A. Yes, quite.
Q. May I now ask you, witness, to tell the Tribunal briefly what the point of the conference was?
A. When we had this conference with the ministers, we made it clear that executive power in my area was not invested in my person or the Wehrmacht as such, but in the Croatian authorities and only should there be a serious emergency I was promised and told that executive power would be transferred to me. That would be done for purely military reasons. In such a case it was planned to declare a state of emergency and once on a later occasion I had to avail myself of that possibility in Banja Luka.
Q. I think we have made that clear now, General, and perhaps you could now tell the Tribunal the following; you stated that such detailed information as was necessary for you, you were to be given by your staff, that is the staff of the XVth corps; how did you avail yourself of information about the military situation from your officers who held the various posts?
A. When taking over a new position it is my custom that first of all I leave everything as I found it and acquaint myself at first with both the persons and the facts of the matter until I finally decide on a change. When I ask the various experts to call on me, they will then tell me everything about the most important currant events within their scope. They will talk for about ten or fifteen minutes and then I always endeavor to go to the spot and find out about everything.
Court No. V, Case No. VII.
Q. I take it you followed that custom on the occasion, too.
A. Yes.
Q. Now, we should briefly deal with the military situation in your area. In order to make all this quite clear, I included in my document Book I, on page 21, Leyser Document No. 11, a number of sketches which I offer as Leyser Exhibit No. 15. In order to make these maps and sketches easy to lock at, your general put a few places in certain colors. Perhaps I can show the prosecution a a copy of this map and the other three copies I have handed to the Tribunal. Let me ask one question to make the record clear; did you make the sketches?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. And do they contain, to the best of your knowledge and belief the military situation as you found it at the time?
A. They do, indeed. Yes, this is now I remember the military situation at the time.
Q. Do you have the sketches in front of you, witness?
A. Yes, I have.
Q. May I now ask you when you explain the tactical situation to us to refer to the maps and tell the Court what your chief of staff has told you about the military situation at the time?
A. The Chief of Staff together with the Ia told me what the military situation in the corps area was. What I found at the time is shown on sketch No. 1. This map shows the sector of the XVth Mountain Corps when I took over on 1 November 1943. Borders of the Corps Area are shown by dots and dashes on the left and right. Now, the red markings on the sketch represent the areas after the Italian capitulation which were then threatened by the bands. This shows that even there almost the whole of the former Italian area, including the islands, had to be cleansed of the bands to begin with in order to carry out the main assignment of the corps; namely, to fortify the defensive positions on the coast.
Our own troops are shown on the sketch with blue markings. This shows that on the right in the right sector of the Corps the coast between Nowi -to spell that, N o w i, Senj -- S e n j, and Zablanac -Z a b l a n a c, Karlobag -- K a r l o b a g, and Obravac had not been reached by our troops yet. The places of Karlovac and Glina in the northern part of the map were occupied by Croatian troops or Ustascha troops.
In the left sector of the corps, the left half, as it were, after the Italian capitulation there were only the three big coastal towns of Zara -- to spell it, Z a r a, Sibenik -- S i b i n i k, and Split -- S p l i t, which were occupied by the 115th Light Infantry Divisions. These three harbor towns were equipped for defensive fighting as fortresses, can be seen by the sketch. This all-around defense in the case of these two towns was meant against a possible landing from the sea.
I draw special attention to this because later on when the evacuation began it became important.
As far as this left sector was concerned, there was at first only one supply road which lead through the mountains from Bihac, which is in the center of the sketch, via Kuin to Sibenik and that road was secured by our own troops. Zara and Split were without any line of communication.
North from Kuin as far as Bihac to Banja-Luka, this area was to be secured by the 373rd Division. I wish to draw special attention to the railway line Bihac-BanjaLuka and Bihac-Sisah-Zagreb because that will become of great importance later on.
Q. Now, your main task was, as you have just said, to extend the fortifications of the coast against the expected landing. Can you tell us briefly how this assignment was to be carried out?
A. May I have reference here to Sketch No. 2?
PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: As a matter of information to the Tribunal, you have given a number of exhibit numbers 15. Do you wish to designate -- and you have handed four copies of a map to the members of the Tribunal -- do you wish to designate them in successive order by an initial or sub-number?
DR. TIPP: Yes, your Honor, These sketches have been summed up into the one document, so to speak, Document 11, and the entire document is offered as Exhibit 15. The four sketches, therefore, have only one exhibit number.
PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: And that number is the four sketches?
PR. TIPP: Yes, your Honor.
PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: Very well.
A. From that sketch it becomes clear that extending the defensive position on the Coast and the safeguarding of the line of communication were the aims and assignment of the corps. I have said before what things looked like when I took over the corps. First of all, a large area under the corps that had before been occupied by the Italians had first to be occupied by us and made safe. Sketch 1 showed that wide areas were endangered by the bands, particularly in the right sector held by the corps. There we had the region of Petrova-Gora -- to spell it, P-e-t-r-o-w-a - G-o-r-a, and Samarica -- S-a-m-a-r-i-c-a. Both of these areas were bases for the bands and that was the first area which we had to clean from bands.
The assignment was to have a first defensive position along the coast and for that purpose the islands before the coast were to be occupied as a sort of advanced position, as it were. The orders which the corps received at the time frequently changed. Once we had the order that all islands were to be occupied. On another occasion we were ordered to occupy only a few of the more important ones which explains why so often orders changed when the islands were evacuated and I shall have to explain that later on. Also a second defensive position was planned along the foothills of the mountains which the sketch also shows.
The line of supply there for those two defensive positions had to be secured. This the sketch also shows and these positions were extended as strong points.
PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: Just a moment. Before adjourning for the noon recess the Presiding Judge Wennerstrum desires to make a statement.
THE PRESIDENT: At this morning's session of the court we have been favored with the presence of one representative of the prosecution. The head of the prosecution staff, whichever individual he may be is not present nor has he asked to be excused We have had three representatives of the defense counsel present including Dr. Tipp who is representing the defense now on the stand.
The other defense counsel, with the exception of two, have not asked to be excused.
The Tribunal does not know whether the lack of the attendance on the part of counsel is indicative of their interest in this case or their attitude towards the Tribunal. Suffice it to say, at least as far as I am concerned, it is not looked upon with favor. The Tribunal asks to be remembered to the absent individuals.
PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: The Court will adjourn until one-thirty this afternoon.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is in recess until 1330 hours.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 1330 hours.)
AFTERNOON SESSION (The hearing reconvened at 1330 hours 6 November 1947)
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.
PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: You may continue.
ERNST von LEYSER - Resumed DIRECT EXAMINATION - Continued BY DR. TIPP:
Q. General, before the recess we were discussing your tactical tasks and you stated what defense positions were planned and described the first defense position to which the islands belonged as a kind of outpost, and I would like you to continue to describe the second defense position.
A. In addition there was a so-called second defense position. This position lay in the foothills, and in the sketch this is the blue line from the right flank to the left flank towards Sinie; and I can conclude this short tactical statement with this; and I think that this sketch two, gives and should give an impression of the enormous work which had to be done in order to reconnoitre and to build up these positions, and, therefore, the great extensions within the sphere of the corps. Every division had about 100 to 150 kilometers to consider and I think from Sketch 2 one can see that the main activity of the tactical leadership of the 15th Mountain Army Corps did not consist in carrying out reprisal measures or in exterminating the population, but our main worry was, rather more to extend and develop the defense positions and to make them as complete as possible before the expected invasion took place. The combatting of the bands themselves was primarily a matter of secondary importance.
Q. And now, General, I would ask you to put the sketches aside. Sketches 3 and 4 will be discussed later. And now let's go over to another question, and that is: who was your enemy, first of all, in this sphere?
A. I stated the main task of the corps was to consolidate the coastal defense positions and, connected with this enemy No. 1, was the Allied Troops whose landing we expected on the coast.
Enemy No. 2 was the bands.
Q. Now, General, let's talk about the band situation and especially band warfare. You only came relatively late to this area -- that is, at the time in which the band fighting had already been going on for some years and therefore, you were told what the officers of your staff knew about band warfare and band tactics.
Please, would you describe, first of all, quite briefly, what you hoard from your competent staff officers about combatting the bands in your area?
A. This was the task of the Ic. The Ic showed me, by aid of a map, the enemy situation. This, I must say, looked rather rough. And for me it was terribly confusing at first because I was only used to thinking about warfare in connection with fronts, but in this case the enemy was everywhere and nowhere and that was the horrible and uncanny thing about it; and then the Ic also talked about brigades and divisions and then he said in answer to my question: "Those are only the designations which the bands give themselves in order to give their groups some kind of military appearance," and then he said in answer to my question how he knew this: "This we learn mostly from the enemy radio, and we ourselves use these terms so that we always know in the enemy reports which bands they are talking about."
Q. With regard to the band situation, and the band warfare, one preliminary basic question: General, you know that Count 3 of the Indictment charges you, as well as all the other defendants, with refusing to recognize regular troops as a belligerent power although after the collapse of their own army, these troops just continued the fighting.
Now, my question is: were these actually regular troops who continued the fighting with the German troops in 1941 and afterwards, or how did the situation appear to you?
A. One can't speak at all about regular enemy troops as regards the bands.
The Jugoslav Army had capitulated for a long time. Croatia was completely occupied. It was an independent state which was allied to Germany and the only regular troops in my sector were the German troops and the troops of the allied state, and before that one could have also have included the Italian Army, but they were no longer there when I arrived.
Q. Did these bands wear a standard uniform, as has often been asserted here?
A. I was there until 1945 and I can say that at no time did the bands wear regular and standard uniforms. The prosecution states that some documents contain reference to uniforms and, therefore, that this proves that the bands adhered to one of the four provisions of the Hague Land Warfare Convention. In my opinion, these documents proved exactly the contrary; namely, that these questions of uniform were exactly the exception, and they were only reported if some person in the bands wore a uniform. If the bulk of the bands had worn uniforms, proper uniforms, then, in my opinion, this would never have been reported, the same as the French or the Russian war reports received never stated that they wore the corresponding uniforms. This is a matter of course in a regular army, but here amongst the bands this was an exception.
In addition if they wore a uniform at all, it was not a standard uniform, they wore all possible kinds of uniform in the world; and with regard to their arms, they had no standard weapon at all. They had American arms, English arms, captured German arms, captured Yugoslav weapons, and all weapons one could possibly think of. In our operations we were able to determine this when we pushed forward into their positions and found there equipment and weapons of all kinds.
Q With regard to this question, Witness, a number of Prosecution documents have been submitted, and I would like to discuss them briefly with you. The first document concerned here is in Document Book XIV -one, four. It is on English and German Page 1, and it is Exhibit No. 337.
PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: Dr. Tipp, in giving the citations please go a little more slowly. It's necessary for us to secure the books.
DR. TIPP: Yes, Your Honor, I will do that.
BY DR. TIPP:
Q I am now referring to Document Book XIV, submitted by the Prosecution. And the document to which I wish to refer is the first document in this book, Document NOKW-1391. This is Exhibit No.337. The report to which I refer here is on Page 1 of this Exhibit. This is a teletype, dated the 25th of August 1943, and the sender cannot be seen from the document, but its contents are a Daily Report, dated the 25th of August 1943. It reports on communists from Skander-Parkov. It states that these communists wore black uniforms.
Could you state anything additional about this, Witness, to what you have already stated?
A First of all, this teletype is before my time. It is dated the 25th of August 1943, and I only arrived on the first of November 1943. And for the rest, this is everything which I have already mentioned.
Q The next document I wish to refer to is contained in the same Document Book and it is the following Exhibit, No. 338; Document NOKW 1423. The report to which I wish to refer is on Page 3 of the German and English Document Book. This is a teletype of the 44th Division to the headquarters of the XVth Mountain Army Corps. The date is the 31st of August 193. And the contents refer again to enemy in gray uniform. And in the same document, on Page 4 of the English Document Book, there is a teletype of the 337th Division, dated the 30th of August 1943, to the XVth Mountan Army Corps, and here it states that the enemy was the Herzegovinian Brigade. I think I can assume that the Prosecution submitted this document in order to show the regular character of these units and to stress this fact.
Have you anything to say with regard to this, Witness?
A This document also bears a date prior to my time and, therefore, the same applies as I have said before.
Q And, now, during the further course of this examination we will come to other documents which the Prosecution has presented, and they are supplements in the Document Book. These are Exhibits numbered 552-1 through 552-8, and I think they are contained behind Document Book XXIV, at the back. I think they were to be inserted there. All these documents are photographs of all kinds of alleged prisoners, and here the Prosecution thought they could prove that these were regular and standard uniformed troops.
Can you tell us anything special about these documents, General?
A Here, again, I can only say that this was all prior to my time-1942 and 1943.
Q You only saw these documents for the first time here in the trial?
A Yes.
Q And in the same connection are Documents 551-1 through 551-7, which belong here. These documents were also submitted by the Prosecution and inserted in the same place in the Document Book, and the photographs show individual prisoners obviously members of bands. I think that these photographs, too, are supposed to prove the same as the former ones. I would like to give you these documents, General. Perhaps you can say something about them also.
(Dr. Tipp hands the documents in question to the witness)
A Yes, in regard to these documents I would like to say principally that nothing else can be seen from them except the fact that they are indigenous prisoners. And I think it is quite out of the question that they are German PW's or prisoners captured by the German Wehrmacht because it is not usual that one photographs prisoners with all their arms Court No. V, Case No. VII.
and equipment. In addition Photographs 551-3 and 551-6 show the people with all their weapons and all their munition and munition belts and everything possible. And for this rest the photographs show quite clearly that this is not a standard uniform as worn by a regular army or as has to be worn by a regular army. The people here wear pieces of uniforms and some of them are wearing civilian clothing. I think I can say quite briefly that these pictures actually show that this is not the uniform as worn by a regular army, but it is one makeshift uniform which they have probably taken from wounded and dead soldiers and from which they have made a kind of uniform; but in these pictures one can certainly not see any kind of standard uniform. In addition, as I can see from the pictures here, these people sometimes wore on their caps a Soviet star, and not even all of them did so. This Soviet star is again so small that one really cannot regard it as a badge of regular troops which can be recognized from a distance. In conclusion I would like to say that all these pictures, as I have already said, are rather more proof for the fact that these troops were not regular uniformed troops.
Q I think, General, the question of uniform is now sufficiently portrayed. Would you please now state something about the general methods of fighting of the bands, because this is also very important.
A If one talks about band fighting, then, in my opinion, one must differentiate between the fighting against the large bands and the defense and sabotage acts of the small bands. In addition, there in the Croatian area there were regular robber bands, which are not feasible in the Balkans. These latter people mostly robbed and plundered and murdered and any kind of political tendencies amongst these people were non-existent. Their activity and the defense against it, in my opinion, has nothing at all to do with war or fighting or anything like that. The acts of sabotage and the raids were, however, carried out by the small bands, while the members of the large bands--I describe only the conditions as they were in my sector; I cannot judge the other Court No. V, Case No. VII.
sectors--were mostly formed into so-called brigades and regiments, as they called themselves, and hid themselves in woods and the mountains, the small bands remained in their own villages. The perpetrators of such acts of sabotage and raids antrocities, as they occurred, were vary difficult to get hold of, sine a the members of such small bands appeared after the raid as harmless peasants and shepherds. They hid their weapons and could not be distinguished at all from the peaceful citizens. And as a deterrent against these kinds of sabotage acts, there was often nothing else to do except to threaten and to carry out reprisal measures. I have already stated that there was no kind of organizational unity between the small bands at all. These small bands also did not carry their weapons openly. Of course they had no conspicuous distinguishing badges and, above all, it was their manner of fighting which placed them out side any kind of law. Sabotage acts on bridges, roads, railroads, etc. all took on their agenda. Individual soldiers and small units and vehicle columns were attacked by them, and the wounded and killed were entirely plundered. I would like to say that one of their principles was to slaughter the wounded, one could say, and were mutilated in the most horrible manner. Evan in the ethnic fighting these kinds of things took place again and again down there, and this sort of thing has never occurred anywhere else and was never to be seen in any other place.
Q General, you have now described to us the methods of fighting of the small bands. What about the large bands?
A The position was rather different with respect to the large bands. The large bands also described themselves as "brigades" and "divisions" and "regiments" ate. But here also there can be no mention of regular troops or a regular militia as recognized by International Law, of course, up until 1945. It was always the case here, one can say of guerrila fighting, when fighting these bands one had to be quite clear as to how one could eliminate them militarily. In the conditions there, this could only be dona by applying their own tactics.
Court No. V, Case No. VII.
Q And an interim question: General, you told us the manner in which the small bands fought, and you said that they were outside the laws of humanity. I would like to ask you here what the position of the large bands was in this connection. Did they also observe the laws of war, that is, as regards the wounded and the prisoners who fell into their hands?
A The method of fighting of the large bands was in no way different from that of the small bands. The large bands were also incredibly cruel and especially so against the wounded. Prisoners were, on principle, not taken. If they took prisoners then these prisoners were, first of all, plundered, and their clothes and uniforms were taken away. The bands, of course, wore the clothes later on as a socalled regular army and the prisoners were given rags, and they had to walk around in them. But the large bands also never in any way adhered to the provisions of the Geneva Convention.
Q And a military question with regard to this problem, General: Can you, by reason of your general experience, tell us anything about the positions which the large bands built and consolidated for themselves, and the system of defense which they had built up?
A One of course cannot speak at all about regular positions with regard to the large bands. There was also no proper front. As I have already said, the bands partly hid in isolated woods and built their own bases and strong points there, and there they set up wooden huts, and these were developed, more or less with small trenches into some kind of defense position, but, above all, these bands used houses as positions. Because they could hide themselves from the heavy weapons which we used and they were here also afforded protection by the terrain. So that the fighting against these large bands, I must say, consisted mainly of house to house fighting because the bands hid in these houses. And in my opinion this can also be seen again and again from the documents. The fact that the depots and such were always found in houses is proof of this. When these depots were destroyed, of course, the houses Court No. V, Case No. VII.
were destroyed.
Q And now before I continue with my questioning, Your Honor, I would like to refer to the fighting of the bands as seen from the documents. The first document of this kind is to be found in my Document Book No. I on Page 42. This is Document No. 15, and I would like to offer it as Leyser Exhibit No. 16--one, six, which is on page 42 of Document Book I. This is an affidavit by Gerhard Volkert, which was certified and sworn before me on the 18th of September 1947 in Nurnberg. And in this connection, Your Honor, I would like to say (and perhaps this rules out the objection the Prosecution has in mind) that at this time Herr Volkert was visiting Nurnberg when I took this affidavit and, therefore, his address at that time in Nurnberg is stated in the affidavit. Usually Herr Volkert lives outside Nurnberg. I haven't his present address at the moment, but, of course, I can inform the Court of it. So therefore it would be difficult to get Herr Volkert here as a witness. I hope that the affidavit will be admitted for this reason. He is not a "Nurnberger", if I might put it like that, but just a man who happened to have been in Nurnberg at that time.
MR. FULKERSEN: I withdraw my unuttered objection.
PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: Very well.
DR. TIPP: I would like to quote a few brief points from this affidavit. The affidavit describes, first of all, his military career under Figure 1. He says that in April, 1943, he was assigned to the staff of the Commander of the German Forces in Croatia, later the XVth Mountain Army Corps, as Air Corps Liaison officer. And then he goes on to say that he was used as an aide-de-camp and deputized for the first aide-de-camp in the drawing up and evaluation of the Daily Reports and, therefore, he knows about the situation in the Southeast and the work of Corps Staff and can make some statements on it. Figure 2 deals with the question of uniforms. I quote:
Court No. V, Case No. VII.
I know from daily reports from the divisions and reports of the Ustasha units that the bands used German and Italian uniforms and parts of uniforms for reasons of stratagem and camouflage; women and children were used for reconnoitering and were sent ahead in raids in order to prevent the German Wehrmacht from shooting. Forcible recruitings, reprisals, violent measures against mayors, police and the clergy on the part of the insurgents were a daily occurrence, often field hospitals and hospital trains were attacked, ambulance cars shot at, German soldiers as well as Croats killed in action or wounded were stripped of their uniforms and personal objects and maimed by cutting off their ears, noses, fingers or sex organs. I saw also pictures of these things. As an eye-witness I am in a position to report in this connection the following facts:
In Spring 1943 a truck was attacked in the neighborhood of Lucke (near Zagreb) by a band, destroyed and the occupants were killed. A short time after I had the opportunity to inspect the scene of the crime. At the side of the destroyed and plundered truck the bodies of three killed German soldiers were lying, stripped of their uniforms and equipment. Two of the bodies showed stabbing wounds and mutilations in the faces, one had half of the nose cut off, one ear completely severed, the second had the eyes gouged out, the ring fingers of the third was missing, obviously because he had worn a ring that could not be taken off, besides, the sex organs had been cut off.
On the occasion of a Courier flight from Serayevo to Tuzla in summer 1943 I made another observation. When flying in low altitude in a German sport plane, I saw a peasant in the usual costume of this region occupied with mowing. When the peasant recognized me, probably also my national insignia, he put the scythe down and took up a rifle which had been hidden in the grass, aimed at me and shot several times. After landing I ascertained a number of hits in the fuselage and the wings. That shows that the peasant must not only have possessed a modern military rifle, but had also been trained in shooting at aeroplanes.
Apart from this, I received regular reports of that sort of incidents from the crew members of the reconnaissance squadron, namely, that civilians in town and on the fields, at the sight of German planes, took up arms which so far had been hidden and opened fire. Even the two ambulance planes of the type Fi 156 which were painted white and were marked with a plainly visible red cross wore continuously attacked by rifle fire when flying on duty with wounded soldiers over the partisan districts.
Under figure 4, the affiant deals with how the sabotage acts of the bands were of disadvantage to the population and that for security reasons the grain fields had to be cut down and that this of course reduced the food of the population, and at the end he states: "The main sufferers from those kinds of sabotage acts were the civilian population."
Under figure 5, the affiant talks about the last mentioned question concerning the positions of the bands. I quote:
"Since in the capacity of an Air-Corps Liaison Officer I received continuous requests from the commander to obtain photographic material of enemy positions, I have made the following observation with regard to the system of positions used by the bands: I have never seen any regular system of positions, which was generally characteristic for the guerilla fight in Croatia, and the direct-and photographic air observation could hardly show any useful results at all.
The partisans dug small fox-holes, however, they favored to take positions in houses and in farm-buildings. Churches, monasteries and mosques were used for storage purposes. This could in several cases be determined through air reconnaissance."
The next document in this connection which I would like to offer is contained in the same document book and it is on page 46. This is Leyser Document No. 16. It is the next document in the document book. I offer this as Leyser Exhibit No. 17. This is an affidavit dated-
PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: I think that Exhibit Number is 17.
DR. TIPP: The Volkert document which I have just offered is Document No. 15 and Exhibit No. 16.
The next document is Document No.16 and is Exhibit No. 17. This, as I said, is an affidavit by Hans Siegfried Persch, Regierungsbaurat (retired) from Duisburg, and the affidavit was sworn before a notary on the 19th of September, 1947, in Duisburg. Persch, according to figure 1 in his affidavit, was Oberbauleiter in the Todt Einsatzstab in Belgrade and he states in this figure that he became familiar with the entire Balkan countries including the Coratian territory, and therefore he can make a number of statements about this which will be of importance for General Leyser.
At the moment, I would only like to read from figure 5 in this document because it is pertinent. I would perhaps like to come back to the other figure in the document later on. I quote from figure 5 on page 2 of the document on page 49.
5.) The partisan's method of warfare included all conceivable possibilities of doing harm to the German Wehrmacht and its organizations with all conceivable means at their disposal and with no regard for their own people. Firing from houses which were marked with red crosses, burning of entire towns for the purpose of making the houses uninhabitable, disguising themselves as civilians - as in most cases they preferred to do - use of German and Italian uniforms, are acts which I myself have observed during my official activity on the Narenta river, from Place to Serajevo and Zagreb.
From June til November 1942 and subsequently in regular intervals I was in the more or less close neighborhood of Mostar where I was enabled to make precise observations of the terror employed by the insurgents against the civilian population. Villages where the inhabitants put up resistance were levelled to the ground and the resisting men killed. A Cetnik showed me captured shapshots in which the murderers of those victims had taken a photograph together with the dead men whom they had just "liquidated" in the most insulting manner and indecent position.
Eye witnesses have shown me a rock in a side valley of the Narenta-valley which was protruding into the river and was covered with large traces of blood; here, men and women who refused to line up with the bands were shot or stabbed to death in order to be thrown immediately into the rapidly flowing river, I remember that the well known Franciscan Monastery in Siroki Brijeg was looted when the partisans entered the town and was eventually set afire.
Those monks who had not previously escaped were killed.
The acts committed by the insurgents which are in open violation of the International Law are so numerous that I can only state here those which I myself have witnessed or determined or of which I received precise information by eye witnesses.
Around September/ October 1941 our OT-physician Dr. K u e h n e, from Vienna was riding in a convoy on the highway Kragujevac Jagodina. Dr. Kuehne was wearing civilian clothes and was on a trip to one of our work projects riding in a Red Cross car which was unmistakably marked as such. The partisans stopped the convoy, killed the driver and kidnapped Dr. Kuehne. He was put to work giving medical care to the partisans, in spite of this, however, he was later shot to death by a woman partisan leader. His body was later found there unburied, only covered with rocks and completely mutilated. It is to be assumed that, after his execution, stones were thrown at his body until it was almost unrecognizable.
In 1944 the German OT dentist Werner was captured by partisans in the Dor sector while driving in his dental-laboratory car to the camps housing the indigenous workers and Italians. He himself was chained and on the way to the partisan camp he was repeatedly forced to kneel and bend his neck during which motions were made indicating that he was to be shot in the neck. The car used on this trip was a Red Cross car.
The head of the medical station in Vladicin Han, Theimer, was hanged with barbed wire in 1944 by partisans evacuating the town, although he could clearly be identified as a medical-corps man.
In 1944 men of the medical-corps in Mostar were captured and kidnapped, although they too were wearing the Red Cross brassard and carried proper identification papers.
One day our Italian physician in Jagodina was snatched by partisans and was killed in front of the hospital by a shot into the abdomen.
Moreover I know that the slow flying Red-Cross planes of the "Storch" type were frequently shot down. After I was wounded I happened by chance to evade transportation on such a Red Cross plane which was shot down.
And I will not quote any more from this document at this moment. I will come back to the other points in it later.
The next document in this connection which I would like to submit is also in Document Book I. It is on page 74 and is Leyser Document No. 25. I offer this as Leyser Exhibit No. 18. This is an affidavit by the Catholic Chaplain Alois Krauss from Kronach dated the 19th of September, 1947, and on the 20th of September it was sworn before the Mayer of Kronach.
Witness Krauss describes first of all the facts on which his knowledge of the Balkans rests. From February 1943 until May 1944 he was first of all Catholic Garrison Minister at the Field Command Zagreb/ Croatia - later on Catholic chaplain with the 42nd Infantry Division in the Croatian area(later on the 42nd Rifle Division).
During this time, he says, "I was charged with the spiritual care of the military hospitals and of the troops ready for combat within the area." I won't read the names here. "From July until September 1944 I was employed within the Nis-Serbia district."
In figure 1, the witness deals with the methods of fighting of the bands, and I quote:
My statistical records (for instance obituary-reports among others) as well as my collection of photos as Burial Officer of the 187th Reserve Infantry Division, resp. 42 Light Infantry Division, I lost towards the end of the war in the course of military action; therefore I can base my statements only on recollection, but cannot produce documents.