Hermann Wilhelm Goering et al. Defendants, sitting
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will sit in closed session on Thursday afternoon. That is to say, it will not sit in open session after one o'clock on Thursday. It will sit in open session on Saturday morning until one o'clock. BY DR. PELCKMANN:
Q. Witness, was the Waffen SS a special fighting unit for the combatting of partisans, and was the fight against the partisans considered to be a war of extermination?
A. The fight against partisans is a rather general military political measure. Front troops of the army, as well as of the Waffen SS, were used with special exceptions if they were found in the rear areas. In the operational area there were no partisan fights on the whole. Usually they took part in the rear areas only. First of all, this fight was the task of the Sicherungs Divisions, Security Divisions, of the army and special defense battalions, and besides that, of special police troops. Units of the Waffen SS at the front were not especially trained to this kind of fighting. Panzer divisions of the army were not used for this kind of fighting, cither. In the East, units of my division were never used in the fight against partisans at any time. Therefore it was not a special task for SS units, and they had not been trained or selected for this purpose especially.
Q What relationship existed between the Waffen-SS on 6 Aug M LJG 2-1 one hand and the Sicherheitspolizei and Ordnungspolizei, and the so-called Einsatzgruppen and the Einsatzkommandos?
Himmler, unfortunately, wear the same uniform even though they wear different insignia. The common point was the head-Himmler. The various branches were completely separate from each other. The separation was intensified more and more during the war. Units of the Waffen-SS were under the command of the Army Officers. The other branches were subordinate to Himmler.
Q you hear anything about the SD-Einsatzgruppen? police. I never had any contact, any personal contact with the various branches. Therefore, I cannot give you any information as the activity. you hoar anything at all about the participation of small units of the Waffen-SS? matters. officers corp of the Waffen- SS? the Waffen-SS. They had no authority to command and they had nothing, whatsoever, to do with us. so-called Kommandantur personnel in concentration camps? nel in the Kommandantur did not belong to the Waffen-SS. Only in the course of the war, these units were designated as WaffenSS in order to give them freedom to carry out their police duties The members of the Waffen-SS considered this measure a deliberate deception on the part of Himmler. They only learned of it after the war. It did not have anything to do with the men of the concentration camp.
6 Aug M LJG 2-2
Q It is not quite clear, Mr. Witness, just what you meant when you said that these men were made free from military service so that they could do police cuties. to be relieved of military service in order to carry out their police tasks. That did not apply in all the units. In the main offices in Berlin, therefore, those units were considered and designated as nominal Waffen-SS. All of those things I learned later. a part of the whole SS organization, and that as such, it was needed for the carrying through of the total criminal conspiracy. Please comment on this. that the Waffen-SS was a completely separate and independant unit and connected with other organizations only through the personality and person of Heinrich Himmler. This separation of the various branches undoubted intensified itself during the war. Therefore, we can not be accused of having had criminal plans or of having participated in carrying them through.
Q But you felt yourself to be a part of the army? and the conception of serving as the fourth branch of the army; that was not generally known, but that fact did apply. camps, the Prosecution further asserts that the Waffen-SS, on the basis of its training, was a particularly cruel military tool and that is to be shown, allegedly, by the participation of the Waffen-SS men in the evacuation of the Warsaw Ghetto. The Prosecution further asserts that violations against International Law also applied in this case such as the murder of prisoners of war. Is that correct?
not marshalled to that end. Our method of fighting was super-
6 Aug M LJG 2-3 vised and approved as suggested by the Army, and we were not successful and did not gain prestige through cruel methods. The Commanders supervised with that idea in mind. They had personal pride in seeing a clean fighting unit participating in the evacuation of the Warsaw Ghetto and in the execution which took place in Bohemia and Moravia. These matters I only hoar about here. In this connection we can only be concerned with small parts of replacement units who temporarily were subordinated for a brief period of time. Unfortunately, during my arrest I heard of two trials against two members of the Waffen-SS. One of those proceedings has not been concluded as yet, and in my own mind, I cannot quite define my means.
Q You mean the killing of prisoners? rather the falling by the wayside of personalities, the giving away of nerve when those people were deep in enemy territory. But these are matters which will never be thrown in the face of the general membership, even if it had not been two but rather ten cases either in the relationship or the ratio as applied to the entire membership of the Waffen-SS of a million men. This ratio would mean there would be oncecase as against 100,000 men in the membership. These happenings are the result of the Intensification of combat on the ground and in the air during a long war; happenings which have taken place on both sides always have taken place and always will take place. You cannot hold them, the bulk of the SS, responsible. attitude of the members of the Waffen-SS? to create an influence. During the war this was impossible. He did not address troups of the Waffen-SS. On occasion he talked to some officers or commanders in the field. It was generally known that Heinrich Himmler, who probably was only a 6 Aug M LJG 2-4 soldier for one year, was completely alien in his relations with troups.
He underestimated the importance of these tasks. That was well known. He liked to play the role of the strong man through exaggeration and through superlatives. If someone comes along with big words, the soldier does not pay much attention. In that way the influence of Himmler was very insignificant during the war. We were his uniform of course, but the Waffen-SS created their won models of behavior through working with them day by day. manders that was very strong?
A Quite the contrary. The Commanders, of course, were under him so far as military obedience is concerned. But the matter of critiques that was exercised with them was ideology. That was a possibility that was given them. It existed expecially in regard to his extravagant and romantic ideas. These men had enough experience and knowledge of live so that his speeches could be transmitted and reproduced in the language of the soldier. The critical attitude toward Heinrich Himmler increased during the war. A soldier believed he could do without such advice. Objections were cut off short with words that it is a typical attitude taken by the general staff. This was something which he fought against. sanctioned excesses against Jews and Slavs? which speech he mentioned three points, which, of course, called for opposition. His statements which were in very bad taste in regard to the Jews applied only to Germany. We could not recognize any extermination from these remarks. His references to the superior numbers of cur enemy was something which could be interpreted by the common soldier that that superiority of our enemy would have to be made up for during battle.
directed against Heinrich Himmler ?
A. He thought that after the war the various organizations which were subordinate to him, the SS and perhaps the police also, could be assimilated into one, to do just the opposite of that which happened during the war, and our intentions were against this intention of his.
Q. How far were the crimes in concentration camps known to the Waffen SS, such as the extermination of the Jews ? I should like to call to your attention that I don't want you to speak for yourself alone as a highly placed general, but I want you to speak for the simple SS man, based on your own experience, of course.
A. It sounds quite impossible, and foreign countries do not wish to believe it, but the members of the Waffen SS as well as myself knew nothing of the crimes of which we heard here. This perhaps may serve ad an explanation, that at home only those who had known victims at the concentration camps knew anything about it, only the secret opposition was always prepared to mention rumors. If one of them heard something, he figured he had better evaluate it as hostile propaganda. Foreign raidos or newspapers were not known to him at all, and even at home it was not possible to follow. The bulk of the Waffen SS was set up against the enemy, and sacrifices grew from year to year. We did not have the time or opportunity to check rumors, and I was surprised and indignant about these things which Himmler had done contrary to the things that he had preached to us in peacetime.
Q. Do you know the speech of Himmler's made at Posen in which he mentioned the fact that thousands and tens of thousands of Jews had been killed ?
A. I was not present at that speech at Posen, and only heard of the speech here, during my arrest. As far as I know, the speech was addressed to the leaders at home and in the occupied countries. The members of the Waffen SS were not present at all, or if SS, in very, very small numbers.
Q. The unitsfor the guarding on the concentration camps were designated as Waffen SS as well, and rank was given to persons connected with the concentration camp system. Did you know anything about these matters during the war ?
A. I have already mentioned that the designation of the Waffen SS men for supervisory purposes was made known to me only after the war, but I must add that Himmler deliberately cnfused the limits and demarcations between these varied organizations to the public, and just for that reason there was the designation of the guarding personnel units as Waffen SS and the giving of ranks in the Waffen SS to persons who did not have any connection with the fighting unit itself.
Q. Do you consider that the Waffen SS, in its majority, participated in the crimes which indubitably were committed ?
A. No. The Prosecution chains the Waffen SS to the fate of Himmler and a small cricle of criminals around him. The Waffen SS is taking this quite bitterly for it believes that in its majority it fought decently and fairly. ments and the testimony of the front soldiers on your side. I believe that they will not refuse us respect. There were exceptions where incidents like that happened, but the Waffen SS considers it as quite unjust that it is being treated differently from the mass of the German Wehrmacht, and it does not deserve to be outlawed as a criminal organization.
DR. PELCKMANN: Mr. President, I have no further questions to this witness. BY MR. ELWYN JONES.
Q. Witness you heard Himmler's Kaarkov speech in April 1 1943 to the commanding officers of the there SS divisions in the East, did you not ?
A. Yes, I heard that speech.
Q. And you remember that he ended his speech by saying.
"We will never let that excellent weapon, the dread and terrible reputation which preceded us in the battle for Kharkov, fade, but will constantly add new meaning to it." Do you remember him saying that ?
A. Yes, indeed.
Q. And your units of the Waffen SS constantly added new meaning to your reputation for terror, did you not ?
A. No. I have already expressed quite the contrary yesterday and today. I consider it as an insult to say what our successes were dependent on terror. Quite the contrary, I said that our successes resulted from the brave fighting of leader and man.
Q. Yesterday you told the Tribunal that the relations of the Waffen SS with the local population were good, and that your Waffen SS troops did not take hostages nor destroy villages as punishments, or commit war crimes. That was your evidence, was it not ?
A. I said that the relationship were unobjectionable and good, that we did, not displace any population.
Q. I want you to listen now to some documents I am going to put in with regard to the SS generally and with regard to the Waffen SS in particular, first, two documents from your own sources.
MR. ELWYN JONES: The first, my Lord, is Document D-419 to be GB-552. I am not proposing to cross examine the witness as to these numerous documents my Lord. It appears to be the desire of the Tribunal that they should be put in as speedily as possible.
THE PRESIDENT: If they are new documents, you can cross examine him upon them.
MR. ELWYN JONES: If your Lordship pleases. BY MR. ELWYN JONES:
Q. The first document, D-419 is a report by a General of Artillery named Detzel, dated the 23rd of November 1939, with regard to the internal situation in the Warthegau, western Poland, incorporated into the Reich as the document describes it.
I needn't trouble you with the first page of the document, the report of the 2nd of December and the letter of the 30th of November, but if you read the letter of General Detzel dated the 23rd of November 1939, the second paragraph reads :
"The great work of construction in all spheres is not furthered by the intervention of SS formations who are given special racial political tendency makes itself felt of interfering decisively in all spheres of administration beyond the framework of these tasks, and of forming a'state within the state'. This phenomenon does not fail to have its effect on the troops, who are indignant about the way the tasks are carried out and thereby generally get into opposition to administration and party. I shall exclude the danger of serious differences by strict orders. The fact that this makes a serious demand on the discipline of the troops cannot be dismissed without further ado."
And then, the next paragraph :
"In almost all large towns, public shootings have been carried out by the organizations mentioned in this, the selection varied enormously and was often incomprehensible, the way it was carried out frequently unwrthy. interned with their families. Arrests were almost always accompanied by looting. houses were cleared at random the inhabitans loaded onto lorries at night then taken to concentration camps. Here also looting was a constant accompanying phenomenon. The quartering and feeding in the camps was such that the Camps chief Medical Officer feared the outbreak of epidemics and thus endangering of the troops. into the most serious execesses. In turok three SS cars under the leadership of a higher SS leader drove through the streets, on the 30th of October 1939 while the people in the streets were hit on theheads at random with horse whips and long whips. Amongst the victims were also people of German blood. Finally a number of Jews were driven into the synagogue, there had to crawl in between the benches whilst singing, during which time they were continuously whipped by the SS men. They were then forced to take down their trousers in order to be hit on the bare behind.
A Jew who out of fright had dirtied his trousers was forced to smear the excrement into the faces of the other Jews. has issued the following orders :
1) From the 9.11., no unemployment relief may any longer be paid to Poles and Jews, only forced labour is paid for. (This measure has already been confirmed).
2) From 9.11., Jews and Poles will be excluded from the distribution of ration foodstuffs and coal.
3) Unrest and incidents are to be created by provocation in order to facilitate the carrying out of the racial political work.
4) The fire service is to be reinforced immediately in order to prevent undesirable spreading to other objects, in case of chance fires in Jewish and Polish residential quarters and factories."
The rest of the document I needn't trouble you with.
1939.
The next German document is the Document D/578.
MR. ELWYN JONES: My Lord, my attention has been drawn to another sentence in the Document D/419, which I should like to draw the Tribunal's attention to, the last paragraph but one:
"As the military commander of Posen has already reported to the High Command of the army, the men feel very strongly about the disproportion between their pay and the many times higher daily rate of pay of other formations."
The Document D/578 is a report by the German Brigade Commander of the 1st Mountain Brigade, Colonel Pericic. It is dated the 26th of September, 1943. This document, My Lord, will be GB 553. It is a report on the activities of the SS units in the area of Popovaca, in Bosnia. I only want to trouble you with the first two paragraphs:
"On the 16th of September, 1943, an SS unit of 80 men marched from Popovaca to Osekovo for the compulsory purchase of cattle. I was not notified by anybody about the arrival of this unit in the technical operational area of the 1st Mountain Brigade and about the activity of this unit in the area, for which I alone am responsible.
"A short time after their arrival in Osekovo this unit was attacked by partisans. Under the pressure of the numerically superior partisans, this unit had to retreat in the direction of the railway station, which they succeeded in doing, but they had four men seriouly and several lightly wounded, among them the unit commander. One man was missing, and they also lost an armoured car. The unit commander then reported from Popovoco by telephone that when he had to retreat, he had killed all persons who were in the open because he had no chance to distinguish between the loyal population and the Partisans. He himself said that he killed about 100 persons in this incident." atrocities, first from the Yugoslav delegation, the Document D/945.
BY MR. ELWYN JONES:
Q. witness, you appreciate that the Prinz Eugen Division was a division of the Waffen SS, do you not?
A. (No response)
THE PRESIDENT: Witness, did you hear that question? BY MR. ELWYN JONES:
Q. Witness, I asked you --
A. Yes: this division does belong to the Waffen SS.
MR. ELWYN JONES: The Document D/945, My Lord, will be GB 554. It is an extract of the report from the Yugoslav State Commission for Ascertaining the Crimes of the Occupiers and their Accomplices. I want to read the second and third paragraphs:
"'In accordance with the order of the commander of the 118th German division, an SS battalion of the 'Prinz Eugen' division and a battalion of the 'Teufels Division' under the command of the German Lieutenant Colonel Dietsche carried out on the 27th if March, 1944, and on the following days a 'purge action' from Sinj in the direction of the villages of Otok-Ruda-UdovicicKrivodol-Vostane-Grab.
"'On the 28th March this SS battalion overran the villages of Otok Cornji Ruda and Dolac Dolnji one after the other and carried out horrible massacres, destructions by fire and looting. These boasts murdered on a single day in the three above-named Dalmatian villages 834 people -- apart from grown-up men, also women and children -- set on fire 500 houses and looted everything there was to be looted. They removed rings, watches and other valuables from the dead bodies. The mass slaughter was carried out in all the villages in the same horrible manner. The German soldiers gathered women, children and me in one place and the opened fire on the crowd with machine guns, throw bombs at them, looted their property and set them on fire. In the House MilanevicTrapo 45 burned bodies were found. In another house in the same village of Otok 22 unburned corpses were found in a pile. In the village of Ruda they collected all the people in one place and killed all of them. These who happened not to be collected were killed when they were found. Not even the smallest babies at their mothers' breasts were spared.
In some places the victims were soaked in petrol and set on fire. They also killed these who offered them hospitality out of fear. They also killed these people who were forced to follow them to carry their ammunition and other things. According to the evidence of reliable witnesses, the massacres were prepared beforehand, and this all the more so as the above mentioned villages gave no reason whatsoever previous to the 'purge action' for any kind of reprisals..."
That report is signed by the President of the State Commission, Dr. Dusan Nedeljkovic, University professor.
The the document D/940, which will be GB 555, which is another extract from the Yugoslav State Commission report signed by the same President of the State Commission, Dr. Dusan Nedeljkovic, on The Crimes of the 7th SS Division, "Prinz Eugen" in Crna Gora (Montenegro); it reads:
"The various German divisions operating in the area of occupied Yugoslavia marked their path by traces of devastation and annihilation of the peaceful population which will testify to the criminal character of the German conduct of the war for many years to come. The operations of the German divisions were in reality primitive expeditions. They destroyed and burnt down whole villages and exterminated the civil population in a barbarous manner, without any military necessity whatsoever.
"The 7th SS Division, 'Prinz Eugen', is famed for its cruelty".
Then I go on to the next paragraph:
"Wherever it passed -- through Serbia, through Bosnia and Herzegorina, through Lika and Banija so through Dalmatia -- everywhere it loft behind scones of conflagration and devastation and the bodies of innocent men, women, and children who had been burnt in the houses.
"At the end of Hay 1943 the division 'Prinz Eugen' came to Montenegro to the area of Miksic in order to take part in the fifth enemy offensive in conjunction with the Italian troops. This offensive was called Offensive Black by the German occupying forces. Proceeding from Herzegovina parts of the division fell upon the peaceful villages of the Niksic district: Gornje, Polje, Rastovac, Orah, Granic, Praga, Jasenevo Polje, Duge, and Dubocka.
"Immediately after its invasion, this formation, opening fire with all its arms, commenced to commit outrageous crimes on the peaceful villages for no reason at all. Everything they came across they burnt down, murdered, and pillaged. The officers and men of the SS division 'Prinz Eugen' committed crimes of an outrageous cruelty on this occasion. The victims were shot, slaughtered and tortured, or burnt to death in burning houses. Where a victim was found not in his house, but on the road or in the fields some distance away, he was murdered and burnt there. Infants with their mothers, pregnant women and frail old people were also murdered. In short, every civilian met with by these troops in these villages was murdered. In many cases, whole families who, not expecting such treatment or lacking the time for escape, had remained quietly in their homes. were annihilated and murdered. Whole families were thrown into burning houses in many cases and thus burnt.
"It has been established from the investigations entered upon that 121 persons, mostly women, and including 30 persons aged 60-92 years and 29 children of ages ranging from 6 months to 14 years, were executed on this occasion in the horrible manner narrated above.
"The villages -- "; and then follows the list of the villages. Then over on the next pages:
"For all of these most serious war crimes those responsible besides the actual culprits -- the members of the SS Division 'Prinz Eugen' -- are all superior and all subordinate commanders as the persons issuing and transmitting the orders for murder and devastation.
Among others the following war criminals are known: SS-Gruppenfuehrer and Lieutenant-General of the Waffen SS Phleps, Divisional Commanders MajorGeneral of the Waffen SS von Oberkamp, Ritter Karl, Commander of the XIII Regiment, later Divisional Commander; Major General Schimidthuber, August, Commander of the XIV Regiment"; and then there follow the names of about another ten high ranking German SS Regimental and other commanders.
THE PRESIDENT: Shouldn't you ask whether they are Waffen SS? BY MR. ELWYN JONES:
Q. These men, witness, were members of the Waffen SS, were they not?
Just look at the names.
A. I know part of these names. They were leaders -
Q. Let us take them in turn: Phleps, Divisional Commander?
A. Yes.
Q. He was one of your colleagues in the Waffen SS, was he not?
A. Yes.
Q. Major General of the Waffen SS von Oberkamp -- he was in the Waffen SS, was he not?
A. I know the next few names: Oberkamp, Schmidthuber, and Diltsche. The rest of the names I do not know.
Q. But you do not deny, from the description of them, at any rate, that they were officers in the Waffen SS?
A. I would assume so, even though I do not know what the origin of this report is. These are most likely reports which originated in an oral manner and were they put into this form.
Q. I won't trouble you with the value of the reports as documents, witness, That is a matter for the Tribunal. of the Polish delegation, again relating to the SS. command of SS functionaries and by SS men. The first is Document 4041 PS, which will be GB 556, which consists of 31 posters for the years 1943 to 1944, signed by the Chief of the SS and Police in Warsaw, or in some cases by the Commander of the Security Police and of the SD for Warsaw, announcing the killing of hostages.
MR. ELWYN JONES: The Tribunal will see that in those frim records of murder there are listed varying numbers of the victims of the Nazi occupation. In Poster No. 25, for instance, on Page 16, there is a list of 270 hostages.
On Poster 29, page 20, there are 200 shot hostages; Poster 31, page 28 there are 100 shot hostages. These SS shootings were certainly not an original SS conception. I hand in the two documents, 4039-PS and 4039-PS which are -
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Elwyn Jones, I think you should ask the witness or put it to him, whether there is any connection between the Waffen SS and this document.
MR. ELWYN JONES: If Your Lordship please.
THE WITNESS: Unfortunately I have an English copy before me. I am not completely conversant with the English language and could not follow the question, but I gather that these measures which took place in Warsaw as well as in the case of the first document which dealt with the Warthegau, the Waffen SS had nothing to do with this matter here.
THE PRESIDENT: Wait until you are given the proper copy.
MR. ELWYN JONES: I am not suggesting, naturally, My Lord, that all the documents I am putting in relate only to the Waffen SS branch of the SS organization. The whole prosecution's case is based on the theory that there was a unity between the various sections of the SS.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but you should give him the opportunity of making his point if he wishes so.
MR. ELWYN JONES: Yes, My Lord. BY MR. ELWYN JONES:
Q. Have you had an opportunity of looking at those posters now, witness ?
A. I have seen that the signatures how them to be only SS and Police Leaders, which had nothing to do with the Waffen SS, as I have already stated earlier today; and the same applies to the incidents in the Warthegau where, in November of 1939, units of the Waffen SS were not stationed. As to these documents, the Documents 3 and 4 apply to the Waffen SS only where they mer the "Prinz Eugen" Division. I cannot check the data there. I have never been to the Balkans.
THE PRESIDENT: Was the "Teufel" Division also part of the Waffen SS ?
THE WITNESS: No. There never was a "Teufel" Division.
BY MR. ELWYN JONES:
Q. You say there never was a "Teufel" Division in Jugoslavia ?
A. Not in the Waffen SS, no.
MR. ELWYN JONES: I shall call some subsequent testimony with regard to that, My Lord, if the Tribunal would allow me, at a later stage, to cross examine on the whole question of the unity of the SS. It would involve putting in old documents and I understand that there was a certain reluctance on the part of the Tribunal to permit me to do that; but I should be quite content to drawthe Tribunal's attention.-
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Elwyn Jones, the Tribunal doesn't desire you to cross examine but only not to read out and put to the witness documents which have already been put in; you can put the facts which are in the document to the witnessfor the purpose of cross examination.
MR. ELWYN JONES: If Your Lordship pleases. Then at a later stage in my cross examination I will return to that subject if the Tribunal permits me to do so. I should like to put these documents in first if I may.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Elwyn Jones, I think the only way the Tribunal meant was that it didn't want you to put long passages or short passages from documents which the witness has never seen and which are already in evidence that you may cross examine the witness upon any document apart from that.
MR. ELWYN JONES: If Your Lordship pleases. Then I shall return to cross examination on this general issue after I have put these documents in if I may My lord. that the SS shootings in Warsaw were a continuation of the practice of the civil power of the Government General from the period March 1941. I needn't trouble the witness with these documents. Polish report on German Crimes in Poland. I only desire to draw the Tribunal attention to an entry on page 184 of that report relating to the shooting of hostages, which says that the approximate number of Poles killed in Warsaw from the beginning of the public executions until the rising, from October the 5th 1943 until August the 1st 1944, was about 8,000 most of whom had been caught in manhunts in the Warsaw streets.
DR. BELCKMANN: Your Lordship, may I be permitted to make a reference to the method of procedure ? Mr. Jones said that this document which he was submitting to the High Tribunal he could not submit to the witness. However, I am of the opinion that a submission of documents is possible only at this stage in connection with the cross examination, and that means for the locking into the question of whether the witness is actually crecible Otherwise, the prosecution could bring any incriminating material without any connection into this thing, and I should like to ask other wise to give the witness an opportunity to define his attitude and comment.
MR ELWYN JONES: I have no objection at all, of course, to the witness seeing all the documents, I was only, in the interest of time, referring to one sentence in this document which the witness heard interpreted, and I should have thought that was sufficient; but by all means, I should let the witness see all the documents.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Pelckmann, the Tribunal has already ruled that these documents can be put in in this way, and Mr. Elwyn Jones is referring to specific passages in the documents and you have the opportunity of re-exam nation and you have a copy of the document, and that way you can put any question you would like upon the document when you come to re-examine.
MR. ELWYN JONES: I next present some documents relating to atrocities committed by the SS in connection with the destruction of Warsaw. First is the document 4042-PS, which will be GB-560, which consists of three affidavits from another official Polish report entitled "The German Crime in Warsaw in 1944". tes that :"On the 2nd of August the SS men i ssued an order for us to move to the house across the road; our house, as well as the house next door was set on fire; on the 3rd of August we were informed that we would be shot. Several hundred persons were assembled in the house; on August 4 at 11 a.m. the Termans surrounded the house and gave the order to evacuate apartments.
There were awful cries of children and women and we heard some shots -several persons were killed and wounded at the exit; we were driven to potatoe field and still guarded we were ordered to lie down; there could be no question of escape. A few minutes later we were ordered to get up and we were driven under a bridge which was nearby. At the question of one of the women "where are we being taken to ?", we heard the answer "German women and children are perishing by your fault; therefore, all of you must perish". We were put in ranks and a group of seventy people was separated from us and ordered to go behind the bridge on the hill; the rest, including myself, were put against the war between barbed wires. From different points nearby, we heard shots; we were huddled together and I was on the outer edge of the corwd. At a distance of five meters in front of us, one of the henchmen very quietly loaded his machine-gun; another one was preparing his camera. Several Germans were guarding us; we heard several shots, noises, groans -I fell down wounded and lost consciousness. After a while I came back to my senses and I heard how they were finishing up the wounded. I did not move and I simulated death; they left one of the Germans on guard and the rest of them went away. The ehnchmen set fire to the huts and the houses in the neighborhood. I was scorched by the heat and almost suffocated by the smoke and my dress smouldered. The German was still on guard, so quietly I tried to put out the fire on me". Then she describes how she ran to a cellar and she says -
THE PRESIDENT: This is a woman is it ?
MR. ELWYN JONES: This is a woman. At the end :" The group of people shot in my presence numbered some 500 persons, of whom no more than three or four managed to escape. All the executioners were SS men". the SS atrocities in a hospital in Warsaw :
"Very badly wounded in the stomach I was hospitalized in the Field Hospital Dluga Street 7. On the 7th of September 1944 the Germans ordered the nurses and those of the inmates who were able to walk to abandon the hospital and the heavily wounded.
I was in this latter group and we stayed in the ward situated in the cellar. In the whole hospital there were a few hundred sick and heavily wounded who could not abandon the hospital. Shortly after the nurses had left the hospital, in the evening the German SS arrived; shooting started. First those were killed who, with a superhuman effort, left their beds and went to the doors and the staircases waiting for the possibility to get out and save themselves. They were immediately killed by the Germans. Two murderers burst into our ward. One had a candle in his hand -- it was already dark. The other was killing, shooting from his pistol the men lying in beds, and shouting 'bandits'. Together with a few of the inmates of our ward, I was saved because the passage to our beds was obsturcted by other beds. Our ward consisted of two different parts; I was in the second smaller part, the entrance to which was obstructed. In the first part, all were killed; the second ward was saved by a pure miracle, maybe because somebody was calling the murderers away. We heard many shots from the other wards. The execution went on throughout the hospital. One of the other many Germans was checking whether everybody was dead. Then we were simulating death; one of my comrades lying near me stained himself with blood on his chest and head and was simulating death. One of the Germans, speaking Ukrainian, went about among the killed and striking them in their faces with his gun. It was a terrible night. During a certain moment a hand grenade was thrown through the window into our ward. Finally the building was set on fire. The fire spread very quickly; those who tried to escape were killed. A woman in our ward tried to push the inflammable staff away from the exit and to protect the ward from the fire. All other wards. as well as the staircase, were on fire; the smoke the smell of burning corpses, indescribable thirst." And then the last sentence "Thus , out of several hundred heavily wounded at the Hospital is Dluga Street 7. only a few score were left alive."
And the third affidavit is by Maria Bukowaka, who states that :" On the 7th of August 1944 by order of the SS, the people of the whole district had to abandon their houses which were immediately set on fire." "There were several thousands of us who were driven and pushed about by the SS.