Chapter IX: Section 3 (6)

We need not seek confirmation thereof in Hitler’s _Mein Kampf_ or in the writings of the Hitlerite ringleaders, which, as is known, contained, together with a direct menace to the U.S.S.R., indications that the aggression of German imperialism must be directed toward the East in order to conquer the so-called “living space.” This tendency of predatory German imperialism is expressed in the well-known formula “Drang nach Osten.”

I revert for evidence to the official documents of the Hitlerite Government, which fully disclose the defendants’ guilt in committing the criminal actions with which they are charged under the present Indictment.

I beg to be allowed to refer, in the first case, to the document entitled, “Report Concerning the Conference of 23 May 1939.” As can be seen from this document, this conference took place in Hitler’s study at the new Reich Chancellery, and the minutes were taken down by Lieutenant Colonel Schmundt of the German General Staff. There were present at this conference: Hitler, Göring, Raeder, Brauchitsch, Keitel, General Milch, General of the Artillery Halder, and other representatives of the German High Command. The report states that the subject of the conference was, “Instructions concerning the present situation and the objects of our policy.” Speaking at this conference, Hitler frequently broached the subject of the seizure of territory in the East. He declared:

“If fate forces us into a conflict with the West, it would be
desirable that we possess more extensive space in the East.”

And further:

“Our problem is to extend our living space in the East, secure
our food supplies, and solve the problems of the Baltic Sea and
States. As regards food supplies, we can only rely upon the
thinly populated areas. The thoroughness of German agriculture,
together with the fertility of the soil, will show itself
favorably in the manifold increase of food production.”

In another document known as the “Minutes of the Führer’s Conference with the Commander-in-Chief on 23 November 1939,” Hitler stressed the necessity of solving the problem of the struggle for oil, rubber, and useful minerals; and at that conference, Hitler formulated the main tasks as follows:

“. . . adapt the living space to the density of the
population. . . .

“This is an eternal problem: to establish the necessary balance
between the number of Germans and their territory, and to secure
the necessary living space. Sharp ingenuity can be of no avail
here. The problem can be solved only by the sword.”

At this conference Hitler with complete frankness disclosed his plans concerning the drive to the East. Boasting of his successful seizures of Moravia, Bohemia, and Poland he no longer kept secret his intentions of pursuing his aggression eastwards.

“I did not resurrect the armed forces”—said Hitler—“for the
purpose of keeping them inactive. The determination to act has
always been alive in me. I always meant to solve this
problem—sooner or later.”

In that the Nazi Government felt itself in no way restrained by the existence of a non-aggression pact signed between Germany and U.S.S.R. on 23 August 1939. However, Hitler’s cynical declaration that treaties need only be respected as long as they serve a purpose is now universally known.

My American colleague has already quoted in his address the speech made by the Defendant Jodl at the conference held by the Reich Gauleiter in Munich in January 1943. In his speech the Defendant Jodl said, “Hitler informed me, while we were still fighting in the West, of his plans to fight the U.S.S.R.” In his turn, the Defendant Raeder at his preliminary examination testified that the idea of a military campaign against the U.S.S.R. had been born in Hitler’s mind long ago, and it grew ever stronger with the decrease of the probability of an invasion of England in June 1940.

According to the Defendant Keitel’s statement, Hitler had decided to attack the U.S.S.R. at the end of 1940. Already in the spring of 1940 a plan of assault had been worked out. Conferences on this subject had been held during the summer. In July 1940 at a military conference in Reichenhall, the plan of attack on the U.S.S.R. was examined.

This is also confirmed by the statement of the Defendant Jodl, who at his preliminary examination testified that the plans of attack on the U.S.S.R. were actually worked out in the months of November-December 1940 and that during that period the first directives were given to the Army, to the Navy, and to the Air Force. Speaking of these directives, Jodl refers to a document known as the Case Barbarossa. This document is signed by Hitler, Jodl, and Keitel. This directive, intended only for the High Command of the German Army, contains an elaborate and detailed plan for a sudden attack on the U.S.S.R. I quote:

“The German Armed Forces must be prepared to crush Soviet Russia
in a quick campaign even before the end of the war against
England.

“For this purpose the Army will have to employ all available
units with the reservation that the occupied territories will
have to be safeguarded against any surprises.”

The directive, Case Barbarossa, emphasizes that “great importance attaches to the fact that the intention of an attack will not be recognized.”

The directive further states that in case of emergency the order for attack against Soviet Russia will be given 8 weeks in advance of the intended beginning of operations, and that “preparations requiring more time to start are, if this has not already been done, to begin presently and are to be completed by 15 May 1941.”

And, finally, the same directive contains a detailed strategic plan of an attack on the U.S.S.R., which plan already contemplated the actual form of participation on the part of Romania and Finland in this aggression. In particular, the directive says bluntly:

“Probable Allies and their tasks.

“1. At the flanks of our operations the active participation, in
the war against Soviet Russia, of Romania and Finland may be
counted upon.”

The directive also states that:

“we may count on the possibility that Swedish railroads and
highways may become available for the deployment of the German
Group North not later than the beginning of actual operations.”

Thus, it is incontestable that the Hitlerite Government at this time had already secured the assent of the Romanian and Finnish Governments for the participation of these countries, together with Germany, in the aggression against the U.S.S.R.

This situation is apparent not only from the text of the directive, Case Barbarossa, but also from the other facts at our disposal. For example, in a statement by the German General of the Infantry Buschenhagen which we shall present to the Tribunal, the following appears:

“At the end of December 1940 (approximately on the 20th), I, as
the Chief of Staff of the German Forces in Norway, with the rank
of colonel, was invited to take part in a conference of the
chiefs of staff of the Armies at the OKH (High Command of the
Army) at Zossen (near Berlin), which lasted several days. At
this meeting the Chief of the General Staff, General Halder,
expounded the Barbarossa plan of attack on the Soviet Union.
Present at Zossen at the time of the meeting was the Chief of
the General Staff of the Finnish Army, General Heinrichs, who
was conferring with General Halder. . . .”

Buschenhagen further tells us how in February 1941 he left for Helsinki, where, together with a representative of the Finnish Army, he worked out a definite plan for the attack on the U.S.S.R. On 2 or 3 March 1941, upon his return to Oslo, he compiled and submitted to the OKW a report on his mission.

“On the basis of these documents”—states Buschenhagen—“the
operational plan ‘Blue Fox’ was drawn up, envisaging an attack
on the Murmansk railroad from the area of Kuusamo, Rovaniemi,
and Petsamo. The plan of operations in the area of
Kirkenes-Petsamo was called ‘Reindeer’; that in the area of
Rovaniemi, ‘Silver Fox.’”

Further, as narrated by Buschenhagen, towards the end of April or the beginning of May 1941 he flew again to Helsinki where:

“. . . at the Finnish General Staff negotiations took place with
Generals Heinrichs and Airo and Colonel Tapola, in the course of
which we ascertained that the Finnish General Staff was fully
prepared to participate in the coming war against the Soviet
Union.”

In his personal written testimony given to the investigating authorities of the Soviet Union, which will be presented to the Tribunal, Marshal Ion Antonescu gives an account of his meetings with Hitler in November 1940, January 1941, and May 1941, at which were discussed the questions with regard to the preparation of war against the Soviet Union.

During the first conference between Antonescu and Hitler, in which Ribbentrop and Hitler’s personal interpreter, Schmidt, took part, problems directly concerning the preparation of the German aggression against the U.S.S.R. and the Romanian participation therein were discussed.

In reply to the question put by the Soviet investigating authorities to Antonescu, whether his first conference with Hitler should be considered as his initial step towards an understanding with the Germans for the preparation of aggressive war against the Soviet Union, he stated, “I reply in the affirmative. Hitler undoubtedly had this in mind when working out the plans for attacking the Soviet Union.”

At the second meeting between Antonescu and Hitler, which took place in January 1941, the Defendants Ribbentrop, Keitel, and Jodl were present. Hitler requested Antonescu to permit the German armies concentrated on Hungarian territory to pass through Romania in order to enable them to assist the Italians in the war against Greece.

Antonescu testifies:

“I expressed my apprehension that the movement of German troops
through Romania might serve as a pretext for military action by
the Soviet Union against Romania, thus placing Romania in a very
difficult position, as the Romanian army was not mobilized. To
this Hitler replied that he will give an order for part of the
German troops intended for operations against Greece to remain
in Romania.

“Hitler also emphasized that, according to the information at
his disposal, the Soviet Union had no intention to fight either
against Germany or Romania.

“Satisfied with this statement of Hitler’s, I have agreed to
allow the German troops to pass through Romanian territory.

“General Jodl, who was present at this conference, described to
me the strategic situation of the German Army, emphasizing the
necessity of an attack on Greece through Bulgaria.”

Speaking of the third meeting with Hitler in May 1941, in the city of Munich, at which the Defendant Ribbentrop was present, Antonescu declared:

“At this meeting . . . we had definitely agreed upon our joint
assault on the Soviet Union.

“Hitler stated that he had decided to attack the Soviet Union.
‘Having prepared this attack,’ said Hitler, ‘we must launch it
unexpectedly along the entire frontier of the Soviet Union from
the Black Sea to the Baltic. The suddenness of this military
attack,’ continued Hitler, ‘will enable Germany and Romania to
overcome in a very short time one of our most dangerous
opponents.’

“In connection with his war plans, Hitler asked me to place at
his disposal Romanian territory for the concentration of German
troops, and in conjunction with this to take a direct part in
carrying out the attack on the Soviet Union.”

By entering the conspiracy on the side of Germany and preparing to attack the Soviet Union, Romania in her turn pursued aggressive aims.

Antonescu in the same statements spoke of Hitler’s promises as follows:

“Hitler emphasized that Romania should not remain out of this
war, as in order to get back Bessarabia and northern Bukovina
she had no other way but to fight on the side of Germany. He
added to this that in return for our help in the war Romania
could occupy and administer other Soviet territories up to the
Dnieper.”

Antonescu further testified:

“As Hitler’s proposal to start jointly the war against U.S.S.R.
was in line with my aggressive intentions, I declared my
readiness to participate in the assault on the Soviet Union and
undertook to prepare the required number of Romanian troops and
at the time to increase the deliveries of oil and farm produce
for the needs of Germany.

“After my return to Bucharest from Munich I began energetic
preparations for the coming war.”

These facts are likewise confirmed by the documents from the archives of Antonescu, which will also be submitted to the Tribunal.

I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the records of a conversation which took place between Antonescu and Dörnberg, head of the protocol department of the German Foreign Office, on the 10th of February 1942, a conversation after meeting at the frontier:

“. . . I declared”—remarks Antonescu—“that Romania entered
into an alliance with the Axis not for the purpose of altering
the treaty of Versailles but in order to fight the Slavs. . . .”

It will be seen from this record that hatred towards the Slav peoples united Hitler and Antonescu in their preparation and realization of a war of aggression.

Documents which are to be presented to the Tribunal will show quite clearly the complicity of Hungary in the conspiracy to violate peace and in the preparation of an aggressive war against the Soviet Union. Hungary was assigned the definite role of attacking the rear of the Red Army through the Carpathian Mountains at the very moment when the German and the Romanian Armies were to open military operations against the Soviet Union. Thus the criminal block of aggressors against the peace-loving nations was set up with fascist Germany in the van.

Reverting to the so-called Case Barbarossa, I wish to dwell on the more important points of this document. Case Barbarossa consists of three parts. The first sets forth its general aims; the second indicates allies of Germany in the war against the Soviet Union. The third part is devoted to the execution of military operations on land, in the air, and on sea. This document has the highly pertinent feature of having been issued, in view of its top-secret contents, in nine copies only, to comply fully with the demand for absolute secrecy on Germany’s preparations for the attack on the Soviet Union.

The first part of the plan reads as follows:

“Troops of the Russian Army massed in the western part of Russia
must be destroyed, and the retreat into the vast expanses of
Russian territory of combat units must be prevented. Then, by
rapid pursuit, a line must be reached from which the Russian air
force will not be able to carry out attacks against German
territory.”

The document further states that the ultimate objective of this plan was to consolidate the line Archangel-Volga, paralyze the last remaining industrial area in the Urals by air operations, put the Baltic fleet out of commission, and prevent the possibility of active interference on the part of the Russian air force. In the third part of the document we find the directive to seize Leningrad and Kronstadt and to continue offensive operations with the objective of taking the most important center of communications and war-production, Moscow. “The seizure of this city”—according to the plan—“will mean a decisive success both politically and economically.”

Such was the plan to invade the U.S.S.R.—conceived, worked out, and prepared long in advance by Hitlerite Germany.

While undertaking strategic and diplomatic measures to prepare for its treacherous attack against the U.S.S.R., the Hitlerite Government conceived and planned beforehand to commit war crimes on the territory of the U.S.S.R. The so-called Case Barbarossa was a strategic plan. But this plan was supplemented by a number of instructions and orders designed to embrace all the measures relative to the problems connected with the invasion of the Soviet Union. Among these measures we must mention in the very first place the directive issued on 13 March 1941 by the headquarters of the German High Command.

This directive deals with a series of organizational problems of a civilian nature and in particular with the problems relative to the organization of administrative authorities. It is of importance to note that this instruction placed German troops stationed in East Prussia and the so-called Government General (that is to say, Poland) under the laws and regulations destined for the zone of operations at least 4 weeks prior to the opening of the campaign. By this directive the High Command of the German Armed Forces was authorized to assume executive power and to delegate it to the commanding generals of the army groups and armies.

One also cannot overlook in this directive Subparagraph B, which characterizes the tasks and objectives pursued by the conspirators. In this subparagraph it states:

“In the theater of army operations, the Reichsführer SS, by
order of the Führer, is given some special tasks for the
preparation of political administration, arising from the
decisive struggle between two opposing political systems. Within
the limits of these tasks the Reichsführer of the SS acts
independently, upon his own responsibility.”

Mankind is now well aware of the meaning of these “special tasks,” the execution of which was exclusively entrusted to the SS generals and officers, who made full use of this right to act “independently” and “upon their own responsibility.” It meant unheard of terror, plundering, violence, and killing of prisoners of war and peaceful citizens. Further, this directive, in a very specific way, gave the High Command also such tasks as the plundering and predatory exploitation of the areas occupied by the German troops. The directive is signed by the Defendant Keitel.

In another instruction, issued in June 1941 as a supplement to the Plan Barbarossa, orders are issued which, in the guise of propaganda directives, prescribe the ruthless treatment of all those who oppose the German aggressors. As to actual propaganda, the directives frankly mention the usual Hitlerite methods of dirty calumny, lies, and provocation, which were to be used by the so-called “propaganda companies.”

Finally one cannot overlook another instruction, known under the name of “Orders Concerning Military Jurisdiction in the Barbarossa Area and Special Measures To Be Taken by the Troops.” These orders, while sanctioning arbitrary action on the part of the German authorities and troops in regard to the civilian population in the territories seized by the German armed forces, begin with an invitation addressed to the German troops to “protect” themselves ruthlessly against hostile actions of the civilian population. In the order prescribing the adoption of Draconian measures against peaceful populations and partisans, we find indications as to the brutal punishment to be imposed upon persons defined in those orders as “suspected elements.”

With the permission of the Tribunal, I will read only two subparagraphs of these orders—Subparagraphs 4 and 5:

“4. In those places where it is too late to adopt these measures
or where it had not been possible to do so immediately,
suspected elements must be handed over to an officer without
delay; he will decide whether or not they should be shot.

“5. It is absolutely prohibited to hold these suspects for trial
by courts which at a later date will be instituted for the local
population.”

Thus, according to these so-called orders, the fate and life of every apprehended person depended exclusively on an officer, and it was prohibited, as the order cynically stressed, “to hold the suspects for trial.” In other words, it was a definite order to exterminate the “suspects.” Moreover, in the case of attacks against the German Armed Forces, the order prescribed “mass measures of repression,” that is to say, the wholesale extermination of absolutely innocent people.

What heights of cynicism were reached by the German High Command in the application of sanguinary terror can be seen from the fact that this order freed the German soldiers, officers, and officials of any responsibility for the commission of crimes against the peaceful Soviet population. According to these orders, the German troop commanders were entitled to confirm only those sentences which, as the said document states, were in accordance with the “political objectives of the leaders.” Consequently, long before 22 June 1941 the Hitlerite Government and the German High Command, whose representatives are now in the dock, planned and prepared in detail those war crimes which were subsequently committed in the territory of the U.S.S.R. These plans inexorably disclose that the defendants premeditated the monstrous crimes which were organized by them.

On 22 June 1941 the Hitlerite conspirators, having perfidiously violated the pact of non-aggression between the U.S.S.R. and Germany without any declaration of war, started an attack against Soviet territory, initiating thereby an aggressive war against the U.S.S.R. without the slightest provocation on the part of the Soviet Union. Enormous masses of German troops, secretly concentrated on the borders beforehand, were thrown against the U.S.S.R. As planned, Finnish troops took part in the attack on the U.S.S.R. in the north, and Hungarian and Romanian troops in the south. In order to create panic and confusion, the German Air Force immediately began the bombing of peaceful towns, thereby subjecting them to destruction.

Less than a month after the perpetration of this perfidious act Hitler called a conference, which was attended by Rosenberg, Göring, Bormann, Lammers, and Keitel. At this conference Hitler instructed those present not to disclose to the outside world the true aims of the war begun by the Hitlerites. Referring to their activities in regard to Norway, Denmark, Holland, and Belgium, Hitler stressed the necessity of continuing this line of action, that is, to conceal by all possible means the real intentions of the conspirators:

“Therefore”—said Hitler—“we shall emphasize again that we were
compelled to occupy a region to establish order and security
there . . . our method of regulation is the natural outcome of
this. Thus it must not be revealed that this may bring about a
final solution. However, despite and notwithstanding this, we
shall take all necessary measures such as mass shootings,
deportation, _et cetera_.”

Any kind of violence against the peaceful population, deportation into German slavery, shooting, and looting were called “regulation” in the words of Hitler and his accomplices.

At this conference the conspirators defined the ulterior aims of the Hitlerite Government in respect of the Soviet Union as follows:

“In the main, the problem amounts to this . . . first, to
conquer it, secondly, to rule it and thirdly, to exploit
it. . . .

“The basic idea: The creation of a military power west of the
Urals must never occur again, even if, in order to prevent it,
we have to fight for a hundred years. All the adherents of the
Führer must know this. The Reich will only be secure if no
foreign military force exists west of the Urals.

“The iron law must be: None but the Germans shall be permitted
to bear arms . . . only a German has the right to carry a
weapon; no Slav, no Czech, no Cossack, no Ukrainian.

“Hitler continued: The Baltic countries must become a province
of the Reich. The Crimea and a considerable area to the north
must likewise become a province of the Reich. These areas must
be as extensive as possible. . . The Volga colony must become a
territory of the Reich, the Baku region a German concession
(military colony).

“The Finns want East Karelia. However, because of its great
nickel production, the Kola peninsula must go to Germany. . . .

“The Finns claim the Leningrad region. Level Leningrad to the
ground, then give it to the Finns.”

The rapacious aims of the war launched by Germany against the U.S.S.R. are frankly set forth in an article by the director of the fascist propaganda, the notorious Goebbels, under the title “What For?” Goebbels wrote:

“This war is not a war for a throne nor an altar; this is a war
for grain and bread, a war for a well-laden breakfast, dinner,
and supper table . . . a war for raw materials, for rubber,
iron, and ore.” (Goebbels, Joseph, _Das eherne Herz_,
Zentralverlag der NSDAP, Munich, 1943, Pages 334-336.)

Göring in his turn in an address at the Harvest Festival in the Berlin Sports Palace, 5 October 1942, published in the _Völkischer Beobachter_ of 6 October 1942, exclaimed greedily:

“Don’t forget we have taken away from the Russians their best
regions. . . . Eggs, butter, and flour are there in such
quantities as you can hardly imagine. . . . We will have to see
that everything is properly collected and properly processed on
the spot. . . .”

The Defendant Rosenberg worked feverishly at inventing new names for Soviet cities, such as “Gotenburg” for Simferopol and “Theodorichshafen” for Sevastopol. This occupation Rosenberg combined with the leadership of a special staff concerned with the collection from the Caucasus. All that shows very clearly the real predatory plans and schemes of the Hitlerite aggressors against the Soviet Union. Above all, those criminal designs aimed at plundering the Soviet Union and the enslavement and exploitation of the Soviet people.

At the same time these were all steps on the road to establishing Hitlerite domination in Europe and in the whole world. It was precisely for this reason that, in a document submitted in the case, published by the High Command of the Navy, dealing with the plans for an invasion of North Africa, Gibraltar, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, the Hitlerite Government stated that the realization of the above plan would depend entirely on the results of the war against the Soviet Union.

In its attempt to conceal its imperialistic aims the Hitlerite clique hysterically shrieked, as usual, about a danger alleged to be forthcoming from the U.S.S.R. and proclaimed that the predatory war which it started against the Soviet Union with aggressive purposes was a “preventive” war.

A pitiful effort!

What “preventive” war can we speak of, when documents prove that long in advance Germany worked out and prepared a plan for an attack on the U.S.S.R., formulated the predatory aims of this attack, earmarked the territories of the Soviet Union which she intended to seize, established the methods for pillaging of these territories and for the extermination of their population, mobilized her army in good time, and moved to the borders of the U.S.S.R. 170 fully equipped divisions only waiting for the signal to advance?

The fact of aggression committed by fascist Germany against the U.S.S.R., as well as the original documents of the Hitlerite Government which now have been made public, definitely show to the whole world and to history how untrue and laughable was the assertion of the Hitlerite propaganda about the “preventive” character of the war against the U.S.S.R.

Much as the fascist wolf might disguise himself in a sheep’s skin, he cannot hide his teeth!

Having committed the perfidious attack on the U.S.S.R., the Hitlerite Government calculated that lengthy preparation for this attack, the concentration of all the armed forces of Germany for this thrust, the participation of Romanian and Finnish armies, as well as of Italian and Hungarian units in this operation, and, finally, the advantage of surprise would assure a rapid defeat of the U.S.S.R.

However, all these calculations of the aggressors were frustrated by the heroic resistance of the Red Army, which with self-denial defended the honor and the independence of its country. The German plans of attack were broken up one after another. I shall not describe all the phases of the patriotic war of the Soviet People against the German fascist invaders and the great and courageous struggle of the Red Army with German, Romanian, Finnish, and other armies that invaded the soil of the Soviet. The whole world watched this struggle with admiration, and it will never be forgotten by history.

The Soviet people, in battles the scale and ferocity of which were unmatched in history, steadfastly defended and saved the freedom and independence of their country and, together with the Allied armies, liberated the freedom-loving nations throughout the whole world from the terrible menace of Nazi enslavement.

Having prepared and carried out the perfidious assault against the freedom-loving nations, fascist Germany turned the war into a system of militarized banditry. The murder of war prisoners, extermination of civilian populations, plunder of occupied territories, and other war crimes were committed as part of a totalitarian lightning war program projected by the fascists. In particular the terrorism practiced by the fascists on the temporarily occupied Soviet territories reached fabulous proportions and was carried out with an outspoken cruelty.

“We shall”—said Hitler to Rauschning—“have to develop a
technique of systematic depopulation. If you ask me what I mean
by ‘depopulation,’ I mean removal of entire racial units. And
that is what I intend to carry out—that, roughly, is my task.
Nature is cruel; therefore we, too, may be cruel. If I can send
the flower of the German nation into the hell of war without the
smallest pity for the spilling of precious German blood, then
surely I have the right to remove millions of an inferior race
that breeds like vermin!” (Rauschning, Hermann, _The Voice of
Destruction_, New York, 1940, Pages 137, 138.)

The Soviet Prosecution has at its disposal numerous documents, collected by the Extraordinary State Commission for the Soviet Union for the prosecution and investigation of crimes committed by the German fascist aggressors and their accomplices, which constitute irrefutable evidence of countless crimes perpetrated by German authorities.

We have at our disposal a document, known as the “Appendix Number 2 to the Operational Order Number 8 of the Chief of the Sipo and SD,” dated Berlin, 17 June 1941, and signed by Heydrich, who at that time held the office of Himmler’s deputy. This document was worked out in collaboration with the High Command of the German Armed Forces. The appendices to Order Number 8, as well as Orders Number 9 and 14 and the appendices thereto, make it evident that the systematic extermination of Soviet people in fascist concentration camps in the territories of U.S.S.R. and other countries occupied by the fascist aggressors was carried out under the form of “filtration,” “cleansing measures,” “purges,” “extraordinary measures,” “special treatment,” “liquidation,” “execution,” and so on.

The perpetration of these crimes was entrusted to the Sonderkommandos especially formed for this purpose by agreement between the Chief of Police and the SD and the High Command of the German Armed Forces. The Appendix Number 1 to Order Number 14 shows that these Sonderkommandos acted independently “on the basis of their special powers and in accordance with general directives given to them within the scope of camp regulations,” maintaining close contact with the camp commanders and counterintelligence officers.

It is to be noted that during the German offensive aimed at Moscow the fascists created a special Sonderkommando Moscow, which was supposed to carry out the mass killings of the inhabitants of Moscow.

Hitler’s Government and the German Military Command were afraid that these monstrous Orders Number 8 and Number 14 might fall into the hands of the Red Army and the Soviet Government, and they took all possible measures to keep these orders completely secret. In Order Number 14, Heydrich declared:

“I especially emphasize that Operational Orders Number 8 and
Number 14, as well as the regulations pertaining thereto, must
be immediately destroyed in case of imminent danger. Their
destruction is to be reported to me.”

Besides the above-mentioned orders containing the program and plan for the fascist annihilation of the Soviet population, numerous orders and regulations were issued to the civil administration, as well as to the German military authorities, prescribing mass extermination and far-reaching application of the death penalty against the Soviet people. Keitel’s order of 12 December 1941 reads as follows:

“In the Führer’s opinion the punishment by imprisonment or even
by hard labor for life would be considered a sign of weakness.
Effective and lasting determent can be realized only by capital
punishment or measures which would leave the population in
complete ignorance of the criminal’s fate. This latter aim is
reached through the deportation of criminals into Germany. The
attached instructions for the prosecution of criminals are in
accordance with this opinion of the Führer’s. It is approved by
him.”—Signed—“Keitel.”

Among the means employed by the Hitlerites for the extermination of Soviet citizens were also intentional infection with spotted typhus and murdering by poison gas in gas vans which were called the “murderess” in Russian, _et alia_.

Upon investigations by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union, it was found that at the front, behind their main line of defense, the Hitlerites had systematically constructed special concentration camps where they kept tens of thousands of children, women who were unfit for work, and old men. The approaches to these camps were mined. No buildings or shelters of any kind existed within the areas of the camps, not even any barracks, and the internees had to camp on the bare ground. The internees were punished with death for the slightest attempt to infringe upon the established ruthless camp regulations. Many thousands of typhus patients were found in these camps. The population forcibly brought there from the surrounding villages was systematically infected there with this disease. The document which will be presented by the Soviet Prosecution describes in detail these heinous crimes perpetrated by the Germano-fascist occupants.

The Prosecution possesses a document signed by Untersturmführer Becker, dated 16 May 1942. This document is a report to his superiors concerning the use of gas vans. This is what one reads in this monstrous document:

“The place of execution is located at about 10 to 15 kilometers
off a thoroughfare and is difficult to reach because of its
location. In wet or damp weather it is entirely inaccessible.
Whether the people to be executed are led or brought in vehicles
to this spot, they immediately realize what awaits them and
become restless; this should be avoided by loading them into
trucks at an assembly point, and driving them to the place of
execution.

“I gave orders for the trucks of group D to be camouflaged as
trailers and that a window be inserted on each side of the
smaller vehicles, and in the larger trucks, two windows, all of
the country peasant cottage type. However, these machines became
so well known that not only the officials but even the
population called them the “death vans” as soon as they saw
them. In my opinion it is impossible to camouflage and keep them
secret for any length of time. I also gave orders that during
asphyxiation by gas the operating personnel should keep away
from the machine so that their health would not be impaired by
escaping gas. In this connection I would like to call attention
to the following: In certain units men are ordered to unload the
machines after gassing. I have drawn the attention of the
commanders of the corresponding Sonderkommandos to the immense
physical and moral injury this kind of work could cause the men,
if not immediately, then later. The men complained of headaches
after every unloading. Nevertheless they do not want to change
the procedure, for they are afraid that prisoners entrusted with
the work may use this favorable moment to escape. To protect the
men from this injury, I would ask that appropriate orders be
issued.

“The procedure of poisoning by gas is not always carried out in
a correct manner. So as to end the business as quickly as
possible, the drivers always open the throttle wide. As a
consequence of this measure the condemned die of asphyxiation
rather than falling asleep as had been originally intended. As a
result of my orders death follows more rapidly, if the lever is
set correctly, and in addition, the condemned people drop off
peacefully to sleep. Distorted faces and defecations, two
symptoms which formerly had been noticed, were no longer
observed.

“Today I will proceed to Group B, whence I shall send a further
report.

“Dr. Becker, Untersturmführer.”

The names have already been mentioned here of the camps of Maidanek and Auschwitz with their gas chambers, in which over 5,500,000 completely innocent people, citizens of Poland, Czechoslovakia, U.S.S.R., U.S.A., Great Britain, France, and other democratic countries were killed. I must name the concentration camps of Smolensk, Stavropol, Kharkov, Kiev, Lvov, Poltava, Novgorod, Orel, Rovno, Dniepropetrovsk, Odessa, Kamenetz-Podolsk, Gomel, Kerch, of the Stalingrad region, of Kaunas, Riga, Mariampol (Lithuanian) of Kloga (Estonian) and many others, in which hundreds of thousands of Soviet nationals belonging to the civilian population, as well as soldiers and officers of the Red Army, were tortured to death by the Hitlerites.

The Germans also carried out mass shootings of Soviet citizens in the Lisenitz forest, which is on the outskirts of Lvov in the direction of Tarnopol. It was to this forest that the Germans daily drove, or brought in motor vehicles, large parties of Soviet prisoners of war from the Citadel camp, internees from the Yanov camp and from the Lvov prison, as well as peaceful Soviet citizens who had been seized on the squares and streets of Lvov in the course of numerous roundups. Investigations made by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union established the fact that the Germans shot over 200,000 people in the Lisenitz forest.

These mass murders, this regime of tyranny and terror, were fully approved by the Defendant Rosenberg who declared in his speech at the meeting of the German Labor Front in November 1942:

“Apparently, if we are to subjugate all these peoples”—that is,
peoples inhabiting the territory of the U.S.S.R.—“then
arbitrary rule and tyranny will be an extremely suitable form of
government.”

Later, when the Red Army began to clear out the Germano-fascist hordes from the Soviet Union territory they had temporarily occupied and when the Soviet authorities began to discover the abominable crimes perpetrated by the fascist monsters and to find numerous graves of Soviet citizens, soldiers, and officers tortured to death by the fascists, the German Command took urgent measures to conceal and destroy all traces of their crimes. For this purpose, the German Command organized everywhere exhumations of corpses from their graves and their cremation. A special order of an Obersturmführer, dated “Rovno, 3 August 1943-IUAI No. 35/43c,” addressed to the Regional Commander of Gendarmerie in Kamen-Kashirsk, ordered him immediately to supply information concerning location and number of common graves of persons to whom special repressive measures had been applied in the district.

Among the documents discovered in the Gestapo building of the Rovno district has been found a report concerning the execution of the above-mentioned order, with the enumeration of about 200 localities, where such graves were registered. One can see from this list that the Germano-fascist henchmen primarily chose inaccessible and isolated spots for the interment of their victims. At the end of the list we read, “The list includes all the graves, including those of the commandos who worked here previously.”

I will now quote an extract of the appeal to the public opinion of the world from the representatives of several thousand former internees at Auschwitz:

“The gassing of unbelievable numbers of people took place upon
the arrival of transports from various countries: France,
Belgium, Holland, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Czechoslovakia,
Germany, Poland, the U.S.S.R., Norway, and others. The new
arrivals had to pass before an SS doctor or else before the SS
commandant of the camp. The latter pointed his finger to the
right or left. The left meant death by gas. Out of a transport
of 1,500, an average of 1,200 to 1,300 were immediately to be
gassed. Rarely the quota of people sent into the camp was a
little higher. It often occurred that the SS doctors Mengele and
Thilo performed this selection while whistling a lively tune.
The people destined to be gassed were obliged to strip in front
of the gas chambers, after which they were driven with whips
into the gas chambers. Then the door of the underground
gas-chamber was closed, and the people were gassed. Death
occurred approximately 4 minutes later. After 8 minutes the gas
chamber was opened, and workmen belonging to a special commando,
the so-called Sonderkommando, transported the bodies to the
cremation ovens which burned day and night.

“There was a shortage of ovens at the time of the arrival of
transports from Hungary; consequently enormous ditches were dug
for the purpose of cremating the bodies. Fires made of wood
soaked in gasoline were laid in these ditches and the bodies
were thrown into them. However, the SS men frequently hurled
live children and adults into those ditches, where these unhappy
victims died a terrible death. To save gasoline, the fats and
oils necessary for cremations were partly derived from the
bodies of gassed people. Fats and oils for technical purposes
and for the manufacture of soap were also obtained from the
corpses.”

The appeal ends with the following words:

“Together with 10,000 rescued inmates of all nationalities, we
demand that the crimes and the inconceivable atrocities of the
Hitlerites should not remain unpunished.”

This just demand is supported by the entire civilized world and by all freedom-loving people. The organized mass annihilation of prisoners of war constitutes one of the vilest crimes of the Hitlerite conspirators.

Numerous facts of murders, tortures, and maltreatment to which prisoners of war were subjected have been definitely established. They were tortured with red-hot irons, their eyes were gouged out, their extremities severed, _et cetera_. The systematic atrocities and short-shrift justice against captured officers and men of the Red Army were not chance episodes or the results of criminal activities of individual officers of the German Army and of German officials. The Hitlerite Government and the High Command of the German Army ruthlessly exterminated prisoners of war. Numerous documents, orders, and decrees of the fascist Government and orders of the German Supreme Command testify to this fact.

As early as March 1941—as the German Lieutenant General Österreich testified during his interrogation—a secret conference took place at the headquarters of the High Command in Berlin, where measures were planned for the organization of camps for Russian prisoners of war and rules laid down for their treatment. According to Österreich’s evidence these rules and measures for Soviet prisoners of war were essentially a plan for their extermination.

Many Soviet prisoners of war were shot or hanged while others perished from hunger and infectious diseases, from cold, and from torture systematically employed by the Germans according to a plan which was developed beforehand and had as its object the mass extermination of Soviet persons.

In Appendix 3 to Order Number 8 for the Chief of the Security Police and SD, dated 17 July 1941, a list is given of prisoner-of-war camps set up in the area of the 1st Military District and of the so-called Government General. In the 1st Military District camps were set up in particular in Prokuls, Heidekrug, Schierwind, Schützenrode (Ebenrode) in Prostken, Suwalki, Fischbor-Gersen and Ostrolenko. In the so-called Government General, camps were set up at Ostrov-Mesovetsky, Sedlce, Byelopedlasko, Kholm, Jaroslav, _et cetera_. In the appendix to Operational Order Number 9, issued in development of Order Number 8 of 17 July 1942, lists are given of the camps for Soviet prisoners of war situated in the territory of military districts II, IV, VI, VIII, X, XI, and XIII, at Hammerstein, Schneidemühl, and many other places.

THE PRESIDENT: Would this be a convenient time to break off?

[_The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours._]

_Afternoon Session_

MARSHAL (Colonel Charles W. Mays): May it please the Court, I desire to announce that the Defendants Kaltenbrunner and Hess will be absent until further notice on account of illness.

THE PRESIDENT: Would it be convenient to you and the Soviet Delegation if the Tribunal sat in open session until half past 11 tomorrow morning, and then after that we would adjourn for a closed session for administrative business? Would that be convenient to the Soviet Delegation?

GEN. RUDENKO: We, that is the Soviet Delegation, have no objection.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well, then, that is what we will do. The Tribunal will sit tomorrow from 10 until half past 11 in open session and will then adjourn.

GEN. RUDENKO: In these prisoner-of-war camps, as well as in camps for the civilian population, extermination and torture were practiced, referred to by the Germans as “filtering,” “execution,” and “special treatment.” The “Grosslazarett” set up by the Germans in the town of Slavuta has left grim memories. The whole world is familiar with the atrocities perpetrated by the Germans against Soviet prisoners of war and those of other democratic states at Auschwitz, Maidanek, and many other camps.

The directives of the German Security Police and of the SD—worked out in collaboration with the Staff of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, whose chief was the Defendant Keitel—were applied here.

Operational Order Number 8 stated:

“Executions must not take place in the camp or in the immediate
vicinity of the camp. If the camps in the Government General are
situated in the immediate vicinity of the frontier, the
prisoners intended for special treatment should, if possible, be
transported to former Soviet districts. Should executions be
necessary owing to violations of camp discipline, the chief of
the operational unit should in this case approach the camp
commander.

“The activities of the special task forces sanctioned by the
army commanders of the rear areas (district commandants dealing
with affairs connected with prisoners of war) must be conducted
in such a way as to carry out filtering with as little notice as
possible, while the liquidation must be carried out without
delay and at such a distance from the transit camps themselves,
and from populated places, as to remain unknown to the rest of
the prisoners of war and to the population.”

The following “form” for the carrying out of executions is recommended in Appendix 1 to Operational Order Number 14 of the Chief of the Security Police and SD, dated “Berlin, the 29th of October, 1941, No. 21 B/41 GRS-IV A.I.Z.”:

“Chiefs of operational groups decide questions about execution
on their own responsibility and give appropriate instructions to
the special task forces. In order to carry out the measures laid
down in the directives issued, the Kommandos are to demand from
the commandants of the camp the handing over to them of the
prisoners. The High Command of the Army has issued instructions
to the commandants for meeting such demands.

“Executions must take place unnoticed, in convenient places,
and, in any event, not in the camp itself nor in its immediate
vicinity. It is necessary to take care that the bodies are
buried immediately and properly.”

The report of the operational Kommando (Obersturmbannführer Lipper to Brigadeführer, Dr. Thomas) in Vinnitza, dated December 1941, speaks of the way in which all the above-mentioned instructions were carried out.

It is pointed out in this report that, after the so-called “filtering” of the camp, only 25 persons who could be classed as “suspects” remained in the camp at Vinnitza.

“This limited number”—the report states—“is explained by the
fact that the local organizations, in conjunction with the
commandants or with the appropriate counterintelligence
officers, daily undertook the necessary measures, in accordance
with the rules of the Security Police, against the undesirable
elements in the permanent prisoner-of-war camps.”

Thus, apart from the mass executions conducted by Sonderkommandos specially created for this purpose, the systematic extermination of Soviet persons was widely practiced by commandants and their subordinates in camps for Soviet prisoners of war.

Among the documents of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union for the investigation of crimes committed by Germans in the temporarily seized territories of the U.S.S.R. there are several notes of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, V. M. Molotov, on the subject of the extermination of prisoners of war and of their cruel treatment, and in these notes numerous instances are given of these monstrous crimes of the Hitlerite Government and of the German Supreme Command.

The note of V. M. Molotov, the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, dated 25 November 1941, on the subject of the revolting bestialities of the German authorities against Soviet prisoners of war, addressed to all ambassadors and ministers plenipotentiary of the countries with which the U.S.S.R. has diplomatic relations, points out that the German High Command and German military units subjected the Red Army soldiers to brutal tortures and killings.

The wild fascist fanatics stabbed and shot on the spot defenseless, sick, and wounded Red Army soldiers who were in the camps; they raped hospital nurses and medical aid women, and brutally murdered members of the medical personnel. A special count of the victims of these executions was conducted on instructions of the German Government and the Supreme Command.

Thus, the directive given in Appendix 2 to Heydrich’s Order Number 8, points out the necessity for keeping an account of the executions performed, that is, of the extermination of prisoners of war, in the following form: 1) serial number, 2) surname and first name, 3) date and place of birth, 4) profession, 5) last place of domicile, 6) grounds for execution, 7) date and place of execution.

A further specification of the tasks to be carried out by the special task forces for the extermination of Soviet prisoners of war was given in Operational Order Number 14, of the Chief of the Security Police and SD, dated 29 October 1941.

Among brutalities against Soviet prisoners of war must be included branding with special identification marks, which was laid down by a special order of the German Supreme Command, dated 20 July 1942. This order provides for the following methods of branding: “The tightly drawn skin is to be cut superficially with a heated lancet dipped in india ink.”

The Hague Convention of 1907, regarding prisoners of war, prescribed not only humane treatment for prisoners of war, but also respect for their patriotic feelings and forbids their being used to fight against their own fatherland.

Article 3 of the Convention, which refers to the laws and customs of war, forbids the combatants to force enemy subjects to participate in military operations directed against their own country, even in cases where these subjects had been in their service before the outbreak of war. The Hitlerites trod underfoot even this elementary principle of international law. By beatings and threats of shooting they forced prisoners to work as drivers of carts, motor vehicles, and transports carrying ammunition and other equipment to the front, as supply bearers to the firing line, as auxiliaries in anti-aircraft artillery, _et cetera_.

In the Leningrad district, in the Yelny region of the Smolensk district, in the Gomel district of Bielorussia, in the Poltava district, and in other places, cases were recorded where the German command, under threat of shooting, drove captured Red Army soldiers forward in front of their advancing columns during attacks.

The mass extermination of Soviet prisoners of war, established by special investigations of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union, is also confirmed by the documents of the German police and of the Supreme Command captured by the Soviet and Allied armies on German territory. In these documents it is stated that many Soviet prisoners of war died of hunger, typhus, and other diseases. The camp commandants forbade the civil population to give food to the prisoners and doomed them to death by starvation.

In many cases prisoners of war who were unable to keep in line on the march because of starvation and exhaustion were shot in full view of the civil population and their bodies left unburied. In many camps no arrangements of any sort were made for living quarters for the prisoners of war. They lay in the open in rain and snow. They were not even given tools to dig themselves pits or burrows in the ground. One could hear the arguments of the Hitlerites: “The more prisoners who die, the better for us.”

On the basis of the above exposition, I declare, on behalf of the Soviet Government and People, that the responsibility for the bloody butchery perpetrated on Soviet prisoners of war in violation of all the universally accepted rules and customs of war, rests with the criminal Hitlerite Government and German Supreme Command, the representatives of which are now sitting on the defendants’ benches.

Outstanding in the long chain of vile crimes committed by the German fascist invaders is the forced deportation to Germany of peaceful citizens, men, women, and children, for slave and forced labor.

Documentary evidence proves the fact the Hitlerite Government and the German Supreme Command carried out the deportation of Soviet citizens into German slavery by deceit, threats, and force. Soviet citizens were sold into slavery by the fascist invaders to concerns and private individuals in Germany. These slaves were doomed to hunger, brutal treatment, and, in the end, to an agonizing death.

I shall dwell later on the inhuman and barbarous directives, edicts, and orders of the Hitlerite Government and the Supreme Command, which were issued for the purpose of effecting the deportation of Soviet persons to German slavery and for which the defendants now being prosecuted are responsible, particularly Göring, Keitel, Rosenberg, Sauckel, and others. Documents at the disposal of the Soviet Prosecution, captured by the Red Army from the staffs of the smashed Germano-fascist armies, demonstrate the defendants to have perpetrated these crimes.

In a report read at a meeting of the German Labor Front in November 1942, Rosenberg presented facts and figures confirming the vast scale of the deportation of Soviet citizens to slave and serf labor in Germany which were organized by Sauckel.