple construction, we suggest our perfected coal-burning furnaces for crematoria which have hitherto given full satisfaction.
“We suggest two crematoria furnaces for the building planned, but we advise you to make further inquiries to make sure that two ovens will be sufficient for your requirements.”
I omit the next paragraph and continue the quotation:
“The area required for the furnaces, including space for the stokers and other personnel, is shown by the attached diagram. Sketch J. Number 8998 shows an installation with two furnaces. Sketch J. Number 9122 shows the arrangement of four furnaces in the construction projected for Dachau. A further sketch, J. Number 9080, shows the Lublin installation with 5 crematoria furnaces and two built-in compartments for stoking.”
I omit the next part of the document. The ending is very typical:
“Awaiting your further news, we will be at your service. Heil Hitler! C. H. Kori, G.m.b.H.”
And so we have established that the design and construction of the crematoria ovens for German concentration camps. . . .
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal would like to know, as they have not these letters before them, to whom they were addressed.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: This letter, Mr. President, was addressed to the SS units in Belgrade. These documents were taken by the Yugoslav Government. The SS units in Belgrade considered that the methods of extermination practiced in Bandetz and Saimyshte, which I have already described to the Tribunal, were not adequate and they decided to perfect them. For this purpose they started building, or rather they designed the construction of crematoria in the concentration camps. This was the subject of the lively business correspondence between the SS police and the SS units in Belgrade and the German firms, part of which I have just presented to you.
THE PRESIDENT: Were the other letters that you referred to also addressed to SS units?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, Mr. President, they were also addressed to the SS units. The first letter, addressed to the administration of the Auschwitz Camp was from the firm Topf and Sons.
I shall now present to the Tribunal evidence of the fact that besides the stationary crematoria, there existed also movable crematoria. The Tribunal already knows about the movable gas chambers. These were “murder vans.” There were also created transportable crematoria. An SS member, Paul Waldmann, testifies to their existence. He was one of the participants in the crime perpetrated by the German fascists when 840,000 Russian prisoners of war in Sachsenhausen were annihilated at one time. The Exhibit Number USSR-52 (Document Number USSR-52) on Auschwitz has already been presented to the Court. I quote that particular extract from the testimony of an SS member, Waldmann, which mentions the mass execution in Sachsenhausen:
“The war prisoners murdered in this way were cremated in four movable crematoria, which were transported on car trailers.”
I omit the next two pages of my report which deals with gas chambers and crematoria. I think the Tribunal already has a clear idea of this question. But I ask the Tribunal to pay attention to the repugnant methods introduced by the German fascists for industrial utilization of corpses. Further I shall present to the Tribunal evidence which would testify to even more repulsive utilization of the corpses. Now I shall quote from a report on Auschwitz, which the Tribunal will find on Page 353, reverse side, of the document book. Beside this I ask the Tribunal to refer to the Auschwitz album, where on Pages 34, 35, and 36 they will see the photographs of 7 tons of hair which was taken from dead women, packed for shipment to Germany. I begin the quotation:
“From 1943 the Germans, in order to utilize the bones which were not burned, started to grind them and sell them to the firm Strem for the manufacture of superphosphates. In the camp there were found bills of lading, addressed to the firm Strem, of 112 tons and 600 kilograms of bone meal from human corpses. The Germans also used for industrial purposes hair shorn from women who were doomed for extermination.”
I omit the next pages of my statement and I want to draw the Tribunal’s attention to the findings of a commission of technical experts which the Tribunal will find on Page 65, reverse side, of the document book, Paragraph 2.
Special research took place in the gas chambers. On the basis of exact chemical reactions it was established that poisoning in gas chambers was done by means of hydrocyanic acid, Cyclone A and Cyclone B, and also carbon-monoxide.
I quote one paragraph from the findings of the technical experts’ commission:
“Technical and medical-chemical analysis of the gas chambers in the concentration camps in Maidanek”—that is on Page 319 of the document, third paragraph—“confirms and proves that all those chambers, especially the first, second, third, and fourth, were designed and used for systematic and mass extermination of people by means of poisonous gases, such as hydrocyanic acid and carbon-monoxide.”
I omit the following extracts of my statement which describe the regime in the camps of Auschwitz and Maidanek. I consider that the Tribunal has already a very clear idea of this. Part of the people were sent immediately to their death in gas chambers, while the one-fifth or one-sixth which was left in the camp were subjected to starvation and killed afterwards. I had the intention of presenting many documents and excerpts from documents which confirm this fact; but to save time, I omit them, and pass on to Page 324 of my statement. I mention this for the convenience of the interpreters. I quote several facts which deal with cynical and repugnant plundering of inmates who were killed in Maidanek and Auschwitz. I ask the Tribunal to refer simultaneously with the text I am going to present to the Auschwitz album, where on Page 27 you will see a picture of suitcases, which were the property of the inmates; on Page 28 suitcases with labels of different countries and on Page 39 a colossal warehouse of children’s clothes; the same on Page 33.
The document which had not been presented in time, Your Honor, is the correspondence with the Kori firm—now presented to the Tribunal. I ask to be excused for the delay. I quote only that particular part of the report on Auschwitz, which the Tribunal will find on Page 325, on the reverse side, of the document book, where there is stated what was discovered by the commission at the warehouses of this camp. I quote one paragraph; this is on Page 325, second paragraph:
“On the grounds of the Auschwitz Camp there were 35 special warehouses for sorting and packing the belongings and clothes. Before the retreat under the pressure of the Red Army, 29 of these warehouses were burned with the things stored in them. In the remaining six were discovered:
“1. Men’s clothes and underwear, 348,820 sets; 2. female clothes and underwear, 836,255 sets; 3. women’s footwear, 5,525 pairs; 4. men’s footwear, 38,000 pairs; 5. rugs and carpets, 13,964 pieces.”
I omit the following two paragraphs and I quote . . . .
THE PRESIDENT: It is time to adjourn.
[The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours.]
Afternoon Session
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Your Honors, the same picture of organized plundering of the murdered persons was ascertained by the commission during the investigation of Maidanek. I will not quote in full this part of the communiqué of the Polish-Soviet Extraordinary Commission, and will quote only one excerpt of the general economic administration of the SS which is contained in the communiqué of the Polish-Soviet Extraordinary Commission, and which the Tribunal will find on the back of Page 66 of the document book, first column of the text, third paragraph. I begin the quotation:
“To all commandants of the concentration camps:
“According to a statement received from the Reich Security Main Office, parcels of clothing were sent from the concentration camps mainly to the Gestapo administration in Brünn and in some there were bullet holes and blood stains on the articles. Some of the parcels were damaged, so that outsiders could see what was inside them.
“As the Reich Security Main Office will in the near future issue regulations concerning the utilization of articles of property belonging to the deceased inmates, the sending of these articles is to cease immediately until definite regulations have been issued as to the disposal of property belonging to internees who have been put to death.
“Signed: Glücks, SS Brigadeführer and major general of the SS.”
I pass on to the presentation of evidence, depicting the scale of the crimes committed.
In only two camps of death the criminals exterminated 5½ million people. In proof of this I quote the conclusions of the Extraordinary State Commission for Auschwitz. I will quote only a short excerpt. It is preceded by a detailed calculation. The Tribunal will find this reference on Page 356 of the document book, second column of the text, fourth paragraph. I begin the quotation:
“However, employing rectified coefficients for the part-time use of the crematorium ovens and for the periods when they stood empty, the technical expert commission has ascertained that during the period of time that the Auschwitz Camp existed the German butchers exterminated in this camp not less than 4 million citizens of the U.S.S.R., Poland, France, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Holland, Belgium, and other countries.”
I quote the corresponding passages from the Polish-Soviet Extraordinary Commission’s report on Maidanek. The Tribunal will find this quotation on Page 66, reverse side, of the document book, second column of the text, Paragraph 6. I begin the quotation:
“The Polish-Soviet Extraordinary Commission has ascertained that during the 4 years’ existence of the extermination camp at Maidanek the Hitlerite hangmen, following the direct order of their criminal government, exterminated by mass shooting and mass killing in gas chambers approximately 1.5 million persons: Soviet prisoners of war, prisoners of war of the former Polish Army, and nationals of various countries—Poles, Frenchmen, Italians, Belgians, Dutch, Czechs, Serbs, Greeks, Croats, and a great number of Jews.”
With this document I conclude that section of my statement which concerns the concentration camps and pass on to the last section entitled, “Concealment of Traces of Crimes.”
During the period of their temporary military successes, the German fascist criminals did not bother themselves very much with concealing the trace of their crimes. They did not even consider it necessary to camouflage the burial grounds in which they hurled the bodies of the murdered persons after the shootings.
But after the defeat suffered by the Hitlerite war machine at Stalingrad, the situation changed. Fearing retaliation, the criminals began to take urgent measures to conceal the traces of their crimes. Where possible, they burned the corpses. Where this could not be done, the burial grounds were carefully camouflaged with moss or green foliage. The earth which covered the graves of those shot was smoothed out with special machines and with caterpillar tractors.
However, the main method adopted by the German fascist criminals for camouflaging their crimes was the burning of the corpses. The ashes from the burned bodies were strewn over the fields. The bones which had not been calcinated were crushed in special machines and mixed with manure for the preparation of fertilizers. In large camps the crushed bones of the victims were sold to the German firms to be transformed into superphosphates.
As proof of the enormous scale of the Hitlerites’ criminal activity directed toward concealing the traces of their crimes, I shall submit to the Tribunal a series of documents. I will refer, first of all, to the communiqué of the Polish-Soviet Extraordinary State Commission on Maidanek. This document was submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-29 (Document Number USSR-29). The part of the communiqué to which I refer will be found by the Tribunal on Page 65 of the document book, on the other side, Column 2 of the text, last paragraph. In order to save time, I will allow myself to summarize the contents of this document:
In the beginning of 1942 two ovens for the burning of corpses were built:
“As there were a great many corpses, the Germans, in 1942, began building, and by autumn of 1943 had concluded, the building of powerful crematoria consisting of five ovens. These ovens burned unceasingly. The temperature in these ovens could reach 1,500 degrees Celsius. In order to be able to put as many bodies as possible into the ovens, the corpses were dissected and the limbs hacked off.”
I omit the next paragraphs and beg the Tribunal to pay attention to the passage which is three paragraphs further down.
The ovens in the crematories proved to be inadequate, so the Germans were compelled to resort to special primitive cremation installations which had been made in the following way—I begin the quotation by Paragraph 1, Page 334 of the text:
“On rails or on automobile frames which served as grates planks were placed. Corpses were laid on the planks, then more planks, and again corpses. Five hundred to 1,000 corpses were piled on one pyre. All that was covered with gasoline and ignited.”
I quote a short excerpt which ascertains the scale of criminal actions taken to conceal the trace of these crimes, Page 336, first paragraph:
“The commission has ascertained that in the ovens of the crematoria alone more than 600,000 corpses were burned. More than 300,000 corpses were burned on the gigantic pyres in the Krempetz Woods; more than 80,000 corpses were burned in the two old ovens; not less than 400,000 corpses were burned on pyres in the camp itself, near the crematoria.”
As a proof of these same circumstances, that is to say, of the scale of the criminal activity of the Hitlerites in concealing the traces of their crimes, I refer now to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union for the town of Minsk. The members of the Tribunal will find this quotation on the back of Page 215, second column of the text, Paragraph 4. I quote a short excerpt:
“In the Blagovtschchina Woods 34 ditch graves were discovered, camouflaged with evergreen branches. Some of the graves reached a length of 50 meters. During a partial excavation of five of these graves, corpses and a layer of ashes 50 centimeters or 1 meter thick was discovered at a depth of 3 meters. Near the graves the commission discovered a great number of small human bones, hair, false teeth, and numerous small personal articles. The investigation has ascertained that the fascist exterminated here up to 150,000 persons.
“At a distance of 450 meters from the former hamlet of Petrashkevichi eight ditch graves have been discovered. Their size is 21 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 5 meters deep. Before every ditch grave there are enormous piles of ashes, remainders of the burned corpses.”
I omit the next page and in proof of this same circumstances I am now referring to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission concerning the crimes of the German fascist invaders in the Lvov region. This document has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-6. I quote a very short excerpt from this document. The part which I will quote will be found by the members of the Tribunal on Page 164, on the reverse side, second column of the text, Paragraph 5:
“Upon the order of Reich Minister Himmler and of Major General of Police Katzmann, special measures for exhuming and burning the corpses of murdered, peaceful citizens, Soviet prisoners of war, and citizens of foreign countries were carried out in June 1943. In Lvov the Germans created a special Sonderkommando Number 1005 composed of 126 men. The chief of this Kommando was Hauptsturmbannführer Scherlack; his assistant, Hauptsturmbannführer Rauch. The duty of this Sonderkommando was to exhume and burn the corpses of the civilians and prisoners of war who had been liquidated by the Germans.”
I dwell on this extract, and I would beg the Tribunal to remember this number, “Sonderkommando Number 1005.” This Kommando was the prototype of similar Sonderkommandos created by the Germans. Later, the Sonderkommandos created for this task received the numbers of 1005-A, 1005-B, et cetera.
I terminate the quotation with the conclusion of the medical-legal experts. I quote the last paragraph on Page 340 of the text:
“Thus the Hitlerite murderers adopted in the territory of the Lvov region the same methods for concealing their crimes which they employed earlier in connection with the murder of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest.
“The expert commission ascertained full similarity of method in camouflaging the graves in Lissenitzach Forest with those used to camouflage the graves of the Polish officers killed by the Germans at Katyn.
“To extend the experiments in exterminating people, cremating corpses, and camouflaging the crimes, the Germans set up in Lvov, in the Yanov Camp, a special school for the preparation of qualified cadre. The commandants of the camps of Lublin, Warsaw, Kraków, and other cities attended this school. The chief of the Sonderkommando Number 1005, Scherlack, taught the commandants on the spot how to organize the exhumation of the corpses from the graves, how to pile them on stacks, burn them, how to scatter the ashes, to crush the bones, to fill up the ditches, and how to plant trees and brush wood on the graves as camouflage.”
I now refer to a document which has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-61, which is the report of the examination in the town of Lvov of the special machine for the crushing of bones. This record may be found by the members of the Tribunal on Page 473 of the document book. As I have very little time left at my disposal, I shall only quote very short excerpts. I quote Paragraph I, on Page 342:
“The machine for crushing bones was mounted on a special carriage on the platform of a trailer. It is easily transportable by automobiles or other means of transportation without dismounting.”
I omit the next paragraph, and shall read one more short extract:
“The machine will function in any spot and does not require additional adaptation. It can be transported by automobile or any other vehicle.
“A machine of these dimensions can produce 3 cubic meters of calcinated bone powder during 1 hour.”
I omit the next four pages of the report, and submit to the Tribunal as evidence the original record of the interrogation of Gerhard Adametz (Exhibit USSR-80, Document Number USSR-80), taken by an American army lieutenant, Patrick McMahon. Gerhard Adametz was interrogated under oath. I dwell especially on this document, which has been put kindly at our disposal by our American colleagues, because Adametz’ testimony, to use a legal term, in some points corroborates our own evidential material. The testimony is very lengthy, and I will limit myself to a few short quotations.
Gerhard Adametz was a member of Sonderkommando 1005-B. I draw the attention of the Tribunal again to the fact that the first Sonderkommando was simply 1005; this one is Sonderkommando 1005-B. The excerpt which I shall quote from the testimony of Gerhard Adametz will be found by the members of the Tribunal on Page 480 of the document book, beginning with the second paragraph. Gerhard Adametz said that, together with 40 other members of the Schutzpolizei, he left Dniepropetrovsk and was sent to Kiev. I remind the Tribunal of the name of Baybe-yar, which the Tribunal has already heard. I begin to quote the testimony of Adametz, Page 347:
“Our Leutnant Winter reported about our column to Oberleutnant Hanisch, who was the Zugführer of the Schutzpolizei of Group 1005-A. The place smelled of corpses. We felt faint, stopped our noses, and tried not to breathe. Oberleutnant Hanisch addressed us. I remember the following excerpts:
“‘You have come to the place where you are to serve and support your comrades. You already smell an odor coming from the church behind us. We must all get used to this, and you must all do your duties. We will have to guard internees and do so very strictly. Everything that takes place here is the secret affair of the Reich. Everyone of you answers with his head if ever an internee under his guard succeeds in escaping; besides this, he will be subjected to a special regime. The same fate awaits anyone who lets out anything or is careless in his correspondence.’”
I omit the next sentence and continue the quotation:
“After this speech of Oberleutnant Hanisch, we were led out so as to acquaint ourselves with the place where we were to serve. We left the cemetery and were brought to an adjoining field. The road which crossed this field was guarded on both sides by policemen, who chased away all those who tried to approach it. In the field we saw about 100 internees resting from work. The legs of each internee were in chains of about 75 centimeters long. The internees were dressed in civilian clothes.”
I omit the next part of the paragraph and continue the quotation:
“The work of the internees consisted, as we found out later, of exhuming corpses which were buried here in two common graves, transporting them, piling them up in two enormous piles, and burning them. It is difficult to estimate; however, I believe that on this spot were buried from 40,000 to 45,000 corpses. One antitank ditch served as a grave and was partially filled with corpses. This ditch was 100 meters long, 10 meters wide, and 4 to 5 meters deep.”
I interrupt my quotation, and continue with the last paragraph of the text:
“On the day of our arrival, about 10 September 1943, there were three or four small piles of corpses on the field.”
It is interesting to note what this fascist expert in the burning of corpses understood by the words “small piles.” I continue the quotation:
“Every such pile consisted of about 700 corpses. It was about 7 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 2 meters high.”
I interrupt my quotation and continue from the next page:
“Here and in other places I observed the following methods which were employed (burning of corpses):
“With the aid of iron hooks, the corpses were dragged to certain spots and then piled on a wooden platform. Then the whole pile of corpses was surrounded with logs, petroleum was poured on and ignited.
“We, the policemen of detachment 1005-B, were then led back to the cemetery to the church. However, not one of us could eat because of the terrible smell and because of all we had seen.”
Although further on the text is very interesting, I have to leave it out in order to save time and continue the quotation from Page 351, second paragraph. I quote this excerpt, as in the report of the Kiev Extraordinary State Commission I already had the honor to report to the Tribunal about statements of internees who had fled from these Kommandos.
Adametz’ testimony gives full confirmation of this episode. I shall only read a short quotation:
“About 29 September 1943 at 4:15 a.m. during dense fog, about 30 internees escaped. They tore off their foot chains, rushed out of their barracks with shouts, and ran away in different directions. Six of them were shot; because of the dense fog the others succeeded in escaping.”
I interrupt my quotation. I beg the Tribunal to pay attention to the fact that as soon as the work of burning corpses was completed the internees were murdered. In proof of this I quote the following excerpt from Adametz’ statement, Page 352, second paragraph of the text:
“In other places where I also served as guard, the internees were murdered after their work (exhuming and burning of corpses) had been concluded. For this purpose they were brought in groups or individually, under the escort of the policemen chosen for this purpose, to a spot designated by the SD. The police were afterwards sent back to bring along more internees. Then the members of the SD forced the internees to lie, face down, on a wooden platform, and immediately shot them in the nape of the neck. The internees in many cases obeyed this order without resistance and lay down next to their comrades who already had been shot.”
I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the further career of the Sonderkommando. You will find information on this subject in the same record. This Sonderkommandant served in Kryvoy Rog, in Nikolaev, at Voznessensk, and in Riga. That is to say, it crossed my country nearly from the extreme south to the Baltic countries; a distance of thousands of kilometers. Everywhere it carried out the same work. In confirmation of this I will quote only a short excerpt regarding the last stage on the Kommando’s work in Riga—Page 357 of the statement. I begin the quotation, “We members of Kommando 1005-B received an order to go to several newly built barracks which were situated about 250 meters from six or seven mass graves.” I quote this passage, as Bikerneksky Forest will be shown in the documentary film:
“The latter were situated about 4 kilometers from the suburbs of Riga in the Bikern Forest”—in the record the name of the Bikerneksky Forest was spelled wrong—“there were about 10 or 12 thousand. A fresh group of 50 or 60 internees was brought there, and in the middle of June 1944 work began (the exhumation and burning of corpses) in the same way as I described at the beginning. This work was completed by the end of July 1944. I believe that at that period the front was only about 300 kilometers away. These 10,000 to 12,000 corpses were those of men, women, and children of all ages and had been buried about 2 years ago.”
I remind Your Honors, that the extract from the report of the Extraordinary State Commission which I quoted mentioned the date of the shooting as 1942, and this proves that these two testimonies concur with each other once again. I continue the quotation:
“The policemen believed that these people had been shot by the SS. However, this was only a supposition. This fresh group of 50 to 60 internees was murdered at the end of July 1944.”
I omit the following part of the document and will only quote the conclusion of Gerhard Adametz’ record, Page 359, Paragraph 4:
“Afterwards, we were of the opinion that the Nazis were actually afraid that the mass graves would be discovered by the advancing Russians and that these monstrous mass killings would become known to the civilized world. I believe that about 100,000 corpses were exhumed from mass graves by the SD, serving with the Sonderkommandos 1005-A and 1005-B. I believe that similar Kommandos also were engaged on the same work, but I do not know how many. If I had thought or known that I would ever be compelled to carry out this dirty and degrading work I would have emigrated somewhere.”
I omit the last part; the record concludes with the text of the oath and the signature of Gerhard Adametz.
Before submitting to the Tribunal the other evidence of another crime of the Hitlerites, I beg the Tribunal to allow me to make a few introductory remarks. The murder of several million people was carried out by the German fascist out of motives dictated by their mankind-hating, cannibal theories of racism and of the “right of masters” to exterminate peoples. All these murders were planned in cold blood. All these crimes, unprecedented in scale, were carried out at exact dates set for this purpose. Moreover, as I showed many times before, a special technique was invented for the mass killings and for the concealment of the traces of their crimes.
But, besides this, there is another characteristic in the many crimes committed by the German fascists which makes them even more detestable. In many cases, the Germans, having killed their victims, did not stop here, but made the corpses objects of jeers and mockery. Mockery of the dead bodies of victims was common practice in all extermination camps. I remind the Tribunal that the bones which had not been calcinated were sold by the German fascists to the firm Strem. The hair of the murdered women was cut off, packed in sacks, pressed and sent to Germany.
Among the same crimes are those on which I shall now submit evidence. On numerous occasions, I have already pointed out that the principal method used to cover up the traces was to burn the corpses, but the same base, rationalized SS technical minds which created gas chambers and murder vans, began devising such methods of complete annihilation of human bodies, which would not only conceal the traces of their crimes, but also serve in the manufacturing of certain products.
In the Danzig Anatomic Institute semi-industrial experiments in the production of soap from human bodies and the tanning of human skin for industrial purposes were carried out. I submit to the Tribunal, as Exhibit Number USSR-197 (Document Number USSR-197), the testimony of one of the direct participants in the production of soap from human fat. It is the testimony of Sigmund Mazur, who was a laboratory assistant at the Danzig Anatomic Institute.
I omit two pages of the statement and turn to Page 363. I begin the quotation—it is rather long, but I think I shall have the necessary time for the presentation of the evidence, and I beg to draw the attention of Your Honors to this quotation:
“Q: ‘Tell us how the soap was made out of human fat at the Danzig Anatomic Institute.’
“A: ‘In the courtyard of the Anatomic Institute a one-story stone building of three rooms was built during the summer of 1943. This building was erected for the utilization of human bodies and for the boiling of bones. This was officially announced by Professor Spanner. This laboratory was called a laboratory for the fabrication of skeletons, the burning of meat and unnecessary bones. But already during the winter of 1943-44 Professor Spanner ordered us to collect human fat, and not to throw it away. This order was given to Reichert and Borkmann.
“‘In February 1944 Professor Spanner gave me the recipe for the preparation of soap from human fat. According to this recipe 5 kilos of human fat are mixed with 10 liters of water and 500 or 1,000 grams of caustic soda. All this is boiled 2 or 3 hours and then cooled. The soap floats to the surface while the water and other sediment remain at the bottom. A bit of salt and soda is added to this mixture. Then fresh water is added, and the mixture again boiled 2 or 3 hours. After having cooled the soap is poured into molds.’”
I will present to the Tribunal these molds into which the soap was poured. Further I shall prove that this half-finished sample of human soap was really found in Danzig.
“The soap had an unpleasant odor. In order to destroy this disagreeable odor, Benzolaldehyd was added.”
I omit the next part of the quotation, which explains from where they received this preparation. This is of no importance at this stage, and I continue the quotation on Page 364, Paragraph 4:
“The fat of the human bodies was collected by Borkmann and Reichert. I boiled the soap out of the bodies of women and men. The process of boiling alone took several days—from 3 to 7. During two manufacturing processes, in which I directly participated, more than 25 kilograms of soap were produced. The amount of human fat necessary for these two processes was 70 to 80 kilograms collected from some 40 bodies. The finished soap then went to Professor Spanner, who kept it personally.
“The work for the production of soap from human bodies has, as far as I know, also interested Hitler’s Government. The Anatomic Institute was visited by the Minister of Education, Rust; the Reichsgesundheitsführer, Doctor Conti; the Gauleiter of Danzig, Albert Forster; as well as professors from other medical institutes.
“I used this human soap for my personal needs, for toilet and for laundering. For myself I took 4 kilograms of this soap.”
I omit one paragraph and continue the quotation.
“Reichert, Borkmann, Von Bargen, and our chief professor, Spanner, also personally used this soap.”
I omit the following paragraphs and conclude the quotation on Page 365, from where I shall read one paragraph which concerns the industrial utilization of human skin:
“In the same way as for human fat, Professor Spanner ordered us to collect human skin, which after having been cleaned of fat was treated by certain chemical products. The work on human skin was carried out under the direction of the chief assistant, Von Bargen and Professor Spanner himself. The ‘finished’ skin was packed in boxes and used for special purposes which I don’t know.”
I now submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-196 (Document Number USSR-196), the copy of the recipe for soap produced from the corpses of the executed. I will not dwell on this recipe which is identical to that which has already been described in Mazur’s testimony. But the proof of the fact that this recipe is correct, Your Honors, can be found in Mazur’s record, which has already been submitted to the Tribunal under Document Number USSR-197. I will not quote this record. In order to prove that the record of Mazur’s interrogation corresponds to reality, I shall now submit to the Tribunal two documents which have been kindly put at our disposal. They are records of sworn statements by two British prisoners of war; in particular that of John Henry Witton, a soldier of the Royal Sussex Regiment. The document is submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-264 (Document Number USSR-264). The members of the Tribunal will find this quotation in Paragraph 5, Page 495, of the document book. I quote a very short excerpt from this record, if the necessary time is granted to me. This is Page 367. I quote:
“The corpses arrived at an average of seven to eight per day. All of them had been beheaded and were naked. They arrived sometimes in a Red Cross wagon containing five to six corpses in a wooden case and sometimes in a small truck which contained three to four corpses.”
I omit the next sentence.
“The corpses were unloaded as quickly as possible and taken down into the cellar, which was entered from a side door in the main entrance hall of the Institute.”
I omit the next sentence.
“They were then put into large metal containers where they were then left for approximately 4 months.”
I omit the next three sentences and continue the quotation:
“Owing to the preservative mixture in which they were stored, this tissue came away from the bones very easily. The tissue was then put into a boiler about the size of a small kitchen table. . . . After boiling the liquid it was put into white trays about twice the size of a sheet of foolscap and about 3 centimeters deep.”—These were the basins which I have already shown the Tribunal—“Approximately 3 to 4 trayfuls per day were obtained from the machine.”
This witness himself did not witness the application of the soap, but I am submitting to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-272 (Document Number USSR-272), the written testimony of a British citizen, William Anderson Neely, a corporal of the Royal Signals. The members of the Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 498 of the document book, Volume 2. I begin the quotation:
“The corpses arrived at an average rate of 2 to 3 per day. All of them were naked and most of them had been beheaded.”
I interrupt the quotation—I omit two paragraphs and continue the quotation:
“A machine for the manufacture of soap was completed some time in March or April 1944. The British prisoners of war had constructed the building in which it was housed in June 1942. The machine itself was installed by a civilian firm from Danzig by the name of AJRD. It consisted, as far as I remember, of an electrically heated tank in which bones of the corpses were mixed with some acid and melted down.
“This process of melting down took about 24 hours. The fatty portions of the corpses and particularly those of females were put into a crude enamel tank, heated by a couple of bunsen burners. Some acid was also used in this process.
“I think it was caustic soda. When boiling had been completed, the mixture was allowed to cool and then cut into blocks for microscopic examination.”
I continue the quotation from the following paragraph:
“I cannot estimate the quantity produced, but I saw it used by Danzigers in cleaning tables in the dissecting rooms. They all told me it was excellent soap for this purpose.”
I submit half-finished and some finished soap. (Exhibit USSR-393) Here you shall see a small piece of finished soap, which from the exterior, after lying about a few months, reminds you of ordinary household soap. I give it over to the Tribunal. Beside this I now submit to the Tribunal the samples of semi-tanned human skin (Exhibit USSR-394). The samples which I now submit prove that the process of manufacturing soap was already completely worked out by the Institute of Danzig; as to the skin it still looks like a semi-finished product. The skin which resembles most the leather used in manufacture is the one you see on top at the left. So one can consider that the experiments on the industrial fabrication of soap from human fats were quite completed in the Danzig Institute. Experiments on tanning of human skin were still incomplete and only the victorious advance of the Red Army put an end to this new crime of the Nazis.
Gentlemen, I have now to submit to you only one more piece of evidence, which is the last among the proofs concerning war crimes against the peaceful population presented by the U.S.S.R. Prosecution. Besides, certain witnesses may arrive here from the Soviet Union who may testify concerning the points which I have submitted. I will beg the permission of the Tribunal to examine these witnesses after the presentation of further evidence is finished.
Before submitting my last proof, I beg the Tribunal to allow me to make a few conclusive remarks.
The lengthy list of crimes against the peaceful inhabitants of the temporarily occupied areas of the U.S.S.R., Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Greece cannot be exhausted even in the most detailed statement. One can only point out a few very typical cases of cruelties, of base and systematic methods adopted by the major criminals who had conceived these crimes, as well as those who executed these crimes. Those who are now in the dock have freed from “the chimera of so-called conscience” hundreds of thousands and millions of criminals. They educated these criminals and created for them an atmosphere of impunity and drove their bloodthirsty hounds against peaceful citizens. They mocked at human conscience and self-respect. But those who were poisoned in murder vans and gas chambers, those who were torn to shreds, those whose bodies were burned in the ovens of crematoria and whose ashes were strewn to the winds, appeal to the conscience of the world. Now we cannot yet name, or even number, many of the burial places where millions of innocent people were vilely murdered. But on the damp walls of the gas chambers, in the places of the shootings, in the forts of death, on the stones and casemates of the prisons, we can still read brief messages of the doomed, full of agony, calling for retribution. Let the living ones remember these voices of the victims of German fascist terror, who before dying appealed to the conscience of the world for justice and for retribution.
As a last proof I submit to the Tribunal the script and the sworn affidavit of the persons who assembled and made this documentary film. I beg the Tribunal to accept as evidence this documentary film (Document Number USSR-81). I also beg the Tribunal to allow, if possible, a short recess—about 10 minutes—for the technical preparation of the demonstration of these documents.
[A recess was taken.]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Your Honor, may I have permission to present now the documentary evidence?
[The documentary film entitled, “The Atrocities by the German Fascist Invaders in the U.S.S.R.,” was then shown.]
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, have you finished your address?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I have finished the presentation of my evidence, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Can you inform the Tribunal how much longer the Soviet Delegation is likely to be?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I find it difficult to give you an answer to this question. I will ask the Chief Prosecutor to do this.
GEN. RUDENKO: Tomorrow we shall begin the presentation of evidence on spoliation and pillage of communal and private property, and we think that the speaker on this question will conclude the presentation of the materials tomorrow. Then there will be presented to the Tribunal the evidence as to destruction of cities, villages, monuments of national culture and art. That will take approximately a day and a half. In other words, I mean half of Thursday’s or Friday’s session, and a half of the following day’s session, taking into account that on this question we shall also have to present a documentary film.
Then there will be presented evidence concerning deportation of slave labor. This will take approximately 3 to 4 hours. The final presentation deals with evidence of Crimes against Humanity. During the presentation of the evidence in all the sections we shall call several witnesses, with the permission of the Tribunal. I could not present to the Tribunal today a list of the witnesses, because there are difficulties in bringing them here to Nuremberg. This list will be formulated tomorrow toward the end of the session.
To sum up, I think that altogether the Soviet Prosecution will conclude the presentation of evidence either Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. We will adjourn now.
[The Tribunal adjourned until 20 February 1946 at 1000 hours.]
TRANSCRIBER NOTES
Punctuation and spelling have been maintained except where obvious printer errors have occurred such as missing periods or commas for periods. English and American spellings occur throughout the document; however, American spellings are the rule, hence, “Defense” versus “Defence”. Unlike Blue Series volumes I and II, this volume includes French, German, Polish and Russian names and terms with diacriticals: hence Führer, Göring, Kraków, and Ljoteč etc. throughout.
Although some sentences may appear to have incorrect spellings or verb tenses, the original text has been maintained as it represents what the tribunal read into the record and reflects the actual translations between the German, English, French, and, most specifically with this volume, Russian documents presented in the trial.
An attempt has been made to produce this eBook in a format as close as possible to the original document presentation and layout.
[The end of Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal Vol. VII, by Various.]