“The prisoners of war were deprived of their outer clothing and
boots. Even in winter they had to go barefoot. No fewer than
300,000 prisoners of war passed through the camp during the
years of its existence, including 200,000 Soviet and 100,000
Polish, English, French, Belgian, and Greek prisoners.
“The prevalent method for the extermination of Soviet prisoners
in Lamsdorf camp was the sale of the captives to German
undertakings for work in various German firms where they were
mercilessly exploited until, their strength completely lost,
they died of exhaustion.
“In contrast to the numerous German labor exchanges, where
Sauckel’s representatives sold enslaved Soviet citizens by
retail to German housewives, a wholesale business in internees
was organized in Lamsdorf camp where the captives were formed
into labor commands. There were 1,011 such labor commands in the
camp.”
When presenting the subsequent documents, I should like to ask the
Tribunal to understand correctly the statements in corroboration of
which I am submitting evidence.
I do not in the least wish to say that the regime established by the
Germans for British, French, or other prisoners of war was at all
distinguished for humanity or kindness and that, alone, the Soviet
prisoners of war were exterminated by the camp administration by various
criminal methods.
Not at all. Lamsdorf Camp factually pursued its object, which was the
extermination of prisoners of war regardless of their nationality or
citizenship. Nevertheless, even in this death camp, in these most
grievous conditions created for prisoners of war of all nationalities,
the German fascists, committing crimes against humanity and faithful to
the principles of their theories, created particularly excruciating
conditions for the people of the Soviet.
I shall submit to the Tribunal, in a few brief excerpts, a series of
documents taken from the archives of this camp and presented to the
Tribunal in the original version. All these documents point to the
manifest discrimination against Soviet prisoners of war, carried out by
the camp administration pursuant to orders of the Reich Government and
of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.
I submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-421 (Document Number
USSR-421), a memorandum on the utilization of the labor of Soviet
prisoners of war, addressed by the chief of the prisoner-of-war
department for the 8th Military District for the administration of
industrial concerns to which the prisoners of war were sent.
I request the Tribunal to accept this document as evidence. It is
submitted in the original. I quote Point 10 of this memorandum. Your
Honors will find the passage quoted in the last paragraph of Page 150 of
the document book. I begin the quotation:
“The following directives have been issued for the treatment of
Russian prisoners of war:
“The Russian prisoners of war have all passed through the school
of Bolshevism, they must be looked upon as Bolsheviks and
treated as such. According to their own instructions they must,
even in captivity, struggle actively against the state which has
captured them. Therefore, we must from the very beginning treat
all Russian prisoners of war with ruthless severity, if they
give us the slightest cause for so doing.
“Complete separation of prisoners of war from the civilian
population must be carried out strictly, in work as well as
during recreation.
“Civilians attempting, some way or another, to approach the
Russian prisoners of war, to exchange ideas with them, to hand
them money, food supplies, _et alia_, will be arrested without
warning, questioned, and handed over to the police.”
I further quote the introduction to this memorandum. Your Honors will
find it on Page 149 of the document book, Paragraph 2:
“The High Command of the Armed Forces has issued directives
regulating the utilization of Soviet prisoner-of-war labor.
According to these directives the utilization of Russian
prisoners of war could be tolerated only if carried out under
far harsher conditions than those applied to prisoners of war of
other nationalities.”
Thus the instructions for a specially cruel regime, to be applied to
Soviet prisoners of war merely because they were Soviet people, were not
the result of any arbitrary action on the part of the Lamsdorf Camp
administration. They were dictated by the Supreme Command of the Armed
Forces. In drafting this memorandum, the Lamsdorf Camp administration
was only carrying out direct orders from the Supreme Command.
I quote two more, fairly characteristic points from the memorandum. I
quote Point 4, which Your Honors will find on Page 149 of the document
book, last paragraph. I begin the quotation—it is a very brief one:
“In contrast to the increased requirements for the safeguarding
of the Russian billets, these—from the viewpoint of
comfort—must be reduced to the most modest requirements.”
I shall endeavor to explain later on what this means. I shall next quote
Point 7, which Your Honors will find on Page 150 of the document book,
Paragraph 3. I begin the quotation:
“The food rations for Russian prisoners of war at work will
differ from the rations allocated to prisoners of other
nationalities. More detailed information on this subject will be
given later.”
Such was the memorandum addressed to the industrialists to whose
concerns the Soviet prisoners of war were sent to work as slaves.
I submit to the Tribunal Exhibit Number USSR-431 (Document Number
USSR-431), which is another memorandum about guarding the Soviet
prisoners of war. The document is submitted in the original and I
request the Tribunal to accept it as evidence into the record.
I ask the permission of the Tribunal to quote a few brief excerpts from
this document. First I quote that part of the document which proves its
origin. The first page of the text indicates it is an appendix to a
“Directive of the OKW—General Office, Armed Forces, POW Section.” Next
follow number and document, which are not so important. I now read the
introduction to this memorandum, which is on Page 150 of the document
book:
“For the first time in this war the German soldier is faced with
an adversary who is educated both in a military and in a
political sense, whose ideal is communism and who sees in
National Socialism his very worst enemy.”