JUDGE SPEIGHT: Was the indictment in the German language served upon you at least thirty days ago?
DEFENDANT BIBERSTEIN: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Have you read the indictment?
DEFENDANT BIBERSTEIN: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty?
DEFENDANT BIBERSTEIN: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Werner Praune.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?
DEFENDANT BRAUNE: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Was the indictment in the German language served upon you at least thirty days ago?
DEFENDANT BRAUNE: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Have you read the indictment?
DEFENDANT BRAUNE: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: How do you plead to this indictment,guilty or not guilty?
DEFENDANT BRAUNE: Not guilty, in the sense of the indictment.
THE PRESIDENT: Walter Haensch.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?
DEFENDANT HAENSCH: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Was the indictment in the German language served upon you at least thirty days ago?
DEFENDANT HAENSCH: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Have you read the indictment?
DEFENDANT HAENSCH: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Judge Dixon will now interrogate the following defendants. Gustav Nosske.
JUDGE DIXON: Are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?
DEFENDANT NOSSKE: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: Was the indictment in the German language served upon you at least thirty days ago?
DEFENDANT NOSSKE: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: Have you read the indictment?
DEFENDANT NOSSKE: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty?
DEFENDANT NOSSKE: Not guilty.
CourtII-A Case IX
JUDGE DIXON: Adolf Ott, are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?
DEFENDANT OTT: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: Was the indictment in the German language served upon you at least thirty days ago?
DEFENDANT OTT: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: Have you read this indictment?
DEFENDANT OTT: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty?
DEFENDANT OTT: Not guilty.
JUDGE DIXON: Eduard Strauch, are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal? (DEFENDANT BEGAN EPILEPTIC ATTACK AND WAS REMOVED FROM THE DOCK)
MR. GICK: Dr. Karl Gick, Your Honor, for the Defendant Strauch. May I make a statement as defense counsel for the Defendant Strauch? I would like to inform the Tribunal that the Defendant Strauch suffers from epileptic attacks. Strauch earlier asked me to make an application to the Tribunal in order to have him examined, in order to clarify the question of whether he is fit to participate in the proceedings. Within the next few days I shall submit this application. I ask that the Defendant Strauch be removed from the proceedings for the time being and that you listen to his pleading later on.
THE PRESIDENT: In view of the very obvious condition of the Defendant Eduard Strauch, the arraignment insofar as it pertains to him will be postponed to a later date. Defense counsel will be requested to submit a motion in writing along the lines indicated by him, which will be replied to by the Prosecution in due time, and then the Tribunal will pass upon whatever is contained in the motion. Since we are considering this subject at the present time, I might like to call counsel for Otto Rasch to the podium.
application - or had - for severance. I am not aware whether that application has been reduced to writing or not.
DR. SURHOLT: Yes, this application was handed in on the 8th of September in writing. I believe there was a delay because the translation of the medical opinion was difficult for the Translation Department.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, then. If the motion has been filed I presume the Prosecution will reply to it in due time. Are you familiar with this motion, Mr. Ferenz?
MR. FERENZ: Yes, Your Honor, I am familiar with the motion. I have not as yet received an English translation of it. As soon as we do receive the motion we will reply to it, and the Tribunal may consider it at their convenience. I would, at this time, however, like to have it part of the record that the Defendant Rasch, who was excused, was excused at his own request and the Prosecution has no objection to it; however, before he was brought here this morning I was assured by a physician that he was physically able to attend the arraignment. He was excused on his own statement and not on the advice or request of any physician.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. The record will so indicate. We will continue with the arraignment.
JUDGE DIXON: Waldemar Klingelhoefer, are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?
DEFENDANT KLINGELHOEFER: yes.
JUDGE DIXON: Was the indictment in the German, language served upon you at least thirty days ago?
DEFENDANT KLINGELHOEFER: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: Have you read the indictment?
DEFENDANT KLINGELHOEFER: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty?
DEFENDANT KLINGELHOEFER: Not guilty.
JUDGE DIXON: Lothar Fendler, are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?
DEFENDANT FENDLER: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: Was the Indictment in the German language served upon you at least thirty days ago?
DEFENDANT FENDLER: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: Have you read the indictment?
DEFENDANT FENDLER: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty?
DEFENDANT FENDLER: Not guilty.
JUDGE DIXON: Waldemar von Radetzky, are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?
DEFENDANT YOU RADETZKY: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: Was the indictment in the German language served upon you at least thirty days ago?
DEFENDANT VON RADETZKY: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: Have you read the indictment?
DEFENDANT YOU RADETZKY: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty?
DEFENDANT VON RADETZKY: Not guilty.
JUDGE DIXON: Felix Ruehl, are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?
DEFENDANT RUEHL: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: Was the indictment in the German language served upon you at least thirty days ago?
DEFENDANT RUEHL: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: Have you read the indictment?
DEFENDANT RUEHL: Yes.
JUDGE DIXON: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty?
DEFENDANT RUEHL: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Heinz Schubert, are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?
DEFENDANT SCHUBERT: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Was the indictment in the German language served upon you at least thirty days ago?
DEFENDANT SCHUBERT: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Have you read the indictment?
DEFENDANT SCHUBERT: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty?
DEFENDANT SCHUBERT: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Mathias Graf, are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?
DEFENDANT GRAF: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Was the indictment in the German language served upon you at least thirty days ago?
DEFENDANT GRAF: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Have you read the indictment?
DEFENDANT GRAF: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty?
DEFENDANT GRAF: Not guilty.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. Does counsel for the Prosecution or any counsel for the defense have any motions to make?
MR. FERENZ: The Prosecution has no motions to make, Your Honor.
DR. SURHOLT: I have no application to make, but in respect to the words of the Prosecution in the case of Rasch I would like to point out that only for today was I willing to accede to the request of the Defendant to let him go. This does not go for the rest of the proceedings.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. In order that defense counsel may be prepared to proceed without delay with their respective cases, they are now informed that there will be no recess of the Tribunal between the completion of the Prosecution's case and the beginning of the defense.
Opportunity has already been afforded defense counsel, I am informed, to peruse and study the documents which the Prosecution intends to present. Further opportunity will be given defense counsel to further peruse and study these documents prior to the opening of the actual trial date. Consistent with the safeguarding of every right of the defendants, as guaranteed by the Charter, the ordinances, and the laws controlling the procedure of this Tribunal, this case will proceed with dispatch. Any defense counsel who desires to call a witness or to obtain a document must not wait until he is about to call his client to the witness stand to testify. He should make his request immediately as soon as he is aware that he will need such evidence, so that whatever time is consumed in obtaining the evidence, whether it be oral or documentary, may be running while other defendants are testifying. The Tribunal does not want to be placed in the situation of idling a day or even an hour while awaiting evidence which, with a little bit of foresight and energy, could have been obtained in ample time. The trial--the taking of testimony, will begin on Monday, September 29, 1947, in Courtroom No. 2. This Court will be in recess until that time. The Tribunal will now rise.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal will be in recess until 9:30 o'clock Monday, September 29th.
(The Tribunal adjourned at 1045, to resume session at 0930, Monday, 29 September 1947.
No. 2-A in the matter of the United States of America Nuremberg, Germany, on 22 Sept.
1947, 1445, Justice John J. Speight, presiding.
(Arraignment of Defendant Otto Rasch at Municipal Hospital Nuremberg, Germany, at 1445, hours, 22 Sept.
1947.
The following were present; Judge John J. Speight, presiding judge; A. Horlick-Hochwald, representing the Prosecution; Dr. Surholt, counsel for Defendant O. Rasch;Otto Rasch; defendant; Capt.
Jenckes, representing the Marshal, and the Secretary General's office; and Julian R.Schwab, reporter, and Mr. Lamm, court interpreter.)
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Otto Rasch.
DEFENDANT RASCH: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: You know that you have been indicted, and that an indictment has been filed against you for the commission of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity to the Secretary General of the Military Tribunal No. 2-A?
DEFENDANT RASCH: Yes, I know that.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Are you represented by counsel?
DEFENDANT RASCH: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Do you know that the first day of trial is set for Monday, September 19th, 1947?
DEFENDANT RASCH: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Was a copy of the indictment in the German language served upon you at least thirty days ago?
DEFENDANT RASCH: Yes, I got it.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Have you read the indictment?
DEFENDANT RASCH: I have read it.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty?
DEFENDANT RASCH: Not guilty.
No. 2-A in the matter of the United States of America Nuremberg, Germany, on 22 Sept.
1947, 1540, Justice John J. Speight, persiding.
(Arraignment of Defendant Eduard Struch in the Chambers of Judge John J. Speight, Palace of Justice, Nuremberg, Germany, 1540 hours, 22 Sept.
1947.
The following were present: Judge John J. Speight, presiding judge; A. Horlick-Hochwald, representing the Prosecution Staff;Strauch; Capt.
K.S. Jenckes, the Marshal, also representing the Secretary General's office; Julian R. Schwab, court reporter; and Mr. Lamm, court interpreter.)
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Eduard Strauch.
DEFENDANT STRAUCH: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Do you know that you have been indicted, and that an indictment has been filed against you for the commission of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity to the Secretary General now pending before Tribunal No. 2-A?
DEFENDANT STRAUCH: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Are you represented by counsel?
DEFENDANT STRAUCH: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Do you know that the first day for the trial is set for Monday, September 29th, 1947?
DEFENDANT STRAUCH: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Was a copy of the indictment in the German language served upon you at least thirty days ago?
DEFENDANT STRAUCH: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Have you read the indictment?
DEFENDANT STRAUCH: Yes.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty?
DEFENDANT STRAUCH: Not guilty.
litary Tribunal No. IIA in the matter of
THE MARSHAL: The Honorable, the Judges of Military Tribunal No. II-A.
Military Tribunal No. II-A is now in session. God save the United States of America and this Honorable Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: Military Tribunal II-A will now be in order and you will ascertain if the defendants are present.
THE MARSHAL: May it please your Honors, the Defendants Otto Rasch and Eduard Strauch are absent.
THE PRESIDENT: Because of what?
THE MARSHAL: At the request of the medical authorities, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, Since the arraignment several days ago, Otto Rasch and Eduard Strauch have been arraigned separately because on the opening day they were too ill to respond, but that the record will show that they now have been arraigned properly, in accordance with law.
MR. FERENCZ: May it please Your Honors, it is with sorrow and with hope that we here disclose the deliberate slaughter of more than a million innocent and defenseless men, women and children. This was the tragic fulfillment of a program of intolerance and arrogance. Vengeance is not our goal, nor do we seek merely a just retribution. We ask this Court to affirm by international penal action man's right to live in peace and dignity regardless of his race or creed. The case we present is a plea of Humanity to Law.
the dark decade of the Third Reich, would have seemed incredible. The defendants were commanders and officers of special SS groups known as Einsatzgruppen - established for the specific purpose of massacring human beings because they were Jews, or because they were for some other reason regarded as inferior peoples. Each of the defendants in the dock held a position of responsibility or command in an extermination unit. Each assumed the right to decide the fate of men, and death was the intended result of his power and contempt. Their own reports will show that the slaughter committed by these defendants was dictated, not by military necessity, but by that supreme perversion of thought, the Nazi theory of the master race. We shall show that these deeds of men in uniform were the methodical execution of long-range plans to destroy ethnic, national, political and religious groups which stood condemned in the Nazi mind. Genocide - the extermination of whole categories of human beings, was a foremost instrument of the Nazi doctrine. Even before the war the concentration camps within the Third Reich had witnessed many killings inspired by these ideas. During the early months of the war the Nazi regime expanded its plans for genocide and enlarged the means to execute them. Following the German invasion of Poland there arose extermination camps such as Auschwitz and Maidanek. In Spring 1941, in contemplation of the coming assault upon the Soviet Union, the Einsatzgruppen were created as military units, but not to fight as soldiers. They were organized for murder. In advance of the attack on Russia, the Einsatzgruppen were ordered to destroy life behind the lines of combat. Not all life to be sure. They were to destroy all those denominated Jew, political official, Gypsy, and those other thousands called "asocial" by the self-styled Nazi supermen. This was the nex German "Kultur".
gistered. They were forced to wear the Stard of David under threat of death. All were then assembled with their families to be"re-settled" under Nazi supervision. At the outskirts of each town was a ditch, where a squad of Einsatz men waited for their victims. Whole families were arrayed, kneeling or standing near the pit to face a deadly hail of fire. men for extermination, denying them the right to live.
Helpless civilians were conveniently labeled "Partisans" or "Partisan-sympathizers" and then executed. and insane, for "useless eaters" could never serve the Third Reich. beings and discharge corpses. Every Einstzgruppe had its allotment of these carriages of death. these Nazi slaughters and vowed that Justice would be done. Here we act to fulfill that pledge, but not alone because of it. crippled and its people hungry. Most Germans are still unaware of the detailed events we shall account. They must realize that these things did occur in order to understand somewhat the causes of their present plight. They put their faith in Hitler and their hope in his regime. The nazi ideology, devoid of humanism and founded on a ruthless materialism, was proclaimed throughout Germany and was known to all Germans. Hitler and other Nazi leaders made no secret of their purpose to destroy the Jews. As we here record the massacre of thousands of helpless children, the German people may reflect on it to assess the merits of the system they so enthusiastically acclaimed. If they shame at the folly of their choice they may yet find a true ideal in place of a foul fetish.
of this case. We charge more than murder, for we cannot shut our eyes to a fact ominous and full of foreboding for all of mankind. Not since men abondoned tribal loyalties has any state challenged the right of whole peoples to exist. And not since medieval times have governments marked men for death because of race or faith. Now comes this recrudescence - this Nazi doctrine of a master race - an arrogance blended from tribal conceit and a boundless contempt for man himself. It is an idea whose toleration endangers all men. It is, as we have charged, a Crime against Humanity.
The conscience of humanity is the foundation of all law. We seek here a judgment expressing that conscience and reaffirming under law the basic rights of man."
Mr. Glancy will now read Part I of the opening statement,
THE PRESIDENT: Let me suggest that as each attorney appears at the podium he announce his name and whom he represents, Of course that will not be necessary with the Prosecution, but I would like the defense counsel to do that. We didn't seem to do that last time, but that seems to make the record somewhat ambiguous.
MR. FERENCZ: Very well.
MR. GLANCY: May it please the Tribunal. to investigate the basic tenets and the development of the Nazi doctrine which inspired the crimes we shall prove. It is conceded that the Nazi neither invented nor monopolized this idea of superior peoples but the consequences they wrought gave it a new and terrible meaning. The Nazi conception has little in common with that arrogance and pretention which has frequently accompanied the mingling of different peoples.
The master race dogma as the Nazis understood and practiced it, was nothing less than the most all-encompassing and terrible racial persecution of all time. It was one of the most important points of the "unalterable program of the Nazi party" and the only one which was consistantly advanced from the very beginning of Nazi rule in Germany to the bitter end. It was, as Gottfried Feder, the official commentator of the Nazi Program, called it "the emotional foundation of the Nazi movement". The Jews were only one of the peoples marked for extermination in the Nazi program. The motivation of the crime of genocide, as it was carried out by Hitler and his legions in all of the occupied and dominated countries, steemed from the Nazi ideology of "blood and race". In this theory of the predominance of the alleged Nordic race over all others and in the mystic belief that Nordic blood was the only creative power in the world, the Einsatzgruppen had their ideological basis. In this primitive theory; derived in part from Nietzsche's teaching of the Germanic superman, the Nazis found the justification for Germany's domination of the world. As Rosenberg put it in mystic fog:
"A new faith is arising today; the myth of the blood, the come the old sacraments."
3 September 1933, Hitler professed a similar creed, but gave it a more practical expression:
"But long ago man has proceeded in the same way with his fellow man.
The higher race - at first higher in the sense of possess embraces races of unequal value.
Thus there results the sub as the sole conceivable right because founded on reason."
and races, particularly the Slavs of Eastern Europe, as inferior, and Jews and Gypsies, as sub-human. From this thesis to the conclusion that inferior people should be decimated, and sub-humans exterminated like vermin, is but an easy step. The International Military Tribunal found in its judgment:
"The evidence shows that at any, rate in the East, the mass German occupying forces.
In Poland and the Soviet Union territory could be used for colonization by Germans.
Hitler had written in 'Mein Kampf', on these lines, and the plan was clearly stated by Himmler in July 1942, when he wrote:
'It is not our task to Germanize the East in the old sense, ly Germanic blood live in the East."
In August 1942 the policy for the Eastern Territories as laid down by Bermann was summarized by a subordinate of Rosenberg as follows:
"The Slavs are to work for us. In so far as we do not need Germanic health services are superfluous.
The fertility of the Slavs is undesirable."
"In Poland the intelligentsia had been marked down for exter representatives of the Polish intelligentsia."
This aim was openly admitted by the highest SS dignitaries. Himmler gave vivid expression to this view point in a meeting of SS Major Generals at Posen, in October 1943:
"What happens to a Russian, to a Czech does not interest me in the slightest.
What the nations can offer in the way of napping their children and raising them here with us.
Whether only so far as we need them as slaves for our Kultur; other wise, it is of no interest to me.
Whether 10,000 Russian fe ditch for Germany is finished.
We shall never be rough and heartless when it is not necessary, that is clear.
We Germans these human animals.
But it is a crime against our blood to and grandsons to have a more difficult time with them.
When somebody comes to me and says; 'I cannot dig the anti-tank kill them', then I have to say, 'You are a murderer of your own blood because; if the anti-tank ditch is not dug, German They are our own blood.
That is what I want to instil into of the most sacred laws of the future.
Our concern, our duty is our people and our blood.
It is for them that we must provide plan, work and fight, nothing else.
I wish the SS Germanic peoples, especially Russians.
All else is vain, winning of the war."
Cabinet session in the Government Building at Cracow on 16 December 1941 and advocated the following solution of the Jewish problem:
"Gentlemen, I must ask you to rid yourself of all feeling of pity.
We must annihilate the Jews, wherever we find them structure of the Reich as a whole."
licy as follows: "The Jews are a race which has to be eliminated. Wherever we catch one it is his end." And earlier, speaking of his function as Governor General of Poland, he confided to his diary this sentiment: "Of course, I cannot eliminate all lice and Jews in only a year's time." Military Tribunal, was asked how the defendant Ohlendorf could admit the murder of 90,000 people, he replied:
"I am of the opinion that when, for years, for decades, the inevitable."
Germany to embark on the program of extermination. The prophecy of Hitler, made in his speech to the German Reichstag on 30 January 1939, that the result of war would be the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe came very near fulfillment.
It is estimated that, of the 9,600,000 Jews who lived in Nazi dominated countries, 6,000,000 have perished in the gas chambers of the Concentration Camps or were murdered by the Einsatzgruppen. As the International Military Tribunal found in its judg ment:
"Adolf Eichmann, who had been put in charge of this program killed in the extermination institutions."
this work with hideous and ruthless efficiency. It was Himmler who boasted proudly in his speech to the highest SS leaders, in 1943, "Only the SS was equal to the task of exterminating the Jewish people.
Others talked about it but had too many reservations..
honor in the history of the SS." Hans Frank, has publicly regretted his advocacy:
"We have fought against Jewry, we have fought against it for tion - utterances which are terrible.
...A thousand years will pass, and this guilt of Germany will still not be erased."
During the last years the world has learned much about this "state within the state" which was formed by the SS. Much about this new aristocracy of "blood and elite" need not be repeated here. The Einsatzgruppen were part of the SS. They were created at the direction of Hitler and Himmler, by Heydrich the Chief of the Security Police and SD, who was Himmler's righthand man, and operated under the direct control of the RSHA, the Reich Security Main Office, one of the most important of the twelve main offices of the SS.
The Einsatzgruppen were formed in the Spring of 1941. The sequence of events was as follows:
directing that the Security Police and the Security Service be called in to assist the Army in breaking every means of resistance behind the fighting front. Thereafter, the Quartermaster General of the Army, General Wagner, representing Keitel, the Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, met Heydrich, Chief of the Security Police and Security Service. These two men reached an agreement concerning the activation, commitment, command and jurisdiction of units of the Security Police and SD within the framework of the Army. The Einsatzgruppen were to function in the rear operational areas in administrative subordination to the field armies, in order to carry out these tasks as directed by Heydrich and Himmler. level were necessary for the creation of such small units is shown by the character of their assignment. These "security measures" were defined according to the principles of the Security Police and the SD, the principles of Heydrich, the principles of unmitigated terror and murder. The actions of the Einsatzgruppen in the conquered territories will demonstrate the purpose for which they were organized. was attached to an Army Group. Einsatzgruppe A was attached to Army Group North, Einsatzgruppe B was attached to Army Group South. Einsatzgruppe D was assigned to the 11th German Army which was to be nucleus for the formation of a fourth Army Group, after it reached the Caucasus. The function of the Einsatzgruppen was here to insure the political security of the conquered territories both in the operational areas of the Wehrmacht and the rear areas which were not directly under civil administration. These two missions were made known at a mass meeting of the Einsatzgruppen personnel before the attack on Russia. At this meeting Heydrich, Chief of the SIPO and SD, and Streckenbach, Chief of the Personnel Office of the RSHA flatly stated that the task of the Ein satzgruppen would be accomplished by exterminating the opposition to National Socialism.
of the Einsatzgruppen. Hitler himself, instructed them that it was the mission of these Special Task Forces to exterminate all Jews and political commissars in their assigned territories. The Einsatzgruppen were dependent upon the Army Commander for their billets, food and transport: relations between Armed Forces and the Security Police and SD were close and almost cordial, and the commanders of the Einsatzgruppen reported again and again that the understanding of the Army Commanders for the task of the Einsatzgruppen made their operations considerably easier." The officer strength of the Einsatzgruppen was drawn from the SD, SS, Kripo and Gestapo. The enlisted forces were composed of the Waffen SS, the Order police, the Gestapo and locally recruited police, When occasion demanded, the Wehrmacht Commanders would bolster the strength of the Einsatzgruppen with contingents of their own. The Einsatzgruppen were divided into Einsatzkommandos and Sonderkommandos. These sub-units differed only in name. When a mission called for a very small task force, the Einsatz or Sonderkommando was capable of further subdivision, called Teilkommando or splinter groups. population alone, but reached into prisoner-of-war camps in total disregard of the rules of warfare. Soldiers were screened by Einsatzkommandos personnel in order to find and kill Jews and political commissars. of the ideological background of this fight to the commanders in chief and the highest officers of the three branches of the Armed Forces.
This war, he said, would not be an ordinary war, but a clash of conflicting ideologies. Special measures would have to be taken against political functionaries and commissars of the Soviet Army. Political activities and commissars were not to be treated as prisoners of war, but were to be segregated and turned over to special detachments of the SD which were to accompany the German troops. The carrying out of this Hitler directive was described by the International Military Tribunal in its judgment that:
"... There existed in the prisoner-of-war camps on the Eastern Front small screening teams (Einsatzkommandos), headed by lower ranking members of the Secret Police (Gestapo).to report them to the office of the Secret Police."
German soldier might suffer from the sight of these executions, the Chief of the Office IV of the RSHA assured him cynically that, in the future, this "special treatment" - the euphemistic expression for killing - would take place outside the camps so that the troops would not see them. tionary, commissar, higher ranking civil servant, leading personality of the economical field, member of the intelligentsia or Jew might escape extermination. These purposes were realized in actions we shall now describe.
MR. GLANCY: Mr. Walton shall continue for the Prosecution.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
MR. WALTON: began in conformity with the agreements between the Army High Command and the Reichs Security Main Office. At first the Border Police School Barracks at Pretzsch in Saxony was designated as an assembly point but because of the inadequacy of facilities, the neighboring villages of Dueben and Schmiedeberg were also designated as assembly points.