“I hereby certify that 368 incurably insane patients, whose
names appear on the annexed list, died on 29 January
1942.”—Signed—“Kirste, SS Sturmbannführer.”
The second document is submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-410 (Document
Number USSR-410). This is a report of the head of the Security Police
and SD in Latvia, Number 357/42g, dated 28 May 1942. I am quoting the
one paragraph from this document:
“I hereby certify that 243 incurably insane patients, whose
names appear on the enclosed list, died on 14 April
1942.”—Signed—“Kirste, SS Sturmbannführer.”
The third document is submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-398 (Document
Number USSR-398). This is a report by the head of the Security Police
and SD, Latvia, dated 15 March 1943. I will read into the record the one
paragraph of this document:
“I hereby certify that 98 incurably insane patients, whose names
appear on the enclosed list, died on 22 October
1942.”—Signed—“Kirste, SS Sturmbannführer.”
I think I can also omit the next one and a half pages of my statement;
but I would request the Tribunal to accept as evidence the following
document without reading it, as proof of the experiments carried out on
live persons. I submit as Exhibit Number USSR-406 (Document Number
USSR-406) the data about the experiments carried out in another camp,
the Ravensbrück Camp. It contains the results of the investigation by
the Polish State Commission. The photographs contained therein are very
characteristic and I need not comment on them.
I would now request the Tribunal’s permission to summon as witness a
Polish woman, Shmaglevskaya, to have her testify regarding only one
question, the attitude of the German fascists toward the children in the
concentration camps. Would the President permit the calling of this
witness?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly.
[_The witness, Shmaglevskaya, took the stand._]
THE PRESIDENT: Will you first of all tell me your name?
SEVERINA SHMAGLEVSKAYA (Witness): Severina Shmaglevskaya.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat this oath after me: I hereby swear before
God—the Almighty—that I will speak before the Tribunal nothing but the
truth—concealing nothing that is known to me—so help me God, Amen.
[_The witness repeated the oath._]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, were you an internee of
Oswieczim Camp?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: During what period of time were you in the camp
of Oswieczim?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: From 7 October 1942 to January 1945.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Do you have any proof that you were an internee
of this camp?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I have the number which was tattooed on my arm, right
here.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: That is what the Oswieczim inmates call the
“visiting cards”?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, please, Witness, were you an eyewitness
of German SS men’s attitude toward children?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Will you please tell the Tribunal about this?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I could tell about the children who were born in the
concentration camp, about the children who were brought to the
concentration camp with the Jewish transports and who were taken
directly to the crematories, as well as about those children who were
brought to concentration camps and there interned. Already in December
1942 when I went to work about 10 kilometers from Birkenau. . .
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Excuse me. May I interrupt you? Then, you were
in the Birkenau section of the camp?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes, I was in the Camp Birkenau, which is a part of the
Oswieczim Camp, which was called Oswieczim Number 2.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please go on.
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I noticed then a woman in the last month of pregnancy. It
was obvious from her appearance. This woman, together with the others,
had to walk 10 kilometers to the place of work and there she toiled the
whole day, shovel in hands, digging trenches. She was already ill and
she asked the German superintendent, a civilian, for permission to rest.
He refused, laughed at her, and together with another SS man, started
beating her. He scrutinized her work very strictly. Such was the
situation of all the women who were pregnant. And only during the very
last minutes were they permitted to stay away from work. The newborn
children, if Jewish, were immediately put to death.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Pardon me, Witness, what do you mean by “were
immediately put to death”? When was it?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: They were immediately taken away from their mother.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: When the transport arrived?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: No, I am speaking of the children who were born in the
concentration camps. A few minutes after delivery the child was taken
from the mother, who never saw it again. After a few days the mother had
to return to work. In 1942 there were no special blocks in the camp for
the children. At the beginning of 1943, when they started to tattoo the
internees, the children born in the concentration camps were also
branded. The number was tattooed on their legs.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Why on the leg?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Because the child is very small and there was not enough
room on their tiny arms for the number, which contained five digits. The
children did not have special numbers but bore the same numbers as the
grown-ups; that is to say, they were given serial numbers. The children
were placed in a special block and after a few weeks, sometimes after a
month, they were taken away from the camp.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Where to?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: We were never able to find out where these children were
taken. They were taken away all the time this camp existed; that is to
say, in 1943 and 1944. The last convoy of children left the camp in
January 1945. These were not only Polish children, because, as you know,
in Birkenau there were women from all over Europe. Even today we don’t
know whether these children are alive.
I should like, in the name of all the women of Europe who became mothers
in concentration camps, to ask the Germans today, “Where are these
children?”
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, did you yourself see the
children being taken to gas chambers?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I worked very close to the railway which led to the
crematory. Sometimes in the morning I passed near the building the
Germans used as a latrine, and from there I could secretly watch the
transport. I saw many children among the Jews brought to the
concentration camp. Sometimes a family had several children. The
Tribunal is probably aware of the fact that in front of the crematory
they were all sorted out.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Selection was made by the doctors?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Not always by doctors; sometimes by SS men.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: And doctors with them?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes, sometimes, by doctors, too. During such a sorting,
the youngest and the healthiest Jewish women in very small numbers
entered the camp. Women carrying children in their arms or in carriages,
or those who had larger children, were sent into the crematory together
with their children. The children were separated from their parents in
front of the crematory and were led separately into gas chambers.
At that time, when the greatest number of Jews were exterminated in the
gas chambers, an order was issued that the children were to be thrown
into the crematory ovens or the crematory ditches without previous
asphyxiation with gas.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: How should we understand that? Were they thrown
into the ovens alive or were they killed by other means before they were
burned?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: The children were thrown in alive. Their cries could be
heard all over the camp. It is hard to say how many there were.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Nevertheless, there was some reason why this was
done. Was it because the gas chambers were overworked?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: It is very difficult to answer this question. We don’t
know whether they wanted to economize on the gas or whether there was no
room in the gas chambers.
I should also add that it is impossible to determine the number of these
children—like that of the Jews—because they were driven directly to
the crematory, were not registered, were not tattooed, and very often
were not even counted. We, the internees, often tried to ascertain the
number of people who perished in gas chambers; but our estimates of the
number of children executed could only be based on the number of
children’s prams which were brought to the storerooms. Sometimes there
were hundreds of these carriages, but sometimes they sent thousands.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: In one day?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Not always the same. There were days when the gas
chambers worked from early morning until late at night.
I should also like to tell you about the children—and their number is
large—who were interned in concentration camps. At the beginning of
1943 Polish children from Zamoishevna arrived at the concentration camp
with their parents. At the same time Russian children from territories
occupied by the Germans began to arrive. The Jewish children were added
to these. In smaller numbers, one could also meet Italian children in
the concentration camp. The conditions were as difficult for the
children as for adults; perhaps even more onerous. These children didn’t
receive any parcels because there was no one to send them. Red Cross
packages never reached the internees. In 1944 a great number of Italian
and French children arrived at the concentration camp. All these
children suffered from skin diseases, lymphatic boils, and malnutrition;
they were badly clad, often without shoes, and had no possibility of
washing themselves.
During the Warsaw uprising captured children from Warsaw were brought to
the concentration camp. The youngest of the children was a little
6-year-old boy. The children were quartered in special barracks. When
the systematic deportation of internees from Birkenau to the interior of
Germany commenced, these children were used for heavy labor. At the same
time there arrived in the concentration camps the children of Hungarian
Jews, who had to work together with the children who were brought after
the Warsaw uprising. These children worked with two carts which they had
to pull themselves to transport coal, iron machines, wood for floors,
and other heavy things from one camp to the other. They also labored at
dismantling barracks during the liquidation of the camp. These children
remained in the concentration camp until the very end. In January 1945
they were evacuated and had to march to Germany on foot under conditions
as difficult as those of the front, under an SS guard, without food,
covering about 30 kilometers a day.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: During this march the children died of
exhaustion?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I wasn’t in the group where there were children, as I
managed to escape on the second day after this evacuation march.
I should also like to add a few words regarding the methods of
demoralization of the people who were interned in concentration camps.
Everything that we had to suffer was the result of a whole system for
degrading human beings.
The concentration camp cars in which the internees were transported had
previously been used for cattle. When the transports were about to move
the cars were nailed shut. In each one of these cars there was a great
number of people. The convoy of SS men never considered that human
beings have physical needs. Some of these people happened to have
necessary pots with them, and they often had to use them for physical
needs.
For some time I worked at the store, where kitchen utensils of internees
were brought.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Do you mean that you worked in the warehouse
where the belongings of these who were murdered were brought. Did I
understand you correctly?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: No, only the kitchen utensils of people who arrived at
the concentration camps were brought to this warehouse.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: These things were taken away from them?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: What I want to say is that in some cases the kitchen
utensils and pots contained remains of food, and in others there was
human excrement. Each of the workers received a pail of water, and had
to wash a great number of these kitchen utensils during one half of the
day. These kitchen utensils, which were sometimes very badly washed,
were given to people who had just arrived at the concentration camp.
From these pots and pans they had to eat, so that often they caught
dysentery and other diseases from the first day.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, I don’t think the Tribunal wants quite
so much of the detail with reference of these domestic matters.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The witness was called here with a view to
describing the attitude of the Germans toward the children in the camps.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you keep her to the part of her testimony which you
wish to bring out?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, can you add anything else to
your description of the attitude of the Germans towards the children in
the camp? Have you already told us about all of the facts which you know
regarding this question?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I should like to say that the children, as well as the
adults, were also subjected to the system of demoralization and
degradation through famine. Often starvation caused the children to look
for potato peels in garbage heaps.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, do you certify in your
testimony, that sometimes the number of carriages remaining after the
murder of the children amounted to a thousand per day?
SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes, sometimes there were such days.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I have no further question to ask
of the witness.
THE PRESIDENT: Do any of the chief prosecutors wish to ask any
questions?
[_There was no response._]
Do any of the defendants’ counsel wish to ask any questions?
[_There was no response._]
Then the witness can retire.
[_The witness left the stand._]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I should like to take up the next
section of my presentation which deals with the organization, by German
fascism, of secret centers for the extermination of people. These cannot
even be considered concentration camps because the human beings in these
places rarely survived more than 10 minutes or 2 hours at the most. Out
of all these terrible centers, organized by the German fascists, I would
submit to the Tribunal evidence on two such places, that is to say, on
Kwelmno center (Kwelmno is a village in Poland) and on the Treblinka
Camp. In connection with this I would ask the Tribunal to summon one
witness, whose testimony is interesting, because he can be considered a
person who returned from “the other world,” for the road to Treblinka
was called by the German executors themselves “The Road to Heaven.” I am
speaking of the witness Rajzman, a Polish national, and I beg the
Tribunal’s permission to bring this witness here for examination.
THE PRESIDENT: It is just a quarter to 1 now, so we had better have this
witness at 2 o’clock. We will adjourn now.
[_The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours._]
_Afternoon Session_
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal has been informed that the witness who was
referred to yesterday, Wielen, is in a prisoner-of-war camp or in prison
near London, England; and he can, therefore, be brought over here to be
examined at short notice. The Tribunal, therefore, wishes defendants’
counsel to make up their minds whether they wish Colonel Westhoff and
this man Wielen to be brought here during the Prosecution’s case for
them to cross-examine those witnesses or whether they prefer that they
should be brought when the defendants are presenting their case. But, as
I have stated with reference to all witnesses, they can only be called
once. If they are examined as part of the Prosecution’s case, then all
the defendants must exercise their rights, if they wish to do so, of
interrogating the witnesses at that time. If, on the other hand, the
defendants’ counsel decide that they would prefer that these witnesses
should be called during the defendants’ case, then similarly, the
witnesses will be called only once, and the right of examining them must
then be exercised.
At the same time, the statement or the report which was presented
yesterday and which the Tribunal ruled was admissible, will be read in
the course of the Prosecution’s case at such time as the Prosecution
decide.
DR. NELTE: Mr. President, may I be allowed to postpone making a
statement until after discussion with my colleagues. I hope this will be
possible in the course of the afternoon.
THE PRESIDENT: I understand you want to consult the other defendants’
counsel before you let us know. Very well; you will let us know at your
convenience. Go on, Colonel Smirnov.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I should like to proceed with the
interrogation of the witness.
[_The witness Rajzman took the stand._]
THE PRESIDENT: What is your name?
SAMUEL RAJZMAN (Witness): Rajzman, Samuel.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat this oath after me: I hereby swear before
God—the Almighty—that I will speak before the Tribunal—nothing but
the truth—concealing nothing of what is known to me—so help me God,
Amen.
[_The witness repeated the oath._]
THE PRESIDENT: You may sit down.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Witness Rajzman, will you please tell the
Tribunal what was your occupation before the war?
RAJZMAN: Before the war I was an accountant in an export firm.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: When and under what circumstances did you become
an internee of Treblinka Number 2?
RAJZMAN: In August 1942 I was taken away from the Warsaw ghetto.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: How long did you stay in Treblinka?
RAJZMAN: I was interned there for a year—until August 1943.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: That means you are well acquainted with the
rules regulating the treatment of the people in this camp?
RAJZMAN: Yes, I am well acquainted with these rules.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I beg you to describe this camp to the Tribunal.
RAJZMAN: Transports arrived there every day; their number depended on
the number of trains arriving; sometimes three, four, or five trains
filled exclusively with Jews—from Czechoslovakia, Germany, Greece, and
Poland. Immediately after their arrival, the people had to leave the
trains in 5 minutes and line up on the platform. All those who were
driven from the cars were divided into groups—men, children, and women,
all separate. They were all forced to strip immediately, and this
procedure continued under the lashes of the German guards’ whips.
Workers who were employed in this operation immediately picked up all
the clothes and carried them away to barracks. Then the people were
obliged to walk naked through the street to the gas chambers.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I would like you to tell the Tribunal what the
Germans called the street to the gas chambers.
RAJZMAN: It was named Himmelfahrt Street.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: That is to say, the “street to heaven”?
RAJZMAN: Yes. If it interests the Court, I can present a plan of the
camp of Treblinka which I drew up when I was there, and I can point out
to the Tribunal this street on the plan.
THE PRESIDENT: I do not think it is necessary to put in a plan of the
camp, unless you particularly want to.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, I also believe that it is not really
necessary.
Please tell us, how long did a person live after he had arrived in the
Treblinka Camp?
RAJZMAN: The whole process of undressing and the walk down to the gas
chambers lasted, for the men 8 or 10 minutes, and for the women some 15
minutes. The women took 15 minutes because they had to have their hair
shaved off before they went to the gas chambers.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Why was their hair cut off?
RAJZMAN: According to the ideas of the masters, this hair was to be used
in the manufacture of mattresses for German women.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you mean that there was only 10 minutes between the
time when they were taken out of the trucks and the time when they were
put into the gas chambers?
RAJZMAN: As far as men were concerned, I am sure it did not last longer
than 10 minutes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Including the undressing?
RAJZMAN: Yes, including the undressing.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, were the people brought
to Treblinka in trucks or in trains?
RAJZMAN: They were brought nearly always in trains, and only the Jews
from neighboring villages and hamlets were brought in trucks. The trucks
bore inscriptions, “Expedition Speer,” and came from Vinegrova Sokolova
and other places.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, what was the subsequent aspect
of the station at Treblinka?
RAJZMAN: At first there were no signboards whatsoever at the station,
but a few months later the commander of the camp, one Kurt Franz, built
a first-class railroad station with signboards. The barracks where the
clothing was stored had signs reading “restaurant,” “ticket office,”
“telegraph,” “telephone,” and so forth. There were even train schedules
for the departure and the arrival of trains to and from Grodno, Suwalki,
Vienna, and Berlin.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Did I rightly understand you, Witness, that a
kind of make-believe station was built with signboards and train
schedules, with indications of platforms for train departures to
Suwalki, and so forth?
RAJZMAN: When the persons descended from the trains, they really had the
impression that they were at a very good station from where they could
go to Suwalki, Vienna, Grodno, or other cities.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: And what happened later on to these people?
RAJZMAN: These people were taken directly along the Himmelfahrtstrasse
to the gas chambers.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: And tell us, please, how did the Germans behave
while killing their victims in Treblinka?
RAJZMAN: If you mean the actual executions, every German guard had his
special job. I shall cite only one example. We had a Scharführer Menz,
whose special job was to guard the so-called “Lazarett.” In this
“Lazarett” all weak women and little children were exterminated who had
not the strength to go themselves to the gas chambers.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Perhaps, Witness, you can describe this
“Lazarett” to the Tribunal?
RAJZMAN: This was part of a square which was closed in with a wooden
fence. All women, aged persons, and sick children were driven there. At
the gates of this “Lazarett,” there was a large Red Cross flag. Menz,
who specialized in the murder of all persons brought to this “Lazarett,”
would not let anybody else do this job. There might have been hundreds
of persons who wanted to see and know what was in store for them, but he
insisted on carrying out this work by himself.
Here is just one example of what was the fate of the children there. A
10-year-old girl was brought to this building from the train with her
2-year-old sister. When the elder girl saw that Menz had taken out a
revolver to shoot her 2-year-old sister, she threw herself upon him,
crying out, and asking why he wanted to kill her. He did not kill the
little sister; he threw her alive into the oven and then killed the
elder sister.
Another example: They brought an aged woman with her daughter to this
building. The latter was in the last stage of pregnancy. She was brought
to the “Lazarett,” was put on a grass plot, and several Germans came to
watch the delivery. This spectacle lasted 2 hours. When the child was
born, Menz asked the grandmother—that is the mother of this woman—whom
she preferred to see killed first. The grandmother begged to be killed.
But, of course, they did the opposite; the newborn baby was killed
first, then the child’s mother, and finally the grandmother.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, does the name Kurt
Franz mean anything to you?
RAJZMAN: This man was deputy of the camp commander, Stengel, the biggest
murderer in the camp. Kurt Franz was known for having published in
January 1943, a report to the effect that a million Jews had been killed
in Treblinka—a report which had procured for him a promotion from the
rank of Sturmbannführer to that of Obersturmbannführer.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Witness, will you please tell how Kurt Franz
killed a woman who claimed to be the sister of Sigmund Freud. Do you
remember this incident?
RAJZMAN: A train arrived from Vienna. I was standing on the platform
when the passengers left the cars. An elderly woman came up to Kurt
Franz, took out a document, and said that she was the sister of Sigmund
Freud. She begged him to give her light work in an office. Franz read
this document through very seriously and said that there must be a
mistake here; he led her up to the train schedule and said that in 2
hours a train would leave again for Vienna. She should leave all her
documents and valuables and then go to a bathhouse; after the bath she
would have her documents and a ticket to Vienna. Of course, the woman
went to the bathhouse and never returned.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, why was it that you
yourself remained alive in Treblinka?
RAJZMAN: I was already quite undressed, and had to pass through this
Himmelfahrtstrasse to the gas chambers. Some 8,000 Jews had arrived with
my transport from Warsaw. At the last minute before we moved toward the
street an engineer, Galevski, an old friend of mine, whom I had known in
Warsaw for many years, caught sight of me. He was overseer of workers
among the Jews. He told me that I should turn back from the street; and
as they needed an interpreter for Hebrew, French, Russian, Polish, and
German, he managed to obtain permission to liberate me.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: You were therefore a member of the labor unit of
the camp?
RAJZMAN: At first my work was to load the clothes of the murdered
persons on the trains. When I had been in the camp 2 days, my mother, my
sister, and two brothers were brought to the camp from the town of
Vinegrova. I had to watch them being led away to the gas chambers.
Several days later, when I was loading clothes on the freight cars, my
comrades found my wife’s documents and a photograph of my wife and
child. That is all I have left of my family, only a photograph.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, how many persons were brought
daily to the Treblinka Camp?
RAJZMAN: Between July and December 1942 an average of 3 transports of 60
cars each arrived every day. In 1943 the transports arrived more rarely.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, how many persons were
exterminated in the camp, on an average, daily?
RAJZMAN: On an average, I believe they killed in Treblinka from ten to
twelve thousand persons daily.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: In how many gas chambers did the killings take
place?
RAJZMAN? At first there were only 3 gas chambers, but then they built 10
more chambers. It was planned to increase this number to 25.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: But how do you know that? Why do you say,
Witness, that they planned to increase the number of gas chambers to 25?
RAJZMAN: Because all the building material had been brought and put in
the square. I asked, “Why? There are no more Jews.” They said, “After
you there will be others, and there is still a big job to do.”
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: What was the other name of Treblinka?
RAJZMAN: When Treblinka became very well known, they hung up a huge sign
with the inscription “Obermaidanek.”
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: What do you mean by “very well known”?
RAJZMAN: I mean that the persons who arrived in transports soon found
out that it was not a fashionable station, but that it was a place of
death.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, why was this make-believe
station built?
RAJZMAN: It was done for the sole reason that the people on leaving the
trains should not be nervous, should undress calmly, and that there
should not be any incidents.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: If I understand you correctly, this criminal
device had only one purpose—a psychological purpose of reassuring the
doomed during the first moments.
RAJZMAN: Yes, exclusively this psychological purpose.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I have no further questions to ask this witness.
THE PRESIDENT: Does any of the other chief prosecutors wish to ask any
questions?
[_There was no response._]
Do the defendants’ counsel wish to ask any questions?
[_There was no response._]
Then the witness can retire.
[_The witness left the stand._]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I should like to submit to the Tribunal a very
short excerpt from a document which is submitted as an appendix to the
Polish Government report. I mean an affidavit. . .
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, have you got any more witnesses?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, I still have a request to call one more
witness on the last count of my statement. In connection with the
presentation of evidence on this last count I would request the
Tribunal’s permission to summon as witness the Archdeacon of Leningrad
Churches and Rector of the Leningrad Seminary, the Permanent Dean of
Nikolai Bogoiavlensky Cathedral in Leningrad, Nikolai Lomakin.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, and you will be able to include his evidence
today and conclude your statement; is that right?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, Mr. President. I should like to read
another short excerpt from this report of the Polish examining
magistrate, which I have submitted to the Tribunal (Document Number
USSR-340). I shall read only that excerpt which demonstrates the scale
of the crimes. The number of victims murdered at the Treblinka Camp,
according to the Polish magistrate’s estimate, is about 781,000 persons.
At the same time he mentions that the witnesses interrogated by him
testified to the fact that when the clothes of the internees were sorted
out, they even found British passports and diplomas of Cambridge
University. This means that the victims of Treblinka came from every
European country.
I should like further to quote, as proof of the existence of another
secret extermination center, the depositions of Wladislav Bengash, the
district examining magistrate in the city of Lodz, made before the Chief
Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. This
testimony is also an official appendix to the Polish Government report.
I should like to read two excerpts from this statement which would give
us an idea of the methods of extermination practiced in the village of
Helmno. The two paragraphs are on the back of Page 223 of the document
book:
“In the village of Helmno there was an abandoned mansion
surrounded by an old park—the property of the state. Nearby
. . . there was a pine forest with a nursery and dense
undergrowth. At this point the Germans built an extermination
camp. The park was closed in by a high wooden fence, and one
could not see what was going on in the park nor in the house
itself. The inhabitants of the village of Helmno were all
evacuated.”
I interrupt the quotation and pass on to Page 226 of the document book,
first paragraph. I quote:
“The whole organization set up for the extermination of people
was so cunningly devised and carried out that right up to the
last moment the next transport of doomed persons could not guess
the fate of the group which had preceded them. The departure of
transports—consisting of 1,000 to 2,000 persons—from the
village of Sawadki to the extermination camp and the
extermination of the arrivals lasted until 2 o’clock.
“The cars loaded with Jews arrived in the camp and stopped
before the mansion. A representative of the Sonderkommando made
a short speech to the new arrivals. He assured them that they
were going to work in the East. He promised them just treatment
by the authorities and adequate food and, at the same time,
instructed them to take a bath before leaving, while their
clothing was disinfected. From the courtyard the Jews were then
brought to a big warm room on the second floor of the mansion.
There they had to undress, and, clad in underclothes only, they
went downstairs, passed through a corridor with signs such as
‘To the medical officer’ and ‘To the bath’ on the walls. The
arrow which showed the way ‘To the bath’ pointed toward the
exit. The Germans told the Jews who came out into the yard that
they would go to the bath in a closed car; and, true enough, a
large car was brought up to this door so that the Jews coming
out of the house found themselves on a ladder leading straight
inside the car. The loading of the Jews into the car lasted a
very short time. Police were on guard in the corridor and near
the car. With blows and shouts they forced the Jews to enter the
car, stunning them, so that they could not attempt any
resistance. When all the Jews were piled inside the car, the
doors were carefully locked, and the chauffeur switched on the
motor, so that those in the car were poisoned by the exhaust
gas.”
I consider it unnecessary to quote that part of the report which
testifies that the car in question was the “murder van” already well
known to the Court.
I will just quote one sentence from Page 10 of this document, Paragraph
3:
“Thus, at least 340,000 men, women, and children, from newborn
babies to aged persons, were exterminated in Helmno.”
I believe that I can end here that part of my statement which concerns
the secret exterminating centers. And now I pass on to the part of my
statement dealing with religious persecutions.
In the Soviet Union as well as in the occupied countries of Eastern
Europe, the German fascist criminals brought shame upon themselves by
their mockery of the religious feelings and faith of the people, by
persecuting and murdering the priesthood of all religious creeds. In
proof of this I shall read a few excerpts from the pertinent reports of
the various governments.
On Page 70 of the Russian text, which corresponds to Page 80 of the
document book, we find the description of the persecution of the Czech
Orthodox Church by the German fascist criminals. I quote only one
paragraph:
“The hardest blow was directed against the Czech Orthodox
Church. The Orthodox parishes in Czechoslovakia were ordered by
the Berlin Ministry for Church Affairs to leave the jurisdiction
of Belgrade and Constantinople dioceses and to become
subordinate to the Berlin bishop. The Czech Bishop Gorazd was
executed together with two other priests of the Orthodox Church.
By a special order of the Protector Daluege, issued in September
1942, the Orthodox Church of Serbian-Constantinople jurisdiction
was dissolved on Czech territory, its religious activity
forbidden, and its property confiscated.”
On Page 69 of the same report, which corresponds to Page 79 of the
document book, in the last paragraph, there is a description of the
persecutions of the Czech National Church, which was persecuted by the
German fascists, according to the report, “Just because of its name,
because of its sympathy for the Hus movement, the democratic
constitution, and because of the role it played in founding the Czech
Republic.” The Czech national church in Slovakia was prohibited and its
property confiscated by the Germans in 1940.
The Protestant church in Czechoslovakia was also persecuted. The excerpt
which I would like to read may be found on Page 80 of the document book,
Paragraph 2:
“The Protestant churches were deprived of the freedom to preach
the Gospel. The German Secret State Police watched carefully to
see that the clergy observed the restrictions imposed on it.
Nazi censorship went so far as to prohibit the singing of hymns
which praised God for liberating the nation from the enemy. Some
passages from the Bible were not allowed to be read in public at
all. The Nazis strongly opposed the promulgation of certain
Christian doctrines, especially those which proclaimed the
equality of all men before God, the universal character of
Christ’s Church, the Hebraic origins of the Gospel, et cetera.
Any reference to Hus, Ziska, the Hussites, and their
achievements, as well as to Masaryk and his doctrines, were
strictly forbidden. Even religious text books were confiscated.
Church leaders were especially persecuted. Scores of ministers
were thrown into concentration camps, among them the general
secretary of the Christian Student Movement in Czechoslovakia.
One of the assistants of their president was executed.”
On Page 68 of this report we find information as to the persecution of
the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia. This excerpt is on Page 79 of the
document book, second paragraph. I quote a short excerpt:
“In the territory annexed to Germany after the Munich Pact a
number of Czech priests were robbed of their property and
expelled. . . . Pilgrimages to national shrines were prohibited
in 1939.
“At the outbreak of the war 437 Catholic priests were among the
thousands of Czech patriots arrested and sent to concentration
camps as hostages. Venerable church dignitaries were dragged to
concentration camps in Germany. It was a common thing to see on
the road near the concentration camps a priest, dressed in rags,
exhausted, pulling a cart, and behind him a youth in the SS
uniform, whip in hand.”
The believers and clergy in Poland also suffered most ruthless
persecution. I quote short excerpts from the Polish Government report,
which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 10 of the document
book:
“By January 1941 about 700 priests were killed; 3,000 were in
prisons or in concentration camps.”
The persecution of the clergy began immediately after the capture of
Polish territory by the Germans, according to Page 42 of the Polish
report:
“The day after the occupation of Warsaw the Germans arrested
some 330 priests. . . . In Kraków the closest collaborators of
Archbishop Sapieha were arrested and sent to Germany. The
Reverend Canon Czeplicki, 75 years of age, and his assistant
were executed in November 1939.”
The report of the Polish Government quotes the following words of
Cardinal Hlond:
“The clergy were persecuted very violently. Those who were
permitted to stay were subjected to humiliation, were paralyzed
in the exercise of their pastoral duties and were stripped of
parochial benefices and of all their rights. They were entirely
at the mercy of the Gestapo. . . . It is like the Apocalyptic
vision of the _Fides Depopulata_.”
On the territory of the Soviet Union the persecution of religion and
clergy took the form of sacrilegious desecration of churches,
destruction of shrines connected with the patriotic feelings of the
Russian people, and the murder of priests.
I beg the Tribunal to call the witness of the Soviet Prosecution, the
Archdean of the churches of the City of Leningrad, the Very Reverend
Nikolai Ivanovitch Lomakin.
[_The witness Lomakin took the stand._]
THE PRESIDENT: Would you tell me your name?
THE VERY REVEREND NIKOLAI IVANOVITCH LOMAKIN (Witness): Nikolai
Ivanovitch Lomakin.
THE PRESIDENT: Is it the practice for you to take an oath before giving
evidence or not?
LOMAKIN: I am an Orthodox priest.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you take the oath?
LOMAKIN: I belong to the Orthodox Church, and when I entered the
priesthood in 1917 I took the oath to tell the truth all my life. This
oath I remember even to the present day.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. You can sit, if you wish.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, are you the Archdean of
the Churches of the City of Leningrad? Does that mean that all the
churches in that city are subordinate to you?
LOMAKIN: Yes, all the churches are directly subordinate to me. I am
obliged to visit them periodically to inspect their condition and the
life of the parish. I must then make my report to His Grace the
Metropolitan.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The churches of the Leningrad region were also
under your authority?
LOMAKIN: They are not subordinated to me at the present time, but during
the siege of Leningrad by the Germans and the occupation of the
Leningrad region they were under my authority.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: After the liberation of the Leningrad region
from the German occupation, were you obliged to visit and inspect the
churches throughout the region on the request of the Patriarch?
LOMAKIN: Not by request of the Patriarch, but by request of the
Metropolitan Alexei, who was then at the head of the Leningrad Eparchy.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please speak more slowly.
LOMAKIN: Not by request of Patriarch Alexei—the Patriarch was then
Sergei—but by request of Metropolitan Alexei, who administered the
Eparchy and later became Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, where were you during
the siege of Leningrad?
LOMAKIN: I was all the time in Leningrad.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: If I am not mistaken, you were decorated with
the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad”?
LOMAKIN: Yes, on my birthday I was awarded this high government medal
for my participation in the heroic defense of Leningrad.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, at the beginning of the siege
of Leningrad, at which church did you officiate?
LOMAKIN: At the beginning of the siege I was in charge of the
Georgievsky Cemetery—I was rector of the church of the cemetery of St.
Nicholas.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: It was, therefore, a cemetery church?
LOMAKIN: Yes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Maybe you will be able to relate to the Tribunal
the observations you made during your office in this church?
LOMAKIN: Yes, of course.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Will you please.
LOMAKIN: In 1941 and at the beginning of 1942 I was rector of the
cemetery church, and I witnessed certain tragic scenes which I should
like to relate in detail to the Tribunal.
A few days after the treacherous attack on the Soviet Union by Hitlerite
Germany I witnessed the rapid increase of masses for the dead. The dead
were mostly children, women, and old people—victims of the air raids on
the city by German planes—peaceful citizens of our town. Before the war
the number of dead varied from 30 to 50 persons a day, but during the
war this number rose quickly to several hundred a day. It was physically
impossible to bring the bodies inside the church. Long rows of boxes and
coffins with remnants of the victims stood outside the church; the
horribly mutilated bodies of Leningrad’s peaceful citizens—victims of
barbarous air raids of the German planes.
Side by side with the increasing number of funeral masses for the
deceased, there grew up the practice of saying the so-called requiems in
absence. The faithful could not bring to the church the bodies of their
relatives or friends, as they lay buried under the ruins and the debris
of the houses destroyed by the Germans. The church was each day
surrounded by masses of coffins—100, 200 coffins—over which one priest
used to sing a funeral service.
Forgive me—it is difficult for me to speak of all this, for as the
Tribunal already knows, I lived through the whole siege. I, myself, was
dying of hunger. I saw the terrible, uninterrupted air raids of the
German planes. I was hurt several times.
In the winter of 1941-42 the situation of besieged Leningrad was
particularly terrible. The ceaseless air raids of the Luftwaffe, the
shelling of the city, the lack of light, of water, of transportation, of
sewerage in the city, and finally the terrible starvation—from all
this, the peaceful citizens of the town suffered privations unique in
the history of mankind. They were indeed heroes, who suffered for their
country, these innocent, peaceful citizens.
Together with all that I have just told you, I could describe other
terrible scenes which I witnessed during the period when I was the
rector of this cemetery church. The cemetery was very often bombed by
German planes. Please imagine the scene when people who have found
eternal rest—their coffins, bodies, bones, skulls—all this is thrown
out on the ground. Tombstones and crosses lay scattered in disorder, and
people who had just suffered the loss of their kin, had to suffer once
more seeing the huge craters made by bombs sometimes on the very spot
where they had just buried their relatives or friends, had to suffer
once more, knowing that they had no peace.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, during the period of hunger,
in what proportion did the number of burial services at this cemetery
church increase?
LOMAKIN: I have already said that as a result of the terrible conditions
imposed by the siege, as a result of the nonstop air raids, as a result
of the shelling of the city, the number of burial services reached an
incredible figure—up to several thousand a day. I would especially like
to relate to the Tribunal the facts which I observed on 7 February 1942.
A month earlier, quite exhausted by hunger and the long walk from my
house which I had to the church every day, I fell ill. Two of my
assistant priests replaced me.
On 7 February, on the Parents’ Saturday before the beginning of Lent I
came for the first time since my illness to my church. A horrifying
picture was before my eyes. The church was surrounded by piles of
bodies, some of which even blocked the entrance. These piles numbered
from 30 to 100 bodies. They were not only at the church door, but also
around the church. I witnessed people, exhausted from starvation, who,
in their desire to bring the bodies of their relatives to the cemetery,
would fall down themselves and die on the spot beside the body. Such
scenes I witnessed quite frequently.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Witness, will you please answer the following
question: What damage was done to the Leningrad churches?
LOMAKIN: Your Honors, as I have already reported to you, my duty as
Archdean of these churches was to observe from time to time the
condition of the churches in the city and to report in detail to the
metropolitan. The following were my personal observations and
impressions:
The Church of the Resurrection on Griboiedov Canal, which is a very
remarkable artistic church, was very seriously damaged by shelling from
the German enemy. The domes were destroyed, the roofs pierced by shells,
numerous frescos were either partly damaged or entirely destroyed. The
Holy Trinity Cathedral in the Ismailovskaya Fortress, a memorial
ornamented by beautiful artistic friezes commemorating the heroic siege
of Izmailovskaya Fortress, was severely damaged by systematic shelling
and bombing by the Germans. The roof was broken in. All the sculpture
was broken; only a few fragments remained.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, how many churches were
destroyed and how many were severely damaged in Leningrad?
LOMAKIN: The Church of the Serafimov Cemetery was almost completely
destroyed by artillery fire; this church was not only hit by shells, but
great damage was caused to it by air raids. The Luftwaffe caused great
damage to churches. I must first of all mention two churches which
suffered most from the Leningrad siege. To begin with, the Church of
Prince Vladimir, where, by the way, I have the honor of officiating at
the present time. In 1942 from February until the first of July, I was
rector of this church; and I should like to acquaint Your Honors with
the following very interesting but terrible incident which occurred on
Easter Eve of 1942.
On Easter Saturday, at 5 p. m. Moscow time, the Luftwaffe carried out a
mass raid over the city. At 5:30 two bombs fell on the southwestern part
of the Church of Prince Vladimir. The faithful were at that moment
waiting to approach the picture of our Lord’s interment. There was an
enormous mass of faithful, who wished to fulfill their Christian duty. I
saw some 30 persons lying wounded in the portico and in different places
about the church. They lay helpless for some time, until we could give
them medical aid.
It was a scene of utter confusion. People who had had no time to enter
the church tried to run away and hide in the air-raid ditches, while the
others who had entered scattered in terror against the walls of the
church, awaiting death. The concussion of the bombs was so heavy that
for some period of time there was a constant fall of shattered glass,
mortar, and pieces of stucco. When I came down from a room on the second
floor, I was quite astounded by the scene before me. People flocked
around me:
“Little father, are you alive? Little father, how can we
understand this? How can we believe what was said about the
Germans—that they believe in God, that they love Christ, that
they will not harm those who believe in God? Where is their
faith then, if they can shoot about like this on Easter eve?”
I must add that the air-raid lasted right through the night until Easter
morning; this night of love, this night of Christian joy, the
Resurrection Night, was turned by the Germans into a night of blood, a
night of destruction, and a night of suffering for innocent people. Two
or three days passed. In the Church of Prince Vladimir—it was obvious
to me, as rector—and in other churches and cemeteries the victims of
the Luftwaffe Easter raid appeared: women, children, and aged. . .
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, you also visited the Leningrad
region to verify the condition of the churches. Were you not a witness
to. . .
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, if your examination is going on, I think
perhaps we’d better adjourn now for 10 minutes.
[_A recess was taken._]
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Nelte, can you let the Tribunal know what your wishes
are about General Westhoff and Wielen?
DR. NELTE: In reply to the suggestion by the Court, as to calling the
witnesses Westhoff and Wielen, I should like to make the following
statement after discussion with my colleagues:
First, we abstain from calling both witnesses at this stage of the
proceedings provided that the Prosecution also abstains at present from
reading out Documents RF-1450 and USSR-413 at this stage of the Trial.
Second, I call General Westhoff as witness; and I gather, from the
Court’s suggestion, that this witness has been allowed.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly.
Mr. Roberts, could Sir David attend here in the course of a short time,
do you think?
MR. ROBERTS: He is at the Chief Prosecutors’ meeting now, but I can get
him in a few moments if there is a question which I couldn’t answer on
his behalf.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think perhaps it will be best if he were here. It
is only a question, really, as to whether the document should be read.
MR. ROBERTS: Well, I am told the meeting has just ended. I didn’t quite
get what Your Lordship said.
THE PRESIDENT: I said that the question was whether the document is to
be read by the Prosecution. Dr. Nelte, as I understand it, was
suggesting that perhaps the Prosecution would forego their right to read
the document.
MR. ROBERTS: My Lord, speaking for myself, I feel quite certain that so
far as the British Delegation is concerned we should not forego reading
that document. We do put it forward, or our Russian colleagues put it
forward, as a very cold-blooded murder of brave men; and we are most
anxious that the document should be read.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
DR. NELTE: Mr. President, I have not made it a condition that the
documents should not be submitted at all, but only at this stage of the
proceedings.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but you see, the Prosecution want it read as part of
the Prosecution case. If it is postponed until your case begins, it will
not be read as part of the Prosecution case.
DR. NELTE: I think that the Prosecution, when cross-examining the
witness, could present the documents they want to submit now.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we can’t get Wielen over here tomorrow, and the
case of the Prosecution, we hope, will close tomorrow.
DR. NELTE: Yes, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Therefore, the document must be read tomorrow. We will
then get General Westhoff and Wielen over for you at any time that is
convenient to you.
DR. NELTE: I think the Prosecution has reserved the right to adduce, at
any time during the proceedings, other charges and documents. This
follows from the Indictment. It therefore seems to me that the
Prosecution, without prejudice to its case, could postpone the
presentation of this charge until I have examined the witness.
GENERAL RUDENKO: I should like to add something to what my colleague,
Mr. Roberts, has said. The point is that the document presented to the
Tribunal was put at our disposal by the British Delegation and was
submitted by us in accordance with Article 21 of the Charter. This
document, being an irrefutable proof, can be read into the record or
not, in accordance with the decision of the Tribunal of 17 December
1945.
If the Defense, as Sir David already stated this morning, intends to
oppose this document by summoning witnesses, it is their right. This is
what I wanted to add to Mr. Roberts’ statement.
MR. ROBERTS: Perhaps Your Lordship would allow me to add one thing. The
Tribunal has ruled that this document is admissible, and it has been
admitted, as I understand; and therefore, I would submit that it ought
to be read as part of the Prosecution case, or perhaps it might be
equally convenient after the discussion on organizations.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, yes, I see that Sir David has just come into court.
Sir David, I think the view the Tribunal take is that it is a matter for
the Prosecution to decide when they put in this document; and if they
wish to put it in now, or as Mr. Roberts suggested, after the argument
on organizations, they are at liberty to do so. Then these witnesses can
be called at a later stage when the defendants’ counsel wish them to be
called.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: My Lord, I entirely agree with what I am told
Mr. Roberts has put forward. We consider that this document ought to be
put in as part of the case for the Prosecution. If it will be of any
assistance to counsel for the defendants, I shall be glad to take up the
matter of the time that shall be fixed, after the organizations; but the
reading of the document certainly should be part of the Prosecution’s
case.
THE PRESIDENT: The document may be read, then, at the end of the
Prosecution’s case.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Yes.
May I apologize to the Tribunal for being absent. There was other
business, connected with the Trial, in which I was engaged.
THE PRESIDENT: Certainly.
Then, Dr. Nelte, the Tribunal would like you to let us know when you
wish those witnesses called, so that we can communicate with London in
order that the witness, Wielen, may be brought over here.
DR. NELTE: As to when exactly during my presentation the witnesses
should appear I cannot say, for I cannot say when the stage for the
presentation of my witnesses will be reached. I think the Court is in a
better position to judge when it will be my turn for the presentation of
evidence. In the course of the examination of those witnesses who will
be granted to me, I shall also question this witness.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Nelte, you see these witnesses not only affect your
client, but they affect the Defendant Göring and the Defendant
Kaltenbrunner; and therefore, what the Tribunal wish is that you, in
consultation with Dr. Stahmer and counsel for Kaltenbrunner, should let
the Tribunal know what would be the most appropriate time for those two
witnesses to be called, so that time may be given for summoning Wielen
here and letting the prison authorities know about Westhoff.
DR. NELTE: We spoke about that and have agreed that the witnesses be
called during my presentation.
I just understand from Sir David that we are all agreed that the
documents be presented after the case against the organizations.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: May I continue my questioning, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT: Continue, yes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I have one last question to put to you, Witness.
Tell me, when you left the city to go into the country to inspect the
churches, did you sometimes witness instances of derision of religion
and desecration of churches?
LOMAKIN: Yes, I did.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Would you be kind enough to relate this to the
Tribunal?
LOMAKIN: In June 1943, by order of Metropolitan Alexei, I went to visit
the district of Old Peterhof and Oranienbaum. From personal observations
and from my conversations with the members of the church I learned the
following, which I know to be true, and which was all corroborated later
on when New Peterhof was freed from the German occupation. All that I
shall now relate may be verified by inspection.
In Old Peterhof soon after the Germans occupied New Peterhof, exactly
within 10 days, all churches were destroyed by the enemy’s artillery
fire and aircraft. At the same time the Luftwaffe and German artillery
forces timed their raids so that not only would the churches be
demolished, but the peaceful worshipers who sought refuge there from the
fighting and the artillery fire would be killed as well.
All the churches in Old Peterhof, namely the Znamenskaya Church, the
Holy Trinity Cemetery Church, and the small Church of Lazarus attached
to it, the church museum at the Villa of Empress Maria Feodorovna, the
Serafimovskij Church and the church of the military cemetery—all these
were destroyed by the Germans. I can state with certainty that under the
ruins of the Cemetery Church of the Holy Trinity and the Lazarus Church,
in their crypts, as well as in the cemetery tombs and vaults of the
Znamenskaya Church, up to 5,000 persons perished.
The Germans wouldn’t let the survivors come outside. It is easy to
picture the sanitary conditions and the general state of the people
confined in those church crypts—air fouled by the breathing and
excrements of these unfortunate people, frightened to death. They
fainted, they grew dizzy, but their slightest attempt to leave the
church and come out into fresh air was punished by shots from the
inhuman fascists.
Much time has already passed since that time, but I remember especially
well one instance which a close relative of the people about whom I am
now going to speak related to me. A little girl came out of the crypt of
Trinity Church for a breath of fresh air; she was immediately shot by a
German sniper. The mother followed in order to pick her up, but she also
fell down bleeding at the side of her child. The citizen Romashova, who
related this to me, is still alive, and I have seen her many times—she
recalls this incident with horror. And many were the incidents of that
kind.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, in the other districts of the
Leningrad region did you ever witness the desecration of shrines and
sacred objects?
LOMAKIN: Yes, for example in Pskov. Pskov presented a horrible picture
of ruins and devastation. I feel that I must recall to Your Honors that
Pskov is a museum city, a shrine of the Orthodox faith, ornamented by
numerous churches, and situated on the Velikaya River and its
tributaries.
In that city, there were no less then 60 churches of various sizes and
various denominations. Of these 39 were not only priceless monuments of
church architecture of high artistic value, with beautiful icons and
frescos, but also wonderful historical monuments, reflecting all the
greatness and century-old multiform history of the Russian people. The
Kremlin (walled city)—the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. . .
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Well, what did the Germans do to those churches?
LOMAKIN: That is just what I want to relate. The Kremlin—the whole Holy
Trinity Cathedral, with its remarkable altar screen, was plundered by
the German soldiers. Everything was carried out of it as well as out of
all the other churches in the city. You won’t find even a single tiny
icon left, not a single church vestment or sacramental vessel—all has
been taken away by the Germans. The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity—I
speak again of this Cathedral. I almost paid with my life for my visit
there. Just half an hour before my arrival a mine exploded right in
front of the altar gates. The gates were destroyed; the altar was
blood-spattered. Before my own eyes I saw three of our Soviet soldiers
who had perished in the explosion, right in front of the altar.
Mines were also laid in other places. I could give another interesting
detail. Pskov was liberated in August 1944, but on Epiphany, in January
1946, another mine exploded, killing two persons. Likewise the church of
St. Vasili-on-the-Hill was also mined. There a mine was laid at the very
entrance to the church. In all the churches the abundance of all kinds
of refuse, dirt, bottles, cans, _et cetera_, was strikingly noticeable.
The Cathedral of St. John’s Monastery was turned by the Germans into a
stable. In another church, the Church of the Epiphany, they set up a
wine cellar. In a third church I saw a depot of fuel—coal, peat, _et
cetera_. But why speak of individual churches? Wherever we turn, our
hearts bleed at the spectacle of all the suffering, all the plunder,
brought about by people who shouted all over Europe about their culture,
who despised mankind, while some proclaimed their belief in God. What
kind of faith is theirs!
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I have no more questions to ask
the witness.
LOMAKIN: I should like to ask the Prosecutor’s permission to say a few
more words about what happened in Leningrad.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: With regard to that, you must ask the Tribunal.
LOMAKIN: I am slightly diverging from the usual order. I beg your
permission, Your Honors.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
LOMAKIN: The Church of Nikolai Bogoiavlensky is the Cathedral of
Leningrad. The present Patriarch Alexei lived at this church during the
siege. Since I served there from July 1942 to the end of the war, I
witnessed on numerous occasions artillery fire directed at the
cathedral. One wonders what kind of military objectives those heroic
warriors could seek in our holy church! On high feast days or ordinary
Sundays immediately the artillery would begin fire. And what a fire! In
the first week of Lent in 1943, from the early morning and until late at
night, neither we, the clergy, nor the worshipers praying in the church
could possibly leave it. Outside was death and destruction. With my own
eyes I saw some fifty persons—I don’t know exactly how many—members of
my congregation, killed right near the church. They tried to leave in
haste before the “all clear” signal, and death met them near the church.
In this sacred cathedral I had to bury thousands of peaceful citizens
torn to pieces, victims of the predatory raids of the air force and
artillery. An ocean of tears was shed here during the memorial services.
During one of the bombardments His Grace, our Metropolitan Alexei,
escaped death by a hair’s breadth, as several shell fragments smashed
his cell.
I should just like to add, not wishing to take up too much of your time,
that it is a remarkable thing that most of the intensive artillery fire
on Leningrad always took place on feast days; the houses of God, tramway
stops, and hospitals were put under fire, and destroyed with all means.
The homes of peaceful citizens were bombed.
It would take too long, Your Honors, to relate everything which I have
seen during these grim war days of blood and sorrow of the
Leningradians. But I just want to say in conclusion that the Russian
people and the people of Leningrad have fulfilled their duty to their
fatherland to the very end. In spite of the heavy artillery fire and
raids of the Luftwaffe there was organized efficiency and order, and the
Orthodox Church shared this suffering. By prayer and preaching of God’s
word, she brought consolation and gave courage to the hearts of the
faithful. She has laid an unsparing sacrifice on the altar of the
fatherland.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I have no more questions to ask the witness, Mr.
President.
THE PRESIDENT: Do any of the other members of the Prosecution wish to
ask any question?
[_Each indicated that he had no question._]
Do any of the defendants’ counsel wish to ask any questions?
[_Each indicated that he had no question._]
Then the witness can retire.
[_The witness left the stand._]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: May I say a few words by way of concluding my
report?
THE PRESIDENT: You may, certainly.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Your Honors, in his note of 6 January 1942 the
People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R. declared that the
Soviet Government considered it their duty to inform the “entire
civilized world and all honest people throughout the world” of the
monstrous crimes committed by the Hitlerite bandits.
In the battles of this war, the greatest ever fought by men, millions of
honest people achieved victory over fascist Germany. The will of
millions of honest people created this International Tribunal for the
purpose of judging the main criminals of war. Behind him each
representative of the Prosecution feels the invisible support of these
millions of honest people, in whose name he accuses the leaders of the
fascist conspiracy.
The honor of concluding the presentation of the evidence submitted by
the Soviet Prosecution has fallen to my lot. I know that at this very
moment millions of citizens of my country and with them millions of
honest persons throughout the world await a just and speedy verdict.
Your Honors, may I conclude with this.
MR. DODD: May it please the Tribunal, I have a few matters that will
take just a very few minutes, with respect to the record.
In the course of the presentation of the 23rd day of November 1945,
pertaining to the economic aspects of the conspiracy, certain documents
were read from; but they were not formally offered in evidence. At the
time, the Tribunal indicated that sufficient time had not been allowed
Counsel for the Defense to make an examination of these documents, and
we did not offer them and said instead that we would make them available
in the defendants’ Information Center. We did so, and they have been
there all of the time since. They should be offered formally and, as the
extracts were read, there is no necessity for going through that again.
They are as follows:
The first one referred to in the record was one bearing the Document
Number EC-14, which we offer as Exhibit USA-758. Extracts from this
document were quoted on Page 297 of the record (Volume II, Page 233).
The next one is Document Number EC-27, which we offer as Exhibit Number
USA-759. Extracts from this document were quoted on Pages 279 and 280 of
the record (Volume II, Page 221).
The third one is Document Number EC-28, which we offer as Exhibit Number
USA-760. Extracts from this document were quoted on Page 275 of the
record (Volume II, Pages 218, 219). On that page the document was
erroneously referred to as USA Exhibit 23, but the correct number is
Exhibit Number USA-760.
Document Number EC-174 was quoted from on pages 303 and 304 of the
record (Volume II, Page 238). We offer that as Exhibit Number USA-761.
Document Number EC-252—extracts from it were quoted on Page 303 of the
record (Volume II, Page 238). We offer it as Exhibit Number USA-762.
Document Number EC-257—extracts from this document were quoted on Page
303 of the record (Volume II, Page 237). We offer it as Exhibit Number
USA-763.
Document Number EC-404—we summarized and quoted from this document on
Pages 291 and 292 of the record (Volume II, Page 229). We now offer it
as Exhibit Number USA-764.
Document Number D-157 was read from, on Page 288 of the record (Volume
II, Page 227), and we now offer it as Exhibit Number USA-765.
Document Number D-167 was summarized and extracts were quoted from it on
Page 298 of the record (Volume II, Page 234), and we offer it as Exhibit
Number USA-766.
Document Number D-203—extracts from it were quoted on Pages 283 to 286
of the record (Volume II, Pages 224-226), and we offer it as Exhibit
Number USA-767.
Document Number D-204, which was quoted from on Pages 286 and 287 of the
record (Volume II, Pages 226-227), is offered as Exhibit Number USA-768.
Document Number D-206—extracts from this paper were quoted on Pages 297
and 298 of the record (Volume II, Page 234), and it is offered as
Exhibit Number USA-769.
Document Number D-317—extracts were quoted from it on Pages 289 and 290
of the record (Volume II, Page 227), and we offer it as Exhibit Number
USA-770.
Now in addition to these documents, Lieutenant Bryson, who presented the
case for the Prosecution against the individual Defendant Schacht,
offered in evidence Documents EC-437 and 258 in their entirety, on the
condition that the French and Russian translations subsequently be filed
with the Tribunal. Now, EC-437 was assigned as Exhibit Number USA-624
and EC-258 was assigned as Exhibit Number USA-625, and the Tribunal
ruled on Page 2543 of the record (Volume V, Page 129) that the documents
would be received in their entirety only after the translations had been
completed. Copies of these documents in all four languages have been
filed with the Tribunal and in the defendants’ Information Center, and
that was done a few weeks ago and in accordance therefore with the
ruling of the Tribunal. We now offer these documents in evidence in
their entirety, and we assume that they will retain the numbers Exhibit
Number USA-624 and Exhibit Number USA-625.
Also in the trial brief on the individual responsibility of the
Defendant Schacht, which was recently submitted to the Tribunal and to
the defendants’ counsel, reference is made to a few documents which have
not already, or heretofore, been offered in evidence. I think there is
no necessity for taking the time of the Tribunal to read from these
documents, and instead we have had pertinent extracts made available in
German, French, Russian, and English; copies in all the four languages
have already been distributed to the Tribunal and placed in the
defendants’ Information Center. They are these documents, and we ask
that they be received in evidence:
They are: Document Number EC-384, which we offer as Exhibit Number
USA-771; Document Number EC-406, offered as Exhibit Number USA-772;
Document Number EC-456, offered as Exhibit Number USA-773; Document
Number EC-495, offered as Exhibit Number USA-774; Document Number
EC-497, offered as Exhibit Number USA-775; and in addition an
interrogation of the Defendant Schacht, dated 11 July 1945, which is one
of those referred to in the trial brief as Exhibit Number USA-776; and,
finally, with respect to this economic aspect of this person, we
respectfully ask that the secret minutes of the meeting of the
ministers, dated 30 May 1936, which are included in the set of
documents, Number 1301-PS, and assigned Exhibit Number USA-123, be
received in evidence in their entirety. These minutes have been made
available to the Tribunal and the defendants’ counsel in all four
languages.