German War crimes in Russia

[Igorn]

Mr. Schulz,

I am sending you a link to the excellent document on the Crimes of the German Wehrmacht: Dimensions of a War of Annihilation 1941-1944, prepared by the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. It gives a comprehensive coverage of Wehrmacht war crimes in Russia and full of details and photographs.

http://www.verbrechen-der-wehrmacht.de/pdf/vdw_en.pdf

Best Regards from Russia,

[Opa]

After slogging through the x-th page of Igorn and his fellows, I wanted to add a few points:

Since the argument was made that in no GULAG more than a few hundred thousand died--in Robert Conquest The Great Terror you can read that over 3 million died in Magadan alone. In the 1940s the food ration there was calculated to kill you after 6 weeks. See also Robert Courtois, The Blackbook of Communism, for the concentrationary regime there in general.

Germans never elected the Nazis. In 1928, Adolf got 2.8%, in 1930 after the Great Depression began, German being hit much more than others because of the "Reparations" racket, protest voters gave him 12% or so. In June 1932, at the height of the hunger, it was 37%, then in the Reichtagelections in November 1932 (Hoover Moratorium on Reparations) 32% with a sinking tendency. And from 1930-1932, Hitler had changed his rethoric, even antisemitism was soft-pedaled, as noted among else by Henry Ashby Turner, Hitler's 30 Days to Power. In the 1960s American high school textbooks actually gave the election results, today I see my sons', and they don't, to better lie and argue that Hitler was elected, and while loudly exclaiming what he'd do in 1941 to boot. But that was not the case. The average German is no more guilty than the average Russian, incl. Russian Jew, for Stalin. My Opa and his comrades in the 295th Inf. Div. knew and lived that, fighting with their Ukrainian and Turkmen comrades and friends (there was a Ukrainian communications battalion and a Turkmen Infantry battalion in the 295th, besides many HiWis driving trucks etc). It greatly saddened him heart that Hitler did not intend--as it dawned on him in 1942--to free the peoples of the Soviet Union from Stalin, for he was friendly to Russia since his youth, as his uncle and Godfather had been a merchant in St Petersburg, and greatly influenced him.

About Gerlach--there are scholars such as Stefan Scheil who find his findings distorted (when in doubt, blame the German). But then, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia is perhaps a fountain of truth, too.

Every human has the right to looked at as individual. I find many postings here racist and abusive against Germans, which is why I don't post much.

[Shmeiker]

I feel partially called upon by Opa so I reply:

If Magadan really reached over 3 million of deaths than it surpassed Auschwitz (but I underline IF it happened). According to current estimates 1,2-1,5 millinon people were killed in Auschwitz. Right after the war Soviets estimated it to be over 6 million - partially they intentionally overestimated it, partially they chose simple technique to calculate operational capacities of crematoria and multiply it by number of days they were operational. Later it has been found an exaggeration. It is very difficult to say exactly how many people died, because Jews were often being killed right way after arrival without placing them even in camp's logbooks, and not all documentation survived (Germans destroyed some when Soviets were rushing closer to the camp), but basing on that available evidence (like railway transport reports, which were not destroyed) the number of deaths, as I stated, ranges from 1,2-1,5 million (great majority, something like 1 million, were Jews).

As for living conditions in gulags - they were terrible, but this can not be anywhere close to Auschwitz, I am affraid. You speak about minimal food ratios that would kill a man in 6 weeks. I speak about gas chambers were people where mass killed right after their arrival. As you know the substance used to kill was a Cyclone B, a poison used to kill rats. Nota bene it was produced by an auxilliary company of Bayer, currently well-known pharmaceutical firm. Way of dying was horrifying: people in general died because of lack of oxygene (lungs refused to work properly), however many of victims died due to chocking with their own vomits (lungs did not have enough power to thow it way from the mouth). After death they were transported to nearby crematoria where their bodies where burned to make it easier to dispose them. In addition there are acknowledged testimonies, that some people (children or prisoners who commited any punishable deed, like not taking out all golden teeth from the dead bodies) were cremated alive. There were even special techniques to cremate people more efficienly, like place women between men (women burn better, because they of their natural body composition), also place fat people among slim ones to perpetuate the process. As I stated, most of the people gased were Jews, but there were also other prisoners (Poles, Czechs, even some Germans)

Except for this, there were also people shot dead at the selected wall (mostly Poles) and there were tortures - but this of course happened at gulags as well.

And to finish of this "6 weeks living time'" issue - in Auschwitz official rules were as follows: a Jew can live 1 day, a priest can live 1 month, anyone else can live maximum 3 months.

I do not intend to make a competition where it was worse, in Auschwitz or in gulags. One can judge by himself. From one point of view in my opinion however gulags were much worse: it was done by Soviets to Soviets.

---

As for election of Hitler, and statement that any German of that time electing AH is not more guilty than any Soviet of that time electing Stalin: sorry, but this is a major misunderstanding from Your side Opa. There were no true elections in Soviet Union. Absolutely all of them, I repeat ALL OF THEM, were faked. People of CCCP/USSR did not elect Stalin in any way. They had practically no influence over the person in charge, namely Stalin.

On the other had Germany was a democratic state, and whether Hitler had 37%, 32% or 31% of support at a particular time, this democratic state through democrating instruments and thus the will of the nation has placed Hitler at the power. It did not start as a regime - he was placed there by the nation. There were free elections held in Germany after all - there were no such elections in Soviet Union.

---

As for the Ukrainian hating Stalin: nothing suprising. Many Ukrinians, Belarussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians and others hearfully hated Soviets. This is clearly visible when you check number of people from these nations that joined German military forces (often as volunteers). But this does not change the overall picture in any way.

---

To all it may concerne: this toic, after all, is dedicated to Germans war crimes in Russia. Other subjects of discussion, even though they might be very interesting, would be better placed somewhere else. Thus all discussions about Germans in general, gulags, KLs, Hitler and so on could really go off this particular topic.

I know that I wrote it after posting completely off topic myself - I just had to reply to Opa. But anyway I believe that it would be better to keep topic about Germans war crimes strictly about those deeds any nothing else. After all, anyone can start a new topic on this forum freely.

[Igorn]

Mr. Schulz,

Some information about German "doctors" who experimented on POW (Poles, Russians etc.). All information is taken from the official documents of the United States of America vs. Karl Brandt et al.the "Medical Case", which you can find on the below stated sie.
http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/Medic ... se%20Trial 20Index.htm

United States of America vs. Karl Brandt et al.
The "Medical Case"

I Indictment

II Arraignment

III Statement of the Tribunal on the Order of Trial and Rules of Procedure

IV Opening Statement of the Prosecution by Brigadier General Telford Taylor, 9 December 1946

State Medical Services of the Third Reich
Crimes Committed in the Guise of Scientific Research

A High Altitude Experiments
B Freezing Experiments
C Malaria Experiments
D Mustard Gas Experiments
E and F Ravensbrueck Experiments Concerning Sulfanilamide and Other Drugs; Bone, Muscle, and Nerve Regeneration and Bone Transplantation
G Sea-Water Experiments
H Epidemic Jaundice
I Sterlization Experiments
J Typhus (Fleckfieber) and Related Experiments
K Poison Experiments
L Incendiary Bomb Experiments
M Jewish Skeleton Collection

German Medical Organization Before 1933
Immediate Impact of Nazism on German Medicine
Prostitution of German Medicine Under National Socialism
Medical School and Medical Training Under the Nazis
Crimes of Mass Extermination: Murder of Polish Nationals
Euthanasia


CRIMES COMMITTED IN THE GUISE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
(Counts two and three, pars. 6, 7, 11, and 12)

I turn now to the main part of the indictment and will outline at this point the prosecution's case relating to those crimes alleged to have been committed in the name of medical or scientific research. The charges with respect to "euthanasia" and the slaughter of tubercular Poles obviously have no relation to research or experimentation and will be dealt with later. What I will cover now comprehends all the experiments charged as war crimes in paragraph 6 and as crimes against humanity in paragraph 11 of the indictment, and the murders committed for so-called anthropological purposes which are charged as war crimes in paragraph 7 and as crimes against humanity in paragraph 12 of the indictment.

Before taking up these experiments one by one, let us look at them as a whole. Are they a heterogeneous list of horrors, or is there a common denominator for the whole group? A sort of rough pattern is apparent on the face of the indictment. Experiments concerning high altitude, the effect of cold, and the potability of processed sea water have an obvious relation to aeronautical and naval combat and rescue problems. The mustard gas and phosphorous burn experiments, as well as those relating to the healing value of sulfanilamide for wounds, can be related to air-raid and battlefield medical problems. It is well known that malaria, epidemic jaundice, and typhus were among the principal diseases which had to be combated by the German Armed Forces and by German authorities in occupied territories. To some degree, the therapeutic pattern outlined above is undoubtedly a valid one, and explains why the Wehrmacht, and especially the German Air Force, participated in these experiments. Fanatically bent upon conquest, utterly ruthless as to the means or instruments to be used in achieving victory, and callous to the sufferings of people whom they regarded as inferior, the German militarists were willing to gather whatever scientific fruit these experiments might yield. But our proof will show that a quite different and even more sinister objective runs like a red thread through these hideous researches. We will show that in some instances the true object of these experiments was not how to rescue or to cure, but how to destroy and kill. The sterilization experiments were, it is clear, purely destructive in purpose. The prisoners at Buchenwald who were shot with poisoned bullets were not guinea pigs to test an antidote for the poison; their murderers really wanted to know how quickly the poison would kill.

This destructive objective is not superficially as apparent in the other experiments, but we will show that it was often there.

Mankind has not heretofore felt the need of a word to denominate the science of how to kill prisoners most rapidly and subjugated people in large numbers. This case and these defendants have created this gruesome question for the lexicographer. For the moment we will christen this macabre science "thanatology," the science of producing death. The thanatological knowledge, derived in part from these experiments, supplied the techniques for genocide, a policy of the Third Reich, exemplified in the "euthanasia" program and in the widespread slaughter of Jews, gypsies, Poles, and Russians. This policy of mass extermination could not have been so effectively carried out without the active participation of German medical scientists.

I will now take up the experiments themselves. Two or three of them I will describe more fully, but most of them will be treated in summary fashion, as Mr. McHaney will be presenting detailed proof of each of them.

A. High-Altitude Experiments

The experiments known as "high-altitude" or "low-pressure" experiments were carried out at the Dachau concentration camp in 1942. According to the proof, the original proposal that such experiments be carried out on human beings originated in the spring of 1941 with a Dr. Sigmund Rascher. Rascher was at that time a captain in the medical service of the German Air Force, and also held officer rank in the SS. He is believed now to be dead.

The origin of the idea is revealed in a letter which Rascher wrote to Himmler in May 1941 at which time Rascher was taking a course in aviation medicine at a German Air Force headquarters in Munich. According to the letter, this course included researches into high-altitude flying and

"considerable regret was expressed at the fact that no tests with human material had yet been possible for us, as such experiments are very dangerous and nobody volunteers for them."

Rascher, in this letter, went on to ask Himmler to put human subjects at his disposal and baldly stated that the experiments might result in death to the subjects but that the tests theretofore made with monkeys had not been satisfactory.

Rascher's letter was answered by Himmler's adjutant, the defendant, Rudolf Brandt, who informed Rascher that-

"* * * Prisoners will, of course, gladly be made available for the high-flight researches."

Subsequently Rascher wrote directly to Rudolf Brandt asking for permission to carry out the experiments at the Dachau concentration camp, and he mentioned that the German Air Force had provided "a movable pressure chamber" in which the experiments might be made. Plans for carrying out the experiments were developed at a conference late in 1941, or early in 1942, attended by Dr. Rascher and by the defendants Weltz, Romberg, and Ruff, all of whom were members of the German Air Force Medical Service. The tests themselves were carried out in the spring and summer of 1942, using the pressure chamber which the German Air Force had provided. The victims were locked in the low-pressure chamber, which was an airtight ball-like compartment, and then the pressure in the chamber was altered to simulate the atmospheric conditions prevailing at extremely high altitudes. The pressure in the chamber could be varied with great rapidity, which permitted the defendants to duplicate the atmospheric conditions which an aviator might encounter in falling great distances through space without a parachute and without oxygen.

The reports, conclusions, and comments on these experiments, which were introduced here and carefully recorded, demonstrate complete disregard for human life and callousness to suffering and pain. These documents reveal at one and the same time the medical results of the experiments, and the degradation of the physicians who performed them. The first report by Rascher was made in April 1942, and contains a description of the effect of the low-pressure chamber on a 37-year-old Jew. I quote :

"The third experiment of this type took such an extraordinary course that I called an SS physician of the camp as witness, since I had worked on these experiments all by myself. It was a continuous experiment without oxygen at a height of 12 kilometers conducted on a 37-year-old Jew in good general condition. Breathing continued up to 30 minutes. After 4 minutes the experimental subject began to perspire and wiggle his head, after 5 minutes cramps occurred, between 6 and 10 minutes breathing increased in speed and the experimental subject became unconscious; from 11 to 30 minutes breathing slowed down to three breaths per minute, finally stopping altogether.

"Severest cyanosis developed in between and foam appeared at the mouth.

"At 5 minute intervals electrocardiograms from three leads were written. After breathing had stopped Ekg (electrocardiogram) was continuously written until the action of the heart had come to a complete standstill. About 1/ 2 hour after breathing had stopped, dissection was started."

Rascher's report also contains the following record of the "autopsy" :

"When the cavity of the chest was opened the pericardium was filled tightly (heart tamponade). Upon opening of the pericardium, 80 cc. of clear yellowish liquid gushed forth. The moment the tamponade had stopped, the right auricle of the heart began to beat heavily, at first at the rate of 60 actions per minute, then progressively slower. Twenty minutes after the pericardium had been opened, the right auricle was opened by puncturing it. For about 15 minutes, a thin stream of blood spurted forth. Thereafter, clogging of the puncture wound in the auricle by coagulation of the blood and renewed acceleration of the action of the right auricle occurred.

"One hour after breathing had stopped, the spinal marrow was completely severed and the brain removed. Thereupon, the action of the auricle of the heart stopped for 40 seconds. It then renewed its action, coming to a complete standstill 8 minutes later. A heavy subarachnoid oedema was found in the brain. In the veins and arteries of the brain, a considerable quantity of air was discovered. Furthermore, the blood vessels in the heart and liver were enormously obstructed by embolism."

After seeing this report Himmler ironically ordered that if a subject should be brought back to life after enduring such an experiment, he should be "pardoned" to life imprisonment in a concentration camp. Rascher's reply to this letter, dated 20 October 1942, reveals that up to the time the victims of these experiments had all been Poles and Russians, that some of them had been condemned to death, and Rascher inquired whether Himmler's benign mercy extended to Poles and Russians. A teleptyped reply from the defendant, Rudolf Brandt, confirmed Rascher's belief that Poles and Russians were beyond the pale and should be given no amnesty of any kind.

The utter brutality of the crimes committed in conducting this series of experiments is reflected in all the documents. A report written in May 1942 reflects that certain of these tests were carried out on persons described therein as "Jewish professional criminals." In fact, these Jews had been condemned for what the Nazis called "Rassenschande," which literally means "racial shame." The crime consisted of marriage or intercourse between Aryans and non-Aryans. The murder and torture of these unfortunate Jews is eloquently reflected in the following report :

"Some of the experimental subjects died during a continued high-altitude experiment; for instance, after one-half hour at a height of 12 kilometers. After the skull had been opened under water, an ample amount of air embolism was found in the brain vessels and, in part, free air in the brain ventricles.

"In order to find out whether the severe psychic and physical effects, as mentioned under No. 3, are due to the formation of embolism, the following was done: After relative recuperation from such a parachute descending test had taken place, however before regaining consciousness, some experimental subjects were kept under water until they died. When the skull and cavities of the breast and of the abdomen were opened under water, an enormous amount of air embolism was found in the vessels of the brain, the coronary vessels, and the vessels of the liver and the intestines."

The victims who did not die in the course of such experiments, surely wished that they had. A long report written in July 1942 by Rascher, and by the defendants Ruff and Romberg, describes an experiment on a former delicatessen clerk, who was given an oxygen mask and raised in the chamber to an atmospheric elevation of over 47,000 feet, at which point the mask was removed and a parachute descent was simulated. The report describes the victim's reactions-" spasmodic convulsions," "agonal convulsive breathing," "clonic convulsions, groaning," "yells aloud," "convulses arms and legs," "grimaces, bites his tongue," "does not respond to speech," "gives the impression of someone who is completely out of his mind."

The evidence which we will produce will establish that the defendants Ruff and Romberg personally participated with Rascher in experiments resulting in death and torture; that the defendant Sievers watched the experiments for an entire day and made an oral report to Himmler on his observations; that the defendant Rudolf Brandt was the agent of Himmler in providing the human subjects for these experiments and in making many other facilities available to Rascher and rendering him general assistance; and that the defendant Weltz, in his official capacity, repeatedly insisted on supervision over and full responsibility and credit for the experiments. The higher authorities of both the German Air Force and the SS were fully informed concerning what was going on. Extensive correspondence will be introduced, for example, concerning the availability of the low-pressure chamber which the German Air Force furnished at Dachau, and concerning the availability of Rascher, who was an officer in the Air Force Medical Service, to conduct the experiments. Knowledge of, participation in, and responsibility for these atrocious crimes on the part of the defendants here charged will be clearly shown by the evidence.


B. Freezing Experiments

The deep interest of the German Air Force in capitalizing on the availability of inmates of concentration camps for experimental purposes is even more apparent in the case of the freezing experiments. These, too, were conducted at Dachau. They began immediately after the high-altitude experiments were completed and they continued until the spring of 1943. Here again, the defendant Weltz was directly in charge of the experiments, with Rascher as his assistant, as is shown in a letter written in May 1942 by Field Marshal Erhard Milch, the Inspector General of the German Air Force, to SS Obergruppenfuehrer Wolff, one of Heinrich Himmler's principal subordinates, and this letter specifically requested that the freezing experiments be carried out at Dachau under Weltz's supervision. (343-A-PS.)

The purpose of these experiments was to determine the most effective way of rewarming German aviators who were forced to parachute into the North Sea. The evidence will show that in the course of the experiments, the victims were forced to remain outdoors without clothing in freezing weather from 9 to 14 hours. In other cases, they were forced to remain in a tank of iced water for 8 hours at a time. The water experiments are described in a report by Rascher written in August 1942. (1618-PS.) I quote:

"Electrical measurements gave low temperature readings of 26.4° in the stomach and 26.5° in the rectum. Fatalities occurred only when the brain stem and the back of the head were also chilled. Autopsies of such fatal cases always revealed large amounts of free blood, up to 1/ 2 liter, in the cranial cavity. The heart invariably showed extreme dilation of the right chamber. As soon as the temperature in those experiments reached 28°, the experimental subjects died invariably, despite all attempts at resuscitation."

Other documents set forth that from time to time the temperature of the water would be lowered by l0° Centigrade and a quart of blood would be taken from an artery in the subject's throat for analysis. The organs of the victims who died were extracted and sent to the Pathological Institute at Munich.

Rewarming of the subjects was attempted by various means, most commonly and successfully in a very hot bath. In September, Himmler personally ordered that rewarming by the warmth of human bodies also be attempted, and the inhuman villains who conducted these experiments promptly produced four gypsy women from the Ravensbrueck concentration camp. When the women had arrived, rewarming was attempted by placing the chilled victim between two naked women.

A voluminous report on the freezing experiments conducted in tanks of ice water, written in October 1942, contains the following (NO-428):

"If the experimental subject were placed in the water under narcosis, one observed a certain arousing effect. The subject began to groan and made some defensive movements. In a few cases, a state of excitation developed. This was especially severe in the cooling of the head and neck. But never was a complete cessation of the narcosis observed. The defensive movements ceased after about 5 minutes. There followed a progressive rigor, which developed especially strongly in the arm musculature; the arms were strongly flexed and pressed to the body. The rigor increased with the continuation of the cooling, now and then interrupted by tonic-clonic twitching. With still more marked sinking of the body temperature, it suddenly ceased. These cases ended fatally, without any successful results from resuscitation efforts.

* * * * * * *

"Experiments without narcosis showed no essential differences in the course of cooling. Upon entry into the water, a severe cold shuddering appeared. The cooling of the neck and back of the head was felt as especially painful, but already after 5 to 10 minutes, a significant weakening of the pain sensation was observable. Rigor developed after this time in the same manner as under narcosis, likewise the tonic-clonic twitchings. At this point, speech became difficult because the rigor also affected the speech musculature.

"Simultaneously with the rigor, a severe difficulty in breathing set in with or without narcosis. It was reported that, so to speak, an iron ring was placed about the chest. Objectively, already at the beginning of this breathing difficulty, a marked dilatation of the nostrils occurred. The expiration was prolonged and visibly difficult. This difficulty passed over into a rattling and snoring breathing. * * *" [Emphasis not shown.]

During the winter of 1942 and 1943, experiments with "dry" cold were conducted. And Rascher reported on these in another letter to Himmler :

"Up to now, I have cooled off about 30 people stripped in the open air during nine to fourteen hours at 27° to 29°. After a time, corresponding to a trip of 1 hour, I put these subjects in a hot bath. Up to now, every single patient was completely warmed up within 1 hour at most, although some of them had their hands and feet frozen white."

The responsibility among the defendants for the freezing experiments is substantially the same as for the high-altitude tests. The results were, if anything, ever more widely known in German medical circles. In October 1942, a medical conference took place here in Nuernberg at the Deutscher Hof Hotel, at which one of the authors of the report from which I have just quoted spoke on the subject "Prevention and Treatment of Freezing", and the defendant Weltz spoke on the subject "Warming up after Freezing to the Danger Point." Numerous documents which we will introduce show the widespread responsibility among the defendants, and in the highest quarters of the German Air Force, for these sickening crimes.

C. Malaria Experiments

Another series of experiments carried out at the Dachau concentration camp concerned immunization for and treatment of malaria. Over l,200 inmates of practically every nationality were experimented upon. Many persons who participated in these experiments have already been tried before a general military court held at Dachau, and the findings of that court will be laid before this Tribunal. The malaria experiments were carried out under the general supervision of a Dr. Schilling, with whom the defendant Sievers and others in the box collaborated. The evidence will show that healthy persons were infected by mosquitoes or by injections from the glands of mosquitoes. Catholic priests were among the subjects. The defendant Gebhardt kept Himmler informed of the progress of these experiments. Rose furnished Schilling with fly eggs for them, and others of the defendants participated in various ways which the evidence will demonstrate.

After the victims had been infected, they were variously treated with quinine, neosalvarsan, pyramidon, antipyrin, and several combinations of these drugs. Many deaths occurred from excessive doses of neosalvarsan and pyramidon. According to the findings of the Dachau court, malaria was the direct cause of 30 deaths and 300 to 400 others died as the result of subsequent complications.

D. Mustard Gas Experiments

The experiments concerning mustard gas were conducted at Sachsenhausen, Natzweiler, and other concentration camps and extended over the entire period of the war. Wounds were deliberately inflicted on the victims, and the wounds were then infected with mustard gas. Other subjects were forced to inhale the gas, or to take it internally in liquid form, and still others were injected with the gas. A report on these experiments written at the end of 1939 described certain cases in which wounds were inflicted on both arms of the human guinea pigs and then infected, and the report states: "The arms in most of the cases are badly swollen and pains are enormous."

The alleged purpose of these experiments was to discover an effective treatment for the burns caused by mustard gas. In 1944 the experiments were coordinated with a general program for research into gas warfare. A decree issued by Hitler in March 1944 ordered the defendant Karl Brandt to push medical research in connection with gas warfare. The defendant Rudolf Brandt sent copies of this decree to the defendant Sievers, to Grawitz, and others, and transmitted Hitler's request that they confer soon with the defendant Karl Brandt "on account of the urgency of the order given him by the Fuehrer." Subsequently, Sievers, who was thoroughly familiar with the mustard gas experiments being carried on in the concentration camps, reported the details of these experiments to the defendant Karl Brandt.


E. and F. Ravensbrueck Experiments Concerning Sulfanilamide and Other Drugs;
Bone, Muscle, and Nerve Regeneration and Bone Transplantation

The experiments conducted principally on the female inmates of Ravensbrueck concentration camp were perhaps the most barbaric of all. These concerned bone, muscle, and nerve regeneration and bone transplantation, and experiments with sulfanilamide and other drugs. They were carried out by the defendants Fischer and Oberheuser under the direction of the defendant Gebhardt.

In one set of experiments, incisions were made on the legs of several of the camp inmates for the purpose of simulating battle-caused infections. A bacterial culture, or fragments of wood shavings, or tiny pieces of glass were forced into the wound. After several days, the wounds were treated with sulfanilamide. Grawitz, the head of the SS Medical Service, visited Ravensbrueck and received a report on these experiments directly from the defendant Fischer. Grawitz thereupon directed that the wounds inflicted on the subjects should be even more severe so that conditions similar to those prevailing at the front lines would be more completely simulated.

Bullet wounds were simulated on the subjects by tying off the blood vessels at both ends of the incision. A gangrene-producing culture was then placed in the wounds. Severe infection resulted within 24 hours, Operations were then performed on the infected areas and the wounds were treated with sulfanilamide. In each of the many sulfanilamide experiments, some of the subjects were wounded and infected but were not given sulfanilamide, so as to compare their reactions with those who received treatment.

Bone transplantation from one person to another and the regeneration of nerves, muscles, and bones were also tried out on the women at Ravensbrueck. The defendant Gebhardt personally ordered that bone transplantation experiments be carried out, and in one case the scapula of an inmate at Ravensbrueck was removed and taken to Hohenlychen Hospital and there transplanted. We will show that the defendants did not even have any substantial scientific objective. These experiments were senseless, sadistic, and utterly savage.

The defendant Oberheuser's duties at Ravensbrueck in connection with the experiments were to select young and healthy inmates for the experiments, to be present at all of the surgical operations, and to give the experimental subjects post-operative care. We will show that this care consisted chiefly of utter neglect of nursing requirements, and cruel and abusive treatment of the miserable victims.

Other experiments in this category were conducted at Dachau to discover a method of bringing about coagulation of the blood. Concentration camp inmates were actually fired upon, or were injured in some other fashion in order to cause something similar to a battlefield wound. These wounds were then treated with a drug known as polygal in order to test its capacity to coagulate the blood. Several inmates were killed. Sulfanilamide was also administered to some and withheld from other inmates who had been infected with the pus from a phlegmon-diseased person. Blood poisoning generally ensued. After infection, the victims were left untreated for 3 or 4 days, after which various drugs were administered experimentally or experimental surgical operations were performed. Polish Catholic priests were used for these tests. Many died and others became invalids. As a result of all of these senseless and barbaric experiments, the defendants are responsible for manifold murders and untold cruelty and torture.

G. Sea-Water Experiments

For the sea-water experiments we return to Dachau. They were conducted in 1944 at the behest of the German Air Force and the German Navy in order to develop a method of rendering sea water drinkable. Meetings to discuss this problem were held in May 1944, attended by representatives of the Luftwaffe, the Navy, and I. G. Farben. The defendants Becker-Freyseng and Schaefer were among the participants. It was agreed to conduct a series of experiments in which the subjects, fed only with shipwreck emergency rations, would be divided into four groups. One group would receive no water at all ; the second would drink ordinary sea water; the third would drink sea water processed by the so-called "Berka" method, which concealed the taste but did not alter the saline content; the fourth would drink sea water treated so as to remove the salt.

Since it was expected that the subjects would die, or at least suffer severe impairment of health, it was decided at the meeting in May 1944 that only persons furnished by Himmler could be used. Thereafter in June 1944 the defendant Schroeder set the program in motion by writing to Himmler, and I quote from his letter:

"Earlier you made it possible for the Luftwaffe to settle urgent medical matters through experiments on human beings. Today I again stand before a decision which, after numerous experiments on animals and also on voluntary human subjects, demands final solution: The Luftwaffe has simultaneously developed two methods for making sea water drinkable. The one method, developed by a medical officer, removes the salt from the sea water and transforms it into real drinking water; the second method, suggested by an engineer, only removes the unpleasant taste from the sea water. The latter method, in contrast to the first, requires no critical raw material. From the medical point of view this method must be viewed critically, as the administration of concentrated salt solutions can produce severe symptoms of poisoning.

"As the experiments on human beings could thus far only be carried out for a period of 4 days, and as practical demands require a remedy for those who are in distress at sea up to 12 days, appropriate experiments are necessary.

"Required are 40 healthy test subjects, who must be available for 4 whole weeks. As it is known from previous experiments that necessary laboratories exist in the Dachau concentration camp, this camp would be very suitable.

* * * * * * *

"Due to the enormous importance which a solution of this question has for soldiers of the Luftwaffe and Navy who have become shipwrecked, I would be greatly obliged to you, my dear Reich Minister, if you would decide to comply with my request."

Himmler passed this letter to Grawitz who consulted Gebhardt and other SS officials. A typical and nauseating Nazi discussion of racial questions ensued. One SS man suggested using quarantined prisoners and Jews; another suggested gypsies. Grawitz doubted that experiments on gypsies would yield results which were scientifically applicable to Germans. Himmler finally directed that gypsies be used with three others as a check.

The tests were actually begun in July 1944. The defendant Beiglboeck supervised the experiments, in the course of which the gypsy subjects underwent terrible suffering, became delirious or developed convulsions, and some died.

H. Epidemic Jaundice

The epidemic jaundice experiments, which took place at Sachsenhausen and Natzweiler concentration camps, were instigated by the defendant Karl Brandt. A letter written in 1943 by Grawitz stresses the enormous military importance of developing an inoculation against epidemic jaundice, which had spread extensively in the Waffen SS and the German Army, particularly in southern Russia. In some companies, up to 60 percent casualties from epidemic jaundice had occurred. Grawitz further informed Himmler that, and I quote :

"The General Commissioner of the Fuehrer, SS Brigadefuehrer Professor Dr. Brandt, has approached me with the request to help him obtain prisoners to be used in connection with his research on the causes of Epidemic Jaundice which has been furthered to a large degree by his efforts. * * * In order to enlarge our knowledge, so far based only on inoculation of animals with germs taken from human beings, it would not be necessary to reverse the procedure and inoculate human beings with germs cultivated in animals. Casualties (Todesfaelle) must be anticipated."

Grawitz also had been doing research on this problem with the assistance of a Dr. Dohmen, a medical officer attached to the Army Medical Inspectorate. Himmler made the following reply to the Grawitz letter:

"I approve that eight criminals condemned in Auschwitz (eight Jews of the Polish Resistance Movement condemned to death) should be used for these experiments."

Other evidence will indicate that the scope of these experiments was subsequently enlarged and that murder, torture, and death resulted from them.

I. Sterilization Experiments

In the sterilization experiments conducted by the defendants at Auschwitz, Ravensbrueck, and other concentration camps, the destructive nature of the Nazi medical program comes out most forcibly. The Nazis were searching for methods of extermination, both by murder and sterilization, of large population groups, by the most scientific and least conspicuous means. They were developing a new branch of medical science which would give them the scientific tools for the planning and practice of genocide. The primary purpose was to discover an inexpensive, unobtrusive, and rapid method of sterilization which could be used to wipe out Russians, Poles, Jews, and other people. Surgical sterilization was thought to be too slow and expensive to be used on a mass scale. A method to bring about an unnoticed sterilization was thought desirable.

Medicinal sterilizations were therefore carried out. A Dr. Madaus had stated that caladium seguinum, a drug obtained from a North American plant, if taken orally or by injection, would bring about sterilization. In 1941 the defendant Pokorny called this to Himmler's attention, and suggested that it should be developed and used against Russian prisoners of war. I quote one paragraph from Pokorny's letter written at that time (NO-035) :

"If, on the basis of this research, it were possible to produce a drug which after a relatively short time, effects an imperceptible sterilization on human beings, then we would have a powerful new weapon at our disposal. The thought alone that the 3 million Bolsheviks, who are at present German prisoners, could be sterilized so that they could be used as laborers but be prevented from reproduction, opens the most far-reaching perspectives."

As a result of Pokorny's suggestion, experiments were conducted on concentration camp inmates to test the effectiveness of the drug. At the same time efforts were made to grow the plant on a large scale in hothouses.

At the Auschwitz concentration camp sterilization experiments were also conducted on a large scale by a Dr. Karl Clauberg, who had developed a method of sterilizing women, based on the injection of an irritating solution. Several thousand Jewesses and gypsies were sterilized at Auschwitz by this method.

Conversely, surgical operations were performed on sexually abnormal inmates at Buchenwald in order to determine whether their virility could be increased by the transplantation of glands. Out of 14 subjects of these experiments, at least 2 died. The defendant Gebhardt also personally conducted sterilizations at Ravensbrueck by surgical operation.

The defendant Viktor Brack, in March 1941, submitted to Himmler a report on the progress and state of X-ray sterilization experiments. Brack explained that it had been determined that sterilization with powerful X-rays could be accomplished and that castration would then result. The danger of this X-ray method lay in the fact that other parts of the body, if they were not protected with lead, were also seriously affected. In order to prevent the victims from realizing that they were being castrated, Brack made the following fantastic suggestion in his letter written in 1941 to Himmler, from which I quote (N0-203) :

"One way to carry out these experiments in practice would be to have those people who are to be treated line up before a counter. There they would be questioned and a form would be given them to be filled out, the whole process taking 2 or 3 minutes. The official attendant who sits behind the counter can operate the apparatus in such a manner that he works a switch which will start both tubes together (as the rays have to come from both sides). With one such installation with two tubes about 150 to 200 persons could be sterilized daily, while 20 installations would take care of 3,000 to 4,000 persons daily. In my opinion the number of daily deportations will not exceed this figure."

In this same report the defendant Brack related that, and I quote:

" * * * the latest X-ray technique and research make it easily possible to carry out mass sterilization by means of X-rays. However, it appears to be impossible to take these measures without having those who were so treated finding out sooner or later that they definitely had been either sterilized or had been castrated by X-rays."

Another letter from Brack to Himmler, in June 1942, laid the basis for X-ray experiments which were subsequently carried out at Auschwitz. The second paragraph of this letter forms a fitting conclusion to this account of Nazi depravity, and I quote:

"Among 10 millions of Jews in Europe there are, I figure, at least 2 to 3 millions of men and women who are fit enough to work. Considering the extraordinary difficulties the labor problem presents us with, I hold the view that these 2 to 3 millions should be specially selected and preserved. This can, however, only be done if at the same time they are rendered incapable to propagate. About a year ago I reported to you that agents of mine have completed the experiments necessary for this purpose. I would like to recall these facts once more. Sterilization, as normally performed on persons with hereditary diseases, is here out of the question because it takes too long and is too expensive. Castration by X-rays, however, is not only relatively cheap but can also be performed on many thousands in the shortest time. I think that at this time it is already irrelevant whether the people in question become aware of having been castrated after some weeks or months, once they feel the effects."

J. Typhus (Fleckfieber) and Related Experiments

From December 1941, until near the end of the war, a large program of medical experimentation was carried out upon concentration camp inmates at Buchenwald and Natzweiler to investigate the value of various vaccines. This research involved a variety of diseases-typhus, yellow fever, smallpox, paratyphoid A and B, cholera, and diphtheria. A dozen or more of the defendants were involved in these experiments which were characterized by the most cynical disregard of human life. Hundreds of persons died. The experiments concerning typhus-known in Germany as Fleckfieber or "spot fever", but is not to be confused with American spotted fever-were particularly appalling.

The typhus experiments at Natzweiler were conducted by Dr. Eugen Haagen, an officer in the Air Force Medical Service and a professor at the University of Strasbourg. In the fall of 1943, through the defendant Sievers, Haagen obtained 100 concentration camp prisoners for experiments with typhus vaccines. Two hundred more prisoners were furnished in the summer of 1944. These experiments caused many fatalities among the prisoners.

The general pattern of these typhus experiments was as follows. A group of concentration camp inmates, selected from the healthier ones who had some resistance to disease, were injected with an anti-typhus vaccine, the efficacy of which was to be tested. Thereafter, all the persons in the group would be infected with typhus. At the same time, other inmates who had not been vaccinated were also infected for purposes of comparison-these unvaccinated victims were called the "control" group. But perhaps the most wicked and murderous circumstance in this whole case is that still other inmates were deliberately infected with typhus with the sole purpose of keeping the typhus virus alive and generally available in the bloodstream of the inmates.

The typhus murders at Buchenwald were carried out in 1942 and 1943 under the direction of the defendants Genzken and Mrugowsky. Requests for the human guinea pigs were turned over to, and filled by, the defendant Hoven. The bulk of the actual work was done by an infamous physician known as Dr. Ding, who committed suicide after the war. But Dr. Ding's professional diary has survived.

The first entry in Ding's diary, for 29 December 1941, reveals that here again the impetus for these murderous researches came from the Wehrmacht. This entry describes a conference sponsored by the defendant Handloser and Dr. Conti, respective heads of the military and civilian medical services of the Reich, which was also attended by the defendant Mrugowsky. Typhus had been making serious inroads on the German troops fighting in Russia. The account of this conference relates that, and I quote (N0-265) :

"Since tests on animals are not of sufficient value, tests on human beings must be carried out."

Other entries in the Ding diary quoted below are typical of those made over a period of 3 years, and give some idea of the mortality among the victims.

"10 Jan 42: Preliminary test B: Preliminary test to establish a sure means of infection: Much as in smallpox vaccination, 5 persons were infected with virus through 2 superficial and 2 deeper cuts in the upper arm. All of the humans used for this test fell ill with true typhus. Incubation period up to 6 days.

"20 Feb 42: Chart of the case history of the preliminary tests to establish a sure means of infection were sent to Berlin. One death out of five sick.

"17 Mar 42: Visit of Prof. Gildemeister and Prof. Rose (department head for tropical medicine of the Robert Koch Institute) at the experimental station. All persons experimented on fell sick with typhus, except two, who, the fact was established later, already had been sick with typhus during an epidemic at the police prison in Berlin.

"9 Jan 43: By order of the surgeon general of the Waffen SS, SS Gruppenfuehrer and Major General of the Waffen SS, Dr. Genzken, the hitherto existing typhus research station at the concentration camp Buchenwald becomes the 'Department for Typhus and Virus Research'. The head of the department will be SS Sturmbannfuehrer Dr. Ding. During his absence, the station medical officer of the Waffen SS, Weimar, SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Hoven will supervise the production of vaccines.

"13 and 14 Apr43: Unit of SS Sturmbannfeuhrer Dr. Ding ordered to I. G. Farbenindustrie A. G., Hoechst. Conference with Prof. Lautenschlaeger, Dr. Weber and Dr. Fussgaenger about the experimental series 'Acridine Granulate and Rutenol' in the concentration camp Buchenwald. Visit to Geheimrat Otto and Prof. Prigge in the institute for experimental therapeutics in Frankfurt-on-Main.

"' 24 Apr 1943: Therapeutic experiments Acridine-Granulate (A-GR2) and Rutenol (R-2) to carry out the therapeutic experiments Acridine Granulate and Rutenol, 30 persons (15 each) and 9 persons for control were infected by intravenous injection of 2 cc. each of fresh blood of a typhus sick person. All experimental persons got very serious typhus.

"1 Jun 1943: 'Charts of case history completed. The experimental series was concluded with 21 deaths; of these, 8 were in Buchenwald, 8 with Rutenol and 5 control.

"7 Sep 1943 : Chart and case history completed. The experimental series was concluded with 53 deaths.

"8 Mar-18 Mar 1944: It is suggested by Colonel of the air corps, Prof. Rose, the vaccine 'Kopenhagen', produced from mouse liver by the National Serum Institute in Kopenhagen, be tested for its compatibility on humans. Twenty persons were vaccinated for immunization by intramuscular injection. * * * Ten persons were contemplated for control and comparison.

"16 Apr 1944: The remaining experimental persons were infected on 16 April by subcutaneous injection of l/ 20 cc. typhus sick fresh blood. The following feel sick : 17 persons immunized : 9 medium, 8 seriously. Nine persons from the control : 2 medium, 7 seriously.

"13 Jun 1944: Chart and case history completed and sent to Berlin. Six deaths (3 'Kopenhagen') (3 control).

"4 Nov 1944: Chart and case history completed. Twenty-four deaths."

Copies of each of Dr. Ding's official reports went to the defendants. Mrugowsky and Poppendick as well as to the I. G. Farben laboratories at Hoechst. Nowhere will the evidence in this case reveal a more wicked and murderous course of conduct by men who claimed to practice the healing art than in the entries of Dr. Ding's diary relating to the typhus experiments.

K. Poison Experiments

Here again the defendants were studying how to kill, and the scene is Buchenwald. Poisons were administered to Russian prisoners of war in their food, and German doctors stood behind a curtain to watch the reactions of the prisoners. Some of the Russians died immediately, and the survivors were killed in order to permit autopsies.

The defendant Mrugowsky, in a letter written in September 1944, has provided us with a record of another experiment in which the victims were shot with poisoned bullets, and I quote:

"In the presence of SS Sturmbannfuehrer Dr. Ding, Dr. Widmann and the undersigned, experiments with aconitin nitrate projectiles were conducted on 11September 1944 on 5 persons who had been condemned to death. The projectiles in question were of a 7.65 mm. caliber, filled with crystallized poison. The experimental subjects, in a lying position, were each shot in the upper part of the left thigh. The thighs of two of them were cleanly shot through. Afterwards, no effect of the poison was to be observed. These two experimental subjects were therefore exempted.

* * * * * * *

"During the first hour of the experiment the pupils did not show any changes. After 78 minutes the pupils of all three showed a medium dilation, together with a retarded light reaction. Simultaneously, maximum respiration with heavy breathing inhalations set in. This subsided after a few minutes. The pupils contracted again and their reaction improved. After 65 minutes the patellar and achilles tendon reflexes of the poisoned subjects were negative. The abdominal reflexes of two of them were also negative. After approximately 90 minutes, one of the subjects again started breathing heavily; this was accompanied by an increasing motor unrest. Then the heavy breathing changed into a flat, accelerated respiration, accompanied by extreme nausea. One of the poisoned persons tried in vain to vomit. To do so he introduced four fingers of his hand up to the knuckles into his throat, but nevertheless could not vomit. His face was flushed.

"The other two experimental subjects had already early shown a pale face. The other symptoms were the same. The motor unrest increased so much that the persons flung themselves up and then down, rolled their eyes and made meaningless motions with their hands and arms. Finally the agitation subsided, the pupils dilated to the maximum, and the condemned lay motionless. * * * Death occurred 121, 123, and 129 minutes after entry of the projectile."

L. Incendiary Bomb Experiments

These experiments were likewise carried out at Buchenwald, and the Ding diary gives us the facts. In November 1943 five persons were deliberately burned with phosphorous material taken from an English incendiary bomb. The victims were permanently and seriously injured.


M. Jewish Skeleton Collection

I come now to charges stated in paragraphs 7 and 11 of the indictment. These are perhaps the most utterly repulsive charges in the entire indictment. They concern the defendants Rudolf Brandt and Sievers. Sievers and his associates in the Ahnenerbe Society were completely obsessed by all the vicious and malignant Nazi racial theories. They conceived the notion of applying these nauseous theories in the field of anthropology. What ensued was murderous folly.

In February 1942, Sievers submitted to Himmler, through Rudolf Brandt, a report from which the following is an extract:

"We have a nearly complete collection of skulls of all races and peoples at our disposal. Only very few specimens of skulls of the Jewish race, however, are available with the result that it is impossible to arrive at precise conclusions from examining them. The war in the East now presents us with the opportunity to overcome this deficiency. By procuring the skulls of the Jewish-Bolshevik Commissars, who represent the prototype of the repulsive, but characteristic subhuman, we have the chance now to obtain a palpable, scientific document.

"The best, practical method for obtaining and collecting this skull material could be handled by directing the Wehrmacht to turn over alive all captured Jewish-Bolshevik Commissars to the Field Police. They in turn are to be given special directives to inform a certain office at regular intervals of the number and place of detention of these captured Jews and to give them special close attention and care until a special delegate arrives. This special delegate, who will be in charge of securing the 'material' has the job of taking a series of previously established photographs, anthropological measurements, and in addition has to determine, as far as possible, the background, date of birth, and other personal data of the prisoner. Following the subsequently induced death of the Jew, whose head should not be damaged, the delegate will separate the head from the body and will forward it to its proper point of destination in a hermetically sealed tin can, especially produced for this purpose and filled with a conserving fluid.

"Having arrived at the laboratory, the comparison tests and anatomical research on the skull, as well as determination of the race membership of pathological features of the skull form, the form and size of the brain, etc., can proceed. The basis of these studies will be the photos, measurements, and other data supplied on the head, and finally the tests of the skull itself."

After extensive correspondence between Himmler and the defendants Sievers and Rudolf Brandt, it was decided to procure the skulls from inmates of the Auschwitz concentration camp instead of at the front. The hideous program was actually carried out, as is shown by a letter from Sievers written in June 1943, which states in part:

"I wish to inform you that our associate, Dr. Beger, who was in charge of the above special project, has interrupted his experiments in the concentration camp Auschwitz because of the existing danger of epidemics. Altogether 115 persons were worked on, 79 were Jews, 30 were Jewesses, 2 were Poles, and 4 were Asiatics. At the present time these prisoners are segregated by sex and are under quarantine in the two hospital buildings of Auschwitz."

After the death of these wretched Jews had been "induced" their corpses were sent to Strasbourg. A year elapsed, and the Allied armies were racing across France and were nearing Strasbourg where this monstrous exhibit of the culture of the master race reposed. Alarmed, Sievers sent a telegram to Rudolf Brandt in September 1944, from which I quote :

"According to the proposal of 9 February 1942, and your approval of 23 February 1942, Professor Dr. Hirt has assembled a skeleton collection which has never been in existence before. Because of the vast amount of scientific research that is connected with this project, the job of reducing the corpses to skeletons has not yet been completed. Since it might require some time to process 80 corpses, Hirt requested a decision pertaining to the treatment of the collection stored in the morgue of the Anatomy, in case Strasbourg should be endangered. The collection can be defleshed and rendered unrecognizable. This, however, would mean that the whole work had been done for nothing-at least in part-and that this singular collection would be lost to science, since it would be impossible to make plaster casts afterwards. The skeleton collection, as such is inconspicuous. The flesh parts could be declared as having been left by the French at the time we took over the Anatomy and would be turned over for cremating. Please advise me which of the following three proposals is to be carried out:

(1) The collection as a whole is to be preserved.
(2) The collection is to be dissolved in part.
(3) The collection is to be completely dissolved."

The final chapter of this barbaric enterprise is found in a note in Himmler's files addressed to Rudolf Brandt stating that:

"During his visit at the Operational Headquarters on 21 November 1944, Sievers told me that the collection in Strasbourg had been completely dissolved in conformance with the directive given him at the time. He is of the opinion that this arrangement is for the best in view of. the whole situation."

These men, however, reckoned without the hand of fate. The bodies of these unfortunate people were not completely disposed of, and this Tribunal will hear the testimony of witnesses and see pictorial exhibits depicting the charnel house which was the Anatomy Institute of the Reich University of Strasbourg.

I have now completed the sketch of some of the foul crimes which these defendants committed in the name of research. The horrible record of their degradation needs no underlining. But German medical science was in past years honored throughout the world, and many of the most illustrious names in medical research are German. How did these things come to pass? I will outline briefly the historical evidence which we will offer and which, I believe, will show that these crimes were the logical and inevitable outcome of the prostitution of German medicine under the Nazis.

Best Regards from Russia,

[Igorn]

Mr. Schulz,

I send you a link to the excelent site where you will find plenty of information, documents, facts and evidence of the German war crimes and criminals in the World War II including Wehrmacht war crimes in Russia, prepared by Web Genocide Documentation Centre.

http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/war_criminals.htm

Best Regards from Russia,

[Nibelung]

What is all this have to do with the GERMAN WARCRIMES IN RUSSIA? We all know about KLs and there were numerous books written on that matter, why do you keep staying off topic? Babi Yar or other such killings would be more fitting to the topic.

Nibelung

[Igorn]

My Opa and his comrades in the 295th Inf. Div. knew and lived that, fighting with their Ukrainian and Turkmen comrades and friends (there was a Ukrainian communications battalion and a Turkmen Infantry battalion in the 295th, besides many HiWis driving trucks etc). It greatly saddened him heart that Hitler did not intend--as it dawned on him in 1942--to free the peoples of the Soviet Union from Stalin, for he was friendly to Russia since his youth, as his uncle and Godfather had been a merchant in St Petersburg, and greatly influenced him. Every human has the right to looked at as individual. I find many postings here racist and abusive against Germans, which is why I don't post much.

Opa,

Some official documents from Nurnberg Tribunal, which you can find on http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/ssnur2.htm in regards to the mission of the German solders in Russia and their treatment of the Russian civil population:

http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/ssnur2.htm

(b) The SS as an exterminator of "inferior" races.

Domination of Europe through a Nazi Elite required more, however, than the positive side of racism-that is, the building up of a numerous "biologically superior" group. It necessarily meant also the destruction of other races. The SS had to be, and was, taught not merely to breed, but to exterminate. In a speech delivered at Kharkov in April 1943, Himmler declared:

"We have-I would say, as very consistent National Socialists-taken the question of blood as our starting point. We were the first really to solve the problem of blood by action, and in this connection by problem of blood, we of course do not mean antisemitism. Antisemitism is exactly the same as delousing. Getting rid of lice is not a question of ideology. It is a matter of cleanliness. In just the same way, antisemitism for us, will soon have been dealt with. We shall soon be deloused. We have only 20,000 lice left, and then the matter is finished within the whole of Germany." (1919-PS)

But it was not merely against Jews that SS efforts were directed. All non-Nordic races were similarly condemned. In his Posen speech, Himmler stated this basic principle of the SS:

"One basic principle must be the absolute rule for the SS men : We must be honest, decent, loyal and comradely to members of our own blood and to nobody else. What happens to a Russian, to a Czech, does not interest me in the slightest. What other nations can offer in the way of good blood of our type, we will take, if necessary, by kidnapping their children and raising them here with us. Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death interests me only so far as we need them as slaves for our culture; otherwise, it is of no interest to me. Whether 10,000 Russian females fall down from exhaustion while digging an antitank ditch interests me only insofar as the antitank ditch for Germany is finished." * * *
"That is what I want to instil into this SS and what I'believe I have instilled in them as one of the most sacred laws of the future." (1919-PS)

(c) Indoctrination of members in SS racial theories.

These were the principles which were publicly reiterated, over and over again, so that the newest recruit was thoroughly steeped in them. In his Kharkov speech to the commanding officers of three Waffen SS divisions, Himmler strongly insisted on indoctrinating all SS members in his theories of the racial struggle.

"This is what is important for us as SS men, for, our province of duty and our mission (it is a task additional to those of the whole German armed forces and the whole German people): That is what I would like to impress upon you. This is what I beg you as commanding officers, as chiefs and as leaders, to teach the young men again and again in their ideological instruction. That is what I demand and exact of you-that you really concern yourself with the man, the young fellow of 17 or 18 who comes to us, and with many who are in our ranks not as volunteers but as conscripts. I ask you to look after them, and guide them, and not let them go before they are really saturated with our spirit and are fighting as the old guard fought before us-that is what I request and demand of you.
"We have only one task-to stand firm and carry on the racial struggle without mercy." 1919-PS)

This function of the SS men in the racial struggle was publicly proclaimed in the Organizations Book of the NSDAP for 1943:

"He openly and relentlessly fights against the most dangerous enemies of the State: Jews, Freemasons, Jesuits and political clergymen." (2640-PS)

(7) Functions and activities with respect to commission of war crimes.

During the war great use was made of the peculiar qualities possessed by the SS-qualities not only of its combat force, but of its other components as well-in executing tasks embracing the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

(a) "Antipartisan" operations.

A directive issued by Keitel on 13 March 1941, making preparations 3 months in advance for the attack on Russia, provided that in the area of operations the Reichsfuehrer SS was entrusted with special tasks for the preparation of the political administration-tasks which would result from the struggle about to commence between two opposing political systems. (447-PS)

One of the steps taken by the Reichsfuehrer SS to carry out those "special tasks" was the formation and use of so-called "antipartisan" units. They were discussed by Himmler in his Posen speech:

"In the meantime I have also set up the Chief of the antipartisan units. Our comrade SS Obergruppenfuehrer von dem Bach is Chief of the antipartisan units. I considered it necessary for the Reidhsfuehrer SS to be in authoritative command in all these battles, for I am convinced that we are best in position to take action against this enemy struggle, which is decidedly a political one. Except where units which had been supplied and which we had formed for this purpose were taken from us to fill in gaps at the front, we have been very successful.
"It is notable that by setting up this department, we have gained for the SS in turn, a division, a corps, an army, and the next step-which is the High Command of an army or area of a group-if you wish to call it that." (1919-PS)

What the SS did with its division, corps, and army, out of which the antipartisan units were formed, is illustrated in the "Activity and Situation Report No. 6 of the Task Forces of the Security Police and SD in the U. S. S. R.," covering the period from 1 to 31 October 1941 (R-102). The report shows that so-called "anti-partisan" activity was actually nothing but a name for extermina-tion of Jews and persons believed politically undesirable. The report is a carefully organized and detailed description of such extermination. Section I describes the stations of the various Task Forces involved, and section II their activities. The latter section is divided into parts, each dealing with a different geo-graphical region-the Baltic area, White Ruthenia, and the Ukraine. Under each area the report of activities is classified under three headings : (a) Partisan activity and counteraction ; (b) arrests and executions of communists and officials; and (c) Jews. The following units were involved (R-l02):

"The present stations are

"Task Force A : since 7 October 1941 Krasnowardeisk.
"Task Force B : continues in Smolensk.
"Task Force C: since 27 September 1941 in Kiew.
"Task Force D: since 27 September 1941 in Nikolajew.

"The Action and Special Commandos (Einsatz und Sonder Commandos) which are attached to the Task Force continue on the march with the advancing troops into the sectors which have been assigned to them." (R-102)

The section headed "Baltic area" and subsection labeled "Jews" read as follows (R-102):

"Spontaneous demonstrations against Jewry followed by pogroms on the part of the population against the remaining Jews have not been recorded on account of the lack of adequate indoctrination.
"However, the Estonian Protective Corps (Selbtschutz), formed at the time of the entry of the Wehrmacht, immediately started a comprehensive arrest action of all Jews. This action was under the direction of the task force of the Security Police and the SD." * * *
"The male Jews over 16 were executed with the exception of doctors and the elders. At the present time this action is still in progress. After completion. of this action there will remain only 500 Jewesses and children in the Eastern Territory." (R-102)

In the section headed "White Ruthenia," the subsection labeled "Partisan activity and counteraction," the following appear:

"In Wultschina 8 juveniles were arrested as partisans and shot. They were inmates of a children's home. They had collected weapons which they hid in the woods. Upon search the following were found: 3 heavy machine guns, 15 rifles, several thousand rounds of ammunition, several hand grenades, and several packages of poison gas, Ebrit.

"b. Arrests and executions of communists, officials, and criminals.

"A further large part of the activity of the Security Police was devoted to the combatting of Communists and criminals. A special Commando in the period covered by this report executed 63 officials, NKVD agents and agitators.(R-102)

The preceding subsection ends with the following statement:

"The liquidations for the period covered by this report have reached a total of 37,180 persons." (R-102)

And under the section headed "Ukraine," the subsection "Jews," this statement occurs:

"Shitomir
In Shitomir 3,145 Jews had to be shot,. because from expe-rience they have to be regarded as bearers of Bolshevik propa-ganda and saboteurs." (R-1 02)

The foregoing report deals with the activities of four Task Forces-A, B, C, and D. The more detailed report of Task Force A up to 16 October 1941 shows great variety of SS components in such a task force:

"This description of the over-all situation showed and shows that the members of the Stapo [The Secret State Police], Kripo and SD [Security Service] who are attached to the Action-Group, are active mainly in Lithouania, Latvia, Esthonia, White-Ruthenia and to a smaller part in front of Leningrad. It shows further that the forces of the uniformed police and the Armed SS are active mainly in front of Leningrad, in order to take measures against the returning population and under their own officers. This is so much easier because the Action detachments in Lithouania, Latvia and Esthonia have at their disposal native police units, as described in encl. 1, and because so far 150 Latvian reinforcements have been sent to White-Ruthenia.
"The distribution of the leaders of Security Police and SD during the individual phases can be gathered from encl. 2, the advance and the activities of the Action-Group and the Action-detachments from encl. 3. It should be mentioned that the leaders of the Armed-SS and of the uniformed police who are reserves have declared their wish to stay on with the Security Police and the SD." (L-180)

Best Regards from Russia,

[Igorn]

Nibelung,

The reason I posted info about "medical experiments" of German Doctors is that hundreds of Russian POW's were murdered to death by these "doctors".

Now some more information about German activities and war crimes in the occupied Russian territiories from the official Nurnberg Tribunal materials, which you can find on http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/Gestapo1.htm


War Crimes of the GESTAPO and SD.

(1) The GESTAPO and SD carried out mass murders of hundreds of thousands of civilians of occupied countries as a part of the Nazi program to exterminate political and racial undesirables (" Einsatz Groups").

About four weeks before the attack on Russia, special task forces of the SIPO and SD, called Einsatzgruppen or Special Task Groups, were formed on order of Himmler for the purpose of following the German armies into Russia, combatting partisans and members of resistance groups and exterminating the Jews and Communist leaders. In the beginning four Einsatz Groups were formed. Einsatz Group A, operating in the Baltic States, was placed under the command of Stahlecker, former Inspector of the SIPO and SD. Einsatz Group B, operating toward Moscow, was placed under the command of Nebe, the Chief of Amt V (KRIPO) of the RSHA. Einsatz Group C, operating toward Kiev, was placed under the command of Rasch and later of Thomas, former Chief of the SIPO and SD in Paris. Einsatz Group D, operating in the south of Russia, was placed under the command of Ohlendorf, the Chief of Amt III (SD) of the RSHA.

The Einsatz Groups were officered by personnel of the GESTAPO, the SD and the KRIPO. The men were drawn from the Order Police and the Waffen SS. The groups had complements of 400 to 500 men, and had their own vehicles and equipment. By agreement with the OKW and OKH, the Einsatzkommandos were attached to certain Army corps or divisions. The Army assigned the area in which the Einsatzkommandos were to operate, but all operational directives and orders for the carrying out of executions were given through the RSHA in Berlin. Regular courier service and radio communications existed between the Einsatz Groups and the RSHA. The affidavit of Ohlendorf, Chief of the SD, who led Einsatz Group D, reads in part as follows:

"When the German Army invaded Russia, I was leader of Einsatzgruppe D in the southern sector, and in the course of the year during which I was leader of the Einsatzgruppe D, it liquidated approximately 90,000 men, women and children. The majority of those liquidated were Jews, but there were also among them some Communist functionaries.

"In the execution of this extermination program the Einsatzgruppen were subdivided into Einsatzkommandos, and the Einsatzkommandos into still smaller units, the socalled Sonderkommando and Teilkommandos. Usually the smaller units were led by a member of the SD, the GESTAPO or the KRIPO. The unit selected for this task would enter a village or city and order the prominent Jewish citizens to call together all Jews for the purpose of resettlement. They were asked to hand over their personal belongings to the leaders of the unit, and shortly before the execution, to surrender their outer clothing. The men, women and children were led to a place of execution which usually was located beside a deepened anti-tank ditch. Then they were shot, kneeling or standing, and the corpses were thrown into the ditch. I never permitted the l shooting by individuals in Group D, but ordered that several of the men should shoot at the same time in order to avoid direct personal responsibility. The leaders of the unit, or especially designated persons, however, had to fire the last shot against those victims who were not dead immediately. I learned from conversations with other group leaders that some of them asked the victims to lie down flat on the ground to be shot through the neck. I did not approve of these methods." (2620-PS)

The contention that these murders were carried out by subterfuge and without force and terror is belied by the eyewitness account of two such mass murders witnessed by Hermann Graebe, who was manager and engineer in charge of the branch office of the Solingen firm of Josef Jung in Sdolbunow, Ukraine, from September 1941 until January 1944. Graebe's interest in the mass executions derived from the fact that in addition to Poles, Germans, and Ukrainians, he employed Jews on the various construction projects under his supervision. He was personally acquainted with the leader of the SIPO and SD who carried out the actions hereinafter described with the aid of SS-men (most of whom wore the SD armband) and Ukrainian militia. Graebe negotiated with SS-major Putz, the leader of the SIPO and SD, for the release of about 100 Jewish workers from the action which took place in Rowno on 13 July 1942. The original letter which exempted these Jewish workers from the action is attached to Graebe's affidavit, which states in part as follows:

"In the evening of this day I drove to Rowno and posted my-self with Fritz Einsporn in front of the house in the Bahnhofstrasse in which the Jewish workers of my firm slept. Shortly after 22.00 the ghetto was encircled by a large SS detachment and again about three times as many members of the Ukrainian militia. Then the electric floodlights which had been erected all around the ghetto were switched on. SS and militia details of 4 to 6 members entered or at least tried to enter the houses. Where the doors and windows were closed and the inhabitants did not open upon the knocking, the SS men and militia broke the windows, forced the doors and beams with crowbars and entered the dwellings. The owners were driven onto the street just as they were, regardless of whether they were dressed or whether they had been in bed. Since the Jews in most cases refused to leave their dwellings and resisted, the SS and militia both applied force. With the help of whippings, kicks and hits with the rifle butts they finally succeeded in having the dwellings evacuated. The people were chased out of their houses in such haste that the small children who had been in bed had been left behind in several instances. In the street women cried out for their children and children for their parents. That did not prevent the SS from chasing the people along the road, at double time, and hitting them until they reached a waiting freight train. Car after car was filled, over it hung the screaming of women and children, the cracking of whips and rifle shots. Since several families and groups had barricaded themselves in especially strong buildings, and the doors could not be forced with crowbars or beams, these houses were now blown open with hand grenades. Since the ghetto was near the railroad tracks in Rowno, the younger people tried to get across the tracks and to a small river to be outside of the ghetto. This sector being outside of the floodlights was lighted by signal ammunition. All through the night these beaten, chased and wounded people dragged themselves across the lighted streets. Women carried their dead children in their arms, children hugged and dragged by their arms and feet their dead parents down the road toward the train. Again and again the calls 'Open the door, '' Open the door' echoed through the ghetto." (2992-PS)

The leader of Einsatz Group D, Ohlendorf, stated in his affidavit that other Einsatz Group leaders required the victims to lie down flat on the ground to be shot through the neck. Graebe describes a mass execution of this kind which he observed carried out under the direction of a man in SD uniform on 5 October 1943 at Dubno, Ukraine, as follows:

"Thereupon in the company of Moennikes I drove to the construction area and saw in its vicinity a heap of earth, about 30 meters long and 2 meters high. Several trucks stood in front of the heap. Armed Ukrainian militia chased the people off the trucks under the supervision of an SS man. The militia men were guards on the trucks and drove them to and from the excavation. All these people had the prescribed yellow badges on the front and back of their clothes, and thus were recognized as Jews.

"Moennikes and I went directly to the excavation. Nobody bothered us. Now we heard shots in quick succession from behind one of the earth mounds. The people who had gotten off the trucks-men, women, and children of all ages-had to undress upon the orders of an SS man who carried a riding or dog whip. They had to put down their clothes in fixed places, sorted according to shoes, over and underclothing. I saw a pile of shoes of about 800 to 1,000 pairs, great piles of laundry and clothing. Without screaming or crying these people undressed, stood around by families, kissed each other, said farewells and waited for the nod of another SS man, who stood near the excavation, also with a whip in his hand. Dur-ing the 15 minutes that I stood near the excavation I have heard no complaint and no request for mercy. I watched a family of about 8 persons, a man and a woman, both about 50 with their children of about 1, 8 and 10, and two grown-up daughters of about 20 to 24. An old woman with snow-white hair held the one-year-old child in her arms and sang for it, and tickled it. The child was squeaking from joy. The couple looked on with tears in their eyes. The father held the hand of a boy about 10 years old and spoke to him softly; the boy was fighting his tears. The father pointed toward the sky, fondled his hand, and seemed to explain something to him. At that moment the SS-man at the excavation called something to his comrades. The latter counted off about 20 persons and instructed them to walk behind the earth mound. Among them was the family which I had mentioned. I remember' very well a girl, blackhaired and slender, passing near me; she pointed at herself and said, '23 years.' I walked around the mound, and stood in front of a tremendous grave. Closely pressed together the people were lying on top of each other so that only their heads were visible. Several of the people shot still moved. Some lifted their arms and turned their heads to show that they were still alive. The excavation was already two-thirds full. I estimated that it contained about 1,000 people. I looked for the man who did the shooting. I saw an SS-man who sat at the rim of the narrow end of the excavation, his feet dangling into the excavation. On his knees he had a machine pistol and he was smoking a cigarette. The completely naked people descended a stairway which was dug into the clay of the excavation and slipped over the heads of the people lying there already to the place to which the SS-man directed them. They laid themselves in front of the dead or injured people, some touched tenderly those who were still alive and spoke to them in a low voice. Then I heard a number of shots. I looked into the excavation and saw how the bodies jerked or the heads rested already motionless on top of the bodies that lay before them. Blood was running from their necks. I was surprised that I was not chased away, but I saw there were two or three postal officers in uniform nearby. Now already the next group approached, descended into the excavation, lined themselves up against the previous victims and was shot. When I walked back, around the mound, I noticed again a transport which had just arrived. This time it included sick and frail persons. An old, very thin woman with terribly thin legs was undressed by others who were already naked, while two persons held her up. Apparently the woman was paralyzed. The naked people carried the woman around the mound. I left with Moennikes and drove with my car back to Dubno." (2992-PS)

There are two reports by Stahlecker, the Chief of Einsatz Group B, available. The first report, found in Himmler's personal files, states that during the first four months of the Russian campaign Einsatz Group A murdered 135,000 Communists and Jews, and carried out widespread destruction of homes and villages and other vast crimes. Enclosure 8 to this StahIecker report is a carefu1 survey of the number of persons murdered, classified as to country, and whether Jew or Communist, with totals given in each instance. This report discloses that the Einsatz Groups frequently enlisted the aid of the local populations in the extermination program. It states:

"In view of the extension of the area of operations and the great number of duties which had to be performed by the Security Police, it was intended from the very beginning to obtain the cooperation of the reliable population for the fight against vermin-that is, mainly the Jews and Communists." (L-180)

With respect to extermination of Jews the report stated:

"From the beginning it was to be expected that the Jewish problem could not be solved by pogroms alone. In accordance with the basic orders received, however, the cleansing activities of the Security Police had to aim at a complete annihilation of the Jews. Special detachments reinforced by selected units-in Lithouania partisan detachments, in Latvia units of the Latvian auxiliary police-therefore performed extensive executions both in towns and in rural areas. The actions of the execution detachments were performed smoothly. * * *"

Enclosure 8, "Survey of the number of executed persons" is quoted directly from the report:





(L-180.) The second report from Einsatz Group A (L-180) reports the extermination of nearly 230,000 persons. With respect to Esthonia, it states in part:

"Only by the SIPO and SD were the Jews gradually executed as they became no longer required for work. Today there are no longer any Jews in Esthonia."

With respect to Latvia, the report states in part:

"Up to October 1941 approximately 30,000 Jews had been executed by these Sonderkommandos. The remaining Jews who were still indispensable from the economic point of view were collected in Ghettos, which were established in Riga, Duenaburg and Libau."

With respect to Lithuania, the report states in part :

"Therefore by means of selected units-mostly in the propor-tion of 1: 8-first of all the prisons, and then systematically, district by district, the Lithuanian sector was cleansed of Jews of both sexes. Altogether 136,421 people were liquidated in a great number of single actions. As the complete liquidation of the Jews was not feasible, as they were needed for labor, Ghettos were formed which at the moment are occupied as follows: Kauem approximately 15,000 Jews; Wilna approximately 15,000 Jews; Schaulen approximately 4,500 Jews. These Jews are used primarily for work of military importance. For example, up to 5,000 Jews are employed in 3 shifts on the aerodrome near Kauen on earthworks and work of that sort."

With respect to White Russia, the report states in part:

"In view of the enormous distances, the bad condition of the roads, the shortage of vehicles and petrol, and the small forces of Security Police and SD, it needs the utmost effort to be able to carry out shootings in the country. Nevertheless 41,000 Jews have been shot up to now."

With respect to Jews from the Reich, the report states in part:

"Since December 1940 transports containing Jews have arrived at short intervals from the Reich. Of these, 20,000 Jews were directed to Riga and 7,000 Jews to Minsk. Only a small section of the Jews from the Reich is capable of working. About 70-80 percent are women and children or old people unfit for work. The death rate is rising continually also as a result of the extraordinarily bad winter. In isolated instances sick Jews with contagious disease were selected under the pretext of putting them into a home for the aged or a hospital, and executed."

Attached as an enclosure to this report is a map entitled "Jewish Executions Carried out by Einsatzgruppe A," on which, by the use of coffins as symbols, the number of Jews murdered in each area covered by Einsatz Group A is shown (Chart Number 4). The map shows thousands of Jews in ghettos, and an estimated 128,000 Jews "still on hand" in the Minsk area. Number of murdered, according to figures beside the coffins, during the period covered by this report, was 228,050.

On 30 October 1941 the Commissioner of the territory of Sluzk wrote a report to the Commissioner General, Minsk, in which he severely criticized the actions of the Einsatzcommandos operating in his area for the murder of all the Jews of Sluzk:

"On 27 October in the morning at about 8 o'clock a first lieutenant of the police battalion No. 11 from Kauen (Lithuania) appeared and introduceded himself as the adjutant of the battalion commander of the security police. The first lieutenant explained that the police battalion had received the assignment to effect the liquidation of all Jews here in the town of Sluzk, within two days. The battalion commander with his battalion in strength of four companies, two of which were made up of Lithuanian partisans, was on the march here and the action would have to begin instantly. I replied to the first lieutenant that I had to discuss the action in any case first with the commander. About half an hour later the police battalion arrived in Sluzk. Immediately after the arrival the conference with the battalion commander took place according to my request. I first explained to the commander that it would not very well be possible to effect the action without previous preparation, because everybody had been sent to work and that it would lead to terrible confusion. At least it would have been his duty to inform me a day ahead of time. Then I requested him to postpone the action one day. However, he rejected this with the remark that he had to carry out this action everywhere and in all towns and that only two days were allotted for Sluzk. Within these two days, the town of Sluzk had to be cleared of Jews by all means. For the rest, as regards the execution of the action, I must point out to my deepest regret that the latter bordered already on sadism. The town itself offered a picture of horror during the action. With indescribable brutality on the part of both the German police officers and particularly the Lithuanian partisans, the Jewish people, but also among them White Ruthenians, were taken out of their dwellings and herded together. Everywhere in the town shots were to be heard and in different streets the corpses of shot Jews accumulated. The White Ruthenians were in greatest distress to free themselves from the encirclement. Regardless of the fact that the Jewish people, among whom were also tradesmen, were mistreated in a terribly barbarous way in the face of the White Ruthenian people, the White Ruthenians themselves were also worked over with rubber clubs and rifle butts. There was no question of an action against the Jews any more. It rather looked like a revolution. In conclusion I find myself obliged to point out that the police battalion has looted in an unheard of manner during the action, and that not only in Jewish houses but just the same in those of the White Ruthenians. Anything of use such as boots, leather, cloth, gold and other valuables, has been taken away. On the basis of statements of members of the armed forces, watches were torn off the arms of Jews in public, on the streets, and rings were pulled off the fingers in the most brutal manner. A major of the finance department reported that a Jewish girl was asked by the police to obtain immediately 5,000 rubles to have her father released. This girl is said to have actually gone everywhere in order to obtain the money." (1104-PS)

This report was submitted by the Commissioner General of White Ruthenia to the Reich Commissioner for the Eastern Territories on 1 November 1941 with the following comment:

"I am submitting this report in duplicate so that one copy may be forwarded to the Reich Minister. Peace and order cannot be maintained in White Ruthenia with methods of that sort. To bury seriously wounded people alive who worked their way out of their graves again is such a base and filthy act that the incidents as such should be reported to the Fuehrer and Reichs Marshal." (1104-PS)

On the same date by separate letter the Commissioner General of White Ruthenia reported to the Reich Commissioner for the Eastern Territories that he had received money, valuables, and other objects taken by the police in the action at Sluzk and other regions, all of which had been deposited with the Reich Credit institute for the disposal of the Reich Commissioner. (1104-PS)

On 21 November 1941 a report on the Sluzk incident was sent to the personal reviewer of the permanent deputy of the Minister of the Reich with a copy to Heydrich, the Chief of the Security Police and SD. (1104-PS)

On 6 November 1942 a secret report submitted to the Reich Commissar for the East concerning the struggle against partisans in the East discloses that destruction of villages continued, and reports the execution of 1,274 partisan suspects and 8,350 Jews, and the deportation of 1,217 people. This report was forwarded on 10 December 1942 to the Reich Minister for the occupied Eastern territories. (1113-PS)

The report from the prison administrator at Minsk as of 31 May 1943 to the General Commissioner for White Ruthenia states:

"The German, former dentist Ernst Israel Tichauer and his wife Elisa Sara Tichauer, born Rosenthal, were delivered to the Court-Prison by the SD (Hauptscharfuehrer Rube) on 13 April 1943. Since that date, the golden bridgework, crowns and fillings of the received German and Russian Jews were pulled out, respectively broken out by force. This always happened. l-2 hours before the actions in question.

"Since 13 April 1943, 516 German and Russian Jews were liquidated. After careful investigation it was ascertained that gold objects were only taken away during 2 actions, namely on 14 April 43 from 172 and on 27 April 43 from 164 Jews. About 50 percent of the Jews had gold teeth, bridges or fillings. Hauptscharfuehrer Rube of the SD was always present in person, and also took the gold objects with him.

"This has not been done before 13 April 1943."

This report was forwarded to the Reich Minister for the occupied Eastern territories on 1 June 1943. (E-135)

Death vans were used by the Einsatz Groups to murder victims by gas. These vans were built by the Saurer Works in Berlin and other firms. The vans were built for the technical section of Amt II of the RSHA, which sent them to the Einsatz Groups in the field. They were first used in the spring of 1942 and continued to be used throughout the war (2348-PS). The method of using the vans is described by Ohlendorf in the following words:

"We received orders to use the car for the killing of women and children. Whenever a unit had collected a sufficient number of victims, a car was sent for their liquidation, We also stationed these cars in the neighborhood of the transit camps to which the victims had been brought. They were told that they would be resettled and had to climb into the cars for that purpose. Then the doors were closed and as soon as the cars started moving the gas would enter. The victims died within ten to fifteen minutes. The cars were driven to the burial place where the corpses were taken out and buried." (2620-PS)

Mass Murder and Extermination in Occupied Countries (part 2)
Screening and Execution of Prisoners of War (part 1)

A letter from Becker, the operator of several death vans, written to Rauff, the head of the technical section of Amt II of the RSHA, on 16 May 1942, states:

"The overhauling of vans by groups D and C is finished. While the vans of the first series can also be put into action if the weather is not too bad the vans of the second series (Saurer) stop completely in rainy weather. If it has rained for instance for only one-half hour, the van cannot be used because it simply skids away. It can only be used in absolutely dry weather. It is only a question now whether the van can only be used standing at the place of execution. First the van has to be brought to that place, which is possible only in good weather. The place of execution is usually 10-15 km away from the highways and is difficult of access because of its location ; in damp or wet weather it is not accessible at all. If the persons to be executed are driven or led to that place, then they realize immediately what is going on and get restless, which is to be avoided as far as possible. There is only one way left; to load them at the collecting point and to drive them to the spot.

"I ordered the vans of group D to be camouflaged as house-trailers by putting one set of window shutters on each side of the small van and two on each side of the larger vans, such as one often sees on farm-houses in the country, The vans became so well-known, that not only the authorities but also the civilian population called the van "death van", as soon as one of these vehicles appeared. It is my opinion that the van cannot be kept secret for any length of time, not even camouflaged.

"* * * I should like to take this opportunity to bring the following to your attention: several commands have had the unloading after the application of gas done by their own men. I brought to the attention of the commanders of those SK concerned the immense psychological injuries and damages to their health which that work can have for those men, even if not immediately, at least later on. The men complained to me about headaches which appeared after each unloading.

"* * * The application of gas usually is not undertaken correctly. In order to come to an end as fast as possible, the driver presses the accelerator to the fullest extent. By doing that the persons to be executed suffer death from suffocation and not death by dozing off as was planned. My directions now have proved that by correct adjustment of the levers death comes faster and the prisoners fall asleep peacefully. Distorted faces and excretions, such as could be seen before, are no longer noticed." (501-PS)

The death vans were not always satisfactory. A telegram from the commandant of the SIPO and SD "Ostland" to the RSHA, Amt II D, on 15 June 1942, states:

"A transport of Jews, which has to be treated in a special way, arrives weekly at the office of the commandant of the Security Police and the Security Service of White Ruthenia.

"The three S-vans, which are there, are not sufficient for that purpose. I request assignment of another S-van (5-tons). At the same time I request the shipment of 20 gas-hoses for the three S-vans on hand (2 Diamond, 1 Saurer) , since the ones on hand are leaky already." (5Ol-PS)

The reports of the various Einsatz Groups were summarized at RSHA, and the summaries were then distributed to the various, sections interested, particularly Amt III (the SD), Amt IV (the GESTAPO), and Amt V (the KRIPO) (2752-PS). One such report covering the period 1-31 October 1941 is entitled "Activity and Situation Report No. 6 of the Einsatz Groups of the Security Police and the SD in the USSR" (R-102). This report describes in summary form the activities of the various Einsatz Groups during the month of October 1941. The report first discusses the stations and in that regard states :

"During the period covered by this report the stations of the Task Forces of the Security Police and the SD have changed only in the Northern Sector. "The present stations are:

"Task Force A : since 7 October 1941 Krasnowardeisk.
"Task Force B : continues in Smolensk.
"Task Force C : since 27 September 1941 in Kiew.
"Task Force D : since 27 September 1941 in Nikolajew.

"The Action and Special Commandos (Einsatz und Sonder Commandos) which are attached to the Task Force continue on the march with the advancing troops into the sectors which have been assigned to them."( R-l 02)

The report next discusses the activities of each Einsatz Group. There is included first a discussion of the Baltic area, next of White Ruthenia, and last of the Ukraine. Under each section the work of the Einsatz Groups in connection with the action taken against partisans, Jews, and communist officials is considered. With respect to the treatment of Jews in the Baltic area the report states in part:

"* * * However, the Estonian Protective Corps (Selbtschutz), formed at the time of the entry of the Wehrmacht, immediately started a comprehensive arrest action of all Jews. This action was under the direction of the task force of the Security Police and the SD.

"The measures taken were:

1. Arrest of all male Jews over 16.
2. Arrest of all Jewesses from l6-20 years, who lived in Reval and environs and were fit for work; these were employed in peat cutting.
3. Comprehensive detention in the synagogue of all Jewesses living in Dorport and its environs.
4. Arrest of the Jews and Jewesses fit for work in Pernau and environs.
5 Registration of all Jews according to age, sex, and ca-pacity for work for the purpose of their detention in a camp that is being prepared.

"The male Jews over 16 were executed with the exception of doctors and the elders. At the present time this action is still in progress. After completion of this action there will remain only 500 Jewesses and children in the Eastern terri-tory. * * *" (R-102)

With respect to partisan activity in White Ruthenia, the report states in part:

"* * * In the village Michalowo, after careful reconnaissance through civilian agents, 8 partisans were surprised in a house by the same Commando of the Security Police and the SD, they were arrested and hanged the next day in this particularly partisan infested village.

"The president of the District Region Soviets in Tarenitsch and his secretary were shot because of their connections with partisans.

"During an action approximately 70 kilometers south of Mogilow, 25 Armenians, Kirghize and Mongols were apprehended with false identification papers with which they tried to conceal the fact that they belong to a partisan group. They were liquidated. * * *" (R-102)

With respect to arrests and executions of communists in White Ruthenia, the report states in part:

"A further large part of the activity of the Security Police was devoted to the combating of Communists and criminals. A special Commando in the period covered by this report executed 63 officials, NKVD agents and agitators. * * *" (R-l02)

With respect to the action taken against the Jews in White Ruthenia the report states in part:

"* * * All the more vigorous are the actions of the task forces of the Security Police and the SD against the Jews who make it necessary that steps be taken against them in different spheres.

"In Gorodnia 165 Jewish terrorists and in Tschenrigow 19 Jewish Communists were liquidated. 8 more Jewish communists were shot at Beresna.

"It was experienced repeatedly that the Jewish women showed an especially obstinate behaviour. For this reason 28 Jewesses had to be shot in Krugoje and 337 at Mogilew.

"In Borissow 321 Jewish saboteurs and 118 Jewish looters were executed.

"In Bobruisk 380 Jews were shot who had engaged to the last in incitement and horror propaganda [Hetz-und Greuelpropa-ganda] against the German army of occupation.

"In Tatarsk the Jews had left the Ghetto of their own accord and returned to their old home quarters, attempting to expel the Russians who had been quartered there in the meantime. All male Jews as well as 3 Jewesses were shot.

"In Sadrudubs the Jews offered some resistance against the establishment of a Ghetto so that 272 Jews and Jewesses had to be shot. Among them was a political Commissar.

"MOGILE W

"In Mogilew too, the Jews attempted to sabotage their removal to the Ghetto; 113 Jews were liquidated.

"Wit

"Moreover four Jews were shot on account of refusal to work and 2 Jews were shot because they had sabotaged orders issued by the German occupation authorities.

"In Talka 222 Jews were shot for anti-German propaganda and in Marina Gorka 996 Jews were shot because they had sabotaged orders issued by the German occupation authorities.

"At Schklow 627 more Jews were shot because they had participated in acts of sabotage.

"Witebsk "On account of the extreme danger of an epidemic, a beginning was made to liquidate the Jews in the ghetto at Witebsk. This involved approximately 3000 Jews. * * *" (R-102)

With respect to partisan activity in the Ukraine the report states in part:

"Although partisan activity in the south sector is very strong too, there is nevertheless the impression that spreading and effective partisan activity are strongly affected by the flight of higher partisan leaders and by the lack of initiative of the subordinate leaders who have remained behind. Only in one case a commando of the Security Police and the SD succeeded in a fight with partisans in shooting the Secretary of the Communist Party for the administration district of Nikolajew-Cherson, who was at the time Commissar of a partisan group for the district Nikolajew-Cherson-Krim. * * *" (R-102)

With respect to treatment of Jews in the Ukraine the report states in part:

"The embitterment of the Ukrainian population against the Jews is extremely great because they are thought responsible for the explosions in Kiew. They are also regarded as informers and agents of the NKVD who started the terror against the Ukrainian people. As a measure of retaliation for the arson at Kiew, all Jews were arrested and altogether 33,771 Jews were executed on the 29th and 30th September. Money, valuables and clothing were secured and put at the disposal of the National-Socialist League for Public Welfare (NSV) for the equipment of the National Germans [Volksdeutschen] and partly put at the disposal of the provisional city administration for distribution to the needy population.

"Shitomir

"In Shitomir 3,145 Jews had to be shot, because from experience they have to be regarded as bearers of Bolshevik propaganda and saboteurs.

"Cherson

"In Cherson 410 Jews were executed as a measure of retaliation for acts of sabotage. -Especially in the area east of the Dnjepr the solution of the Jewish question has been taken up energetically by the task forces of the Security Police and the SD. The areas newly occupied by the Commandos were purged of Jews. In the course of this action 4,891 Jews were liquidated. At other places the Jews were marked and registered. This rendered it possible to put at the disposal of the Wehrmacht for urgent labor, Jewish worker groups up to 1,000 persons." (R-102)

These reports, circulated among the various offices of the RSHA, brought general knowledge to the entire organization of the program of mass murder conducted by these special task forces of the SIPO and SD. (R-102)

The activities of the Einsatz Groups continued throughout 1943 and 1944 under Kaltenbrunner as Chief of the SIPO and SD. New groups were formed and sent into action in the West (2890-PS). Under adverse war conditions, however, the program of extermination was to a large extent changed to one of rounding up slave labor for Germany. A letter written on 19 March 1943 from the headquarters of a Sonderkommando (section of Einsatz Group C) states as follows:

"It is the task of the Security Police and of the Security Service (SD) to discover all enemies of the Reich and fight against them in the interest of security, and in the zone of operations especially to guarantee the security of the army. Besides the annihilation of active opponents all other elements who, by virtue of their opinions or their past, may appear active as enemies under favorable conditions, are to be eliminated sind * * * auszumerzen] through preventive measures. The Security Police carries out this task according to the general directives of the Fuehrer with all the required toughness. Energetic measures are especially necessary in territories endangered by the activity of hostile gangs. The competence of the Security Police within the zone of operations is based on the Barbarossa decrees. I deem the measures of the Security Police, carried out on a considerable scale during recent times, necessary for the two following reasons:

"1. The situation at the front in my sector had become so serious that the population, partly influenced by Hungarians and Italians, who streamed back in chaotic condition, took openly position against us.

"2. The strong expeditions of hostile gangs, who came especially from the forest of Bryansk, were another reason. Besides that, other revolutionary groups, formed by the popu-lation, appeared suddenly in all districts. The providing of arms evidently provided no difficulties at all. It would have been irresponsible, if we had observed this whole activity without acting against it. It is obvious that all such measures bring about some harshness. I want to take up the significant points of harsh measures:

"1. The shooting of Hungarian Jews.
"2. The shooting of directors of collective farms.
"3. The shooting of children.
"4. The total burning down of villages.
"5. The "shooting: while trying to escape" of Security Service (SD) prisoners.

"Chief of Einsatz Group C confirmed once more the correctness of the measures taken, and expressed his recognition for the energetic actions.

"With regard to the current political situation, especially in the armament industry in the fatherland, the measures of the Security Police have to be subordinated to the greatest extent to the recruiting of labor for Germany. In the shortest possible time, the Ukraine has to put at the disposal of the armament industry 1 million workers, 500 of whom have to be sent from our territory daily.

"The work of the field groups has therefore to be changed as of now. The following orders are given:

"1. Special treatment is to be limited to a minimum.
"2. The listing of communist functionaries, activists and so on, is to take place by roster only for the time being, without arresting anybody. It is, for instance, no longer feasible to arrest all the close relatives of a member of the communist party. Although, members of the Komsomolz are to be arrested only if they were active in a leading position.
"3. The activity of the labor offices, respective of recruiting commissions, is to be supported to the greatest extent possible. It will not be possible always to refrain from using force. During a conference with the Chief. of the Labor Commitment Staffs, an agreement was reached stating that wherever prisoners can be released, they should be put at the disposal of the Commissioner of the Labor Office. When searching [Uberholung] villages, resp., when it has become necessary to burn down a village, the whole population will be put at the disposal of the Commissioner by force,
"4. As a rule, no more children will be shot.
"5. The reporting of hostile gangs as well as drives against them is not affected hereby. All drives against these hostile gangs can only take place after my approval has been obtained.
"6. The prisons have to be kept empty, as ,a rule. We have to be aware of the fact that the Slavs will interpret all soft treatment on our part as weakness and that they will act accordingly right away. If we limit our harsh measures of security police through above orders for the time being, that is only done for the following reason. The most important thing is the recruiting of workers. No check of persons to be sent into the Reich will be made. No written certificates of political reliability check or similar things will be issued.

"( signed) Christiansen."
(3012-PS)

The head of the Jewish section in the GESTAPO, and the man directly responsible for carrying out the mass extermination program against the Jews by the GESTAPO, Obersturmbannfuehrer Eichmann, estimated in his report to Himmler on the matter, that 2,000,000 Jews had been killed by shooting, mainly by the Einsatz Groups of the SIPO and SD during the campaign in the East. This did not include the estimated 4,000,000 sent by the GESTAPO for extermination in annihilation camps.(2615-PS)

(2)The GESTAPO and SD stationed special units in prisoner of war camps for the purpose of screening out racial and political undesirables and executing them.

The program of mass murder of political and racial undesirables carried on against civilians was also applied to prisoners of war captured on the Eastern front. Warlimont, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Wehrmacht Fuehrungs Stab, states:

"* * * Shortly before the beginning of this campaign [with U. S. S. R.] I was present in a group composed of the Commanders in Chief (with their Chiefs of Staff) of the three Armed Forces, o f the Army groups, of Armies, and of the corresponding groups in the Air Forces and Navy. Hitler made an announcement to this group that special measures would have to be taken against political functionaries and commissars of the Soviet army. He said that this would not be an ordinary campaign but would be the clash of conflicting ideologies. He further said that the political functionaries and commissars were not to be considered as prisoners of war but were to be segregated from other prisoners immediately after their capture and were to be turned over to special detachments of the SD which were to accompany the German troops to Russia. He further said that when it was not possible to turn over the political functionaries and commissars to the SD, they were to be eliminated by the German troops." (2884-PS)

The Chief of the SD, Otto Ohlendorf, describes this action in thefollowing words:

"In 1941, shortly after the start of the campaign against Russia, an agreement was entered into between the Chief of the Security Police and SD and the OKW and OKH to the effect that the prisoner of war camps on the Eastern front should be opened to Ein'satzkommandos of the SIPO and SD so that the prisoners could be screened. All Jews and Communist functionaries were to be taken from the prisoner of war camps by the Einsatzkommandos and executed outside the camps. To my knowledge, this action was carried on throughout the entire Russian campaign. In the other occupied territories and within the Reich-to my knowledge-the GESTAPO had been made responsible for this program in the Russian prisoner of war camps. It was, to my knowledge, carried on throughout the greater part of the war." (2622-PS)

Lahousen, chief of a division in the office of foreign intelligence in the Wehrmacht, states:

"* * * From the start of the campaign against the U. S. S. R. the higher German political and military leadership followed the policy of eliminating Russian commissars and various other types of Russian prisoners of war captured by the Wehrmacht. In June and July 1941 I participated in a conference which concerned itself with the treatment of Russian commissars. * * * Obergruppenfuehrer Mueller was present as representative of the RSHA, and he participated in this matter because, as Chief of Section IV, he was responsible for the carrying out of these measures. Jointly with the SD and the GESTAPO he had the task of instituting the necessary measures for the execution of commissars. * * * In the discussion that followed, Mueller promised in a peculiarly cynical manner that these executions would take place in the future outside the camp, so that the troops would not be obliged to watch them. He promised further a certain limitation in the concept of 'Bolshevistically infected.' This concept and its interpretation had been hitherto left to the discretion of the SD Sonderkommandos. * * * An agreement was concluded between the OKW, the GESTAPO and the SD. Pursuant to this agreement Russian prisoners of war under the control of the OKW were delivered to the GESTAPO and SD for execution. The term 'Sonderbehandlung' in the official documents and way of speaking of the SD was equivalent to 'condemned to death'." (2846-PS)
Screening and Execution of Prisoners of War (part 2)
Application of "Bullet Decree" to POWs
Committal of Racial and Political Undesirables to Concentration and annihilation Camps
Deportation to Forced Labor
Execution of Captured Commandos and Paratroopers
Nacht und Nebel Erlass ("Night and Fog Decree")
Punishment of Civilians by Special Criminal Procedures

On 17 July 1941 instructions were issued by the GESTAPO to Commandos of the SIPO and SD stationed in Stalags, providing in part as follows:

"The activation of commandos will take place in accordance with the agreement of the Chief of the Security Police and Security Service and the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces as of 16 July 1941 (see enclosure 1). The commandos will work independently according to special authorization and in consequence of the general regulations given to them, in the limit of the camp organizations. Naturally, the commandos will keep close contact with the camp-commander and the defense-officers assigned to him.

"The mission of the commandos is the political investigating of all camp-inmates, the elimination and further 'treatment'

"a. of all political, criminal or in some other way unbearable elements among them.
"b. of those persons who could be used for the reconstruc-tion of the occupied territories.

"The commandos must use for their work as far as possible, at present and even later, the experiences of the camp-commanders which the latter have collected meanwhile from observation of the prisoners and examinations of camp inmates.

"Further, the commandos must make efforts from the beginning to seek out among the prisoners elements which appear reliable, regardless if there are communists concerned or not, in order to use them for intelligence purposes inside of the camp and, if advisable, later in the occupied territories also.

"By use of such informers and by use of all other existing possibilities, the discovery of all elements to be eliminated among the prisoners, must proceed step by step at once. * * *

"Above" all, the following must be discovered :

All important functionaries of state and party, especially

Professional revolutionaries
Functionaries of the Komintern
All policy forming party functionaries of the KPdSU and its fellow organizations in the central committees, in the regional and district committees.
All peoples-commissars and their deputies
All former political commissars in the Red-Army
Leading personalities of the state-authorities of central and middle regions.
The leading personalities of the business world.
Members of the Soviet-Russian intelligence
All Jews All persons who are found to be agitators or fanatical com-munists. * * *

"Executions are not to be held in the camp or in the immediate vicinity of the camp. If the camps in the general-government are in the immediate vicinity of the border, then the prisoners are to be taken for special treatment, if possible, into the former Soviet-Russian territory. * * *

"In regard to executions to be carried out and to the possible removal of reliable civilians and the removal of informers for the Einasatz-group in the occupied territories, the leader of the Einsatz-Kommando [ ?] must make an agreement with the nearest State-Police-Office, as well as with the commandant of the Security Police Unit and Security Service and beyond these with the Chief of the Einsatz-group concerned in the occupied territories. * * *" (502-PS)

On 23 October 1941 the Camp Commander of the concentration camp Gross Rosen reported to Mueller, Chief of the GESTAPO, a list of Russian PWs who had been executed the preceding day. (1165-PS)

On 9 November 1941 Mueller issued a directive to all GESTAPO offices in which he ordered that diseased PWs should be excluded from the transport into the concentration camps for execution. The letter began :

"The commandant of the concentration camps are complaining that 5 to 10 percent of the Soviet Russians destined for execution are arriving in the camps dead or half dead. Therefore the impression has arisen that the Stalags are getting rid of such prisoners in this way. * * *" (1165-PS)

The affidavit of Kurt Lindow, former GESTAPO official, states:

"* * * 2. From 1941 until the middle of 1943 there was attached to subsection IVA1 a special department that was headed by the Regierungsoberinspektor, later Regierungsamtmann, and SS-Hauptsturmbannfuehrer Franz Koenigshaus. In this department were handled matters concerning prisoners of war. I learned from this department that instructions and orders by Reichsfuehrer Himmler, dating from 1941 and 1942, existed according to which captured Soviet Russian political Commissars and Jewish soldiers were to be executed. As far as I know proposals for execution of such PWs were received from the various PW camps. Koenigshaus had to prepare the orders for execution and submitted them to the chief of section IV, Mueller, for signature. These orders were made out so that one order was to be sent to the agency making the request and a second one to the concentration camp designated to carry out the execution. The PWs in question were at first formally released from PW status, then transferred to a concentration camp for execution. * * *

"* * * 4. There existed in the PW camps on the Eastern front small screening teams (Einsatzkommandos) headed by lower ranking members of the Secret Police (GESTAPO). These teams were assigned to the camp commanders and had the job to segregate the PWs who were candidates for execution, according to the orders that had been given, and to report them to the Office of the Secret Police (Gehaimes Staats-polizeiamt). * * *" (2542-PS)

(3) The GESTAPO and SD sent recaptured prisoners of war to concentration camps where they were executed (" Bullet Decree").


On 27 July 1944 an order from the 6th Corps Area Command was issued on the treatment of prisoners of war, which provided that prisoners of war were to be discharged from prisoner-of-war status and transferred to the GESTAPO if they were guilty of crimes, had escaped and been recaptured, or refused to work or encouraged other prisoners not to work, or were screened out by Einsatzkommandos of the SIPO and SD, or were guilty of sabotage. No reports on transfers were required (1514-PS). This decree was known as the "Kugel Erlass" ("Bullet Decree"). Prisoners of war sent to Mauthausen concentration camp under it were regarded as dead to the outside world and were executed. (2478- PS; 2285-PS.)

On 17 December 1942, Mueller issued an order to the Kommandeurs and Inspekteurs of the SIPO and SD and to the directors of the GESTAPO regional offices, in which he stated that Himmler, Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police, had given orders on 14 December 1942 that at least 35,000 persons who were fit for work had to be put into concentration camps not later than at the end of January. The order further provided that Eastern or foreign workers who had escaped or broken the labor contracts were to be sent to the nearest concentration camps as quickly as possible, and that inmates of detention rooms and educational work camps who were fit for work should be delivered to the nearest concentration camps. (1063-D-PS)

On 23 March 1943, Mueller issued another directive referring to said directive of 17 December 1942, in which he stated that measures are to be carried out until 30 April 43. More explicit instructions were given as to which concentration camps the slave laborers were to be sent. He said:

"Care has to be taken that only prisoners who are fit for work are sent to concentration camps, and adolescents only in accordance with the provisions issued; otherwise, contrary to the purpose, the concentration camps become overburdened." (L-41)

(5) The GESTAPO and the SD participated in the deportation of citizens of occupied countries for forced labor and handled the disciplining of forced labor.

During 1943 the program of mass murder carried out by the Einsatz Groups in the East was modified, and orders were issued to round up hundreds of thousands of persons for the armament industry.

"In the shortest possible time the Ukraine has to put at the disposal of the armament industry one million workers, 500 of whom have to be sent from our territory daily. * * * The activity of the labor offices * * * is to be supported to the greatest extent possible. * * * When searching villages, esp. when it has beeome necessary to burn down a village, the whole population will be put at the disposal of the Commissions by force. * * * The most important thing is the recruiting of workers."(3012-PS)

On 18 June 1941 secret orders were issued from the Chief of the Security Police and SD, signed by Mueller, to prevent the return of Eastern emigrants and civilian workers from the Reich to the East, and to keep them in German war production. Any attempts at refusal to work were to be countered by the GESTAPO with the severest measures, arrest and confinement in concentration camps (1573-PS). The Chief of the Security Police and SD had exclusive jurisdiction over labor reformatory camps established under control of the GESTAPO for disciplining foreign workers. (1063-B-PS)


(7) The GESTAPO and SD took civilians of occupied countries to Germany for secret trial and punishment ("Nacht und Nebel Erlass").

On 7 December 1941 Hitler issued the directive, since called the "Nacht und Nebel Erlass" (Night and Fog Decree), under which persons who committed offenses against the Reich or occupation forces in occupied territories, except where death sentence was certain, were to be taken secretly to Germany and surrendered to the Security Police and SD for trial or punishment in Germany. An executive ordinance was issued by Keitel the same date, and on 4 February 1942 the directive and ordinance were published to the police and the SS. (L-90)

In compliance with the above directive, the military intelligence turned over cases, other than those in which the death sentence was probable, to the GESTAPO and the Secret Field Police for secret deporting to Germany. (833-PS)

After the civilians arrived in Germany, no word of the disposition of their cases was permitted to reach the country from which they came, or their relatives. Even when they died awaiting trial, the SIPO and SD refused to notify the families, so that anxiety would be created in the minds of the family of the arrested person. (668-PS)

The GESTAPO and SD arrested, tried, and punished citizens of occupied territories under special criminal procedure and by summary methods.

The GESTAPO arrested, placed in protective custody, and executed civilians of occupied territories under certain circumstances. Even where there were courts capable of handling emergency cases, the GESTAPO conducted its own executions without regard to normal judicial processes. (674-PS)

On 18 September 1942, Thierack, the Reich Minister of Justice, and Himmler came to an understanding by which antisocial elements were to be turned over to Himmler to be worked to death, and a special criminal procedure was to be applied by the police to the Jews, Poles, gypsies, Russians, and Ukrainians who were not to be tried in ordinary criminal courts. (654-PS)

On 5 September 1942 an order was issued by the RSHA to the offices of the GESTAPO and SD covering this understanding. This order provided that ordinary criminal procedure would not be applied against Poles, Jews, gypsies, and other Eastern people, but that instead they would be turned over to the police. Such persons of foreign extraction were to be treated on a basis entirely different from that applied to Germans.



Best Regards from Russia,

[MD650]

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[redcoat]

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Shame on you

[Opa]

Zzzzzzz. I too fell asleep after reading the same old Nuremberg trial saws. A good proportion of the Wehrmacht soldiers slandered there have been rehabilitated by the post-Soviet regime, by the way.

I checked my copy of Philippe Masson, Die Deutsche Armee (1994 in French, 1996 in German; I wonder if there is an English translation), and Hans Poeppel, Wilhelm Karl von Preussen, K.-G. von Hase, editors, Die Soldaten der Wehrmacht, 4th ed. 1999, which unmasks much of the material presented by that Wehrmacht exhibit and also the psychological drift that leads people like Wigbert Benz, Christian Streit etc (Gerlach was not yet know) to work according to the method that when in doubt about what the sources say, blame the Germans. To summarize both works: Relatively few crimes can be put at the feet of the Wehrmacht--which as a group rather tried to mitigate Hitler's criminal orders from Berlin--but could not create food out of thin air, esp. after Stalin's order to burn everything. This lack of food was the fundamental problem that made occupation policies much worse. There was also the spirale of terror and counter-terror between army and partisans, known to many wars--all of this in addition to Hitler's plans.
What for endless citations of what Hitler or Himmler said or thought? The individual Landser was not Hitler or Himmler. But arguing with Igorn et alii does not solve anything, he won't convert me, and I won't convince him.

Its past midnight, so Gute Nacht!

[Igorn]

Opa,

Some more information about Wehrmacht war crimes in Russia. Source: Law-Reports of Trials of War Criminals, The United Nations War Crimes Commission, Volume XII, London, HMSO, 1949

CASE NO. 72

THE GERMAN HIGH COMMAND TRIAL

TRIAL OF WILHELM VON LEEB AND THIRTEEN OTHERS

UNITED STATES MILITARY TRIBUNAL, NUREMBERG,
30TH DECEMBER. 1947 - 28TH OCTOBER, 1948

Part III

Evidence with Particular Reference to the Commissar Order
Evidence with Particular Reference to the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order

p.23

(b) Evidence with Particular Reference to the Commissar Order

On 30th March, 1941, Hitler held a conference at Berlin with leaders of the Wehrmacht. Von Leeb was present. At that time, according to the summary contained in General Halder’s diary, Hitler said :

" Clash of two ideologies. Crushing denunciation of Bolshevism, identified with a social criminality. Communism is an enormous danger for our future. We must forget the concept of comradeship between soldiers. A Communist is no comrade before nor after the battle. This is a war of extermination. If we fail to grasp this, and though we are sure to beat the enemy, we shall again have to fight the Communist foe 30 years from now. We do not wage war to preserve the enemy. . . .

" War against Russia. Extermination of the Bolshevist Commissars and of the Communist intelligentsia. The new States must be Socialist, but without intellectual classes of their own. Growth of a new intellectual class must be prevented. A primitive Socialist intelligentsia is all that is needed. We must fight against the poison of disintegration. This is no job for military courts. The individual troop commander must know the issues at stake. They must be leaders in the fight. The troops must fight back with the methods with which they are attacked. Commissars and GPU men are criminals and must be dealt with as such. This need not mean that the troops get out of hand. Rather the commander must give orders which express the common feelings of his troops.

" This war will be very different from the war in the West. In the East, harshness today means leniency in the future. Commanders must make the sacrifice of overcoming their personal scruples."

This seemed to have caused some excitement among those present, who, of course, recognized it as being brutal, murderous and uncivilized. After Hitler had made his speech and had departed to his inner sanctum, protests were uttered by the commanders to the effect that the extermination planned by Hitler would violate their soldierly principles, and, further, would destroy discipline. Brauchitsch agreed with them and promised to express their opinion to the OKW and Hitler respectively. He tried through Keitel to obtain a change in the plans, but was unable to do so. Subsequently, he lent his approval to the objections made by the field commanders, who, in some instances at least, expressed a negative opinion of the order to their subordinates and tried to avoid its execution as far as they could do so without peril to themselves. One of the means to ameliorate the brutality

p.24

of the Commissar Order was the issuance by von Brauchitsch of what is known as the " Maintenance of Discipline " order hereafter referred to.

On 6th June, 1941, the Commissar Order was issued from the Fuehrer Headquarters as " TOP SECRET, Transmission only by officer ! " and was captioned, " Directives for the Treatment of Political Commissars." It was as follows :

" In the fight against Bolshevism it is not to be expected that the enemy will act in accordance with the principles of Humanity or of the International Law. In particular, a vindictive, cruel and inhuman treatment of our prisoners must be expected on the part of the political Commissars of all types, as they are the actual leaders of the resistance.

" The troops must realize :

" (1) In this fight, leniency and considerations of International Law are out of place in dealing with these elements. They constitute a danger for their own safety and the swift pacification of the conquered territories.

" (2) The originators of barbarous Asiatic methods of warfare are the political commissars. They must therefore be dealt with most severely, at once and summarily.

" Therefore, they are to be liquidated at once when taken in combat or offering resistance.

" For the rest the following directives will apply :

" I. Combat Zone

(1) Political commissars who oppose our troops will be treated in accordance with the ‘ decree concerning the application of martial law in the Barbarossa area.’ This applies to commissars of any type and grade, even if they are only suspected of resistance, sabotage or of instigation thereto.

Reference is made to the ‘ directive concerning the conduct of the troops in Russia.’

(2) Political commissars as organs of the enemy troops are recognizable by special insignia-red star with interwoven gold hammer and sickle on the sleeves-(for particulars see ‘ The Armed Forces of the USSR,’ High Command of the Armed Forces/General Staff of the Army, Qu IV, Section Foreign Armies East (II) No. 100/41 secret, of 15th January, 1941, appendix 9 d). They are to be segregated at once, e.g. still on the battlefield, from the prisoners of war. This is necessary to prevent them from influencing the prisoners of war in any way. These commissars will not be recognized as soldiers, the protection of prisoners of war by International Law does not apply to them. They will be liquidated after segregation.

(3) Political commissars who have not committed or are not suspected of hostile acts will not be harmed for the time being. Only after deeper penetration of the country will it be possible to decide whether officials who were left behind may stay where they are or will be handed over to the Sonderkommandos. Preferably the latter should decide on this point..

p.25

As a matter of principle, in deciding the question whether ‘guilty or not guilty,’ the personal impression which the commissar makes of his mentality and attitude will have precedence over facts which may be unprovable.

(4) In cases 1 and 2, a short message (message form) about the incident will be sent :

(a) by divisional units to divisional headquarters (Intelligence Officer).

(b) by troops directly under the command of a corps, an army or an army group or a Panzer group, to the respective head-quarters (Intelligence Officer).

(5) None of the above-mentioned measures must obstruct the operations. Methodical searches and mopping-up actions, therefore, will not be carried out by the troops.

" II. In the Communications Zone

" Commissars who are arrested in the communications zone on account of a doubtful attitude will be handed over to the Einsatzgruppen and/or Einsatzkommandos of the Security Police (Security Service).

"III. Limitations of Courts-Martial and Summary Courts

" The courts-martial and summary courts of the regimental and other commanders must not be entrusted with the execution of the measures as per I and II."

On 8th June, 1941, von Brauchitsch sent out a supplement of two additional clauses to be added to the original, viz., to I, Number 1,

" Action taken against a political commissar must be based on the fact that the person in question has shown by a special, recognisable act or attitude that he opposes or will in future oppose the Wehrmacht."

to I, Number 2,

" Political commissars attached to the troops should be segregated and dealt with by order of an oficer, inconspicuously and outside the proper battle zone."

On 24th May, 1941, however, von Brauchitsch formulated the Maintenance of Discipline order, in which as a supplement to the Fuehrer Order it is said :

" Subject : Treatment of Enemy Civilians and Criminal Acts of t r: Members of the Wehrmacht against Enemy Civilians.

Attached Fuehrer decree is (hereby) announced. It is to be distributed in writing down to the commanders with jurisdiction of their own ; beyond that, the principles contained in it are to be made known orally.

‘"Supplements to I :

" I expect that all counter intelligence measures of the troops will be carried out energetically, for their own security and the speedy pacification of the territory won. It will be necessary to take into account the

p.26

variety of ethnic strains within the population, its overall attitude, and the degree to which they have been stirred up.

" Movement and combat against the enemy’s armed forces are the real tasks of the troops. It demands the fullest concentration and the highest effort of all forces. This task must not be jeopardized in any place. Therefore, in general, special search and mopping-up operations will be out of question for the combat troops.

" The directives of the Fuehrer concern serious cases of rebellion, in which the most severe measures are required.

" Criminal acts of a minor nature are, always in accordance with the combat situation, to be punished according to detailed orders from an officer (if possible, a post commander) by resorting to provisional measures (for instance), temporary detention at reduced rations, roping-up on a tree, assignment to labour).

" The C.-in-C.‘s of the Army Groups are requested to obtain my approval prior to the re-instatement of Wehrmacht jurisdiction in the pacified territories. The C.-in-C.‘s of the Armies are expected to make suggestions in this respect in time.

" Special instructions will be issued about the treatment to be given to political dignitaries.

" Supplements to II :

" Under all circumstances it will remain the duty of all superiors to prevent arbitrary excesses of individual members of the Army and to prevent in time the troops becoming unmanageable. It must not come to it that the individual soldier commits or omits any act he thinks proper toward the indigenous population ; he must rather feel that in every case he is bound by the orders of his officers. I consider it very important that this be clearly understood down to the lowest unit. Timely action by every officer, especially every company commander, etc., must help to maintain discipline, the basis of our successes.

" Occurrences with regard to ‘ I ’ and ‘ II,’ and which are of special importance, are to be reported by the troops to the OKH as special 9 events.

(Signed) VON BRAUCHITSCH

There were 340 copies of this order, which, as noted, had attached a copy of the Fuehrer Order. This apparently was given wide distribution, although the original Fuehrer Order had a very limited distribution.

It was claimed by the Defence that the Maintenance of Discipline order was conceived by von Brauchitsch as a means of sabotaging the Hitler order, but it will be noted that in the quoted part of Halder’s diary he had Hitler saying, " This need not mean that the troops get out of hand."

The record contains a large number of reports showing the execution of commissars by units subordinate to various of the accused.

The evidence showed that the accused von Leeb was present at the meeting held by Hitler in March, 1941, when the proposed extermination of the

p.27

commissars was announced. Von Leeb had considered this to be in violation of International Law and also to be unwise in that it tended to defeat its own purpose. He had lodged a protest with von Brauchitsch who had assured him that he would do all he could to prevent the issuance of the order. Nevertheless the order was later issued by the OKW. Not only the accused von Leeb as Commander of Army Group North, but also von Bock of Army Group Centre and von Rundstedt of Army Group South were opposed to the order. When the order was issued, it was directed by the OKW to the armies in these three groups. In other words, the Army Group had nothing to do with the passing on of this order to subordinate units beyond the administrative functions of forwarding it to them. It was also established that the accused von Leeb had discussed this order with his subordinate commanders and let them know of his opposition to it. He had also drawn attention to the Maintenance of Discipline Order issued by von Brauchitsch in an effort to thwart as far as he could the enforcement of the Commissar Order. It was clear from the evidence that the accused von Leeb had protested against the order in every way short of open and defiant refusal to obey it. In spite of his attitude reports of units in the subordinate commands indicated that these commanders had permitted the enforcement of this order and that many of these commissars had been murdered.

As to the accused von Kuechler the evidence showed that he, as commander of the 18th Army, had received this order directly from the OKW together with the von Brauchitsch Maintenance of Discipline Order. He had passed on the Commissar Order to subordinate commanders. Von Kuechler had also attended the above-mentioned meeting with Hitler in March, 1941, and knew of the impending war of ideology or extermination. He testified that he had been opposed to the order, but the evidence in this respect was rather contradictory. The fact remained that he had distributed the order and that it had been enforced by units subordinate to him in the 18th Army. Many reports were made by these units showing that commissars were being executed by them.

The accused Hoth was assigned to Army Group Centre for the war against Russia. He remained as commander of Panzer Group 3 until the 10th October, 1941, when he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 17th Army attached to Army Group South. On 15th May, 1942, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 4th Panzer Army in which position he remained until he was transferred to the Fuehrer Reserve in October, 1943. The accused Hoth had also attended the meeting with Hitler in March, 1941. He had received the order from his superior von Brauchitsch and testified that he had simply passed it down without emphasizing it or attempting to mitigate its effect. He did not think that Hitler would ask his commanders to do anything wrong and in any case a directive from Hitler superseded in his opinion Section 48 of the German Military Penal Code which provides that an officer need not carry out an order that is clearly criminal on its face and commits a criminal act if he so does. Numerous reports submitted by his subordinate units indicated that hundreds of commissars had been executed. It was established that several of these reports were seen and signed by the accused Hoth. The evidence left no

p.28

doubt that the Commissar Order had been passed down by Hoth and that it had, with his knowledge and approval, been ruthlessly carried out by units subordinate to him.

The accused Reinhardt entered the Russian campaign as Commanding-General of the 41st Panzer Corps subordinated to Army Group North. The evidence showed that he had received the Commissar Order and had communicated it orally to his Divisional Commanders. He testified that when he transmitted it to his divisions, he had directed orally that it was not to be carried out, but the evidence on this point was unclear and conflicting. It was established that he had passed down the order and many reports showed that hundreds of commissars had been executed by his subordinate units in circumstances which clearly imputed knowledge on his part.

The evidence showed that the Commissar Order was received by the accused von Salmuth while he was Commanding General of the XXXth Army Corps. It was shown that it was distributed to subordinate units by him. Von Salmuth testified that he rejected the order and that he had acquainted his divisional commanders with his objections. The evidence did not establish that the order was ever carried out within the XXXth Army Group while it was under the command of the accused.

The accused Hollidt had, as commander of the 50th Infantry Division, received the Commando Order or a similar order in writing. He testified that he had instructed his regimental commanders not to comply with this order.

The only two reports relied upon in evidence as to such executions were ambiguous and unclear and did not suffice to establish any criminal responsibility on his part.

The accused von Roques admitted that he learned of the Commando Order in June or July, 1941. At that time he was Commander of the Rear Area of Army Group South. Later he became Commander of the Rear Area of Army Group A (Caucasus). He denied that he had passed down the order but the evidence on this point was conflicting. There was, however, overwhelming evidence to show that the order had been given a very extensive. implementation in his territory. Commissars were regularly shot with his knowledge and he took no action as a result. Numerous orders and reports established that thousands of so-called guerrillas, functionaries and Jews had been executed within his area according to the Commissar Order in circumstances which could leave no doubt that they were carried out with the knowledge, connivance or approval of the accused.

The accused Reinecke was, at the outbreak of the war, Chief of the Genera1 Wehrmacht Office (AWA) and remained so until the end of the war. One of the most important sub-sections of this office was that of prisoner-of-war affairs. The evidence established that the accused had general control and responsibility over these matters within the Reich, the General Government, the Reich Commissariat and other areas under the OKW. In June, 1942, the accused signed a decree termed " Policy regarding Commissars and Politruks " which provided for the " elimination " of Commissars and Politruks while within the General Government. It was clear from

p.29

evidence that the accused knew, participated in, and approved of the enforcement of the Commissar Order within his area of authority, in so far as it was applicable to prisoners of war.

The evidence showed that the accused Warlimont, as Chief of the Section of National Defence under the OKW, had taken a substantial part in the preliminary and final phases of the drafting of the Commissar Order. Although it was clear that the idea for the murder of prisoners of war, etc., in the name of ideological warfare did not originate with the accused, the evidence established that he contributed his part to moulding it into its final form. It was distributed " by order " under his signature. There was nothing to indicate that those contributions which he made in any way softened its harshness.

The accused Woehler, as Chief of Staff of the 11th Army, knew of the receipt of the Commissar Order. The evidence did not, however, establish any participation on his part in its transmittal to the subordinate units. He also knew of its enforcement, but as Chief of Staff he had no command authority over subordinate units. Neither did he have any executive power. The evidence failed to show any personal connection on his part with the passing down or execution of the order.

The accused Lehmann was a doctor of law. In July, 1938, he became Chief of the Legal Department of the OKW, which position he held until the capitulation of Germany. The only connection which he was shown by the evidence to have had with the issuance of the Commissar Order, was an immaterial change in the wording of Section 3 as to courts-martial. He had made no material contribution to the preparatory or final drafting of that order.

The accused Sperrle and Schniewind were not involved in, and not charged in connection with, the issuance or implementation of the Commissar Order.

(c) Evidence with Particular Reference to the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order

The so-called Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order was issued by Keitel on 13th May, 1941, as " Decree on Exercising Military Jurisdiction in the Area of Barbarossa and Special Measures by the Troops," and reads as follows :

" The Wehrmacht’s application of its laws (Wehrmachtsgerichtsbarkeit) place at maintaining discipline.

" The vast extent of the operational areas in the East, the fighting methods necessitated thereby and the peculiarity of the enemy give the Wehrmacht courts jobs which-in view of their limited personnel-they can only solve during war operations and until some degree of pacification has been obtained in the conquered area if they limit themselves at first to their main task.

" This is possible only if the troops themselves oppose ruthlessly any threat from the enemy population.

" For these reasons herewith the following is ordered for the area ‘ Barbarossa ’ (area of operations, army group rear area, and area of political administration)

p.30

I

" Treatment of Crimes committed by Enemy Civilians

" (1) Until further order the military courts and the courts-martial will not be competent for crimes committed by enemy civilians.

" (2) Franc-tireurs will be liquidated ruthlessly by the troops in combat or while fleeing.

" (3) Also all other attacks by enemy civilians against the Armed Forces, its members and auxiliaries will be suppressed on the spot by the troops with the most rigorous methods until the assailants are finished. (Niederkaempfen.)

" (4) Where such measures were not taken or at least were not possible, persons suspected of the act will be brought before an officer at once. This officer will decide whether they are to be shot.

" Against localities from which troops have been attacked in a deceitful or treacherous manner, collective coercive measures will be applied immediately upon the order of an officer of the rank of at least battalion, etc., commander, if the circumstances do not permit a quick identification of individual perpetrators.

" (5) It is strictly forbidden to keep suspects in custody in order to put them at the disposal of the courts after the reinstatement of jurisdiction over indigenous inhabitants.

" (6) The C.-in-C.s of the Army Groups can-by agreement with the competent commanders of the Luftwaffe and the Navy-reinstate jurisdiction of the Wehrmacht courts for civilians, in areas sufficiently pacified.

" For the area of’ the Political Administration this order will be given by the Chief of the OKW.

II

" Treatment of crimes committed against inhabitants by members of the Wehrmacht and its auxiliaries.

" (1) With regard to offences committed against enemy civilians by members of the Wehrmacht or by its auxiliaries, prosecution is not obligatory, even where the deed is at the same time a military crime or misdemeanour.

" (2) When judging such offences, it will be taken into consideration in any type of procedure that the collapse of Germany in 1918, the subsequent sufferings of the German people and the fight against National Socialism which cost the blood of innumerable followers of the movement were caused primarily by bolshevist influence and that no German has forgotten this fact.

" (3) Therefore the judiciary will decide in such case whether disciplinary punishment will be appropriate, or whether prosecution in court is necessary. In the case of offences against indigenous inhabitants the judiciary will order a prosecution before the military courts

p.31

only if the maintenance of discipline or the security of the Forces call for such a measure. This applies for instance to serious deeds due to lack of self-control in sexual matters, which originate from a criminal disposition and which indicate that the discipline of the troops is threatening to deteriorate seriously. Crimes which have resulted in senseless destruction of billets or stores or any other kind of captured material to the disadvantage of our Forces will be judged, as a rule, not less severely.

" The order to start investigation procedure requires in every single case the signature of the judicial authority.

" (4) Extreme caution is required in judging the credibility of statements made by enemy civilians.

III

"Responsibility of the Troop Commanders

" In so far as they are competent, it is the personal responsibility of the troop commanders to see to it :

" (I) that all officers of the units under their command are instructed in time and in the most emphatic manner about the principles set out under ‘ I ’ above ;

" (2) that their legal advisers are informed in time of these rules and of the verbal communications in which the political intentions of the Supreme Command (Fuehrung) were explained to the C.-in-C.s.

" (3) that only those sentences will be confirmed which correspond to the political intentions of the Supreme Command (Fuehrung).

IV

Protection as secret matter

" Once the camouflage is lifted this decree will merely have the classification of a Top Secret."

The order was thus divided into two main parts : first, it dispensed with court-martial jurisdiction over the civilian population and provided that civilians in the occupied areas would. be subjected to arbitrary punishment upon the decision of an officer. The second part provided that there was no obligation to prosecute members of the Wehrmacht or its auxiliaries who committed crimes against enemy civilians except in cases involving discipline which were restricted to certain types of offences.

The evidence showed that apart from a mass liquidation which occurred at Kowno, no liquidations within the accused von Leeb’s area of command had been brought to the attention of the accused. This action, apparently inspired by the Einsatzgtuppen, was carried out as a pogrom and was blamed upon a local self-defence organization of Latvians. Hearing of this action, the accused took action to prevent any recurrence of a similar nature within the area of the 18th Army where Kowno was located. The evidence failed to prove that the accused von Leeb knew that the German Government was carrying out an extermination programme or that the activities of the Einsatzgruppen were brought to his knowledge. The reports by

p.32

various officers of the Einsatzgruppen on these activities were not sent to von Leeb or through his headquarters but to their superiors in Berlin. Reports containing incidents of illegal executions by the SIPO in connection with security operations were made from subordinate units in von Leeb’s command to the Army Group Rear Areas, Armies, and Corps Headquarters. It was not established that these reports were transmitted to the headquarters of the Army Group North or reported to von Leeb by his staff. He did not receive or pass down the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order.

The evidence showed that the accused von Kuechler received the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order, that it was disseminated by him without any action on his part to prevent its criminal application and that it was carried out by units under his command. Units subordinate to him summarily executed civilians because they were Communists, gipsies, had an anti-German attitude, on suspicion of aiding partisans, for anti-German propaganda, for listening to Radio Moscow and for spreading rumours of atrocities, for refusing to work, and so on. Summary executions were held after an on-the-spot investigation by an officer, even down to a second lieutenant. Brutality was substituted for judicial process and suspicion took the place of proof. The evidence also showed that with his knowledge and approval some 230 insane and diseased women in an asylum were executed because they were considered " no longer objects with lives worth living according to German conception." On the other hand the evidence did not show any responsibility on the part of von Kuechler in connection with the extermination activities of Einsatzgruppe A within the area of his command.

The evidence established that the accused Hoth received and passed down this order without attaching any safeguards to it. The evidence also showed that the order with his knowledge and approval had been ruthlessly carried out by his subordinate units.

The accused Reinhardt was also shown to have passed down the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order to his subordinate commanders. On 25th February, 1942, he gave the following directions to his troops: " 6. If weapons are found in the possession of partisans or their partisan activity seems quite obvious, the partisans are to be shot or hung by order of an officer . . . Similar treatment should be given to inhabitants who supported partisans." On 31st. July, 1942, he signed an order which, among other things, stated : " the death sentence may be imposed on every tenth man if the ringleader or the especially guilty person cannot be apprehended." These and a number of other orders showed that the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order had been carried out in the most ruthless way by units under the accused’s command, on his orders or with his knowledge or approval. Thousands of persons had been executed within his area of command according to this order.

There was not sufficient evidence to show that the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order had been transmitted by the accused von Salmuth. The evidence did show, however, that many illegal executions had been carried out by his subordinate units. Numerous reports showed that thousands of "partisans," " suspects " and " agents " had been liquidated. It was not quite clear from the evidence whether or not these executions were carried out according to the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order in particular but the evidence left no

p.33

doubt that they had been carried out with the knowledge, connivance or approval of the accused in close co-operation with all participating German agencies.

As to the accused von Roques, the evidence showed that he had passed this order down to his subordinate units. It also showed that he personally issued other harsh orders in implementation of the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order or pursuant to it, that numerous " suspects," being " partisans," had been executed without trial and that mass executions had taken place on his orders.

The evidence showed that the accused Warlimont in his capacity as Chief of the Section of National Defence of the OKW was connected with the formulation of the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order together with the accused Lehmann who was Chief of the Legal Department of the OKW. It was established that Lehmann on the 28th April, 1941, had prepared a draft of the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order on instructions from Keitel. His original proposal was not accepted but as a result of his discussions with the authorities concerned a final and fourth draft was submitted to Keitel which, with a few minor modifications, was issued over the signature of Keitel and became what was later known as the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order. It was apparent that the accused Lehmann’s idea, for good or evil, became a part of this order. His final draft contained, among other things, the provisions as to collective punishments, which left the door open to the decision of an officer of at least the rank of a battalion commander to impose such collective punishments as he saw fit. The evidence also showed that due to the influence of Lehmann a provision was finally inserted in the order to the effect that troops would dispose of all cases and that courts were to have no jurisdiction whatsoever, whereas General Mueller had urged that troops were to dispose of only those clear cases and that doubtful cases were to be left to the jurisdiction of the courts. In this decision the accused Lehmann was supported by the accused Warlimont. This provision, which did not derive from Hitler or Keitel, was one of the most serious parts of the order. It was clear from the evidence that the accused Lehmann became the main factor in determining the final form of the order.

As to the accused Otto Woehler it was shown by the evidence that the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order had been received by the 11th Army, but it failed to prove any criminal connection with its distribution on the part of the accused. On 5th September, 1941, however, an order was issued by the 11th Army signed, in pursuance of the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order, by Woehler as Chief of Staff. This order provided that civilians who are " sufficiently suspected " of certain offences are to be shot including boys and girls. Reports showed that these orders had been carried out.

The evidence did not establish that the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order was ever transmitted by the accused Hollidt. The order upon which the prosecution based its charge against the accused Hollidt in this respect was a drastic military order for the suppression of partisans and to secure the area of the 5th Infantry Division against guerrilla activities by the population. It may be inferred that this order was derived from the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order. By implementing this order the accused had, however, placed a limitation upon its enforcement to the effect that only those persons

p.34

who were proved by their own confession or by credible evidence to have been guerrillas were to be shot. The evidence did not establish any criminal responsibility on the part of the accused in connection with this order or the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order.

The evidence showed that the accused Schniewind did not see the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order before 20th May, 1941. At that time he was Chief of the Naval Command Office and Chief of Staff of the Navy War Staff, a department in the Naval Command Office. He relinquished this command on 12th June, 1941, and the evidence showed that the order was not passed down to subordinate units until 17th June, nearly a week after he had left his command.

The accused Sperrle was not charged with any criminal responsibility in connection with the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order. The evidence did not show that the accused Reinecke was particularly connected with the preparation, issuing or implementation of this order.

TRIAL OF WILHELM VON LEEB AND THIRTEEN OTHERS

UNITED STATES MILITARY TRIBUNAL, NUREMBERG,
30TH DECEMBER. 1947 - 28TH OCTOBER, 1948

Part IV

Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part VII Part VIII

Evidence with Particular Reference to the Commando Order
Evidence with Particular Reference to the Night and For Decree
Evidence with Particular Reference to Hostages and Reprisals
Evidence with Particular Reference to the Partisan Warfare
Evidence with Particular Reference to Crimes Committed against Prisoners of War
Evidence with Particular Reference to Alleged Acts of Looting, Pillage, Plunder and Spoliation

p.34

(d) Evidence with Particular Reference to the Commando Order

Following the Dieppe raid, Hitler issued the following order on 18th October, 1942 :

" TOP SECRET

" (1) For some time our enemies have been using in their warfare methods which are outside the international Geneva Conventions. Especially brutal and treacherous is the behaviour of the so-called commandos, who, as is established, are partially recruited even from freed criminals in enemy countries. From captured orders it is divulged that they are directed not only to shackle prisoners, but also to kill defenceless prisoners on the spot at the moment in which they believe that the latter as prisoners represent a burden in the further pursuit of their purposes or could otherwise be a hindrance. Finally, orders have been found in which the killing of prisoners has been demanded in principle.

" (2) For this reason it was already announced in an addendum to the Armed Forces report of 7th October, 1942, that in the future, Germany, in the face of these sabotage troops of the British and their accomplices, will resort to the same procedure, i.e., that they will be ruthlessly mowed down by the German troops in combat, wherever they may appear.

" (3) I therefore order:
" From now on all enemies on so-called Commando Missions in Europe or Africa challenged by German troops, even if they are to all appearances soldiers in uniform or demolition troops, whether armed or unarmed, in battle or in flight, are to be slaughtered to the last man. It does not make any difference whether they are landed from ships and aeroplanes for their actions, or whether they are dropped by parachute. Even if these individuals, when found, should apparently be prepared to give themselves up, no pardon is to be granted them on principle. In each individual case full information is to be sent to the OKW for publication in the Report of the Military Forces

p.35

" (4) If individual members of such commandos, such as agents, saboteurs, etc., fall into the hands of the military forces by some other means, through the police in occupied territories for instance, they are to be handed over immediately to the SD. Any imprisonment under military guard, in PW stockades for instance, etc., is strictly prohibited, even if this is only intended for a short time.

" (5) This order does not’ apply to the treatment of any enemy soldiers who, in the course of normal hostilities (large-scale offensive actions, landing operations and airborne operations), are captured in open battle or give themselves up. Nor does this order apply to enemy soldiers falling into our hands after battles at sea, or enemy soldiers trying to save their lives by parachute after battles.

" (6) I will hold responsible under Military Law, for failing to carry out this order, all commanders and officers who either have neglected their duty of instructing the troops about this order, or acted against this order where it was to be executed."

The evidence showed that this order was issued after drafts and changes had been prepared largely by the accused Warlimont and Lehmann. On 7th October, 1942, Hitler made a radio speech in which it was stated :

" All terror and sabotage troops of the British and their accomplices, who do not act like soldiers but like bandits, have in future to be treated as such by the German troops, and they must be slaughtered ruthlessly in combat wherever they turn up."

It appeared that on 8th October, the accused Warlimont was instructed by Jodl to put the announcement in the form of a military order. The accused maintained that he was given detailed instructions with regard to the contents of the order and that it was his intention to sabotage it. There was, however, overwhelming evidence to show that the accused Warlimont had made a substantial contribution to its preparation and that he had speeded up the matter as much as he could. While it appeared that Hitler himself had drawn up the final order, the preparatory work carried out by Warlimont placed before Hitler the ideas which the accused had expressed in his various drafts and part of these were incorporated in the final order. The accused Lehmann’s activities in connection with the preparation of the Commando Order were subordinate to those of the accused Warlimont, but the evidence showed that, like Warlimont, the accused Lehmann had in his capacity as staff officer played an essential part in the criminal whole. Although it was not shown that he had contributed to the inherent viciousness of any of the particular provisions of this order, the evidence established that he was one of those responsible for its final production in the form in which it was transmitted to the army. Through the various protests made with respect to the issuing of this order, among others by Admiral Canaris, both Warlimont and Lehmann were shown to be fully aware of its illegal and criminal character.

The accused von Leeb was not involved in or connected with the Commando Order, as he resigned his command on 16th January, 1942.

The Commando Order was transmitted by the OKH directly to the armies as well as to the Army Group North of which the accused von Kuechler

p.36

was then in command. The evidence did not show, however, that von Kuechler put this order into the channels of command for subordinate units. The order was not particularly applicable in the eastern area and there was no evidence to show that it was carried out within his command.

The War diary of the 3rd Panzer Army of which the accused Reinhardt was at that time in command, showed that the Commando Order had been received by it. It was further shown that Reinhardt had passed the order down in the chain of command. That the 3rd Panzer Army considered the Commando Order of general application and therefore also applicable in the eastern areas was shown by entries into its War diary to the effect that, until otherwise advised, the order was to be carried out against men in uniform.

The evidence showed that this order as well as Hitler’s supplement to it were received by the accused von Salmuth. On the 25th October he transmitted this order for compliance with a covering letter. This letter was signed by his Chief of Staff, on behalf of the Commander-in-Chief. The accused explained that his Chief of Staff should not have signed the letter and was not authorized to do so, but the accused did nothing to repudiate this action, nor did he reprimand him in any way therefor.

It was clear from the evidence that the 17th Army Corps, of which the accused Hollidt was then in command, had received the Commando Order and that the accused had seen it. He stated that he saw no reason to pass on the order and the evidence did not show that he did so or that it was ever carried out by units under his command.

The Commando Order was distributed by SKL to subordinate units on 27th October, 1942. That was after the accused had become Commander of the Fleet. It was sent to his headquarters and his subordinate units. There was no evidence that it was implemented by him or enforced by any units subordinate to him.

The accused von Roques denied that he had distributed the Commando Order but orders issued by the Chief of Staff of the Rear Area Army Group South on the 9th August, 1941, as well as many reports from subordinate units showed that the Commando Order had in fact been implemented and that a great number of uniformed paratroopers had been shot as guerrillas or handed over to the SS for liquidation.

The evidence failed to show that the accused Reinecke had any connection with the execution of this order.

As to the accused Woehler the evidence showed that he, as Chief of Staff of the 11th Army, knew of the receipt and the enforcement of the Commando Order by the 11th Army. It did not, however, show any participation on his part in the transmittal of the order to subordinate units. He had no command authority over subordinate units, nor had he any executive power

p.37

The accused von Sperrle and Hoth were not involved in or charged in connection with the Commando Order.

(e) Evidence with Particular Reference to the Night and Fog Decree

The Night and Fog Decree was signed by Keitel on 7th December, 1941, and reads as follows :

" Since the opening of the Russian campaign, Communist elements and other anti-German circles have increased their assaults against the Reich and the occupation power in the occupied territories. The extent and the danger of these activities necessitate the most severe measures against the malefactors in order to intimidate them. To begin with one should proceed along according to the following directives.

I

" In case of criminal acts committed by non-German civilians and which are directed against the Reich or the occupation power endangering their safety or striking power, the death penalty is applicable in principle.

II

" Criminal acts contained in paragraph I will, in principle, be tried in the occupied territories only when it appears probable that death sentences are going to be passed against the offenders, or at least the main offenders, and if the trial and the execution of the death sentence can be carried out without delay. In other cases the offenders, or at least the main offenders, are to be taken to Germany.

III

" Offenders who are being taken to Germany are subject to court-martial procedure there only in case that particular military concerns should require this. German and foreign agencies will declare upon inquiries on such offenders that they were arrested and the state of the proceeding did not allow further information.

IV

" The Commanders-in-Chief in the occupied territories and the justiciaries, within their jurisdiction, will be personally held responsible for the execution of this decree.

V

" The Chief of the OKW will decide in which of the occupied territories this decree shall be applied. He is authorized to furnish explanations, supplements, and to issue directives for its execution. The Reich Minister of Justice will issue directives for the execution within his jurisdiction."

It appeared that this decree was signed by Keitel after prior negotiations with the accused Lehmann and Warlimont. The Night and Fog Decree involved legal questions and the evidence showed that, as in the case of the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order, the accused Lehmann was the major craftsman of its final form. It was the accused Lehmann who conducted the

p.38

negotiations whereby the Ministry of Justice was given the task of trying these persons charged under this decree before the Special Courts and later the People’s courts, wherein they were deprived of the rudimentary rights which defendants are usually accorded in the courts of civilized nations. (Footnote: See Vol. VI, p.

The accused Lehmann pleaded that the original ideas were Hitler’s but there seems to be no doubt from the evidence that Lehmann substantially contributed to the final product. The evidence did not suffice to show any criminal connection on the part of the accused Warlimont with this decree.

On the 1st July, 1944, the accused Warlimont sent the following teletype to the chief of the legal department of the OKW (WR), the accused Lehmann :

" Subject : Combating of enemy terrorists in the occupied territories.

" On account of events in Copenhagen, the Fuehrer has decreed that court-martial proceedings against civilians in the occupied territories must be discontinued with immediate effect. WR is requested to submit suggestions for the draft of an order concerning the treatment of enemy terrorists and saboteurs among the civilian population in the occupied territories by 2nd July, 2000 hours.

" Policies :

" Terror can be countered only by terror, but court-martial sentences only create martyrs and national heroes.

" If German units or individual soldiers are attacked in any manner, the commander of the unit and/or the individual soldier are bound to take counter measures independently and, in particular, to exterminate terrorists. Terrorists or saboteurs who are arrested later, must be turned over to the SD."

" The Fuehrer Decree on the treatment of enemy Kommandos, dated 18th October, 1942 . . . will remain in force as it does not apply to the civil population."

On the receipt of this order, the accused Lehmann proceeded to make effective this order, which, as it seems apparent from the evidence, bore fruit in the Terror and Sabotage Decree signed by Hitler on 30th July, 1944. In August, 1944, the accused participated in the drafting of the supplement order enlarging the scope of the original decree.

None of the other accused were shown to have been involved in or were charged in connection with the issuance or execution of the Night and Fog Decree.

(f) Evidence with Particular Reference to Hostages and Reprisals

The evidence showed that in the instances of so-called hostage takings and killings, and the so-called reprisal killings, which were at issue in the present trial, not even an attempt was made or even suggested as being necessary to meet any judicial safeguards or prerequisites which might possibly have been expected to be required by International Law.

p.39

On 16th September, 1941, Keitel issued the following directive pertaining to the suppression of the insurgent movement in occupied territories :

" Measures taken up to now to counteract this general communist insurgent movement have proven themselves to be inadequate. The Fuehrer now has ordered that the severest means are to be employed in order to break down this movement in the shortest time possible. Only in this manner, which has always been applied successfully in the history of the extension of power to great peoples can quiet be restored.

" The following directives are to be applied : (a) Each incident of insurrection against the German Wehrmacht, regardless of individual circumstances, must be assumed to be of communist origin. (b) In order to stop these intrigues at their inception, severest measures are to be applied immediately at the first appearance, in order to demonstrate the authority of the occupying power, and in order to prevent further progress. One must keep in mind that a human life frequently counts for naught in the affected countries and a deterring effect can only be achieved by unusual severity. In such case the death penalty for 50 to 100 communists must in general be deemed appropriate as retaliation for the life of a German soldier. The manner of execution must increase the deterrent effect. The reverse procedure-to proceed at first with threat of measures of increased severity as a deterrent does not correspond with these principles and is not to be applied."

The accused Warlimont was charged with participation in the formulation of this so-called Hostage Order. He admitted that he had prepared the original draft but claimed that part of it had been changed by someone without his knowledge. His explanation was, however, not sustained by the evidence. In any case it was established through the accused’s admission that one of the paragraphs in his original draft dealt with the number of people who were to be shot in atonement for each German soldier killed. In respect of that number the accused no longer remembered whether the original draft contained the figures 5-10 to one as the ratio established. He submitted his draft to Keitel and Keitel’s testimony before the International Military Tribunal regarding this matter merely showed that the ratio number submitted by him to Hitler had been changed by the latter from 5 and 10 to 50 and 100.

The evidence showed that on 1st October, 1941, the accused von Roques received an order from Army Group South which directed :

" (1) Arresting hostages and all men not residing in any villages near the railway line Kasatin-Fastow-Smela-Dnjepropetrowsk, possibly also near the line Alexandrija-Dnjepropetrowsk.

" (2) Hanging hostages at the railway tracks in case of new acts of sabotage.

" (3) In case of further acts of sabotage, complete evacuation of a strip 1-2 km. wide on either side of the railway line and firing on every civilian approaching the railway tracks."

The accused von Roques immediately passed this order down to his subordinate Feldkommandanturen. The evidence did not show that hostages had been shot in his area..

p.40

The evidence failed to show any criminal connection on the part of the accused Woehler with the hostage and reprisals orders and killings allegedly carried out within the area of the 11th Army while he was chief of staff.

None of the other accused were charged with criminal responsibility with or involved in these types of crimes.

(g) Evidence with Particular Reference to the Partisan Warfare

Among the numerous exhibits there were many documents dealing with the so-called partisan warfare. The evidence leaves the impression that anti-partisan warfare was used by the German Reich as a pretext for the extermination of thousands of innocent persons. In these respects Hitler seemed to have stated the policy adopted by the Wehrmacht when he said :

" . . . This partisan war again has some advantages for us ; it enables us to eradicate everyone who opposes us."

The accused claimed that they did only execute as partisans those who were operating as franc-tireurs and bandits and who failed to comply with the requirements of the rules of war and so did not constitute lawful belligerents. The evidence showed, however, that it was the policy of the Wehrmacht to create classes of partisans by definition in orders and directives and by construction and in this manner they brought within the list of those they described as partisans and shot or hanged not only franc-tireurs, in fact, but also many innocent categories. Those falling within the various classifications were executed summarily as partisans and so classified in the reports. That applied also to the so-called " partisan suspects " and " every civilian who impedes or incites others to impede the German Wehrmacht."

The Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order was only a part of this policy, and the evidence showed that so-called " partisans," " partisan suspects or sympathizers " and even Red Army soldiers in uniform had been summarily executed by the Wehrmacht or handed over to the SD or other agencies for liquidation more or less as a daily routine. These acts were shown to have been carried out with the knowledge, connivance or approval of the accused von Kuechler, Hoth, Reinhardt, von Salmuth, von Roques and Woehler within their respective areas of command. The evidence failed to show any criminal responsibility in this connection on part of the accused von Leeb, Hollidt and Schniewind. The accused Sperrle and Reinecke were not involved in or charged with this type of crime. As to the accused Warlimont and Lehmann the evidence showed that they had in a criminal way participated in the formulation of various of these orders. The accused Warlimont had also been charged with instituting reprisals particularly against the families of French officers, but although the evidence showed his inhumane attitude towards the innocent members of families of French officers, it failed to prove that he had participated in any criminal acts in this respect.

(h) Evidence with Particular Reference to Crimes Committed against Prisoners of War

The evidence showed that apart from the crimes involved in the execution of the Commissar Order, the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order, the Commando

p.41

Order and the Directives applicable to Partisan Warfare, in so far as these orders and directives concerned prisoners of war, a series of other crimes against prisoners of war were committed by the Wehrmacht.

(1) Murder and ill-treatment of Prisoners of War

The evidence showed that hundreds of thousands of Russian prisoners of war died from hunger, cold, lack of medical care, and ill-treatment. Later on in the war the German authorities apparently realized that, due to these deplorable conditions and ill-treatment, they had lost for Germany a tremendous source of manpower. Thereafter the treatment of prisoners of war was apparently to some extent based on the principle that it was better to work them to death than merely to let them die. The defence claimed many of these prisoners of war were in a deplorable condition when captured, due to lack of food, poor clothing, wounds, sickness and exhaustion and that these conditions counted for the death of a great number of them. The evidence showed, however, that the great mass of the Russian prisoners of war did not die because of their condition at the time of their capture. The claim of the defence that the German Army did not have sufficient food with which to maintain the prisoners of war, was not sustained by the evidence. It showed that during their progress through Russia the Germans had seized the food supplies of the people and there was no evidence to show that German soldiers at that time were dying from starvation. The evidence showed that in some cases there were epidemics of typhus in the German Army, but nothing to parallel the various epidemics which broke out in the Russian camps. The evidence also showed that, although it happened that soldiers in the German Army died in isolated cases from lack of medical supplies and medical attention, there were thousands of Russian prisoners of war who died from lack of attention. As to the treatment of Russian prisoners of war generally the evidence showed not only that humane treatment was not generally required of German soldiers in dealing with them, but that the directly opposite procedure was imposed upon them by superior orders.

The evidence disclosed numerous reports submitted by the accused von Kuechler’s subordinate units showing that a great number of illegal executions of Red Army soldiers had taken place. His own testimony indicated that he was aware of these reports. There was no evidence tending to show any corrective action on his part. It appeared that he not only tolerated such crimes but approved the execution of the orders concerned.

The evidence also showed that the accused von Kuechler as Commander-in-chief of the 18th Army was guilty of what the Tribunal regarded as criminal neglect of prisoners of war within his area of command. He testified that he had himself visited every prisoner-of-war camp in his area. Reports showed that in one camp " at present 100 men are dying daily." Another report showed that all the inmates of the camp East were expected to die within six months at the latest because the prisoners were treated badly when at work and could not survive on the rations allocated to them. On the other hand the evidence failed to show any such neglect on the part .of the accused while he was Commander-in-Chief of Army Group North..

p.42

The general conditions of prisoners of war within the accused Hoth’s 17th Army area was illustrated by a report submitted by the Oberquartiermeister of his Army on the 25th November, 1941. It reads in part as follows :

" The P.W.s who still are in the Army area at present cannot be evacuated, since they are being required for the activation of P.W.s-companies to be used for railway-maintenance and of P.W.s-construction battalions. . . .

" Since the beginning of operations altogether 236,636 P.W.s were taken by the elements of the Army up to 15th November, 1941. Moreover, 129,904 P.W.s have passed through the installations of the Army who were taken by units not tactically under the command of the Army, so that since the beginning of operations a total of 366,540 P.W.s were made and evacuated. Approximately 400 were shot. As for those who died of natural causes and those escaped, no records are available. . . .

" The rations ordered by decree OKH Gen.Std.H/Gen.Qu. IVa (III, 2) No. I/23728/41 sec., dated 21st October, 1941, could not, of course, be issued to the P.W.s even in a single case. Fat, cheese, soya-bean flour, jam and tea could not always be issued even to our own troops.

" These foodstuffs were replaced by millet, corn, sunflower kernels, buckwheat, in part by lentils and peas, partly also by bread.

" Distribution of the ordered rations, either in full or in part, was not possible simply because rations could not be supplied. The feeding of P.W.s has been possible only from stores found in the country. The cooking of the food causes additional difficulties since only in rare instances field kitchens were brought along by the P.W.s Even our own troops, as a result of the supply difficulties, had to live from the country. The rations due to them had to be cut down by a half for a longer period. . . . .

" Clothing is insufficient ; above all shoe-wear. Underwear, in part, is completely lacking. The insufficient clothing is particularly felt during labour employment in the winter.

" Conditions of the clothing situation can only be improved if all dispensable clothing items are being taken away from the P.W.s who are to be released in the rear area-of the army group, and placed at the disposal of the armies upon request.

" Repair-shops have been installed in the transit camps which are under the jurisdiction of the army. There is a shortage of material and tools. Deceased and shot persons will be buried without their clothes and the clothes used again. (Emphasis supplied). . . .

" In view of the present number of P.W.s, their housing is absolutely impossible. Brick-stoves will be built by the P.W.s themselves. . . .

" After being assigned for labour their health improves since these P.W.s receive supplementary rations. With the existing shortage of fat and albumen, mortality will increase during the winter months.

p.43

Many cases of pneumonia and severe intestinal diseases have occurred. At the evacuation of the huge numbers of P.W.s taken in the battle east of Kiev, where under the worst weather conditions only part of the P.W.s could be sheltered in sheds, one per cent. died each day."

Not all of these conditions could be attributed to Hoth, but as to many of them the evidence left no doubt that they involved the responsibility of this accused. This applied to the neglect that continued after he assumed command in that he held them for labour under such conditions. The evidence also showed that GPU soldiers and " four extremely suspect Red Army men " had been shot by his subordinate units after capture and that prisoners of war had been used as shield for German troops. These acts had been reported to the accused and the reports showed that the killing of prisoners of war for the reasons stated were not mere excesses, but were in accordance with an approved policy. The accused Hoth had taken no steps to counteract these acts.

Reports from units subordinate to the accused Reinhardt shawed the hanging of two former Russian soldiers for being friendly to partisans ; the shooting of four Russian prisoners for planning to escape, and of six prisoners of war who had stolen arms and ammunition and tried to escape ; and the shooting of three prisoners of war who could not be removed under the eye of the enemy. It appears that no steps were taken by the accused to counter-act such crimes.

On the 25th July, 1941, the OKW issued an order which was transmitted in the chain of command by the accused Salmuth’s XXX Corps. It provided that Red Army soldiers " are to be considered guerrillas as from a certain date, to be fixed in each area, and are to be treated as such." The accused von Salmuth was responsible for its transmittal. On the 21st November, 1941, the accused transmitted an order concerning partisans which provided that " every dispersed soldier who is found in the possession of arms in the region of the XXXth AK is to be shot immediately." This order was executed within the command of the accused. Numerous reports from his area of command showed an excessive number of deaths by shooting and otherwise among prisoners of war in circumstances which in the Tribunal’s opinion left no doubt that the accused were aware of and criminally responsible for these excesses.

The accused von Roques admitted having read the following report dated 15th October, 1941, from the 24th Infantry Division which was under his command :

" Devoting every effort to the task, the removal of prisoners proceeds according to order. Insubordination, attempts to escape, and exhaustion of prisoners make the march very difficult. Already there are over 1,000 dead following executions by shooting and exhaustion. In Alexandrija no preparations have been made by PW transit camp 182 for the permanent accommodation of 20,000. Novoukrainka, allegedly only for 10,000."

The evidence showed that the accused von Roques was still in command on the 15th October, 1941, for he had initialed the above-mentioned report

p.44

and signed an order, commanding the 24th Infantry Division for its participation in the movement of prisoners of war, under date of 26th October, 1941.

The accused Reinecke was the chief of the General Wehrmacht Office (AWA) under the OKW. One of the most important sub-sections of this office was that of Prisoner of War Affairs, and the evidence showed that the accused had the general control and responsibility over these affairs within the Reich, the General Government, the Reich Commissariat, and other areas under the OKW. Reinecke issued the overall directives to the prisoner-of-war camps within his jurisdiction with which they were bound to comply. Although these directives were always issued " by order " of his superior, Keitel, it was quite clear that the accused as chief of the AWA was not merely one who transcribed the orders of his superior and passed them on. The evidence showed that it was one of his major functions to draft and prepare orders for submission to Keitel for his approval or sign in his name orders in conformity with his known policy. Many of the orders signed by the accused did not bear Keitel’s initials showing that they were seen and approved by him, as was usually the procedure when Keitel was present. The evidence showed that the accused had made inspections himself of the prisoner-of-war camps within his jurisdiction and that the camps were constantly being inspected by his subordinates. There was overwhelming evidence to show that he was fully aware of the fact that prisoners of war were murdered in the camps within his jurisdiction and the deplorable conditions under which they lived and the ill-treatment accorded to them. Various infla

[Opa]

Since the historians I cited above (specialists in the field, who know the archives incl. the many Soviet arguments) do not agree with you (or Streit/Gerlach, who'd agree with you), the facts are not that onesided.
I see no reason to change my position.

[Igorn]

Opa,

Don't think that you are that important. It's not my goal to convince every Nazi that Germans committed horrible war crimes in Russia. I posted hundreds of documents and proven facts certified by the Nurnberg Tribunal with examples of particular crimes. From your side I didn’t see any evidence and proof that the facts presented by the Nurnberg Tribunal are false and Germans (Wehrmacht, SS, SD, Gestapo etc.) are not guilty for the war crimes in Russia. If, for example, murder of over 3,000,000 Russian POW in German concentration camps is not a war crime for you, you are really hopelessly sick my friend.


Slaughter on the Eastern Front
excerpted from the book
Blowback
America's recruitment of Nazis,
and its disastrous effect on our domestic and foreign policy
by Christopher Simpson
Collier / Macmillan, 1988

p12
Crimes against humanity, " states the Allied Control Council Law No. 10 of 1945, are "atrocities and offenses, including but not limited to murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, rape, or other inhuman acts committed against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds...."
This statute, together with earlier joint declarations by Allied governments concerning war crimes, became the formal foundation upon which the Nazis and their collaborators were tried after World War II. The Control Council law as written is comprehensive. It also includes prohibition of war crimes-including murder or deportation of civilian populations by occupying armies, plunder, killing of POWs or hostages, wanton destruction of cities or towns, etc.-and crimes against peace, meaning the launching of an invasion or waging an aggressive war in violation of treaties. Punishment for those convicted under the law range from deprivation of civil rights to the death penalty, depending upon the circumstances of the crime.'
While this declaration prohibits specific acts by individuals, it also implicitly acknowledges that the genocide and slavery perpetrated by Nazi Germany required a high degree of coordination. Criminal culpability explicitly extends to the administrative apparatus of the SS, to the Nazi party, and to the chiefs of German industry that profited from concentration camp labor. It includes pro-Fascist newspaper publishers who promoted racial hatred in the pages of their publications and the senior officers of Axis ministries and local governments that carried through the day-to-day business of mass murder and persecution.
This text uses the term war crimes to refer to those activities banned by Allied Control Council Law No. 10, such as murder, torture, deportation, or persecution on the basis of race or religion. A "war criminal," logically, is one who has committed those crimes. But as is well known, many persons directly responsible for the Holocaust against the Jews, the mass murder by starvation of millions of Soviet prisoners of war, and other atrocities have escaped and never been tried for their deeds. Therefore, any serious discussion of who can properly be called a "war criminal" must of necessity consider all the historical evidence of what took place during the war and the Holocaust-not just the relatively small number of cases that were formally tried before the International Tribunal at Nuremberg or other courts. The term war criminal, as used here, is narrowly defined, but it goes beyond simply those persons who have been convicted in a court of law. It applies to the responsible officials of the political parties, police organizations, or wartime Axis governments whose records of terror, extermination, and anti-Semitism are beyond dispute; to the individuals who voluntarily participated in genocide or mass murders; and, in a small number of cases, to propagandists or publicists who actively promoted persecution on the basis of race or religion.
To understand how certain people ... escaped punishment for their crimes, it is necessary to look briefly at one of the most prominent features of the Nazi political philosophy: extreme anticommunism and particularly fanatic hatred of the USSR.
The slaughter that followed the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 is without equal in world history. Next to the Nazis' operation of the anti-Jewish extermination centers at Treblinka, Sobibor, Birkenau, and elsewhere, the most terrible crimes of the entire war took place in name of anticommunism in the German-occupied territories on the eastern front. Civilian casualties in these areas were so enormous, so continuous, and so extreme that even counting the dead has proved impossible. Scholars have attempted to deduce the numbers of fatalities from captured German records, reports of Einsatzgruppen (mobile execution squads), prisoner of war (POW) camp mortality reports, and Soviet census statistics. The evidence indicates that between 3 and 4 million captured Soviet soldiers were intentionally starved to death in German POW camps between 1941 and 1944. About 1.3 million Jews were exterminated inside Nazi-occupied Soviet territory, mainly through mass shootings but also through gassing, deportation to extermination camps, looting and destruction of villages, hangings, and torture. The generally accepted figure for all Soviet war dead is 20 million human beings-about 15 percent of the population of the country at the time-but the destruction was so vast that even this number can be only an educated guess.
The Nazis deliberately used famine as a political weapon in the East, and it soon became the largest single killer. As the German invasion of the USSR began, General (later Field Marshal) Erich von Manstein ordered that "the Jewish-Bolshevist system must be exterminated.... In hostile cities, a large part of the population will have to starve." Nothing, Manstein continued, "may, out of a sense of mistaken humaneness, be distributed to prisoners or to the population-unless they are in the service of the German Wehrmacht."*
[* Other features of military regulations promulgated by Manstein on the eve of the war include orders for the immediate liquidation of all captured Soviet political officers or leaders, summary executions for civilians who 'participate or want to participate' in resistance to German troops, and "collective measures of force", which soon came to mean murder of entire populations of villages, including children-to punish hamlets in which 'malicious attacks [against the Wehrmacht] of any kind whatsoever' had taken place. German soldiers who had committed what would otherwise be crimes under Germany s own military code were not to be prosecuted if their acts had taken place "out of bitterness against . . . carriers of the Jewish-Bolshevik [sic] system.Manstein later claimed at his trial for war crimes that the starvation order had escaped my memory entirely. He was convicted by a British tribunal and sentenced to eighteen years in prison, but he obtained release in 1952 after serving fewer than three years of his term. The former field marshal eventually became an adviser to the West German Defense Ministry.]
This was a war not only of conquest but of extermination. Entire regions of the USSR were to be cleared of the existing Communist apparatus and of Slavic "subhumans" to make way for settlement by "Aryan pioneers." Above all, it was believed necessary to conduct an ideological war to wipe out the "Jewish-Bolshevist plague" and those who were its "carriers."
p15
Hitler's high command carefully planned the extermination campaign on the eastern front, drawing up directives for mass killings l and distributing them to Wehrmacht and SS commanders. They established special SS teams devoted exclusively to mass murder- the Einsatzgruppen and their subgroups, the Sonderkommandos and Einsatzkommandos-and set up liaison between the killing teams and the army commanders at the front to ensure that the killing teams received the necessary intelligence and logistical support. The SS carefully tabulated the results of the carnage as it took place, wrote it up, and sent word back to Berlin. Teams of inspectors and experts (among them men who were later employed as experts on Soviet affairs by U.S. intelligence agencies) traveled the eastern front throughout the war to make sure the exterminations or confiscations of food from occupied territories were going properly and were being carried out, as one Einsatzgruppe leader was to testify at Nuremberg, in a manner which was "humane under the circumstances."What has since come to be termed "political warfare"-that is, the use of propaganda, sabotage, and collaborators to undermine an enemy's will to fight-played an important role in German strategy from the beginning of the conflict. Specialized Nazi-trained propaganda and terror teams made up of native collaborators were among the first units that marched with the German armies across Europe.
25
The collaborationist troops of the eastern front were ... integral part of German strategy in the East and deeply involved in Nazi efforts to exterminate the Jews. The Western powers recognized this fact during the war. Collaborators captured by Western forces were treated as prisoners of war, and many were turned over to the USSR as traitors and suspected war criminals in the first months after Germany's surrender. The predominant opinion in the U.S. command at war's end was that it was now up to the USSR to decide what to do with the Nazis' eastern troops and other traitors, just as it was up to the Americans to decide what to do with Tokyo Rose and similar captured defectors from this country.
But a parallel development that would soon have a powerful impact on how Axis POWs were treated in the West was taking `. place. There was at the time in American hands another group of the Axis prisoners, who, unlike the collaborators from the East, were regarded as quite valuable: scientists who had put their skills to work for the Nazi cause.
All the major powers considered German scientists part of the booty of war. The Americans, British, and Soviets each had established special teams that concentrated on the capture and preservation of German laboratories, industrial patents, and similar useful E hardware of the modern age. Scientists were generally regarded as another technical asset to be appropriated.
The United States and Great Britain jointly created a Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee (CIOS) to coordinate their efforts to seize particularly valuable targets. Actual raids were carried out by subordinate teams designated by a letter, like the "S Force" (also known as the "Sugar Force" in cable traffic) in Italy, the "T Force" in France, Holland, and Germany, and so on. These units had only minimal armed strength, but they traveled complete with accomplished linguists, Western scientists, and police specialists who permitted them to identify rapidly and capture useful experts and materials.
The stakes in the search for the scientific expertise of Germany were high. The single most important American strike force, for example, was the Alsos raiding team, which targeted Axis atomic research, uranium stockpiles, and nuclear scientists, as well as Nazi chemical and biological warfare research. The commander of this assignment was U.S. Army Colonel Boris Pash, who had previously been security chief of the Manhattan Project-the United States' atomic bomb development program-and who later played an important role in highly secret U.S. covert action programs. Pash succeeded brilliantly in his mission, seizing top German scientists and more than 70,000 tons of Axis uranium ore and radium products. The uranium taken during these raids was eventually shipped to the United States and incorporated in U.S. atomic weapons.'
The U.S. government's utilitarian approach to dealing with German science and scientists, however, proved to be the point of the wedge that eventually helped split American resolve to deal harshly with Nazi criminals, including the captured collaborators who had served on the eastern front. It is clear in hindsight that the Americans in charge of exploiting German specialists captured through Alsos and similar programs became pioneers of the methods later used to bring other Nazis and collaborators into this country. Equally important, the philosophical concepts and psychological rationalizations expressed by U.S. officials in dealing with the German experts were gradually stretched to cover utilization of almost any anti-Communist, regardless of what he or she had done during the war.

Best Regards from Russia,

[Igorn]

Pls. find below a very interesting article of Wolfgand Weber.


The debate in Germany over the crimes of Hitler’s Wehrmacht
Part 1
By Wolfgang Weber
19 September 2001

This is the first part of a two-part article on the debate in Germany surrounding an exhibit on the crimes of the German army (Wehrmacht) under the Nazis. The second part will be posted Thursday, September 20.
Nearly sixty years after Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, an intense public debate has broken out in Germany over the role played by the German army (Wehrmacht) during the Second World War. This debate was sparked in 1995 by a touring exhibit entitled The War of Extermination: Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941-44. The exhibit was authored and organised by the historian and publicist Hannes Heer, a member of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. Over a period of four years it attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors in many different cities. At the same time the exhibit was subjected to a heavy barrage of right-wing attacks, until the financier and head of the Hamburg Institute, Jan Phillip Reemtsma, finally closed it, sacked Hannes Heer and announced the opening of a new exhibit on the same theme, but with a completely different perspective, to take place later this year.
What is the controversy about?
The exhibit was preceded by a research project that examined the role played by the Wehrmacht in the war of extermination carried out during the Second World War against the Jews and entire populations within the Soviet Union, the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Of the participating historians, some were affiliated with the Hamburg Institute for Social Research, some with the Research Office for Military History in Freiburg and Potsdam, and some with British, American and other foreign universities.

The myth of the “clean Wehrmacht”

Extensive and meticulous research was carried out in many private and state-owned archives in Germany, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and countless letters and photo albums of former members of the Wehrmacht were evaluated. The results, published in 1995 in the book The War of Extermination: Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941-44 [Hannes Heer/Klaus Naumann (editors): Vernichtungskrieg: Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941-1994, Verlag Hamburger Edition, Hamburg, 1995], can be summarised as follows:
1. The Wehrmacht led a war of extermination in Poland, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union, aimed at creating “living space ( Lebensraum) in the East” by “liquidating the Jewish-Bolshevik intelligentsia” and murdering the Slavic population, all Jews and other “inferior races”.
2. The Wehrmacht was not a “misused tool”, but an integral part of the fascist regime. Not only the SS and the Gestapo, but also the Wehrmacht, its generals and thousands of officers and soldiers were active accomplices of the Holocaust.
3. In total, about 10 million people were killed by the Wehrmacht —not in the course of combat at the front, but in mass shootings, executions, and the burning of villages, towns and entire regions.
4. The myth of the “resistance led by the Men of July 20th” is based on lies. The opposition by a group of German army officers, who half-heartedly and unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944, only to be later executed themselves, was based on differences with Hitler on how to win the war, or how to end it with as little loss and social disruption as possible. So-called “resistance fighters” like Arthur Nebe or General von Trescow were, in fact, notorious mass murderers and organisers of the Holocaust themselves or, like General Graf von der Schulenberg, men who provided justifications and orders for the mass execution of civilians by the Wehrmacht.
Backed by a wealth of material, the book revealed in detail the historical facts concerning these events. It laid bare the mechanism of command for this butchery, as well as the different groups of perpetrators and various operational regions, e.g., Serbia, White Russia, Latvia, Greece.
In so doing, the book and the original exhibit it fostered destroyed one of the ideological cornerstones of post-war German politics: the legend of the “clean Wehrmacht”. This thesis, circulated by historians as well as generals, politicians and publicists, maintains that the Wehrmacht had nothing to do with the genocide against the Jews or other Nazi crimes. Instead, it is claimed, the Wehrmacht was merely suffused with a military sense of duty, “in itself, an honourable attitude” which was abused by the Nazis.
The defenders of the Wehrmacht go even further and maintain that if there was any effective resistance to Hitler, it came from the leadership of the Wehrmacht itself and such men as the group of July 20. In the 1950s this legend helped overcome popular protests and resistance to the rearming of the post-war German army (Bundeswehr). It also made it easier for the Bundeswehr to seamlessly take up Wehrmacht traditions and reactivate its old officer corps.
Following publication of Crimes of the Wehrmacht, the results of the research were overwhelmingly approved by experts, but mostly ignored by the media. It was only after the results were made accessible to a wider public in the touring exhibit (including 1,400 photographs) that they provoked a sensation, and much indignation.
This was not so surprising in light of the fact that the real role played by the Wehrmacht was being exposed and made a major issue at the very time the federal government and the Bundeswehr were preparing for military action in the Balkans for the first time since World War Two. Thus, there were pressing contemporary reasons to attach great importance to the defence of the Wehrmacht legend. The overt shift from national defence to the defence of geo-strategic interests in faraway countries, the restructuring of the Bundeswehr along the lines of a well-equipped army ready for combat anywhere in the world—all this was already being discussed and partly implemented in the 1990s.
Government, war veterans and right-wing rabble in lock-step
The reaction from the highest political and military circles in Germany was unmistakable, although at first these forces preferred to work behind the scenes. At the instigation of the government of Christian Democratic (CDU) Chancellor Helmut Kohl, an invitation by the Historical Institute in Warsaw to show the exhibit in Poland was withdrawn; the same kind of pressure was unsuccessfully exerted on the Goethe institute in New York.
The minister of defence at the time, Volker Rühe (CDU), banned members of the armed forces from participating in “events taking place within the framework of the exhibit”, for example, panel discussions, and ordered that “members of the Office for the Research of Military History are not to take part in discussions on the exhibit.” This measure was aimed at historians like Manfred Messerschmidt and Wolfram Wette, who had participated in the research project and the organisation of the exhibit.
Rühe’s successor, Social Democrat (SPD) Rudolf Scharping, expressly confirmed both directives. He also stressed that regardless of the revelations in the exhibit, “The men of the circle of the July 20th resistance were an essential element of Bundeswehr tradition.”
Soon, however, attacks on the exhibit appeared in numerous TV programmes and newspaper commentaries. War veterans such as the right-wing CDU politician Alfred Dregger and the former vice-chairman of the Free Democratic Party (FPD) and ex- Wehrmacht officer Erich Mende began making appearances on TV talk shows, alongside ex-chancellor Helmut Schmidt (SPD), to defend the “besmirched honour of the Wehrmacht”.
In unison they declared that the exhibition was “not serious”, that it defamed the Wehrmacht with “sweeping judgements” and therefore also besmirched the traditions of the Bundeswehr. They claimed that the exhibit showed only “half of the truth”. They insisted that they themselves as former officers, and their units, had nothing to do with the crimes of the Nazis.
Although Hannes Heer and his collaborators could prove in detail that, in fact, the units in question had participated in war crimes, this did not prevent the media from repeatedly providing a platform for these propagators of a lie.
The propaganda included claims by officers of Hitler’s regime that the exhibit constituted a wholesale condemnation of all soldiers of the Wehrmacht. This charge was not aimed at defending ordinary soldiers who were forced into the army and reluctantly went to war—soldiers who morally distanced themselves from the crimes of their officers and fellow soldiers under conditions where any sort of physical resistance was practically impossible.
This is proven by the politics of these Wehrmacht defenders in the years following 1945. As long as they and their parties held the levers of power—whether it was the conservative CDU, the liberal FDP or the social-democratic SPD—they blocked the reversal of numerous wartime Wehrmacht court martial judgements against resistance fighters, deserters and those who refused to follow orders. On the contrary, they mobilised those social forces that even today regard the war against the Soviet Union as fully justified, and uphold it as an outstanding example of devotion to military duty.
This became especially clear at the beginning of 1997, when these reactionary elements were supported by Peter Gauweiler, a right-wing figure in the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), who attacked Hannes Heer and Jan Phillip Reemtsma in his characteristically filthy manner. Together with the daily papers Die Welt and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Gauweiler claimed that the exhibit and its defenders were part of a conspiracy of extreme left “red cells” within the Hamburg Institute for Social Research, the Office for the Research of Military History and various newspaper editorial boards.
When the exhibit opened in Munich, Gaulweiler organised a public wreath-laying at the grave of the unknown soldier, not far from where the exhibit was being held. The aim, he said, was to “defend the honour of the Wehrmacht”. With this action Gauweiler gave the go-ahead for a number of propaganda coups and provocations by the neo-fascist German National Party (NPD) and other right-wing organisations. These culminated in a bomb attack on the exhibit in Saarbrücken.
The initial result of this debate was to encourage even more people to visit the exhibit. Until its closure in autumn 1999, nearly one million people visited the exhibit in various German and European cities, showing their interest in a documentation of the most extensive war of extermination in human history. Most visitors were visibly shocked and upset by what they had seen.
When the attacks began Jan Phillip Reemtsma vehemently defended the aims and basic content of the exhibit, which he had financed in opposition to the right-wing rabble and their like-minded friends in established political parties and the press. When in 1997 the magazine Focus claimed that some of the photographs in the exhibit were faked, he successfully opposed this accusation in court.
Historians intervene in the battle
The tables turned when, in 1999, similar accusations were made by the magazine Der Spiegel—this time backed by the authority of several historians, research institutes and specialist journals.
At the same time, the Hungarian Krisztian Ungvary published a “quantitative and qualitative analysis” of the photographic material in the exhibit in the magazine History in Science and Teaching. In contrast to Musial, this “historian” did not waste time examining the historical events or presenting any kind of proof. Rather, he simply claimed that 90 percent of the exhibit’s photos did not show crimes of the Wehrmacht.
He justified this charge with the fact that the executions were often carried out by the police, SS and SD (Nazi Security Service) , as well as by Latvian and Ukrainian “helpers” and paramilitaries. His conclusion that the Wehrmacht could not be held responsible flies in the face of the fact that these executions could only have taken place in the presence and with the protection of the Wehrmacht, which in the main gave direct orders for the killings.
Ungvary also claimed that “normal combat” against partisans and other civil resistance groups did not constitute a crime on the part of the Wehrmacht. This kind of argumentation is, of course, identical to the line adopted by Nazi and Wehrmacht propaganda. Nonetheless, Ungvary was cited in the media as a “historian” and principal witness, whose credibility was enhanced by the fact that he came from Eastern Europe where the killings took place.

In November 1999 he announced the temporary closure of the exhibit until a commission of historians could examine the classification of the photographs and make a recommendation on its continuation. He invited the Polish critic Musial to be an adviser to the commission. He also cancelled the long-planned tour of the exhibit to the US, a censorship measure that drew protests from many renowned American historians, including Omer Bartov and Christopher Browning.

Best Regards from Russia,