The documentary evidence submitted to the' Tribunal has fully proved that the military group of criminals is guilty of the heaviest crimes and that they have actively participated in the planning and execution of the common criminal conspiracy.
does not serve to mitigate their responsibility, but, on the contrary, only heightens it.
How can they try to acquit themselves by referring to "a soldier's duty", "an officer's honor", and the "obligation of fulfilling orders". Since when has "soldier's duty" and "officer's honor" become compatible with shooting without trial and branding as prisoners, extermination of women, children and aged people. generals and admirals were committing what in substance were capital crimes, lies in the fact that they were generals and admirals of Hitler's making. These are men of special metal. They are fascists in uniform, bound body and soul to the Nazi regime. and collaborated with them for so long a period of time. This is the only way to explain why they collaborated with Hitler in committing such crimes unprecedented in history. They fitted and understood one another to perfection.
KEITEL naturally begin with defendant Keitel.
Keitel held the leading post Dr. Nelte in Hitler's military machine from the very first years of its concep p. 58 tion.
Keitel's counsel adults that : -the decree (of February 4th 1938) gave Keitel the wonder title for his position - Chief of the OKW". Further he goes on to say :"....the factual significance of Keitel's activities was immense.
head of the state." Dr. Nelte the primary stage of all the future wars of aggression included p. 100 C-102 reminder of Germany's preparadeness to resort to arms was the Berlin :"for continuing negotiations."
388-PS through /ABWEHR'S department to provoke an incident with Czechoslo Jodl's vakia in order to justify the invasion by the German hordes, ready to "Fall to fall upon Czechoslovakia.
Green" "Fall Green".lies.
This was but a link in the chain of aggressive wars.
and carrying out of aggression. The directive regarding the waging of war and invasion of Poland is known to us as Keitel's and Hitler's directive of 10 May 1939.
It was forwarded to the command of the Air Forces, Navy and Land Forces.
How is it possible after this to forces of the fascist Reich ?and Greece we again come across the name of Keitel.
He appears as 443-PS GB-118 addressed to Raeder, Goering and the General Staff.
the secret directive signed by Hitler regarding the "Operation Mariza".Much has been said here of the "Plan Barbarossa" and its authors.
preventive war. This contention is to such a degree unconvincing (German documents) that I see no need for occupying the Tribunal's Keitel's defense counsel stated that the defense of this defendant is based on the point of view that Keitel -"is fighting not for his head but to save his face."
P. 23 I wish to aid the Tribunal in seeing the true face of Keitel. For Final Speech this I shall have to remind you of a number of Keitel's directives Counsel Dr. Nelte which may well lay claim to being among the foremost of all the Officers.
Keitel, the soldier, as he likes to call himself, ignoring of war at the request of the prisoners themselves.
At the trial he was unmasked.
Exhibit No. RF (v) -351 884-PS proved that this directive had been issued before the war had broken out.
We also submitted a document under Exhibit No. USSR-62 (the text of a letter of German Prisoners of War.)
This document makes it clear that even unlimited cynicism : RF-271 " Human life in these countries concerned us absolutely of no account R-98 PS-389 ... a terrifying influence can be achieved, only through unheard of brutality."
USA-554 martial in the Barbarossa region ? And of the order of 16 September killed ? L-90 What could Keitel say about the document known as "Nacht and Nebel"? USA-503 These are sanguinary documents.
No one can compute how many thou been killed and tortured in the camps of fascist Germany.
You re officers was organized in the Mauthausen camp.
You remember witness transcript I wish to mention the testimony of SS man Paul Waldman regarding the 11 January 1946 afternoon slaughter of 840 Russian prisoners of war. You remember the testimopp. 22-23 subjected to : transcript 2 February It is impossible to pass by Keitel's directive calling for the 1946, morning p. 22-23 branding of Soviet prisoners of war.
afternoon One cannot forget the Keitel directive of the 16 December 1942. It p. 2-4 USSR-16 is entitled "measure to be taken against bands". Under the word transcript 14-2-1946 "bands" defendant Keitel understood any resistance movement and dep. 13 USSR-343 manded that his troops revert to harsh methods, stopping at nothing transcript 15 Feb. 1946. Exhibit No. USSR-162. Lecurt states that he shot and burnt Soviet morning p. 1-2 citizens, razing their houses, He alone had shot over 1,200 persons and awarded the medal for service in the East.
He acted in accor Keitel's directive instituting court martials in the "Barbarossa" C-50 USA-554 region freed such persons of all responsibility.
Keitel's hands It was in carrying out Keitel's directive stating that life in the women, children and old men before their formations.
In the vil into digging:
trenches and bridges for them. USSR-261 In Yugoslavia mass shootings of hostages became a daily feature USSR-391 USSR-392 with the military command and military administration.
In a secret report dated 15.II.1940 submitted to Goering the OKW 1585-PS I wish to conclude with document USSR-336 (EC-338), which your shootings of Soviet prisoners of war.
Even the out and out fascist You will remember Keitel's notation on this report :"I approve of and back these measures".question to Keitel :"You, Defendant Keitel, known as fieldmarshal, repeatedly Do you confirm this ?"Marshal Keitel.
The highly involved arguments of the defense can The defendant Alfred Jodl bears equal responsibility together with defendant Keitel as his assistant and as closest military adviser of Hitler's All that is connected with preparation and execution of the aggressive plans of Hitlerite Germany is inseparably linked with the name of Jodl as well as with that of Keitel.
There is no need to repeat anew all those aggressive acts of Hitler's Germany which are already facts of common knowledge, each of which had been planned and executed with the direct participation of defendant Jodl. As the representative of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, I should like to emphasize once more that the criminal plan of the perfidious attack on the Soviet Union, ceded by the Hitler's gang under the name of the illfated conqueror Fredireck Barbaross, is signed not only by Hitler and Keitel but by Jodl as well. But this is more than a mere signature. conference of his staff-officers, at which the question of the possibility of an attack by Hitler Germany on Soviet Russia was discussed. It was no one else but defendant Jodl who even before the attack against the USSR actually was carried out issued his well-known "Instructions on the use propaganda in the region of 'Barbarossa". In these instructions it is unequivocally stated that "asyet propaganda aimed at the partition of the Soviet Union should not be carried on." Thus, defendant Jodl knew beforehand of the actual aims of Germany's attack on the USSR, knew of the piratical and predatory nature of the war which called for the dismembering of the Soviet Union. provocative incident on the Czech Slovak border with the aim of justifying this aggressive act of Hitler Germany against this peace loving nation. It was Jodl who signed the order of the 23 September 1938 regarding the use of the so-called Hiemlein Corps in case the "Case Green" was realized. How full of mockery sound the defendant Jodl's words of "soldiers honor" after reading his order on the destruction of Leningrad Moscow and other cities. of the Soviet Union. It was this very same Jodl who with inimitable cynicism declared at a confe rence with Hitler on the 1 December 1941 that German troops could with impunity "hang, hang by the feet and quarter" Soviet patriots.
As the closest military adviser of Hitler's, having personally participated in the preparation and execution of all the sanguinary aggressive plans of Hitlerites Germany -defendant Jodl has been justly included in the ranks of the major German War Criminals. My British colleague has proved the guilt of defendants Carl Doenitz and Erich Raeder so convincingly and thoroughly that I see no need to dwell especially on these Grossadmirals of Hitlerite Germany, who have disgraced thei admirals' uniforms with such infamous crimes. cutor that he as unaware of the reasons for which Hitler nominated him as his successor. I don't think that Doenitz was quite sincere in making this statement. One has but to refer to the transcripts of the sessions beginning with the 8th May, in order to understand without his acknowledging it, why he became Hitler's successor, when the Hitlerite Reich went to the bottom. The important point is not the fact that an Admiral was needed at a moment like this, but the fact that only the nazi Grossadmiral Doenitz, in the opinion of Hitler who was about to fade from the picture, could do anything to save the sinking ship. We know the role which the German U-boats played in this war. In this connection it is worthy of emphasis what Doenitz was proud of being the author of the so-called "wolf-pack tactics". Soviet people have not forgotten new Doenitz's submarines sunk in the Baltic and Black Seas hospital ships and steamers evacuating peaceful citizens -women and children. The last head of the Hitlerite government should be one of the first to pay for all these crimes which led to the trial of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal. destruction of Leningrad.
At the trial Raeder tried to play the part of an "honest soldier". But the mere fact that it was he, together with Hitler and Keitel, who conspired to "wipe Leningrad off the face of the earth" and to exterminate more than three million population of that great city, whose very name is indissolubly connected with the development of the culture and history of mankind, makes Raeder one of the major war criminals. Raeder took part in working out all the most important plans of aggression of German fascism. This participant in the criminal fascist conspiracy must therefore bear punishment together with his associates. The defendant Ernst Kaltenbrunner was considered by Himmler to be the most deserving successor to that henchman, Heidrich, executed by Czech patriots. On 30 January 1943, he was appointed Head of the Reich Main Security Office and Chief of the SD. Numerous documents, and especially orders signed by Kaltenbrunner, for the mass deportation of people into concentration camps, the testimonies of his subordinates, including the depositions of Walter Schellenberg, the former Chief of the Interior, Security Service, fully convict Kaltenbrunner of heinous crimes. At the session of 12 April 1946 in the course of Kaltenbrunner's examination the testimonies of Johann Kandutor, ex-prisoner of Mauthausen, were read into the record. In his depositions, Kandutor describes as follows Kaltenbrunner's pass-time during one of his visits to the camp:
"Laughing, Kaltenbrunner entered the gaz chambers; then the prisoners were led from the barracks to the execution and all the three methods of execution were demonstrated -hanging, shooting into the nape and asphyxiation by gas." I shall not dwell upon the numerous proofs which are available, as they have been sufficiently clarified before the Tribunal. There is only one point of the accusation against Kaltenbrunner, on which I deem it necessary to dwell. Together with other RSHA organizations, Kaltenbrunner took over from Heidrich five "Einsatzgruppen". The citizens of the Soviet Union remember well these criminal organizations of the German fascism, headed by Kaltenbrunner.
The "Einsatzgruppe A" reacted the approaches to Leningrad. It created the "Fort of Death #9" near Kaunas, the secret points for mass extermination of human beings in Panarai; it carried out the executions by shooting in the woods of Salaspinsk and Bikerneksk near Riga; it erected gallows in the pares of one of Leningrad's suburbs -the Pushkino. The "einsatzgruppe B" settled down in the vicinity of Smolensk. It burnt alive the peasants of Byelorussia; it shot down the victims of the awful Pinsk "action"; it drowned thousands of Byelorussian women and children in the Mosyr marshes; it operated with murder vans in Minsk; it liquidated the ghetto in the Upper Gardens district of USSR-14 The "Einsatzgruppe C" - was quartered in Kiev.
This group carried out USSR-9 the mass "action" in Baby Yar near Kiev, an execution unmatched for it USSR-14 The "Einsatzgruppe D" operated in the southern regions of the USSR-1 USSR-42 temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union.
This group was And when Kaltenbrunner's fate will be decided, all these human beings, asphyxiated in the "murder vans" near Stavropol, buried alive in the In spite of Rosenberg's efforts to minimize his role and importance, in already a quarter of a century ago, he laid the "theoretical" "ideologically" for the monstrous crimes committed by the Hitlerites Trans.
When, at the trial, Rosenberg was asked: "were you not one of Hitler's evn.sess. 17-4-46 closest collaborators"?, he did not even speak - he shouted in reply: PP 31-34 "that is not true, I never was". But however hard Rosenberg tried USA-600 PS-3559 to renounce his "Fuehrer", he has not succeeded in washing away the stigma of "one of the oldest and the most faithful of Hitler's comrades-in-arms". For twenty-five years, Rosenberg, acting first as Hitler's collaborator and afterwards under his direction, worked cannot influence the solution of the question on Rosenberg's party and the German youth.
And when the representatives of the "master race" elaborated and committed acts of aggression, when the Rosenberg's share in all these crimes was great.
of which consists in the idea that the "aryan", "north-germanic" race is a "master race", and that all other races and nations belong to "lower strata".Rosenberg's counsel said:
"the Tribunal must judge crimes and not theories". In Rosenberg's case such an argument is clearly unconvincing.
For Rosenberg, not only confessed the fascist racial menace to the existence of the democratic European states.
The person Rosenberg's criminal activity was not limited to the ideological theories.
His activity had many facets.
charge of the half-legal nazi agencies abroad. The participation of Doc. One of the documents submitted by Neurath's Counsel and accepted by the Counsel Neurath Tribunal, reads as fellows: v.I,p 67 "..... at one time there existed in Berlin three sorts of ministries for foreign affairs; Rosenberg's ministry, Ribbentrop's ministry, and the official ministry on the Wilhelmstrasse."
USSR-117 And finally, Rosenberg's letter to Hitler of 6.2.38 stressed his real influence on the foreign policy of Hitlerite Germany and his "merits" as "Fuehrer's plenipotentiary" and, later, as the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories.
In these capacities, Rosenberg of the Hitlerite Germany.
I affirm, Your Honors, that all these declarations of Rosenberg are false.
It is a commonly known fact that the 1921 New-Year publication of the newspaper "Voelkischer Beobachter".and that the author of this policy is Alfred Rosenberg.
It was Rosenberg's speeches, setting out plans for the "exchange of the Polish corridor against the Ukraine, his "diplomatic" journeys into The submitted documents give a clear picture of Rosenberg's feverish attack of Germany on the USSR - when he was nominated "Fuehrer's PS-865 plenipotentiary for the supreme control of the questions connected USA-143 with the Eastern-European territories". Transcr.
On 7 April 1941, two weeks prior to his nomination, Rosenberg sent to morn. sess. Hitler his proposals for the division of the Soviet Union into 17.4.46 1019-PS Reichskomnissariats and for the nomination of fascist governors for PS-1039 USA-146 the occupied territories. Byelorussia and the Ukraine, Minsk end in Rosenberg's proposals.
For the post of the Reichskommissar of We have heard about Rosenberg's meetings with Brauchitsch and Reader USA-144 territories, in which he provided for a "Rcichskommissariat Russia" and the "Reichskommissariat Caucasus", whilst the Byelorussian republic was to form a prt of the "Reichskommissariat Ostland". PS-1030 Rosenberg's attempts to affirm that he did not share in the aggressive, with benefits the population of these territories.
And this he Baltic countries and Byelorussia, described his aims as follows:
"..... the creation of a German protectorate for the purpose of elements."
another of Rosenberg's directives on the subject of the civil administration in the occupied Eastern territories:
"Our main task ..... is the furthering of the Reich's interests. EC-347 are not valid, as we can consider that the USSR has been USA-320 destroyed ..... For this reason, all measures which the German administration deem necessary and convenient are admissible."
let the cat out of the bag, and gave away his secret plans. But and the utilization of all measures which might seem "convenient".When Koch, for his "convenience" exterminated the population of the Rosenberg described here his dissentions with Koch; he alleged that Even if Rosenberg did indeed, from time to time, object to Koch's because he was afraid that Koch's unparalleled ill-treatment of the considerations.
Rosenberg's true policy is set out in numerous documents which have now became known to the world's public opinion PS-045 In an "official note for the Fuehrer" dated 16.
3.1942, Rosenberg set USSR and, first of all, in the Ukraine.
.... "the utilization of preservation as a source of manpower."
that: USSR-58 The problem of the East consists in the transplanting of the Baltic Germany and Europe, and the raw materials for the continent.
The USSR-58 lead to the expansion of continental Europe, headed by Germany, from the Caucasus isthmus to the near East."
on the policy of the occupied USSR territories: USSR-170 "It is obvious, that if we are to subjugate these peoples, arbitrary justice and tyranny will be the most suitable form of government."
The defense affirms that Rosenberg and his "Einsatzstab" were not preservation.
This statement is also quite false. Numerous early as April 1941, i.e. more than two months prior to the attack on USSR-375 On 16 October 1941 Rosenberg wrote to Hitler as follows:
US-076 "I have now given an order to a similar operative staff of my the just wishes and demands of the Greater German Reich.
On this 327-PS On 17 October 1944, Rosenberg wrote to Lammers that for the transport USA-338 of goods "listed" by his organization, it was necessary to use by water.
In this same letter, Rosenberg mentioned that amongst the agricultural and other machinery.
And after this, he dares to speak about some machines which he has allegedly imported into the Ukraine!called Rosenberg's "noble antisemitism". It is absurd to argue with Rosenberg's counsel, who affirms that there exists such a thing as as "noble antisemitism", and all the more absurd it is to argue with Rosenberg.
In statement to the Tribunal, I threw light upon the fascist propaganda contained in the defense speeches.
Now, I would like to recall to the Tribunal the text of two of Rosenberg's documents:
In his directive of 29 April 1941, he wrote: USA-278 "The general solution of the Jewish problem must at the present moment PS-1024 be carried out by methods of a temporary character.
Slave labor for Jews, the creation of Ghettos, etc.
, must be the solution of this problem."
Eastern Territories, addressed a conference of the German labor front: USSR-170 "We must not be satisfied - said Rosenberg - with the here or there of a large Jewish ghetto; no, our object must always remain the same.
The Jewish problem in Europe and in on the European continent."
USA-289 And the operations "Kotbus", the extermination of Jews in the Baltic P-135 in conformity with Rosenberg's theories and with his agreement.
In 1937 Rosenberg received the German national prize. Commenting on this event, the fascist press wrote as follows:
USA-600 "Alfred Rosenberg has brilliantly succeeded with his books in PS-3559 of the national-socialist state."
But the future - became the present. And I am sure that the Tribunal Rosenberg on the "philosophical foundations of the national-socialist state", but also his active participation in all the crimes against A lawyer by training the defendant Hans Frank was "ancient German" law for Germans about "Principles of Justice", for the "select" about the "right of the chosen people" to annihilate nations and countries.
Hitler entrusted the fate of subjugated Poland. Frank Frank's views expressed during the first months of his stay in Poland, taken from his so called "diary". It is Frank himself declared to the magistrate that " this document was of historical importance" and to the question "whether all his statements contained in the diary were true", he replied:
" they fully correspond to what I know." USSR-223 "On 15th September 1939, I was entrusted with the task page 4 2233-PS of governing the conquered eastern territories and received cultural and political structure."
ment-General, he declared:
"A perfectly accurate differenciation must be made between the German people - the master-race,- and the Poles."
He then remembered the Polish culture which Frank's defense counsel Dr. Seild said here, took so great care of.
He stated: USSR-223 "The Poles can be allowed only those possibilities Page 3 for educating themselves which would prove the hopelessness of the destiny of their nation.
Alone bad films or films be taken into consideration for the purpose."
USSR-335 One of Frank's first instructions was the order to shoot hostages.
Later on similar orders were to be counted USSR-335 On 10 November 1939 Frank was informed that the day USSR-223 of Polish independence was approaching and that posters page 3 were being hung up on certain houses to remind the Poles USSR-223 of their national holiday. The following entry then appeared in Frank's "Diary":"The Governor-General decrees that one inhabitant of poster of this kind is hung up and is to be shot.
The state for him."
Government-General characterizes this Hitlerite "lawyer" Frank's guilt which have been submitted in this court-room But from Frank's criminal activities in Poland we must segregate the predominant trait which is Frank's activity Of course he looted; he was Goering's Plenipotentiary labour.