THE PRESIDENT: Why does it not come within the last two lines of Article

21: “The records and findings of military or other tribunals of any of

the United Nations?”

DR. KAUFFMANN: Yes, the Defense is of the opinion that Article 21

permits an interpretation. Article 21 permits the reading of such

documents and such reports, but does not say anything about the extent

to which it has been necessary for the defendants’ counsel to check the

sources upon which these reports of the investigating authorities are

based. We are of the opinion that the witnesses who have been

questioned, for reasons of compassion, of vengeance, _et cetera_, have

not been in a position to describe the events objectively. As jurists we

know that it is exceedingly difficult to describe even simple events

truthfully. Therefore, we have the duty and the responsibility for the

German people to try to check these sources and to help thereby to

explain and clarify the real course of events, which we see somewhat

differently.

THE PRESIDENT: Defendants’ counsel will have the opportunity at the

proper time of criticizing any evidence which is offered by the

Prosecution. They will be able to point out whether it is possible that

certain evidence was given out of sympathy; they will be able to

criticize the evidence which is given in any way they choose at the

proper time. But this is not the proper time.

Article 21 is perfectly clear, and it directs the Tribunal to take

judicial notice of the various documents which are there set out, and

expressly refers to the records and findings of military or other

tribunals of any of the United Nations. This is a record and finding of

a military tribunal of a Soviet court. Therefore, the Tribunal is

directed in express terms by Article 21 to take judicial notice of it.

That does not prevent defendants’ counsel, when they make their speeches

in defense, from criticizing the evidence upon which that record and

findings proceed; but to say it ought not to be admitted appears to me,

at any rate, and I think to the other members of the Tribunal, to be

really entirely unfounded as an objection.

DR. KAUFFMANN: I thank you.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: May I continue, Mr. President. Thus the document

which has been submitted to the Tribunal will be found on Page 67 of the

document file in their possession. I shall allow myself to repeat in my

own words the biographical data concerning the Defendant Le Court, who

was brought before a court-martial.

He was not an SS man, but a non-Party senior corporal of the German

Army, 27 years old. He was born and lived, before the war, in the town

of Stargard; was owner of a cinema, and was later mobilized in the army,

where he served in the 1st Company of the 4th Airborne Division. I begin

to quote the statements in evidence given by Le Court contained in the

section entitled “Judicial Investigation” beginning with Paragraph 2.

The Tribunal will find this place in the document book on Page 68, fifth

paragraph. Le Court stated:

“Prior to my capture by Red Army soldiers, that is, before

February 1944, I served as laboratory assistant in the 1st

Bicycle Company of the 2d Air Force Infantry Regiment of the 4th

Air Force Infantry Division at the headquarters of Air Field

Service E 33/XI.

“In addition to photographic material, I handled other work when

not on duty, that is to say, I spent my free time for my own

pleasure in shooting Red Army prisoners of war and peaceful

citizens and soldiers. I used to jot down in a special book the

number of prisoners of war and peaceful citizens I had shot.”

I omit three paragraphs describing the shooting of prisoners of war by

Le Court, and continue the quotation. . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, the passage that you read a moment ago

about jotting down the numbers in his book does not occur in the

translation which is before me. I do not know whether it is in your

original. I suppose it is. Are you sure it is in the original?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: It is there, Mr. President. Mr. President, I

just verified this extract which I am quoting with the original book of

documents. It corresponds exactly to the text.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well. I only wanted to be certain that it was in the

original, as it did not occur in the translation before me. You can

continue.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I interrupted the quotation on Page 68, and

omitted three paragraphs. Thus, I came to Page 69. Perhaps this is the

reason why the President of the Tribunal could not find the sentence I

quoted. I continue the quotation:

“Besides the shooting of prisoners of war, I also shot

guerrillas, peaceful citizens, and burned houses, together with

their inhabitants.

“In November 1942 I participated in the shooting of 92 Soviet

citizens.

“From April to December 1942, while a member of the Air Force

Infantry Regiment, I participated in the shooting of 55 Soviet

citizens. I took care of the actual shooting.”

I omit a paragraph and continue:

“In addition, I participated in punitive expeditions when I

personally set fire to houses.

“Altogether more than 30 houses in various villages were burned

down by me. I arrived in the village with the punitive

expedition, entered the houses and warned the population that no

one was to leave the houses, which were going to be burned. I

set fire to a house, and when anybody tried to save

himself—nobody was allowed to leave—I drove him back into the

house or shot him. In that way I burned more than 30 houses and

70 peaceful citizens, mainly aged men, women, and children.

“Altogether I have personally shot 1,200 persons.”

For the purpose of saving time I omit six paragraphs and quote further.

You will find this on Page 70 of the document book:

“The German High Command promoted in every way the shooting and

killing of Soviet citizens. In recognition of good work and

service in the German Army, which found expression in the

shooting by me of prisoners of war and Soviet citizens, I was

promoted before my promotion was due, on 1 November 1941, to the

rank of senior corporal. This promotion should have come about

on the 1st of November 1942; at the same time I was awarded the

East Medal.”

Le Court was in no way an exception, and in confirmation of this I shall

now refer briefly to the verdict of the trial held in the town of

Smolensk by the district military tribunal against a group of former

members of the German Army who were brought to justice for committing

atrocities against peaceful citizens and prisoners of war in the town of

Smolensk. This document was submitted to the Tribunal by my colleague,

Colonel Pokrovsky, as Exhibit Number USSR-87 (Document Number USSR-87),

and joined to the record of the present Trial. The Tribunal will find

this document on Page 71 of the document book.

I omit all the general part of the verdict, and beg to be allowed to

draw the attention of the Tribunal to that part of the verdict which is

in the ninth paragraph on Page 71 of the document book, which says that

in 80 graves alone, which were opened up and examined by legal-medical

experts in the town of Smolensk and in the district of Smolensk, over

135,000 corpses of Soviet citizens—women, children, and men of various

ages—were discovered.

I skip the second page of the verdict and come to that part of the

document which gives a description of the criminal deeds of individual

defendants brought to trial under these charges. I shall not quote data

regarding all 10 defendants, but only 2 or 3 of them.

The Tribunal will find this part on Page 73 of the document book. This

is the sixth paragraph of the text. I quote:

“Hirschfeld was interpreter for the German Military Command in

the District Kommandantur of Smolensk. He personally beat and

seized for treason perfectly innocent Soviet citizens, without

consideration for sex and age, and forced them to make false

statements. On receiving these false statements forced from them

by beatings, the arrested persons were shot by the Kommandantur

troops. Hirschfeld participated personally in the annihilation

of Soviet citizens in Smolensk in May 1943, by means of

asphyxiation through carbon-monoxide in gas vans. In January and

February 1943, he participated in punitive expeditions against

guerrillas and against peaceful Soviet citizens in the district

of Newel-Uswjati. While he was commanding the German punitive

unit, he committed, together with his soldiers, acts of violence

against the peaceful population.”

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, in the Tribunal’s translation into

English, we have missing pages from 34 up to 45. Do you think that those

pages could be found? On our pages—I think your pagination is

different—but the document that you are now referring to, USSR-87,

begins on Page 34 of our translation, and the translation then skips to

Page 45.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I am not quoting the numbers of

pages of the translation, but the pages of the document book.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I follow that, but I was only wondering whether, by

a slip possibly, that these pages had been translated and perhaps had

not got into our copy of the documents and whether they could be found.

You see, we have all pages missing in the translation.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I have not yet seen the

translation. If the President will allow me, during the intermission I

shall verify the translation, and shall put the translation file into

complete order.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly. Go on in the meantime.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Together with his soldiers, he burned nine

Soviet villages and hamlets. He plundered farmers and shot innocent

peaceful Soviet citizens who came out of the woods to get to the piles

of ashes remaining from their burned-down homes in order to search for

food. He participated in the deportation of Soviet citizens into German

slavery.

I shall allow myself to quote still another excerpt concerning the

defendant named Modisch who was a medical assistant in the German

Military Hospital Number 551. The Tribunal will find this part on Page

73 of the document book, in the last paragraph:

2. “Modisch was a medical assistant in the 551st German Military

Hospital in the city of Smolensk from September 1941 until April

1943. He was an eyewitness and immediate participant in the

killing of prisoners of war, wounded soldiers, and officers of

the Red Army, upon whom the German professors and doctors,

Schemm, Gette, Müller, Ott, Stefen, Wagner, and others carried

out, under the pretext of a cure, various experiments with

previously unknown biological and chemical medicines. After

that, the wounded prisoners of war were infected with

septicaemia and killed.”

And what had Modisch personally done? I quote further from the same

document:

“Modisch himself killed, by means of injections of great

quantities of strophantin and arsenic, no less than 24 prisoners

of war, both Red Army men and officers of the Red Army. In

addition, he used, for medical treatment of German military

personnel, the blood of Soviet children, ranging in age from 6

to 8 years, by taking great quantities of blood from them, after

which the children died. He extracted from Russian prisoners of

war the spinal fluid, whereupon because of emaciation they

suffered paralysis of the lower extremities. He participated

also in the plundering of Soviet medical institutions in the

city of Smolensk.”

I skip another page in the document. The Tribunal can convince itself

that every one of these 10 defendants brought to trial committed such a

long series of crimes that, according to the laws of any civilized

country, they would be condemned to death. I quote as an example one of

the charges proved during this trial regarding the Defendant Kurt

Gaudian. The extract referring to him will be found by the Tribunal on

Page 74 and on Page 75. I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the fact

that Gaudian raped seven young girls and then killed them.

I conclude this part by quoting only three lines which state:

“In the month of July 1943, with his participation, 60

inhabitants of the district of Osipowitschi were burned in a

stable. The village itself was also burned.”

I skip a part concerning Hentschke and quote only five lines, on Page 75

of the document file from that part of the verdict which concerns

Müller, a lance corporal in the 335th Guard Battalion:

“At various times, the Defendant Müller killed 96 Soviet

citizens, among them old men, women, and babies. Müller raped 32

Soviet women, of whom 6 were killed after having been raped.

Among the women raped, several were 14- or 15-year-old girls.”

I do not know whether it is necessary to continue this quotation. I

believe that the nature of these criminals, 7 out of 10 of whom already

have ended their lives on the gallows, has been made clear to the

Tribunal. However, in order to characterize, not the ones who committed

the crimes, but those who were actually responsible for the lives of the

population of the occupied territory in the East, I beg the Tribunal to

allow me to turn to the diary of the Defendant Hans Frank, which has

already been submitted to the Tribunal by our American colleagues as

Document Number 2233-PS. We quote certain extracts from Frank’s diary as

Exhibit Number USSR-223. The Tribunal will find these excerpts on Page

78 of the document book. I quote that part of the excerpt which the

Tribunal will find on Page 86 of the document book, third paragraph, the

first column of the text.

On 6 February 1940 Frank gave an interview to the _Völkischer

Beobachter_ correspondent, Kleiss. I quote that section of the interview

which was already pointed out to the Tribunal. I begin the quotation:

“Interview given by the Governor General to the _Völkischer

Beobachter_ correspondent, Kleiss, on 6 February 1940, Page 3:

“Kleiss: ‘It might be interesting to develop the thesis which

distinguishes a Protectorate from a Government General.’

“The Governor General: I might state a striking difference: In

Prague, for instance, there were hung up red posters announcing

that seven Czechs had been shot that day. I then said to myself:

“‘“If I wished to order that one should hang up posters about

every seven Poles shot, there would not be enough forests in

Poland with which to make the paper for these posters. Indeed,

we must act cruelly.”’”

The offensive on the Western Front, which began on 10 May 1940, diverted

the attention of world public opinion from the crimes committed under

the personal direction of Frank and permitted Frank to have several

thousand representatives of the Polish intelligentsia condemned to death

by court-martial and physically exterminated.

I quote Frank’s statement at the police conference held on 30 May 1940,

where this crime was finally decided upon. I begin this quotation on

Page 86 of the document book, sixth paragraph, first column of the text:

“The offensive in the West began on 10 May. On that day the

center of interest shifted from the events taking place here. It

would be a matter of complete indifference to me whether the

deeds attributed by atrocity propaganda and lying reports all

over the world to the National Socialist authorities in these

districts worried the Americans, the French, the Jews, or the

Pope in Rome for that matter. But it was terrible for me and for

all of them to be told unceasingly during all these months by

the Ministry of Propaganda, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the

Ministry of the Interior, and even the Army, that ours was a

regime of murder, that these crimes of ours were to cease and so

forth. And we had to say, of course, we would no longer do it.

It was equally clear that up to that moment, under the

cross-fire of the whole world, we could not do anything of the

kind on a large scale. But since 10 May we are completely

indifferent to this atrocity propaganda. We must use the

opportunity in our hands.”

I skip now two paragraphs and continue with the quotation:

“I frankly admit that it will cost the lives of some thousands

of Poles and that these will be taken mainly from leading

members of the Polish intelligentsia. In these times we, as

National Socialists, are bound to ensure that no further

resistance is offered by the Polish people.”—I draw the

attention of the Tribunal to this sentence particularly:

“I realize the responsibility we are thus assuming.”

I skip one paragraph and continue the quotation, which the Tribunal will

find on Page 86 of the document file, fifth paragraph.

“Furthermore, SS-Obergruppenführer Krüger and I have decided

that appeasement measures should be speeded up. I pray you,

gentlemen, to take the most rigorous measures possible to help

us in this task. For my own part, I will do everything in my

power in order to facilitate its execution. I appeal to you as

the champions of National Socialism, and I need surely say

nothing further. We will carry out this measure and I may tell

you in confidence that we shall be acting on the Führer’s

orders. The Führer said to me, ‘The handling of German policy in

the Government General and its establishment on a firm basis is

a matter which devolves personally on the responsible men in the

Government General.’

“He expressed himself in this way: The men capable of leadership

whom we have found to exist in Poland must be liquidated. Those

following men must . . . be eliminated in their turn. There is

no need to burden the Reich and the Reich police organization

with this. There is no need to send these elements to Reich

concentration camps, and by so doing involve ourselves in

disputes and unnecessary correspondence with their relations. We

will liquidate our difficulties in the country itself, and we

will do it in the simplest way possible.”

I conclude this quotation and pass on to Page 87, second paragraph,

first column of the text. I think that this quotation is characteristic,

for it was precisely Frank, as the diary proves, who first thought about

the creation of special concentration camps, later officially known as

“Vernichtungslager” (extermination camps).

I quote the same speech of Frank, Page 9, first paragraph:

“As to the concentration camps, we know perfectly well that

concentration camps in the true sense of the word are not going

to be organized in the Government General. Every suspected

person must be immediately liquidated. Internees from the

Government General at present in concentration camps in the

Reich must be handed over to us for ‘Operation AB’ or liquidated

there.”

I quote further from the same speech in the section—further excerpts

from the diary of Hans Frank concerning the year 1940. The Tribunal will

find this place on Page 94 of the document book, fifth paragraph, first

column of the text. I quote:

“We cannot burden the concentration camps in the Reich with our

affairs. We had terrible trouble with the Kraków professors. If

we had done the thing from here, it would have been different.

For this reason I would ask you most urgently not to send any

more people to concentration camps in the Reich but to liquidate

them here or to impose punishment according to regulations. Any

other method is a burden for the Reich and a perpetual source of

trouble. We have an entirely different method of treatment here

and we must adhere to it. I must point out expressly that even

if peace is concluded, this treatment will not be altered. Peace

will mean only that as a world power we should continue more

intensively the same general political operations. . . .”

I deem it opportune to draw the attention of the Tribunal to the fact

that all the major extermination camps were indeed located on the

territory of the Government General.

There was its own periodicity or cycles in the fascist crimes and in the

proportions they assumed, and if in 1940 Frank made a long speech to the

policemen justifying the so-called “actions” with regard to several

thousand Polish intellectuals, then on 18 March 1944, in his speech at

the Reichshof, he stated—I quote from Page 93 of the document file,

third paragraph, second column. I begin the quotation:

“18 March 1944, Speech at the Reichshof.

“Dr. Frank: ‘If I had gone to the Führer and said, “My Führer, I

have to report that I have destroyed a further 150,000 Poles,”

he would say, “All right, if it was necessary.”’”

This fascist specialist on legal questions annihilated 3 million Jews in

the territory under his jurisdiction which fell only temporarily into

the hands of the fascist invaders. On this occasion Frank said—I quote

his speech at a business meeting of the NSDAP orators in Kraków on 4

March 1944. The Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 93 of the

document book, second paragraph, second column of the text; I begin the

quotation of Dr. Frank:

“If there are any woebegone souls today who bemoan the fate of

the Jews and say with tears in their eyes, ‘Isn’t it awful what

is being done to the Jews,’ we should ask them if they are still

of the same opinion now. If we had there 2 million Jews carrying

on their activities and opposed to them the few German men in

the country today, we would no longer have control of the

situation. . . . Jews are a race which must be eradicated. When

we catch one of them, it is the end of him.”

I pass on to that part of Frank’s diary. . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Shall we adjourn now?

[_A recess was taken._]

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I received information from our

staff that the 11 pages which were not incorporated into the English

text in your possession were handed to you. Is it true, Sir?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: May I continue?

THE PRESIDENT: Please do.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I am quoting now from Frank’s diary at the place

which the Tribunal will find on Page 93 of the document file, in the

second column of the text, second paragraph below the title, “Meeting of

Political Leaders of NSDAP in Kraków, on 15 January 1944.” It begins

thus, Dr. Frank, “I did not hesitate to say that for every German

killed, up to a hundred Poles would be shot.”

In these dark days the Polish people regarded the victims of Frank and

of his henchmen as martyrs. That is the reason it seems to me that, on

16 December 1942, at a government meeting in Kraków, Frank stated—I am

quoting excerpts from the diary on Page 92 in the document book, third

paragraph after the heading, the first column of the text. I begin the

quotation:

“We must consider whether, for practical reasons, executions

should be carried out as far as possible on the spot where the

murder of a German was attempted. It might also be as well to

consider whether special places for execution should be set up,

as it has been established that the Polish population streams to

the places of execution, which are accessible to everyone, for

the purpose of filling vessels with the bloodstained earth, and

taking them to church.”

I brought Frank’s diary to your attention, Your Honors, because he was

one of Hitler’s closest associates and because this very well-known

“learned” jurist of fascism was actually a positive _alter ego_ of those

who cut in two the bodies of children in the Yanov Camp. At the same

time he was one of the creators of that part of the legal code of the

German fascists which completely negated justice. After all, the whole

miserable juridical wisdom of _Mein Kampf_ fundamentally comes down to

just one wicked formula, that is, that “might is right.” I studied this

book and found no other sense in the text. I quote the 64th edition,

Page 740.

Frank was to Hitler that necessary evil gnome of jurisprudence whom

Hitler needed to clothe in legal form the inhuman theories of fascism.

In support of the fact as to how far the profanation of the basic ideas

of justice incorporated in the criminal and civil law of all civilized

people went, I submit to the Tribunal the original copy of one of

Frank’s directives published in the official bulletin of the Governor

General for 1943. It is dated 2 October 1943 and is being presented by

the Soviet delegation to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-335

(Document Number USSR-335). The Tribunal will find the document quoted

on Page 95 of the document book. I quote the document in full:

“Decree: The combating of attacks on German construction work in

the Government General, issued 2 October 1943.

“On the basis of Paragraph 5, Section 1, of the Führer’s decree

of 12 October 1939 (_Reichsgesetzblatt_ I, Page 2077) I decree,

until further notice:

“Paragraph 1.

“(1) Non-Germans who violate laws, decrees, official

regulations, or orders with the intention of hampering or

interfering with German construction work in the Government

General will be punished by death.

“(2) Section 1 does not apply to nationals of countries allied

to the Greater German Reich or those who are not at war with the

Reich.

“Paragraph 2.

“The abettor and the accomplice will be considered as equally

guilty with the perpetrator; the same penalty will be exacted in

the case of attempted violations as in the case of those

actually committed.

“Paragraph 3.

“(1) The summary courts of the police will be competent to pass

judgment.

“(2) The summary court of the Security Police may pass the

matter to the German Public Prosecution if there are special

reasons for doing so.

“Paragraph 4.

“The summary courts of the Security Police will consist of an

SS-Führer belonging to the office of the Commander of the

Security Police and Security Service and two members of the

office.

“Paragraph 5.

“(1) The following shall be recorded in writing: 1. The names of

the judges; 2. the names of those on whom sentence is passed; 3.

the evidence on which judgment was based; 4. the offense; 5. the

date on which the sentence was imposed; 6. the date on which the

sentence was put into effect.

“(2) In matters not covered by the above, the summary court of

the Security Police will decide upon its procedure after proper

consideration.

“Paragraph 6.

“Sentences passed by the summary court of the Security Police

will be put into effect without delay.

“Paragraph 7.

“In cases where an offense against Paragraphs 1 and 2 of this

decree also constitutes a further offense which must be dealt

with by the summary court, only those paragraphs of this decree

are applicable which relate to procedure.

“Paragraph 8.

“This decree will come into force on 10 October 1943.

“Kraków, 2 October 1943; The Governor General, Frank.”

In this manner, Point 1 of the first paragraph established one single

punishment, that is, death, for practically any action of a

“non-German,” regardless of whether such action was classified by the

German overlords as constituting a breach of law or a violation of an

administrative order. The same punishment was to be administered for any

attempt at similar actions in which the police officials could include

practically any actions or expressions of a suspected person—Paragraph

2 of the above-quoted document.

The defendant was deprived of any procedural rights and guarantees. The

document which, in accordance with Paragraph 5, was to take the place of

the court verdict was, as is evident from the series of questions which

had to be recorded in writing, actually for the purpose of registering

individual cases of summary justice and not for the purpose of finding

justifiable bases for the application of punishment. Every possibility

of cassation or appeal to the higher authorities was excluded. The

verdict was to be carried out immediately.

And finally, even the “court” procedure itself, founded on Frank’s

directives, was actually merely a mockery of justice. The court—and it

seems to me the word “court” should be in quotation marks—consisted of

three officials of the same SD which kept arresting innocent people on

the streets of Polish towns and organizing wanton mass shootings of

hostages.

How justified are the conclusions which are made by me on the basis of

the aforementioned document, you will see from the text of another

document submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-332 (Document

Number USSR-332). In the document file which is being submitted to the

Court, is contained the original copy of the minutes of interrogation of

the attorney, Stefan Korbonski. It also contains a translation of the

document into Russian, which was certified by the members of the Polish

Delegation. Stefan Korbonski lives in Warsaw and, according to

information received from the Polish Delegation, should the Tribunal

consider it necessary to call Korbonski for cross-examination, he can be

brought to the Tribunal session.

I shall take the liberty to express in my own words the introductory

part of the document. After having been sworn in Warsaw on 31 October

1945, Stefan Korbonski, who is a lawyer, was interrogated and testified

that he was one of the leaders of resistance among the Polish people

against the German invaders. This place can be found in the first

paragraph of the text of the minutes. In the second half of the minutes

the Tribunal will find a place in the document book on Page 98—and it

goes on to Page 102—where Stefan Korbonski speaks of exactly the same

directives of Frank’s which were read into the record by me just now. In

Paragraph 1 of the interrogation minutes he states that in the beginning

of October 1943 the Germans posted on the walls of the houses in Warsaw

and other cities of the Government General the text of that particular

order which was read into the record by me.

I continue the quotation to the end, omitting the first part on Page 99

in the document book which is in the possession of the Tribunal, because

it seems to me that this document is very characteristic. I begin the

quotation:

“Soon after the publication of this decree and quite

independently from the increasing number of executions performed

by the Germans in secret in what used to be the Warsaw ghetto,

in the Warsaw jail, which was called Paviac, the Germans began

to introduce public executions, that is, shooting of whole

groups of Poles ranging from 20 to 200 persons in each.

“These public executions were performed in various districts of

the city, in streets opened to normal traffic, which were

surrounded by the Gestapo guards immediately before the actual

executions, so that the Polish population caught within the

surrounding district would have to watch the executions either

in the streets, or from the windows of the houses situated right

behind the backs of the Gestapo men.

“During these executions the Germans shot either people from the

Paviac jail where they were confined after their arrest during

raids in the streets, or people caught immediately before the

actual execution. The number of these public executions, as well

as the number of persons executed each time, kept increasing

until it reached 200 persons who had to be shot at every

execution. These executions continued until the very beginning

of the Warsaw insurrection.

“At first the Germans transported the Poles to the place of

execution in covered trucks. They were clad in civilian clothes,

and sometimes their hands were tied behind their backs. However,

as the victims thus brought to the place of execution usually

shouted, ‘Down with Hitler,’ ‘Long live Poland,’ ‘Down with the

Germans,’ and similar things, the Germans took steps to prevent

the possibility of any such disturbances and began to fill their

mouths with cement, or seal their lips with adhesive tape. The

victims were brought from the Paviac clad in shirts, or in

clothes made out of paper.

“I often received information from our underground organization

through our agents who were working in the Paviac jail, that

shortly before the execution the Germans usually performed

operations on the condemned. They bled them and injected various

chemical substances to cause physical weakness, thus preventing

any attempts at escape or at resistance.

“This was the reason why the condemned were brought to the place

of execution pale, weak, and apathetic, and barely able to stand

on their feet. But even so, they acted as heroes and never

begged for mercy.

“The bodies of those who were shot were loaded into trucks by

other prisoners and were taken to a former ghetto, where they

were usually burned. The prisoners whose duty it was to

transport and to burn the corpses were mostly those confined in

the Paviac prison. It was their steady assignment.

“The Polish population immediately covered with flowers the

blood spots which were left on the ground. Lighted candles were

placed where the corpses previously had lain, and crosses and

ikons were hung on the surrounding walls. During the night

members of the underground organizations would put an

inscription in lacquer on the walls, such as ‘Glory to Heroes,’

‘Glory to those who perished for the fatherland,’ and so forth.

“When the Germans noticed these inscriptions they arrested all

those who happened to be on the spot and led them to the Paviac

prison. Sometimes the Germans shot at groups of people kneeling

and praying at the execution spots. Such an incident took place

on Senator Street where several people were shot at and quite a

few were wounded.

“After each public execution the Germans would put on the walls

of houses lists of the names of those who were just executed;

the names of hostages who would be shot in case the German

regulations were not obeyed were given below.

“In Warsaw alone the Germans shot several thousand Poles by

means of these public executions. This does not include the

victims who were shot in other towns. In the Kraków district

several thousand men were similarly shot.”

Thus was put into action Hans Frank’s directive which was already

submitted by me to the Tribunal. In the light of Korbonski’s testimony

it becomes clear why, on 16 December 1943, there appears in Frank’s

diary. . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Shouldn’t that be 1942?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The 16th of December 1943, Mr. President. One

minute—I shall check that.

THE PRESIDENT: It reads “1942” in our document.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Your Honor, evidently the translator put the

wrong date into the text before you. I repeat that, in accordance with

the text in my possession, this statement was made by Frank on 16

December 1943 at a government meeting in Kraków. If you will permit me I

shall again verify the text of the quotation.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, in our statement of the document itself it is

translated as 16 December 1942. Evidently it is wrong in one place or

the other.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: In the testimony itself, in Paragraph 1,

Korbonski mentions that in the beginning of December 1943 the Germans

posted these lists on the walls of the houses. If the Tribunal will

refer to the original of the document it will find “at the beginning of

December 1943.”

THE PRESIDENT: I see, it is 1943. It was wrongly translated in the first

place.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, 1943. May I continue?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Thank you, Sir. I shall speak of the change in

the procedure of the executions. It was on the Polish territory that the

criminal code introducing special rights for the “master race” and

Draconic laws for the other nations whom the fascist “masters”

considered completely vanquished, was put into practice for the first

time.

The report of the Polish Government which had already been submitted to

the International Military Tribunal by my colleagues as irrefutable

evidence in accordance with Article 21 of the Charter gives a brief

description of the regime of lawlessness and despotism which reigned in

occupied Poland under the guise of special legislation.

To characterize this legislation I shall take the liberty, if Your

Honors please, to refer to two excerpts from the report of the

Government of the Polish Republic, which has already been presented to

the Tribunal by my colleagues as Exhibit Number USSR-93 (Document Number

USSR-93). I shall first read into the record a paragraph which will be

found on Page 110 in the document file in possession of the Tribunal,

the section dealing with “Germanization of the Polish Law.” It is the

fourth paragraph after the heading, and I shall quote only two

paragraphs of this section:

“In the Government General the machinery of justice was changed

particularly by a decree of 26 October 1939. It bears the

signature of Frank. (Encl. 2)

“Polish courts became subjected to supervision of German courts

established in the Government General. Their jurisdiction,

heavily curtailed, was confined to those cases only for which

the German courts had no competence. New ideas of law were

introduced. Punishment could be inflicted by intuition; the

accused deprived of the right to choose a counsel and to appeal.

“German law was introduced, and Polish law germanized.”

I omit the entire section of the report which deals with this subject

and continue the quotation on Page 51 of the Russian text. The Tribunal

will find it on Page 129 in the document book in the third paragraph of

the text under “Judicial Murders.” That is Page 129, the third paragraph

of the text. I begin the quotation:

“a) On 4 December 1941, Göring, Frick, and Lammers signed a

decree referred to above which virtually outlawed all Poles and

Jews in the incorporated Polish territories. The decree made

Poles and Jews a different and second-rank group of citizens. It

meant that Poles and Jews were obliged to obey the Reich

unconditionally; but on the other hand, as second-class citizens

they were not entitled to the protection given by law to

others.”

I omit one paragraph and I continue the quotation of the part which

deals with the application of death sentences. It begins this way:

“Death sentences could be passed in the following cases:

“1. For removing or publicly damaging posters set up by the

German authorities.

“2. For acts of violence against members of the German forces.

“3. For lowering the dignity of the Reich or harming its

interests.

“4. For damaging furniture to be used by the German authorities.

“5. For damaging things intended for the work or public order.

“6. For causing disobedience to regulations and orders issued by

German authorities—and several other cases which in fact

justified imprisonment for a short period at the most.”

I shall omit one passage and I shall limit my quotation to the following

two paragraphs:

“b) No Pole”—stated the official Nazi instruction—“was allowed

to approach a German woman to stain the noble blood of the

Herrenvolk. Those who dared to do it or even those who did not

get beyond the stage of attempting to do so, were inevitably

facing death. But it was not only a court but the German court

which was called upon to pass sentence in these cases. It was

found superfluous to arrange trials—a simple order of the

police proved sufficient to deprive people of their life.”

I conclude this quotation and pass on to a subject which in my opinion

is very correctly referred to as the “Judicial Terror of the German

Fascists in Czechoslovakia” in the report of the Czechoslovak

Government. In this country we can systematically follow the

ever-increasing destruction by the Hitlerites of all the accepted moral

and legal standards.

The report of the Czechoslovak Government, already submitted to the

Tribunal by my colleagues as Exhibit Number USSR-60, describes this

process in detail, beginning with the so-called “people’s courts,” up to

the organization of the so-called “Standgerichte.” I do not know what

would be a correct translation of this term, so I shall use the term

“Standgerichte” throughout. They are already familiar to us as organs of

the Nazi arbitrary rule in Poland.

This process of the deterioration or rather collapse of the entire

judicial system under the fascist rule is described in the report in

great detail; I shall quote only a few short excerpts. I shall begin my

quotation on Page 162 of the document book in the possession of the

Tribunal, the last paragraph. I begin:

“The power to proclaim a state of emergency was applied not

later than 28 September 1941. In accordance with a decree issued

on the same date and signed by Heydrich, a state of civil

emergency was proclaimed in the ‘Oberlandrat’ district in

Prague; and, a few days later, in the remaining parts of the

protectorate. ‘Standgerichte,’ which were set up immediately,

were active during the entire period and pronounced 778 death

sentences. All were executed and 1,000 people were turned over

to the Gestapo, that is, sent to concentration camps.”

I omit the end of the paragraph, and I quote the following paragraph:

“The only directive as to the administration, organization, and

rules of procedure at the ‘Standgerichte’ is contained in the

decree of 27 September 1941.”

I omit the rest of the paragraph and I continue the quotation on Page

163, fifth paragraph of the book of documents.

“The decree does not indicate as to who may fill the position of

judge in Standgerichte, whether the judges should be

professional people or laymen, and whether the sentences are to

be pronounced by a jury or by the judge alone. The decree merely

states Standgerichte may be set up by the Reich Protector; he is

competent to choose people who are to perform the duties of a

judge.”

I omit the rest and continue the quotation on Page 163 of the book of

documents, the last paragraph:

“On the basis of the information that we have at hand at present

the judges at the Standgerichte were professional judges only in

exceptional cases.

“The most important attribute was political reliability. This is

the reason why the judges were, one could almost say without

exception, members and executives of the NSDAP or other National

Socialist organizations; that is, people who with rare

exceptions, possessed not the slightest knowledge of law and had

no experience in criminal trials.”

I omit the following excerpts and continue the quotation on Page 166 of

the document book, at the beginning of the last paragraph; from there I

go on to Page 167:

“Standgerichte were never held publicly. Inasmuch as the public

was excluded from the preliminary investigations of the

Standgerichte, the very existence of this tribunal increased the

feeling of insecurity under the prevalent law. There was no

appeal against sentences passed by Standgerichte. The records of

the investigations of the Standgerichte contain only lists of

names of the judges, defendants, and witnesses as well as

descriptions of the crimes and the dates of the sentences

(Section 4, Paragraph 2, of the decree). Directives permitting

and even encouraging such meager records can have only one

aim—to prevent any control and to keep secret everything that

took place during the investigation, thus covering up all the

traces of what had been done.

“According to Section 4, Paragraph 1, of the directive, the

Standgerichte could only pass death sentences or turn over the

defendants to the Gestapo.”

I omit the following paragraphs containing certain general comments on

the same matter and continue my quotation on Page 168, the first

paragraph:

“Sentences passed by the Standgerichte must be carried out

immediately. (Section 4, Paragraph 3, of the decree). Numerous

examples demonstrate that this brutal National Socialist

legislation was never toned down. At the end of the so-called

trial, it was left to the judges to decide whether the condemned

should be shot or hanged. (Section 4, Paragraph 3, of the

decree). The condemned person was not granted even a short

respite to prepare for death. There was not even a question in

the decree about a reprieve. In any case, the brutal haste with

which the sentence was carried out, made any reprieve

impossible.”

I conclude this excerpt, as well as the entire section devoted to the

terrorist legislation of the Hitlerites in Czechoslovakia, with a

quotation from Page 169, the fourth line from the top, and further. It

is stated there:

“It is quite evident that the Standgerichte did not possess the

characteristics which, in accordance with the general opinion,

are those of a tribunal and that the trials of the Standgerichte

in reality violated all the principles which should be observed

in the legislations of all civilized people. Standgerichte

cannot be called tribunals and its court examination cannot be

called a trial and a decision. I think the proper term would be

‘verdict.’

“The executions resulting from the verdicts of the Standgerichte

differ in no way from executions performed without trial. They

should be classified as murders.

“It is impossible to find in the regulations which determined

the methods of procedure of the Standgerichte even a trace of

humanity. For instance, the rule which imposed immediate

execution and accorded practically no time to the condemned to

prepare for death, is a form of cruelty which, just as the

entire institution of the Standgerichte, had as its aim the

terrorization of the population.”

I shall conclude the quotation with this excerpt, and I shall take the

liberty of remarking that the institution of the Standgerichte did not

countermand or exclude simple police sentences passed by means of a

procedure similar to the one which was established by Frank in Poland.

It seems to me that all the laws which were cited by me above testify to

the fact that the Hitlerites tried to turn the legislation, intended to

punish crimes, into one which commits crimes. This is the sole purpose

why their “laws” were created.

If Your Honors please, I shall now turn to the terroristic laws and

directives of Hitlerite criminals which were issued for the civilian

population of the Soviet Union.

Having started the criminal war against the U.S.S.R., the German fascist

gang of bandits considered even these laws and “legal” principles

especially created for the justification of their crimes, insufficient.

Most of these documents had already been submitted to the Tribunal and I

shall confine myself to some very brief quotations. With the Tribunal’s

permission I shall read only three lines from a previously submitted

document. I am referring to Document Number L-221 submitted to the

Tribunal by the United States Prosecution. It contains a brusque reply

made by Hitler to Göring at a meeting on 16 July 1941. The Tribunal will

find the place on Page 189 in the document file in the first paragraph,

first line.

THE PRESIDENT: That document has been read already.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, Your Honor. I shall take the liberty of

quoting only three lines of this document.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, go on; but I think that the rest of the page which

you are reading is all comments, and you could go straight on to the

next document. Read these three lines and then I think you will

find. . . .

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: This is not quite correct, but I shall now quote

those three lines. Hitler said, “The gigantic territory must be quieted

as soon as possible.” I am quoting from the next sentence, where Hitler

said, “The best way to attain this objective is to shoot everyone, even

those who only cast an ugly look.” I am citing these lines because they

are the “Leitmotiv” which passes in all the directives and orders of

Hitlerites.

THE PRESIDENT: Now, what I am suggesting to you is that the rest of the

page which you are now passing in our translation is quite unnecessary

to read and you can go straight on, at any rate, to the directive of

Keitel of the 16th of September 1941.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: All right, Mr. President. May I continue?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I quote a directive of Keitel. This directive

was submitted to the Tribunal by the United States Prosecution under

Document Number C-148 (Exhibit Number USA-555). I quote, on Page 190 of

your document book, Paragraph 3, Line 4.

“One must bear in mind that human life in the countries

concerned is often of no value whatever, and that intimidating

reaction is only possible in the form of application of

extraordinary hardness.”

I am further presenting to the Tribunal a photostat of the document

which was already submitted as Document Number 459-PS. I shall not quote

a single excerpt from it; but I shall take the liberty to remind the

Tribunal that point 6 of this document states that any sort of

resistance will be broken, not by means of juridical punishment, but if

the occupying authorities will succeed in instilling in the population a

fear which is the only thing capable, as it is said in the directive,

“of depriving the population of any will to resist.”

I take the liberty to confirm this by quoting very briefly just two

lines from the directive of the Commander of the 6th Army, General Field

Marshal Von Reichenau, which was already presented to the Tribunal by my

colleague as Exhibit Number USSR-12 (Document Number USSR-12). The

Tribunal will find it on Page 194 of the document book, Line 19 from the

top. It is said there, “The fear of German countermeasures must be

stronger than the threats from Bolshevist remnants still wandering

around.”

I wanted to read into the record one document which bears the seal of

the pseudo-legal argumentation of Hans Frank and which is so

characteristic of his ordinances and directives. It has been pointed out

that this document had already been presented to the Tribunal and I do

not wish to retain the attention of the Tribunal on a document which had

already been read during a Tribunal session. I am referring to the

circular order of the Reich Security Main Office, Number 567-42-176,

dated 5 November 1942. It develops that this document has already been

presented by the American colleagues as Document Number L-316. I just

wish to remind the Tribunal that this document states that even the

principles used for determining the activities of non-Germans should be

different and that any actions of a non-German should be examined not

from the point of view of justice but exclusively from the point of view

of prevention. I think that this document is well known to the Tribunal

and I shall refrain from quoting it.

Thus in those territories of the occupied countries where the SS

followed in the footsteps of the aggressors’ troops, the peaceful

population was abandoned to the arbitrary will of the specially trained

and fierce representatives of the police forces of German fascism.

I shall take the liberty, while presenting the photostat of the document

previously submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number 447-PS, to quote

only one line of this document, which the Tribunal will find on Page 197

of the document book, fifth paragraph, after the heading, “The Region of

the Operations.” It deals with the special powers of the Reichsführer SS

and indicates that “within the scope of these assignments the

Reichsführer SS shall act independently and under his own

responsibility.”

It is well known what the Reichsführer SS really was. Of the many

statements of Himmler, I shall limit myself to only one quotation which

is, however, rather characteristic as a leading directive to the

responsible officials of the SS who were subordinated to Himmler. On 4

October 1943 at the conference of the SS Gruppenführer at Posen, Himmler

said—this document was submitted to the Tribunal by the United States

Prosecution as Document Number 1919-PS and was read into the record on

19 December 1945. I shall quote six lines from Page 23 of the photostat

of this document. The Tribunal will find the document on Page 201 in the

document book. There figures a short quotation.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal feels that if a document has already been

read, it should not be read again.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: It seems to me that this particular excerpt was

not read into the record. The document was submitted on 19 December 1945

as Document Number 1919-PS. But this particular excerpt which I wish to

quote now, was not read into the record of the Tribunal. It contains

only six lines.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, of course, if you have verified that and can state

that with certainty, then you can certainly read it.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I perused the transcript and could not find this

excerpt. Therefore it seems to me that it was not read into the record.

I shall confine myself literally to six lines. The question at present

is only a matter of six lines.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, you better go on and quote it then because these

interruptions take up a very long time.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I begin the quotation:

“Whether other nations live in prosperity or starve to death

interests me only insofar as we need them as slaves for our

culture. Otherwise I am not interested. I am not interested

whether 10,000 Russian females die of exhaustion while digging

an antitank ditch, as long as the antitank ditch for Germany is

finished.”

A document was already submitted to the Tribunal which establishes that

the legalization of mass murders and extermination of the peaceful

population of the Soviet Union carried out by the Army with a view to

terrorizing the population was begun by Hitler and his clique as early

as 13 May 1941, that is, over a month before the beginning of the war.

In this case I refer to a directive already well known to the Tribunal.

This directive emanates from Keitel and is entitled, “Application of

Military Jurisdiction in the Barbarossa Region and Special Army

Measures.” This document was already read into the record as Exhibit

Number C-50 by the United States Prosecution on 7 January 1946. I shall

not quote this document because I think that it is well known to the

Tribunal. I merely wish to remind the Tribunal that this document

categorically denies the necessity for establishing guilt; suspicion

alone was sufficient for the application of a death sentence. An

official system of group responsibility and mass repressions was set up.

Furthermore, it was stated that the “suspect” should be exterminated in

any case. This is plainly said in Paragraph 5 of the first section of

the directive.

THE PRESIDENT: We better adjourn now.

[_The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours._]

_Afternoon Session_

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: In accordance with your instructions, Mr.

President, I omit the following documents to which I wished to refer and

which have already been submitted to the Tribunal—Document 654-PS, for

instance.

I now proceed to the next document, which was submitted to the Tribunal

yesterday by my colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, as Exhibit Number USSR-3.

It is the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet

Union, entitled, “Directives and Orders of the Hitlerite Government and

the German Military Command Regarding the Extermination of the Soviet

People.”

My colleague read into the record yesterday a short excerpt from the

fourth part of this document concerning the carrying out of mass

executions, the so-called executions in camps, where both peaceful

citizens and prisoners of war were interned. As this section has already

been read into the record, I omit it and proceed to other sections of

this report, dealing with the organization by the German fascist

criminals, from the very first days of the war with the Soviet Union, of

the so-called Sonderkommandos (special task forces).

The document which I am quoting refers to the organization of

Sonderkommandos in the camps where prisoners of war and peaceful

citizens were interned. I quote this excerpt because the term

“Sonderkommando” acquired in the early days of the war a terrible

meaning among the civilian population of the temporarily occupied

territories of the Soviet Union. It was one of the most cruel and most

brutal organizations ever created by the German fascists for the

wholesale slaughter of human beings.

I request the Tribunal to revert to Page 207 of the document book,

Column 1 of the text. I begin the quotation:

“It is evident, from the documents discovered, that even before

the attack on the U.S.S.R. Hitler’s butchers had compiled lists

and index files and collected the necessary information about

such leading Soviet workers as their bloodthirsty plans had

doomed to extermination. In this manner they prepared the

following: ‘Special Index Files for the U.S.S.R.,’ ‘The German

Index File,’ ‘Lists for Establishing Domiciles,’ and other index

files and lists of the same kind which would facilitate the work

of the Hitlerite murderers in the extermination of progressive

circles within the population of the U.S.S.R.

“However, the document entitled, ‘Appendix Number 2 to

Operational Order Number 8 of the Chief of the Sipo and the SD,

Berlin,’ dated 17 July 1941 and signed by Heydrich, who was at

that time acting as Himmler’s deputy, emphasizes the lack of

such lists and index files and stresses the importance of not

hampering the initiative of those who perpetrated the murders.

The document states:

“‘There is no possibility of lending any assistance to the

Kommandos for the realization of your plans. The “German Index

File,” “Lists for Establishing Domiciles,” and “Special Index

Files for the U.S.S.R.” will only prove useful in a few cases.

The “Special Index Files for the U.S.S.R.” are therefore

insufficient, as only an insignificant number of Soviet Russian

nationals, considered as dangerous, have been entered in these

files.’”

I omit one paragraph and continue:

“For the realization of their criminal plans the German invaders

created Sonderkommandos, both in the transient and permanent

camps for prisoners of war, on German territory, in the

so-called Polish Government General, and in the temporarily

occupied territory of the Soviet Union.”

I further omit seven paragraphs and continue the quotation on Page 207

of the document book, Paragraph 6, Column 2 of the text:

“The procedure in the formation of the Sonderkommando is

described in Appendix Number 1 to Operational Order Number 14 of

the Chief of the Sipo and SD, marked state top secret, Copy

Number 15, dated Berlin, 29 October 1941.

“The formation of the Sonderkommandos of the Sipo and SD is

carried out in accordance with the agreement of 7 October 1941,

reached between the Chief of the Sipo and the SD on the one hand

and the OKW on the other hand.

“By virtue of special powers the Kommandos will act

independently in conformity with general directives, within the

scope of the camp regulations. The Kommandos, of course,

maintain close contact with the camp commandants and the

officers of the Intelligence Service.”

I omit the following text and continue the quotation from Page 208 of

the document book, Paragraph 1. The Tribunal will observe how much the

Reich leadership extended the installation of these highly dangerous

police organizations. The Sonderkommandos were organized all the way

from the town of Krasnogvardeisk—a suburb of Leningrad—to the town of

Nikolaiev on the Black Sea. I now continue with my quotation:

“The order of the Chief of the Sipo and SD of 29 October 1941,

regarding the organization of the Sonderkommandos, was sent to

the operational groups in Krasnogvardeisk, Smolensk, Kiev, and

Nikolaiev, and for information to Riga, Moghilev, and Krivoy

Rog.”

I would also point out that during their attack on Moscow the Hitlerites

organized in Smolensk a special Sonderkommando Moscow, entrusted with

the task of mass-murdering the Moscow citizens.

Mention has previously been made of the wide range of authoritative

power granted to the Sonderkommando. In the document which I am quoting

it is said:

“The tasks of the Sonderkommandos are outlined in the

operational directives attached to Decree Number 8 of the Chief

of the Sipo and SD, dated Berlin, 17 July 1941, which, under the

pretext of a screening of civilians and suspected prisoners of

war captured in the Eastern campaign indicate that:

“The special nature of the Eastern campaign calls for special

measures, to be carried out on personal responsibility beyond

the range of any bureaucratic influences.”

I omit the next extract from this document, since it is merely a

repetition of the basic rules which I have already read into the record.

Having launched their criminal war, the Hitlerites directed it towards a

mass extermination of the peaceful citizens of the Soviet Union and the

countries of Eastern Europe. I have already read into the record several

documents depicting the character of the Hitlerite murderers and the

nature of their crimes. The latter consisted in the formation of large

criminal units, specially trained by the leaders of the Hitlerite gang.

It will, however, be clear to any criminologist that it is not

sufficient to create these foul and criminal gangs—it is essential that

once the crime has been perpetrated the criminal should feel that he has

acted with complete impunity. In order that the crimes envisaged by the

major criminals be fulfilled in their monstrous entirety, it became

necessary to create for the minor criminals an atmosphere of complete

impunity. In accordance with your wishes, Mr. President, I shall not

quote the document previously read into the record as Number C-50 by the

United States Prosecution, entitled, “Instructions Governing the

Application of Martial Law and Special Measures To Be Adopted by the

Army in the Barbarossa Area.” But it appears to me that the contents of

this document should be firmly borne in mind, for unless the meaning of

this document is clearly understood it is quite impossible to envisage

the series of wholesale crimes perpetrated by the Hitlerite criminals on

the territory of the Soviet Union.

This order, signed by Keitel, though issued in Hitler’s name, was

accepted by all the soldiers and all the officers of the fascist army as

a personal order from Hitler. What conclusions the German soldiery drew

from this order of Keitel’s is confirmed by a communication of the

Extraordinary State Commission, to which I shall now refer. It deals

with the atrocities committed in the city of Minsk by the German fascist

invaders.

I submit this document to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-38

(Document Number USSR-38). It contains an excerpt from the testimony of

the president of the military tribunal of the 267th German Rifle

Division, Captain Julius Reichhof. I would ask the Tribunal to turn to

Page 215 of the document book, to Column 1 of the text. I quote from the

communication of the Extraordinary State Commission on the subject of

Julius Reichhof’s testimony:

“According to an order issued by Hitler, German soldiers could

not be committed to trial by court-martial for acts committed

against Soviet citizens. The soldier could be punished only by

the commander of his own unit, should the latter deem the

punishment necessary. By the same order Hitler granted even more

extensive rights to all German Army officers. They could destroy

the Russian population according to their own discretion.

“The commander had full right to apply punitive measures to the

peaceful population: He was allowed to burn down, _in toto_,

villages and towns, rob the population of supplies and

livestock, and, on his own responsibility, deport Soviet

citizens to Germany for slave labor. Hitler’s order was brought

to the attention of every single soldier of the German Army on

the eve of the attack on the Soviet Union. In accordance with

Hitler’s order, the German soldiers, under the leadership of

their officers, committed all sorts of atrocities.”

But even this appeared insufficient to the Hitlerite leaders. In 1942

they considered it necessary to reconfirm, by a sharp directive brooking

no exception, that any crime perpetrated by the German fascist soldiery

against the peaceful citizens of the Soviet Union should go completely

unpunished. The Reich and military leaders particularly emphasized the

fact that atrocities committed should so remain unpunished, even if the

victims of these atrocities happened to be women and children.

THE PRESIDENT: What was the reference to what you called “sharp

directive”?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I will at once submit to the Tribunal this

directive as Exhibit Number USSR-16 (Document Number USSR-16). It is a

photostatic copy of the document certified by the Extraordinary State

Commission. The Tribunal will find the text of this directive on Page

219 of the document book. This directive is signed by Keitel and

entitled “The Combating of Guerrillas.” The document is dated 16

December 1942. I will quote this document practically in full, starting

with the title.

“Subject: The Combating of Guerillas; top secret.

“The Führer has been informed that certain members of the

Wehrmacht who took part in the struggle against the guerilla

bandits were later called to account for their behavior while

fighting.”

My colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, Mr. President, explained to the

Tribunal yesterday that any resistance movement on the part of the

peaceful population was termed “banditry.” I will therefore not detain

the Tribunal’s attention any longer in an attempt to decode this German

fascist term.

“In this connection the Führer ordered. . . .”

I omit one paragraph and continue the quotation, Page 219 of the

document book:

“If the repression of the guerillas in the East, as well as in

the Balkans, is not pursued with the most brutal means, it will

not be long before the forces at our disposal will prove

insufficient to exterminate this plague.

“The troops therefore have the right and the duty to use, in

this struggle, any and unlimited means, even against women and

children, if only conducive to success.”

I emphasize that the directive mentions all possible means of

retribution against women and children. I continue to quote:

“Scruples of any sort whatsoever are a crime against the German

people and against the front-line soldier who bears the

consequences of attacks by guerillas and who has no

comprehension for any regard shown to the guerillas or their

associates.

“These principles must serve as a basis for using the ‘Directive

for Combating Guerillas in the East.’

“2. No German participating in combat action against guerillas

or their associates is to be held responsible for acts of

violence either from a disciplinary or a judicial point of view.

“Commanders of troops engaged in combat action against the bands

are obliged to see to it that all officers of units under their

command be immediately and thoroughly notified of this order,

that their legal advisers be immediately acquainted therewith,

and that no judgments be passed which are in contradiction to

this order.

“Signed, Keitel.”

I hereby conclude the presentation of the documents referring to the

first two sections of the list read into the record at the opening of

the report. The materials which I have hitherto submitted to the

Tribunal were to prove three facts:

1. Direct instigation, by the major criminals, to the perpetration of

appalling crimes against wide circles of the peaceful population, by the

German Armed Forces.

2. Special education by the Hitler leadership of mass criminal units for

the practical realization of its plans for the extermination of peoples.

3. General unleashing of the criminals’ basest instincts in an

atmosphere of complete impunity for the perpetrators of the crimes.

These purposes were fully achieved by the major war criminals. The

Hitlerites committed crimes against the peaceful populations in the

occupied territories of the Soviet Union and in the Eastern occupied

countries which, in their extent, in the cruelty of the methods applied,

as well as in the cynicism and brutality of purpose of the organizers

and perpetrators of the crimes, are without precedent in the history of

the world.

I should like to submit evidence which characterizes the extent and the

methods of these crimes of the German fascists. I should like to show

exactly what Keitel’s order for the “pacification” of the occupied

territories meant in the lives of the peaceful population.

The introduction of this regime of terror was the first sign of the

arrival of the fascist authorities, whether military or civilian, in the

territory of the U.S.S.R. or of other Eastern European countries.

Moreover, this regime of terror was not exclusively confined to more

savage forms of brutality. It also assumed the form of shameless

outrages perpetrated against the honor and dignity of the victims of the

German fascists. At the same time the terrorists primarily vented their

misdeeds on the heads of such citizens whom they considered politically

active and most capable of resisting them.

In confirmation of this fact I refer to a document which I have

previously presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-6 (Document

Number USSR-6), which is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission

on “Crimes Committed by the Germans in the Territory of the Lvov

Region.” The Tribunal will find the passage to which I am referring on

Page 58 of the document book, in the first column of the text, in the

last paragraph. I begin the quotation:

“Even before the seizure of Lvov the Gestapo detachments had at

their disposal, pursuant to an order by the German Government,

lists of the most prominent representatives of the

Intelligentsia doomed _a priori_ to annihilation. Mass arrests

and executions began immediately after the seizure of Lvov. The

Gestapo arrested a member of the Union of Soviet Authors, an

author of numerous literary works, Professor Thaddeus

Boi-Dhelensky, a professor of the Medical Institute; Roman

Renzky, the principal of the University; Vladimir Seradsky,

Professor of Forensic Medicine; Roman Longchamp de Berrier,

Doctor of Juridical Science, together with his three sons,

Professor Thaddeus Ostrovsky, Professor Jan Grek, and Professor

of Surgery Heinrich Gilyarovich. . . .”

There follows a long list containing 31 names of outstanding

intellectuals of the city of Lvov. I omit the enumeration of their names

and continue quoting from the next paragraph:

“Groer, a professor of the Medical Institute at Lvov, who

fortuitously escaped death, has told the Commission what

follows:

“‘When I was arrested at midnight of 3 July 1941 and placed in a

truck, I met Professors Grek, Boi-Dhelensky, and others. We were

taken to the hostel of the Abragamovitch Theological College.

While we were led along the corridor the members of the Gestapo

jeered at us, hitting us with rifle butts, pulling our hair, and

hitting us over the head. . . . Later on I saw, from the hostel

of the Abragamovitch Theological College, the Germans leading

five professors under escort, four of whom were carrying the

blood-bespattered body of the son of the famous surgeon Rouff,

murdered by the Germans during his interrogation. Young Rouff,

too, had been a specialist. The entire group of professors were

taken under escort to the Kadetsky Heights, and 15 to 20 minutes

later I heard rifle fire from the direction in which the

professors were taken.’”

In order to humiliate dignity, the Germans resorted to the most refined

methods of torture and then shot their victims. Goldsman, an inhabitant

of Lvov, has testified before the special commission that he personally

saw how, in July 1941:

“Twenty people, including four professors, lawyers, and

physicians, were brought by the SS into the courtyard of House

Number 8, on Artishevsky Street. One of them I know by name,

Doctor of Juridical Science Krebs. Among them were five or six

women. The SS forced them to wash the stairs leading from the

seven entrances to the four-story house, with their tongues and

lips. After those stairways were washed, the same people were

forced to collect garbage in the courtyard with their lips. All

garbage had to be transferred to one place in the

courtyard. . . .”

I omit the end of this paragraph and continue from the next paragraph:

“The fascist invaders carefully concealed the extermination of

the intelligentsia. To repeated requests of relatives and

friends concerning the fate of these men of science, the Germans

replied, ‘Nothing is known.’

“In the autumn of 1943, on the order of Reich Minister Himmler,

the Gestapo men burned the bodies of the murdered professors.

Mandel and Korn, former internees of the Yanovsky Camp, who

dealt with the exhumation of the bodies, have told the

Commission the following:

“‘During the night of 5 October 1943, acting on orders from the

Gestapo, we opened a pit between Kadetskaya and Bouletskaya

streets by the light of searchlights and took from it 35 bodies.

We burned all these corpses.

“‘While lifting the corpses from the pit we found the documents

of Professor Ostrovsky, of Otoshek, Doctor of Natural Science,

and of Kasimir Bartel, Professor of the Polytechnical

Institute.’

“The investigation established that during the first few months

of the occupation the Germans arrested or killed more than 70 of

the most prominent scientists, technologists, and artists in the

city of Lvov.”

What I have just said does not in any way infer that the leaders of

local organizations and representatives of the intelligentsia alone were

victims of the fascist terror. I only wanted to make it clear that the

fascist terror was directed in the first instance against these people.

But one of the characteristic features of Hitlerite terrorism was the

fact that it was decreed by the German fascist leaders and materialized

by the executioners as a general reign of terror.

To confirm this I refer to a document previously submitted to the

Tribunal but not read into the record. It is Document Number USSR-63,

which is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission for the

investigation of German atrocities in the town of Kerch.

Kerch is a comparatively small town. It is separated from Lvov by many

hundred of kilometers. Although the German invaders arrived in Lvov in

the beginning of July 1941, they only reached Kerch in November. In

January 1942 they had already been driven out by Red Army units.

Thus, the entire period of the first occupation of the city of

Kerch—the city of Kerch has been occupied two times—by the Germans was

short-lived and did not last more than 2 months. But here are the crimes

perpetrated by the German fascists in this town. I begin the quotation.

The Tribunal will find the passage in question on Page 227 of the

document book, Column 2, Paragraph 5:

“After capturing the city in November 1941, the Hitlerites

immediately issued an order to the following effect:

“The inhabitants of Kerch are ordered to deliver all family food

stocks to the German Kommandos. Owners of undelivered and

detected supplies will be shot.

“By the next order, Number 2, the town council ordered the

inhabitants to register immediately all hens, roosters, ducks,

chickens, turkeys, geese, sheep, cows, calves, and cattle.

Poultry owners were strictly prohibited from using fowl and

cattle for their own needs without special permission of the

German commandant. After the publication of these orders a

wholesale search of all apartments and houses began.

“The members of the Gestapo behaved outrageously. For each

kilogram of beans or flour discovered in excess, the head of the

family was shot.

“The Germans initiated their monstrous atrocities by poisoning

245 children of school age.”

Later on you will see the small bodies of these children in our

documentary film. The infants’ bodies were thrown into the city moat.

“According to instructions issued by the German commandant, all

the school children were ordered to appear at the school at a

given time. On arrival, the 245 children, school books in hand,

were sent to a factory school outside the town, allegedly for a

walk. There the cold and hungry infants were offered coffee and

poisoned pies. Since there was not enough coffee to go round,

those who did not get any were sent to the infirmary where a

German orderly smeared their lips with a quick-acting poison. In

a few minutes all the children were dead. School children of the

higher grades were carried off in trucks and shot down by

machine gun fire 8 kilometers outside of the town. The bodies of

the first batch of murdered children were brought to the same

spot—a very large, very long, antitank trench.”

I continue the quotation:

“On the evening of 28 November 1941 an order, Number 4, of the

Gestapo was posted in the town. In compliance with this order

the inhabitants who had been previously registered with the

Gestapo were to present themselves on 29 November between 0800

and 1200 hours at the Sennaya Square, with a 3 days’ supply of

food. All the men and women were to appear, regardless of their

age or state of health. Those who did not present themselves

were threatened with public execution. Those who arrived at the

square on 29 November were persuaded that they had been summoned

in order to be sent to work. At noon over 7,000 people assembled

in the square. There were young boys, young girls, children of

all ages, very old men, and pregnant women. All were transferred

to the city prison by the men of the Gestapo. This monstrous

extermination of the peaceful population in the prison was

carried out by the Germans according to a previously formulated

plan of the Gestapo. First of all, the prisoners were asked to

hand over the keys of their apartments and to give their exact

addresses to the prison commandant. Then all the valuables were

taken from the arrested people, including watches, rings, and

ornaments. In spite of the cold, boots, felt-boots, shoes,

costumes, and coats were removed from all the persons

incarcerated. Many women and girls in their teens were separated

from the rest of the internees by the fascist blackguards and

locked in separate cells, where the unfortunate creatures were

subjected to particularly outrageous forms of torture. They were

raped, their breasts cut off, their stomachs ripped open, their

feet and hands cut off, and their eyes gouged out.

“After the Germans had been thrown out of Kerch, on 30 December

1941, Red Army soldiers discovered, in the prison yard, a

formless mass of bodies of young girls, naked, mutilated, and

unrecognizable, who had been savagely and cynically tortured to

death by the fascists.

“As a site for the mass execution, the Hitlerites selected an

antitank ditch near the village of Baguerovsko where for 3 days

on end autobuses brought entire families which had been

condemned to death.

“When the Red Army entered Kerch, in January 1942, the

Baguerovsko trench was investigated. It was discovered that this

trench—1 kilometer in length, 4 meters in width, and 2 meters

in depth—was filled to overflowing with bodies of women,

children, old men, and boys and girls in their teens. Near the

trench were frozen pools of blood. Children’s caps, toys,

ribbons, torn-off buttons, gloves, milk bottles, and rubber

comforters, small shoes, galoshes, together with torn-off hands,

feet, and other parts of human bodies were lying nearby.

Everything was spattered with blood and brains.

“The fascist savages shot down the defenseless population with

dum-dum bullets. Near the edge of the trench lay the mutilated

body of a young woman. In her arms was a baby carefully wrapped

up in a white lace cover. Next to this woman lay an 8-year-old

girl and a boy of 5, killed with dum-dum bullets. Their hands

still gripped the mother’s dress.”

The circumstances of the executions are confirmed by the statements of

numerous witnesses who were lucky enough to escape unharmed from the

open grave. I am going to quote two statements. Twenty-year-old Anatol

Ignatievich Bondarenko, now a soldier in the Red Army, states:

“When we were brought up to the antitank trench and lined up

alongside this fearful grave, we still believed that we had been

fetched in order to fill in the trench with earth or to dig new

ones. We did not think we had been brought there to be shot, but

when we heard the first shots from the automatic guns trained on

us, I realized we were about to be murdered. I immediately

hurled myself into the trench and hid between two corpses. Thus,

unharmed and half fainting, I lay nearly until the evening.

While lying in the trench I heard several of the wounded call to

the gendarmes shooting them, ‘Finish me off, blackguard!’ ‘You

missed me, scoundrel! Shoot again!’ Then, when the Germans went

off to dinner, an inhabitant of my village called out from the

trench, ‘Get up, those of you who are still alive.’ I got up and

the two of us began to drag out the living from underneath the

corpses. I was covered with blood. A light mist hung over the

trench—steam arising from the rapidly-congealing mass of dead

bodies, from the pools of blood, and from the last breath of the

dying. We dragged out Theodor Naoumenko and my father, but my

father had been killed outright by a dum-dum bullet in the

heart. Late at night I reached the house of some friends in the

Village of Baguerovsko and stayed with them until the arrival of

the Red Army.”

Witness A. Kamenev stated:

“The chauffeur stopped the car behind the airdrome, and we saw

Germans shooting people near the trench. We were dragged out of

the car and pushed toward the trench in batches of 10. My son

and I were among the first 10. We reached the trench. We were

lined up facing it, and the Germans began their preparations to

shoot us in the nape of the neck. My son turned to them and

shouted, ‘Why are you shooting the peaceful population?’ But the

shots rang out and my son instantly jumped into the trench. I

threw myself in after him. Dead bodies began to fall upon me in

the trench. About 3 p.m. an 11-year-old boy stood up from among

the pile of corpses and began to call, ‘Little fathers, those of

you who are still alive, get up. The Germans have gone.’ I was

afraid to do so, since I thought that the boy was shouting by

order of the policeman. The boy called out a second time, and

then my son answered him. He stood up and asked, ‘Dad, are you

alive?’ I could not say anything and merely nodded. My son and

the other boy dragged me out from under the bodies. We saw some

others who were still alive and who were shouting, ‘Help us.’

Some were wounded. All the time, while I had been lying in the

trench, under the bodies of the dead, I could hear the shrieks

and wails of the women and children. The Germans had started

shooting old men, women, and children after shooting us.”

I interrupt the quotation here. Although the subsequent text does deal

with many other appalling atrocities committed by the Germans, it is, in

substance, analogous to the passages which I have already read into the

record, relating to crimes perpetrated by the Germans in the town of

Kerch. I would, however, invite the Tribunal’s attention to the part

referring to the ill-treatment of children. On the whole, these crimes

are highly characteristic of the German fascist terror. I quote:

“The German barbarians, in their atrocious ill-treatment of the

Soviet people, did not even spare the children. A school

teacher, M. N. Kolessnikova, stated that the Germans killed a

13-year-old boy for taking an old car tire and trying to swim in

it while bathing in the sea.

“The following incident happened, according to the testimony of

E. N. Sapelnikova:

“Maria Bondarenko, who lived in the village of Adjimushkaya, in

an attempt to save her three children from starvation, appealed

to some Germans working in the kitchen, for a little food. They

poured some thin gruel into a small bowl. The Bondarenko family

ate it greedily. A few hours later the mother and all three

children were dead. The fascist henchmen had poisoned them.

“It has been ascertained from the testimony of N. H. Shoumilova

that in July a German officer shot a 6-year-old boy merely

because he was singing a Soviet song in the streets of the town.

“Practically all summer long the dead body of a 9-year-old boy

dangled in the ‘Sacco and Vanzetti’ garden; the child had been

hanged for plucking some apricots from a tree.”

Here I end my quotation from the report on the town of Kerch.

In my statement I have dwelt on the example of Kerch not because the

atrocities committed by the Hitlerites in this town were on a

particularly large scale or because they stood out, by reason of their

cruelty, among the other crimes perpetrated by the Germans—the

documents relevant to these latter crimes are at our disposal. Certainly

not. On the contrary, I have quoted the report of the Extraordinary

State Commission only because it gives a detailed and objective record

of Hitlerite military crimes committed against peaceful citizens of one

of the many towns which, as a result of a monstrous war unleashed by the

German fascist criminals, were doomed to become the victims of a

terrorist regime. Such atrocities were perpetrated by the Hitlerites in

all the temporarily occupied cities of the Soviet Union.

In confirmation of this statement I now turn to a document of a general

nature, which has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit

Number USSR-51 (Document Number USSR-51) but parts of which have not yet

been read into the record. I am referring to the note of the People’s

Commissar for Foreign Affairs, V. M. Molotov, of 27 April 1942. In their

introduction to this note, the Soviet Government made the following

statement—I start my quotation from Paragraph 2 of the reverse side of

the Russian text, Paragraph 3 after the heading of the document book.

There you will find the following remarks:

“Fresh information and documents are being submitted to the

Soviet Government to the effect that the Hitlerite invaders are

carrying on a wholesale looting of the Soviet population and do

not shrink from any crimes and acts of cruelty or violence on

the territories which they temporarily occupied or which they

still continue to occupy. The Soviet Government have already

declared that these atrocities do not represent accidental

excesses perpetrated by single undisciplined military units or

by individual German officers or men. The Soviet Government are

now in possession of documents recently seized in the staffs of

routed German formations, which prove that the carnage and

atrocities committed by the fascist German Army were perpetrated

in accordance with carefully elaborated plans issued by the

German Government, in pursuance of orders from the German High

Command.”

I omit the subsequent parts and continue with Section V of the note. The

Tribunal will find the passage which I am about to quote on Page 8 of

the document book, Column 1 of the text, Paragraph 5.

I should like to add a few introductory words to the quotation. It is

quite evident from the text of this note how the orders of the Reich

leadership concerning the establishment of a regime of terror were

executed, in the occupied territories, by the various commissioners of

the occupied territories, by the Gauleiter, and by the commanders of

German military units. I quote the beginning of Section V of this

note—Page 8 of your document book, Column 1, Paragraph 5:

“The inhuman cruelty which the Hitlerite clique—begotten in

violence and against the will of the German people—displayed

against the inhabitants of the European countries temporarily

occupied by the German Army was multiplied a hundredfold by the

enemy forces after their invasion of the Soviet Union.

“The carnage to which the Hitlerites exposed the peaceful

population of the Soviet Union has far overshadowed the most

bloodstained pages of the annals of mankind, as well as of the

current world war, and fully reveals the bloodthirsty and

criminal plans of the fascists, aimed at the extermination of

the Russian, Ukrainian, Bielorussian, and other nationals of the

Soviet Union.

“These monstrous fascist plans inspired the orders and

instructions of the German High Command for the extermination of

the peaceful Soviet citizens.

“Thus, for instance, the instructions of the German Supreme

Command, entitled, ‘Treatment of the Civilian Population and of

Enemy Prisoners of War,’ reads to the effect that officers are

responsible that the treatment of the civilian population be

absolutely merciless, and commands that ‘force be used against

the entire mass of the population.’ The instructions issued by

the German High Command as a directive for the occupational

authorities on Bielorussian territory read as follows:

“‘All hostile behavior on the part of the population toward the

German Armed Forces and their organizations will be punished by

death. Whosoever shelters Red Army soldiers or partisans will be

punished by death. If the partisan cannot be found, hostages

must be taken from among the population.’”

THE PRESIDENT: What is the exhibit number of what you are reading now?

What is the U.S.S.R. number of what you are reading now?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: This document was submitted as Exhibit Number

USSR-51. It is one of the notes of the People’s Commissar for Foreign

Affairs, Molotov, dated 27 April 1942. All together, four notes have

been submitted to the Tribunal under this number. The beginning of the

note which I am now quoting is on Page 4 of your document book. The

quotation which I am now reading into the record is on Page 8 of your

document book.

THE PRESIDENT: It is thought that this is part of the document you read

yesterday. Are you sure that it is not?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: No, Mr. President. Yesterday I read into the

record a note dated 6 January 1942, and the note which I am quoting now

is dated 27 April.

Have I your permission to continue?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: “‘These hostages must be hanged if the

guilty parties or their accomplices are not found within 24

hours. During the following 24 hours, double the number of

hostages will be hanged on the same spot.’

“Point 7 of Order Number 431/41 of the German commandant of the

town of Feodosia, Captain Eberhard, states:

“‘During an alarm every citizen appearing on the street must be

shot. Groups of citizens who appear must be surrounded and

mercilessly shot. Leaders and inciters are to be publicly

hanged.’

“In a directive addressed to the 260th German Infantry Division,

concerning the treatment of the civilian population, it is

pointed out to the individual officers that ‘sufficient severity

is not being applied everywhere.’

“Orders posted by the occupants in the Soviet towns and villages

announce the death penalty for the most varied reasons: For

being on the streets after 1700 hours; for offering lodging for

the night to strangers; for not handing over Red Army soldiers

to the authorities; for failing to hand over property; for

attempting to put out a fire in an inhabited spot intended to be

burned down; for travelling from one inhabited spot to another;

for refusing to do forced labor; and so on.”

I continue this quotation on Page 8, reverse side of the second column

of the text, Paragraph 2:

“The German fascist High Command not only tolerates but actually

orders the murder of women and children. Organized infanticide

in some of the orders is presented as a means for fighting the

partisan movement. Thus, an order of the commander of the 254th

German Division, Lieutenant General Von Beschnitz, dated 2

December 1941, considers the fact that ‘old people, women, and

children of all ages’ move about behind the German lines as

proof of ‘careless good nature,’ and orders the shooting without

warning of ‘every civilian person regardless of age or sex

approaching our front lines.’ It also orders that the ‘mayors be

made responsible for reporting immediately the appearance of any

unknown persons, and especially of children, to the local

Kommandantur’ and to ‘shoot immediately any person suspected of

espionage.’”

Some data regarding the directives received from the Reich authorities

by the fascist authorities in the temporarily occupied territories are

also contained in the note. I quote from Page 9 of your document book,

Paragraph 3, Column 1 of the text:

“Some of the crimes of the German occupiers committed by them

during the very first weeks of their piratical attack on the

U.S.S.R., and their savage extermination of the civilian

population of Bielorussia, the Ukraine, and the Baltic Soviet

republics, have only now been documentarily established. Thus,

when units of the Red Army in the district of the town of

Toropetz, in January 1942, smashed a German SS cavalry brigade,

among the documents captured was found a report of the 1st

Cavalry Regiment of this brigade concerning the ‘pacification’

by this unit of the Starobinsk district in Bielorussia. The

commander of the regiment reports that besides taking 239

prisoners a detachment of his regiment has also shot 6,504

peaceful civilians. The report further states that the

detachment acted in pursuance of Order Number 42 issued to the

regiment, dated 27 July 1941. The commander of the 2d Regiment

of this brigade, Von Magill, states, in his ‘Report Concerning

the Execution of Repressive Operations on the River Pripet

between 27 July and 11 August 1941,’ the following:

“‘We drove the women and children into the swamp, but that did

not produce the desired result, since the swamp was not deep

enough for them to drown. One can usually feel bottom (possibly

sand) at a depth of 1 meter.’

“In the same headquarters a telegram, Number 37, was found, sent

by the commander of the SS Cavalry Brigade.”

THE PRESIDENT: Shall we adjourn now for 10 minutes?

[_A recess was taken._]

MARSHAL: May it please the Court, regarding the Defendant Hess, he will

be absent until further notice on account of illness.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I continue the quotation:

“In the same headquarters there was discovered a telegram,

Number 37, from the commander of the Cavalry Brigade, an

SS-Standartenführer, to a cavalry unit of the above-mentioned 2d

Cavalry Regiment, dated 2 August 1941. It mentioned that the

Reichsführer of the SS and the Police, Himmler, considers the

number of the exterminated peaceful civilians far too

insignificant; and it points out that ‘it is necessary to take

radical measures’ and ‘the unit commanders conduct the

operations too mildly.’ He also orders to report every day on

the number of people shot.”

In this connection we cannot abstain from mentioning the criminal

activities of the Defendant Rosenberg in carrying out the general

instructions of the Reich leadership for establishing a regime of terror

in the Occupied Eastern Territories or rather, if we wish to be more

accurate, for issuing, in his capacity as chief author of these

instructions, a series of laws in Ostland—this, as we know, was the

name given to the occupied regions of the Baltic States—while similar

orders and instructions of a terroristic nature were also issued by

high-ranking officials of the fascist administration set up by

Rosenberg.

I submit to the Tribunal Exhibit Number USSR-39 (Document Number

USSR-39), the report of the Extraordinary Commission on the atrocities

of the German fascist invaders in the territory of the Estonian S.S.R. I

quote an excerpt which Your Honors will find on Page 232 of the document

book in the first column of the text, Paragraph 3. It begins as follows:

“On 17 July 1941 Hitler issued a decree turning over the

legislative powers of the territory of Estonia to Reich Minister

Rosenberg, who later turned over this legislative power to the

German district authorities.

“Despotism was introduced into Estonia and the peaceful

population subjected to brutal terrorism. Reich Minister

Rosenberg, the Reich Commissioner for the Baltic regions, Lose,

and the Commissioner General of Estonia, Litzmann, completely

deprived the Estonian people of all political rights. On the

basis of Hitler’s decree of 17 July 1941, Reich Minister

Rosenberg promulgated, on 17 February 1942, a special law for

people of non-Germanic nationality, providing capital punishment

for the slightest resistance against Germanization and for any

act of violence against people of German nationality.

“For workers and employees of Estonian origin the occupants

introduced corporal punishment. On 20 February 1942 an official

of the railroad administration in Riga, Walk, sent the following

telegram to the administration of the Estonian railroads:

“‘Every violation of discipline on the part of a native

employee, especially absenteeism, being late for work, coming

drunk to work, disobeying orders, and so forth, shall from now

on be punished with the utmost severity: (a) For the first

offense, 15 strokes with a lash on the bare body; (b) if the

offense is repeated, 20 strokes with a lash on the bare body.’

“On 12 January 1942 Reich Minister Rosenberg established

‘special courts,’ consisting of a police officer, as president,

and two subordinate policemen. The procedural rules were

determined by this court at its own discretion. These ‘courts’

pronounced death sentences with confiscation of property. No

other penalty was ever decreed. No appeal against the sentences

was admitted. In addition to the ‘courts’ established by

Rosenberg, death sentences were pronounced by the German

political police, and these sentences were carried out on the

very same day.

“For the examination of criminal and civilian cases,

Commissioner General Litzmann introduced local courts. Judges,

prosecutors, investigating magistrates, notary publics [notaries

public], and lawyers—all, without exception, were personally

appointed by Litzmann.”

I end the quotation.

I further submit to the Tribunal, as our Exhibit Number USSR-18

(Document Number USSR-18), a photostat of a plain-spoken terroristic

order of the German military authorities, and I beg Your Honors to

accept this document as a relevant part of the evidence. This is an

order of the German town commander of the city of Pskov. The Tribunal

will find the text of this order on Page 235 of the document book. It is

evident from this document that the peaceful civilian population was

even forbidden to appear on the highways of their own locality. Any

peaceful citizens seen there by the German soldiers were to be shot. I

quote the text of the document, beginning with Paragraph 3:

“Therefore, I order:

“1. All members of the civilian population, regardless of age or

sex, seen on or in the vicinity of railroad tracks are to be

considered as bandits and shot as such. Excepted, of course, are

the labor units under guard.

“2. All people mentioned in the first paragraph who cross the

fields are to be shot.

“3. All persons mentioned in Paragraph 1 who are found on the

roads at night or at dawn are to be shot.

“4. Persons mentioned in Paragraph 1, if found on the roads

during the daytime, are subject to arrest and the most detailed

examination.”

Such were the terroristic decrees and orders based upon the so-called

Leadership Principle that were issued by high-ranking officials and

representatives of the military authorities of the fascist German

Government. But the right of relentless reprisals against the peaceful

populations was not confined to them only; any local Kommandantur, any

commander of a small unit, and, finally, any soldier of Hitler’s army

acquired the right of reprisal against the peaceful population of the

occupied regions.

I shall now submit to the Tribunal several documents which will reveal

how the Hitlerite criminals invariably made the most of this right,

introducing into the crimes perpetrated against the Soviet people the

cruel devices of base and evil creatures who had been granted the right

of mocking and murdering with impunity. I submit to the Tribunal, as

Exhibit Number USSR-9 (Document Number USSR-9), a report of the

Extraordinary State Commission on the atrocities perpetrated by the

German fascist occupiers in the city of Kiev. The Tribunal will find the

passage in question on Page 238 of the document file, Paragraph 5 of

Column 1 of the text. I quote:

“The German executioners, from the very first days of their

occupation of Kiev, carried out a wholesale slaughter of the

population by torture, shooting, hanging, and poisoning by gas

in the murder vans. People were seized in the streets and shot

either in large batches or singly. Announcements of the

shootings were posted in order to intimidate the population.”

I shall interrupt my quotation at this point, and I ask the Tribunal to

accept in evidence photostats of several of these posters. Partial

mention has already been made of them in the report of the Extraordinary

State Commission. From among their number, I would request the Tribunal

to accept in evidence the photostat of one such poster, which I submit

as Exhibit Number USSR-290 (Document Number USSR-290). The text reads as

follows—I ask the Tribunal to excuse me if the translation is, perhaps,

slightly incorrect, since the original text is in Ukrainian. I am a

Russian, I understand the meaning of the Ukrainian text, but the

translation might possibly not be quite correct in every detail. A

translation will be made. Here is the text:

“As a reprisal for an act of sabotage, 100 inhabitants of the

city of Kiev were shot this day. Let this be a warning.

“Every inhabitant of Kiev is co-responsible for every act of

sabotage.

“Kiev, 22 October 1941; The Town Commandant.”

Under Exhibit Number USSR-291 (Document Number USSR-291)—the Tribunal

will find the text on Page 243 of the document book—I submit a

photostat of the following poster, signed by the commandant of the city

of Kiev. I quote the text:

“Means of communication—telephone and telegraph wires—have

been damaged in Kiev. Since the saboteurs could not be found,

400 men have been shot in the city.

“This should serve as a warning to the population, and once

again I demand that all suspects be immediately reported to the

German troops or the German police in order that the criminals

may be adequately punished.

“Signed: Eberhard, Major General and City Commandant, Kiev; 29

November 1941.”

As Exhibit Number USSR-333 (Document Number USSR-333), I submit a

photostat of the third and last poster in Kiev. The Tribunal will find

the text of this poster on Page 242 of the document book at the disposal

of the Tribunal. I quote:

“Repeated cases of arson and sabotage in Kiev force me to resort

to extreme measures. Consequently, 300 inhabitants of Kiev will

be shot today. For every new case of arson or sabotage, several

times this number will be shot. Every inhabitant of Kiev is

obliged to report any suspects to the German police. I shall

maintain order and calm in Kiev by all measures at my disposal

and under any circumstances.

“Kiev, 2 November 1941; Eberhard, Major General and City

Commandant.”

I refer to another document which has not even been partially read into

the record. I refer to Exhibit Number USSR-63 (Document Number USSR-63)

of the Commissar of the Djerjinski District Council of the city of

Stalingrad. I invite the Tribunal’s attention to the fact that this

official act, which was drawn up by the members of the local Soviet

authorities and the community of the Djerjinski District of Stalingrad,

was approved by the Extraordinary State Commission under the signature

of a member of the commission, Academician Trainin, and of other

persons. The members of the Tribunal will find the act in question on

Page 222 of the document book, Column 1 of the text.

I shall begin the quotation of the report of the commission, which

investigated the territory of the Djerjinski District of Stalingrad

after the rout of the Germans at Stalingrad. This report contains

information regarding the announcements posted in the streets of

Stalingrad by the German Kommandantur and concerning the results of

these posters. I begin my quotation on Page 222 of the document book in

the possession of the members of the Tribunal, in Column 1 of the text,

last paragraph:

“. . . the military Kommandantur sowed death everywhere. It

posted announcements in the streets, threatening death by

shooting at every step. For instance, the following announcement

was posted up in Aral Street: ‘Death to him who passes here.’ On

the corner of Nevskaya and Medveditzkaya Streets: ‘Right of way

forbidden to Russians; for violation of this order—death.’

“As a matter of fact, the Germans shot the citizens at every

step: Hundreds of graves along the streets of the Djerjinski

District of the city of Stalingrad bear witness to the shooting.

The bodies of those who were tortured, shot, or hanged in the

Kommandantur proper were at first thrown into a pit near the

building of the Kommandantur. After the invaders had been thrown

out, there were found 31 corpses in this pit. When the pit was

full, the corpses were brought to the cemetery 2 kilometers away

from the Kommandantur. At the cemetery there was another pit, 6

meters deep, 40 meters long, and 12 meters wide.

“After the invaders had been thrown out, 516 corpses of Soviet

citizens were found in this grave, including the bodies of 50

children who had been tortured to death, shot, or hanged in the

building of the Kommandantur and in other places. An examination

of the bodies on 25 March 1943 established that the Hitlerites

had savagely tortured the Soviet people before murdering them.

In addition to the bodies of the children, the corpses of 323

women, 69 old men, and 74 younger men were discovered. One

hundred and forty-one corpses bore traces of wounds inflicted by

firearms in the head and on the chests; 92 corpses had marks on

their necks which showed that they had been hanged. All the

other bodies were mutilated and bore traces of torture. One

hundred and thirty victims, women and girls, had their arms

twisted behind their backs and tied with wire, and 18 of the

corpses had their breasts cut off, some had their ears, fingers,

and toes chopped off, and the majority showed traces of burns on

their bodies.

“An examination of these corpses revealed that 21 women died of

torture and wounds and that the remainder had been first

tortured and then shot.

“Even the corpses of children were mutilated. Some had their

small fingers cut off, their buttocks chopped up, their eyes

gouged out.”

I now cease to quote from this document, and, in compliance with the

wishes of the Tribunal to the effect that not details but instances

testifying to some new data in the system of the Hitler terror be

reported, I omit three pages of the report and turn to the following

section on the presentation of evidence: “On Tortures Inflicted by the

Hitlerites in the Course of Interrogation.”

In general, tortures were officially provided for and sanctioned by the

Hitlerites. I present to the Tribunal, as Exhibit Number USSR-11

(Document Number USSR-11), one of the documents testifying to the fact

that tortures were sanctioned officially. This document is an official

guide for concentration camps, “The Concentration Camp Statutes,”

published in Berlin in 1941. You will find the excerpt I am quoting on

Page 244 of the document book in your possession. Section 3 of the

instructions, for instance, entitled, “Corporal Punishment,” states:

“Between 5 and 25 strokes are permitted on the loins and

buttocks. The number of strokes is to be determined by the camp

commandant and is to be entered in the corresponding space in

the directives governing punishment.”

I should have liked to refer to one more document, but, as it already

has been presented to the Tribunal, in compliance with the Tribunal’s

instructions, I will omit this document—it was presented as Document

L-89—and continue.

Official formulas to be used in “especially severe interrogations” or,

rather, interrogations with application of torture, were issued by the

corresponding German police departments. I submit it to the Tribunal and

would request them to accept in evidence an original formula of such an

“especially severe interrogation.” I submit it as Exhibit Number

USSR-254 (Document Number USSR-254). It represents an appendix to the

report of the Yugoslav Government. This form, as is evident from the

certificate attached to it, was seized from the German archives by units

of the Yugoslav Army. I shall not describe this form in my own words but

shall quote the report of the Yugoslav Government on Page 21 of the

document, from the last paragraph at the bottom of the page. The

Tribunal will find this passage on Page 256 of the document book, in the

last paragraph. I begin the quotation:

“In order to give a clearer description of the savage cruelty in

carrying out this plan of extermination, we submit to the

Tribunal another original document which was seized in the

German archives in Yugoslavia. It is a blank form for the

so-called ‘especially severe interrogations’ of the victims of

the Nazi criminals. Such interrogations were conducted in

Slovenia by the Security Police and the SD.

“On the first page of the form the police office suggests

submitting one particular person to an ‘especially severe

interrogation.’ On the second page the competent officer of the

SS agrees to such an interrogation. The answer to the

question—what this special ‘severe interrogation’ consisted

of—is found in the following instructions of this form:

“The especially severe interrogation should consist of. . . .

Minutes of the interrogation should be kept. A doctor may (or

may not) be asked to be present.

“The mention of the doctor and of his presence at the

interrogation leaves no doubt at all that the person

interrogated was to be physically tortured. The fact that

printed instructions existed for these interrogations obviously

suggests a wholesale resort to such criminal methods.”

The Reichsführer SS clearly foresaw cases of attempted suicide by

persons under suspicion. The SS leader therefore not only permitted but

even ordered the prisoners to be tied hand and foot or shackled in

chains. I submit to the Tribunal, as Exhibit Number USSR-298 (Document

Number USSR-298), a photostat of a directive of the Chief of the German

Police, Number 202/43, of 1 June 1943. The document is certified by the

Extraordinary State Commission, and I quote the text of the document.

The document is dated 1 June 1943. I quote only the text:

“Subject: Prevention of Escape during Interrogations.

“In order to prevent escape during interrogations in all cases

where, owing to circumstances or the importance of the prisoner,

there exists an increased possibility of escape or of an attempt

to commit suicide, I order the hands and feet of the arrested

person to be bound in such a way that escape is impossible.

Rings and chains should be used if available.”

I have not submitted the official directives of the German central

police authorities to the Tribunal merely to prove that the German

officials provided for the application of torture and torment during

interrogations. This fact is well known and calls for no special

evidence. But I am submitting a document, in the possession of the

Soviet Prosecution, which will show how far tortures to which arrested

persons were subjected in the police cells exceeded even the

instructions issued by the criminals and the officially sanctioned forms

of torture.

I submit to the Tribunal Exhibit Number USSR-1 (Document Number USSR-1),

which is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of

the German fascist aggressors in the region of Stavropol. The

investigation of these crimes was conducted under the leadership of the

eminent academician and Russian author, the late Alexei Nikolaievitch

Tolstoy. The Tribunal will find this document on Page 272 of the

document book. I begin my quotation from the first paragraph.

Academician A. N. Tolstoy, as the Tribunal will doubtless remember, was

a member of the Extraordinary State Commission. I begin the quotation:

“Tortures and torments, exceptional in their cruelty, were

applied to the Soviet citizens on the premises of the Gestapo.

Thus, for instance, Citizen Phillip Akimovitch Kovalchuk, born

in 1891 and an inhabitant of the town of Pyatigorsk, was

arrested on 27 October 1942 in his own apartment, beaten

unconscious, taken to the Gestapo, and thrown into one of the

cells. Twenty-four hours later the Gestapo began to torture him;

he was interrogated and beaten at night only. For the

interrogation he was put in a separate torture chamber equipped

with special devices for torture, such as chains with handcuffs

for shackling both hands and feet. These chains were fastened to

the cement floor of the chamber. To begin with, the prisoners

were stripped to the skin and laid on the floor. Then their

hands and feet were shackled. Citizen Kovalchuk was subjected to

this form of torture. When in chains, he was completely unable

to move. He lay on his stomach and in this position was lashed

with rubber truncheons for 16 days.

“Apart from these inhuman forms of torture, the Gestapo also

resorted to the following: A wide board was placed on the back

of the shackled prisoner, and blows were struck on this board

with heavy dumbbells. As a result of these blows, the prisoner

bled from the nose, mouth, and ears and lost consciousness.

“The torture chamber of the Gestapo was so constructed that

while one prisoner was being tortured the prisoners awaiting

their turn in the neighboring cell could watch the torture and

ill-treatment.

“After the torture, the unconscious prisoner would be thrown on

one side, while the next victim of the Gestapo would be forcibly

dragged in from the neighboring cell, shackled, and tortured in

the same fashion.

“The torture chambers were always covered with blood. The board

placed on the back of the prisoners was also soaked in it. The

rubber cudgels used for beating the prisoners were red with

blood.

“The arrested Soviet people, doomed to be shot after unspeakable

torture and beatings, were dragged into trucks, driven out of

town, and there shot.”

I omit two paragraphs and continue my quotation:

“Witness Barbara Ivanovna Tchaika, born in 1912, domiciled in

Number 31, Djerjinskaya Street (Apartment Number 3), states that

during her incarceration in the prison of the Gestapo she had

been subjected to incredible torture by the Chief of the

Gestapo, Captain Wintz. Witness B. I. Tchaika said on this

subject:

“‘I was subjected to ill-treatment and torture by the Chief of

the Gestapo, the German, Captain Wintz. He summoned me to the

torture chamber once for an interrogation. There were four

tables in the cell, wooden grills on the floor, and two basins

of water in which leather thongs had been placed. Two rings were

attached to the ceiling, with ropes drawn through them, from

which the prisoners were suspended during the time of their

torment. By order of Captain Wintz I was laid on the table by

the Gestapo men, stripped, and beaten severely with leather

thongs. I was beaten twice. In all I received 75 strokes of the

lash; my kidneys were almost torn out and I lost eight of my

teeth.’”