now submit to you as USSR 64, which is submitted to the Tribunal as the result of the investigation. I will cite only a few excerpts from this document. On page 2 of the document, which is page 223 in your file, we read--and this part is marked in your file:
"The legal medical experts give the total number of bodies as over 11,000. The legal medical experts carried out a thorough examination of the exhumed bodies, and the documents and belongings found on the bodies in the graves. During the exhumation and examination of the corpses, the Commission questioned many witnesses amongst the local inhabitants. Their testimony permitted the determination of the exact time and circumstances of the crimes committed by the German invaders." Commission ascertained during its investigations. I only submit to the Tribunal the general conclusions, which summarize the Committee's work. You will find the quoted lines at page 43 of USSR Exhibit 54, if you turn to the original document, or at page 254 of the file of documents.
"General Conclusions.
"With all the material at the proposal of the Special Committee, that is, depositions of more than 100 witnesses, the data of the medical-legal experts, the documents and the material evidence and belongings taken from the graves in the Katyn Woods, we can arrive at the following definite conclusions.
"1. The Polish prisoners of war imprisoned in the three camps west of Smolensk and engaged in railway construction before the war, remained there after the occupation of Smolensk by the Germans up to September 1941.
"2. In the autumn of 1941, in the Katyn Woods, the German occupation authorities carried out mass shootings of the Polish prisoners of war from the above-mentioned camps.
"3. Mass shootings of Polish prisoners of war in Katyn Woods were carried out by German military organizations disguised under the specific name, "Staff 537, Engineer Battalion," commanded by 1st Lieutenant Arnes and his colleagues, 1st Lieutenant Rechts and 2nd Lieutenant Hott.
"4. In connection with the deterioration, for Germany, of the general military and political set-up at the end of 1943, the German occupational powers, with a view to provoking the population, undertook a whole series of measures to ascribe their own atrocities to organizations of the Soviet authorities, and thus create a quarrel between the Russians and the Poles.
"5. For this purpose:
"a. The German Fascist invaders, either by persuasion, attempts at bribery, threats, or barbarous tortures, endeavored to find witnesses amongst the Soviet citizens from whom they obtained false testimony suggesting that the Polish prisoners of war had been shot by organizations of the Soviet authorities in the spring of 1940.
"b. The German occupational authorities, in the spring of 1943, brought from other places the bodies of Polish prisoners of war, whom they had shot, and laid them in the uncovered graves of Katyn Wood, with the dual purpose of covering up the traces of their own atrocities and of increasing the numbers of 'victims of Bolshevist atrocities in Katyn Wood.'
"c. Whilst preparing their provocative measures, the German occupational authorities employed, up to 500 Russian prisoners of war for the task of digging up the graves in Katyn Wood, according to evidence and material proof on the matter. Once the graves had been dug, the Russian prisoners of war were shot by the Germans.
"6. The data of the legal and medical examination determined, without any possible doubt:
"a. That the time of shooting was autumn 1941.
"b. The application by the German executioners, when shooting Polish prisoners of war, of the identical method, that is, a pistol shot in the back of the neck, as used by them in the mass murders of Soviet citizens in other towns, especially in Orel, Veronecz, Krasnodar, and Smolensk itself."
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now recess.
(A recess was taken until 14.00 hours.)
COL. POKROVSKY: Point 7 of the general conclusions of the Extraordinary State Commission investigating the Katyn murder states:
"The conclusions arrived at, after studying the affidavits and legalmedical examinations concerning the shooting, by Germans, of Polish military prisoners of war in the autumn of 1941, fully confirmed the material evidence discovered in the Katyn graves.
"8. By shooting the Polish prisoners of war in the Katyn Wood, the German Fascist invaders consistently realized their policy of physically annihilating the Slav peoples." warriors of the Polish Army. In the report of the Polish Government, submitted by me to the Tribunal as USSR-Exhibit No. 93, we find a series of proofs of the breach of the elementary rules of international law, in connection with the customs and laws of war, on Page 36 of this Polish Government report -in your file it is Page 285 of your document book -- we find as an outstanding point of the collected materials the ill-treatment of prisoners of war and their annihilation. It is said in the report that:
"As and when the Polish officers and other ranks returned from the German prisoner of war camps, we learned further details concerning conditions prevailing in the German camps. All these details prove the existence of an undeniable line of policy of instructions and orders concerning Polish prisoners of war. Ill-treatment, hardship and inhuman conditions were of common occurrence. Murder and grievous bodily injuries were very often encountered. I submit herewith some examples confirmed by witnesses under oath."
I shall now read a few of the examples quoted in the Polish report. As a first example, I shall quote the description of an event which took place in temporary prisoners of war camp in the town of Belsk."
"On the 10th of October 1939, the camp commandant assembled all the prisoners and ordered those who had joined the Polish Army as volunteers to raise their hands. Three prisoners obeyed his order. They were immediately led out of the rank and placed at a distance of 25 meters from a detachment of German soldiers armed with machine guns. The commandant gave the order to open fire. He then spoke to the remaining prisoners and told them that the three volunteers had been shot as an example."
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel, you will forgive me for interrupting you, but you remember that I have interrupted all the other prosecutors to point out to them that one opening speech had been made on behalf of their delegation, and that really their function was to present the documents. were shot. I think that any comment upon that is really unnecessary.
COLONEL POKROVSKY: I now proceed to the quotation of the second extract on Page 37, page 286 of your document file.
"In the autumn of 1939, Camp Stalag VIII-C was established in Counay, near Sagan, on the River Beber, a tributary of the Oder. Depositions from this camp read as follows:
"The camp in Counay was an open space surrounded by barbed wire, with large tents, each holding 180 or 200 persons. In spite of very cold weather (the temperature was under 25 degrees Celsius) there was in December 1939 no heating appliance whatever in the camp. Consequently, some of the inmates had frozen hands, feet, and ears. Since the prisoners had no blankets and since their uniforms were too worn out to protect them from the cold, diseases broke out, whilst malnutrition resulted in extreme inanition. Moreover, the guards constantly ill-treated the prisoners. They were beaten on the slightest protext. Two men were especially noted for their brutality: Lt. Schpicke and Sergeant-Major Grau. They struck the prisoners in the face and beat them, thus breaking their ribs and arms, and gouging out their eyes."
Such inhuman treatment drove soldiers to suicide and others to madness."
quote, to this end, count "a2 of page 39, your page 287.
"the above mentioned treatment of Polish Prisoners of War by individuals as well as by the German Military authorities flagrantly violated the articles of the Geneva Convention of 1929, pages 2, 3, 9, 10, 29, 30, 50, and 54. The Convention in question had been ratified by Germany on the 21st of February, 1934." were subjected to unbridled ill-treatment by the fascist invaders. Ill-treatment, torture and torment, together with mass executions were introduced as part of the system. Here too, the Hitler criminals were perfectly aware of what they were doing. To white-wash themselves, if only a little, in the eyes of the world, they referred to the officers and men of the Yugoslav Army as "Bandits", in all documents, concerning the destruction of prisoners of war. Report with regard to the above matter, read as follows (I quote page 23 of Document No. USSR-36: This quotation begins on Page 326 of your document file.
"...Everywhere where the Germans used the so-called actions against 'bands and bandits' as a pretext for the annihilation of the civilian population (women, children and old people), units of the Yugoslav national army of liberation and partisan units were actually involved... and insignia, they conducted an armed struggle against the fascist occupation forces and in addition were fully recognized by all the Allies. Besides we will see later that in some of its documents, the German Command itself unmistakably recognized this fact, but in its attitude towards the Yugoslav fighters it continued unrestrainedly to violate the principles of the international law of war". with the requirements of article 21 of the Charter as to admissability of evidence, I submit to the Tribunal also document USSR- 3(5 (Yu-68). This is an excerpt from the report by the Yugoslav State Commission concerning the determination of crimes committed by the occupation forces and their accomplices.
The State Commission reports that there is at its disposal a secret report by Lieut.Gen.Hoesslin, the commanding officer of 188 depot, Mountain Infantry Division, which had been given the number 9070/44. The report is of great importance because of the following considerations which I will explain to the Tribunal in the terms of document 305. I quote:
"Although the report refers to cur divisions, brigades, and artillery battalions under their proper names and proper numbers - in cases of military engagements -- all our army is called in this report, however, by the general names of "bandits", and for a very simple reason; by this they are attempting to divest us of the rights of a belligerent, to have the right to shoot prisoners of war, to kell the wounded and to have a pretext for employing repressive measures against the peaceful non-fighting population, allegedly because of their assistance to the "bandits". Lieut-Gen. Hoesslin admits that the combat group of Col. Christel after "a night engagement with weak bandit forces" - and these are the exact words of the report - burnt down Laskovitz, Lazna, Lokva and Cepovan, and destroyed a hospital. In General Hoesslin's report it is further stated that the division, together with the 3rd Brandenburg Regiment and other German and Police units, took part in "the man-hunt for bandits in the neighbourhood of Klan" (measure Ernst) ---"
I submit to the Tribunal exhibit USSR-132 (Yu-67) your page 263 of the document book. This represents an excerpt from the directives by Major General Kuebler concerning the conduct of troops in action, an extract which was certified by the Yugoslav State Commission. I read these excerpts into the record:
"SECRET 118.
Jaeg. Division Abt.
Ic Br.B.Nr. 1418/43 secret Div.
Hqs. 12.5.1943 2. Prisoners:
interrogation."
I further submit to the Tribunal exhibit USSR-304 (Yu-56).
This number has been given to the excerpt from memorandum No. 6 of the Yugoslav State Commission for the determination of the crimes committee by the occupation forces and their accomplices.
In the last paragraph of document USSR-304 (page 2 of the Russian text) is stated as follows: your page 365 of the document book:
"On May 5, 1945 the Germans brought from one of the partisan hospitals 35 fettered patients and hospital orderlies. Ten of the patients who could not walk were nut against the wall and shot. Their bodies were piled up in a heap, covered with wood and set of fine."
As exhibit USSR-307 (Yu-73) I submit another extract from statement No. 6 of the same state commission. This statement is found on pages 85-115 of the first book entitled "Memoranda on crimes committed by the occupation forces and their accomplices". I shall now proceed to quote a part of this extract:
"On 5 June 1944 Hitler's criminals captured two soldiers of the Yugoslav Liberation Army and the Slovene Partisan battalions. They brought them to Razori, where they cut off their noses and ears with bayonets, gauged out their eyes and then asked them if they could see their comrade Tito. Thereupon the called the peasants together and beheaded the two victims... They then place the heads on a table..." their victims, the fascists then took photographs, and, as further states in the extract quoted by me, as follows:
"Later, in the course of the fighting, the photographs were found on a fallen German. From this it can be seen that they confirm the above described incident at Razori." Yugoslav photographic evidence.
Under No. 65/a, (Yu-69) I submit to the Tribunal an announcement signed by the Commander of the SS and police detachments of the 18th military district, SS Gruppenfuehrer and Police Lieut.Gen.Roesener. I shall now proceed to read into the records a part of this announcement. You willthus be able to see that the members of the Yugoslav military forces who were taken prisoner were either hanged or shot:
- This document is on Page 367 of your document book.
"In view of various encounters between police detachments and...." I skip several sentences of this concerning the description of these encounters "18 bandits were shot recently and a large number were taken prisoner." on 30 June 1942..." from 21 to 40 years.. I will not read this list into the record. On page 36 of our exhibit USSR-36, your Page 39, the first paragraph from the bottom reads:
"We can find the same evidence in a collection of official notes on the staff conferences of the Gauleiter Uiberreither... Thus, for example, the minutes of the conference held on 23 March 1944, contain the following:
"... Today in Mariner 15 bandits were killed..." The minutes of July 27, 1942, contain the following:
"Several members of the bands were shot of lately".
"Since the beginning of the activities of the bands, in July 1941, the security Police (Ordnungspolizei) killed on the spot 164 bandits, and 1,043 by special proceedings (im Sonderverfahren)." The minutes of 25 January 1942, state:
"The number of the members of the hand which were liquidated on January 3, 1943, by SIPO and Ordnungspolizei is 86, including wounded and prisoners, 77 or whom were killed." conferences held by Uiberreither." moved into special camps where they were gradually destroyed by hunger and most exhausting work. I will now read into the record the last paragraph on page 37 of the report of the Yugoslav Government, which was previously mentioned by me and offered in evidence as Exhibit USSR-36. It is Page 340 of the document book.
"One of such camps was established in the course of 1942 at Boten, near Rognan. Nearly 1.000 Yugoslav prisoners of war were brought into this camp and in the course of a few months all of them, to the last man, died of illness, hunger, physical torture, or direct murder. They were daily forced to do the hardest kind of work on a road and on some dams. The working hours lasted from dawn until 8 p.m., under the worst climatic conditions in this northern part of Norway. In the course of their work, the prisoners were incessantly beaten, and in the camp itself were exposed to ill treatment of the worst kind.
"Thus, for example, in August of 1942, the prisoners were ordered knew well that they had none.
The prisoners spent the whole of the night pulling out their hair with their hands and assisting one another.
However, rifle fire."
"On November 26, 1943, German soldiers in the middle of the night broke into the ambulance and dragged out into the courtyard 80 sick prisoners; after they had to undress completely in the terrible cold, all were shot. On January 26, 1943, another 50 prisoners died in the worst imaginable pains because of beating. Throughout the winter, other prisoners were also killed in the following manner: They would be buried naked up to their waist, and water sprayed over them, so that statues of ice were made of them. It was established that 880 Yugoslav prisoners of war were killed in the above-mentiened camp in various similar ways." Further, on page 38, Exhibit USSR-36, information is contained of the shooting of Yugoslav prisoners of war in the camp of Bajsfjord (Norway). After 10 July 1942 when an epidemic of typhus (spotted fever) broke out in that camp and spread to six more, the Germans found no other way of fighting this epidemic than a wholesale shorting of all the patients. This was done on 17 July 1942. I. On the same page, 38, there is a reference to a Norwegian report of 22 isolating them were transferred to another camp, Bjarfjel.
I will read into the bottom, page 341 of your document book.
"When an epidemic of typhus broke out in the new camp, in the course where German SS troops continued to ecterminate them.
In the end, only 200 men remained alive and were transferred to camp Osen.
I will now skip two paragraphs and pass to the last paragraph of the same report:
"One June 22, 1943, a transport containing 900 Yugoslav prisoners arrived in Norway.
Most of them were intellectuals, and then workers and peasants, or men seized as so-called politically "suspicious elements". A part of them Osen.
The Commandant of both camps simultaneously, from June 1942 until the end of March 1943, was the SS-Sturmbannfuehrer ..Dolps.
"Men were constantly dying of hunger.45 men were placed in a hut which was normally to accomodate only 6 men.
... There were no medicines......
"The prisoners in the camp of Osen used to sleep in their shirts without any underpants, without any cover whatsoever, on bare floors.
Dolps personally visited huts and carried out inspections.
The prisoners who with his submachine gun.
He killed in the same manner all those who appeared 400 in Korgen.
Out of about 500 prisoners who were taken to the camp of alive."
beginning with the 3rd paragraph from the bottom, page 342 of your document fill:
"Besides this terrible treatment of the captured fighters of the Yugoslav National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments, the Germans also treated the prisoners of war from the ranks of the old Yugoslav Army competely contrary to the Geneva convention on the Treatment of the Prisoners of War, of 1929.
"In April 1941, immediately after the occupation of the Yugoslav territory, the Germans drove into captivity in Germany about 300,000 soldiers and noncommissioned officers. The Yugoslav State Commission has at its disposal much evidence of the unlawful illtreatment of these prisoners. We shall give here only a few examples.
"On July 14, 1943, in the officers camp (Oflag) VI-C at Osnabrueck, 740 captured Yugoslav officers were separated from the remainder and placed in a special punishment camp called Camp D. In this camp they were all crowded togethe in four huts; every contact with the rest of the camp was prohibited and the treatment of these officers has been still more contrary to thep provisions of the above-mentioned Convention, than the treatment of other prisoners.
In this punishment-camp were placed all those whom the Germans considered to be supporters of the National Liberation Movement, and against whom they applied very frequently various collective punishments.
"The Germans even played with the lives of prisoners and frequently out of pure whim fired shots at them. Thus, for example, at the aforesaid camp at Osnabrueck, on January 11, 1942, a German guard fired at a group of prisoners, severly wounding Capt. Petaer Nozinic. On July 26, 1942, a guard fired on a group of officers. On September 2, 1942, a guard fired on Lt. Vladislav Vajs, who remained permanently incapacitated by the wound received. On September 22, 1942, a guard from the prison tower fired again on a group of officers. On December 18, 1942, the guard fired on a group of officers, because from their huts they were looking at the English prisoners passing by. On February 20th, 1942, a guard fired on a Yugoslav officer, only because the officer was smoking. On March 11th, 1943, a guard fired a shot at the doors of a hut and killed General Dimitrife Pavlovic. One June 21, 1943, a guard fired at the Yugoslav Lt. Col. Branko Popadic. On April 26, 1944 the German non-commissioned officer Richards fired on Lt. Vladislav Gajger, who subsequently died of the wunds received. On June 26, 1944, the German Captain Kuntze fired on two Yugoslav officers, severely wunding Lt. Alekesander Djordjevic. All these shootings were carried out without any serious reason or pretext, and only as a result of cruel orders of the German camp commanders, who threatened that arms would be used even in case of most insignificant offences or even without this excuse.
"All these examples took place in one single camp. But this was the treatment applied in all the wemaining camps for Yugoslav officers and soldiers who were prisoners of war in German hands." which I should like to mention here. Its improtance lies not in the fact that it throws a new light on the methods employed in Fascist crimes, but that it took place at the time when the Hitlerites clearly realized that their days were numbered. This incident is described in appendix 4 to Czechoslovak Government's report and I shall describe it briefly in my own words.
installations were located, while the former lunatic asylum was used as an SS hospital. When the question arose regarding the formalities for the surrender of the German military units at the airfield, Lieutenant Captain Sula with one of his follow officers of the Czechsolovak Arme betook himself to the airfield. Neither of them ever came back. Later, the airfield and the hospital were occupied by the Czech National Units and an investigation was carried out. It showed that the parlamentaires, together with six other persons who previously disappeared at Gavlichkov Ford, were taken by the Germans to the SS hospital where they were subjected to cruel tortures. In the case of Captain Sula the Germans out out his tongue, gauged out his eyes and out his chest open. The others suffered similar treatment. Most of them had their exual organs cut away. I am submitting to the Tribunal. My presentation has lasted several hours. Surely, neither time nor all the words of living human speech will suffice to describe even a thousandth part of the sufferings borne by the fighters of my country and those of other democratic countries who had the misfortune to fall into the hands of the Fascist hangmen. manner, the way in which the cannibalistic Fascist directives regarding the mistreatment of prisoners of war and their mass extermination were carried out, before which all the horrors of the Middle Ages pale.
We shall attempt here to fill in the gap. Tens of thousands of witnesses will pass before you. They might have been called to the Tribunal to testify in this case. I cannot call them by name and you will not administer and oath to them, and yet their evidence cannot be disbelieved because the dead never lie. Most of the films regarding German atrocities which will be presented by the Soviet prosecution relate to crimes against prisoners of war. The silent testimony of those who were burnt alive in hospitals, those mutilated beyond recognition, tortured those starved to death will, I am sure, be more eloquent than any of my words.
Rostov and Kharkov, the martyrs of Auschwitz and of the other camps of extermination created by the Hitlerites.
The enemy perfidiously attacked our country. The people rose in arms to defend their motherland, her freedom, her independence, the honor and life of their families. They joined the ranks of the fighters, and lo, they fell into the hands of the enemy. See how the enemy mocked when they no longer had arms to defend themselves. for the Fascist misdeeds - answer according to the full severity of the law of international justice, to the martyrs for the indescribable atrocities which you will see with your own eyes, and for the many similar crimes which will remain unknown.
Allow me to present to the Tribunal, Senior Counsel, L.N. Sminov, who will present to the Tribunal documentation concerning crimes committed against the civilian populations of the USSR, Jugoslavia, Poland and Czechoslovakia.
COLONEL L.N. SMINOV: Your Honors: My problem today consists of presenting to you the written documents and other judicial evidence testifying to the most severe crimes committed by the Hitlerian conspirators towards the peaceful population in the territories of the USSR, Jugoslavia, Poland and Czechoslovakia which were under temporary occupation. tion is very great. Commission for the Determination and Investigation of the Crimes of the German Fascist Invaders and their Allies, there are 54,404 reports of the crimes by the Hitlerian criminals directed at the peaceful citizens of the Soviet Union. these war criminals towards the peaceful population. evidence, that along the whale expanse of the great front, from the Berentz Sea to the Black Sea throughout the whole depth of infiltration of the German Fascist hordes into my Fatherland, everywhere where there stepped the foot of the German soldier, or whereat any time appeared even one member of the SS, crimes took place which were unheard of for their cruelty; crimes against peaceful citizesn -- the aged, the women, the children. units of the Red Army moved west. The reports on these crimes against the peaceful population were made by the officers of the front units of the Red Army, by local government agencies, by community organizations. not from circulars of the German Command, not from the notices put up by the Reich leaders, not from the instructions issued by the Obergruppenfuehrers of the SS which have appeared in both the incoming and outgoing bulletins of the German organizations concerned (although such documents were also captured in very large quantities by the advancing units of the Red Army and are at present in the possesssion of the Soviet prosecution).
their native places and saw most of the villages, towns and cities turned into desert zones by the Hitlerite hordes that they learned of these crimes. Soviet citizens murdered by typical German methods, at the scaffolds from which hung the bodies of adolescents, at the furnaces of the gigantic crematoria where were burned these murdered in the camps of destruction, by the bodies of the women and girls who became victims of the saddist tendencies of the Fascist bandits, by the corpses of the children term in half. By all these things did the Soviet people understand the chain of crime that extended, as stated by the Chief Prosecutor of the USSR "From the chairs of the Cabinet Ministers to the hands of the executioners." There was a special system in these horrible crimes. There was uniformity in the methods of murder. The same construction of the gas chambers; the same mass production of the round tins of poison called "Cyclone A" or "Cyclone B"; the ovens of the crematoria built in the same typical manner; the same plan extending to all the destruction camps. There was the same construction of the ill-smelling machines of death which the Germans called "gasenwagen", but which our people referred to as "the killers"; there was the same technical perfection in the construction of the travelling mills for cracking human bones. All these things painted to the same evil will, which united all separate assassins and all individual executioners. gists, mechanics and physicians were engaged in this utilization of science for purposes of mass murder at the direction of the criminal Hitlerian government and the High Command of the German Army. It became clear that these death factories brought into existence a whole series of auxiliary industries. technical skills were developed to serve the objectives of the criminal assassinations. methods, in the similarity of the techniques utilized for murder, and also where these special techniques were not used but very ordinary weapons of the German Army served the purpose.
Doctors of the USSR, both in the North and in the South of the country. The graves were separated one from another, often by thousands of kilometers, and it was quite clear that these crimes were committed by quite different and distinct individuals, but the methods of these massmurders were completely identical: the wounds were in the same parts of the body; the gigantic ditches which were to be graves were similarly camouflaged as anti-tank trenches; almost the same expressions were used to order the disarmed and defenseless persons to undress and to lie face down in the already prepared graves. The first layer of those just shot, whether in the camps of Byelo-Russia or in the mountains of the Caucasus, were similarly covered by lime, and in the layer of bodies and lime lay down the second layer of these about to die. ceived from the higher quarters; but so similarly, so identical were the methods used that it became clear that executioners were trained in the same special schools, which systematized and made provision for every part of the murder etiquette, from the order to undress just before being shot to the shooting itself. later confirmed by the documents captured by the Red Army and by the testimony of the prisoners of war. Government that the innumerable crimes of the German Fascist aggressors against the peaceful citizens of my Fatherland represented, not the excesses of undisciplined military units, or the isolated crimes of individual officers and soldiers, but represented a system prepared in advance; not merely sanctioned by the criminal Hitler government, but consciously planned and encouraged. of the Charter one of the official memoranda of V. M. Molotov, Peoples Commissar far Foreign Affairs in the USSR, dated as early as 6 January 1942. This document is registered as USSR Exhibit No. 51. It is on the first page of your document file, beginning at the third paragraph after the heading:
"As the Red Army, in the course of its continued successful counter-offensive, liberated numerous cities and rural communities which had for a time been in the hands of the German invader, a picture without equal emerged, and this picture emerges more clearly with every passing day -- the pciture of the plunderings which took place in every community, the general ruination, coarse deeds of violence, infamous acts and mass murders which were committed against the civilian population by the fascist German occupation forces during the offensive, during the occupation, and during their withdrawal. The great amount of documentary material which the Soviet Government has at its disposal is evidence that the plundering and despoiling of the population, accompanied by bestial acts of violence and mass murders, was carried put in all territories which came under the heels of the German invaders. Incontrovertible evidence proves that the regimes of robbery and of bloody terror against the peaceful population of the occupied villages and cities did not consist of incidential excesses of individual undisciplined military units or individual German officers and soldiers. Rather it points to a definite system, planned in advance and promoted by the German government and the German army command, which let lease intentionally within their army the lowest animal instincts among the officers and soldiers.
"Every step of the Fascist German Army and its allies on the Soviet territories occupied by them, in the Ukraine and Moldavia, in White Russia and Lithuania, in Latvai and Esthonai, in the Karelian-Finnish territory, in the Russian regions and zones, brings the destruction and annihilation of numberless material and cultural values of our people; it brings to the civilian population the less of property won in hard work, the erection of a forced labor regime, famine and bloody slaughter, before the horrors of which the most dreadful crimes that human history has ever known, pale.
"The Soviet government and its organs keep an extensive record get retribution."
of all civilized humanity its declaration as to the monstrous crimes committed by the Hitlerite Armies upon the population of occupied territories. statement of the note. The Tribunal will find this paragraph on the other side of the page of the document I have quoted, page 4:
"Germany's Hitler regime, which has attacked the Soviet Union in violation of its pledge, does not pay any heed to any international standards or any requirements of human morals in waging war. She wages war especially against the peaceful and unarmed population, against women, children and old men, thereby revealing the vile brigand mentality. This brigand government, which recognizes only force and rapine, must be crushed by the all-powerful strength of the freedom-loving peoples, amongst whom the Soviet peoples will carry out their great task of liberation to the end. Governments with which the Soviet Union maintains diplomatic relations, the Soviet Government states that she holds Germany's criminal Hitlerite Government entirely responsible for all these inhuman and rapacious acts. unshakable conviction that the fight for liberation of the Soviet Union is a fight for the rights and the liberty not only of the peoples of the Soviet Union, but also for the rights and the liberty of all other freedom-loving peoples of the world, and that this war can end only with complete destruction of the Hitler army and with complete victory over the Hitler tyranny." submit to the Tribunal makes it necessary to adhere to a very strict system in the presentation of this documentation.
I will quote successively: the chief war criminals, of the lower instincts of those German Officers, men and officials who were sent to the eastern areas, encouraging them to do away with the civilian population and mistreat it. These chief war criminals created the atmosphere of irresponsibility and legalized the regime of terror. of personnel sent to put into effect both the mass murders and the orders, circulars and the so-called "laws" of the Hitlerian criminals under the title of "The Voice of Destruction."