The next document is Geitner Document No. 161, on Page 20 of Geitner Document Book VI, and this will be offered as Geitner Exhibit No. 135. It is a communication which the Defendant von Geitner personally, by order of the Military Commander Southeast, sent to the OKW, Department of Prisoners of War, and I read from this communication.
The date is 12th April 1944:
"Please find enclosed a list of Yugoslavian Prisoners of War, as submitted by the Serbian Government, with the request to release these officers, non-commissioned officers, and enlisted men mentioned therein from captivity as soon as possible, and to set them en route for Belgrade."
The communication is signed von Geitner. The Defendant von Geitner attaches importance to this document because, through this document, he intends to prove how much he concerned himself with the interests of the Serbian people and with the pacification of that country. He realized that the Serbian people were, of course, extremely interested in the welfare of their prisoners of war. I commented on this point in a different context yesterday.
This brings me to the next document, which is Geitner Document No. 162, contained on Page 21 of Geitner Document Book VI, and this will be offered as Geitner Exhibit No. 136. It is a communication of the Commanding General and Military Commander in Serbia, and it is dated the 17th of October 1942. That is, it dates from a period of time when Bader was the Military Commander. The communication is addressed to the SS Division "Prinz Eugen." I shall not read in detail from this document. It contains only a recognition of the same facts which were discussed yesterday in connection with another document, and that is the surprise attack on the Antimony plant.
The facts were discussed in detail yesterday, and the document again shows how the highest levels were interested in the reprisal measures carried out and whether the orders were adhered to.
This brings us, if your Honors please, to a number of documents which I would like to discuss as belonging together. They are Documents 163, 164, 165, 166, 168, 170, 172 and 173. These eight documents belong together and for practical purposes are one entity. These eight documents are to show the constant efforts on the part of the military commanders for Serbia to improve the organization and to clarify the channels of command and thus to strengthen the effectiveness and the functioning of the German administration in Serbia. The applications made by the Military Commander for Serbia and by his staff and which are represented through these documents are, above all, directed against the independence of the Plenipotentiary General for Economy and against the independence of the Higher SS and Police Leader, also against the measures taken by these functionaries, whose instructions and orders, in the opinion of the Military Commander for Serbia and also in the opinion of the defendant von Geitner, made it very difficult to maintain law and order in the Serbian area. All this becomes apparent from these eight documents, and it can be further seen from them that after the establishment of the Office of the Military Commander Southeast, the Higher SS and Police Leader succeeded in maintaining his independence and even to enlarge this independence whereby he was supported by Field Marshal Keitel, who was Chief of the OKW.
I would now like to mention for the record which exhibit numbers will be given to these documents. Document 163 -- Geitner Document 163, on page 23 of Geitner Document Book VI, will be given Geitner Exhibit Number 137. This document, which happens to bear also the signature of the Defendant von Geitner and which is a teletype addressed to the Chief of the General Staff with the Armed Forces Commander Southeast, shows Geitner's efforts for the clarification and simplification of channels of command which existed in that area.
The next document is Geitner 164 on page 23 of Geitner Document Book VI, and this will be given Geitner Exhibit Number 138. This is a file note concerning a conference of the Plenipotentiary General for Economics with the field and district administrative sub-area headquarters, dated 22 August 1942.
This file note is not signed. Therefore, we are in no position to establish who is the author of this file note, but it is an enclosure to the War Diary of the Military Commander for Serbia, and with this War Diary this came to us from Washington. Therefore, there can be no doubt as to its authenticity. The document deals with the immediate subordination of the Plenipotentiary General for Economy to Goering, as chief of the 4-year plan which subordination had always been objected to by the Military Commander for Serbia. Also, this document throws a light on the attitude towards the Serbian population.
The next document is Geitner Document 165, on page of Geitner Document Book VI, and this will be given number -- Geitner Number 139. This is a rather detailed communication of the Commander in Serbia, General Bader, who was the first commander under whom the Defendant von Geitner was Chief of Staff; and the communication is addressed to the Armed Forces Commander Southeast. It is dated 12 September 1942, and this communication also deals with the organization in Serbia. It is to show the Tribunal that the Generals down there concerned themselves also with other matters than shootings and hangings, as the Prosecution at one time asserted. This Document Number 165, which I recommend to the judicial notice of the Tribunal without my having to read it, shows the efforts on the part of General Bader and his Staff for the creation of clear conditions. General Bader makes some very detailed suggestions and applications so that there should not be a number of agencies existing next to each other and possibly working at cross purposes in their administration.
The next document which I would like to deal with is Geitner Document Number 166. It will be given Geitner Exhibit 140. It is quite a brief document, on page 27 of Geitner Document Book VI. It is a communication of the Commanding General and Commander in Serbia dated a month after the preceding communication and it is addressed to the Armed Forces Commander Southeast.
The communication contains approximately the same remarks as the preceding document and actually it is just a continuation of the document just discussed. It is a warning voiced by the Military Commander for Serbia. I would just like to read the last sentence: "if it should now be possible to avert the present crisis once more, then the danger exists that a crisis will develop again in a short time if the command conditions in Serbia do not undergo a definitive simplification similar to the Belgian arrangement."
In this connection, I would like to deal with the next but one document which is Geitner Document 168, on page 29 of Geitner Document Book VI, which will be given Exhibit Number Geitner 141. The document which I skipped I shall deal with in another context. Geitner Exhibit Number 141 is a communication from the Commanding General and Commander in Serbia, General Bader, and, as is shown by the photostatic copy, this communication is addressed to the Operational Department of the OKW and to the Armed Forces Commander Southeast, Army Group E. It is a communication dated 29 April 1943. This document again shows the efforts made on the part of the Military Commander for Serbia to create clearcut channels of command, and the document throws light on a strange fact, namely, that the Higher SS and Police Leader sent his reports not to the Military Commander for Serbia who was responsible for the area, but instead directly to the Reich Leader SS, so that the Military Commander in Serbia was excluded from this channel of report for all practical purposes. In this communication the Military Commander for Serbia complains about this fact and he write in the last but one paragraph, and I am quoting, "Accordingly, there exists in Serbia the situation, impossible for me and undignified for my soldiers, that my orders issued in the interest of the security of the country, can be attacked by a subordinate through police channels without my learning anything about it.
"However, I have to bear the responsibility for everything which happens here."
The next document which I would like to offer to the Tribunal in this connection is the next but one document, Document Geitner 170. This is on page 31 of Geitner Document Book VI, and it will be given Geitner Exhibit Number 142. I repeat, Geitner Document 170, on page 31 of Geitner Document Book VI. This is a communication which in this particular case happens to be signed by the Defendant von Geitner for the Commanding General and Commander in Serbia. The communication is addressed to quite a number of agencies, as can be seen from the distribution list. The distribution list is on the lefthand side towards the bottom of the page. This communication deals again with the old subject, namely, the clarification of the channels of command, abolishment of the various co-existing channels of reports, and reorganization with reference to the responsibility which the individual officer had to bear. This was Document Geitner 170.
And this brings me to the next but one document which is Geitner Document 172, because this document deals with the same subject. It is Geitner Document 172 on page 34 of Geitner Document Book VI, and it will be offered as Geitner Exhibit 143. This again is a communication from the Military Commander Southeast dated 15 October 1943. It is a teletype addressed to the OKW Operational Department, and a copy went to Neubacher for information -- that is Neubacher whom we have heard of here repeatedly. This communication shows the continuous efforts of the Military Commander Southeast and the Military Commander for Serbia, also of the defendant von Geitner, for the clarification of the channels of command and for the simplification of the administration.
The next following document, 173, belongs to this group of documents, and this is on page 35 of Geitner Document Book VI, and it will be given Exhibit Number, Geitner, 144. I repeat: Geitner Document 173, Exhibit 144, on page 35 of Geitner Document Book VI. This is a communication from the Military Commander Southeast, dated 23 October 1943, and addressed to Army Group F, for the Attention of the Chief of the General Staff there. This document also contains the efforts for a creation of clearcut conditions for improvement of administration, for clarification of the relations between the Military Commander for Serbia and the independent position of the Higher SS and Police Leader, etc. I would like to draw attention to Paragraph 2 of this report, dated 23 October 1943, page 35, where it is stated: "the Higher SS- and Police Chief, according to the directive given him on 1 February 1942 which is still in force, receives his instructions for the military security of the country and for all military operations by the Supreme Commander Serbia. It is unwarranted the General himself an Commander-in-Chief Serbia writes to make these instructions dependent on a previous approval of the Reichsfuehrer SS." That is the end of my quotation. The balance of the document is along the same lines. It is one eternal struggle for a satisfactory organization of the channels of command. But I would like to draw attention to Paragraph 6 on page 36; and it is stated here, "Up to the present time all operations in which police forces participated have been previously discussed with the Higher-SS and Police Chief without any objection on his part, at any time." I have only read this passage because I would like to make it quite clear that the word "operations" in this context apparently just refers to tactical, that is military operations, but not to police operations. This becomes apparent from the contents of the whole document, but it might be expedient to point this out particularly.
These, then, are the eight documents which form a group with which I dealt all together.
I would now like to offer in evidence two other documents which deal with a different subject. This is document 167 and 171. Geitner Document Number 167 and Geitner Document 171. Geitner Document 167, on page 28 of Geitner Document Book VI, will be offered as Geitner Exhibit 145. Geitner Document 171, on page 32 of Geitner Document Book VI, will be given Geitner Exhibit Number 146. These two documents, if your Honors please, are to show the Tribunal the efforts of General Bader, who was the first commander of Serbia and also the efforts of von Geitner as Chief of Staff to improve the situation in Serbia and Croatia by suggesting political means. For this purpose General von Geitner wishes to submit this document. He wants to refute the once Before objected to assertion of the Prosecution, namely, that the Military Commander in Serbia had nothing else in his head than reprisal measures and things along that line. Geitner Document 167, which is Geitner Exhibit 145, shows that the Operational Department intervened because of the arrest of a DM -- (Draza Mihajlovic) Group member who was arrested because of a surprise attack on a railway line. These facts are somewhat connected with one of the document formerly presented by the Prosecution, that is NOKW-1562, Exhibit 2322, in Document Book IX, on page 135. I don't want to read any details from this document. And, from the next document, which I offer as Exhibit 146, that is Geitner Document 171, the contents of which goes along similar lines and also deals with the pacification of the Serbian population through political means. I would only like to read the last paragraph 3 on page 33, and this is: "Those present are of the opinion that it is high time to bring about a pacification in the Balkans by political means." Here I would like to stress the word "political" which is of importance to the defendant von Geitner.
After dealing with these two documents, 167 and 171, which belong together, I would like to deal summarily with another chapter which is shown by a number of documents, that is Geitner Documents 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180; also, Geitner Documents 182, 183, 184 and 185.
These documents which I enumerated just now again belong together according to their contents, and that is why I would like to deal with them as a group.
First of all, I would like to establish the exhibit numbers for the documents mentioned. Geitner Document 174 on page 37 of Geitner Document Book VI will be given Geitner Exhibit Number 147.
Document 175 on page 39 will be Exhibit Number 148.
Document 176 on page 40 will be Exhibit Number 149.
Document 177 on page 41 will be Exhibit Number 150.
Document 178 on page 42 will be Exhibit Number 151.
Document 179 on page 43 will be Exhibit Number 152.
Document 180 on page 44 will be Exhibit Number 153.
The next document I shall omit for the moment.
Document 182 on page 46 will be Exhibit 154.
Document 183 on page 47 will be offered Exhibit 155.
Document 184 on page 48 will be Exhibit 156.
Document 185 on page 49 will be Exhibit 157.
The documents just mentioned are documents which belong together according to their contents. All of them are to throw a light on the efforts of the Military Commander in Serbia in a different sphere; that is, to achieve pacification of the country by different means -- namely, by adequate food supplies for the population of Serbia, Greece and Montenegor, and also by other welfare measures as, for instance, the fact that refugee homes and schools were not to be requisitioned by German troops, by cooperation with the Swiss and Swedish Red Cross, by the fighting of black market activities, in order to establish by these means a foundation for law and order.
In brief, there were quite a number of efforts made by the Military Commander for Serbia and his Chief of Staff to give the population food and work in order in this way to contribute to the maintenance of law and order.
There are only a very few brief points which I would like to stress in more detail. There is in Document 174 on page 37 of Document Book VI, which is Geitner Exhibit 147, a sentence where the Chief of Staff of the Military Commander for Serbia who signed this documents points out to the Commander in Chief Southeast, Army Group E, that a better supply of the civilian population should be made sure of. He encloses in this connection an extensive correspondence between him and the General Plenipotentiary for Economy, the frequently mentioned Neuhausen, the demands in this communication that the Serbian population be supplied with food. He points out what effects a ruthless confiscation of corn as it was apparently visualized by the general Plenipotentiary for Economy would have on the population.
On page 39 you can see how the Commanding General and Commander of Serbia General Bader addressed a strong letter to the General for Serbian Economy Plenipotentiary.
The Military Commander intervenes here in order to abolish bad conditions which prevailed amongst the population and, in order to support the population.
The next document which is Document No. 176 again shows the efforts for the securing of adequate food supplies for the indigenous population. The Military Commander for Serbia endeavored, as this document shows, to bring 5,000 tons of wheat from Roumania to Serbia and in the last sentence of his communication, dated 15 April 1944, addressed to the German Plenipotentiary General in Roumania, he points out that if these wheat supplies would not be sent the conditions in Serbia would become impossible. "Most severe effects for the troops and the population can be expected. Request urgent appeals to the Wehrmacht offices in Roumania and the Foreign Office for immediate release."
The communication of 20 December 1943 which is Geitner Document 177, Exhibit 150, is along similar lines. This is a communication by General Felber, the same General Felber who was here on the witness stand as a witness, and the communication is addressed to Reserve Grenadier Regiment 17. He very strictly forbids this regiment to confiscate homes for refugees and wherever they were used he orders that they be evacuated as soon as possible, and he also orders that where the troops withdraw the quarters of the Serbian asylum administration be left in good condition.
The next document which is Document 178 contains a report about a conference. The Defendant von Geitner participated in this discussion which dealt with the collection of the wheat and corn harvest. General Bader requests that the "food supply for the cities during the current year by all means be secured."
That is what becomes apparent from Document 178, Exhibit 151.
The next document, Geitner Document 179, proves that the Chief of Staff--that is, General von Geitner -- ordered that school buildings be released so that the education of Serbian children could be carried out properly and correctly and would not suffer any harm.
The same General Geitner orders in the next document, Document No. 180, Exhibit 153, on page 44, that trucks be put at the disposal of the population of Montenegro so that their needs might be taken care of.
The same General von Geitner forbids in Document 182, which is Geitner Exhibit 154, on page 46, that military hospitals and refugee homes be confiscated by the troops and he informs the President of the Serbian Ministers' Council about this measure; that is Minister Nedic. His Military Commander, that is Felber, forbids in the next document, Document 183, that booty be made by the troops from property of the population, so that the food supply of the population may not suffer damages in this way.
Document 184, Exhibit 156, is an unsigned copy of a report of the Military Commander Southeast, addressed to the Commander in Chief Southeast Army Group E. This document is contained on page 148 and it is Document, Geitner Exhibit 156. It show again the welfare measures taken for the population. It is expressly pointed out to the troops that villages, even during band combat, can only be destroyed within the limits of what is militarily admissible or, rather, what is militarily necessary. Paragraph 1 says that even in this case all livestock and all food stocks have to be secured. As it says literally, they are "to be placed at the disposal of the competent prefect or subprefect for the purpose of supplying the population."
The Military Commander for Serbia wanted to make it quite clear through this order that even combat action is not to be used by the troops for the purpose of plundering or for the purpose of enriching themselves at the expense of the population.
The last document which has been presented in this context is Geitner Document 185 and this again shows the efforts of General Felber, who was General von Geitner's superior, in the fight against the black market and thus also shows the care taken for the supply of the population. This again was one group of documents which belong together, according to their contents and I have presented them up to Geitner Document 185 and the last document number which I gave was Geitner Exhibit 157.
Geitner Document Book VI presents in documents 186 to 199 -that is, on pages 51 to 109 -- a group of documents which belong together because of their contents. They are all copies of excerpts from daily reports and situation reports which were found as enclosures to the War Diary of the Commander in Serbia. That is, we found those documents which were sent here from Washington by order of this Court. These documents which I will provide with exhibit numbers later on are to show the Court the constant disruptions of railroad lines, shipping communications by attacks of the bands, the constant attacks on Serbian mayors and municipal administrations, the prevention of harvesting of the civilian population by the bands. Furthermore, these reports show in Documents 186 through 199 reports about the Ustascha terror which raged in the Balkans and which was supported by Hitler. Also, these reports show repeated complaints passed on by the Commander in Chief Southeast to the OKW which, however, remained without success. These documents further contain valuable information about the activity of the Draja Mihajlovic movement, its ambiguous nature and, above all, about the effect of the reprisal measure of the German troops on these partisans. These reports show, above all, to which I attach particular importance, that only a very small percentage of the sabotage acts and surprise attacks were actually retaliated by reprisal measures, i.e. that the Generals in the Balkans tried again and again to carry out only part of those reprisal measures which actually had become necessary, but to do without the majority of these reprisal measures.
These reports finally show the Tribunal a means to decide the question whether or not the fighting methods of the partisans were in agreement with the provisions of International Law and whether the partisan troops could be regarded as regular bolligerants in the sense of the Hague Rules for Land Warfare or whether protection has to be denied to such units who commit so many surprise attacks and excesses.
From these documents I am only going to read a very few brief passages because mainly we find a repetition in these documents of all those incidents and reports which have been discussed a dozen or maybe even a hundred times.
Almost in every report you find surprise attacks, murders, assassinations committed on German soldiers, on Croatian personnel on leave, on mayors and to the administration of the communities warnings from the partisans to the mayors and municipal administrations not to supply the occupation troops with food, although such supplies are provided by the Hague Rules for Land Warfare.
In the excerpts on page 64 and following pages, which is Document 88, you can see the difficulty and involved situation which faced the Military Commander of Serbia and, of course, also the Military Commander Southeast. Then you find indication of the continuous efforts of the Military Commander for Serbia to overcome these difficulties by openly and frankly reporting to higher agencies the whole situation and the bad conditions down there and by constantly suggesting improvements in the political, economic and military sphere. These excerpts which are contained in the document submitted on page 64, Document Geitner 188, and the following pages give exact figures concerning the sabotage and surprise activity of the insurgents. They describe the effects of the Ustascha measures taken in Croatia which were favored by Hitler and by the Foreign Office and against which the Military Commander for Serbia protested in vain and they show many similar things.
At this point I believe I shall have to provide all these documents with exhibit numbers. Just a minute, please.
Geitner Document No. 186 on page 51 of Geitner Document Book VI will be offered as Geitner Exhibit No. -- I believe it is 158. Then we have the next document, Geitner 187, on page 57 of Geitner Document Book VI and this will be offered as Geitner Exhibit 159. The next document is Geitner No. 188 on page 64 of Geitner Document Book VI and this will be offered as Geitner Exhibit No. 160.
Then we have Geitner Document No. 189 on page 69 and this will be offered as Geitner Exhibit 161. Then we have Document Geitner 190 on page 75 and this will be offered as Geitner Exhibit 162. Then there is Geitner Document 191 on page 81 of Geitner Document Book VI and -this will be offered as Geitner Exhibit 163.
Geitner Document 192 on page 187 of Geitner Document Book VI will be offered as Geitner Exhibit 164. Geitner Document 193 on page 89 of Geitner Document Book VI will be offered as Geitner Exhibit 165. Geitner Document 194 on page 91 of Geitner Document Book VI will become Geitner Exhibit 166. Geitner Document 195 on page 93 of Document Book VI will become Geitner Exhibit 167. Geitner Document 196 on page 96 of Geitner Document Book VI will be offered as Geitner Exhibit No. 168. Geitner Document 197 on page 99 of Geitner Document Book VI will be offered as Geitner Exhibit 169. Geitner Document 198 on page 102 of Geitner Document Book VI will be offered as Geitner Exhibit 170 and Geitner Document 199 which is the last document in this context and the last but one document in the whole document book will be offered as Geitner Exhibit 171. This is on page 108 of Geitner Document Book VI and we just have the last document, 200, and I shall deal with that at a later date.
In these documents 186 to 190 which I have discussed briefly as one group I would just like to draw the attention of the Tribunal to a few brief notes contained in these documents; for instance, on page 52 on the top of the page.
PRESIDING JUDGE CARTER: I believe, Dr. Sauter, we will take our recess before you go into that.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal will be in recess until elevenfifteen.
(A recess was taken.)
THE MARSHAL: All persons in the Courtroom will be seated.
The Tribunal is again in session.
DR. SAUTER: If the Tribunal please, in a few minutes I shall have finished presenting my evidence. These documents, 188 and the following, which were the last I presented, contain among other things compilations about the sabotage acts and terror acts which occurred. If, for instance, the Tribunal would lock at the report at page 65, under paragraph 6, it says there under the heading "Sabotage and Ambush attacks", and I quote: "Total number 91 as compared with 89 in the last resort."
The period of time to which reference is made here is ten days, between 21 June and 30th of June, you can see that from the entry on page 64 on top, or looking at the next ten days' resort on page 66, again under "Sabotage and Ambush Attacks", which is the period of time between the 1st and 10th of July 1942, in other words the immediately ensuing period of ten days you will find there under paragraph six under the heading "Sabotage and Attacks", the following entry:
"The number increased from 91 to 117. Besides the greater number of cases of sabotage around Nisch and in the Fruska Gora most of the attempts occurred on the western and south western outskirts of the Papuk and Psunj Pl........." (I don't know what Pl. stand for) "....which reveals the strong activity of these enemy groups."
And on the following page, page 67, there is a similar entry. In Document 188 on page 67 under paragraph 6, Sabotage and Attacks", it says: "In the Serbian-Croatian area the following cases of sabotage were reported during the period from 6 until 15 July (the figure for the period from 26 June until 5 July the preceding ten days are added in parenthesis.):" and then you have the figures which I need not read. Now the total 117 and this goes on and on, your Honors, throughout these documents until Document 191.
Now if the Prosecution would go to the trouble of comparing the figures which they can find in Documents 188 through 199, to the figures which I offered yesterday from Geitner Document Book No. 4, as Document Book 81, Exhibit 66, to be found on pages 1 through 5, then the Prosecution will find it confirmed that the figures coincide.
The Prosecution asked yesterday "How is it that Dr. Sauter has got these figures contained in Document No. 81?" And I said yesterday "One can obtain those figures if one checks over the documents which reached us from Washington."
Some of these documents I have offered as document 188 through 199 to the Prosecution and the Tribunal and who goes to the trouble of checking up on these lists - and I have just quoted the first three - then he will find that the figures contained in Geitner Document 81 and recited by me, are entirely and absolutely correct.
You can find such compilations in many other passages but I shall not read them out now. May it suffice that I have recited those three examples to the Tribunal? All I want to do now is to recommend a few special passages to the attention of the Tribunal and I always find it important to say that these documents go back to the years 1942 and 1943 that is to say, not for the purposes of these proceedings, and it is also of importance to say that these documents up until recently were in Washington and not in the possession of the defendants or their counsel.
It says, for instance, on Page 66 in Document 188, under Paragraph 2, "Serbian Territory. Now as before the Draza Mihajlovic Organization is in action. The recruiting of the followers seems to be finished to a certain degree. Equipment and arming may be considered as being insufficient now as before. The recruiting extends, besides to all stratas of the population, also the Cetnic and Ljotic organizations which are loyal to the government." On the same page, and on Page 67, on top, there is an interesting report concerning the position of the group of national Germans resident down there, their food situation and things like that, about the confiscation of harvest machines and harvest stores and other grains by the insurgents, at the risk even that a famine might be the consequence. As it says on Page 67, on top, they were apparently acting on higher orders. Then on Page 68, on top, in an entry about the Communist influence with the partisans, which was on a mounting scale, it says there, for instance, on Page 68 on top, "Acts of sabotage have generally decreased, they have only increased in Eastern and Southeastern Serbia. They are principally committed by brigand mobs who are joining to insurgent bands because of economic distress."
Similar entries are on the same page, the next but one paragraph concerning the Communist influence gaining momentum in the bands, etc. Then on Page 69, there is a reference under Paragraph 2, what areas are mostly infested and are centers of unrest. On Page 70, we find a statement on the activities by the insurgents, harvest sabotage, how they made surprise attacks on transportation, on police stations and municipal administrations, on passenger trains, on ammunition depots of the Luftwaffe, etc. On Page 72, following, there are more reports on the almost daily repetitions of the surprise attacks, and to the facts which at that time were stressed by the commanders in chief in Serbia and their collaborators, namely, that these acts of sabotage and attacks were merely a reaction on the part of the population, that is to say, that even the most stringent military measures could not keep down the population. In other words, as it is stated, that the oppositional attitude under all circumstances and the revolutionary tendencies of the population, and their contempt of death, was the reason why so many acts of sabotage were committed.
Already then things were seen that way. On Page 76, I should like to draw the Tribunal's attention to the entry under Paragraph 2, on Page 76, the D.M. Movement, which stands for the Mihajlovic Movement. It says, "As much as in this area between Drina and Bosna, so also elsewhere the organizing work of the D.M. "that is Draha Mihailowick," seems to be not inconsiderably impeded through differences among the subleaders. The impression is strengthened that the quality of the subleaders is in no way equal to the doubtlessly well thought out plan of a general uprising in the Balkan area. The inadequacy of the subleaders apart from their inability to subordination, becomes apparent in their desire to pretend accomplishments by exaggerated reports on the situation and success of their work, which actually do not exist. It can also be noted that the orders of the D.M. aiming at stronger activation of the movement, are in reality not being carried out." May I just remark here that this quotation is borne out by what a number of defendants have said on the witness stand, when they pointed out that this tendency on the part of the troops to boast and brag about their successes and exaggerate, and report exaggeratedly.
The following reports on the next pages, to and following, time and again, report repeated acts of sabotage. You may find on Page 79, another of those ten day reports, where for the Serbian area alone, 56, from the Croatian area, 79, which makes a total of 135 acts of sabotage and surprise attacks. That means a figure of almost 20 surprise attacks per day. It says in the footnote to this report, "Above figures only contain detailed information of reported sabotage acts, and not those individual raids and sabotage acts which occurred in some Croat areas on the occasion of the riots, which were considerably more numerous." Then on the next page, you find the reprisal acts as ordered by the Commander-in-Chief.