THE PRESIDENT: I call on General Rudenko for the Soviet Union.
GENERAL R. A. RUDENKO (Chief Prosecutor for the U.S.SR.): May it please Your Honors, on delivering my opening statement, the last to be made at this Trial by the chief prosecutors, I am fully conscious of the supreme historical importance of these proceedings.
For the first time in the history of mankind is justice confronted with crimes committed on so vast a scale, with crimes which have entailed such grave consequences. It is for the first time that criminals who have seized an entire state and made this state an instrument of their monstrous crimes appear before a court of justice.
It is also for the first time that, by judging these defendants, we sit in judgment not only on the defendants themselves, but also on the criminal institutions and organizations which they created and on the inhuman theories and ideas which they promulgated with a view to committing crimes against peace and humanity, crimes which were designed by them far in advance of their perpetration.
Nine months ago, after having tortured for a number of years of bloody warfare the freedom-loving Cations of Europe, Hitlerite Germany collapsed under the hammer blows of the combined armed forces of the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition. On 8 May 1945 Hitlerite Germany was compelled to lay down her arms, having suffered a military and political defeat hitherto unequalled in history.
Hitlerism imposed upon the world a war which caused the freedom-loving nations innumerable privations and endless sufferings. Millions of people fell victims of the war initiated by the Hitlerite brigands who embarked on a dream of conquering the free peoples of the democratic countries and of establishing the rude of Hitlerite tyranny in Europe and in the entire world.
Note-Because citations were not required by the Tribunal for documents quoted in the opening address of the Russian Prosecution it has been impossible to verify the wording against the text of the original documents. In the presentation of 8 February many of the quotations from documents originally in the German and English languages have been translated into Russian and then translated again into English for the record of the Trial. For this publication these retranslations have been used in some instances.
146
8 Feb. 46
The day has come when the peoples of the world demand a just retribution and a severe punishment of the Hitlerite hangmen, when they demand severe punishment of the criminals.
All the outrages individually or jointly committed by the major Hitlerite war criminals, all together and each one individually, will be considered by you, Your Honors, with all the thoroughness and attention which the law, the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, justice, and our conscience require.
We charge the defendants with the initiation, instigation, and direct execution, individually and through their agents, of the criminal plan of conspiracy. To the execution of this plan was committed the entire machinery of the Hitlerite State with all its governmental agencies and institutions, with its army, police, the so-called public agencies, as set out in the Indictment and particularly in Appendix B.
Before entering upon the examination of the concrete events and facts which lie at the foundation of the charges raised against the defendants, I think it necessary to dwell on certain general legal questions connected with the proceedings. This is indispensable, because the present Trial is the first one in history where justice is being done by an agency of an international legal system-the International Military Tribunal. This also becomes necessary, since special consideration was given to questions of law in both the written and oral motions made before the Tribunal,
The first and the most general legal problem which, in my opinion, has to be considered by the Tribunal is the problem of legality. Contrary to the system of fascist tyranny and arbitrary fascist practices, the great democracies which have established this Tribunal, as well as all democracies throughout the world, exist and act on a firm legal basis. But neither the concrete law nor the concept of law can be identical in the national and in the international meaning of these terms. Len in its meaning in national law is an act of legislative power of a state, clothed in a proper form. In its meaning in international law it is different. In the international field there never existed, nor now exist, any legislative bodies which are competent to pass laws which are binding on individual states. The legal system of international relations, which include those relations which are manifested in the co-ordinated effort to combat criminality, is based on different legal principles. In the international field the basic source of law and the only legislative act is a treaty, an agreement between states. Accordingly, just as duly promulgated laws passed by legislative bodies and properly published are an absolute and sufficient legal basis for the administration of national justice, so in the international field an international treaty is an absolute and sufficient legal basis for the
147
8 Feb. 46
implementation and the activity of agencies of international justice created by the signatories.
The International Military Tribunal was established for the trial and punishment of major war criminals on the basis of the London Agreement, dated 8 August 1945, signed by the four countries acting in the interests of all freedom-loving nations. Being an integral part of this agreement, the Charter of the International Military Tribunal is to be considered an unquestionable and sufficient legislative act, defining and determining the basis and the procedure for the trial and punishment of major war criminals. Provoked by fear of responsibility or, at best, by insufficient knowledge of the organic nature of international justice, the references to the principle nullvm crewmen sine loge, or to the principle that "a statute cannot have retroactive power," are not applicable because of the following fundamental, decisive fact: The Charter of the Tribunal is in force and in operation and all its provisions possess absolute and binding force.
Pursuant to Article 6 of the Charter, the defendants are charged with Crimes against Peace, crimes committed in violation of rules and customs of war, and Crimes against Humanity. We must state with great satisfaction that in placing on such actions the stigma of criminality the Charter of the Tribunal has reduced to rules of law those international principles and ideas which for many years have been set forth in the defense of law and justice in the field of international relations.
First of all-criminal aggression. For a number of decades nations interested in strengthening the cause of peace have proclaimed and advocated the idea that aggression constitutes the gravest encroachment on the peaceful relations between nations, a most serious international crime. These hopes and demands on the part of nations found their expression in a series of acts and documents which officially recognized aggression as an international crime.
On 27 August 1928 the Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris: "Persuaded"-proclaimed the agreement-"that the time has come when a frank renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy should be made. . . convinced that all changes in their relations with one another should be sought only by pacific means . . . the High Contracting Parties solemnly declare in the names of their respective peoples that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another."
In 1929-a year after the signing of the Paris Pact-at the Congress of the International Association of Criminal Law at Bucharest
148
3 Feb. 46
a resolution was passed which squarely raised the question of criminal responsibility for aggression. "Whereas war has been outlawed by the Paris Pact of 1928, and acknowledging the necessity of securing international order and harmony by means of effective sanctions..." the Congress considered imperative "the establishment of an international penal judicial system" as well as of the principle of criminal responsibility of states and single individuals for acts of aggression.
Thus long ago was proclaimed the principle of penal responsibility for criminal aggression, the principle which found its clear legal expression in Subparagraph (a) of Article 6 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal
Consequently, the fascist aggressors, the defendants, knew that by their predatory attacks on other countries they committed the gravest Crimes against Peace. They knew it, and they know it now, and that is the reason why they attempted and are now attempting to camouflage their criminal aggression with lies about defense.
Furthermore, it has been repeatedly and authoritatively declared that violations of laws and customs of war established by international conventions must entail criminal responsibility.
In this connection it is necessary to note that the gravest outrages in violation of laws and customs of war committed by the Hitlerites-murder, violence, arson, and plunder-are considered punishable criminal acts by all criminal codes throughout the world. Moreover, the international conventions signed especially for the purpose of establishing laws and rules of war stipulate criminal responsibility for violation of these laws and rules. Thus Article 56 of the Hague Convention in 1907 declares:
"The property of municipalities, that of institutions dedicated to religion, charity and education, the arts, and sciences, even when state property, shall be treated as private property. All seizure of, destruction, or willful damage done to institutions of this character, historic monuments, works of art and science, is forbidden, and shall be made the subject of legal proceedings."
Thus, the Hague Convention not only forbids the violation of rules of war, but also stipulates that these violations "should be made the subject of legal proceedings", that is, must entail criminal responsibility.
Article 29 of the 1929 Geneva Convention states with still greater precision that:
"The Governments of the High Contracting Parties whose penal laws may not be adequate shall likewise take or recommend to their legislatures the necessary measures to repress
149
8 Feb. 46
in time of war all acts in contravention of the provisions of the present convention."
Finally, the principle of criminal responsibility for all acts in violation of the laws and customs of war is expressed with the utmost precision in Article 3 of the provisions of the Washington Conference for the Reduction of Armaments and for the Pacific and Far Eastern Problems, which states that:
"The Contracting Powers, wishing to ensure the execution of promulgated laws. . . declare that any person in the service of any power who violates one of these rules, and independently of the fact whether he is subordinated to an official personality or not, wit be considered a transgressor of the laws of war and wit be Cable to be tried by civilian or military authorities."
Consequently, according to the directives of the Hague and Geneva Conventions and according to the provisions of the Washington Conference, the enforcing of criminal responsibility for the violation of the laws and customs of war is not only possible, but is actually compulsory.
Thus, Subparagraph (b) of Article 6 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, concerning War Crimes, defined with greater precision and generalized the principles and rules contained in the international conventions previously signed.
The defendants knew that cynical mockery of the laws and customs of war constituted the gravest of crimes. They knew it, but they hoped that total war, by securing victory, would also secure their impunity. But victory did not arrive on the heels of the crimes. Instead came the complete and unconditional surrender of Germany, and with it came an hour of grim reckoning for all the outrages they had committed.
I myself, speaking on behalf of the Soviet Union, and my honored colleagues, the chief prosecutors of the United States of America, England, and France, we all accuse the defendants of having ruled over the entire German State and war machine through a criminal conspiracy and of turning the machinery of the German State into a mechanism for the preparation and prosecution of criminal aggression, into a mechanism for the extermination of millions of innocent people.
When several criminals conspire to commit a murder, every one of them plays a definite part. One works out the plan of murder, another waits in the car, and the third actually fires at the victim. But whatever may be the part played by any individual participant, they all are murderers and any court of law in any country will reject any attempts to assert that the first two should not be considered murderers, since they themselves had not fired the bullet
150
8 Feb. 46
The more complicated and hazardous the conceived crime, the more complicated and less tangible the links connecting the individual participants. When a gang of bandits commits an assault, responsibility for the raid is also shared by those members of the gang who did not actually take part in the assault. But when the size of the gang attains extraordinary proportions, when the gang happens to be at the helm of the ship of state, when the gang commits numerous and very grave international crimes, then of course, the ties and mutual relations among the members of the gang become entangled to the utmost. A highly ramified mechanism is here at work. It consisted of a whole system of links and blocks, (Zellenleiter, Blockleiter, Gauleiter, Reichsleiter, et cetera) extending from ministerial chairs to the hands of the executioners.
This is a consolidated and powerful mechanism, yet it is powerless to conceal the basic and decisive fact that at the core of the entire system operated a gang of conspirators who were setting in motion the whole organization which they had created.
When entire regions of flourishing countryside were turned into desert areas, and the soil was drenched with the blood of those executed, it was the work of their hands, of their organization, their instigation, their leadership. And just because the masses of the German people were made to participate in these outrages, because, prior to setting packs of dogs and executioners on millions of innocent people, the defendants for years had poisoned the conscience and the mind of an entire generation of Germans by developing in them the conceit of "the chosen," the morals of cannibals, and the greed of burglars, can it be said on account of these facts that the guilt of the Hitlerite conspirators is any less great or any less grave?
Expressing the will of nations, the Charter of the International Military Tribunal has settled this question:
"Leaders, organizers, instigators, and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a Common Plan or Conspiracy"-against peace, against the laws and customs of warfare, or against humanity-"to commit any of the foregoing crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any person in execution of such plan." (Article 6)
For the purpose of successful execution of their criminal plans these conspirators-Goering, Hess, Rosenberg, Fritzsche, Schirach, and the other defendants-developed a fiendish theory of the superior or master race., By means of this so-called theory they had in mind to justify the claims of German fascism for the domination of other nations which were declared by their theory to be nations of inferior race.
It followed from this theory that Germans, since they belonged to the "master race," have the "right" to build their own welfare
151
8 Feb. 46
on the bones of other races and nations. This theory proclaimed that German fascist usurpers are not bound by any laws or commonly accepted rules of human morality. The "master race" is permitted to do anything. No matter how revolting and shameless, cruel, and monstrous were the actions of those individuals, they were based on the idea of the superiority of this race.
Said Hitler:
"We want to make a selection for a class of new masters who will be devoid of moral pity, a class which will realize that because of its better race it has the right to dominate others, a class that will be able to establish and maintain without hesitation its domination over the masses." (Otwalt, Ernst, Deutschland erwache!, 1932, Page 353.)
This German fascist racial theory had at the same time to serve as a "scientific" basis for the preparation by the Hitlerites of an attack against democratic nations, as a justification for aggressive wars for which the Hitlerites made feverish preparation during the whole time of their domination of Germany In such manner, the function of racism was to justify the conspiracy-to fulfill the predatory aims of the German imperialistic clique.
By order of the German fascist authorities, the racial doctrine was introduced into the educational plans as a most important and obligatory subject. In the hands of German fascism, the schools and universities became dangerous centers for the intellectual and moral mutilation of the people and, as such, the greatest menace to civilization. All branches of science were militarized. All aspects of art were subjected to the aims of aggression.
"We approach science unbiased by knowledge and scholarly education."-declared the fascist review Politische Wissenschaft, Number 3 for 1933"The student must come to college with the demand that science be as soldierly as his own bearing and that the professor possess the qualities of a leader and the bearing of a soldier."
"We want arms again!"-said Hitler-"Then indeed from the child's primer to the last newspaper, every theater and every movie house, every advertising pillar and every billboard-all must be pressed into the service of this one great mission...." (Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf, Munich, 1933, Page 715.)
Geography became the instrument for propagating the "preeminent importance of the Germans in the world," of their "right to dominate" other peoples. A feeling of racial superiority, arrogance, hatred, contempt, and cruelty toward other peoples was cultivated in the young.
152
8 Feb. 46
These are the words of a German fascist song:
"If all the world lies in ruins,
"What the devil do we care?
"We still will go marching on
"For today Germany belongs to us
"And tomorrow the whole world."
The German fascist ideology set loose the wildest and lowest instincts. The fascists made a principle of arbitrary actions, violence, and debasement of the people. They declared as dangerous for the "master races" the ideas of freedom, the ideas of enlightenment, and the demands of humanity. Said Hitler:
"I am freeing men from the wearisome restrictions of the mind, from the dirty and degrading self-mortifications of a chimera called conscience end morality, and from the demands of a freedom and personal independence which a very few enjoy." (Rauschning, Hermann, The Voice of Destruction, New York, 1940, Page 225.)
In the spirit of such principles the entire German fascist system of education was built up with a view to adapting and preparing them to a blind obedience in the execution of all predatory plans and aims put before Germany by the Hitlerite rulers. As a result of fascist propaganda and the whole system of measures cultivated by the German State, the German mind was systematically poisoned by the fumes of chauvinism and hatred of mankind. The aggressive plans of German fascism ripened more and more with every year since the Hitlerites' seizure of power until at last they led to war. This war was planned, worked out and started by the Hitlerites' Germany as Blitzkrieg and should, according to the schemes of the conspirators, have resulted in a rapid and easy victory for the gang of Hitlerite cut-throats and in their domination over all the countries in Europe.
The criminal conspiracy aimed at the establishment of a predatory New Order in Europe. This New Order was a regime of terror by which, in the countries seized by the Hitlerites, all democratic institutions were abolished and all civil rights of the population were abrogated, while the countries themselves were plundered and rapaciously exploited. The population of these countries, and of the Slav countries above all others-especially Russians, Ukrainians, Bielorussians, Poles, Czechs, Serbians, Slovenes, Jews-were subjected to merciless persecution and mass extermination.
The conspirators failed to achieve their objective. The valiant struggle of the peoples of the democratic countries, led by a coalition of the three great powers-the Soviet Union, the United States of America, and Great Britain-resulted in the liberation of the
153
8 Feb. 46
European countries from the Hitlerite yoke. The victory of the Soviet and Allied armies wrecked the criminal plans of the fascist conspirators and liberated the peoples of Europe from the terrible threat of Hitlerite domination.
We, the Prosecutors, are obliged by law and duty before the peoples of the democratic countries and all mankind to formulate and present to the International Military Tribunal evidence proving the guilt of the defendants in committing the most grievous crimes.
Permit me to perform my duty, jointly with my colleagues, by presenting to the International Military Tribunal the evidence which, together with the materials already presented by the Prosecution on behalf of the United States of America, Great Britain, and France, will give a complete and exhaustive body of proof in this case.
The Defendants Goering, Hess, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Raeder, Rosenberg, Kaltenbrunner, Frank, Frick, Doenitz, Fritzsche, and others are charged with the organization of a conspiracy to establish by force the domination of German imperialism and the setting up of the fascist regime in all European countries and, later, throughout the world.
The core of this plan was the organization of aggressive wars and the rearrangement of the map of the whole world by use of force. In execution of this plan for aggression the criminal Hitlerite Government and the German General Staff prepared and executed the seizure of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Belgium, Holland, France, Poland, Greece, and Yugoslavia. They also prepared and undertook a predatory military campaign against the Soviet Union.
My colleagues of the American, British, and French Prosecution have already submitted to the Tribunal weighty and irrefutable evidence which establishes the fact of German aggression against their own countries, as well as against Belgium, Holland, Greece, and a number of the other states which had become victims of the predatory Hitlerite imperialism.
May it please Your Honors, I will now produce proofs of the monstrous crimes of the defendants in the preparation and initiation of aggressive wars against freedom loving peoples.
The document submitted in this case and known as "Fall Grun" contains a plan for an attack on the Czechoslovakian Republic. This directive, signed by Hitler, was distributed together with a covering note bearing the signatures of Keitel. The directive begins with "Political Prerequisites," which read precisely as follows:
"My unalterable decision is that Czechoslovakia should be smashed in the immediate future by means of a single military operation. To abide the time and to create a suitable political and military situation-this is the task of political
154
8 Feb. febr
leadership. The inevitable development of conditions within Czechoslovakia or other political events in Europe, which might never again bring about such an unexpectedly favorable situation, may force me to action even before the designated date. The proper choice and the resolute exploitation of the opportune moment are the surest guaranties of success. Accordingly, all preparations should be made immediately."
Turning to the exposition of the political possibilities and prerequisites regarding the initiation of the attack, Hitler cynically disclosed these prerequisites: a) A suitable military pretext and in this connection; b) a satisfactory political justification; c) a surprise action which should take the enemy, as far as possible, unawares.
It was Hitler's idea that the most propitious moment, both from the military and political point of view, would be a lightning, secretly prepared, German attack under the pretext of some incident which could morally justify the use of military force, at least in the eyes of a certain portion of the public opinion of the world.
The directive envisaged the actual preparation for an attack on Czechoslovakia to be executed by certain branches of the Armed Forces. Thus the Directive Grun, which bears as early a date as May 1938, clearly and definitely testifies to the fact of a carefully planned preparation for the seizure of Czechoslovakia. The Soviet Prosecution will submit documents taken from the files of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs which reveal the criminal methods used by the Hitlerites in preparing for the seizure of Czechoslovakia.
You, Your Honors, as well as the entire world, well know how methodically and ruthlessly this criminal scheme was executed by the predatory imperialism of the Hitlerites.
Having set up in occupied Czechoslovakia an insufferable regime of terrorism, the Hitlerites drove into German slavery many thousands of Czechoslovak citizens, showing no mercy even to children, who were sent to industrial plants, farms, and mines. The youth of Czechoslovakia was deprived of all opportunities for education. When, in 1942, a Czech delegation appealed to Frank for permission to reopen the higher Czechoslovak educational institutions, he cynically replied, "Should the war be won by England, you will reopen your schools yourselves; should Germany win, then five-grade elementary schools will be enough for you."
Everyone remembers the sanguinary reprisals of the Hitlerite hangmen committed against the Czechoslovak population. One of the numerous cases of such monstrous reprisals against the peaceful population was made public in the German newspaper Der Neue Tag of 11 June 1942.
"During the search for the murderer of SS Obergruppenfuehrer Heydrich, it was incontestably proved that the
155
8 Feb. 46
inhabitants of the village of Lidice, near Kladno, were aiding and abetting the perpetrators of the crime. This has been proven in spite of the fact that the population denies any such assistance. The attitude of the population in regard to such crimes is also evidenced by other hostile acts against the Reich. There were discovered, for instance, subversive literature, stores of arms and ammunition, as well as the existence of a radio transmitter and a large quantity of rationed goods held in unlawful possession. The entire adult male population was executed by firing squads. Women were deported to concentration camps, and children were sent to proper places for their further upbringing. All buildings in this village were levelled to the ground and the name of the village was done away with."
The Prosecution has at its disposal official data collected by the Czechoslovakian Government on the shocking crimes which were perpetrated by the Hitlerite invaders on the territory of Czechoslovakia. In the report of the Czechoslovakian Government, which to a large extent is devoted to the description of the regime established by the Hitlerites in Czechoslovakia during the occupation, are cited numerous cases of terrorism: shooting of hostages, mass deportations to concentration camps, murder of women and children.
That is how Fall Grun worked.
On 1 September 1939 the fascist aggressors invaded Polish territory in treacherous violation of existing treaties. The Polish people were subjected to mass extermination, and their cities and villages were mercilessly destroyed. Official documents exposing this aggression have already been presented to the Tribunal by my colleagues. Among such documents we must mention in the first place a top-secret report on a conference, presided over by Hitler, which took place on 23 May 1939, and at which, besides Hitler and other persons, the Defendants Goering, Raeder, and Keitel were present.
At this conference Hitler made a lengthy statement concerning "the present situation and the political aims." Hitler said:
"The Pole is in no way an additional enemy. Poland will always be on the side of our opponents. It is not a question of Danzig only; it is the question of Lebensraum in the East, the safeguarding of our food supplies, and the solution of the Baltic problem.
"Thus"-said Hitler-"sparing Poland is out of the question, and the decision remains to invade her at the first opportunity. We cannot expect the repetition of what we achieved in the case of Czechoslovakia. This time it means war."
156
8 Feb. 46
Hitler then said:
"The important fact in the conflict with Poland, which will begin cavity an attack on Poland, is that it can be successful for us only if the West does not participate. If this should be impossible, it would be better to attack the Western Powers and at the same time destroy Poland."
The second part of Hitler's statement was specially devoted to a number of questions of military strategy connected with his decision to attack Poland. This is how the gangster assault of HiMer's Germany on Poland was prepared in advance. It was put into execution in September 1939. We shall present documentary evidence of the monstrous crimes committed by the Hitlerites in Poland.
Yugoslavia was another Slav state which was the subject of a sudden attack on the part of Hitlerite Germany. It is well known that on numerous occasions Hitler's Government had given false assurance to the effect that Germany had no aggressive intentions towards Yugoslavia. Thus, on 28 April 1939 Hitler, in his speech to the Reichstag, stated that Germany was ready to give assurances to a number of states, and in particular to Yugoslavia, that Germany wished to maintain with them relations of mutual understanding, as she was bound to them by alliances and by "close ties of friendship."
Even prior to this, on 28 April 1938, the Berlin News Agency (DNB) had announced:
"Confidential representatives have informed the Yugoslav Government on Germany's behalf that Germany's intentions do not extend beyond Austria and that the Yugoslav frontier will remain inviolate."
In spite of these repeated and categorical declarations, Hitler's armies invaded Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941 and occupied this country. This attack was unexpected only by the victims, for the Nazi clique had carefully planned this assault in advance as it had done in the above-mentioned cases.
A top-secret directive issued from the Fuehrer's headquarters on 27 March 1941 and intended only for higher commanding officers of the German Army said:
"My intention is to invade Yugoslavia by powerful thrusts from the area of Fiume-Graz and from Sofia in the general direction of Belgrade and further to the south, with the objective of inflicting on the Yugoslav army a decisive defeat as well as to cut off the southern part of Yugoslavia from the rest of the country and to turn it into a base for further operations of the German-Italian forces against Greece. By
157
8 Feb. 46
proposing the return of Macedonia and Banat, attempts will be made to bring about the participation of Bulgaria and Hungary in the operations.
"The internal political crisis in Yugoslavia will be aggravated by political guarantees promised to the Croats."
Further on, the directive lays down a detailed strategic plan for the invasion of Yugoslavia and provides for actual participation in this aggression of the German Armed Forces, including the 10th Air Corps, which had to be transferred from Italy in order to take part in these operations.
Consequently, on the basis of the evidence supplied by original documents of the Hitlerite Government and High Command of the
German Armed Forces, we can establish that all attacks by Hitlerite Germany on Slav states were based on a plan prepared in advance, a plan which was only a part of a common criminal conspiracy of the predatory German imperialism against freedom-loving nations.
Yugoslavia as well as Poland became a victim of the German fascist aggressors who covered this flourishing state with ruins, and its fields, gardens, and ploughed land with corpses of many thousands of Yugoslav patriots who fell in the heroic struggle against the foreign invaders and enslavers, in the struggle for the freedom and independence of their native land.
THE PRESIDENT: Would that be a convenient time to break off for 10 minutes?
- [A recess was taken.]
GEN. RUDENKO: May it please the Tribunal, I will now describe the crimes committed by the Hitlerite aggressors against my own country, against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. On 22 June 1941 the U.S.S.R. was perfidiously attacked by Hitlerite Germany. However, it is not this date that should be considered as the actual beginning of the execution of Hitlerite Germany's plan of aggression against the Soviet Union. What took place on 22 June 1941 was conceived, prepared, and planned long before that.
The Hitlerite conspirators pursued these preparations continuously. All Germany's aggressive actions against a number of European states, during the period between 1938 and 1941, were actually only preliminary measures for the main blow in the East. For fascist Germany had conceived the criminal design of seizing the territory of the Soviet Union in order to plunder and to exploit the peoples of the U.S.S.R.
We need not seek confirmation thereof in Hitler's Mein Kampf or in the writings of the Hitlerite ringleaders, which, as is known,
158
8 Feb. 46
contained, together with a direct menace to the U.S.S.R., indications that the aggression of German imperialism must be directed toward the East in order to conquer the so-called "living space." This tendency of predatory German imperialism is expressed in the wellknown formula "Drang nach Osten."
I revert for evidence to the official documents of the Hitlerite Government, which fully disclose the defendants' guilt in committing the criminal actions with which they are charged under the present Indictment.
I beg to be allowed to refer, in the first case, to the document entitled, "Report Concerning the Conference of 23 May 1939." As can be seen from this document, this conference took place in Hitler's study at the new Reich Chancellery, and the minutes were taken down by Lieutenant Colonel Schmundt of the German General Staff. There were present at this conference: Hitler, Goering, Raeder, Brauchitsch, Keitel, General Milch, General of the Artillery Halder, and other representatives of the German High Command. The report states that the subject of the conference was, "Instructions concerning the present situation and the objects of our policy." Speaking at this conference, Hitler frequently broached the subject of the seizure of territory in the East. He declared:
"If fate forces us into a conflict with the West, it would be desirable that we possess more extensive space in the East."
And further:
"Our problem is to extend our living space in the East, secure our food supplies, and solve the problems of the Baltic Sea and States. As regards food supplies, we can only rely upon the thinly populated areas. The thoroughness of German agriculture, together with the fertility of the soil, will show itself favorably in the manifold increase of food production."
In another document known as the "Minutes of the Fuehrer's Conference with the Commander-in-Chief on 23 November 1939," Hitler stressed the necessity of solving the problem of the struggle for oil, rubber, and useful minerals; and at that conference, Hitler formulated the main tasks as follows:
"... adapt the living space to the density of the population ....
"This is an eternal problem: to establish the necessary balance between the number of Germans and their territory, and to secure the necessary living space. Sharp ingenuity can be of no avail here. The problem can tee solved only by the sword."
At this conference Hitler with complete frankness disclosed his plans concerning the drive to the East. Boasting of his successful seizures of Moravia, Bohemia, and Poland he no longer kept secret his intentions of pursuing his aggression eastwards.
159
8 Feb. 46
"I did not resurrect the armed forces"-said Hitler-"for the purpose of keeping them inactive. The determination to act has always been alive in me. I always meant to solve this problem-sooner or later."
In that the Nazi Government felt itself in no way restrained by the existence of a non-aggression pact signed between Germany and U.S.S.R. on 23 August 1939. However, Hitler's cynical declaration that treaties need only be respected as long as they serve a purpose is now universally known.
My American colleague has already quoted in his address the speech made by the Defendant Jodl at the conference held by the Reich Gauleiter in Munich in January 1943. In his speech the Defendant Jodl said, "Hitler informed me, while we were still fighting in the West, of his plans to fight the U.S.S.R." In his turn, the Defendant Raeder at his preliminary examination testified that the idea of a military campaign against the U.S.S.R. had been born in Hitler's mind long ago, and it grew ever stronger with the decrease of the probability of an invasion of England in June 1940.
According to the Defendant Keitel's statement, Hitler had decided to attack the U.S.S.R. at the end of 1940. Already in the spring of 1940 a plan of assault had been worked out. Conferences on this subject had been held during the summer. In July 1940 at a military conference in Reichenhall, the plan of attack on the U.S.S.R. was examined.
This is also confirmed by the statement of the Defendant Jodl, who at his preliminary examination testified that the plans of attack on the U.S.S.R. were actually worked out in the months of November-December 1940 and that during that period the first directives were given to the Army, to the Navy, and to the Air Force. Speaking of these directives, Jodl refers to a document known as the Case Barbarossa. This document is signed by Hitler, Jodl, and Keitel. This directive, intended only for the High Command of the German Army, contains an elaborate and detailed plan for a sudden attack on the U.S.S.R. I quote:
"The German Armed Forces must be prepared to crush Soviet Russia in a quick campaign even before the end of the war against England.
"For this purpose the Army will have to employ all available units with the reservation that the occupied territories will have to be safeguarded against any surprises."
The directive, Case Barbarossa, emphasizes that "great importance attaches to the fact that the intention of an attack will not be recognized."
The directive further states that in case of emergency the order for attack against Soviet Russia will be given 8 weeks in advance
160
8 Feb. 46
of the intended beginning of operations, and that "preparations requiring more time to start are, if this has not already been done, to begin presently and are to be completed by 15 May 1941."
And, finally, the same directive contains a detailed strategic plan of an attack on the U.S.S.R., which plan already contemplated the actual form of participation on the part of Romania and Finland in this aggression. In particular, the directive says bluntly:
"Probable Allies and their tasks.
"1. At the flanks of our operations the active participation, in the war against Soviet Russia, of Romania and Finland may be counted upon."
The directive also states that:
"we may count on the possibility that Swedish railroads and highways may become available for the deployment of the German Group North not later than the beginning of actual operations."
Thus, it is incontestable that the Hitlerite Government at this time had already secured the assent of the Romanian and Finnish Governments for the participation of these countries, together with Germany, in the aggression against the U.S.S.R.
This situation is apparent not only from the text of the directive, Case Barbarossa, but also from the other facts at our disposal. For example, in a statement by the German General of the Infantry Buschenhagen which we shall present to the Tribunal, the following
appears:
"At the end of December 1940 (approximately on the 20th), I, as the Chief of Staff of the German Forces in Norway, with the rank of colonel, was invited to take part in a conference of the chiefs of staff of the Armies at the OKH (High Command of the Army) at Zossen (near Berlin), which lasted several days. At this meeting the Chief of the General Staff, General Halder, expounded the Barbarossa plan of attack on the Soviet Union. Present at Zossen at the time of the meeting was the Chief of the General Staff of the Finnish Army, General Heinrichs, who was conferring with General Halder...."
Buschenhagen further tells us how in February 1941 he left for Helsinki, where, together with a representative of the Finnish Army, he worked out a definite, plan for the attack on the U.S.S.R. On 2 or 3 March 1941, upon his return to Oslo, he compiled and submitted to the OKW a report on his mission.
"On the basis of these documents"-stases Buschenhagen-"the operational plan 'Blue Fox' was drawn up, envisaging an attack on the Murmansk railroad from the area of Kuusamo, Rovaniemi, and Petsamo. The plan of operations in the area
161
6 Feb. 46
of Kirkenes-Petsamo was called 'Reindeer'; that in the area of Rovaniemi, 'Silver Fox."'
Further, as narrated by Buschenhagen, towards the end of April or the beginning of May 1941 he flew again to Helsinki where:
".. . at the Finnish General Staff negotiations took place with Generals Heinrichs and Airo and Colonel Tapola, in the course of which we ascertained that the Finnish General Staff was fully prepared to participate in the coming war against the Soviet Union."
In his personal written testimony given to the investigating
authorities of the Soviet Union, which will be presented to the Tribunal, Marshal Ion Antonescu gives an account of his meetings
with Hitler in November 1940, January 1941, and May 1941, at which were discussed the questions with regard to the preparation of war against the Soviet Union.
During the first conference between Antonescu and Hitler, in
which Ribbentrop and Hitler's personal interpreter, Schmidt, took part, problems directly concerning the preparation of the German aggression against the U.S.S.R. and the Romanian participation therein were discussed.
In reply to the question put by the Soviet investigating authorities to Antonescu, whether his first conference with Hitler should be considered as his initial step towards an understanding with the Germans for the preparation of aggressive war against the Soviet Union, he stated, "I reply in the affirmative. Hitler undoubtedly had this in mind when working out the plans for attacking the Soviet Union."
At the second meeting between Antonescu and Hitler, which took place in January 1941, the Defendants Ribbentrop, Keitel, and Jodl were present. Hitler requested Antonescu to permit the German armies concentrated on Hungarian territory to pass through Romania in order to enable them to assist the Italians in the war against Greece.
Antonescu testifies:
"I expressed my apprehension that the movement of German troops through Romania might serve as a pretext for military action by the Soviet Union against Romania, thus placing Romania in a very difficult position, as the Romanian army was not mobilized. To this Hitler replied that he will give an order for part of the (Berman troops intended for operations against Greece to remain in Romania.
"Hitler also emphasized that, according to the information at his disposal, the Soviet Union had no intention to fight either against Germany or Romania.
162
8 Feb. 46
"Satisfied with this statement of Hitler's, I have agreed to allow the German troops to pass through Romanian territory.
"General Jodl, who was present at this conference, described to me the strategic situation of the German Army, emphasizing the necessity of an attack on Greece through Bulgaria."
Speaking of the third meeting with Hitler in May 1941, in the city of Munich, at which the Defendant Ribbentrop was present, Antonescu declared:
"At this meeting . . . we had definitely agreed upon our joint assault on the Soviet Union. .
"Hitler stated that he had decided to attack the Soviet Union. 'Having prepared this attack,' said Hitler, 'we must launch it unexpectedly along the entire frontier of the Soviet Union from the Black Sea to the Baltic. The suddenness of this military attack,' continued Hitler, 'will enable Germany and Romania to overcome in a very short time one of our most dangerous opponents.'
"In connection with his war plans, Hitler asked me to place at his disposal Romanian territory for the concentration of German troops, and in conjunction with this to take a direct part in carrying out the attack on the Soviet Union."
By entering the conspiracy on the side of Germany and preparing to attack the Soviet Union, Romania in her turn pursued aggressive aims.
Antonescu in the same statements spoke of Hitler's promises as follows:
"Hitler emphasized that Romania should not remain out of this war, as in order to get back Bessarabia and northern Bukovina she had no other way but to fight on the side of Germany. He added to this that in return for our help in the war Romania could occupy and administer other Soviet territories up to the Dnieper."
Antonescu further testified:
"As HiMer's proposal to start jointly the war against U.S.S.R. was in line with my aggressive intentions, I declared my readiness to participate in the assault on the Soviet Union and undertook to prepare the required number of Romanian troops and at the time to increase the deliveries of oil and farm produce for the needs of Germany.
"After my return to Bucharest from Munich I began energetic preparations for the coming war."
These facts are likewise confirmed by the documents from the archives of Antonescu, which will also be submitted to the Tribunal.
163
8 Feb. 46
I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the records of a conversation which took place between Antonescu and Dornberg, head of the protocol department of the German Foreign Office, on the 10th of February 1942, a conversation after meeting at the frontier:
". . . I declared"-remarks Antonescu-"that Romania entered into an alliance with the Axis not for the purpose of altering the treaty of Versailles but in order to fight the Slavs...." It will be seen from this record that hatred towards the Slav peoples united Hitler and Antonescu in their preparation and realization of a war of aggression.
Documents which are to be presented to the Tribunal will show quite clearly the complicity of Hungary in the conspiracy to violate peace and in the preparation of an aggressive war against the Soviet Union. Hungary was assigned the definite role of attacking the rear of the Red Army through the Carpathian Mountains at the very moment when the German and the Romanian Armies were to open military operations against the Soviet Union. Thus the criminal block of aggressors against the peace-loving nations was set up with fascist Germany in the van.
Reverting to the so-called Case Barbarossa, I wish to dwell on the more important points of this document. Case Barbarossa consists of three parts. The first sets forth its general aims; the second indicates allies of Germany in the war against the Soviet Union. The third part is devoted to the execution of military operations on land, in the air, and on sea. This document has the highly pertinent feature of having been issued, in view of its topsecret contents, in nine copies only, to comply fully with the demand for absolute secrecy on Germany's preparations for the attack on the Soviet Union.
The first part of the plan reads as follows:
"Troops of the Russian Army massed in the western part of Russia must be destroyed, and the retreat into the vast expanses of Russian territory of combat units must be prevented. Then, by rapid pursuit, a line must be reached from which the Russian air force will not be able to carry out attacks against German territory."
The document further states that the ultimate objective of this plan was to consolidate the line Archangel-Volga,- paralyze the last remaining industrial area in the Urals by air operations, put the Baltic fleet out of commission, and prevent the possibility of active interference on the part of the Russian air force. In the third part of the document we find the directive to seize Leningrad and Kronstadt and to continue offensive operations with the objective of taking the most important center of communications and war-production, Moscow. "The seizure of this city"-according
164
8 Fob. 46
to the plan-"will mean a decisive success both politically and economically.'
Such was the plan to invade the U.S.S.R.-conceived, worked out, and prepared long in advance by Hitlerite Germany.
While undertaking strategic and diplomatic measures to prepare for its treacherous attack against the U.S.S.R., the Hitlerite Government conceived and planned beforehand to commit war crimes on the territory of the U.S.S.R. The so-called Case Barbarossa was a strategic plan. But this plan was supplemented by a number of instructions and orders designed to embrace all the measures relative to the problems connected with the invasion of the Soviet Union. Among these measures we must mention in the very first place the directive issued on 13 March 1941 by the headquarters of the German High Command.
This directive deals with a series of organizational problems of a civilian nature and in particular with the problems relative to the organization of administrative authorities. It is of importance to note that this instruction placed German troops stationed in East Prussia and the so-called Government General (that is to say, Poland) under the laws and regulations destined for the zone of operations at least 4 weeks prior to the opening of the campaign. By this directive the High Command of the German Armed Forces was authorized to assume executive power and to delegate it to the commanding generals of the army groups and armies.
One also cannot overlook in this directive Subparagraph B. which characterizes the tasks and objectives pursued by the conspirators. In this subparagraph it states:
"In the theater of army operations, the Reichsfuehrer SS, by order of the Fuehrer, is given some special tasks for the preparation of political administration, arising from the decisive struggle between two opposing political systems. Within the limits of these tasks the Reichsfuehrer of the SE; acts independently, upon his own responsibility."
Mankind is now well aware of the meaning of these "special tasks," the execution of which was exclusively entrusted to the SS generals and officers, who made full use of this right to act "independently" and "upon their own responsibility." It meant unheard of terror, plundering, violence, and killing of prisoners of war and peaceful citizens. Further, this directive, in a very specific way, gave the High Command also such tasks as the plundering and predatory exploitation of the areas occupied by the German troops. The directive is signed by the Defendant Keitel.
In another instruction, issued in June 1941 as a supplement to the Plan Barbarossa, orders are issued which, in the guise of propaganda directives, prescribe the ruthless treatment of all those who
165
3 Feb. 46
oppose the German aggressors. As to actual propaganda, the directives frankly mention the usual Hitlerite methods of dirty calumny, lies, and provocation, which were to be used by the so-called "propaganda companies."
Finally one cannot overlook another instruction, known under the name of "Orders Concerning Military Jurisdiction in the Barbarossa Area and Special Measures To Be Taken by the Troops." These orders, while sanctioning arbitrary action on the part of the German authorities and troops in regard to the civilian population in the territories seized by the German armed forces, begin with an invitation addressed to the German troops to "protect" themselves ruthlessly against hostile actions of the civilian population. In the order prescribing the adoption of Draconian measures against peaceful populations and partisans, we find indications as to the brutal punishment to be imposed upon persons defined in those orders as "suspected elements."
With the permission of the Tribunal, I will read only two subparagraphs of these orders-Subparagraphs 4 and 5:
"4. In those places where it is too late to adopt these measures or where it had not been possible to do so immediately, suspected elements must be handed over to an officer without delay; he will decide whether or not they should be shot.
"5. It is absolutely prohibited to hold these suspects for trial by courts which at a later date will be instituted for the local population."
Thus, according to these so-called orders, the fate and life of every apprehended person depended exclusively on an officer, and it was prohibited, as the order cynically stressed, "to hold the suspects for trial." In other words; it was a definite order to exterminate the "suspects." Moreover, in the case of attacks against the German Armed Forces, the order prescribed "mass measures of repression," that is to say, the wholesale extermination of absolutely innocent people.
What heights of cynicism were reached by the German High Command in the application of sanguinary terror can be seen from the fact that this order freed the German soldiers, officers, and officials of any responsibility for the commission of crimes against the peaceful Soviet population. According to these orders, the German troop commanders were entitled to confirm only those sentences which, as the said document states, were in accordance with the "political objectives of the leaders." Consequently, long before 22 June 1941 the Hitlerite Government and the German High Command, whose representatives are now in the dock, planned and prepared in detail those war crimes which were subsequently committed in the territory of the U.S.S.R. These plans inexorably
166
8 Feb. 46
disclose that the defendants premeditated the monstrous crimes which were organized by them.
On 22 June 1941 the Hitlerite conspirators, having perfidiously violated the pact of non-aggression between the U.S.S.R. and Germany without any declaration of war, started an attack against Soviet territory, initiating thereby an aggressive war against the U.S.S.R. without the slightest provocation on the part of the Soviet Unions Enormous masses of German troops, secretly concentrated on the borders beforehand, were thrown against the U.S.S.R. As planned, Finnish troops took part in the attack on the U.S.S.R. in the north, and Hungarian and Romanian troops in the south. In order to create panic and confusion, the German Air Force immediately began the bombing of peaceful towns, thereby subjecting them to destruction.
Less than a month after the perpetration of this perfidious act Hitler called a conference, which was attended by Rosenberg, Goering, Bormann, Lammers, and Keitel At this conference Hitler instructed those present not to disclose to the outside world the true aims of the war begun by the Hitlerites. Referring to their activities in regard to Norway, Denmark, Holland, and Belgium, Hitler stressed the necessity of continuing this line of action, that is, to conceal by all possible means the real intentions of the conspirators:
"Therefore"-said Hitler-"we shall emphasize again that we were compelled to occupy a region to establish order and security there. . . our method of regulation is the natural outcome of this. Thus it must not be revealed that this may bring about a final solution. However, despite and notwithstanding this, we shall take all necessary measures such as mass shootings, deportation, et cetera."
Any kind of violence against the peaceful population, deportation into German slavery, shooting, and looting were called "regulation" in the words of Hitler and his accomplices.
At this conference the conspirators defined the ulterior aims of the Hitlerite Government in respect of the Soviet Union as follows:
"In the main, the problem amounts to this . . . first, to conquer it, secondly, to rule it and thirdly, to exploit it....
"The basic idea: The creation of a military power west of the Urals must never occur again, even if, in order to prevent it, we have to fight for a hundred years. All the adherents of the Fuehrer must know this. The Reich will only be secure if no foreign military force exists west of the Urals.
"The iron law must be: None but the Germans shall be permitted to bear arms . . . only a German has the right to carry a weapon; no Slav, no Czech, no Cossack, no Ukrainian.
167
8 Feb. 46
"Hitler continued: The Baltic countries must become a province of the Reich. The Crimea and a considerable area to the north must likewise become a province of the Reich. These areas must be as extensive as possible... The Volga colony must become a territory of the Reich, the Baku region a German concession (military colony).
"The Finns want East Karelia. However, because of its great nickel production, the Kola peninsula must go to Germany....
"The Finns claim the Leningrad region. Level Leningrad to the ground, then give it to the Finns."
The rapacious aims of the war launched by Germany against the U.S.S.R. are frankly set forth in an article by the director of the fascist propaganda, the notorious Goebbels, under the title "What For?" Goebbels wrote:
"This war is not a war for a throne nor an altar; this is a war for grain and bread, a war for a well-laden breakfast, dinner, and supper table . . . a war for raw materials, for rubber, iron, and ore." (Goebbels, Joseph, Das eherne Here, Zentralverlag der NSDAP, Munich, 1943, Pages 334-336.)
Goering in his turn in an address at the Harvest Festival in the Berlin Sports Palace, 5 October 1942, published in the Volkischer Beobachter of 6 October 1942, exclaimed greedily:
"Don't forget we have taken away from the Russians their best regions....Eggs, butter, and flour are there in such quantities as you can hardly imagine.... We will have to see that everything is properly collected and properly processed on the spot.... "
The Defendant Rosenberg worked feverishly at inventing new names for Soviet cities, such as "Gotenburg" for Simferopol and "Theodorichshafen" for Sevastopol. This occupation Rosenberg combined with the leadership of a special staff concerned with the collection from the Caucasus. All that shows very clearly the real predatory plans and schemes of the Hitlerite aggressors against the Soviet Union. Above all, those criminal designs aimed at plundering the Soviet Union and the enslavement and exploitation of the Soviet people.
At the same time these were all steps on the road to establishing Hitlerite domination in Europe and in the whole world. It was precisely for this reason that, in a document submitted in the case,
published by the High Command of the Navy, dealing with the plans for an invasion of North Africa, Gibraltar, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, the Hitlerite Government stated that the realization of the above plan would depend entirely on the results of the war against the Soviet Union.
168
8 Feb. 46
In its attempt to conceal its imperialistic aims the Hitlerite clique hysterically shrieked, as usual, about a danger alleged to be forthcoming from the U.S.S.R. and proclaimed that the predatory war which it started against the Soviet Union with aggressive purposes was a "preventive" war.
A pitiful effort!
What "preventive" war can we speak of, when documents prove that long in advance Germany worked out and prepared a plan for an attack on the U.S.S.R., formulated the predatory aims of this attack, earmarked the territories of the Soviet Union which she intended to seize, established the methods for pillaging of these territories and for the extermination of their population, mobilized her army in good time, and moved to the borders of the U.S.S.R. 170 fully equipped divisions only waiting for the signal to advance?
The fact of aggression committed by fascist Germany against the U.S.S.R., as well as the original documents of the Hitlerite Government which now have been made public, definitely show to the whole world and to history how untrue and laughable was the assertion of the Hitlerite propaganda about the "preventive" character of the war against the U.S.S.R.
Much as the fascist wolf might disguise himself in a sheep's skin, he cannot hide his teeth!
Having committed the perfidious attack on the U.S.S.R., the Hitlerite Government calculated that lengthy preparation for this attack, the concentration of all the armed forces of Germany for this thrust, the participation of Romanian and Finnish armies, as well as of Italian and Hungarian units in this operation, and, finally, the advantage of surprise would assure a rapid defeat of the U.S.S.R.
However, all these calculations of the aggressors were frustrated by the heroic resistance of the Red Army, which with self-denial defended the honor and the independence of its country. The German plans .of attack were broken up. one after another. I shall not describe all the phases of the patriotic war of the Soviet People against the German fascist invaders and the great and courageous struggle of the Red Army with German, Romanian, Finnish, and other armies that invaded the soil of the Soviet. The whole world watched this struggle with admiration, and it will never be forgotten by history.
The Soviet people, in battles the scale and ferocity of which were unmatched in history, steadfastly defended and saved the freedom and independence of their country and, together with the Allied armies, liberated the freedom-loving nations throughout the whole world from the terrible menace of Nazi enslavement.
Having prepared and carried out the perfidious assault against the freedom-loving nations, fascist Germany turned the war into a
169
8 Feb. 46
system of militarized banditry. The murder of war prisoners, extermination of civilian populations, plunder of occupied territories, and other war crimes were committed as part of a totalitarian lightning wear program projected by the fascists. In particular the terrorism practiced by the fascists on the temporarily occupied Soviet territories reached fabulous proportions and was carried out with an outspoken cruelty.
"We shall"-said Hitler to Rauschning-"have to develop a technique of systematic depopulation. If you ask me what I mean by 'depopulation,' I mean removal of entire racial units. And that is what I intend to carry out-that, roughly, is my task. Nature is cruel; therefore we, too, may be cruel. If I can send the flower of the German nation into the hell of war without the smallest pity for the spilling of precious German blood, then surely I have the right to remove millions of an inferior race that breeds like vermin!" (Rauschning, Hermann, The Voice of Destruction, New York, 1940, Pages 137, 138.)
The Soviet Prosecution has at its disposal numerous documents, collected by the Extraordinary State Commission for the Soviet Union for the prosecution and investigation of crimes committed by the German fascist aggressors and their accomplices, which constitute irrefutable evidence of countless crimes perpetrated by German authorities.
We have at our disposal a document, known as the "Appendix Number 2 to the Operational Order Number 8 of the Chief of the Sipo and SD," dated Berlin, 17 June 1941, and signed by Heydrich, who at that time held the office of Himmler's deputy. This document was worked out in collaboration with the High Command of the German Armed Forces. The appendices to Order Number 8, as well as Orders Number 9 and 14 and the appendices thereto, make it evident that the systematic extermination of Soviet people in fascist concentration camps in the territories of U.S.S.R. and other countries occupied by the fascist aggressors was carried out under the form of "filtration," "cleansing measures," "purges," "extraordinary measures," "special treatment," "liquidation," "execution," end so on. The perpetration of these crimes was entrusted to the Sonderkommandos especially formed for this purpose by agreement between the Chief of Police and the SD and the High Command of the German Armed Forces. The Appendix Number 1 to Order Number 14 shows that these Sonderkommandos acted independently "on the basis of their special powers and in accordance with general directives given to them within the scope of camp regulations," maintaining close contact with the camp commanders and counterintelligence officers.
170
8 Feb. 46
It is to be noted that during the German offensive aimed at Moscow the fascists created a special Sonderkommando Moscow, which was supposed to carry out the mass killings of the inhabitants of Moscow.
Hitler's Government and the German Military Command were afraid that these monstrous Orders Number 8 and Number 14 might fall into the hands of the Red Army and the Soviet Government, and they took all possible measures to keep these orders completely secret. In Order Number 14, Heydrich declared:
"I especially emphasize that Operational Orders Number 8 and Number 14, as well as the regulations pertaining thereto, must be immediately destroyed in case of imminent danger. Their destruction is to be reported to me."
Besides the above-mentioned orders containing the program and plan for the fascist annihilation of the Soviet population, numerous orders and regulations were issued to the civil administration, as well as to the German military authorities, prescribing mass extermination and far-reaching application of the death penalty against the Soviet people. Keitel's order of 12 December 1941 reads as follows:
"In the Fuehrer's opinion the punishment by imprisonment or even by hard labor for life would be considered a sign of weakness. Effective and lasting determent can be realized only by capital punishment or measures which would leave the population in complete ignorance of the criminal's fate. This latter aim is reached through the deportation of criminals into Germany. The attached instructions for the prosecution of criminals are in accordance with this opinion of the Fuehrer's. It is approved by him."-Signed-"Keitel."
Among the means employed by the Hitlerites for the extermination of Soviet citizens were also intentional infection with spotted typhus and murdering by poison gas in gas vans which were called the "murderess" in Russian, et alla.
Upon investigations by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union, it was found that at the front, behind their main line of defense, the Hitlerites had systematically constructed special concentration camps where they kept tens of thousands of children, women who were unfit for work, and old men. The approaches to these camps were mined. No buildings or shelters of any kind existed within the areas of the camps, not even any barracks, and the internees had to camp on the bare ground. The internees were punished with death for the slightest attempt to infringe upon the established ruthless camp regulations. Many thousands of typhus patients were found in these camps. The population forcibly brought there from the surrounding villages was systematically infected
171
8 Feb. 46
there with this disease. The document which will be presented by the Soviet Prosecution describes in detail these heinous crimes perpetrated by the Germano-fascist occupants.
The Prosecution possesses a document signed by Untersturmfuehrer Becker, dated 16 May 1942. This document is a report to his superiors concerning the use of gas vans. This is what one reads in this monstrous document:
"The place of execution is located at about 10 to 15 kilometers off a thoroughfare and is difficult to reach because of its location. In wet or damp weather it is entirely inaccessible. Whether the people to be executed are led or brought in vehicles to this spot, they immediately realize what awaits them and become restless; this should be avoided by loading them into trucks at an assembly point, and driving them to the place of execution.
"I gave orders for the trucks of group D to be camouflaged as trailers and that a window be inserted on each side of the smaller vehicles, and in the larger trucks, two windows, all of the country peasant cottage type. However, these machines became so well known that not only the officials but even the population called them the "death vans" as soon as they saw them. In my opinion it is impossible to camouflage and keep them secret for any length of time. I also gave orders that during asphyxiation by gas the operating personnel should keep away from the machine so that their health would not be impaired by escaping gas. In this connection I would like to call attention to the following: In certain units men are ordered to unload the machines after gassing. I have drawn the attention of the commanders of the corresponding Sonderkommandos to the immense physical and moral injury this kind of work could cause the men, if not immediately, then later. The men complained of headaches after every unloading. Nevertheless they do not want to change the procedure, for they are afraid that prisoners entrusted with the work may use this favorable moment to escape. To protect the men from this injury, I would ask that appropriate orders be issued.
"The procedure of poisoning by gas is not always carried out in a correct manner. So as to end the business as quickly as possible, the drivers always open the throttle wide. As a consequence of this measure the condemned die of asphyxiation rather than falling asleep as had been originally intended. As a result of my orders death follows more rapidly, if the lever is set correctly, and in addition, the condemned people drop off peacefully to sleep. Distorted faces
172
8 Feb. 46
and defecations, two symptoms which formerly had been noticed, were no longer observed.
"Today I will proceed to Group B. whence I shall send a further report.
"Dr. Becker, Untersturmfuehrer."
The names have already been mentioned here of the camps of Maidanek and Auschwitz with their gas-chambers, in which over 5,500,000 completely innocent people, citizens of Poland, Czechoslovakia, U.S.S.R., U.S.A., Great Britain, France, and other democratic countries were killed. I must name the concentration camps of Smolensk, Stavropol, Kharkov, Kiev, Lvov, Poltava, Novgorod, Orel, Rovno, Dniepropetrovsk, Odessa, Kamenetz-Podolsk, Gomel, Kerch, of the Stalingrad region, of Kaunas, Riga, Mariampol (Lithuanian) of Kloga (Estonian) and many others, in which hundreds of thousands of Soviet nationals belonging to the civilian population, as well as soldiers and officers of the Red Army, were tortured to death by the Hitlerites.
The Germans also carried out mass shootings of Soviet citizens in the Lisenitz forest, which is on the outskirts of Lvov in the direction of Tarnopol. It was to this forest that the Germans daily drove, or brought in motor vehicles, large parties of Soviet prisoners of war from the Citadel camp, internees from the Yanov camp and from the Lvov prison, as well as peaceful Soviet citizens who had been seized on the squares and streets of Lvov in the course of numerous roundups. Investigations made by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union established the fact that the Germans shot over 200,000 people in the Lisenitz forest.
These mass murders, this regime of tyranny and terror, were fully approved by the Defendant Rosenberg who declared in his speech at the meeting of the German Labor Front in November 1942:
"Apparently, if we are to subjugate all these peoples"-that is, peoples inhabiting the territory of the U.S.S.R.-"then arbitrary rule and tyranny will be an extremely suitable form of government."
Later, when the Red Army began to clear out the Germano-fascist hordes from the Soviet Union territory they had temporarily occupied and when the Soviet authorities began to discover the abominable crimes perpetrated by the fascist monsters and to find numerous graves of Soviet citizens, soldiers, and officers tortured to death by the fascists, the German Command took urgent measures to conceal and destroy all traces of their grimes. For this purpose, the German Command organized everywhere exhumations of corpses from their graves and their cremation. A special order of an Obersturmfuehrer, dated "Rovno, 3 August 1943-IUAI No.35/43c,"
173
8 Feb. 46
addressed to the Regional Commander of Gendarmerie in Kamen-Kashirsk, ordered him immediately to supply information concerning location and number of common graves of persons to whom special repressive measures had been applied in the district.
Among the documents discovered in the Gestapo building of the Rovno district has been found a report concerning the execution of the above-mentioned order, with the enumeration of about 200 localities, where such graves were registered. One can see from this list that the Germano-fascist henchmen primarily chose inaccessible and isolated spots for the interment of their victims. At the end of the list we read, "The list includes all the graves, including those of the commandos who worked here previously."
I will now quote an extract of the appeal to the public opinion of the world from the representatives of several thousand former internees at Auschwitz:
"The gassing of unbelievable numbers of people took place upon the arrival of transports from various countries: France, Belgium, Holland, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland, the U.S.S.R., Norway, and others. The new arrivals had to pass before an SS doctor or else before the SS commandant of the camp. The latter pointed his finger to the right or left. The left meant death by gas. Out of a transport of 1,500, an average of 1,200 to 1,300 were immediately to be gassed. Rarely the quota of people sent into the camp was a little higher. It often occurred that the SS doctors Mengele and Thilo performed this selection while whistling a lively tune. The people destined to be gassed were obliged to strip in front of the gas-chambers, after which they were driven with whips into the gas-chambers. Then the door of the underground gas-chamber was closed, and the people were gassed. Death occurred approximately 4 minutes later. After 8 minutes the gas chamber was opened, and workmen belonging to a special commando, the so-called Sonderkommando, transported the bodies to the cremation ovens which burned day and night.
"There was a shortage of ovens at the time of the arrival of transports from Hungary; consequently enormous ditches were dug for the purpose of cremating the bodies. Fires made of wood soaked in gasoline were laid in these ditches and the bodies were thrown into them. However, the SS men frequently hurled live children and adults into those ditches, where these unhappy victims died a terrible death. To save gasoline, the fats and oils necessary for cremations were partly derived
174
8 Feb. 46
from the bodies of gassed people. Fats and oils for technical purposes and for the manufacture of soap were also obtained from the corpses."
The appeal ends with the following words:
"Together with 10,000 rescued inmates of all nationalities, we demand that the crimes and the inconceivable atrocities of the Hitlerites should not remain unpunished."
This just demand is supported by the entire civilized world and by all freedom-loving people. The organized mass annihilation of prisoners of war constitutes one of the vilest crimes of the Hitlerite conspirators.
Numerous facts of murders, tortures, and maltreatment to which prisoners of war were subjected have been definitely established. They were tortured with red-hot irons, their eyes were gouged out, their extremities severed, et cetera. The systematic atrocities and short-shrift justice against captured officers and men of the Red Army were not chance episodes or the results of criminal activities of individual officers of the German Army and of German officials. The Hitlerite Government and the High Command of the German Army ruthlessly exterminated prisoners of war. Numerous documents, orders, and decrees of the fascist Government and orders of the German Supreme Command testify to this fact.
As early as March 1941-as the German Lieutenant General Osterreich testified during his interrogation-a secret conference took place at the headquarters of the High Command in Berlin, where measures were planned for the organization of camps for Russian prisoners of war and rules laid down for their treatment. According to Osterreich's evidence these rules and measures for Soviet prisoners of war were essentially a plan for their extermination.
Many Soviet prisoners of war were shot or hanged while others perished from hunger and infectious diseases, from cold, and from torture systematically employed by the Germans according to a plan which was developed beforehand and had as its object the mass extermination of Soviet persons. , Appendix 3 to Order Number 8 for the Chief of the Security Police and SD, dated 17 July 1941, a list is given of prisoner-of-war camps set up in the area of the 1st Military District and of the so-called Government General. In the 1st Military District camps were set up in particular in Prokuls, Heidekrug, Schierwind, Schutzenrode (Ebenro de) in Prostken, Suwalki, Fischb or- Gersen and Ostrolenko. In the so-called Government General, camps were set up at Ostrov-Mesovetsky, Sedlce, Byelopedlasko, Kholm, Jaroslav, et
175
8 Feb. 46
cetera. In the appendix to Operational Order Number 9, issued in development of Order Number 8 of 17 July 1942, lists are given of the camps for Soviet prisoners of war situated in the territory of military districts II, IV, VI, VIII, X, XI, and XIII, at Hammerstein, Schneidemuhl, and many other places.
THE PRESIDENT: Would this be a convenient time to break off?
[The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours.]
176
8 Feb. 48
Afternoon Session
MARSHAL (Colonel Charles W. Mays): May it please the Court, I desire to announce that the Defendants Kaltenbrunner and Hess will be absent until further notice on account of illness.
THE PRESIDENT: Would it be convenient to you and the Soviet Delegation if the Tribunal sat in open session until half past 11 tomorrow morning, and then after that we would adjourn for a closed session for administrative business? Would that be convenient to the Soviet Delegation?
GEN.RUDENKO: We, that is the Soviet Delegation, have no objection.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, then, that is what we will do. The Tribunal will sit tomorrow from 10 until half past 11 in open session and will then adjourn.
GEN. RUDENKO: In these prisoner-of-war camps, as well as in camps for the civilian population, extermination and torture were practiced, referred to by the Germans as "filtering," "execution," and "special treatment." The "Grosslazarett" set up by the Germans in the town of Slavuta has left grim memories. The whole world is familiar with the atrocities perpetrated by the Germans against Soviet prisoners of war and those of other democratic states at Auschwitz, Maidanek, and many other camps.
The directives of the German Security Police and of the SD- uncorked out in collaboration with the Staff of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, whose chief was the Defendant Keitel-were applied here.
Operational Order Number 8 stated:
"Executions must not take place in the camp or in the immediate vicinity of the camp. If the camps in the Government General are situated in the immediate vicinity of the frontier, the prisoners intended for special treatment should, if possible, be transported to former Soviet districts. Should executions be necessary owing to violations of camp discipline, the chief of the operational unit should in this case approach the camp commander.
"The activities of the special task forces sanctioned by the army commanders of the rear areas (district commandants dealing with affairs connected with prisoners of war) must be conducted in such a way as to carry out filtering with as little notice as possible, while the liquidation must be carried out without delay and at such a distance from the transit camps themselves, and from populated places, as to remain unknown to the rest of the prisoners of war and to the population."
177
8 Feb. 46
The following "form" for the carrying out of executions is recommended in Appendix 1 to Operational Order Number 14 of the Chief of the Security Police and SD, dated "Berlin, the 29th of October, 1941, No. 21 B/41 G R S - IV A.I.Z.":
"Chiefs of operational groups decide questions about execution on their own responsibility and give appropriate instructions to the special task forces. In order to carry out the measures laid down in the directives issued, the Kommandos are to demand from the commandants of the camp the handing over to them of the prisoners. The High Command of the Army has issued instructions to the commandants for meeting such demands.
"Executions must take place unnoticed, in convenient places, and, in any event, not in the camp itself nor in its immediate vicinity. It is necessary to take care that the bodies are buried immediately and properly."
The report of the operational Kommando (Obersturmbannfuehrer Lipper to Brigadefuehrer, Dr. Thomas) in Vinnitza, dated December 1941, speaks of the way in which all the above-mentioned instructions were carried out.
It is pointed out in this report that, after the so-called "filtering" of the camp, only 25 persons who could be classed as "suspects" remained in the camp at Vinnitza.
"This limited number"-the report states-"is explained by the fact that the local organizations, in conjunction with the commandants or with the appropriate counterintelligence of ricers, daily undertook the necessary measures, in accordance with the rules of the Security Police, against the undesirable elements in the permanent prisoner-of-war camps."
Thus, apart from the mass executions conducted by Sonderkommandos specially Created for this purpose, the systematic extermination of Soviet persons was widely practiced by commandants and their subordinates in camps for Soviet prisoners of war.
Among the documents of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union for the investigation of crimes committed by Germans in the temporarily seized territories of the U.S.S.R. there are several notes of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, V. M. Molotov, on the subject of the extermination of prisoners of war and of their cruel treatment, and in these notes numerous instances are given of these monstrous crimes of the Hitlerite Government and of the German Supreme Command.
The note of V. M. Molotov, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, dated 25 November 1941, on the subject of the revolting bestialities of the German authorities against Soviet prisoners of
178
8 Feb. 46
war, addressed to all ambassadors and ministers plenipotentiary of the countries with which the U.S.S.R. has diplomatic relations, points out that the German High Command and German military units subjected the Red Army soldiers to brutal tortures and killings.
The wild fascist fanatics stabbed and shot on the spot defenseless, sick, and wounded Red Army soldiers who were in the camps; they raped hospital nurses and medical aid women, and brutally murdered members of the medical personnel. A special count of the victims of these executions was conducted on instructions of the German Government and the Supreme Command.
Thus, the directive given in Appendix 2 to Heydrich's Order Number 8, points out the necessity for keeping an account of the executions performed, that, is, of the extermination of prisoners of war, in the following form: 1) serial number, 2) surname and first name, 3) date and place of birth, 4) profession, 5) last place of domicile, 6) grounds for execution, 7) date and place of execution.
A further specification of the tasks to be carried out by the special task forces for the extermination of Soviet prisoners of war was given in Operational Order Number 14, of the Chief of the Security Police and SD, dated 29 October 1941.
Among brutalities against Soviet prisoners of war must be included branding with special identification marks, which was laid down by a special order of the German Supreme Command, dated 20 July 1942. This order provides for the following methods of branding: '`The tightly drawn skin is to be cut superficially with a heated lances dipped in indict ink."
The Hague Convention of 1907, regarding prisoners of war, prescribed not only humane treatment for prisoners of war, but also respect for their patriotic feelings and forbids their being used to fight against their own fatherland.
Article 3 of the Convention, which refers to the laws and customs of war, forbids the combatants to force enemy subjects to participate in military operations directed against their own country, even in cases where these subjects had been in their service before the outbreak of war. The Hitlerites trod underfoot even this elementary principle of international law. By beatings and threats of shooting they forced prisoners to work as drivers of carts, motor vehicles, and transports carrying ammunition and other equipment to the front, as supply bearers to the firing line, as auxiliaries in anti-aircraft artillery, et cetera.
In the Leningrad district, in the Yelny region of the Smolensk district, in the Gomel district of Bielorussia, in the Poltava district, and in other places, cases were recorded where the German command, under threat of shooting, drove captured Red Army soldiers forward in front of their advancing columns during attacks.
179
8 Feb. 46
The mass extermination of Soviet prisoners of war, established by special investigations of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union, is also confirmed by the documents of the German police and of the Supreme Command captured by the Soviet and Allied armies on German territory. In these documents it is stated that many Soviet prisoners of war died of hunger, typhus, and other diseases. The camp commandants forbade the civil population to give food to the prisoners and doomed them to death by starvation.
In many cases prisoners of war who were unable to keep in line on the march because of starvation and exhaustion were shot in full view of the civil population and their bodies left unburied. In many camps no arrangements of any sort were made for living quarters for the prisoners of war. They lay in the open in rain and snow. They were not even given tools to dig themselves pits or burrows in the ground. One could hear the arguments of the Hitlerites: "The more prisoners who die, the better for us."
On the basis of the above exposition, I declare, on behalf of the Soviet Government and People, that the responsibility for the bloody butchery perpetrated on Soviet prisoners of war in violation of all the universally accepted rules and customs of war, rests with the criminal Hitlerite Government and German Supreme Command, the representatives of which are now sitting on the defendants' benches.
Outstanding in the long chain of vile crimes committed by the German fascist invaders is the forced deportation to Germany of peaceful citizens, men, women, and children, for slave and forced labor.
Documentary evidence proves the fact the Hitlerite Government and the German Supreme Command carried out the deportation of Soviet citizens into German slavery by deceit, threats, and force. Soviet citizens were sold into slavery by the fascist invaders to concerns and private individuals in Germany. These slaves were doomed to hunger, brutal treatment, and, in the end, to an agonizing death.
I shall dwell later on the inhuman and barbarous directives, edicts, and orders of the Hitlerite Government and the Supreme Command, which were issued for the purpose of effecting the deportation of Soviet persons to German slavery and for which the defendants now being prosecuted are responsible, particularly Goering, Keitel, Rosenberg, Sauckel, and others. Documents at the disposal of the Soviet Prosecution, captured by the Red Army from the staffs of the smashed Germano-fascist armies, demonstrate the defendants to have perpetrated these crimes.
In a report read at a meeting of the German Labor Front in November 1942, Rosenberg presented facts and figures confirming
180
8 Feb. 46
the vast scale of the deportation of Soviet citizens to slave and serf labor in Germany which were organized by Sauckel.
On 7 November 1941 a secret conference took place in Berlin, at which Goering gave directives to his officials concerning the utilization of Soviet citizens for forced labor. These directives came to our knowledge from a document which is Secret Circular Number 42006/41 of the Economic Staff of the German Command in the East, dated 4 December 1941. This is how these directives run:
"1. Russians must be used chiefly for road and railway construction, cleaning-up operations, demining and airfield construction. German construction battalions must be disbanded (for instance those of the air force). Skilled German workers must work in war production; they must not dig and break stones-the Russian is there for that purpose.
"2. It is essential to utilize the Russian primarily for the following types of work: Mining, road construction, war production (tanks, guns, aircraft equipment), agriculture, building, in large workshops (shoemaking) and in special detachments for urgent unforeseen jobs.
"3. In taking measures to keep order, the decisive considerations are speed and severity. Only the following types of punishment, without any intermediate punitive sanctions, will be imposed: deprivation of food or death by sentence of court-martial."
The Defendant Fritz Sauckel was appointed Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor by Hitler's order of 21 March 1942. On 20 April 1942 Sauckel sent to several government and military organs his top-secret "Program of the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor," which is no less foul than the circular referred to above. This is what is said in the "Program":
"It is extremely necessary fully to utilize the human reserves available in occupied Soviet territories. If attempts to attract the necessary labor voluntarily do not succeed, it will be necessary to resort immediately to recruitment or to the compulsory signing of individual contracts.
"Besides the prisoners of war we already have, and who are still located in the occupied territories, there is need mainly for the recruitment of skilled male and female civilian workers over 15 years of age from the Soviet provinces for utilization in Germany.
"In order that the burden on the overworked German peasant woman should be noticeably lightened, the Fuehrer has ordered me to bring 400,000 to 500,000 selected, healthy, and strong girls to Germany from the Eastern territories."
181
8 Feb. 46
Yet another secret document concerning the utilization of women workers from the Eastern territories, for domestic labor in Germany, has been presented to the Tribunal by the Prosecution. This document is composed of excerpts from the report on a meeting held by Sauckel on 3 September 1942. I quote some of these excerpts: "1. The Fuehrer has ordered that between 400,000 and 500,000 Ukrainian women aged between 15 and 35 be brought immediately for domestic labor.
"2. The Fuehrer has expressed categorically his desire that a large number of these girls...be Germanized.
"3. It is the Fuehrer's will that, in 100 years' time, 250 million German-speaking people should live in Europe.
"4. · It is to consider these women workers from the Ukraine as workers from the East, and to put the sign 'Ost' "-East-"on them.
"5. Gauleiter Sauckel added that apart from the introduction of women workers for domestic labor it was intended to utilize an additional million workers from the East.
"6. References to the difficulty of bringing stocks of grain to Germany from other countries did not worry him (Sauckel) at all. He would find ways and means to utilize Ukrainian grain and cattle, even if he would have to mobilize all the Jews in Europe and make of them a living chain of conveyors to get all the necessary boxes to the Ukraine."
Foreseeing the inevitability of the failure of existing measures to recruit Soviet citizens by force for labor in Germany, Sauckel ordered, in a secret directive of 31 March 1942, Number PA 578028/729:
"The recruitments for which you are responsible must be enforced by all available means, including the severe application of the principle of compulsory labor."
Sauckel and his agents used all possible methods of pressure and terror to carry out the plans of recruitment, They starved the Soviet citizens condemned to this recruitment, lured them to the stations under pretense of distribution of bread, surrounded them with soldiers, loaded them into trains under the threat of shooting them, and took them to Germany. But even these coercive methods did not help. The recruitment was not successful. Then Sauckel and his agents had recourse to a quota system. This is testified to by an order of a German commandant, captured by the Red Army forces when the occupied part of the Province of Leningrad was liberated. It runs as follows:
"To the mayors of village communities.... Since a very small number of people have so far presented themselves for labor
182
8Feb.46
in Germany, every mayor of a village community must, in accord with the elders of the villages, provide 15 or more persons from each village community for labor in Germany. Healthy people aged between 15 and 50 must be provided."
The chief of the political police and of the Security Service in Kharkov stated in his report on the situation in the town of Kharkov, covering the period from 24 July to 9 September 1942:
"The recruitment of labor is worrying the competent agencies, since an extremely antagonistic attitude to transportation for work in Germany is observed among the population. At present the situation is such that everyone tries by every available means to escape recruitment (malingering, escape into the forests, bribery of officials, et cetera. As for working in Germany voluntarily, this has been out of the question for a long time past."
That citizens deported to German slavery were subjected to the most brutal treatment is shown by a vast quantity of complaints and statements collected by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union for ascertaining and investigating the crimes of the Germano-fascist invaders.
Polish, Czechoslovak, and Yugoslav citizens deported to German slavery suffered the same fate.
In carrying out their plans of conquest and plunder, the Hitlerites systematically destroyed towns and villages, destroyed the treasures created by labors of many generations and plundered the peaceful population. Together with their accomplices-the criminal Governments of Finland and Romania-the Hitlerites developed their plans for the destruction of the largest cities of the Soviet Union. A document, emanating from the naval war staff, dated 29 September 1941 and entitled "The Future of the City of Leningrad," contains the following statement:
"The Fuehrer has decided to wipe the city of Leningrad from the face of the earth. Finland has also declared clearly that she is not interested in the further existence of the city in the immediate vicinity of her new boundary."
On 5 October 1941 Hitler addressed a letter to Antonescu, the special object of which was to co-ordinate their plans for seizing and destroying the city of Odessa.
An order of the German Commander-in-Chief, dated 7 October '1941 and signed by the Defendant Jodl, prescribed that Leningrad and Moscow should be wiped from the face of the earth.
"In the case of all other towns, too"-states the order-"the rule should hold that, prior to their occupation, they should be reduced to ruins by artillery fire and by air raids. It is
183
8 Feb. 46
inadmissible that a German soldier's life should be risked in order that Russian towns be saved from fire."
These directives of central German authorities were widely applied by military commanders of all ranks. Thus an order to the 512th German Infantry Regiment, signed by Colonel Schittnig, prescribes that the regions and districts conquered by the Hitlerites be turned into a desert area. In order that this crime should lead to the most destructive results, the order gives a detailed plan for the annihilation of inhabited localities.
"Preparations for the destruction of inhabited localities"-the order states-"should be made in such a manner that: (a) No suspicion be aroused among the civilian population, prior to announcement; (b) it should be possible to start the destructions at once, by one blow, at an appointed time.... On the day designated, particularly strict watch should be kept on inhabited localities so as not to allow any civilians to leave them, especially from the moment the announcement regarding the destruction is made."
An order by the commander of the 98th German Infantry Division, dated 24 December 1941, is even entitled, "Program of Destruction." This order gives concrete directions regarding the destruction of a number of inhabited localities and suggests that:
"Available stocks of hay, straw, food supplies, et cetera, are to be burnt. All stoves in homes should be put out of action by hand grenades so that their further use be made impossible. On no account is this order to fall into the hands of the enemy."
Special squads of fire raisers (torch bearers) were formed, which set fire to the treasures created by the labor of generations.
Your Honors, I wish to draw your attention to the document known as "Directives for the Control of Economy in the Newly Occupied Eastern Territories"-the "Green File." Goering is the author of these directives. This secret document is dated "Berlin, June 1941." I will quote only a few excerpts from it. The first quotation is:
"Pursuant to the Fuehrer's"-HiMer's-"orders, it is necessary to take all measures for the immediate and full exploitation of the occupied territories for Germany's benefit. To obtain for Germany the largest possible amount of food supplies and crude oil-such is the main economic objective of the campaign. At the same time German industry must also be supplied with other kinds of raw materials from the occupied territories. The first task is to supply the German armies with the utmost speed entirely from the resources of the occupied territories."
184
8 Feb. 46
Second quotation:
"The opinion that the occupied territories should be restored to order as soon as possible, and their economy re-established, is quite out of place.... The ... restoration of order must take place only in those areas from which we can obtain considerable supplies of agricultural products and crude oil; in others . . . economic activity must be limited to the exploitation of such stocks as are discovered."
Third quotation:
"All raw materials, semi-manufactured, and finished goods must be withdrawn from the markets by means of orders, requisitions, and confiscations. Platinum, magnesium, and rubber should be collected immediately and removed to Germany. Foodstuffs, as well as articles of domestic and personal use, and clothing discovered in the combat zone and in the rear areas, are to he placed, in the first instance, at the disposal of the economic detachments to satisfy the needs of the armies.... What is rejected by them will be passed on to the next highest war economy agency."
As I have already said at the beginning, the main objective of the German aggression against the Soviet Union was to plunder the Soviet country and to obtain the economic resources necessary for Hitlerite Germany, without which she could not carry out her imperialistic plans of aggression.
Goering's Green File represented the extensive program, developed beforehand by the fascist conspirators, for the organized plunder of the Soviet Union.
This program laid down in advance concrete plans for plunder: The forcible confiscation of valuables, the organization of slave labor in our cities and villages, the abolition of ages in industrial establishments, the uncontrolled issue of completely insecure currency, et cetera. To materialize this program of plunder, the creation of special machinery was provided with its own economic command, economic staffs, its own intelligence, inspectorate, army units, detachments for collecting means of production, detachments for collecting raw materials, military agronomists, agricultural officers, et cetera.
Together with the advancing German armies, there also moved detachments of the economic departments of the Army, whose task was to determine the available supplies of grain, cattle, fuel, and other property. These detachments were subordinated to a special economic inspectorate which had its seat in the rear areas.
Soon after the attack on the U.S.S.R. Hitler's decree of 29 June 1941 placed the entire control of the loot of occupied territories in
185
8 Feb. 46
the hands of the Defendant Goering. By this decree Goering was given the right to take "all measures necessary for the maximum utilization of all stocks discovered and of the country's economic capacity in the interests of German war economy." The Defendant Goering directed the predatory activities of the German military and economic detachments with the greatest zeal.
At a conference held on 6 August 1942 with the Reich commissioners and representatives of the military command, Goering demanded that the plunder of occupied territories be intensified:
"You are sent there"-Goering pointed out-"not to work for the benefit of the peoples entrusted to you, but in order to pump out of them all that is possible."-And further on-"I intend to plunder and to plunder effectively."
As established by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union, these directives of Goering were carried out by the Reich ministers and representatives of German firms, under whose control were various kinds of economic groups, technical battalions, economic staffs, and economic inspectorates. Particularly active in the plunder of property of the Soviet Union were the German firms Friedrich Krupp A.G.; Hermann Goering; Siemens-Schuckert; the Mining and Metallurgical Company "Ost"; the Corporation "Nord"; Heinrich Lanz; Landmaschinenbauindustrie; I. G. Farbenindustrie, and many others.
While they plundered and pillaged state and private property, the Hitlerite invaders doomed to starvation and death the population of the districts thus plundered. Field Marshal Reichenau's order of 10 October 1941, which was distributed as a model among all German units together with a note saying that Hitler considered it an excellent order, contained the following incitement to plunder and exterminate the population, "To supply local inhabitants and prisoners of war with food is an act of unnecessary humanity."
The notes on the conference held in Rovno, from 26 to 28 August 1942, which were discovered in Defendant Rosenberg's files, state:
"The object of our work is to make the Ukrainians work for Germany; we are not here to make these people happy. The Ukraine can give us what is lacking in Germany. This object must be achieved irrespective of losses."
Following the directives of the Defendant Goering, the local authorities mercilessly and completely plundered the population of the occupied territories. An order discovered at a number of places in the Kursk and Orel districts by units of the Red Army contains a list of property to be handed over to the military authorities. Things like scales, sacks, salt, lamps, saucepans, oilcloth, blinds, and gramophones with records are mentioned in the order. "All this
186
8 Feb. 46
property," the order states, "must be delivered to the commander. Those guilty of infringing this order will be shot."
In their fierce hatred of the Soviet people and their culture, the German invaders destroyed scientific and artistic institutions, historical and cultural monuments, schools and hospitals, clubs and theaters.
"No historic or artistic treasures in the East", Field Marshal Reichenau decreed in his order, "are of importance."
The destruction of historical and cultural treasures carried out by the Hitlerites assumed vast proportions. Thus, in a letter of 29 September 1941 from the Plenipotentiary General for Bielorussia to Rosenberg, it is stated:
"According to the report of the major of the 707th Division, who today handed over to me the remaining treasures, the SS men left the rest of the pictures and works of art to be plundered by the armed forces; these included extremely valuable pictures and furniture dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, vases, marble sculptures, et cetera....
". . .the museum of history was also completely destroyed. From the geographical section, valuable precious and semiprecious stones were looted. In the university, scientific instruments to a total value of hundreds of thousands of marks were senselessly smashed or stolen."
In the territory of those districts of the Moscow province which were temporarily occupied by the fascists, the occupants destroyed and looted 112 libraries, 4 museums, and 54 theaters and cinemas.
The Hitlerites looted and burnt the famous museum at Borodino, whose historical relics pertaining to the patriotic war of 1812 are particularly dear to the Russian people. In the small village of Polotayanny Zavod the occupants looted and burnt Pushkin's house, which had been turned into a museum. The Germans destroyed manuscripts, books and pictures which had belonged to Leo Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana. The German barbarians desecrated the grave of the great author
The occupants looted the Bielorussian Academy of Science housing extremely rare collections of historic documents and books, and destroyed hundreds of schools, clubs, and theaters in Bielorussia (White Russia).
From the Pevlovsk Palace in the town of Slutzk the extremely valuable palace furniture, made by outstanding craftsmen of the, 18th century, was removed to Germany. From the Peterhof palaces the Germans removed all the remaining sculptured and carved ornaments, carpets, pictures, and statues. The Great Palace of Peterhof, constructed in the reign of Peter I, was barbarously burnt
187
8 Feb. 46
after it had been looted. The German vandals destroyed the State Public Library at Odessa, containing over 2 million volumes.
At Tchernigov a famous collection of Ukrainian antiquities was looted. At the Kievo-Petchersk Monastery the Germans seized documents from the archives of the metropolitans of Kiev and books from the private library of Peter Mogila, who had collected extremely valuable works on world literature. They looted the precious collections of the Lvov and Odessa museums and removed to Germany or partially destroyed the treasures of the libraries of Vinnitza and Poltava, where extremely rare copies of medieval literary manuscripts, the first printed editions of the 16th and the 17th centuries, and ancient missals were kept.
The wholesale plunder in the occupied regions of the U.S.S.R., carried out on direct orders of the German Government, was not only directed by the Defendants Goering and Rosenberg and by the various staffs and detachments subordinated to them, but the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, with the Defendant Ribbentrop at its head, also took part in the looting through a special organization.
The statement by Obersturmfuehrer, Dr. Norman Forster of the 4th Company, Special Task Battalion of the SS Troops (Waffen SS), published by the press at that time, bears witness of the fact. Forster stated in his deposition:
"In August 1941, while I was in Berlin, I was detached from the 87th Antitank Division and assigned to the Special Task Battalion of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, through the help of Dr. Focke, an old acquaintance of mine at Berlin University, who was then working in the Press Division of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. This battalion was formed on the initiative of Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, and acted under his direction. . . 7, The task of this Special Task Battalion consisted in seizing, immediately after the fall of large cities, their cultural and historical treasures, libraries of scientific institutions, selecting valuable editions of books and films, and then sending all these to Germany."
And further:
"We obtained rich trophies in the library of the Ukrainian Academy of Science, treasuring the rarest Persian, Abyssinian, and Chinese manuscripts, Russian and Ukrainian chronicles, the initial copies of books printed by the first Russian printer, Ivan Fyodorov, and rare editions of works by Shevtchenko, Mitzkevitch, and Ivan Franko."
Side by side with the barbarous destruction and looting of villages, towns, and national cultural monuments, the Hitlerites also mocked the religious feelings of the believers among the Soviet
188
8 Feb. 46
population. They burnt, looted, destroyed, and desecrated on Soviet territory 1,670 Greek Orthodox churches, 237 Roman Catholic churches, 69 chapels, 532 synagogues, and 258 other buildings belonging to religious institutions.
They destroyed the Uspensky Church of the famous Kievo-Petchersky Monastery, built in 1073, and with it eight monastery buildings. At Tchernigov, the Germano-fascist armies destroyed the ancient Borisoglebsky Cathedral, built at the beginning of the 12th century, the Cathedral of the Efrosiniev Monastery of Polotzk, built in 1160, and the Church of Paraskeva-Piatniza-in-the-Market, an extremely valuable monument of 12th century Russian architecture. At Novgorod the Hitlerites destroyed the Antoniev, Khutynsky, Zverin, Derevyanitzky and other ancient monasteries, the famous church of Spas-Nereditza, and a series of other churches.
The German soldiers scoffed at the religious feelings of the people. They dressed up in church vestments, kept horses and dogs in the churches, and made bunks out of the icons. In the ancient Staritzky Monastery, units of the Red Army found the naked bodies of tortured Red Army prisoners of war, stacked in piles.
The damage inflicted on the Soviet Union as a result of the destructive and predatory activities of German army units is extremely great.
The German armies and occupational authorities, carrying out the orders of the criminal Hitlerite Government and of the High Command of the Armed Forces, destroyed and looted Soviet towns and villages and industrial establishments and collective farms seized by them; destroyed works of art, demolished, stole, and removed to Germany machinery, stocks of raw and other materials and finished goods, art and historic treasures, and carried out the general plundering of the urban and rural population. In the occupied territories of the Soviet Union 88 million persons lived before the war; gross industrial production amounted to 46 million rubles (at the fixed Government prices of 1926-27); there were 109 million head of livestock, including 31 million head of horned cattle and 12 million horses; 71 million hectares of cultivated land, and 122,000 kilometers of railway lines.
The German fascist invaders completely or partially destroyed or burned 1,710 cities and more than 70,000 villages and hamlets; they burned or destroyed over 6 million buildings and rendered some 25 million persons homeless. Among the damaged cities which suffered most were the big industrial and cultural centers of Stalingrad, Sevastopol, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Odessa, Smolensk, Novgorod, Pskov, Orel, Kharkov, Voronezh, Rostov- on-D on, and many others.
189
B Feb. 46
The Germano-fascist invaders destroyed 31,850 industrial establishments employing some 4 million workers; they destroyed or removed from the country 239,000 electric motors and 175,000 metal cutting machines.
The Germans destroyed 65,000 kilometers of railway tracks, 4,100 railway stations, 36,000 post and telegraph offices, telephone exchanges, and other installations for communications.
The Germans destroyed or devastated 40,000 hospitals and other medical institutions, 84,000 schools, technical colleges, universities, institutes for scientific research, and 43,000 public libraries.
The Hitlerites destroyed and looted 98,000 collective farms, 1,876 state farms, and 2,890 machine and tractor stations; they slaughtered, seized or drove into Germany 7 million horses, 17 million head of horned cattle, 20 million pigs, 27 million sheep and goats, and 110 million head of poultry.
The total damage caused to the Soviet Union by the criminal acts of the Hitlerite armies has been estimated at 679,000 million rubles at the Government prices of 1941.
All the defendants prepared, organized, and perpetrated indescribable and blasphemous crimes, such as have never before been committed in history, against humanity and against the principles of human ethics and of international law.
In the statement of the offense in Count Four of the Indictment, it is rightly pointed out that the very plan or conspiracy was organized also for committing Crimes against Humanity. The fascist conspirators started committing Crimes against Humanity from the moment of the formation of the Hitler Party. These crimes attained vast proportions after the coming into power of the Hitlerites.
The concentration camp of Buchenwald, set up in 1938, and the camp at Dachau, established in 1934, turned out to be only the anemic prototypes of Maidanek, Auschwitz, Slavuta, and numerous death camps, set up by the Hitlerites in the territories of Latvia, Bielorussia, and the Ukraine.
The very coming into power of the Hitlerites was marked by many provocations which served as an excuse for committing grave Crimes against Humanity. Inflicting punishments without due process of law by the Hitlerites upon all who did not share the ideology of the fascist clique became widespread.
"We deny the protection of law to the enemies of the people. We National Socialists knowingly take a stand against false soft-heartedness and false humaneness. We do not recognize the sophistry of tricky lawyers and cunning juridical
190
8 Feb. 46
subtleties"-wrote Goering, as early as 1934, in an article published overseas in the Hearst press. (Goering, Hermann, Reden and Aufsatze, Zentralverlag der NSDAP, Munich, 1940, Page 159.)
In one of the articles, dated 1933, Goering regarded it as his special merit that he had reorganized the entire management of the Gestapo, having placed the Secret Police under his immediate control and organized concentration camps to be used in fighting political opponents.
"Thus"-spoke Goering-"arose the concentration camps in which we soon had to stick thousands of people belonging to the Communist and Social Democratic Party machines."
At the disposal of the Soviet Prosecution are the notes of Martin Bormann, found in the archives of the German Foreign Office and captured by the Soviet troops in Berlin, on the conference held by Hitler on 2 October 1940. This document refers to occupied Poland. It will be submitted to the Tribunal. At the moment I shall only quote from it a few points of the Hitlerite leadership program. The conference started with the statement by Frank that his activities as Governor General could be considered very successful: The Jews in Warsaw and other cities were locked up in ghettos. Very soon Krak6w would be entirely cleared of Jews.
"There must be no Polish gentry"-the document went on to state-"wherever they may be, they must be exterminated, no matter how brutal this may sound.
". . . all representatives of the Polish intelligentsia must be exterminated. This sounds brutal, but such is the law of life.... Priests will be paid by us and, as a result, they will preach what we want. If we find a priest acting otherwise short work is to be made of him. The task of the priest consists in keeping the Poles quiet, stupid, and dull-witted. This is entirely in our interests. The lowest German workman and the lowest German peasant must always stand above any Pole economically."
A special place among the unheard-of crimes of the Hitlerites is occupied by the bloody butchery of the Slavic and Jewish peoples. Hitler said to Rauschning:
"After all these centuries of whining about the protection of the poor and the lowly, it is about time we decided to protect the strong against the inferior., It will be one of the chief tasks of German statesmanship for all times to prevent, by every means in our power, the further increase of the Slav races. Natural instincts bid all living beings not merely to conquer their enemies but to destroy them. In former days
191
8 Feb. 46
it was the victor's prerogative to destroy entire tribes, entire peoples." (Rauschning, H., The Voice of Destruction, New York, 1940, Page 138.)
If Your Honors please, you have already heard the testimony of the witness, Eric Von dem Bach-Zelewski, about Himmler's aims, as given by him in his speech at the beginning of 1941.
In answer to a question by a representative of the Soviet Prosecution, the witness declared, "Himmler mentioned in his speech that it was necessary to cut down the number of Slavs by 30 million." The Tribunal will see by this what monstrous proportions the criminal ideas of the Hitlerite fanatics attained.
The Hitlerites vented their ferocity particularly on the Soviet intelligentsia. Even before the attack on the U.S.S.R., directives were prepared regarding the merciless annihilation of Soviet people for political and racial reasons. In Appendix 2 to Operational Order Number 8 of the Chief of the Security Police and SD, dated 17 June 1941, it was stated:
"It is above all essential to ascertain the identity of all prominent Government and party officials, particularly professional revolutionaries, persons working for the Comintern, all influential members of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R. and the affiliated organizations in the Central Committee and the district and regional committees, all people's commissars and their deputies, all former political commissars in the Red Army, leading personalities of the state institutions of the central and middle administrative levels, leading personalities in economic life, the Soviet Russian intelligentsia, and all . Jews."
In a directive of 17 June 1941 for Security Police and SD detachments it is pointed out that it is necessary to take such measures, not only against the Russian people, but also against the Ukrainians, Bielorussians, Azerbaidahanians, Armenians, Georgians, Turks, and other nationalities.
The Soviet Prosecution will present to the Tribunal actual documents and facts in this connection. The fascist conspirators planned the extermination to the last man of the Jewish population of the world and carried out this extermination throughout the whole of their conspiratorial activity from 1933 onwards.
My American colleague has already quoted Hitler's statement of 24 February 1942, that "the Jews will be annihilated." In a speech by the Defendant Frank, published in the Krakow Gazette on 18 August 1942, it is stated:
"Anyone who passes through Krakow, Lvov, Warsaw, Radom, or Lublin today must in all fairness admit that the
192
3 Feb. 46
efforts of the German administration have been crowned with real success, as one now sees hardly any Jews."
The bestial annihilation of the Jewish population took place in the Ukraine, in Bielorussia, and in the Baltic States. In the town of Riga some 80,000 Jews lived before the German occupation. At the moment of the liberation of Riga by the Red Army there were 140 Jews left there.
It is impossible to enumerate in an opening statement the crimes committed by the defendants against humanity. The Soviet Prosecution has at its disposal considerable documentary material which will be presented to the Tribunal.'
If Your Honors please, I here appear as the representative of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, which bore the main brunt of the blows of the fascist invaders and which vastly contributed to the smashing of Hitlerite Germany and its satellites. On behalf of the Soviet Union, I charge the defendants on all the counts enumerated in Article 6 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal.
Together with the Chief Prosecutors of the United States of America, Great Britain, and France, I charge the defendants with having prepared and carried out a perfidious attack on the peoples of my country and on all freedom-loving nations.
I accuse them of the fact that, having initiated a world war, they, in violation of the fundamental rules of international law and of the treaties to which they were signatories, turned war into an instrument of extermination of peaceful citizens-an instrument of plunder, violence, and pillage.
I accuse the defendants of the fact that, having proclaimed themselves to be the representatives of the "master race," a thing which they have invented, they set up, wherever their domination spread, an arbitrary regime of tyranny; a regime founded on the disregard' for the elementary principles of humanity.
Now, when as a result of the heroic struggle of the Red Arms and of the Allied forces, Hitlerite Germany is broken and overwhelmed, we have no right to forget the victims who have suffered We have no right to leave unpunished those who organized and were guilty of monstrous crimes.
In sacred memory of millions of innocent victims of the fascist terror, for the sake of the consolidation of peace throughout the world, for the sake of the future security of nations, we are presenting the defendants with a just and complete account which must b' settled. This is an account on behalf of all mankind, an account backed by the will and the conscience of all freedom loving nations
May justice be done!
193
8 Feb. 46
THE PRESIDENT: We shall now adjourn. General Rudenko, your delegation will be prepared to go on after the adjournment, will you not?
GEN.RUDENKO: Yes. I would also prefer that there should now be an adjournment.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you mean an adjournment altogether for the day or what the Tribunal proposed, to adjourn now for 10 or 15 minutes, then continue until 5 o'clock? Would that not be convenient to you?
GEN.RUDENKO: All right; yes, Sir.
[A recess was taken.]
GEN.RUDENKO: If it please Your Honors, Colonel Karev will report on the order of submitting the documents to the Tribunal.
COLONEL D. S. KAREV (Assistant Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): The Soviet Prosecution begins its presentation of evidence on all counts of the Indictment. The Tribunal is already familiar with the large number of important documents presented on behalf of the Prosecution by our honorable colleagues. On its own part the Soviet Prosecution has at its disposal numerous documents relating to the criminal activities of the fascist conspirators.
In connection with Count One, dealing with the Crimes against Peace, we shall submit the following types of documents: Administrative regulations by the German authorities, orders and plans by the German military command, diaries and personal archives of several of the leaders of the fascist party and the German Government, as well as other documents. These documents were in part found by units of the Red Army on German soldiers and officers, or were discovered in concentration camps and in offices of German authorities.
In connection with Counts Two and Three, that is, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, we shall offer in evidence, in the first place, the reports and files of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union for the determination and investigation of crimes committed by the German fascist invaders and their accomplices. This commission was set up by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., dated 2 November 1942. For local work there were set up state, regional, district, and municipal commissions to assist in the work of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union for the determination and investigation of the misdeeds committed by the Germano-fascist invaders. Both the central office, as well as the local offices of the Extraordinary State Commission, were composed of prominent
194
8 Feb. 46
statesmen and representatives of different public scientific and cultural organizations, as well as of religious denominations. The Extraordinary State Commission, through its representatives and with the assistance of representatives of local groups and local state authorities has collected and checked data and drawn up protocols on the atrocities of the German invaders and on the damage caused to the Soviet Union and its citizens. Counting only the crimes committed by the Germano-fascist monsters against the peaceful citizens of the Soviet Union, 54,784 files were drawn up. In accordance with Article 21 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, these files represent unquestionable evidence. Of all these files of the Extraordinary State Commission, only an insignificant number will at present be submitted to the Tribunal by the Soviet Prosecution. In the possession of the Soviet Prosecution are also photographs showing the atrocities and destruction committed by the German invaders in the temporarily occupied territories of the U.S.S.R. Part of these photographs will be submitted to the Tribunal. Several documentary films will be offered to the Tribunal in evidence by the Soviet Prosecution. In submitting evidence relating to War Crimes committed by the conspirators, the Soviet Prosecution will also use several German documents, photographs, and films which were captured from the Germans.
The Soviet Prosecution will also submit evidence relative to crimes committed by the defendants and their accomplices against Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia. Out of this evidence special mention must be made of the official report by the Czechoslovakian Government entitled "German Crimes against Czechoslovakia." This report was prepared on the direction of the Czechoslovakian Government by the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Dr. Boguslav Ecer, the representative of Czechoslovakia in the United Nations Commission for Investigation of War Crimes. There are documents appended to the official report on German crimes against Czechoslovakia. Among these documents there are laws, decrees, orders, et cetera, issued and officially published by the Germano-fascist authorities; documents from the archives of the Czechoslovak Government; and affidavits by persons who held prominent positions in Czechoslovakia during the occupation., There will be shown a special film concerning the destruction of Lidice. It was, in its time, prepared by official German agencies. The film was found by officials of the Czechoslovakian Ministry of the Interior. The official report on the German crimes against Czechoslovakia, as well as the documents appended thereto, on the strength of Articled of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, represent unquestionable evidence and will be presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit USSR-60 (Document Number USSR-60).
195
8 Feb. 46
The Soviet Prosecution will likewise present evidence regarding the crimes perpetrated by the conspirators in Poland. The basic document to be presented on this subject by the Soviet Prosecution will be the report of the Polish Government dated 22 January 1946. The official documents of the Polish Government were the primary source of the report of the Polish Government on the German crimes committed in Poland. Both the official report of the Polish Government and the documents appended thereto, on the strength of Article 21 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, represent unquestionable evidence.
And finally, the Soviet Delegation will present to the Tribunal documents concerning the crimes of German invaders committed on Yugoslav territory. The investigation of the criminal activity of the German Command and of the German occupational authorities in Yugoslavia was carried out by the Yugoslav State Commission for the investigation of crimes committed by the German occupants. The commission was created on 29 November 1943 by a decision of the Yugoslav Anti-Fascist Committee for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia. This commission, which from the beginning has always been presided over by Dr. Doushan Nedelkovitsch, professor at Belgrade University, started its work when a part of Yugoslavia was still under the domination of the German, Italian, Hungarian, and other occupants. Besides the Yugoslav State Commission, the investigation of the crimes committed by the Germano-fascist invaders was carried out by eight specially created federal commissions, as well as by district and regional commissions. On the strength of the material collected, the Yugoslav State Commission has issued 53 communiqués describing the atrocities committed by the German occupants and submits its report dated 26 December 1945. This report represents unquestionable evidence, and is submitted by us as Exhibit USSR-36 (Document Number USSR-36).
It is my duty to mention that documentary evidence which has been already presented by our honorable American, British, and French colleagues will, to some extent, be used by the representatives of the Soviet Prosecution.
May it please Your Honors, in conclusion I would like to make known to the Tribunal the order in which the prosecutors from the U.S.S.R. will present their case.
The Count dealing with the Crimes against Peace (aggression against Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia) will be presented by Colonel Pokrovsky, the U.S.S.R. Deputy Chief Prosecutor.
The Count dealing with the aggression against the U.S.S.R. will be presented by State Counsellor of Justice, Third Class, Zorya.
196
8 Feb. 46
Thereupon, Colonel Pokrovsky will present to the Tribunal the crimes committed in violation of the laws and customs of war relating to the treatment of prisoners of war.
The Count on crimes against the peaceful population of the U.S.S.R., Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia will be presented by Chief Counsellor of Justice Smirnov.
Report on the subject of the plunder of private, public, and state property will be made by General Shenin, State Counsellor of Justice of the Second Class.
Report on the plunder and destruction of cultural treasures and wanton destruction and annihilation of towns and villages will be presented by Raginsky, State Counsellor of Justice of the Second Class.
State Counsellor of Justice of the Third Class Zorya will speak on the subject of forced labor and deportation into German slavery.
Finally, Chief Counsellor of Justice Smirnov will present the report on the last subject, Crimes against Humanity.
I now end my statement.
COLONEL Y. V. POKROVSKY (Deputy Chief Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): Your Honors, Mr. President, the opening statements of the Chief Prosecutor have dealt with the question of how fascist Germany pursued the ideological preparation for aggressive war.
The connection between Hitlerite propaganda and acts of aggression against peace was also revealed in the statement of the U.S.S.R. Chief Prosecutor. Therefore may I be allowed to quote just one short extract from Horst von Metzsch's book entitled Krieg als Saat (U7ar as Seed), which was published in Breslau in 1934. I quote:
"It is impossible to conceive of the National Socialist movement without war. German soldier glory is its father; its finest musketeer is its leader; and war's hardy spirit is its soul."
That is not just a phrase dropped by a garrulous fascist penman; that is a program which is blurted out. War, and only war, was considered by the Hitlerite conspirators as the most effective means of attaining the objectives of their foreign policy. It is, therefore, only natural that Germany was turned into an armed camp and became a constant menace to her neighbors after the fascists had seized power in the country.
The East was the first objective of the fascist conspirators.
In his book Mein Kampf-it is already at the disposal of the Tribunal-Hitler wrote, as far back as 1930-in that document book which is now being handed to each member of the Tribunal, you will find the passage I am quoting from Mein Kampf in Volume I,
197
8 Feb. 46
Page 1-I consider it advisable to inform the Tribunal that for its convenience all the passages which I shall quote are marked in red pencil.
I quote: "The movement eastwards is continuing, even though Russia must be erased from the list of European powers'" (Page 732, of Mein Kampf, 1930 edition).
Hypocritically proclaiming her love of peace and giving all her neighbors assurances of her intention to live in peace with them, Hitlerite Germany merely strove to conceal her real, her ever-present aggressive intentions. The conspirators gladly concluded any agreement on arbitration, non-aggression, et cetera. They did it not because they were really striving for peace, but with the sole intention of waiting for a suitable moment to strike the next treacherous blow and of lulling to sleep the vigilance of the nations. Having committed one of their scheduled aggressive acts, they strove with still greater energy to convince everybody that from now on they had no further aggressive plans. A combination of hypocrisy and fraud, of treason and aggression, ruled the entire system of German foreign policy.
With incredible insolence the fascist conspirators violated all their international obligations, all their international agreements, including those which directly prohibited the use of war as a solution of international disputes. Not one of the wars provided by the Hitlerites can be classified under the concept of defensive wars. In every instance the Germano-fascists acted as aggressors. They admitted, themselves, that they did not hesitate to resort to provocation in order to have an excuse for attacking their next victim at the most propitious moment.
Count Two of the Indictment contains a complete list of the wars which were provoked, prepared, initiated, and waged by the fascist conspirators.
The insane imagination of the Hitlerites visualized the East as a paradise for the fascist invaders, a paradise built on the bones and blood of the millions of people who inhabited these lands.
Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe has informed the Tribunal that the Soviet Delegation would submit some new evidence regarding the criminal conspiracy against peace, and also warned you that certain repetitions could not be avoided. While striving to reduce these repetitions to a minimum, I wish to draw the attention of the Tribunal to some of the documents relating to the criminal aggression of the fascist conspirators.
As documentary evidence I submit to the Tribunal Exhibit USSR-60 (Document Number USSR-60), an official Czechoslovak report. It begins with the following significant phrase-and this phrase will be found on Page 10 of the document book, Volume I,
198
8 Feb. 46
Part 1, and is marked in red pencil: "Czechoslovakia was an obstacle to the German 'Drang nach Osten' (Drive to the East) or to the domination of Europe." That is followed by an analysis of the strategic and political aspects of the aggression against Czechoslovakia.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Pokrovsky, when you want to put in a document in evidence, you will produce the original document, will you not, and hand it to the Secretary of the Tribunal?
COL. POKROVSKY: As I stated, this (Document Number USSR-60) is followed by an analysis of the strategic and political aspects of the aggression against Czechoslovakia. I quote, beginning with the second sentence of Subparagraph (a), which for convenience is marked with a red pencil. I quote:
"Czechoslovakia was indeed of foremost strategic importance as a natural obstacle and a fortress against a military drive towards the Danube basin, and from there eastwards, across the eastern Carpathians and along the valley of the Danube, towards the Balkans."
The gist of Subparagraph (b) is that Czechoslovakia was a democratic country; and finally Subparagraph (c) gives an analysis of Czechoslovakia from the national point of view. I shall quote this subparagraph as it is formulated in the report. You will find this in Volume I, Part 1, end of Page 11 and beginning of Page 12: "c. From the national point of view, Czechoslovakia, as far as the vast majority of its population is concerned, was a Slav country, intensely conscious of the unity of all Slavs."
The Tribunal will remember that the annihilation of Slavism and the destruction of democratic principles was one of the basic aims of the fascist conspiracy.
The Tribunal may have noticed that the methods of execution of aggression by the Hitlerite conspirators nearly always followed the same pattern. In all cases, lightning speed and suddenness of military attack were considered indispensable. They endeavored to attain the element of surprise by giving the prospective enemy treacherous and hypocritical assurances of their sincerely peaceful intentions. Simultaneously, wide use was made of the foul system of bribery, blackmail, provocation, financing of various kinds of pro-fascist organizations, and using as paid agents unprincipled politicians and downright traitors to their respective countries.
Mr. Alderman began his presentation of documents by giving several examples of this nature. He told the Tribunal in detail and proved by documentary evidence that the representatives of the so-called Slovak autonomous movement were bought with German money-that is, one Hans Karmazin, and the same also applies to
199
8 Feb. 46
Deputy Prime Minister Durcanski, to the notorious Tuka, and many other leaders of the Hlinka Party.
It was presented to you that at the beginning of March 1939, that is, immediately prior to the day planned for the final entry of the Nazis into Czechoslovakia, the activity of the Fifth Column reached its climax.
I believe I should present to the Tribunal certain facts about the Hitlerite organizations established for the purpose of subversive activity, and also about the part played by the SS official, Lorenz, whose name I shall mention later on in connection with the action against Czechoslovakia.
Himmler, the holder of several offices, combined in his person the position of Reichsleiter of the security units (SS) and of Reich Commissioner for the Preservation of German Nationality (Reichskommissar fur die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums). As such, he was charged with the leadership of all State and Party organs within Germany, which, in turn, controlled the German settlements, the work among the Germano-fascist minorities in other countries and the remigration of Germans into Germany In this field his executive apparatus was the so-called Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle. The leader of this organization, and therefore the actual deputy of Himmler, in this special sphere, was SS Obergruppenfuehrer Lorenz, who will be discussed later.
There was also another criminal organization. I have in mind the foreign organization of the NSDAP (Auslands-Organisation der NSDAP), abbreviated to AO. It played an important part in creating the Fifth Column in countries which were later subjected to Hitlerite aggression.
AO united such Germans who were members of the Nazi Party living outside Germany. Apart from the wide propaganda of fascism, AO was engaged in political and other kinds of espionage. Germans living in other countries received material help through AO and maintained contact with various pro-German and espionage groups of the country in which they lived.
The sub-branches of the Hitlerite party abroad were under the guidance of German diplomatic missions. For this purpose the leader of AO, Gauleiter Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, was installed in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the rank of State Secretary.,
There are several appendices to the official Czechoslovak report. One of them is registered under Document Number 3061-PS. It contains excerpts from the testimony of Karl Hermann Frank, former deputy of the Reich Protector. I submit this document to the Tribunal and, without reading it in its entirety, I wish to refer briefly to those parts of the document which deal with question of the Fifth Column.
200
8 Feb. 46
At the interrogation of 9 October 1945-the Tribunal will find the passage quoted in Volume I, Part 1, Page 185 of the document book-Frank declared that in his opinion the Henlein Party received money from Germany from 1936 onwards. In 1938 it received funds from the so-called Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle in Berlin, through the German Minister in Prague. Frank confirmed that, together with Henlein, he several times visited the German Minister in Prague, who handed him and Henlein money for the Party. Frank admits that the acceptance of this money was incompatible with the duties of a Czechoslovak citizen. Frank further admitted that he visited the German Legation in Prague several times, alone, informed the German Minister of the inner political situation in Czechoslovakia and thus, considering the character of the information communicated, committed high treason.
Frank testifies-what I am now quoting will be found in Volume I, Part 1, Page 187:
"All negotiations in the summer of 1938 between Henlein and myself on the one hand, and the Reich authorities, in particular Adolf Hitler, Hess, and Ribbentrop on the other hand, were conducted for the purpose of providing the Reich authorities with information on the development of the political situation in Czechoslovakia., These discussions took place on the initiative of the Reich authorities." I have quoted this excerpt from Page 5 of the Russian translation, Document Number 3061-PS.
On Page 188 of your document book you will find another excerpt which I shall now submit to you. Frank confesses that he was aware of "the treason committed by the Party and its central leadership corps by receiving money from abroad for effecting measures inimical to the State."
The so-called Henlein Free Corps (Sudeten Freikorps) was established in Bohemia and Moravia. During the interrogation of 15 August 1945, Karl Hermann Frank testified that Henlein and his staff were in Tandorf Castle near Reuc'n. Henlein himself was the chief of staff of the corps, which bore the title "Freikorps Fuehrers." According to Frank the Free Corps was established by Hitler's order. Part of that corps which was in the territory of the German Reich was equipped with small arms in small quantities, as stated by Frank. According to him, the Free Corps consisted of about fifteen thousand people, chiefly Sudeten Germans We find this information on Page 3 of the Russian translation of Document Number 3061-PS. In your book it is Page 185 of Volume I, Part 1.
Among the trophies collected by our heroic Red Army are the archives of the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Delegation has at its disposal new documents which I consider
201
8 Feb. 46
advisable to read in part in order to supplement the data previously submitted to the Tribunal. They are particularly interesting, if we bear in mind that one of the favorite pretexts for aggression of the Hitlerite conspirators was their intention to protect the interests of the German minorities.
I shall read an excerpt from the top-secret minutes of the meeting held in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at noon, 29 March 1938 in Berlin especially on the subject of the Sudeten Germans. I shall refer to our Document Number USSR-271. You will find this passage on Page 196, Volume I, Part 1. I quote:
"The conference was attended by the gentlemen mentioned in the attached list: In his opening address the Reich Minister emphasized the importance of keeping this conference strictly secret and later, referring to the Fuehrer's instruction which he had personally given to Konrad Henlein yesterday afternoon, he stated that there were primarily two questions of importance to the political guidance of the Sudeten German Party.
"1) The Sudeten Germans must know that they are backed by a German nation of 75 million inhabitants who will not tolerate any further oppression of the Sudeten Germans by the Government of Czechoslovakia.
"2) It is the responsibility of the Sudeten German Party to submit to the Czechoslovak Government those demands the fulfillment of which it considered necessary to achieve the liberties it desired."
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Pokrovsky, I am sorry to interrupt you but it is not quite clear, on the translation that has come through, whether you have deposited the original of this document and have given it an exhibit number, that is, if it has already been put in.
COL. POKROVSKY: All the documents presented by the Soviet Delegation are submitted by us to the Tribunal in Russian and they are then handed for translation to the international translators' pool, which is charged to serve the Tribunal with translation into all the other languages. This document is referred to by me in precise correspondence with its registration number-our Number USSR-271.
THE PRESIDENT: If the original document is not in Russian, it must be deposited with the Tribunal in its original condition. I do not know what the document is. It is about a conference, apparently, and I suppose the original is in German.
COL. POKROVSKY: The original document is in German.
THE PRESIDENT: If that is so, we would like to see the original in German.
202
8 Feb. 46
COL. POKROVSKY: The photostatic copy of the original document, in the German language, is at present at the disposal of the Tribunal. May I continue?
THE PRESIDENT: One moment. Is this the original?
COL.POKROVSKY: It is a photostat.
THE PRESIDENT: I am afraid that we must' insist upon having the original.
COL. POKROVSKY: The original document is at the disposal of the Soviet Government and, if the Tribunal wishes, it can be sent for and presented to the Tribunal a little later. The photostat is certified.
THE PRESIDENT: I am afraid we must have the original documents. After the original documents have been produced and exhibit numbers given to them, they will remain in the hands of the Tribunal. Of course, the subject of the translations is quite a different one, but for the purpose of insuring that we get really genuine evidence we must have the originals deposited with the General Secretary.
COL.POKROVSKY: I note the wish of the Tribunal and we shall give instruction for the original documents to be submitted to the Tribunal, although in this case we have followed the established precedent where the Tribunal considers it sufficient to accept the certified photostats. We can submit the original, but we shall have to do it somewhat later, as not all the requisite material is in Nuremberg at the present time.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, so long as you undertake to do it. But I do not think you are right in saying that it is the practice that has been already established, because we have been demanding the production of the original document from the French prosecutors, and they have been produced.
COL.POKROVSKY: We shall take the necessary measures so that the Tribunal will receive, although of course somewhat later, all the original documents from which the present photostats were taken. May I now continue? I now continue the quotation....
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Pokrovsky, I imagine that you Will be able to produce tomorrow the originals of the documents which were referred to today.
COL. POKROVSKY: I cannot promise that, because not all the originals are here. A considerable part of these documents are unique and consequently not kept in Nuremberg. Here we keep only a certain part of the originals.' All that I can do is to submit, in the future, the originals at our disposal. Those which we do not
203
8 Feb. 46
have here we shall request the Soviet Government to send over in exchange for the photostats. This we can do.
THE PRESIDENT: I think the Tribunal had better adjourn for the purpose of considering this matter.
[A recess was taken.]
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal has considered the matter of the deposition of original documents, and they wish the following procedure to be adopted:
In the first place, they want original documents deposited with the General Secretary of the Tribunal, wherever possible. Secondly, where it is impossible for original documents to be deposited, or highly inconvenient, they will accept photostat copies of the original documents, provided that a certificate accompanies the photostat document that it is a true copy of an original document, and that the original is an authentic document, giving the origin of the original document and the place of its present custody. Thirdly, they will accept photostat copies for the present, on the undertaking of counsel that certificates, such as I have indicated, will be furnished as soon as possible.
Is that clear, Colonel Pokrovsky?
COL.POKROVSKY: I would ask the Tribunal to explain one point to me. Do I understand that the Tribunal only confirms its former decision and practice, which was established in connection with the presentation of the document in evidence by my American and British colleagues, or is it something new that the Tribunal is introducing? I am asking this because a similar document to the one which caused the interruption in my presentation today has already been accepted as a photostat in the same Trial under Exhibit Number USA-95 or Document 2788-PS. Therefore, it is not quite clear to me whether I am dealing with a new decision or with the confirmation of an old practice.
THE PRESIDENT: I think what you have stated is true, that
this particular document does not appear to have any certificate that it is a true copy. But the Tribunal expects that the United States will produce such a certificate that it is a true copy of an authentic document and will state the origin and the custody of the original document.
COL.POKROVSKY: Pray forgive me, but I consider that the question which I wish to elucidate is of equal interest to all the prosecutors. Am I, and with me all the representatives of the Prosecution, to understand the decision of the Tribunal to mean that we
204
8 Feb. 46
are to present supplementary documentation in support of all photostats, including the photostats previously accepted by the Tribunal, or does it only refer to documents which the Soviet Delegation will present in the future?
THE PRESIDENT: If a document had been accepted in photostatic form and there has been no certificate that it was a true copy of an authentic document, then such a certificate must be given. And we desire that the certificate should also show that the document was authentic, and the place of its present custody. And that applies equally to all the chief prosecutors.
COL., POKROVSKY: Now, I understand that the Tribunal is confirming its former practice which means that we can present a photostat, but that they must be certified and that the originals should be presented whenever possible. Have I understood you correctly?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, we desire originals, if possible. If it is impossible or if it is highly inconvenient, then we will accept photostats. And in the meantime, and for your convenience-because this practice has not been perhaps adequately stated before-we will accept photostat copies without certificate, on your undertaking that you will have the certificate later on. Is that clear?
COL. POKROVSKY: I understand. The former practice will continue in operation.
If the Tribunal will permit me, I shall draw your attention to the paragraph the misunderstanding about which led to the interruption of my presentation. I have in mind the three last lines of Page 196 of the document book before you:
"The final aim of the forthcoming negotiations between the Sudeten German Party and the Czechoslovakian Government is to avoid entering the Government by widening the scope of their demands and by formulating them with ever increasing precision. In the course of negotiations it must be pointed out very clearly that the sole partner in these negotiations with the Czechoslovakian Government is the Sudeten German Party, and not the Reich Government.... "
Now I can omit a few lines and go on to Page 199:
" . . . for purposes of further collaboration Konrad Henlein was advised to maintain the closest possible contact with the Reich Minister and with the leader of the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle, as well as with the German Minister in Prague, who was representing the Reich Foreign Minister there. The task of the German Minister in Prague was to uphold, unofficially, the
205
8 Feb. 46
Sudeten German Party's demands, especially in private discussions with Czechoslovakian statesmen, by referring to them as reasonable, but without exerting any direct influence on the scope of the Party's demands.
"Finally, the question of the advisability of the Sudeten German Party's collaboration with the other national minorities in Czechoslovakia, especially with the Slovaks, was discussed. The Reich Minister decided that 'the Party should be given a free hand to contact the other national groups with activities of a parallel nature which might be considered useful. Berlin, 29 March 1938.' "
Mr. President, Your Honors, you will find on Page 200, Volume I, Part 1 of the document book, a list of those present at the conference of 29 March 1938, in Berlin. The part which I shall quote is marked with a red pencil:
"Reichsminister Von Ribbentrop, State Secretary Von Mackensen, Ministerialdirektor Weizsacker, Minister Plenipotentiary to Prague Eisenlohr, Minister Stiebe, Legationsrat Von Twardovsky, Legationsrat Altenburg, Legationsrat Kordt (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Others of the group were SS Obergruppenfuehrer Lorenz, Professor Haushofer (Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle), Konrad Henlein, Karl Hermann Frank, Dr. Kuenzel, Dr. Kreisel (Sudeten German Party)."
It is not difficult to draw the correct conclusions as to the genuine intentions of the fascist conspirators with respect to Czechoslovakia, if only from the sole fact that among those attending the conference were such people as the Defendant Ribbentrop, two ministers, two representatives of the so-called Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle, including one Obergruppenfuehrer of the SS, the prospective Secretary of State of the Czecho-Moravian Protectorate, Karl Hermann Frank, and the leader of the so-called Sudeten German Party, Konrad Henlein, a paid factotum and agent provocateur of Hitler.
German diplomatic missions directed the activities of Nazi Party branches abroad. For this purpose the leader of the AO, Gauleiter Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
On 3 June 1938 two documents were prepared by SS-man Lorenz, a participant of the conference to which I have just called the attention of the Tribunal. I shall read both of them. The first one, referring to the interview with Ward Price, indicates that Henlein was under the direct control of the SS, and it was to the SS that he was responsible for his activities. This document also contains the direct threat to resort to a "radical operation" in order to bring about the solution of the so-called Sudeten German problem.
206
8 Feb. 46
I will read this short document into the Record under Document Number USSR-270 in full; it is on Page 202, Volume I, Part 1, of the document book:
"Regarding the interview with Ward Price which appeared in the foreign press, SS Obergruppenfuehrer Lorenz requested an explanation from Henlein. Henlein stated about as follows:
"Ward Price was present at the burial of those executed in the town of Eger-Heasked Henlein's collaborator, Sebekovsky, to arrange a meeting with Henlein for him. Henlein knew of the interview given by the Ffihrer to Ward Price. He had a talk with Ward Price over a cup of tea. There was no real interview. The conversation about the Sudeten German and the Czech problems took the form of a talk about appendicitis. In this connection Henlein said that one could suffer chronic attacks of appendicitis, but the best thing was a radical operation. Later on, when Ward Price published an account of this conversation, Henlein intended to disavow him. But at that moment, an order came through the Legation in Prague from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, that Henlein should settle the matter with Ward Price amicably, since the latter was in the Fuehrer's confidence and was in no way to be insulted by Sudeten Germans When Henlein met W. P. again, he backed out, putting the blame on the members of the Sudeten German Party. For this reason, he wrote a letter to W. P., thus settling the matter. Lorenz."
The second document, which is on Page 203, which is our Document Number USSR-268, shows that, upon direct orders of the
- SS and the leaders of the Hitlerite conspiracy, Henlein negotiated with the Czech Government for the settlement of the Sudeten German question solely to create a provocation, and that these negotiations were closely followed by the leaders of the fascist conspiracy who guided Henlein's further steps.
I would now like to quote from that document:
"In his conversation with SS Obergruppenfuehrer Lorenz, Henlein put the following question: 'What shall I do if Czechoslovakia, under foreign pressure, suddenly fulfills all my demands and as counter demand asks me to enter the Government?'
"It was quite clear that this question at that moment would not be acute, and that further lengthy and painful negotiations were inevitable. Nevertheless he asked for instructions on his possible line of action regarding this problem, in case he were not able to communicate with Germany.
207
8 Feb. 46
"He himself suggested the following: If Czechoslovakia accedes to all my requests I will answer, 'Yes,' but I will insist upon the change of its foreign policy. This the Czechs would never accept. Henlein was promised that this question would be elucidated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Lorenz."
A very brief excerpt from a top-secret document of state . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Isn't it time to break off? It is now a quarter past 5.
[The Tribunal adjourned until 9 February 1946, at 1000 hours.]
208
| Nuremberg Trials | Vol. 7 Menu |