"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."
The same book was as "What Hitler Told Me," or "Conversations with Hitler," and so on.
From this book of Rauschning's which I submit to the Tribunal, there are two quotations which I present.
The first is on page 225.
Your Honors will find it on page 14, last paragraph. The contents can be resumed.
Hitler told Rauschning that he was freeing mankind from the "phantom call of conscience and morality."
The second quotation is found on pages 137 and 138.
It is very important, concrete fact.
It concerns a conversation between Hitler and Rauschning on the subject of the "special technique for depopulating and about the victor's right to exterminate whole peoples."
of Cyclone "A" or constructing gas chambers and crematoria, or the carry out these policies, "not as a matter of form, but also in spirit"-as stated by Himmler in one of his speeches.
It was necessary of both morals and ethics.
It was necessary to legalize "a theoretical foundation" for substituting the concept of "guilt" for the concept of "suspicion;" for the concept of "punishment," the concept of "preventative purge of undesirable elements for political purposes;"for the concept of "justice," the concept of the "master's right;"for the concept of jurisprudence, the concept of "administrative tyranny and police terror."
are responsible for nothing. This is why Hitler freed humanity from the "phantom called conscience."
However, the theoretical foundations laid for the purpose still did not constitute official instructions;"the joys of cruelty."
"reminders," "sermons" and similar documents to the Germans who were being sent east.
I must say that out of all the documents in my this one.
This is not an order to the SS or police. It is intended for the agricultural leaders.
It is called, "The Twelve Commandments the Russians."
I submit this as document USSR-89, and your Honors will find it on page 17 of the document book.
This book begins with the "Twelve Commands" of which I have just spoken.
It is a book strictly for the agricultural leaders.
From these "Twelve Command ments" I shall quote just one, that is the sixth, which has a direct
DR. OTTO NELTE (Counsel for Defendant Keitel): Mr. President, this document, USSR-389, concerning the "Twelve Commandments" heading.
That is the end of the quotation. It has no signature.
author of these "Twelve Commands" is. So I respectfully ask for a
THE PRESIDENT: Can you inform us what the source of the document is?
COLONEL SMINOV: I will. This document is included in the Investigation of Criminals.
It was received from the following (An interruption).source.
If he will turn to the original of this document, he will that signature on a series of German Fascist documents.
By a strange coincidence it spoke on two subjects, either upon the Russian soul-- ;both subjects.
I cannot quote the source of this document. I repeat,
THE PRESIDENT: I have the original before me. It is dated, H-W-A-C-K-E. Perhaps Counsel for the Defense would like to see the original document.
It is, as I understand from the Prosecuting
COLONEL SMINOV: That is so, my Lord. I have an indication concerning the function of Backe.
He was Minister of Foods and Food Products.
I did not know that before. Forgive me. I did not
DR. NELTE: Mr. President, I believe the signature is Backe, and I believe that I can identify the signature; Backe was in the
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps this would be a convenient time to (A recess was taken.)
COLONEL L.N. SMINOV: I now quote the Sixth Commandment out of the twelve which have just been submitted to the Tribunal. This Sixth Commandment, which is on Page 17 of the book of documents of the Tribunal, reads as follows:
"Since the newly opened-up areas must be lastingly acquired for Germany and Europe, a great deal will depend upon your behavior. You must realize that you are the representatives of Greater Germany and the standard-bearers of the National Socialist Revolution and of the New Europe for centuries to come. You must, therefore, carry out with dignity even the hardest and most ruthless measures that are required on account of the state necessities. Lack of character on the part of an individual will be considered without doubt as a cause for his removal. Anyone who has been recalled on such ground will no longer be eligible for a responsible position in the Reich either."
For what "cruel and merciless" measures the criminal Hitler movement was preparing those whom it called "the vanguard of the National Socialist Revolution" and what crimes were committed by this vanguard, we shall show in a minute. by official orders which were definite and which had no ambiguity. institutions. The network of these institutions extended even to the lowest officials. I shall submit to the Tribunal the indictment presented by the Prosecutor for the Most Important Affairs in the USSR on the subject of the German Fascist crimes in the city and district of Kharkov. This document has already been confirmed fully by the verdict of the military tribunal, which has also been submitted to your Honors. states that all documentation concerning preliminary examinations were confirmed by the investigation. The indictment and the verdict are submitted to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit 32.
of the defendant Razlev. Page 24 of the document file, last paragraph:
"The senior corporal of the German Army, Reinhard Retzlaff, who received his training in the special battalion 'Altenburg', testified at the trial:
"'The semester included several lectures of the leading officials of the GFP -- Secret Field Police -- who pointed out in a direct manner that the peoples of the Soviet Union, and especially those of Russian nationality, were inferior and that they would have to be destroyed in their overwhelming majority, but that they were to be used as slaves to a minor extent by the German estate owners. These directives originated the policy of the German government toward the peoples of occupied territories and were, it must be confessed, executed by every member of the armed forces in actual life, amongs them also myself.'" the junior police officials. other forms of education and concentrated or developing various special processor for destroying people. The Tribunal has already received the document registered as USSR Exhibit 6 B. This document is one of the appendic to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes committed in the territory of the Lvov district. It is the testimony of the witness Manuseviof, questioned by the Senior Assistant Prosecutor of the Lvov district at the special request of the Extraordinary State Commission. The protocol of the questioning are formulated in accordance with the legal procedure of the code of the Ukrainian USSR. worked as a member of the prisoners squad for the burning of corpses of assassinated Soviet citizens. After having finished the burning of 40,000 corpses murdered in the Yanov Camp, the squad was transferred for similar purposes to the camp located in the Lisenitz Woods.
will find on Page 62, paragraph 2, beginning from the top, line 26.
"In this camp, that is to say, in the death-factory, special ten day courses on the burning of corpses were organized. Twelve men were employed there. Persons attending the courses came from the camps of Lublin, Warsaw and others. I do not know their family names, but they were officers, not enlisted men, from the rank of colonel to sergeant. The instructor at these courses were the commandant of the camp, Colonel Schallok. He explained at the scene where bodies were exhumed abd burned the practical way of doing it, how the machinery for crashing the bones was set up, and how the pits should be levelled over and trees planted on the spot, and how the ashes of the human corpses should be scattered and concealed. Such courses existed over a considerable period of time. During my stay -- that is, in the course of five and one half months of my work in the Yanov and Lisenitz Camps -there were ten groups attending these courses." organization, the so-called Hitler Youth. Baldur von Schirach. by the Fascist criminals is described by a French citizen, Ida Vasso, the directress of a pension for aged Frenchmen in Lvov. During the occupation of Lvov by Germans, she had an opportunity to visit the Lvov Ghetto. described the system for the extermination of people there. From the statement of Vasso, you can see that German educated Hitler youth by means of training these young Fascists to shoot at living targets, namely at children who were specially given to the Hitler Youth as targets for the shooting. The statement by Vasso was verified by the Extraordinary State Commission and fully confirmed. Exhibit 6, a report by the Extraordinary State Commission entitled "Concerning the Crimes of Germans in the Territory of the Lvov Region."
text of the report as certified documentation, on page 6, second column of the text, paragraph 5, beginning at page 14, at the beginning of the paragraph. The Tribunal will find this evidence on page 59.
"The little children were martyrs. They were given as presents to the Hitler Youth, which used them as living targets for their target practice. 'No mercy for others, all for themselves' -- that was the motto of the Germans. The whole world must learn about their methods. We who were helpless witnesses of these terrible scenes, must report their atrocities so that all should know, and what is more important, that nobody should forget, as vengeance will not bring back life to these people." the Tribunal will find the confirmation of the Vasso statement. The Extraordinary State Commission established that at Lvov:
"Neither men, women nor children were spared. The adults were killed in a primitive way; the children were given to the Hitler Youth to be used for target practice." who were called upon to execute the program of the main criminals for the physical destruction of the population of the countries of Eastern Europe. the National Socialist Revolution in the East would show any traces of humanity.
THE PRESIDENT: I hope you will forgive my interrupting you, but I had to point out Colonel Prokrovsky just now that we really don't want any comment upon each one of these documents.
The passage frightful document which you have just read.
It all takes time.
COLONEL SMINOV: I will follow your indications, your Honor, and namely, the part where he speaks of the activities of the administration of the Yanov Camp. He was a witness of these activities when he worked in a special unit of prisoners used for burning the corpses of people killed in this camp. I quote frompage 3 of the report of the interrogation, beginning at line 25, counting from the top. The Tribunal will find this document on page 50 of the document file, line 25. I quote this extract as an illustration of those conditions created by the Hitlerites and of some crimes perpetrated by these people:
"Aside from the shooting in the Yanov Camp, various tortures were practiced. In the wintertime, for example, a person with bound hands and feet was placed into a barrel full of water in which he froze. There were two rows of barbed wire, 120 meters distant from each other, around the Yanov Camp. People were brought there, who perished from cold and hunger. They were never able to save themselves from that place, and died. However, several days before one was brought there, people were soundly thrashed. They were hung up by the neck, by the hands, or by the feet, and then dogs were set upon them and tore them to pieces.
"Human beings were used for target practice. This was done mostly by the Gestapo people Heine, Ziller, Blum, the head of the camp, Willjaus, and others whose names I do not remember. They gave a man a glass and shot at it. If the glass was hit, he continued to live. If, however, he was struck on the hand, he was then shot. It was said in this connection that he was incapable of working and, consequently, should bt shot. People were taken by the legs and torn in two. Children one month to three years old were drowned in barrels filled with water. Several people were also tied to a post, and they stood there until they died of sunstroke.
"Besides, before sending people to work, they were examined, subjected to a medical examination. During the examination, the men were forced to run 50 kilometers, and if the person ran this distance quickly, without stumbling, he remained alive; and the remainder were shot.
"In the camp there was a place grown over with grass, over which one also had to run. If anyone stumbled on the grass and fell, he was shot immediately. The grass was higher than a person's hips. The women were hung up by their hair; they were stripped, shaken about, and then they hung until they died.
"The following occurred: The Gestapo man, Heine, cut pieces of flesh out of the body of a young boy. Twenty-eight wounds were inflicted upon another. He was cured and worked later in the Death Brigade and was secretly shot.
"Near the kitchen, while lining up for coffee, the hangman, Heine, appeared and asked the first one in the line why he was the first in the line, and he shot him on the spot. In this manner he shot several people, and then he approached those standing further back and asked why is he standing in the last of the line, and shot him also. I saw personally all of these bestialities while staying in the Yanov Camp." by the official report of the Extraordinary State Commission, entitled "Concerning the Crimes Perpetrated by Germans on the Territory of the Lvov District."