What occurred in the torture chambers of Stavropol was no exception at

all. The same misdeeds were perpetrated everywhere. In confirmation I

will refer to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission regarding

the depredations and atrocities committed by the German fascist

aggressors in the city of Kiev. That is Exhibit USSR-9 (Document Number

USSR-9). The Tribunal will find this document on Page 238 of the

document book, Paragraph 2 from the top, Column 2. I begin the

quotation:

“Murders were often preceded by sadistic torture. The

Archimandrite Valerian testified that the fascists beat sick and

feeble people till they were half-dead, poured water over them

when the temperature was below zero, and finally shot them in

the torture chamber of the German police, established in the

Kievo-Petchersk Abbey.”

I invite the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that the

Kievo-Petchersk Abbey is one of the most ancient architectural monuments

in the Soviet Union. It is a specially cherished cultural treasure, very

dear to the heart of the Soviet citizens as a tangible memory of the far

distant past. The torture chamber of the police had been purposely

established in the Abbey. The Tribunal will learn of its eventual fate

from the subsequent reports of my colleagues.

When the city of Odessa was under the rule of the fascist invaders,

interrogations were accompanied by tortures of an exceptionally cruel

nature. I refer to a testimony contained in the report of the

Extraordinary State Commission, entitled, “On the Atrocities Committed

by the German and Romanian Invaders in the City of Odessa and in the

Territory of the Odessa Regions.”

I submit this document to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-47

(Document Number USSR-47) and request that it be accepted as irrefutable

evidence in accordance with Article 21 of the Charter. I shall quote

this document, which is on Page 282 of your document book, Paragraph 4,

Line 10. It contains the testimony of Paul Krapyvny, producer of news

reels. I quote this passage from the report of the Extraordinary State

Commission, Page 282:

“The interrogator had a voltage control switch on the table, and

whenever the person interrogated did not answer the question as

the examiner wished, the dial of the voltage control would be

mercilessly turned to increase the voltage; the body of the

person interrogated would begin to tremble and his eyes to

protrude from their sockets.

“The person interrogated, with his hands tied behind his back,

would be hoisted up to the ceiling . . . where he would be spun

round and round. After having been rotated 200 times in one

direction, the victim, still suspended on the cord, would begin

to turn at an insane speed in the opposite direction. At that

particular moment the executioners would beat him on both sides

with rubber truncheons. The man became unconscious both from the

insane speed of the rotation and from the beating.”

I refer to the document already presented by my colleague, Colonel

Pokrovsky, Exhibit Number USSR-41 (Document Number USSR-41), which is a

communication of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes

committed by the German fascist invaders in the territory of the Latvian

Soviet Socialist Republic. I shall quote from this document, beginning

on Page 286 on the reverse side of the document book, Paragraph 2,

Column 2 of the text. I begin the quotation:

“In the camps and prisons the German executioners subjected

prisoners to ill-treatment, torture, and shooting. In the

central prison the internees were beaten and tortured. Day and

night shrieks and groans were heard in the torture chambers.

Every day from 30 to 35 people died as a result of the tortures.

Whoever survived the ill-treatment and torture would return to

his cell absolutely unrecognizable, burned to the bone, with

parts of his body torn to pieces. No medical aid was given to

the tortured.”

The Hitlerites subjected Soviet citizens to ill-treatment and torture in

every town of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Your Honors will find analogous statements in the text of every

communication of the Extraordinary State Commission. I shall not delay

the Tribunal by quoting any further excerpts, I consider the evidence

already presented as sufficient.

I shall now proceed to the next section of my report: murder of

hostages.

I shall make a few introductory remarks.

One of the most shameful crimes perpetrated by the Hitlerites in Poland,

Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia was the use everywhere by the German

fascists of the bestial system of taking hostages. This system was

introduced by the Hitlerites into all the countries that fell as victims

of their aggression. The German criminals resorted to particularly

ruthless methods when murdering hostages in Eastern Europe. In

introducing the hostage-seizing system the Hitlerites violated every law

and custom of warfare.

However, it is difficult to speak of the murder of hostages where the

Soviet Union is concerned, since the crimes committed by the Hitlerites

everywhere in the temporarily occupied territories of the U.S.S.R. go

beyond even this criminal practice of taking hostages. To a great extent

the same remarks apply to Poland and particularly to Yugoslavia. Here

the Hitlerites, under the pretext of the hostage-seizing system, were

really perpetrating immeasurably greater war crimes, whose ultimate aim

was the extermination of entire nations.

I shall now present some brief data from documents concerning the

different countries of Eastern Europe.

I submit an extract from the report of the Government of the Polish

Republic. The Tribunal will find the passage quoted on Page 128 of the

document book, Paragraph 6. I begin the quotation:

“a) One of the most disgraceful features of the Hitlerite

occupation of Poland was the introduction of the hostage-seizing

system. Collective responsibility, payment of collective fines,

and the bartering of human life were considered to be the best

methods for enslaving the Polish people.

“b) Here are some typical cases of mass reprisals; they

illustrate the methods employed by the German occupants.

“c) In November 1939 an unknown person set fire to a barn filled

with grain on the outskirts of Nove Miasto Lubavske. The barn

was the property of a German. As a result of this action, a

certain SS-Standartenführer, Sperling, received an order from

the higher authorities to resort to reprisals. A number of Poles

from among the most prominent citizens were arrested. Out of

those, 15 were selected and publicly shot by SS soldiers. Among

the victims were the two brothers Jankovsky, one a lawyer, the

other a priest, the tailor Malkovsky, the blacksmith Zemny,

Major of the Army Reserve Vona, the son of an innkeeper, the

publisher of a newspaper, and a priest, Bronislav Dembenovsky.

“d) In October 1939 the German authorities captured a certain

number of Poles in the city of Inovrozlav and imprisoned them as

hostages. They were brought to the prison courtyard, where they

were unmercifully flogged and shot, one by one. Altogether, 70

men were killed, including the city mayor and his deputy. Among

the victims were the most prominent citizens of the town.”

I omit the next sentence. I quote further:

“e) On 7 March 1941 the film star, Igo Sym, who considered

himself as being of German nationality and who was in charge of

the German theaters in Warsaw, was murdered in his own

apartment. Although the murderers were never found, the Governor

of Warsaw, Fischer, said that Sym was murdered by the Poles and

ordered the arrest of a large number of hostages. He also closed

the theaters and imposed a curfew on the Polish population. The

hostages were taken in order to secure the arrest of the

murderers. About 200 people were arrested, including teachers,

priests, physicians, lawyers, and actors. The population of

Warsaw was given 3 days to find Sym’s murderers. After the

expiration of the 3 days, the killers still remaining unknown,

17 hostages were executed, among them Professor Kopetz, his son,

and Professor Zakrzhevsky.”

I conclude this quotation from the report of the Polish Government and

ask the Tribunal’s permission to refer to a short excerpt from the

report of the Czechoslovakian Government. There is one part I would like

to read into the record. Your Honors will find it on Page 141 of the

document book. I begin the quotation:

“Even before the beginning of the war, thousands of Czech

patriots and especially Catholic and Protestant clergymen,

lawyers, doctors, teachers, and so on, were arrested.

Furthermore, in every district lists were drawn up of persons

who were subject to arrest as hostages at the first sign of any

breach of ‘public order and security.’ At first these were only

threats. In 1940 Karl Frank announced, in a speech to the

leaders of the Movement of National Unity, that 2,000 Czech

hostages, interned in concentration camps, would be shot if

prominent Czech statesmen refused to sign the declaration of

loyalty. Sometime after the attempt on Heydrich’s life, many of

these hostages were executed.

“Threats of reprisals against directors of factories in case of

some hitch in the work at the factory were a typical method of

Nazi terrorism. Thus, in 1939 the Gestapo summoned all the

directors as well as the managers of warehouses belonging to

various industrial firms and informed them that they would be

shot in case of a strike. On leaving they had to sign the

following declaration: I am aware of the fact that I would be

shot immediately should my factory cease working without a

justifiable reason.’

“In the same way, school teachers were held responsible for the

loyal behavior of their pupils. Many teachers were arrested only

because the pupils in their schools were caught writing

anti-German slogans or reading forbidden books.”

I now interrupt the quotation from the report of the Government of the

Czechoslovakian Republic, and I begin to read the section recording the

killings of hostages in Yugoslavia.

I shall just say a few words by way of introduction. These criminal

murders of the peaceful population developed on their own particular

lines in Yugoslavia. As a matter of fact, it is impossible at this point

to speak of the execution of hostages, although the Hitlerites

constantly make use of this term in their official documents, which will

be presented to the Tribunal at a later date.

Truth to tell, under the alleged killing of hostages, the Hitlerite

criminals were realizing, on an enormous scale, the regime of

terroristic extermination of the peaceful citizens not only for crimes

which somebody or other had committed, but also for crimes which, to

Hitler’s way of thinking, might be committed.

I submit the document that confirms this fact. It contains excerpts from

the report of the Yugoslav Government, which Your Honors will find on

Page 259 in the document book in their possession, Paragraph 1. I begin

the quotation:

“The murder of hostages was one of those methods which were used

by military authorities and the Reich Government on an

incredible scale for the mass extermination of the Yugoslav

population.

“The Yugoslav State Commission for the investigation of War

Crimes has at its disposal an innumerable quantity of concrete

details and original evidence taken from the German archives. We

submit only a very limited number of such details and evidence,

which are, however, sufficient proof that the killing of

hostages was merely an item in the common plan in the systematic

Nazi crime.”

Further, the report of the Yugoslav Government quotes an order of the

commander of the so-called Group West, General Brauner. I quote the

following excerpt:

“In regions captured by partisans, the seizure of hostages from

all strata of the population remains in force as the only really

successful means of intimidation.”

To confirm the vast scale of the crimes of the Hitlerites in connection

with the murder of hostages, the Yugoslav Government presents to the

Tribunal six documents, which I now submit to Your Honors, and I ask for

them to be incorporated into the record as evidence. I submit the

following documents to the Tribunal:

Firstly, under Exhibit Number USSR-261 (Document Number USSR-261), a

certified photostat of a poster of the commanding general and

Commander-in-Chief of Serbia, dated 25 December 1942, in which he

announces the shooting of 50 hostages. Secondly, as Exhibit Number

USSR-319 (Document Number USSR-319), a certified photostat of a poster

of the same commanding general, dated 19 February 1943, in which he

announces the shooting of 400 hostages, which was carried out in

Belgrade on the same date. Thirdly, as Exhibit Number USSR-320 (Document

Number USSR-320), a certified photostat of a poster of the regional

Kommandantur in Pozarevatz, dated 3 April 1943, announcing the shooting

of 75 hostages. Fourthly, as Exhibit Number USSR-321 (Document Number

USSR-321), a certified photostat of a poster of the same regional

Kommandantur of Pozarevatz, dated 16 April 1943, announcing the shooting

of 30 hostages. Fifthly, a certified copy of a poster of the military

commandant of Belgrade, dated 14 October 1943, in which he announces the

shooting of 100 hostages. I submit this document as Exhibit Number

USSR-322 (Document Number USSR-322).

I continue my quotation from the report of the Yugoslav Government:

“Planned and systematic murder of hostages is revealed by the

following testimonies, collected by the Yugoslav State

Commission for the investigation of war crimes on the basis of

confiscated German archives and data found in the archives. The

testimonies refer to Serbia only:

“Four hundred and fifty hostages were shot on 3 October 1941 in

Belgrade; 200 hostages were shot on 17 October 1941, in

Belgrade; 50 hostages were shot on 27 October 1941, in Belgrade;

100 hostages were shot on 3 November 1941, in Belgrade.

“Further testimonies show the terrible increasing number of

these crimes at that time:

“Ten hostages shot on 12 December 1942, in Kraguevatz; 10

hostages shot on 12 December 1942, in Krusevatz; 30 hostages

shot on 15 December 1942, in Brush; 50 hostages shot on 17

December 1942, in Petrovatz; 10 hostages shot on 20 December

1942, in Brush; 50 hostages shot on 25 December 1942, in

Petrovatz; 10 hostages shot on 26 December 1942, in Brush; 250

hostages shot on 26 December 1942, in Petrovatz; 25 hostages

shot on 27 December 1942, in Krusevatz.”

One really could, I think, agree with the statement of the Yugoslav

Government that such figures could be cited _ad infinitum_. I continue

my quotation:

“The shooting of hostages was, as a rule, conducted in a most

barbaric fashion. The victims were mostly forced to stand one

behind the other in batches, waiting their turn and witnessing

the execution of the preceding batch. In this manner the batches

were one after another exterminated.”

I shall submit further to the Tribunal, as Exhibit Number USSR-205

(Document Number USSR-205), the report of the police administration of

the quisling administration of Milan Nedich. It mentions the shooting,

on 11 December 1941 in Leskovatz, of 310 hostages, of whom 293 were

Gypsies. I continue to quote the report of the Yugoslav Government:

“By an examination of the site and an interrogation of the

Gypsies by the regional administration investigating war crimes

in Leskovatz, the methods were established by which this

shooting was carried out.”

Before reading the excerpt, I submit to the Tribunal the document which

was referred to by the Government of the Yugoslav Republic, as Exhibit

Number USSR-226 (Document Number USSR-226), and request it be

incorporated as evidence. In the report of the Yugoslav Government, the

following lines of this document are quoted:

“On 11 December 1941, from 0600 hours to 1600 hours, the Germans

transported the arrested hostages in their trucks in batches of

about 20 persons each. All of them had their hands bound. They

were taken to the foot of the Mountain of Hisar. From there they

were driven on foot across the mountain . . . and then made to

stand in ranks near recently dug graves, were shot, and then

thrown into the graves.”

THE PRESIDENT: I think this will be a good time to break off.

Colonel Smirnov, the Tribunal appreciates the efforts that you have made

to leave out unnecessary detail and to cut down the length of your

address, and it hopes that during the adjournment you will continue your

efforts in that direction.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Certainly, Mr. President.

[_The Tribunal adjourned until 18 February 1946 at 1000 hours._]

SIXTY-FIRST DAY

Monday, 18 February 1946

_Morning Session_

THE PRESIDENT: I have an announcement to make, and I make it in this

order, in the form of paragraphs.

Paragraph 1: The Tribunal cannot accept Paragraph 1 of the Prosecution’s

motion, as to the evidence of the defendants, dated 11 February 1946,

but directs that, in complying with Article 24(d) of the Charter,

counsel for the defendants shall confine their evidence to what is

required for meeting the charges in the Indictment.

The Tribunal will announce later their decision with regard to

Paragraphs 2 to 5 of the Prosecution’s motion.

Paragraph 2: With regard to the naming of witnesses, _et cetera_, by the

Defense under Article 24(d) of the Charter, which is referred to in

Paragraph 1 of Dr. Stahmer’s memorandum to the Tribunal, dated 4

February 1946, the Tribunal makes the following order:

In order to avoid delay in securing the attendance of witnesses and

procuring of documents, without prejudice to the defendant’s right to

make further application at the conclusion of the case for the

Prosecution, counsel for the Defendants Göring, Hess, Ribbentrop, and

Keitel shall, before 5 p.m. on Thursday, the 21st of February, file with

the General Secretary written statements giving the names of the

witnesses and particulars of the documents they respectively desire to

call or put in evidence, with a summary of the facts to be proved

thereby and an exposition of the relevance thereof.

The Tribunal hereby appoints Saturday, the 23rd of February, at 1000

hours—that is to say, 10 o’clock—for the hearing of argument upon such

statements in open session.

Paragraph 3: The Tribunal will, in due course, issue directions as to

the filing of similar statements on behalf of the other defendants.

Paragraph 4: The Tribunal will announce later their decision on the

other matters raised in Dr. Stahmer’s memorandum.

The Tribunal will now hear the defendants’ counsel’s application for a

recess.

PROFESSOR DR. HERBERT KRAUS (Counsel for Defendant Schacht): Professor

Kraus, representing defendants’ counsel.

The defendants’ counsel are grateful for the opportunity granted by the

Tribunal to state in detail the reason for their application of 4

February for an adjournment of the Trial after the conclusion of the

Prosecution. This application is the result of a series of proposals

with which the Defense have striven to achieve a simple, clear, and as

rapid a presentation as possible of its case.

Only a few points of this application call for further amplification.

All the defendants are accused of participation in a conspiracy. That is

apparently intended to mean that every act brought up in the course of

this Trial, no matter by whom it was committed and to whom it was done,

is charged against every one of these defendants, and that he can be

convicted on every one of these acts. Even though the individual Defense

Counsel finds certain fields with which he must concern himself

particularly, there are, nevertheless, no fields at all which he can

entirely ignore.

Since most of the Defense Counsel are working with only one assistant

and sometimes alone, it can be seen how enormous is the extent of the

labor involved in the examination and discussion of the material that is

daily presented by the Prosecution. The necessary discussions with the

defendants use up the evening hours and the days on which there are no

sessions. These discussions are, moreover, because of the security

measures that have been taken, very exhausting.

It is, therefore, simply beyond the strength of the individual defense

lawyer, along with his attendance at the Trial and his continuous

working over of the material presented at the Trial, to make those

intellectual and technical preparations that can justifiably be expected

in a trial of such significance as this.

The material presented is not yet conclusive. The Russian Prosecution is

presenting new evidence daily. In the opinion of the Defense Counsel, it

would lead to an incorrect evaluation of the extent and importance of

accusations which the Russian Delegation is presenting if the Defense

Counsel were expected to conclude their preparations for their defense

before they had even heard the conclusions of the case for the

Prosecution.

The Tribunal has already been informed in written application of the

difficulties involved in obtaining evidence. A few examples might be

cited in this respect, examples to which every member of the Defense

Counsel could contribute.

One member of the Defense Counsel, in November of last year, applied for

a certain witness to be called who was of decisive importance in the

presentation of his case. The application was approved by the Tribunal.

Although this witness was a very highly placed German official, it was

only in January of this year that the camp in which he was interned

could be located. The witness has not, as yet, appeared in Nuremberg.

Therefore, the Counsel for the Defense has, so far, no idea as to which

questions this witness can testify on and what he would testify.

In numerous cases the place of residence of witnesses, whose appearance

at the Trial had been requested by the Tribunal in November or December

of last year, could not be established. Consequently the Defense Counsel

are quite unable to help in locating them in such cases where witnesses,

interned in Allied prisoner-of-war camps, have had no opportunity of

providing information as to their whereabouts. It has been suggested to

some of the Defense Counsel to interrogate witnesses outside Germany by

presenting them with questionnaires which would enable them to be

interrogated at their place of residence. In no single case have answers

to these questionnaires reached the respective counsel for the Defense.

In the case of witnesses living inside Germany, the Defense Counsel have

repeatedly been asked either to conduct the interrogation themselves or

to present a written affidavit. Since the Defense Counsel are confined

to Nuremberg during the sessions, they could only carry out this task

during a prolonged recess.

Finally, one member of the Defense had, at the beginning of November,

applied for permission to submit a series of documents indispensable to

his case. These documents are in the possession of one of the

signatories of the Charter. They have been examined by the Prosecution

and have been submitted in evidence by the Prosecution insofar as they

serve to implicate the defendant in question. The Defense Counsel is

still not in possession of these exonerating documents.

We should like to emphasize again the purely technical difficulties that

arise from the mimeographing and multiple translations. . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Just one moment, Professor Kraus. You referred to a

document which you said was indispensable, which was in the possession

of a signatory power, examined by the Prosecution, and put in evidence

in this case, and the defendants are still not in possession of it.

What is the reference to that document?

DR. KRAUS: No, Mr. President; it is a collection of documents in which

the incriminating parts were presented by the Prosecution; but we, the

Defense Counsel, are not yet in possession of the exonerating parts of

that documentation. Dr. Kranzbühler, who, too, is affected by this case

can give you more detailed information.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, there is an application, I know, by Dr.

Kranzbühler; but if it is really a part of a document, the Tribunal has

ruled on several occasions that if the Prosecution puts in a certain

part of a document, the whole of that document must be available to the

defendant’s counsel so that they can criticize and comment upon any

other part of it which may throw light upon the part of the document

which is put in evidence.

DR. KRAUS: Yes, Mr. President; we are dealing here not with one single

document, but with a whole collection of documents and Dr. Kranzbühler

only wishes to extract from this collection the documents which would

assist him in exonerating his client, after the incriminating documents

have been presented by the Prosecution.

THE PRESIDENT: You may continue.

DR. KRAUS: The Defense is grateful to the Prosecution for the readiness

they have expressed in assisting the Defense in technical questions. The

great difficulties which the Prosecution themselves have experienced in

this connection, and which have repeatedly led to discussions by the

Tribunal, show, nevertheless, that an efficient solution of this problem

calls for a suitable length of time. The Defense consider it important

to assure the Tribunal of their readiness and their determination not to

prolong the Trial unnecessarily. They are, however, of opinion that an

inadequate a priori preparation will lead to a corresponding increase in

the duration of the Defense, and that the subsequent results might not

at all suffice to allow the Tribunal to give a fair verdict.

The Defense Counsel think they are in agreement with the Tribunal in

saying that this Trial, so important in the history of humanity, should

be conducted throughout with the peace and reflection which have

hitherto characterized its course. Per contra, undue importance should

not be attached to the understandable impatience of those who insist on

a rapid termination of the Trial. In this sense the Defense requests the

Prosecution to support their application. The length of time applied

for, that is, 3 weeks, cannot be considered unreasonable in view of the

total length of time which the Prosecution have envisaged for the

completion of their case. The granting of this length of time would, on

the other hand, allow for the fact that the Defense, in the conduct of

their case, find themselves both spiritually and materially in a very

difficult position. Mention should be made that a number of us have

subscribed to today’s application, contrary to the opinion of the

defendants we represent, who desire a rapid termination of these

proceedings. We feel that we are accountable to none but our own

consciences and our professional duties as Counsel for the Defense.

I therefore request the Tribunal to take note that, after serious and

thorough consideration, my colleagues and I, without exception, are

convinced that the length of time applied for, that is, 3 weeks, is the

minimum time which they consider essential for an orderly preparation of

the defense.

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Kraus, the Tribunal would like to know, if you can

answer the question, whether defendants’ counsel have by this time

ascertained all, or nearly all, the witnesses whom they desire to call

in evidence; whether they have made up their minds, up to this stage, as

to what witnesses they desire to call.

DR. KRAUS: I cannot answer this question, since that would call for a

general inquiry. I should have to ask my colleagues. The cases to my

knowledge vary from one lawyer to another. Some of the lawyers of the

Defense are more or less ready in this respect; others are not.

SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: May it please the Tribunal, I think it would be

convenient if I followed the admirably lucid exposition of Professor

Kraus by asking the Tribunal to direct its attention to two aspects of

the matter: First, what Professor Kraus called the intellectual

preparation, and secondly, the mechanical necessities of presentation of

the Defense.

On the first point I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the way that

it is put in the written application signed by Dr. Stahmer, which was

followed in the main by Professor Kraus today. It is stated that a

respite is required for the construction of the Defense after conclusion

of the Indictment, that is, of the Prosecution; secondly, that the

Defense Counsel have, until now, not had the time to prepare their

defense in such a manner that smooth functioning is guaranteed; and

thirdly, a line or two lower down, in justice it cannot be expected of

the Defense Counsel that they will be able to answer on the spot.

I respectfully request the Tribunal’s attention to some matters of

dates.

The Indictment in this case was filed on the 18th of October, which is

exactly 4 months ago today. The defendants were immediately acquainted

with the contents of the Indictment, and it is a document of sufficient

public importance to give ground for the belief that Defense Counsel

must have, at any rate, had its general contents very quickly in mind.

On that day General Nikitchenko, presiding over this Tribunal, stated at

Berlin, “It must be understood that the Tribunal, which is directed by

the Charter to secure an expeditious hearing of the issues raised by the

charges, will not permit any delay either in the preparation of the

defense or of the Trial.”

I remind the Tribunal that the Indictment contains more full particulars

than probably any indictment in the history of jurisprudence.

The third point is that preliminary lists of documents were placed in

the defendants’ Information Center on the 1st of November. The lodgment

of preliminary documents, not complete but amounting to many hundreds,

was made on the 15th of November. Except for one, Dr. Bergold, on behalf

of the Defendant Bormann, all the counsel representing individual

defendants were appointed by the 10th of November.

Next, there have been four detailed speeches by the Prosecution

explaining the scope and emphasis of the Prosecution’s case. Every

experienced advocate knows that the opening speech giving the emphasis

is one of the most important matters for the Defense.

As Professor Kraus said, from the beginning of November there have been

applications for witnesses. I shall deal later with certain of the

individual points, but I want to say this generally, that any one who

has read these applications must be aware that the Defense, from an

early date, have appreciated not only the case they have to meet, but

the line which they wish to pursue.

My eighth point is that, having heard practically the whole case on

Counts One and Two, the common plan and aggressive war, the defendants

received a 12-day recess at Christmas, and it was indicated by the

President that this was, in part at any rate, for their assistance.

It is a point of fair comment that most of us have been engaged in quite

considerable trials where men’s lives have been at stake, when any

question of any adjournment at all would not come into the picture. But

this case does not stop there.

My next point is that on Counts One and Two, the common plan and

aggressive war, the cases against the individual defendants were

co-ordinated and the relevant documents collected in the individual

presentations. In every case defendants’ counsel had these documents and

trial briefs by the latest at the middle of January. All the

presentations were concluded by the 17th of January except for four. The

matter has been brought up to date by the expositions of M. Dubost, M.

Quatre, and by my Soviet colleagues as they went along. In addition, the

transcripts, of which each defendant receives a copy in German, show the

weight and emphasis which the Prosecution attach to the different

individual cases.

We all know, from our own experience, that you cannot prepare any

defense in any trial without the burning of midnight oil; but I do

impress upon the Tribunal that the assistance which has been given and

the time which has been allowed is remarkable in this case.

I want to deal much more shortly with the mechanical side of it, because

Professor Kraus has been fair enough and good enough to say that the

Prosecution have given assistance. And I want to say this, that we are

quite prepared, when there is any question of photostating a German

document, or of mimeographing or reproducing a document in any other

way, or providing additional clerical assistance, to go beyond what we

have done and to meet any request made to us to the utmost of our

ability.

Now I want to deal with the essential point which Professor Kraus has

made, that the Prosecution have had a long time to prepare and develop

their case, and Defense have corresponding rights.

In my respectful submission, there is this essential difference between

the case for the Prosecution and the case for the Defense. The

Prosecution must cover the whole field; the Defense selects the issues

on which it will make its fight.

I respectfully disagree with the contention of Professor Kraus that that

is altered by the fact that we are here dealing with a conspiracy

charge. Whether the charge is conspiracy or not, there are certain facts

which are not in dispute. There are certain facts which will be, as is

indicated by Dr. Stahmer’s memorandum, the subject of legal argument or

discussion as to the true inference to be drawn from them; and the fact

that a case is based on conspiracy does not alter the fact that certain

matters are either going to be contradicted by evidence or left

uncontradicted.

I, myself, have seen nothing to suggest that, for example, the

re-establishment of military forces in Germany, the occupation of the

Rhineland, the Anschluss in Austria, the existence and circumstances of

concentration camps, many of the actions of certain SS-divisions and

bodies under Himmler, are going to be disputed at all, because the

defendants’ counsel have had the opportunity of cross-examining

witnesses on many of these matters, and there has been no challenge by

cross-examination.

I do not question for the moment nor seek to deal with the decision of

the Tribunal this morning, which, of course, I accept with the utmost

loyalty, but I hope the Tribunal will not think it wrong for me to

mention in explanation that the Prosecution were anxious for the Defense

to eliminate the matters in issue and would have been prepared, so far

as it lies with them, to agree to a certain time being given for that

purpose. But yet, the defendants have said—and again I make no

complaint—that they are not prepared to do it. Therefore, that reason

for adjournment disappears.

I do not want the Tribunal to think that we are either unimaginative or

unreasonable. We know, because we have seen the other side of the

shield, that there are certain mechanical matters and matters of

conclusion of preparation which have to be done before a case is put

forward. We quite appreciate that the defenders of Göring, of Hess, and

of Ribbentrop may require a day or two to put their tackle in order, but

I want to make clear that that, in our view, is quite different from a 3

weeks’ adjournment.

I respectfully agree with every word that Professor Kraus has said about

the maintenance of the dignity of the Trial, but it is not essential, in

my respectful submission, for the maintenance of the dignity of the

Trial that the Trial should take place in slow time. That would not only

be wrong, but it would be directly contrary to the portion of the

Charter to which General Nikitchenko referred at Berlin.

With regard to the witnesses, there are, as the Tribunal knows, certain

difficult matters, in that, to begin with, the defendants asked for many

witnesses who were very largely repetitive; and they have, as I judge

the application, begun recently to get clear who are the essential

witnesses, and the Tribunal will rule on that finally as it has

indicated.

I only take one other example. Professor Kraus mentioned the question of

certain documents for which Dr. Kranzbühler was asking, which were, as I

understand it, U-boat diaries. I have arranged that Dr. Kranzbühler’s

assistant will be enabled to go to London and examine these documents at

his leisure in the Admiralty. That is on paper in our reply. I

respectfully submit that that sort of attitude is the best and most

helpful attitude for letting the Defense get what they wish.

Mr. President, I have nearly exhausted my time, and I only say this in

conclusion: The Prosecution has had to collate and co-ordinate actions

taking place over a long period, certainly 12 years, in some cases 20

years. We have collated and co-ordinated the evidence of these actions.

We have presented a case which is grounded mainly on the written

statements or written records of statements made by the defendants

themselves. The task before the Defense is to give the explanation that

what they say is the true color of words that have been proved—and not

disputed—to have come out of their own mouths.

They have had the time which I have stated and which I shall not repeat,

but that being the state of this case, it is the attitude of the

Prosecution, with, as I say, every desire to help in any way that is

possible in the actual work, whether it be mechanical or preparing

documents or otherwise, that the defense cannot rightfully ask for

further time for general reflection and consideration on a case which

has that basis. We therefore respectfully but firmly object to any

adjournment other than a matter of individual days, not more than a

week, certainly—we should say less than that—for the purpose of

completing preparations and putting mechanical tackle in order.

That, Mr. President, is the attitude of all my colleagues.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will consider its decision on this matter

and it will adjourn this afternoon at 4 o’clock in order to consider the

other matters which are raised in Dr. Stahmer’s memorandum.

SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Very good.

Before I sit down, I am asked by my colleagues to make this clear. I,

myself, did not tie myself in my argument to any number of days because

a weekend may intervene and different considerations may arise, but my

colleagues wish it to be before the Tribunal that their view is that,

taking into account the time which will elapse before the Soviet case is

concluded, and the argument on the organization for which time has to be

allowed, that 2 days is the figure they have in mind, although, as I

say, a weekend may intervene which may add to that. I want to make it

quite clear that we are quite definite.

I am very grateful.

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, will you continue your address.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I continue with the presentation of evidence in

regard to Yugoslavia.

In corroboration of the criminal system of hostages which was fully

developed in Yugoslavia, the Government of Yugoslavia has submitted a

series of originals and certified photostatic copies of different

documents. I shall not submit my own comments on these documents which

were incorporated into the report of the Yugoslav Government. I shall

merely restrict myself to the presentation of the documents themselves,

since they are definite and do not call for further comment.

I present as Document Number USSR-256(a) the original of an

announcement, dated 12 August 1941, which mentioned the shooting of 10

hostages. The printed poster was signed by the German Police

Commissioner in Lasko, Hradetzky.

Further, as Document Number USSR-148, I present a certified photographic

copy of announcement of the shooting of 57 persons. This poster, from 13

November 1941, was signed by Kutschera.

Further, as Document Number USSR-144, I present a certified copy of an

announcement of 21 January 1942, relating to the shooting of 15

hostages. The poster was signed by Roesener.

Further, as Document Number USSR-145, I present a certified photographic

copy of a poster announcing the shooting of 51 hostages, and the date is

1942, month unknown. The poster is signed by Roesener.

Further, I present as Document Number USSR-146, an original announcement

printed as a poster, signed by Roesener, which announced that on 31

March 1942, 29 hostages were shot.

Further, I present as Document Number USSR-147 a certified photographic

copy of the announcement, printed as a poster, which stated that on 1

July 1942, 29 hostages had been shot.

I consider that the sum total of these documents is sufficient to prove

that the system of hostages was widely used in Yugoslavia.

To conclude my presentation of evidence in this particular field, I

refer to Exhibit Number USSR-304 (Document Number USSR-304), Report

Number 6 of the Yugoslav Extraordinary State Commission for the

investigation of war crimes. I read one paragraph of this document into

the record:

“A group of hostages at Celje were strangled on hooks used by

the butchers for hanging meat. In Maribor, the doomed, in groups

of five, had to place the bodies of the hostages already

executed in boxes and then load them into trucks. After that

they themselves were shot, while the next group of five, in

their turn, continued with the loading. This went on

continuously. Sodna Street in Maribor was all soaked in blood

pouring from the trucks.”

I end my quotation here.

It seems to me that in submitting to the Tribunal a summary of the

terroristic regime established in the countries of Western Europe, this

summary would be incomplete without some mention of a country like

Greece, a country which also was a victim of the terroristic regime

which the German fascists had established. Therefore I present to the

International Military Tribunal a report of the Government of the Greek

Republic. This report is duly certified with the signature and seal of

the Greek Ambassador in Great Britain, as well as of a member of the

British Foreign Office. This document is submitted to the Tribunal as

Exhibit Number USSR-79 (Document Number UK-82), and I shall read into

the record a few excerpts from this report which concerns the setting up

of the fascist terror regime in Greece and which also deals with the

same criminal system of hostages.

The war against Greece was declared by Germany on 6 April 1941, and

already on 31 May the German commanding general in Athens had published

a frankly terroristic order directed against the peaceful population of

Greece. The direct pretext for publishing this was the fact that on 30

May 1941 the Greek patriots had torn down the swastika from the

Acropolis.

I here quote this order of the commanding general of the German Armed

Forces in Greece, from the report of the Greek Government, on Page 33 of

the Russian translation. This order threatens severe punishment for the

following reasons:

“a. Because in the night of 30-31 May, the German banner flying

over the Acropolis was torn down by persons unknown. Those

guilty of this act, as well as their accomplices, will be

punished by death.

“b. Because the press and the public opinion of all classes

still express evident sympathy in favor of the English, now

expelled from the continent of Europe.”

Therefore, even sympathy for the English brought the same terrible

punishment.

“c. Because events in Crete were not only not condemned, but

were even favorably commented on in many circles.”

Here the commander of the German Armed Forces was evidently referring to

the patriotic resistance of the inhabitants of the Island of Crete.

“d. Because, although absolutely forbidden, repeated gestures of

sympathy, such as gifts, flowers, fruit, cigarettes, _et

cetera_, were made to British prisoners; and these

demonstrations were tolerated by the Greek police who did not

intervene to stop them with the means at their disposal.

“e. Because the behavior of large number of Athenians towards

the German Armed Forces has again become less friendly.”

From that time onwards the same regime of the German fascist terror was

established in Greece that characterized the actions of the Hitlerite

criminals in all the territories they occupied. In confirmation of that

fact I cite the report of the Greek Government on Page 34 of the Russian

translation. I quote, beginning with Line 4 from the top of the page:

“In violation of Article 50 of the Hague Convention they

systematically punished the innocent, adhering to the principle

that the community as a whole must bear the responsibility in

full for acts committed by individual persons.

“They used starvation as an instrument of pressure and for

weakening the spirit of resistance in the Greek population. Very

few people were tried by courts-martial; and these, when held,

were a mere parody of justice. They instituted a policy of

reprisals, including the seizure and killing of hostages, mass

murders, and the destruction and devastation of villages, for

acts committed in their vicinity by individuals unknown.

“The great majority of those executed were taken at random from

the prisons and camps, without any possible relation to the act,

in reprisal for which they were executed. The life of every

citizen depended on the arbitrary decision of the local

commander.”

It seems to me quite correct to consider the murder, in Greece, of

thousands of people by starvation, as one of the most powerful factors

of the terrorist regime established by the German fascists in Greece. In

connection with this subject, the following statement is made on Page 36

of the Russian text:

“It is an incontestable fact that a great majority of the Greek

population lived on the verge of starvation for nearly 3 years.

Many thousands suffered from real starvation for several months

before relief shipments could reach them. As a result, the death

rate increased by 500 or 600 percent in the capital and 800 to

1,000 percent in the Greek islands, as from September 1941 to

April 1942. The infant mortality was 25 percent, and the health

of the survivors was greatly undermined.”

The report of the Greek Government cites excerpts from reports of

neutral missions. I quote one of these excerpts, which is on Page 38 of

the Russian text of the Greek Government report. I begin the quotation:

“During the winter of 1941-42 when famine reigned in the

capital, conditions in the provinces were still tolerable.

During the following winter, however, when Canadian relief for

the larger towns had been swallowed up by the unrestricted

market, the situation was very different. During our first tours

of inspection, when investigating the situation in general, we

met in March 1943 populations literally weeping for bread. Many

villages lived only on a substitute bread baked with Ersatz

flour, wild pears, and acorns—food ordinarily suitable for

pigs. In many districts the population had seen no other bread

since December. We were taken inside the houses and shown empty

shelves and larders; we saw people cooking grass without oil,

only to fill their stomachs somehow or other. The inhabitants of

the poorer villages were all emaciated. The children, in

particular, were often in a pitiful condition with skinny limbs

and swollen stomachs. They had none of the vitality and

happiness natural to children. It was quite usual for half the

children to be unable to attend school.” (Report of the Swedish

delegates to the Peloponnesian Islands, January 1944.)

In order to describe the hostage-holding regime established by the

Hitler criminals in Greece, I shall also quote excerpts from the Greek

Government report. From the text of this report it is quite evident that

shootings of hostages during the first weeks of the German occupation of

Greece were carried out on a wide scale. I quote, for this reason, an

excerpt from the Greek report on Page 41. I begin at the third line from

the top of the Russian text:

“Hostages were taken indiscriminately and from every class of

the population. Politicians, professors, scientists, lawyers,

doctors, officers, civil servants, clergymen, manual workers,

women, all those labeled as ‘suspect’ or ‘Communist’ were thrown

into local prisons or concentration camps. Prisoners under

interrogation were subjected to various ingenious forms of

torture. Hostages were concentrated in places of confinement

where the arrested persons were subjected to the most unbearable

regime.”

The report of the Greek Government—also on Page 41 of the Russian

text—states with regard to this matter:

“The inmates were starved, beaten, and tortured. They were made

to live under perfectly inhuman conditions without medical help

or sanitation. There they were subjected to the refined sadism

of the SS guards. Many were shot or hanged. Others died from

cruel treatment or starvation, and only a few were released and

survived until the date of the liberation of the country.

Hostages were also deported to concentration camps in Germany:

Buchenwald, Dachau, _et cetera_.”

The report gives the total number of hostages murdered. The same page

contains the following statement, “The number of hostages shot amounts

to some 91,000.”

In order fully to understand on what a tremendous scale the Hitlerites

committed their crimes in connection with the physical extermination of

the Soviet people in the territory of the U.S.S.R., I ask the Tribunal

to refer to Page 299 in their document book.

THE PRESIDENT: You are now passing away from Greece, are you, Colonel

Smirnov?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, Sir.

THE PRESIDENT: We will take a recess then.

[_A recess was taken._]

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: With your permission, Mr. President, and in

accordance with the instruction of the Tribunal, I shall omit a number

of items in my statement. These items, which I shall exclude from the

text, amount to a number of pages; and I request your permission to tell

the interpreters how many pages I skip. I draw the attention of the

Tribunal to a document dealing with the large-scale extermination of

Soviet nationals in the temporarily occupied districts of the U.S.S.R.

In confirmation of this fact I refer to a document which you, Your

Honors, will find on Page 291 of the document book, at the end of the

last paragraph of the first column and on the second column of the text.

This deals with the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the

Soviet Union concerning the destruction, plundering, and atrocities of

the German fascist invaders in the town of Rovno and the Rovno region. I

submit this document as Exhibit Number USSR-45 (Document Number

USSR-45).

I quote the results of the examination by legal-medical experts

concerning the bodies of peaceful Soviet citizens murdered by the

Germans and subsequently exhumed:

“1. In all investigated burial places in the city of Rovno and

its surroundings, over 102,000 corpses of peaceful citizens and

prisoners of war, shot or murdered by other methods, were

discovered. Out of this figure:

“a) In the city of Rovno, near the lumber yard on Belaya Street,

49,000 corpses were discovered.

“b) In the city of Rovno, on Belaya Street, in the vegetable

gardens, 32,500.

“c) In the village of Sossenki, 17,500.

“d) In the stone quarries near the village of Vydumka, 3,000.

“e) In the area surrounding Rovno prison, 500.”

I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the following text, where we

read indications as to the distribution of certain methods of murder

adopted by the criminals in the various periods. Mass shootings, as

shown in the following Subparagraphs a, b, and c, took place in 1941.

The extermination of peaceful citizens in the gas wagons occurred in

1943, as shown in Subparagraph d. Shootings followed by burnings of the

corpses in 1943, and shootings in the jail occurred in 1944.

I skip the next page, and draw the attention of the Tribunal to that

part of the document which is on Page 240, second column of the text; a

description of the methodical destruction of the inmates in Rovno

prison. I dwell on this point because similar methods of extermination

of Soviet people are typical of the terrorist regime established by the

Hitlerite invaders in the temporarily occupied territories of the

U.S.S.R. I begin my quotation on Page 240 of the document book:

“On 18 March 1943 the Rovno paper _Volyn_ of the German

occupational troops published the following announcement:

“‘On 8 March 1943 inmates of Rovno prison attempted to escape,

whereby they killed one German prison official and one guard.

The escape was thwarted by the energetic action of the prison

guard. By order of the commandant of the German Security Police

and the SD, all the prison inmates were shot on that same day.’

“In November 1943 the German district judge was murdered by a

person unknown. As a measure of retaliation, the Hitlerites

again shot over 350 inmates of Rovno prison.”

I will not quote any further examples of the executions in the prisons,

since in those documentary films which will be submitted to the

Tribunal, Your Honors will find a series of similar crimes committed by

the Hitlerite invaders on the territories of the U.S.S.R. I pass on to

the following part of my statement: “The retaliatory destruction of

village populations.”

In the infinite chain of German fascist crime, there are some which will

remain for a long time, perhaps forever, in the memory of indignant

mankind, even though mankind will have learned about still graver crimes

perpetrated by the Nazis. One of the crimes that will thus be remembered

is the destruction of a small Czechoslovak village called “Lidice” and

the bestial reprisal against the population of that village.

Many times and in even more cruel forms, the fate of Lidice was suffered

on the territory of the Soviet Union, of Yugoslavia, and of Poland; but

mankind will remember Lidice and will never forget it, for this little

village became a symbol of Nazi criminality. The destruction of Lidice

was a retaliation by the Nazis for the just execution of the Protector

of Bohemia and Moravia, Heydrich, by Czechoslovak patriots.

The Chief Prosecutor of the U.S.S.R., when speaking of Lidice, quoted an

official German report concerning this act of terror, which was

published in the paper _Der Neue Tag_ on 11 June 1942.

I will quote a very short extract from the report of the Czechoslovak

Government, which the Tribunal will find on Page 172 of the document

book:

“On 9 June 1942 the village of Lidice was surrounded, on the

order of the Gestapo, by soldiers who arrived from the hamlet of

Slany in 10 large trucks. They allowed anyone to enter the

village, but no one was permitted to leave. A 12-year-old boy

tried to escape; a soldier shot him on the spot. A woman tried

to escape; a bullet in the back mowed her down, and her corpse

was found in the fields after the harvest.

“The Gestapo dragged the women and children to the school.

“The 10th of June was the last day of Lidice and of its

inhabitants. The men were locked up in the cellar, the barn, and

the stable of the Horak family farm. They foresaw their fate and

awaited it calmly. The 73-year old priest, Sternbeck,

strengthened their spirit by his prayers.”

I omit the following two paragraphs and pursue my quotation:

“The men were led out of the Horak farm into the garden behind

the barn, in batches of 10, and shot. The murders lasted from

early morning until 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Afterwards the

executioners were photographed with the corpses at their feet.”

I skip the following four paragraphs and pass on to the fate of the

population of Lidice:

“The fate of the men of Lidice has been described. One hundred

seventy-two adult men and youths from 16 years upwards were shot

on 10 June 1942. Nineteen men who worked on 9 and 10 June in the

Kladno mines were arrested later on in the collieries or nearby

woods, taken to Prague and shot.

“Seven women from Lidice were shot in Prague as well. The

remaining 195 women were deported to the Ravensbrück

concentration camp. Forty-two died of ill-treatment; seven were

gassed; three disappeared. Four of these women were taken from

Lidice to a maternity hospital in Prague where their newly born

infants were murdered; then the mothers were sent to

Ravensbrück.

“The children of Lidice were taken from their mothers a few days

after the destruction of the village. Ninety children were sent

to Lodz, in Poland, and thence to Gneisenau concentration camp,

in the so-called Wartheland. So far no trace of these children

has been found. Seven of the youngest, less than a year old,

were taken to a German hospital in Prague. After examination by

‘racial experts’ they were sent to Germany, there to be brought

up as Germans and under German names. Every trace of them has

been lost.

“Two or three infants were born in Ravensbrück concentration

camp. They were killed at birth.”

The fate of Lidice was repeated in many Soviet villages. Many peaceful

citizens of these villages perished in even greater torment: They were

burned alive or died, victims of still more brutal forms of execution.

I have considerably reduced the volume of the examples which I wished to

quote, and I omit the next page of the text, drawing the attention of

the Tribunal to the text on Page 295, second column of the text. This

document, already submitted to the Tribunal by my colleague, Colonel

Pokrovsky, is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the

Soviet Union on the crimes of the Hitlerite invaders in the Lithuanian

Soviet Socialist Republic. I quote one paragraph only:

“On 3 June 1944 in the village of Perchyoupa of the Trakai

district, the Hitlerites broke into the village, surrounded and

plundered it completely, after which, having driven all the men

into one house and the women and children into three others,

they set fire to the buildings. Those who attempted to flee were

caught by the fascist monsters and thrown back into the burning

houses. In this manner the entire population of the village, 119

souls in all, 21 men, 29 women”—and I stress—“69 children,

were burned to death.”

I close the quotation and beg the Tribunal to turn to another document,

which I submit as Exhibit Number USSR-279 (Document Number USSR-279). It

is a communiqué of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of

the German fascist invaders in the cities of Viazma, Gjatsk, and Sychev,

of the Smolensk region, and also in the city of Rjev in the Kalinin

region.

I would have liked to dwell more fully on this report but I will now

summarize it in order to shorten my statement. I skip two pages of the

text and pass on to Page 145 of my text. I quote the sixth paragraph:

“In the village of Zajtschiki, members of the Gestapo drove into

one house the following persons: Michael Zaikov, age 61; Nikifor

Belyakov, age 69; Catherine Begorova, age 70; Catherine

Golubeva, age 70; Jegor Dadonov, age 5; Myra Zernova, age 7; and

others—23 persons all told. The Gestapo set fire to the house

and burned all the victims alive.”

I omit two paragraphs and quote one more paragraph:

“In retreating from the village of Gratschevo in the district of

Geschatsk, in March 1943, the assistant chief of the German

Field Police, Lieutenant Boss, drove 200 inhabitants into the

house of the peasant woman Chistyakowa.”—The names of still

more villages are then given.—“He locked the doors, set fire to

the house, and all the 200 were burned alive.”

I will not enumerate the names of the people, but I wish to draw the

attention of the Tribunal to the fact that some of these people were 63

and 70 years old, some of the children were 3, 4, and 5 years old.

I omit two paragraphs and quote another excerpt:

“The fascists burned all the inhabitants, both young and old, of

the villages of Kulikovo and Kolesniki, of the Geschatsk

district, in one farmhouse.”

I conclude the reading of this document.

I now ask the Tribunal to accept in evidence a German document,

submitted in evidence as Exhibit Number USSR-119 (Document Number

USSR-119). This is a certified photostat of an operational report and

other documents of the 15th Police Regiment. Among them we find one

entitled, “Summary of a Punitive Expedition to the Village of Borysovka,

22 and 26 of September 1942.” The Tribunal will find this document on

Page 309 of the document book.

I quote in brief from this document, which proves beyond doubt that

under the guise of the anti-partisan struggle the Hitlerite criminals

mercilessly annihilated the peaceful population of the Soviet villages.

I quote the first part under the heading:

“1. Mission: The 9th Company must destroy the village of

Borysovka, which is infested by partisans.

“2. Forces: Two platoons of the 9th Company of the 15th Police

Regiment, one platoon of gendarmes of the 16th Motorized

Regiment, and one tank platoon from Beresy-Kartuska.”

I emphasize, Your Honors, that the expedition included a tank platoon

from Beresy-Kartuska. Against whom were these tanks and the two platoons

supposed to operate? We find an answer to this question in the following

item of this report:

“3. Execution of mission: The company assembled in the evening

on 22 September 1942 in Dyvin. During the night from 22 to 23

September 1942, they marched from Dyvin in the direction of

Borysovka. The village was encircled from the north to the south

by two platoons at 4 a.m. At daybreak the entire population of

the village was collected by the village elder of Borysovka.

After an investigation of the population with the assistance of

the Security Police and the SD from Dyvin, five families were

resettled in Dyvin. The remainder were shot by a specially

detailed squad and buried 500 meters to the northeast of

Borysovka. Altogether 169 persons were shot consisting of 49

men, 97 women, and 23 children.”

I consider that these figures are so eloquent that I can conclude the

reading of this document and, omitting two pages, pass on to the next

part of my statement.

I beg the Tribunal to look at Page 316 of the document book, which

contains the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the

destruction caused by the German fascist invaders in the Stalinsk

region.

Hitherto I have submitted proof of the fact that in the villages the

German fascist invaders criminally exterminated the Soviet population by

burning their victims alive. In this report we find a confirmation of

the fact that people were burned alive equally in the cities and towns.

This document is submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-2

(Document Number USSR-2). I quote from Page 316 of the document book:

“In the city of Stalino, the German invaders drove the residents

of a professor’s house into a barn, closed the entrance, blocked

it, poured oil on the barn, and set it on fire. All those in the

barn lost their lives, with the exception of two little girls,

who saved themselves by pure chance.

“On 11 November 1943 the members of this commission”—I omit the

next part containing the composition of this commission—“made

excavations on the site of the barn and while investigating it,

they discovered 41 charred human corpses.”

From the very first days of the war against the U.S.S.R. the German

fascist terror toward the peaceful population assumed monstrous

proportions. This was noted in the reports of several German officers,

who had participated in the first World War and who stressed the fact

that even in the cruelty of the first World War they had never witnessed

anything similar.

I again refer to a German document and submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit

Number USSR-293 (Document Number USSR-293), an authenticated photostat

of a report from the former commander of the 528th Regiment, Major

Roesler, and a report by Schirwindt, who was chief of the 9th Military

District. Since this document is of sufficient interest I will read it

into the record in full. You, Your Honors, will find the extract on Page

319 of the document book. I quote:

“Kassel, 3 January ’42; Major Roesler; Report.

“The matter entrusted to me by the 52d Reserve Regiment,

entitled ‘Attitude towards the Civilian Population in the East,’

prompts me to report the following:

“At the end of July 1941 the 528th Infantry Regiment, then under

my command, was on its way from the West to their rest area in

Zhitomir. After I had moved with my staff into the staff

quarters, on the afternoon of the day of our arrival, we heard

rifle volleys, at a short distance from us, at regular

intervals, followed a little later by pistol shots. I decided to

find out what was happening and started out with my adjutant and

the courier (First Lieutenant Von Bassevitz and Lieutenant

Müller-Brodmann) in the direction of the rifle shots. We soon

had the impression that something was happening, since after

some time we saw numerous soldiers and civilians streaming

toward the railway embankment behind which, as we were told,

executions were taking place. We could not, at first, reach the

other side of the embankment for a long time. After a certain

definite interval, however, we heard the sound of a whistle

followed by a volley of about 10 rifles, which in turn was

followed, some time later, by pistol shots. When we finally

scrambled over the embankment a picture of horror was revealed

to us. A pit, about seven to eight meters long and perhaps four

meters wide, had been dug in the ground. The upturned earth was

piled on one side of the pit. This pile of earth and the side of

the pit were completely soaked in blood. The pit itself was

filled with numerous corpses of all ages and sexes. There were

so many corpses that one could not even ascertain the depth of

the pit.

“Behind the pile of earth stood a police detachment under the

command of a police officer. The uniforms of the police bore

traces of blood. Many soldiers from the troops just billeted in

the area stood around. Some of them wore shorts and lounged

about as spectators. There were also a number of civilians;

women and children. I approached the grave as near as possible

in order to get a picture, which I was never able to forget.

“In this grave lay, among others, an old man with a white beard,

clutching a cane in his left hand. Since this man, judging from

his sporadic breathing, still showed signs of life, I ordered

one of the policemen to kill him off. He smilingly replied, ‘I

have already shot him seven times in the stomach. He can die on

his own now.’

“The bodies lay in the grave, not in rows, but as they had

fallen from the top of the pit. All these people had been killed

by rifle shots in the nape of the neck and then in the pit were

granted the coup-de-grace of a pistol shot.

“I have never seen anything of the kind, either in the first

World War, in the Russian, or in the French campaigns of the

present war. I have witnessed many disagreeable things in the

volunteer detachments in 1919, but I have never witnessed a

similar scene.”

I omit one paragraph and continue:

“I wish to add that according to the testimony of soldiers who

have often watched these executions, apparently several hundred

persons were shot by these methods every day.

“Signed: Roesler.”

Characteristic is the comment in the covering note from the deputy

commander of the IXth Army Corps and commanding officer of the 9th

Military District, who forwarded Roesler’s report to the chief of the

army armament and equipment department, Berlin. I quote this document

which the Tribunal will find on Page 318 of the document book. I quote:

“Subject: Atrocities perpetrated on the civilian population of

the East.

“With regard to the news of mass executions in Russia, which we

are receiving, I was at first convinced that they had been

unduly exaggerated. I am forwarding herewith a report from Major

Roesler which fully confirms these rumors.”—The last sentence

is also typical:

“If these things are done openly, they will become known in the

fatherland and give rise to criticism.

“Signed: Schirwindt.”

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, do you know who was the deputy commander

of the IXth Army Corps and commander of the 9th Military District and do

you know who was the chief of the armament and equipment department in

Berlin? Do you know whether any reply was made to this report?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I can only give an answer on this subject at a

later date. These questions are unknown to me and must be elucidated in

a supplementary report. I shall shortly clarify them and give the

Tribunal the additional information and will submit the documents

dealing with this matter.

I beg to be allowed, in presenting this evidence, to submit to the

Tribunal a photostatic copy of a document. I present two albums

certified by the Extraordinary State Commission; they will be submitted

to each member of the Tribunal. (Exhibits Numbers USSR-387 and 391).

I beg the permission of the Tribunal to show certain photographs on the

screen. I must admit these documents have not been selected on the basis

of the impressiveness of the atrocities shown—the Tribunal will find

even more monstrous episodes of mass atrocities in the document

book—but rather, all these photographs have been selected because of

their typical character.

Before presenting these documentary photographs, I ask the permission of

the Tribunal to submit another German document as Exhibit Number

USSR-297 (Document Number USSR-297). It is a certified photostatic copy

of one of the reports of the chief of the Security Police and SD,

prohibiting the photographing of mass executions. It is very typical

that in many of these cases the photographs were taken by the Germans

themselves. This attracted the attention of the chief of police and

therefore photographing was prohibited to the German fascist criminals.

I quote only a short excerpt from this report—Page 321 of the document

book:

“The Reichsführer SS has forbidden the photographing of

executions by an order of 12 November 1941, Journal Number 1

1461/41 Ads., and has ordered that insofar as such pictures are

needed for official purpose that the entire exposed material be

collected in archives.”

I omit the following paragraph and quote the third paragraph:

“The leader of the Einsatzkommando or Sonderkommando or the

company commander of the Waffen-SS and the section leader of the

war correspondents are charged with the responsibility that

plates, films, and prints of these photographs do not remain in

the hands of individual members of these task force units.”

I skip the following part of the document in its entirety, as I consider

that the quotations which have been presented are sufficient proof that

the police authorities were uneasy about the fact that frequent

photographing of mass executions by the German fascists gave

confirmation of these executions. I beg the Tribunal for permission to

start the showing of several of these photo-documents. Would you permit

me to do so, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: What are you waiting for, Colonel Smirnov?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The lights should be turned off but apparently

there are some technical difficulties which are unfamiliar to me.

Therefore I cannot start with the showing of the photo-documents.

THE PRESIDENT: Do you think you can go on with your statement and do the

photographs after the adjournment? How long do you think the photographs

will take?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I fully agree with you, Mr. President. I beg

your permission to present evidence concerning the second part of the

statement, namely, the mass annihilation by the German fascists of the

citizens of the U.S.S.R., Poland, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia.

The mass extermination of peaceful populations of the Soviet Union and

of the countries of Eastern Europe was carried out by the German fascist

criminals everywhere, as can be seen from both the official orders and

the reports about the carrying out of these executions. In this regard

they had the following objectives in mind:

1. Physical elimination of those sections of the population which were

capable of resistance; 2. For racial reasons, that is, for the

materialization of racial theories inculcating hatred of mankind; 3. For

purposes of retaliation; 4. Supposedly “for the struggle against the

partisans” whom the German fascists could neither catch nor destroy, and

for this reason they vented the full force of their retaliatory measures

on the peaceful population.

The execution of children was a particularly cruel method of Hitlerite

terrorism. The use especially of torture devices for killing children

was one of the prime and most despicable characteristics of the

Hitlerite terror regime in the temporarily occupied territory of the

Soviet Union.

Immediately after the seizure of power by the fascists, Hermann Göring

began to issue laws against vivisection. He pitied dogs, guinea pigs,

and rabbits subjected to scientific experiment for the benefit of

humanity. In confirmation I refer to Göring’s book _Speeches and

Articles_ published in 1940 by Erich Gritzbach at Munich. (Document

Number USSR-377). On Page 80 of this book we find Göring’s speech, “The

Struggle Against Vivisection.” I shall not quote any lengthy extract

from this book and shall only mention one sentence which testifies that

for motives, so to speak, of love for animals, Hermann Göring widely

exercised his right to intern human beings in concentration camps.

At a certain meeting of SS-Gruppenführer at Posen, as the Tribunal

knows, Himmler stated, Document Number 1919-PS, “We Germans are the only

people who treat animals kindly.”

But these criminals—from Himmler to Keitel—who sentimentally discussed

the tortures of animals, persistently instructed their subordinates to

exterminate children senselessly, inhumanly, and cruelly. At the meeting

in question Himmler also stated:

“If anyone would come to me and say, ‘You cannot build antitank

trenches with children and women, it is inhuman since they will

die,’ I should reply, ‘You are the murderers of your own

blood.’”

Numerous investigations on the German fascist atrocities in the Soviet

Union have shown without any doubt that on occasion of mass shootings

many children have been thrown into the grave when still alive. In

confirmation of these facts I am referring to official documents, “The

German criminals threw into the grave children who were still alive.”

I invite the attention of the Tribunal to a document which has already

been submitted by my colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, as Exhibit Number

USSR-46. It is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the

crimes of the German fascist invaders in the city and region of Orel.

The Tribunal will find it on Page 334 of the document book, the last

three lines of the page, and on Page 335. I quote:

“Those shot in the city were collected and thrown into ditches,

preferably in forest areas. In jail the executions took place as

follows: The men had to stand facing a wall while the gendarme

fired his pistol into the nape of their necks. The shot

penetrated the vital centers and death was instantaneous. In

most cases women had to lie face downward on the ground and the

gendarme shot them through the base of their neck.

“A second method was to herd people in groups into a ditch, with

their faces turned to one side. Then they were killed likewise

by shots in the nape of the neck with machine guns. In the

trenches corpses of children were discovered who, according to

the testimony of witnesses, had been buried alive.”

Furthermore, I refer to a document which has already been submitted to

the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-1, a report of the Extraordinary

State Commission on the crimes of the German fascist occupants in the

area of Stavropol. I quote from Page 271 of the document book, Paragraph

3, beginning as follows:

“During the inspection of a ravine in the vicinity of Koltso

Hill and a distance of 250 meters from the high road. . . .”

I omit the next sentence.

“. . . a washed-out grave was discovered, 10 meters in depth,

from which protruded separate parts of human bodies. As from 26

to 29 July 1943, excavations were carried out at this spot and,

as a result, 130 corpses were exhumed. The legal-medical

examination proved that the corpse of a 4-months-old girl showed

no traces of violence. The child had been thrown alive into the

ditch where it perished from suffocation.”

I skip the next phrase and quote from the next paragraph:

“The autopsy performed on bodies of dead infants by the

legal-medical investigation proved that they had been thrown

into the ditch alive, together with their mothers who had been

shot. All the other corpses showed traces of torture.”

I will now refer to the verdict of the Military Tribunal of the 4th

Ukrainian Front, which I had already submitted to the Tribunal as

Exhibit Number USSR-32.

THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps we had better break off.

[_The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours._]

_Afternoon Session_

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Have I your permission to continue?

THE PRESIDENT: Please do.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Continuing the presentation of evidence on

atrocities of German fascist criminals with regard to children, I refer

to the testimony of the witness, Bespalov, included in the document

previously presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-32 (Document

Number USSR-32). The members of the Tribunal will find the place which I

refer to on Page 33, fifth paragraph of the document, Column 1 in the

document book. Bespalov testified:

“At the end of June last year I myself saw up to 300 girls and

women brought on 10 to 12 trucks to the forest park. The

unfortunate women were throwing themselves from side to side,

weeping, tearing their hair, and rending their clothes. Many

fainted, but the German fascists paid no attention to this. By

kicks and beatings with rifle butts and sticks they forced them

to get up; the executioners themselves stripped and threw into

the pits, those who did not rise. Several girls—among them

children—tried to run away, but were killed.

“I saw how, after a burst of machine gun fire, some of the

women, swaying and helplessly flinging up their arms, staggered

toward the standing Germans with heart-rending cries. At this

time the Germans were shooting them with pistols. Maddened with

terror and grief, mothers clutched their children to their

breasts, running with terrible wails into the forest clearing,

seeking help.

“The Gestapo members snatched the children from them, seized

them by the arms or legs, and threw them alive into the pit;

when the mothers ran after them to the pit, they were shot.”

I quote one paragraph out of Exhibit Number USSR-9 (Document USSR-9),

already presented to the Tribunal. This is a report of the Extraordinary

State Commission of the Soviet Union of the crimes of the German fascist

invaders in the city of Kiev. The members of the Tribunal will find this

document on Page 238, second column of the text, sixth paragraph:

“On 29 September 1941 Hitler’s bandits drove thousands of the

peaceful Soviet citizens to the corner of Melnik and

Doktorovskaya Streets and from there to Baybe-yar, where they

shot them, after taking all their valuables from them.

“Citizens N. F. Petrenko and N. T. Gorbacheva, who lived near

Baybe-yar, stated that they had seen how the Germans threw

babies at the breast into graves and buried them alive with

their dead or wounded parents. One could see the surface of the

ground moving over the buried people who were still alive.”

These were not individual occurrences, but a systematic plan. This

inhuman terror was practiced on children, since the chiefs of German

fascism understood that this form of terrorism would be particularly

frightful for the survivors. Compassion for the weak and the defenseless

is an inalienable human trait. By applying their particularly barbarous

methods to children, the German fascist criminals showed the rest of the

population that there was no crime, no cruelty at which they would stop

for the purpose of pacifying the occupied territories. Children did not

simply share the fate of their parents. The so-called “actions” were

frequently directed against the children themselves. They were taken

forcibly from their parents, concentrated in one place, then murdered.

I refer to a very brief report of the Extraordinary State Commission,

already submitted to the Tribunal, entitled, “Concerning the Crimes of

the German Conspirators in Latvia.” The members of the Tribunal will

find the place I refer to on Page 286, on the reverse side, in the

second column of the document book, Paragraph 5. Here it states, and I

quote:

“In the main jail in Riga they murdered over 2,000 children who

had been torn from their parents, and in the Salaspil Camp, more

than 3,000.”

From the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of

the Hitlerites in Lithuania, the Tribunal will learn of the brutal

methods employed by the Germans to separate children from their parents

incarcerated in prisons, concentration camps, or ghettos—these methods

usually preceded the murder of the children. This document has already

been submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-7 (Document USSR-7) to the

Tribunal. The members of the Tribunal will find the place referred to on

Page 295, first column, sixth paragraph of the document book. I omit the

first paragraph, which mentions the organization of the camp. This has

no direct relation to children, and I begin with the second paragraph,

which shows what was done with them:

“In the beginning of 1944 the Germans in this camp forcibly took

children from 6 to 12 years old and carried them off. An

inhabitant of the city of Kovno, Vladislav Blum, testified:

“‘Heart-rending scenes occurred under my eyes. The Germans took

the children away from their mothers and sent them, no one knows

where. Many children were shot together with their mothers.’

“On the walls of the camp buildings inscriptions were discovered

concerning the crimes of the Hitlerite monsters. Here are some

of them:

“‘Avenge us! Let the whole world know and understand how

savagely our children were exterminated! Our days are counted!

Farewell! Let the whole world know and let it not forget to

avenge our innocent children! Women of all the world, remember

and understand all the atrocities which befell our innocent

children in the 20th century! My child is already dead, I am

indifferent to everything!’”

Further, I refer to the document which has already been presented to the

Tribunal under Document Number USSR-63. This is an official report on

the torture and shooting of children in the Domachev children’s asylum

of the Brest region in the Bielorussian S.S.R. The members of the

Tribunal will find this document on the reverse side of Page 223, fifth

paragraph, first column. I shall quote three or four paragraphs out of

this document, omitting the remainder:

“By order of the German occupational authorities of the

district, the Chief of the Prokopchuk district ordered the

principal of the children’s home, A. P. Pavliuk, to poison a

sick 12-year-old child, Lena Renklach. After Pavliuk refused to

carry out the order, the child was shot by policemen in the

vicinity of the children’s home, allegedly ‘while trying to

escape.’

“In order to save the children from starvation and death, 11 of

them were distributed among the local population in 1942, and 16

children were taken by their relatives.”

And this was the further fate of those children. I continue with my

quotation:

“On 23 September 1942, at 7 o’clock in the evening, a 5-ton

truck appeared in the yard of the children’s home, bringing six

armed Germans in military uniform. The group leader, named Max,

explained that the children would be taken to Brest and ordered

them to be placed in the truck. Fifty-five children and their

teacher, Grocholskaya, were placed in the truck. One girl,

9-year-old Tossia Schachmatova, succeeded in climbing out of the

truck and escaping. The remaining 54 and the teacher were driven

away in the truck in the direction of the station of Dubitz, 1½

kilometers from the village of Leplevka. The car stopped at a

frontier gun emplacement, 800 meters from the River West Bug.

The children were undressed—which was proved by the fact that

the children’s clothes were found in the truck after its return

to Domachev—and shot.”

I omit the remaining part of this official report. It has been proved by

documents dealing with the shootings that in mass executions of children

they were torn in half while still alive and thrown into the flames. To

confirm this, I refer to the testimony of the witness, Hamaidas, a

native of the village of Lisbenitzky, in the Lvov region, who was

confined by the Germans in Yanov Camp at Lvov.

Hamaidas’ occupation in the camp consisted in burning the corpses of

those who had been shot. At the same time, he was a witness to the mass

shootings of the peaceful population—men, women, and children. The

testimony of Hamaidas, together with other documents concerning the Lvov

camps, has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number

USSR-6(c) (Document USSR-6(c)); I quote two lines from the testimony of

Hamaidas, from Page 55 of the document book, 11th line from the bottom

of the page:

“I was a witness to such facts. The executioner would seize

children by the feet, tear them apart while they were still

alive, and throw them into the fire.”

Having shot the parents, the German murderers considered it unnecessary

to waste ammunition on children. When they did not throw the children

into the grave pits they often murdered them simply by hitting them with

a heavy object or by pounding their heads against the ground. I refer,

in confirmation of this, to the document already presented to the

Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-6(c), in which are other documents on

reports of legal-medical experts employed in the exhumation of corpses

in Yanov Camp. I shall quote only two lines of the conclusion. The

members of the Tribunal will find the place where I refer to the

conclusion of the legal-medical experts on Yanov Camp on Page 330 of the

document book, second paragraph at the top of the column, reverse of

Page 330. I quote this brief excerpt:

“The executioners did not consider it necessary to waste

ammunition on children. They simply killed them by hitting them

over the head with a blunt instrument.

“Children were often cut in half with rusty saws and subjected

to other forms of torture.”

I ask the permission of the Court to read into the record only one

paragraph from a note of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of

the U.S.S.R., dated 27 April 1942. The members of the Tribunal will find

the place to which I refer on Page 8, reverse side, second column, third

paragraph:

“The invaders subjected children and adolescents to the most

brutal tortures. Among the 160 wounded and maimed children,

victims of the Hitlerite terror in the districts of the now

liberated Moscow region, undergoing treatment in the Russakov

Hospital in Moscow, there is, for instance, the case of a

14-year-old boy, Vanya Gromov, from the village of Novinki, who

had been strapped to a table by the Hitlerites and then had had

his right arm sawed off with a rusty saw. The Germans chopped

off both hands of 12-year-old Vanya Kryukov, of the village of

Kryukovo, in the Kursk region, and drove him, bleeding

profusely, toward the Soviet troops.”

I omit the rest of the quotation—two pages—since similar facts are

related in the document which confirm the above—mentioned episodes.

Children were the first victims of carbon-monoxide poisoning in the

German gas vans. In confirmation I refer to the material already

submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-1 (Document USSR-1), which is the

report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union on the

crimes of the German fascist occupiers in the Stavropol region. The

members of the Tribunal will find that brief excerpt on Page 269 in the

document book, Paragraph 4:

“It has been established that in December 1942, by order of the

chief of the Gestapo for the town of Mikoian-Schachar,

Oberleutnant Otto Weber, an extraordinarily cruel massacre was

carried out on Soviet children undergoing treatment for bone

tuberculosis in the sanatorium of the Teberda health resort.

Eyewitnesses to this crime, members of the sanatorium, medical

sister, S. E. Jvanova, and medical aide, Polypanova, have

testified as follows:

“Before the entrance of the first section of the sanatorium, on

22 December 1942, a German automobile drew up. Seven German

soldiers, who had arrived in the vehicle, dragged 54 seriously

sick children, ranging in age from 3 years upward, out of the

sanatorium (they were too ill to move and therefore were not

driven forcibly into the van) and stacked them in layers inside

the vehicle. They then closed the door, let in the

carbon-monoxide gas, and drove off from the sanatorium. An hour

later the vehicle returned to Teberda. All the children had

perished. They had been exterminated by the Germans and their

bodies thrown into the Teberda ravine near Gunachgir.”

Children were also drowned in the open sea. In confirmation, I refer to

the document already submitted, Exhibit Number USSR-63 (Document

USSR-63), on the “Indictment of German Atrocities in Sevastopol.” The

members of the Tribunal will find the place I am referring to on the

reverse side of Page 226, Paragraph 7, second column of the text:

“In addition to the mass shootings, the Hitlerites cruelly

drowned peaceful citizens in the open sea.

“Prisoner Corporal Friedrich Heile, of Troop Battalion 2-19 MKA,

Naval Transport Detachment, testified as follows:

“‘When I was in the port of Sevastopol, I saw large groups of

peaceful citizens, including women and children, brought to the

harbor by trucks. All the Russians were loaded on barges. Many

resisted. However, they were beaten and driven forcibly onto the

barges. About 3,000 people, all told, were loaded on. The barges

put out to sea. For a long time the crying was heard in the bay.

Several hours passed, and the barges slipped again into their

moorings. From the ships’ crews I found out that all the people

had been thrown overboard.’”

Heavy artillery fire was openly directed by the German fascist criminals

against schools, children’s asylums, hospitals, and other children’s

institutions in Leningrad. I present to the Tribunal the summary report

of the Leningrad city commission for the investigation of German crimes.

This report is being submitted to the Honorable Tribunal as Exhibit

Number USSR-85 (Document Number USSR-85). I shall not quote any long

passage from this report. I shall merely draw the Tribunal’s attention

to the fact that on Page 347, Volume II, Paragraph 4, in the document

book, the Judges may see for themselves the list of targets exposed to

German artillery fire, which is testified to by the logs of the fighting

units. The following are some of those targets, “Number 736, a school in

Baburinsk Street; number 708, Institute for the Care of Mothers and

Infants; number 192, Palace of Pioneers.”

I also shall take the liberty of quoting only a short excerpt from the

testimony of the director of School Number 218, which the members of the

Tribunal will find on Page 348, Volume II, first paragraph. The director

of School Number 218, located at 13 Rubenstein Street, writes:

“On 18 May 1942, School Number 218 underwent artillery fire. A

12-year-old boy, Lenja Isarow, was killed. A little girl, Dona

Binamowa, turned white and moaned with pain. ‘Mummy, how can I

get along without my leg?’ she said. Leva Gendelev was bleeding

to death. He was given aid, but it was too late. He died in the

arms of his mother, calling out, ‘Accursed Hitler!’

“Djenia Kutareva, though seriously wounded, begged that his

father should not be disturbed because he suffered from heart

disease. The teacher and all the pupils assisted the victims.”

I conclude the quotation concerning Leningrad. I omit two pages of the

text and draw the Tribunal’s attention to Page 355, Volume II, second

column, Paragraph 6. Your Honors will find there a document submitted as

Exhibit Number USSR-8 (Document Number USSR-8). This is a report of the

Extraordinary State Commission on “The Infamous Crimes of the German

Government in Auschwitz.” I shall quote several short passages from the

second report entitled, “Murderers of Children.” At the same time,

however, I would ask Your Honors to pay special attention to Page 47 of

the Auschwitz album (Exhibit Number USSR-30), as well as to Pages 48 and

49. The photographs on these pages clearly show how emaciated these

children were. I omit the first paragraph, and I quote:

“Investigations have proved that the Germans completely sapped

the strength of children between 8 and 10 years of age, by

forcing them to do the same heavy work they gave to the adults.

Toil beyond their strength, beatings, and torture soon exhausted

the children—then they were killed.

“Ex-prisoner Jacob Gordon, a doctor from Vilna, testified:

“‘In the beginning of 1943 at Camp Birkenau 164 boys were taken

away to the hospital, where they were killed by injections of

carbolic acid in the heart.’

“Ex-prisoner Bakasch Waltraut of Düsseldorf, Germany, testified:

“‘In 1943 when we worked on the construction of a hedge

surrounding Crematorium Number 5, I myself saw SS men throw

several living children into bonfires.’”

Here is what some of the children, who were saved by the Red Army,

themselves testify about the tortures to which they were subjected. I

omit the next paragraph and ask the Tribunal, while I read, to refer to

Page 50 of the photographic documents of Auschwitz. Here we find the

photographs of a 12-year-old boy, Zihmlich, and a boy of 13, Mandel, and

the Tribunal can see the deformation of these children from exposure to

cold. I continue:

“A 9-year-old boy, Andrasz Lerintsiakosz, a native of the city

of Klez, Hungary, testified:

“‘After we had been driven to Block 22 of the camp, we were

beaten, mainly by German women who were put over us as guards.

They beat us with sticks. During my stay in the camp, Dr.

Mengele bled me very frequently. In November 1944 all the

children were transferred to Camp A, known as the Gypsy Camp.

During roll call it was discovered that one child was missing.

Thereupon, the leader of the women’s camp, Brandem, and her

assistant, Mendel, drove us all into the street at 1 o’clock in

the morning and left us standing there in the cold until noon.’”

I omit the next three paragraphs of the quotation, and I read into the

record the last paragraph of this section:

“There were, among the 180 children liberated from Auschwitz and

examined by physicians, 52 under 8 years of age and 128 between

the ages of 8 and 15. All arrived in the camp in the second half

of 1944, that is, they spent between 3 to 6 months in the camp.

All 180 children underwent a medical examination, which

established that 72 suffered from tuberculosis of the lungs and

glands, 49 suffered from the consequences of malnutrition and

elementary dystrophy (complete exhaustion), and 31 from

frostbite.”

I submit to the Tribunal and request Your Honors to accept as evidence

Exhibit Number USSR-92 (Document Number USSR-92). It is a directive from

the Administration of Food and Agriculture, entitled, “Treatment of

Pregnant Women of Non-Germanic Origin.” I refer this document to the

Tribunal because, in their hatred of the Slav race, the German fascist

criminals even attempted to murder babes in the womb. The members of the

Tribunal will find the document on Page 362, in Volume II of the

document book. I shall read two short paragraphs into the record. I

quote:

“There has recently been a considerable increase in the birth

rate among women of non-Germanic origin. Difficulties have

arisen in consequence, not only in connection with the use of

these people for labor but, to a greater extent, with a danger

of a social-political nature, which should not be

underestimated.”

I omit one paragraph and quote further:

“The simplest method for overcoming these difficulties would be

to inform, as soon as possible, the institutions which employ

them for labor, of the pregnancy of the non-Germanic women.”

I draw your special attention to the last sentence, “These institutions

must attempt to compel the women to get rid of their children by

resorting to abortion.”

I conclude my quotation.

The analysis of the material connected with the Hitlerite terror in the

countries of Eastern Europe is positive proof that the atrocities

perpetrated on children will remain forever the most disgraceful page in

the history of German fascism.

I request permission, Your Honor, to present now the photographic

documentation which, owing to a technical difficulty, I was unable to

show before the luncheon recess. With your consent I shall show it at

once. Apparently the presentation will now be more successful than

earlier in the day. I should emphasize that in selecting the photographs

I was not guided, so to speak, by the horror of their contents, but

simply by the fact that they demonstrate typical procedures of the

German fascist crimes.

[_Pictures were then projected on the screen._]*

(1) Here we see one person being shot. This snapshot was taken in the

Moscow region during the German advance on Moscow. The man was executed

in reprisal for the death of a German.

(2) Here we see four persons being shot. The four youths condemned to

death are standing on the edge of a pit which they dug. The members of

the Tribunal can see for themselves that the German criminals standing

on the outskirts of the wood are laughing at the victims.

(3) This snapshot was taken at the time of the execution. The killing is

carried out in the typical German style, that is, by a shot in the back

of the neck. You will observe that the victims are crying out at the

moment of death.

(4) The snapshots, Your Honors, which I am now showing were taken by the

German Obergruppenführer Karl Strock, chief of the Nipal Gestapo. It

represents a German mass execution. The victims have been ordered to

strip on the execution ground. Here you see a young girl seated, already

undressed, and next to her her brother Jacob, who has also been ordered

to strip. I wish to emphasize the fact that the snapshots were taken in

December, when the cold is intense.

(5) In addition to some native women condemned to be shot, this snapshot

also shows a very young girl endeavoring to hide behind her mother on

the left.

(6) In December naked women in this snapshot have also been taken to the

execution ground. Condemned to death, these women were forced by the

same Obergruppenführer Strock to pose before the camera.

(7) Here we have a group of men and with them a small child accompanied

by his mother. They are going to the execution ground. The child

clutches his mother closely.

(8) This is an amateur photograph, albeit a very clear one. Here, Your

Honors, you see a group of people and some dead bodies, with machine

guns to the right of them. I would ask the Tribunal to observe the

disposal of the dead bodies. The photograph is probably taken during the

first months of the German occupation because the bodies have been

thrown into the pit carelessly; in the latter months orders were given

to lay out the bodies tidily in rows.

(9) This is a snapshot of the same group. Here you see both women and

young girls condemned to death.

(10) In Yanov Camp the executions are carried out to the strains of the

“Death Tango” played by an orchestra conducted by Professor Striks, an

internee in the camp, together with his bandmaster, Mundt. I request

Your Honors to observe two points of interest in this snapshot. To the

right we see the camp commander, Obergruppenführer Gebauer, in white

uniform, and behind him his dog, Rex, known to us through many

interrogations as having been trained to harass living persons and to

tear them to pieces. It is evident that Gebauer is leading the orchestra

to the execution ground.

(11) One of the gallows used by the German fascists in their endeavor to

establish a regime of terror in the temporarily occupied territories of

the Soviet Union. The snapshot was found in the files of the Yanov

Gestapo. A woman of sorts is seen laughing at the foot of the gallows.

(12) A second gallows erected in the same market place, at Lvov, also

taken from the archives of the Gestapo.

(13) I am showing Your Honors the snapshot of an entire street festooned

with bodies of Soviet citizens. This is a street in the city of Lvov,

and I beg to remind the Tribunal that according to the records of the

Ministry for Foreign Affairs the same hangings also occurred in Kharkov.

(14) The same street in Lvov. The snapshot was taken from the archives

of the Lvov Gestapo.

(15) The gallows were not the only means of execution. The guillotine,

too, was used on a vast scale. In this snapshot you see the heads of

victims guillotined in the prison of Danzig. The snapshot was taken in

the Anatomic Institute in Danzig, where the bodies of the victims were

brought after execution.

(16) I shall not show you too many snapshots of tortures inflicted. I

only wish to show a few typical examples. This snapshot was taken from a

dead Gestapo soldier. It shows a young girl being flogged. Later you

will see what next they did to her.

(17) It is not quite clear whether the girl is being strung up by the

hair or hanged by the neck. Judging by the convulsive movement of her

hands, I think that a noose has just been placed round her neck. Observe

the bestial face of the scoundrel who is hanging her.

(18) Here is a snapshot taken from a dead Gestapo soldier. I wish to

emphasize the manner in which the German fascists mocked the chastity of

the Russian women. They had just forced these Ukrainian women to run

naked before the German brutes.

(19) This snapshot will help you to understand subsequent events. It

represents a machine for grinding human bones. Next to the machine

stands the prisoner of war who feeds the machine. It can grind the bones

of 200 persons at a time. As has been proved to the commission, it has a

constant yield of 200 cubic meters of bone flour.

That is all. Photographs are identified as Exhibits USSR-100, 101, 102,

212, 385, 388, 389, 390, 391.

-----

* Mr. Counsellor Smirnov’s explanations of the pictures were not

recorded by the Russian stenographers. They were recorded, however, in

English and German, and these notes are used in the English and German

editions respectively, even though the two texts differ in some

respects.

Will you now permit me to submit further documentary evidence?

In the first part of my presentation I dealt with German mass terrorism

and spoke specifically about the extermination of children and the

infamous methods used by the Germans with regard to them, since terror

applied to children—terror most savage, most brutal—is one of the

characteristic features of fascist bestiality.

I now present to the Tribunal evidence of mass extermination of the

population in various parts of Eastern Europe. I submit to the Tribunal

brief excerpts from the report of the Polish Government, which Your

Honors will find on Page 127 of the document book, in the second

paragraph of the text. It describes the so-called Anin massacre. I

quote:

“At the end of December 1939 a Polish policeman was shot in the

vicinity of Warsaw by a bandit. Subsequent investigations showed

that the murderer was in a restaurant in Vaver, near Warsaw. Two

German policemen tried to arrest him. When the police entered

the restaurant, the bandit opened fire, killing one policeman

and wounding another, that is, he apparently killed one and

wounded another.

“In reply the German authorities, on 26 December 1939, ordered

mass reprisals, and a punitive expedition made its appearance in

the village.

“A detachment of ‘Landesschützen,’ under the command of an

officer, was dispatched to Vaver and to the summer resort of

Anin. Both of these localities were surrounded by a cordon of

soldiers. The proprietor of the restaurant where the event

occurred was immediately hanged, and his body suspended in front

of his house for 3 days. At the same time the men were dragged

out from every house. Having thus rounded up about 170 persons,

the Germans made them stand in the railway station, facing the

wall and with their hands held above their heads, for several

hours. Afterwards their documents were checked and a few were

dismissed, but the vast majority were informed that they would

be executed. They were then taken to a field, split up into

groups of 10 to 14, and executed by volleys from machine guns.

“The number of individual graves discovered on the execution

ground amounted to 107. Among those executed were two doctors,

30 youths under 16 years of age, and 12 old men over 60. One was

an American citizen of Polish origin. He was shot together with

his son.”

I shall omit the next paragraph of the report of the Polish Government

dealing with the massacre in Piastoshyn, and I quote only an

announcement from a German paper, the _Weichsel Zeitung_, of 23 October

1939. This announcement was quoted in the Polish report. I read:

“In the Tuchel district, the farm of a Reich citizen, Fritz, in

the vicinity of Pretzin, was burned by Polish bandits in the

night of 21-22 October. The citizen Fritz had a heart attack in

consequence. By order of the chief of the Civil Administration a

punitive expedition was dispatched to this locality, in order to

teach the guilty bandits a lesson which would show them that

acts of this kind would be severely punished. In reprisal 10

Poles, known for their hostile attitude towards Germany, were

shot. In addition an order was given to the Polish inhabitants

of this locality to rebuild the burned buildings and to pay for

the damage done.”

I shall omit half of the following page, and I quote briefly the

circumstances of the Yousefouv massacre in Poland. Your Honors will find

this quotation on Page 128, Paragraph 2 of the document book:

“In the middle of January 1940 a family of German colonists in

the village of Yousefouv was robbed and murdered by bandits, as

the Germans themselves stated in the newspapers at a later date.

A punitive expedition set out for Yousefouv.”

I omit the next paragraph, and then I continue:

“The expedition started a large-scale massacre. All the males

who were caught in Yousefouv and the vicinity, even 11-year-old

boys, were arrested and shot on the spot. Altogether 300 people

were murdered.”

Mass extermination of the peaceful population in Yugoslavia was of an

exceptionally cruel nature. I quote that part of the report of the

Yugoslav Government entitled, “Mass Murder of the Civilian Population

and the Destruction of Villages.” I beg the Tribunal to accept as

evidence a photostat of the order of Lieutenant General Neidtholt, which

is presented as Exhibit Number USSR-188 (Document Number USSR-188). I

cite this order, which was quoted in the report of the Yugoslav

Government:

“The settlements of Zagniezde and Udora must be destroyed, the

male population of these settlements hanged, and the women and

children taken to Stoliac.”

I omit the next page of the text and begin the quotation regarding the

atrocities of the German fascist criminals in Kragujevac. In

confirmation of this report of the Yugoslav Government, we submit to the

Tribunal a certified photostat copy of a communication from the

commander of the garrison at Kragujevac, in which he admitted the

shooting of 2,300 people. This document is being submitted to the

Tribunal, and I ask the Court to accept this as evidence under Exhibit

Number USSR-74 (Document Number USSR-74). I quote from the report of the

Yugoslav Government on the mass murder in Kragujevac:

“This was a mass murder committed on 21 October 1941, in

Kragujevac, by a German punitive expedition under the command of

Major König. Besides König, the regional commander,

Bischofshausen, and the commandant of the settlement, Dr.

Zimmermann, participated in the organization and realization of

this crime.

“Already 10 to 15 days before the crime in Kragujevac was

committed, one battalion arrived to reinforce the German

garrison. First of all, the following villages were destroyed in

the vicinity of Kragujevac: Mechkovac, Marsic, and Groshnic. In

Mechkovac the punitive expedition murdered 66 people, in Marsic,

101, and in Groshnic, 100. All the victims were peaceful

citizens of the villages in question.

“When, after the perpetration of these crimes, the punitive

expedition arrived in Kragujevac, they began by carrying out

their plan to exterminate the citizens of Kragujevac, especially

the Serbian intelligentsia. As early as the beginning of October

the district commandant, Dr. Zimmermann, demanded of the

director of schools in Kragujevac the regular attendance of the

school children; otherwise they would be considered saboteurs

and shot. After such a threat, all the pupils attended school

regularly. On 18 October 1941, in conformity with a previously

prepared list, all male Jews were arrested, as well as all

persons who were considered Communists. They were imprisoned in

the barracks of the former Yugoslav auto-transport headquarters

in Stanovlensko Polje. They were kept without any food until 20

October, and all were shot at about 6 o’clock in the evening;

approximately 60 persons were killed.

“The same day, that is, 20 October, they began to round up the

entire male population of Kragujevac. After every exit from the

city had been blocked, the Germans went into every public

building and drove out all the employees. After that, all the

professors and pupils from the fifth grade upward, together with

the school masters, were taken from the high schools and

seminaries.”

I omit the next two sentences and quote further:

“Together with the others, all the prisoners from the Kragujevac

prison were taken off to the barracks. Then the order was given

to them to go into the courtyard of the barracks. Here all their

personal belongings were taken from them. The first to be shot

were those who were originally incarcerated in the

prison—approximately 50 persons. The rest were locked up in

barracks. The next day, 21 October, as from 7 o’clock in the

morning, they were taken off in batches to Stanovlensko Polje,

and there shot down by machine gun fire. Those who did not die

at once were finished off by the Germans with automatic guns and

rifles.”

I conclude this quotation and continue after the next three paragraphs.

“The relatives of the victims of this mass slaughter were

forbidden to visit the place of execution until the burial of

the victims had been completed and all traces of the crime

eliminated. They were also forbidden to hold any requiem masses

or religious services for the victims. In the obituary notices

in the papers it was forbidden to mention that the victims had

met their death in the mass execution.”

I omit the next five paragraphs and invite the attention of the Tribunal

to a short part of the report of the Yugoslav Government dealing with

the so-called “death march” or “march of blood,” that march of dire fame

which took place in the camp of Yarak. I quote that particular part

which deals with this atrocious crime of the Hitlerites:

“In the beginning of September 1941 a large German punitive

expedition rounded up all the male population between the ages

of 14 and 70 years and drove them from Shabatka across the Sava

River into the settlement of Yarak in Sirinya. That was the

so-called death march. About 5,000 men had to run a distance of

23 kilometers and back again. Those who could not stand the pace

and fell by the way were ruthlessly shot on the spot. Because

many were old and weak, the number of victims was great,

especially while crossing the bridge over the Sava.”

I conclude this, and I continue the next paragraph:

“On the way back they met another group of 800 peasants who had

to cover the same distance, but the treatment of this group was

still more brutal. They had to run with their arms raised over

their heads. They were systematically murdered on the way. Only

300 men of the group reached Yarak alive.”

I interrupt the quotation here. I omit this page and the next, and,

concluding my presentation of the mass murders of the civilian

population in Yugoslavia, I would ask the Tribunal to accept in evidence

the public announcement of the Chief of the German Armed Forces in

Serbia. This document is presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number

USSR-200 (Document Number USSR-200). Without making any comment at all,

I simply quote this document, using the original text incorporated in

the report of the Yugoslav Government. In the report the

Commander-in-Chief in Serbia quotes the following facts:

“In the village of Skela, a Communist detachment opened fire at

a German military truck. It was established that several of the

inhabitants had been watching and had seen the preparations for

this attack. It was further established that these inhabitants

could have warned the nearest station of the Serbian

gendarmerie. It was also established that they could have

secretly warned the German military trucks against the pending

attempt. The inhabitants did not profit by the opportunity and

had thus placed themselves on the side of the criminals. The

village of Skela was burned to the ground. Supplies of

ammunition exploded in several houses during the fire, and this

was accepted as a proof of complicity on the part of the

inhabitants. All the male inhabitants of the village whose

participation in the attack had been proved were shot, and 50

Communists were hanged on the spot.”

I now omit five pages of my presentation, and I invite the attention of

the Tribunal to the brief excerpts from the report of the Greek

Government, on Pages 39 and 40 of the Russian text of this report, from

which we can see that the same inhuman and criminal methods of mass

shootings were used by the Hitler criminals in the temporarily occupied

territory of Greece. I begin my quotation:

“As soon as the island of Crete was occupied by the

Germans. . . . In compliance with this announcement, the first

reprisals were made, and several people, most of them absolutely

innocent, were shot, and the villages of Skiki, Brassi, and

Kanades”—perhaps I am stressing the wrong syllables, since I do

not know how these words should be pronounced in Greek—“all

these villages were burned down as a reprisal for an attack by

collaborators of the Greek police during the invasion of Crete.

On the sites where these villages formerly existed, posts were

erected with inscriptions in Greek and in German: ‘Destroyed as

a reprisal for the brutal murder of a detachment of paratroopers

and half a platoon of sappers by armed men and women in the

rear.’

“Measures of reprisal, which at first were of a temporary

nature, later grew in intensity, especially after the resistance

made by organized partisan detachments throughout the country in

the beginning of 1943. The technique was always the same. The

day after some act of sabotage or any other action committed by

the partisans near a village, the German troops would appear in

this village. The inhabitants would be rounded up in the central

square or some other place suitable for the occasion, to listen

to a public announcement, but in reality to be killed on the

spot by machine gun fire. After this the Germans either burned

the villages or else, in some cases, they would first plunder a

village and then open fire on it. The inhabitants were killed

openly in the streets, houses, and fields, regardless of age and

sex. There were few cases when only the male population from the

age of 16 years and over were executed. In other cases, when the

men succeeded in hiding in the mountains, the Germans would

execute the old men, women, and children who had remained in the

villages, hoping that their age and their sex would protect

them. The villages of Arachovo, Kalovryta, Gestamon, Klessoura,

Kommeno, and Lissovouni may be considered as typical examples.

Some villages were destroyed for the sole reason that they were

located in some region where partisans had been active.”

I omit the next sentence since it has a direct bearing on another text

of the report. I continue my quotation:

“The number of people murdered amounts to nearly 30,000.”

I am now going over to the presentation of evidence of mass

exterminations of the peaceful population in the territory of the

U.S.S.R. by the Germans.

As to the circumstances of the mass executions, we may now judge them

not only by the testimony of eyewitnesses or of the perpetrators of the

atrocities; we may, in part, judge them on the basis of the material

collected by the legal and medical commission. I say “in part” because,

as from 1943, fearing retribution for the crimes committed, the

Hitlerites began to destroy the traces of their crimes. They exhumed and

burned corpses, ground bones, and strewed the ashes on the fields; they

also used the slag formed by the corpses cremated, as well as the bone

flour, for repairing the roads and fertilizing the fields. But

notwithstanding the efforts of the criminals to conceal the traces of

their crimes, it was impossible to destroy all the corpses of the people

murdered.

The first mass “action” of the Germans, when tens of thousands of

innocent and peaceful people were murdered at a time, was the “Kiev

action.” In order to realize the extent of these atrocities I refer Your

Honors to a communication of the Extraordinary State Commission already

submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-9. I quote from Page

238, on the reverse side of the document book, at the end of the third

paragraph from the top. I quote: