The Crimes of the 7th SS Division "Prinz Eugen" in Orna Gora (Montenegro)
The various German divisions operating in the area of occupied Jugoslavia marked their path by traces of devastation and annihilation of the peaceful population which will testify to the criminal character of the German conduct of the war for many years to come. The operations of the German divisions were in reality primitive expeditions. They destroyed and burned down whole
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villages and exterminated the civil population in a barbarous manner, without any military necessity whatsoever.
The 7th SS Division "Prinz Eugen" is famed for its cruelty. Its very creation alone proves that it was an instrument for committing crimes; it was formed by the Regional Commander of Police in Serbia, SS Obergruppenfuehrer, and like all SS formations, was subordinated to the Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler. Furthermore, the men of this division were especially suited to the execution of such plans, for they consisted chiefly of persons of German race from the Banat, who played their criminal part also as a fifth column before the war, and, after the collapse, by participating in the crimes of Kraginjevac in the service of the Gestapo etc.
In October of the year 1942 the division "Prinz Eugen" commenced its criminal march through the Yugoslav Provinces. Wherever it passed—through Serbia, through Bosnia and Herze-gorina, through Lika and Banija so through Dalmatia — everywhere it left behind scenes of conflagration and devastation and the bodies of innocent men, women and children who had been burned in the houses.
At the end of May 1943 the division "Prinz Eugen" came to Montenegro to the area of Miksic in order to take part in the fifth enemjr offensive in conjunction with the Italian troops. This offensive was called offensive "Black" (Schwarz) by the German occupying forces. Proceeding from Herzegorina parts of the division fell upon the peaceful villages of the Kiksic district: Gornje, Polje, Rastovac, Orah, Granice, Praga, Jasenovo Polje, Duge and Dubocka.
Immediately after its invasion, this formation, opening fire with all its arms, commenced to commit outrageous crimes on the peaceful villages for no reason at all. Everything they came across they burned down, murdered and pillaged. The officers and men of the SS division "Prinz Eugen" committed crimes of an outrageous cruelty on this occasion. The victims were shot, slaughtered and tortured, or burnt to death in burning houses. Where a victim was found not in his house, but on the road or in the fields some distance away, he was murdered and burned there. Infants with their mothers, pregnant women and frail old people were also murdered. In short, every civilian met by these troops in these villages was murdered. In many cases, whole families who, not expecting such treatment or lacking the time for escape, had remained quietly in their homes, were annihilated and murdered. Whole families were thrown into burning houses in many cases and thus burned.
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It has been established from the investigations entered upon that 121 persons, mostly women, and including 30 persons aged 60-92 years, and 29 children of ages ranging from 6 months to 14 years, were executed on this occasion in the horrible manner narrated above.
The villages of Gornje Polje, Duga, Rastovac, Orah, Vrbive, Grance, Prag Jasenovo Polje were burned down and razed to the ground. On the basis of the data collected so far, 262 households with all furniture, subsidiary buildings and all contents were completely destroyed in these villages.
Besides this, the German soldiers drove all the cattle away from all the villages and, before burning them down, stole household utensils, clothing, food, jewelry, money etc. This ruthless destruction and plundering caused total damage amounting to 16,144,240 Dinars.
For all of these most serious war crimes those responsible besides the actual culprits—the members of the SS Division "Prinz Eugen"—are all superior and all subordinated commanders as the persons issuing and transmitting the orders for murder and devastation.
Among others the following war criminals are known: SS Gruppenfuehrer and Lieutenant-General of the Waffen SS Phelps, Artur, Divisional Commander, later Commander of the V SS corps; Major-General of the Waffen SS von Oberkamp, Ritter Karl, Commander of the XIII Regiment, later Divisional Commander; Major General Schmidthuber, August, Commander of the XIV Regiment, later Divisional Commander; SS Standartenfuehrer Bachman; SS Sturmbannfuehrer Diltsche, Battalion Commander in the XIV Regiment; SS Sturmbannfuehrer Vollmer, Battalion Commander in the III Regiment; SS Sturmbannfuehrer Breimeier, Battalion Commander; SS Sturmfuehrer Brenner, Battalion Commander; SS Sturmfuehrer Tot, Company Commander of the II Company of a mountain regiment; SS Sturmfuehrer Kruste, Company Commander; SS Untersturmfuehrer Michelis, Wilhelm, Company Commander; SS Untersturmfuehrer Petro-vitsch von Halding, Company Commander; SS Obersturmfuehrer Beyer, adjutant of the XIV Regiment; SS Obersturmfuehrer Kern; SS Obersturmfuehrer Muchitsch, adjutant; SS Obersturmfuehrer Petersen, in a mountain regiment; SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Turmann; SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Auerbach; SS Sturmfuehrer Pelichstein, in the XIII Regiment; SS Untersturmfuehrer Dr. Adelmeier, Franz, Wild, Dumont, Hauber; SS Oberseharfuehrei Strauss, and SS Schutze Richtmueller.
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All the above mentioned criminals must be put on trial for the war crimes which they committed, and must be most severely punished.
The Secretary of the State Commission Dr. Ivan Grgic e.h. advocate
Belgrade, 14th January, 1946.
No. D 472. The President of the State Commission
Dr. Dusan Nedeljkovic University Professor.
Report on war crimes committed by the SS Prinz Eugen division in Montenegro, including the killing of villagers and looting
Authors
Ivan Grgic (Dr., secretary, Yugoslav State Commission (on war crimes))
Ivan Grgic
- Additional details not yet available.
Dusan Nedeljkovic (Prof., president of Yugoslav State Commission (on war crimes))
Dusan Nedeljkovic
philosopher
- Born: 1899-05-18 (Isakovo) (country: Kingdom of Serbia)
- Died: 1984-06-29 (Belgrade) (country: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
- Occupation: philosopher; university teacher
- Member of: Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts; Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
- Employer: Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje; University of Belgrade
- Educated at: Faculty of Arts of Paris (academic degree: Doctorate in France; academic major: philosophy; until: 1922-01-01)
- VIAF ID: https://viaf.org/viaf/3491389
- ISNI: https://isni.org/isni/0000000103740889
Yugoslav State Commission for Investigating the Crimes of the Occupying Power
Date: 14 January 1946
Literal Title: The Crimes of the 7th SS Division "Prinz Eugen" in Crna Gora (Montenegro)
Total Pages: 2
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: D-940
HLSL Item No.: 451496
Notes:D 940 (not necessarily this copy) was entered as UK exhibit 555 in the trial. It is also identified as document J 129 (J standing for Yugoslavia).