Chapter XXVII: Part II: of this case (13)

THE PRESIDENT: Do you think you can go on with your statement and do the photographs after the adjournment? How long do you think the photographs will take?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I fully agree with you, Mr. President. I beg your permission to present evidence concerning the second part of the statement, namely, the mass annihilation by the German fascists of the citizens of the U.S.S.R., Poland, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia.

The mass extermination of peaceful populations of the Soviet Union and of the countries of Eastern Europe was carried out by the German fascist criminals everywhere, as can be seen from both the official orders and the reports about the carrying out of these executions. In this regard they had the following objectives in mind:

1. Physical elimination of those sections of the population which were capable of resistance; 2. For racial reasons, that is, for the materialization of racial theories inculcating hatred of mankind; 3. For purposes of retaliation; 4. Supposedly “for the struggle against the partisans” whom the German fascists could neither catch nor destroy, and for this reason they vented the full force of their retaliatory measures on the peaceful population.

The execution of children was a particularly cruel method of Hitlerite terrorism. The use especially of torture devices for killing children was one of the prime and most despicable characteristics of the Hitlerite terror regime in the temporarily occupied territory of the Soviet Union.

Immediately after the seizure of power by the fascists, Hermann Göring began to issue laws against vivisection. He pitied dogs, guinea pigs, and rabbits subjected to scientific experiment for the benefit of humanity. In confirmation I refer to Göring’s book _Speeches and Articles_ published in 1940 by Erich Gritzbach at Munich. (Document Number USSR-377). On Page 80 of this book we find Göring’s speech, “The Struggle Against Vivisection.” I shall not quote any lengthy extract from this book and shall only mention one sentence which testifies that for motives, so to speak, of love for animals, Hermann Göring widely exercised his right to intern human beings in concentration camps.

At a certain meeting of SS-Gruppenführer at Posen, as the Tribunal knows, Himmler stated, Document Number 1919-PS, “We Germans are the only people who treat animals kindly.”

But these criminals—from Himmler to Keitel—who sentimentally discussed the tortures of animals, persistently instructed their subordinates to exterminate children senselessly, inhumanly, and cruelly. At the meeting in question Himmler also stated:

“If anyone would come to me and say, ‘You cannot build antitank
trenches with children and women, it is inhuman since they will
die,’ I should reply, ‘You are the murderers of your own
blood.’”

Numerous investigations on the German fascist atrocities in the Soviet Union have shown without any doubt that on occasion of mass shootings many children have been thrown into the grave when still alive. In confirmation of these facts I am referring to official documents, “The German criminals threw into the grave children who were still alive.”

I invite the attention of the Tribunal to a document which has already been submitted by my colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, as Exhibit Number USSR-46. It is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of the German fascist invaders in the city and region of Orel. The Tribunal will find it on Page 334 of the document book, the last three lines of the page, and on Page 335. I quote:

“Those shot in the city were collected and thrown into ditches,
preferably in forest areas. In jail the executions took place as
follows: The men had to stand facing a wall while the gendarme
fired his pistol into the nape of their necks. The shot
penetrated the vital centers and death was instantaneous. In
most cases women had to lie face downward on the ground and the
gendarme shot them through the base of their neck.

“A second method was to herd people in groups into a ditch, with
their faces turned to one side. Then they were killed likewise
by shots in the nape of the neck with machine guns. In the
trenches corpses of children were discovered who, according to
the testimony of witnesses, had been buried alive.”

Furthermore, I refer to a document which has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-1, a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of the German fascist occupants in the area of Stavropol. I quote from Page 271 of the document book, Paragraph 3, beginning as follows:

“During the inspection of a ravine in the vicinity of Koltso
Hill and a distance of 250 meters from the high road. . . .”

I omit the next sentence.

“. . . a washed-out grave was discovered, 10 meters in depth,
from which protruded separate parts of human bodies. As from 26
to 29 July 1943, excavations were carried out at this spot and,
as a result, 130 corpses were exhumed. The legal-medical
examination proved that the corpse of a 4-months-old girl showed
no traces of violence. The child had been thrown alive into the
ditch where it perished from suffocation.”

I skip the next phrase and quote from the next paragraph:

“The autopsy performed on bodies of dead infants by the
legal-medical investigation proved that they had been thrown
into the ditch alive, together with their mothers who had been
shot. All the other corpses showed traces of torture.”

I will now refer to the verdict of the Military Tribunal of the 4th Ukrainian Front, which I had already submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-32.

THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps we had better break off.

[_The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours._]

_Afternoon Session_

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Have I your permission to continue?

THE PRESIDENT: Please do.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Continuing the presentation of evidence on atrocities of German fascist criminals with regard to children, I refer to the testimony of the witness, Bespalov, included in the document previously presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-32 (Document Number USSR-32). The members of the Tribunal will find the place which I refer to on Page 33, fifth paragraph of the document, Column 1 in the document book. Bespalov testified:

“At the end of June last year I myself saw up to 300 girls and
women brought on 10 to 12 trucks to the forest park. The
unfortunate women were throwing themselves from side to side,
weeping, tearing their hair, and rending their clothes. Many
fainted, but the German fascists paid no attention to this. By
kicks and beatings with rifle butts and sticks they forced them
to get up; the executioners themselves stripped and threw into
the pits, those who did not rise. Several girls—among them
children—tried to run away, but were killed.

“I saw how, after a burst of machine gun fire, some of the
women, swaying and helplessly flinging up their arms, staggered
toward the standing Germans with heart-rending cries. At this
time the Germans were shooting them with pistols. Maddened with
terror and grief, mothers clutched their children to their
breasts, running with terrible wails into the forest clearing,
seeking help.

“The Gestapo members snatched the children from them, seized
them by the arms or legs, and threw them alive into the pit;
when the mothers ran after them to the pit, they were shot.”

I quote one paragraph out of Exhibit Number USSR-9 (Document USSR-9), already presented to the Tribunal. This is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union of the crimes of the German fascist invaders in the city of Kiev. The members of the Tribunal will find this document on Page 238, second column of the text, sixth paragraph:

“On 29 September 1941 Hitler’s bandits drove thousands of the
peaceful Soviet citizens to the corner of Melnik and
Doktorovskaya Streets and from there to Baybe-yar, where they
shot them, after taking all their valuables from them.

“Citizens N. F. Petrenko and N. T. Gorbacheva, who lived near
Baybe-yar, stated that they had seen how the Germans threw
babies at the breast into graves and buried them alive with
their dead or wounded parents. One could see the surface of the
ground moving over the buried people who were still alive.”

These were not individual occurrences, but a systematic plan. This inhuman terror was practiced on children, since the chiefs of German fascism understood that this form of terrorism would be particularly frightful for the survivors. Compassion for the weak and the defenseless is an inalienable human trait. By applying their particularly barbarous methods to children, the German fascist criminals showed the rest of the population that there was no crime, no cruelty at which they would stop for the purpose of pacifying the occupied territories. Children did not simply share the fate of their parents. The so-called “actions” were frequently directed against the children themselves. They were taken forcibly from their parents, concentrated in one place, then murdered.

I refer to a very brief report of the Extraordinary State Commission, already submitted to the Tribunal, entitled, “Concerning the Crimes of the German Conspirators in Latvia.” The members of the Tribunal will find the place I refer to on Page 286, on the reverse side, in the second column of the document book, Paragraph 5. Here it states, and I quote:

“In the main jail in Riga they murdered over 2,000 children who
had been torn from their parents, and in the Salaspil Camp, more
than 3,000.”

From the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of the Hitlerites in Lithuania, the Tribunal will learn of the brutal methods employed by the Germans to separate children from their parents incarcerated in prisons, concentration camps, or ghettos—these methods usually preceded the murder of the children. This document has already been submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-7 (Document USSR-7) to the Tribunal. The members of the Tribunal will find the place referred to on Page 295, first column, sixth paragraph of the document book. I omit the first paragraph, which mentions the organization of the camp. This has no direct relation to children, and I begin with the second paragraph, which shows what was done with them:

“In the beginning of 1944 the Germans in this camp forcibly took
children from 6 to 12 years old and carried them off. An
inhabitant of the city of Kovno, Vladislav Blum, testified:

“‘Heart-rending scenes occurred under my eyes. The Germans took
the children away from their mothers and sent them, no one knows
where. Many children were shot together with their mothers.’

“On the walls of the camp buildings inscriptions were discovered
concerning the crimes of the Hitlerite monsters. Here are some
of them:

“‘Avenge us! Let the whole world know and understand how
savagely our children were exterminated! Our days are counted!
Farewell! Let the whole world know and let it not forget to
avenge our innocent children! Women of all the world, remember
and understand all the atrocities which befell our innocent
children in the 20th century! My child is already dead, I am
indifferent to everything!’”

Further, I refer to the document which has already been presented to the Tribunal under Document Number USSR-63. This is an official report on the torture and shooting of children in the Domachev children’s asylum of the Brest region in the Bielorussian S.S.R. The members of the Tribunal will find this document on the reverse side of Page 223, fifth paragraph, first column. I shall quote three or four paragraphs out of this document, omitting the remainder:

“By order of the German occupational authorities of the
district, the Chief of the Prokopchuk district ordered the
principal of the children’s home, A. P. Pavliuk, to poison a
sick 12-year-old child, Lena Renklach. After Pavliuk refused to
carry out the order, the child was shot by policemen in the
vicinity of the children’s home, allegedly ‘while trying to
escape.’

“In order to save the children from starvation and death, 11 of
them were distributed among the local population in 1942, and 16
children were taken by their relatives.”

And this was the further fate of those children. I continue with my quotation:

“On 23 September 1942, at 7 o’clock in the evening, a 5-ton
truck appeared in the yard of the children’s home, bringing six
armed Germans in military uniform. The group leader, named Max,
explained that the children would be taken to Brest and ordered
them to be placed in the truck. Fifty-five children and their
teacher, Grocholskaya, were placed in the truck. One girl,
9-year-old Tossia Schachmatova, succeeded in climbing out of the
truck and escaping. The remaining 54 and the teacher were driven
away in the truck in the direction of the station of Dubitz, 1½
kilometers from the village of Leplevka. The car stopped at a
frontier gun emplacement, 800 meters from the River West Bug.
The children were undressed—which was proved by the fact that
the children’s clothes were found in the truck after its return
to Domachev—and shot.”

I omit the remaining part of this official report. It has been proved by documents dealing with the shootings that in mass executions of children they were torn in half while still alive and thrown into the flames. To confirm this, I refer to the testimony of the witness, Hamaidas, a native of the village of Lisbenitzky, in the Lvov region, who was confined by the Germans in Yanov Camp at Lvov.

Hamaidas’ occupation in the camp consisted in burning the corpses of those who had been shot. At the same time, he was a witness to the mass shootings of the peaceful population—men, women, and children. The testimony of Hamaidas, together with other documents concerning the Lvov camps, has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-6(c) (Document USSR-6(c)); I quote two lines from the testimony of Hamaidas, from Page 55 of the document book, 11th line from the bottom of the page:

“I was a witness to such facts. The executioner would seize
children by the feet, tear them apart while they were still
alive, and throw them into the fire.”

Having shot the parents, the German murderers considered it unnecessary to waste ammunition on children. When they did not throw the children into the grave pits they often murdered them simply by hitting them with a heavy object or by pounding their heads against the ground. I refer, in confirmation of this, to the document already presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-6(c), in which are other documents on reports of legal-medical experts employed in the exhumation of corpses in Yanov Camp. I shall quote only two lines of the conclusion. The members of the Tribunal will find the place where I refer to the conclusion of the legal-medical experts on Yanov Camp on Page 330 of the document book, second paragraph at the top of the column, reverse of Page 330. I quote this brief excerpt:

“The executioners did not consider it necessary to waste
ammunition on children. They simply killed them by hitting them
over the head with a blunt instrument.

“Children were often cut in half with rusty saws and subjected
to other forms of torture.”

I ask the permission of the Court to read into the record only one paragraph from a note of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R., dated 27 April 1942. The members of the Tribunal will find the place to which I refer on Page 8, reverse side, second column, third paragraph:

“The invaders subjected children and adolescents to the most
brutal tortures. Among the 160 wounded and maimed children,
victims of the Hitlerite terror in the districts of the now
liberated Moscow region, undergoing treatment in the Russakov
Hospital in Moscow, there is, for instance, the case of a
14-year-old boy, Vanya Gromov, from the village of Novinki, who
had been strapped to a table by the Hitlerites and then had had
his right arm sawed off with a rusty saw. The Germans chopped
off both hands of 12-year-old Vanya Kryukov, of the village of
Kryukovo, in the Kursk region, and drove him, bleeding
profusely, toward the Soviet troops.”

I omit the rest of the quotation—two pages—since similar facts are related in the document which confirm the above—mentioned episodes.

Children were the first victims of carbon-monoxide poisoning in the German gas vans. In confirmation I refer to the material already submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-1 (Document USSR-1), which is the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union on the crimes of the German fascist occupiers in the Stavropol region. The members of the Tribunal will find that brief excerpt on Page 269 in the document book, Paragraph 4:

“It has been established that in December 1942, by order of the
chief of the Gestapo for the town of Mikoian-Schachar,
Oberleutnant Otto Weber, an extraordinarily cruel massacre was
carried out on Soviet children undergoing treatment for bone
tuberculosis in the sanatorium of the Teberda health resort.
Eyewitnesses to this crime, members of the sanatorium, medical
sister, S. E. Jvanova, and medical aide, Polypanova, have
testified as follows:

“Before the entrance of the first section of the sanatorium, on
22 December 1942, a German automobile drew up. Seven German
soldiers, who had arrived in the vehicle, dragged 54 seriously
sick children, ranging in age from 3 years upward, out of the
sanatorium (they were too ill to move and therefore were not
driven forcibly into the van) and stacked them in layers inside
the vehicle. They then closed the door, let in the
carbon-monoxide gas, and drove off from the sanatorium. An hour
later the vehicle returned to Teberda. All the children had
perished. They had been exterminated by the Germans and their
bodies thrown into the Teberda ravine near Gunachgir.”

Children were also drowned in the open sea. In confirmation, I refer to the document already submitted, Exhibit Number USSR-63 (Document USSR-63), on the “Indictment of German Atrocities in Sevastopol.” The members of the Tribunal will find the place I am referring to on the reverse side of Page 226, Paragraph 7, second column of the text:

“In addition to the mass shootings, the Hitlerites cruelly
drowned peaceful citizens in the open sea.

“Prisoner Corporal Friedrich Heile, of Troop Battalion 2-19 MKA,
Naval Transport Detachment, testified as follows:

“‘When I was in the port of Sevastopol, I saw large groups of
peaceful citizens, including women and children, brought to the
harbor by trucks. All the Russians were loaded on barges. Many
resisted. However, they were beaten and driven forcibly onto the
barges. About 3,000 people, all told, were loaded on. The barges
put out to sea. For a long time the crying was heard in the bay.
Several hours passed, and the barges slipped again into their
moorings. From the ships’ crews I found out that all the people
had been thrown overboard.’”

Heavy artillery fire was openly directed by the German fascist criminals against schools, children’s asylums, hospitals, and other children’s institutions in Leningrad. I present to the Tribunal the summary report of the Leningrad city commission for the investigation of German crimes. This report is being submitted to the Honorable Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-85 (Document Number USSR-85). I shall not quote any long passage from this report. I shall merely draw the Tribunal’s attention to the fact that on Page 347, Volume II, Paragraph 4, in the document book, the Judges may see for themselves the list of targets exposed to German artillery fire, which is testified to by the logs of the fighting units. The following are some of those targets, “Number 736, a school in Baburinsk Street; number 708, Institute for the Care of Mothers and Infants; number 192, Palace of Pioneers.”

I also shall take the liberty of quoting only a short excerpt from the testimony of the director of School Number 218, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 348, Volume II, first paragraph. The director of School Number 218, located at 13 Rubenstein Street, writes:

“On 18 May 1942, School Number 218 underwent artillery fire. A
12-year-old boy, Lenja Isarow, was killed. A little girl, Dona
Binamowa, turned white and moaned with pain. ‘Mummy, how can I
get along without my leg?’ she said. Leva Gendelev was bleeding
to death. He was given aid, but it was too late. He died in the
arms of his mother, calling out, ‘Accursed Hitler!’

“Djenia Kutareva, though seriously wounded, begged that his
father should not be disturbed because he suffered from heart
disease. The teacher and all the pupils assisted the victims.”

I conclude the quotation concerning Leningrad. I omit two pages of the text and draw the Tribunal’s attention to Page 355, Volume II, second column, Paragraph 6. Your Honors will find there a document submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-8 (Document Number USSR-8). This is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on “The Infamous Crimes of the German Government in Auschwitz.” I shall quote several short passages from the second report entitled, “Murderers of Children.” At the same time, however, I would ask Your Honors to pay special attention to Page 47 of the Auschwitz album (Exhibit Number USSR-30), as well as to Pages 48 and 49. The photographs on these pages clearly show how emaciated these children were. I omit the first paragraph, and I quote:

“Investigations have proved that the Germans completely sapped
the strength of children between 8 and 10 years of age, by
forcing them to do the same heavy work they gave to the adults.
Toil beyond their strength, beatings, and torture soon exhausted
the children—then they were killed.

“Ex-prisoner Jacob Gordon, a doctor from Vilna, testified:

“‘In the beginning of 1943 at Camp Birkenau 164 boys were taken
away to the hospital, where they were killed by injections of
carbolic acid in the heart.’

“Ex-prisoner Bakasch Waltraut of Düsseldorf, Germany, testified:

“‘In 1943 when we worked on the construction of a hedge
surrounding Crematorium Number 5, I myself saw SS men throw
several living children into bonfires.’”

Here is what some of the children, who were saved by the Red Army, themselves testify about the tortures to which they were subjected. I omit the next paragraph and ask the Tribunal, while I read, to refer to Page 50 of the photographic documents of Auschwitz. Here we find the photographs of a 12-year-old boy, Zihmlich, and a boy of 13, Mandel, and the Tribunal can see the deformation of these children from exposure to cold. I continue:

“A 9-year-old boy, Andrasz Lerintsiakosz, a native of the city
of Klez, Hungary, testified:

“‘After we had been driven to Block 22 of the camp, we were
beaten, mainly by German women who were put over us as guards.
They beat us with sticks. During my stay in the camp, Dr.
Mengele bled me very frequently. In November 1944 all the
children were transferred to Camp A, known as the Gypsy Camp.
During roll call it was discovered that one child was missing.
Thereupon, the leader of the women’s camp, Brandem, and her
assistant, Mendel, drove us all into the street at 1 o’clock in
the morning and left us standing there in the cold until noon.’”

I omit the next three paragraphs of the quotation, and I read into the record the last paragraph of this section:

“There were, among the 180 children liberated from Auschwitz and
examined by physicians, 52 under 8 years of age and 128 between
the ages of 8 and 15. All arrived in the camp in the second half
of 1944, that is, they spent between 3 to 6 months in the camp.
All 180 children underwent a medical examination, which
established that 72 suffered from tuberculosis of the lungs and
glands, 49 suffered from the consequences of malnutrition and
elementary dystrophy (complete exhaustion), and 31 from
frostbite.”

I submit to the Tribunal and request Your Honors to accept as evidence Exhibit Number USSR-92 (Document Number USSR-92). It is a directive from the Administration of Food and Agriculture, entitled, “Treatment of Pregnant Women of Non-Germanic Origin.” I refer this document to the Tribunal because, in their hatred of the Slav race, the German fascist criminals even attempted to murder babes in the womb. The members of the Tribunal will find the document on Page 362, in Volume II of the document book. I shall read two short paragraphs into the record. I quote:

“There has recently been a considerable increase in the birth
rate among women of non-Germanic origin. Difficulties have
arisen in consequence, not only in connection with the use of
these people for labor but, to a greater extent, with a danger
of a social-political nature, which should not be
underestimated.”

I omit one paragraph and quote further:

“The simplest method for overcoming these difficulties would be
to inform, as soon as possible, the institutions which employ
them for labor, of the pregnancy of the non-Germanic women.”

I draw your special attention to the last sentence, “These institutions must attempt to compel the women to get rid of their children by resorting to abortion.”

I conclude my quotation.

The analysis of the material connected with the Hitlerite terror in the countries of Eastern Europe is positive proof that the atrocities perpetrated on children will remain forever the most disgraceful page in the history of German fascism.

I request permission, Your Honor, to present now the photographic documentation which, owing to a technical difficulty, I was unable to show before the luncheon recess. With your consent I shall show it at once. Apparently the presentation will now be more successful than earlier in the day. I should emphasize that in selecting the photographs I was not guided, so to speak, by the horror of their contents, but simply by the fact that they demonstrate typical procedures of the German fascist crimes.

[_Pictures were then projected on the screen._]*

(1) Here we see one person being shot. This snapshot was taken in the Moscow region during the German advance on Moscow. The man was executed in reprisal for the death of a German.

(2) Here we see four persons being shot. The four youths condemned to death are standing on the edge of a pit which they dug. The members of the Tribunal can see for themselves that the German criminals standing on the outskirts of the wood are laughing at the victims.

(3) This snapshot was taken at the time of the execution. The killing is carried out in the typical German style, that is, by a shot in the back of the neck. You will observe that the victims are crying out at the moment of death.

(4) The snapshots, Your Honors, which I am now showing were taken by the German Obergruppenführer Karl Strock, chief of the Nipal Gestapo. It represents a German mass execution. The victims have been ordered to strip on the execution ground. Here you see a young girl seated, already undressed, and next to her her brother Jacob, who has also been ordered to strip. I wish to emphasize the fact that the snapshots were taken in December, when the cold is intense.

(5) In addition to some native women condemned to be shot, this snapshot also shows a very young girl endeavoring to hide behind her mother on the left.

(6) In December naked women in this snapshot have also been taken to the execution ground. Condemned to death, these women were forced by the same Obergruppenführer Strock to pose before the camera.

(7) Here we have a group of men and with them a small child accompanied by his mother. They are going to the execution ground. The child clutches his mother closely.

(8) This is an amateur photograph, albeit a very clear one. Here, Your Honors, you see a group of people and some dead bodies, with machine guns to the right of them. I would ask the Tribunal to observe the disposal of the dead bodies. The photograph is probably taken during the first months of the German occupation because the bodies have been thrown into the pit carelessly; in the latter months orders were given to lay out the bodies tidily in rows.

(9) This is a snapshot of the same group. Here you see both women and young girls condemned to death.

(10) In Yanov Camp the executions are carried out to the strains of the “Death Tango” played by an orchestra conducted by Professor Striks, an internee in the camp, together with his bandmaster, Mundt. I request Your Honors to observe two points of interest in this snapshot. To the right we see the camp commander, Obergruppenführer Gebauer, in white uniform, and behind him his dog, Rex, known to us through many interrogations as having been trained to harass living persons and to tear them to pieces. It is evident that Gebauer is leading the orchestra to the execution ground.

(11) One of the gallows used by the German fascists in their endeavor to establish a regime of terror in the temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union. The snapshot was found in the files of the Yanov Gestapo. A woman of sorts is seen laughing at the foot of the gallows.

(12) A second gallows erected in the same market place, at Lvov, also taken from the archives of the Gestapo.

(13) I am showing Your Honors the snapshot of an entire street festooned with bodies of Soviet citizens. This is a street in the city of Lvov, and I beg to remind the Tribunal that according to the records of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs the same hangings also occurred in Kharkov.

(14) The same street in Lvov. The snapshot was taken from the archives of the Lvov Gestapo.

(15) The gallows were not the only means of execution. The guillotine, too, was used on a vast scale. In this snapshot you see the heads of victims guillotined in the prison of Danzig. The snapshot was taken in the Anatomic Institute in Danzig, where the bodies of the victims were brought after execution.

(16) I shall not show you too many snapshots of tortures inflicted. I only wish to show a few typical examples. This snapshot was taken from a dead Gestapo soldier. It shows a young girl being flogged. Later you will see what next they did to her.

(17) It is not quite clear whether the girl is being strung up by the hair or hanged by the neck. Judging by the convulsive movement of her hands, I think that a noose has just been placed round her neck. Observe the bestial face of the scoundrel who is hanging her.

(18) Here is a snapshot taken from a dead Gestapo soldier. I wish to emphasize the manner in which the German fascists mocked the chastity of the Russian women. They had just forced these Ukrainian women to run naked before the German brutes.

(19) This snapshot will help you to understand subsequent events. It represents a machine for grinding human bones. Next to the machine stands the prisoner of war who feeds the machine. It can grind the bones of 200 persons at a time. As has been proved to the commission, it has a constant yield of 200 cubic meters of bone flour.

That is all. Photographs are identified as Exhibits USSR-100, 101, 102, 212, 385, 388, 389, 390, 391.

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* Mr. Counsellor Smirnov’s explanations of the pictures were not recorded by the Russian stenographers. They were recorded, however, in English and German, and these notes are used in the English and German editions respectively, even though the two texts differ in some respects.

Will you now permit me to submit further documentary evidence?

In the first part of my presentation I dealt with German mass terrorism and spoke specifically about the extermination of children and the infamous methods used by the Germans with regard to them, since terror applied to children—terror most savage, most brutal—is one of the characteristic features of fascist bestiality.

I now present to the Tribunal evidence of mass extermination of the population in various parts of Eastern Europe. I submit to the Tribunal brief excerpts from the report of the Polish Government, which Your Honors will find on Page 127 of the document book, in the second paragraph of the text. It describes the so-called Anin massacre. I quote:

“At the end of December 1939 a Polish policeman was shot in the
vicinity of Warsaw by a bandit. Subsequent investigations showed
that the murderer was in a restaurant in Vaver, near Warsaw. Two
German policemen tried to arrest him. When the police entered
the restaurant, the bandit opened fire, killing one policeman
and wounding another, that is, he apparently killed one and
wounded another.

“In reply the German authorities, on 26 December 1939, ordered
mass reprisals, and a punitive expedition made its appearance in
the village.

“A detachment of ‘Landesschützen,’ under the command of an
officer, was dispatched to Vaver and to the summer resort of
Anin. Both of these localities were surrounded by a cordon of
soldiers. The proprietor of the restaurant where the event
occurred was immediately hanged, and his body suspended in front
of his house for 3 days. At the same time the men were dragged
out from every house. Having thus rounded up about 170 persons,
the Germans made them stand in the railway station, facing the
wall and with their hands held above their heads, for several
hours. Afterwards their documents were checked and a few were
dismissed, but the vast majority were informed that they would
be executed. They were then taken to a field, split up into
groups of 10 to 14, and executed by volleys from machine guns.

“The number of individual graves discovered on the execution
ground amounted to 107. Among those executed were two doctors,
30 youths under 16 years of age, and 12 old men over 60. One was
an American citizen of Polish origin. He was shot together with
his son.”

I shall omit the next paragraph of the report of the Polish Government dealing with the massacre in Piastoshyn, and I quote only an announcement from a German paper, the _Weichsel Zeitung_, of 23 October 1939. This announcement was quoted in the Polish report. I read:

“In the Tuchel district, the farm of a Reich citizen, Fritz, in
the vicinity of Pretzin, was burned by Polish bandits in the
night of 21-22 October. The citizen Fritz had a heart attack in
consequence. By order of the chief of the Civil Administration a
punitive expedition was dispatched to this locality, in order to
teach the guilty bandits a lesson which would show them that
acts of this kind would be severely punished. In reprisal 10
Poles, known for their hostile attitude towards Germany, were
shot. In addition an order was given to the Polish inhabitants
of this locality to rebuild the burned buildings and to pay for
the damage done.”

I shall omit half of the following page, and I quote briefly the circumstances of the Yousefouv massacre in Poland. Your Honors will find this quotation on Page 128, Paragraph 2 of the document book:

“In the middle of January 1940 a family of German colonists in
the village of Yousefouv was robbed and murdered by bandits, as
the Germans themselves stated in the newspapers at a later date.
A punitive expedition set out for Yousefouv.”

I omit the next paragraph, and then I continue:

“The expedition started a large-scale massacre. All the males
who were caught in Yousefouv and the vicinity, even 11-year-old
boys, were arrested and shot on the spot. Altogether 300 people
were murdered.”

Mass extermination of the peaceful population in Yugoslavia was of an exceptionally cruel nature. I quote that part of the report of the Yugoslav Government entitled, “Mass Murder of the Civilian Population and the Destruction of Villages.” I beg the Tribunal to accept as evidence a photostat of the order of Lieutenant General Neidtholt, which is presented as Exhibit Number USSR-188 (Document Number USSR-188). I cite this order, which was quoted in the report of the Yugoslav Government:

“The settlements of Zagniezde and Udora must be destroyed, the
male population of these settlements hanged, and the women and
children taken to Stoliac.”

I omit the next page of the text and begin the quotation regarding the atrocities of the German fascist criminals in Kragujevac. In confirmation of this report of the Yugoslav Government, we submit to the Tribunal a certified photostat copy of a communication from the commander of the garrison at Kragujevac, in which he admitted the shooting of 2,300 people. This document is being submitted to the Tribunal, and I ask the Court to accept this as evidence under Exhibit Number USSR-74 (Document Number USSR-74). I quote from the report of the Yugoslav Government on the mass murder in Kragujevac:

“This was a mass murder committed on 21 October 1941, in
Kragujevac, by a German punitive expedition under the command of
Major König. Besides König, the regional commander,
Bischofshausen, and the commandant of the settlement, Dr.
Zimmermann, participated in the organization and realization of
this crime.

“Already 10 to 15 days before the crime in Kragujevac was
committed, one battalion arrived to reinforce the German
garrison. First of all, the following villages were destroyed in
the vicinity of Kragujevac: Mechkovac, Marsic, and Groshnic. In
Mechkovac the punitive expedition murdered 66 people, in Marsic,
101, and in Groshnic, 100. All the victims were peaceful
citizens of the villages in question.

“When, after the perpetration of these crimes, the punitive
expedition arrived in Kragujevac, they began by carrying out
their plan to exterminate the citizens of Kragujevac, especially
the Serbian intelligentsia. As early as the beginning of October
the district commandant, Dr. Zimmermann, demanded of the
director of schools in Kragujevac the regular attendance of the
school children; otherwise they would be considered saboteurs
and shot. After such a threat, all the pupils attended school
regularly. On 18 October 1941, in conformity with a previously
prepared list, all male Jews were arrested, as well as all
persons who were considered Communists. They were imprisoned in
the barracks of the former Yugoslav auto-transport headquarters
in Stanovlensko Polje. They were kept without any food until 20
October, and all were shot at about 6 o’clock in the evening;
approximately 60 persons were killed.

“The same day, that is, 20 October, they began to round up the
entire male population of Kragujevac. After every exit from the
city had been blocked, the Germans went into every public
building and drove out all the employees. After that, all the
professors and pupils from the fifth grade upward, together with
the school masters, were taken from the high schools and
seminaries.”

I omit the next two sentences and quote further:

“Together with the others, all the prisoners from the Kragujevac
prison were taken off to the barracks. Then the order was given
to them to go into the courtyard of the barracks. Here all their
personal belongings were taken from them. The first to be shot
were those who were originally incarcerated in the
prison—approximately 50 persons. The rest were locked up in
barracks. The next day, 21 October, as from 7 o’clock in the
morning, they were taken off in batches to Stanovlensko Polje,
and there shot down by machine gun fire. Those who did not die
at once were finished off by the Germans with automatic guns and
rifles.”

I conclude this quotation and continue after the next three paragraphs.

“The relatives of the victims of this mass slaughter were
forbidden to visit the place of execution until the burial of
the victims had been completed and all traces of the crime
eliminated. They were also forbidden to hold any requiem masses
or religious services for the victims. In the obituary notices
in the papers it was forbidden to mention that the victims had
met their death in the mass execution.”

I omit the next five paragraphs and invite the attention of the Tribunal to a short part of the report of the Yugoslav Government dealing with the so-called “death march” or “march of blood,” that march of dire fame which took place in the camp of Yarak. I quote that particular part which deals with this atrocious crime of the Hitlerites:

“In the beginning of September 1941 a large German punitive
expedition rounded up all the male population between the ages
of 14 and 70 years and drove them from Shabatka across the Sava
River into the settlement of Yarak in Sirinya. That was the
so-called death march. About 5,000 men had to run a distance of
23 kilometers and back again. Those who could not stand the pace
and fell by the way were ruthlessly shot on the spot. Because
many were old and weak, the number of victims was great,
especially while crossing the bridge over the Sava.”

I conclude this, and I continue the next paragraph:

“On the way back they met another group of 800 peasants who had
to cover the same distance, but the treatment of this group was
still more brutal. They had to run with their arms raised over
their heads. They were systematically murdered on the way. Only
300 men of the group reached Yarak alive.”

I interrupt the quotation here. I omit this page and the next, and, concluding my presentation of the mass murders of the civilian population in Yugoslavia, I would ask the Tribunal to accept in evidence the public announcement of the Chief of the German Armed Forces in Serbia. This document is presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-200 (Document Number USSR-200). Without making any comment at all, I simply quote this document, using the original text incorporated in the report of the Yugoslav Government. In the report the Commander-in-Chief in Serbia quotes the following facts:

“In the village of Skela, a Communist detachment opened fire at
a German military truck. It was established that several of the
inhabitants had been watching and had seen the preparations for
this attack. It was further established that these inhabitants
could have warned the nearest station of the Serbian
gendarmerie. It was also established that they could have
secretly warned the German military trucks against the pending
attempt. The inhabitants did not profit by the opportunity and
had thus placed themselves on the side of the criminals. The
village of Skela was burned to the ground. Supplies of
ammunition exploded in several houses during the fire, and this
was accepted as a proof of complicity on the part of the
inhabitants. All the male inhabitants of the village whose
participation in the attack had been proved were shot, and 50
Communists were hanged on the spot.”

I now omit five pages of my presentation, and I invite the attention of the Tribunal to the brief excerpts from the report of the Greek Government, on Pages 39 and 40 of the Russian text of this report, from which we can see that the same inhuman and criminal methods of mass shootings were used by the Hitler criminals in the temporarily occupied territory of Greece. I begin my quotation:

“As soon as the island of Crete was occupied by the
Germans. . . . In compliance with this announcement, the first
reprisals were made, and several people, most of them absolutely
innocent, were shot, and the villages of Skiki, Brassi, and
Kanades”—perhaps I am stressing the wrong syllables, since I do
not know how these words should be pronounced in Greek—“all
these villages were burned down as a reprisal for an attack by
collaborators of the Greek police during the invasion of Crete.
On the sites where these villages formerly existed, posts were
erected with inscriptions in Greek and in German: ‘Destroyed as
a reprisal for the brutal murder of a detachment of paratroopers
and half a platoon of sappers by armed men and women in the
rear.’

“Measures of reprisal, which at first were of a temporary
nature, later grew in intensity, especially after the resistance
made by organized partisan detachments throughout the country in
the beginning of 1943. The technique was always the same. The
day after some act of sabotage or any other action committed by
the partisans near a village, the German troops would appear in
this village. The inhabitants would be rounded up in the central
square or some other place suitable for the occasion, to listen
to a public announcement, but in reality to be killed on the
spot by machine gun fire. After this the Germans either burned
the villages or else, in some cases, they would first plunder a
village and then open fire on it. The inhabitants were killed
openly in the streets, houses, and fields, regardless of age and
sex. There were few cases when only the male population from the
age of 16 years and over were executed. In other cases, when the
men succeeded in hiding in the mountains, the Germans would
execute the old men, women, and children who had remained in the
villages, hoping that their age and their sex would protect
them. The villages of Arachovo, Kalovryta, Gestamon, Klessoura,
Kommeno, and Lissovouni may be considered as typical examples.
Some villages were destroyed for the sole reason that they were
located in some region where partisans had been active.”

I omit the next sentence since it has a direct bearing on another text of the report. I continue my quotation:

“The number of people murdered amounts to nearly 30,000.”

I am now going over to the presentation of evidence of mass exterminations of the peaceful population in the territory of the U.S.S.R. by the Germans.

As to the circumstances of the mass executions, we may now judge them not only by the testimony of eyewitnesses or of the perpetrators of the atrocities; we may, in part, judge them on the basis of the material collected by the legal and medical commission. I say “in part” because, as from 1943, fearing retribution for the crimes committed, the Hitlerites began to destroy the traces of their crimes. They exhumed and burned corpses, ground bones, and strewed the ashes on the fields; they also used the slag formed by the corpses cremated, as well as the bone flour, for repairing the roads and fertilizing the fields. But notwithstanding the efforts of the criminals to conceal the traces of their crimes, it was impossible to destroy all the corpses of the people murdered.

The first mass “action” of the Germans, when tens of thousands of innocent and peaceful people were murdered at a time, was the “Kiev action.” In order to realize the extent of these atrocities I refer Your Honors to a communication of the Extraordinary State Commission already submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-9. I quote from Page 238, on the reverse side of the document book, at the end of the third paragraph from the top. I quote:

“In Kiev, over 195,000 Soviet citizens were tortured to death,
shot, and poisoned in the gas vans, as follows:

“(1) In Baybe-yar, over 100,000 men, women, children, and old
people.

“(2) In Darnitza, over 68,000 Soviet prisoners of war and
peaceful citizens.

“(3) In the antitank trench in the vicinity of Syretzk Camp and
in the camp proper, over 25,000 peaceful Soviet citizens and
prisoners of war.

“(4) In the grounds of the Hospital of St. Cyril, 800 insane
patients.

“(5) In the grounds of the Kiev-Pechersk Abbey, about 500
peaceful citizens.

“(6) In the cemetery of Ljukjanousk, about 400 peaceful
citizens.”

I continue to quote from this document, Page 238, second column of the text, Paragraph 6, and I give two short excerpts from this page. I begin:

“In 1943, sensing the uncertainty of their position in Kiev, the
occupying forces, in an attempt to conceal the traces of their
crimes, opened up the tombs of their victims and began to burn
the corpses. The Germans relegated the burning of the corpses in
Baybe-yar to the internees of Syretzk Camp. SS officer Topheide
was placed in charge of this work, together with members of the
gendarmerie, Johann Merkel and Vogt, and the commander of the SS
platoon, Rever.

“The witnesses, L. K. Ostrovski, C. B. Berlandt, W. Y. Davydov,
Y. A. Steyuk, and J. M. Brodski, who had escaped the shootings
at Baybe-yar on 29 September 1943, testified:

“‘As prisoners of war we were interned in the Syretzk
Concentration Camp in the outskirts of Kiev. On 18 August 100 of
us were sent to Baybe-yar. There we were shackled in chains and
ordered to exhume and burn the corpses of Soviet citizens who
had been murdered by the Germans. Here the Germans brought
granite monuments and iron railings from the cemetery. From
these monuments we made platforms on which we placed rails, and
on top of these rails we laid the iron grills to act as fire
bars. On the iron grills a layer of firewood was placed, and on
top of the firewood we placed a layer of corpses. On the corpses
we placed a further layer of firewood and poured petroleum over
the whole. Following this order the corpses were piled up in
several layers and then ignited. About 2,500 to 3,000 corpses
were placed in each of these “ovens.” The Germans detailed
special crews for the removal of earrings, rings, and also gold
teeth from the jaws of the dead.

“‘When all the corpses were burned, new “ovens” were stacked,
and so on. The bones were smashed into small particles by
bulldozers and the ashes strewn over the Yar, so that no traces
should be left. The men worked from 12 to 15 hours a day.

“‘The Germans used excavators in order to expedite the work.
From 18 August until the day of our escape—29
September—approximately 70,000 corpses were burned.’”

I interrupt this quotation and invite the attention of the Tribunal to a document on Page 287, Volume II, Paragraph 5 of the document book, second column. This is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on crimes of the German fascist invaders in the territory of the Latvian S.S.R. In the place to which I will draw the attention of the Tribunal it is shown that the Hitlerites systematically carried out executions in the forest of Birkeneck. I make a special point of quoting this because further on we shall present documentary films showing full details of these mass shootings. I begin the quotation:

“In the forest of Birkeneck, on the outskirts of the city of
Riga, the Hitlerites shot 46,500 peaceful citizens. The witness,
M. Stabulnek, a woman who lived in the vicinity of the forest,
stated that:

“‘On Friday and Saturday before Easter, 1942, packed busses went
from the city to the forest. I saw 41 busses passing my house
from the beginning of Friday morning to noon. On Easter Sunday,
many inhabitants—I among them—went into the forest to the site
of the executions. There we saw one large open pit containing
the bodies of women and children who had been shot; they were
either naked or in their underwear. There were traces of torture
and ill-treatment on the corpses of the women and children, many
of whom had black and blue bruises on their faces and cuts on
their heads. Some had had their hands and fingers cut off, their
eyes gouged out, and their stomachs ripped open.’”

I now omit one paragraph and continue:

“The commission discovered, on the execution ground, 55 graves
covering a total area of 2,885 square meters.”

I quote one more paragraph from this communication:

“In the forest of Dreilin, 5 to 7 kilometers east of Riga, along
the highway to Luban, the Germans shot over 13,000 peaceful
citizens and prisoners of war. The witness, W. S. Ganus,
testified:

“‘As from August 1944 the Germans organized excavation crews to
open up the graves, and all through the week bodies were burned.
The forest was surrounded by German guards armed with machine
guns. On and after 20 August black, closed cars filled with
citizens, among whom were women and children—so-called
“refugees”—began to arrive; they were shot and their bodies
burned immediately. I had hidden in the bushes and watched this
fearful scene. The screams of the victims were terrible. I heard
shouts of “Murderers,” “Hangmen” and the children crying, “Mama,
don’t leave me.” The bullets of the murderers stopped the
screams.’”

I conclude this document because it now contains only analogous facts. I wish to invite the Tribunal’s attention to the fact that 38,000 people were shot in this forest.

I further request the Tribunal to refer to a document already presented to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-47, which is the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union on crimes committed by the German and Romanian invaders in Odessa and the region of Odessa. I shall refer to two very brief excerpts of this report. Your Honors will find one of the excerpts I wish to quote on Page 283, Volume II of the document book, first column of the text, Paragraph 5. I begin:

“On 21 December 1941 the Romanian gendarmes proceeded to execute
the internees in the camp. The internees were brought, under
guard, to a half-ruined building on the outskirts of the forest.
There they were forced to kneel by the ravine; then they were
shot. From the edge of the ravine those who were killed—and
often those who were only wounded—fell to the foot of the
ravine, where a gigantic fire of straw, reeds, and wood had been
built. The smaller children were thrown alive into this fire by
the executioners. The burning of the corpses went on for 24
hours on end.”