Chapter XIV: Front Matter (14)

In this Trial the Charter extends this provision further to cases which obviously, because of their scope, should not be further discussed here. Therefore the decision that government reports should be considered as evidence is clearly taken up in Paragraph 21. It is clear to every jurist that this provision in itself is to an extent a flaw in proceedings because through it certain rights are lost to the defendants. On the other hand one cannot, of course, ignore the argument that there is subject matter which, because of its extent, cannot be practically discussed in a trial in which the time is limited.

Paragraph 21 of the Charter therefore gave the Tribunal the possibility of accepting such reports as valid evidence. But this provision is not compulsory for the Tribunal. So far as I can see from the German text before me it is provided that the Tribunal should accept these reports, but it does not say that the Tribunal must do so. Therefore it is in every case left to the discretion of the Tribunal whether the nature of the report makes it advisable to accept such a report in evidence.

We now have here a rather striking case which, in my opinion, clearly shows that the Tribunal can make use of its discretion and reject this document. The Defense have taken the position that this subject of evidence could be taken care of by a witness. The examination of the witness would have provided the Defense with the right of cross-examination.

Since, for tactical reasons inherent in the nature of the Trial, the witness will not be called, the subsequent transfer of his evidence into a government report means curtailing the right of the defendant to cross-examination, and is thus contrary to the corresponding article of the Charter.

DR. STAHMER: It was not until today that the accusation was made that Göring knew of or ordered the execution of these fliers. I could not take this act into consideration when I recently offered my evidence, because I did not know of it; and I must, therefore, reserve the right to call additional witnesses on this question.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: May I say a few words, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: On the question of the admissibility?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I consider the arguments put forward by the second Defense Counsel as entirely incomprehensible from a legal point of view since he introduces certain numerical and quantitative criteria into the legal nature of the evidence. According to this Counsel, Article 21 of the Charter deals only with evidence of crimes committed on an enormous scale, but cannot touch crimes of a smaller caliber.

To me, viewing the matter from a legal point of view, this argumentation appears rotten from the root upwards and I consider that Article 21 of the Charter applies, _in toto_, to any crime committed by the Hitlerites, regardless of the fact if they be committed on a very large or on a slightly smaller scale. That is all I wish to say, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn.

[_A recess was taken._]

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Roberts, the Tribunal would like to know where these appendices which are referred to in Paragraph 9 of the report are.

MR. ROBERTS: I think they are in the Tribunal now, in the charge of the Officer of the Court.

THE PRESIDENT: They are in the court now? You can undertake, I suppose, to produce them all if they are not any of them there?

MR. ROBERTS: My Lord, most certainly. I understood the whole of the material is not necessary—the original, of course—but I understood the whole of the material to be there, all in the original, of course.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Then the Tribunal decides that the document will be admitted, and the Tribunal will summon, if he is available—and we think he is—General Westhoff; and that will be, in effect, granting the defendants’ application to call General Westhoff, and also to call the officer mentioned in Paragraph 3(b) of the appendix, whose surname appears to be Wielen. I do not know whether you know where he is.

MR. ROBERTS: I will make inquiries and I can assure the Tribunal that we will do everything in our power to get the witnesses that are required for the defense, namely, General Westhoff, who is in Nuremberg, I understand, and General Wielen. I am not certain where he is, but I will find out.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

PROFESSOR DR. HERBERT KRAUS (Counsel for Defendant Schacht): Mr. President, you made a remark during the session with which the Defense Counsel are very much concerned. If we understood this remark, it was said that private affidavits would not be accepted by the Tribunal. Considering the fact that we must offer our evidence now, this question of affidavits is very urgent. That is why I am forced to clarify that question. The Defense Counsel has. . .

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Kraus, I do not think I said that affidavits could not be admitted. What I said was, it might be that affidavits would not be admitted, if the witness was available to give direct evidence. That is the rule which we have enforced throughout the Trial.

DR. KRAUS: Yes, I understand you, Mr. President, to say that in principle we may offer affidavits, whether certified by notary public or by a lawyer or whether bearing only the signature of the person who makes the statement. These are the three forms we have: The simple letter written with the statement, “I declare under oath.” The second type is that in which the signature has been certified by a lawyer; and the third type is the one which has been declared before and certified by a notary public.

We have procured many documents of that kind, in order to expedite matters, and we would like to know whether or not we may expect to present them as evidence in order to avoid the calling of witnesses.

THE PRESIDENT: I think that in all probability the matter will be considered when you present the applications for giving evidence by affidavit. We have, today, in dealing with the first four defendants, allowed, in a variety of instances, interrogatories to be administered to various witnesses where it appeared appropriate that that should be done in order to save time. No doubt the same rule will apply when you come to submit your applications.

DR. KRAUS: Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, would it be more convenient to you to go on with your presentation now on this document which we have admitted, or do you wish to present a film?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I would like to finish the presentation of this proof, that is, to read into the record the passages from the document I have quoted.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well; but the Tribunal, I think, desire that these two witnesses, Major General Westhoff and Wielen, whatever his rank may be, should be produced for examination as soon as possible afterwards. I don’t mean this afternoon, because that would not be possible, but, if possible, tomorrow.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: If you will allow me, I shall request the representative of the British Delegation to reply to this question.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Roberts, Colonel Smirnov was saying he would ask you to answer, because I was saying that the Tribunal would like to have the witnesses called as soon as possible after the report was read.

MR. ROBERTS: Westhoff we know about, so I heard, Sir, and I am trying to make inquiries now where Wielen is. If Your Lordship will give me a few minutes I will try to find out where Wielen can be located.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

MR. ROBERTS: But I shall have to leave the Court, then, My Lord.

THE PRESIDENT: One minute, please.

Colonel Smirnov, would not it be equally convenient to go on with the film now in order that the report, when it is presented, can be presented as close as possible to the evidence of the witnesses?

Otherwise, supposing Mr. Roberts is unable to locate Wielen this afternoon, it might be that if you read the report now, there might be a week possibly—or even more—between the reading of the report and the evidence of the witness. Is it possible to go on with the film now?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: What we are showing the Tribunal cannot be called a film in the full sense of the word. It is a series of photographic evidence, of photographs taken by the Germans themselves on the site where the crimes were committed, which were then rephotographed and transferred to a reel. It is not a film—it is a photo-document. We are presenting these photo-documents as Exhibit Number USSR-442 (Document Number USSR-442), and we are presenting only one part of these photo-documents. The fact of the matter is that the Government of Yugoslavia presented photo-documents for every section of the report. We have excluded the part dealing with the other sections and show only that part which deals with Crimes against Humanity. Thus, only a section of the documents is being shown to the Tribunal. May I show these photo-documents?

[_The photographic document was then projected on the screen._]

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: May I continue with the presentation of the documentary evidence?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, in order to allow the British Prosecution to settle the question as to when the two witnesses will be summoned before the Tribunal, I take the liberty of passing to the next part of my statement. Have I your permission to do so?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I pass on to that part which deals with the persecution of the Jews, Page 37 of the text. The excessive anti-Semitism of the Hitlerite criminals, which assumed a perfectly zoological aspect, is only too well known. I shall not quote from the so-called theoretical works of the major war criminals—from Himmler and Göring to Papen and Streicher. In the Eastern European countries all the anti-Semitism of the Hitlerites was put into full effect and mostly in one way only—in the physical extermination of innocent people.

The United States Prosecution, in its own time, submitted to the Tribunal one of the reports of a special German fascist organization, the so-called Einsatzgruppe A, which was submitted as Exhibit USA-276 (Document Number L-180). Our American colleagues submitted this particular report which covered the period up to 15 October 1941. The Soviet Prosecution submits another report of this criminal German fascist organization, covering a further period of time and which might almost be considered as a continuation of the first document, namely the report on Einsatzgruppe A, from 10 October 1941 to 31 January 1942. I submit to the Tribunal a photostatic copy of this report as Exhibit Number USSR-57 (Document Number USSR-57). I request the permission of the Tribunal to read into the record a very brief excerpt from Chapter 3 of the report of Einsatzgruppe A, entitled “The Jews,” and I would invite the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that the data presented in this report refer exclusively to one organization—Einsatzgruppe A. I quote one paragraph from Page 170 of the document book:

“The systematic task of purging the East was, according to
fundamental orders, the liquidation of the Jews to the fullest
possible extent. This objective has been practically realized,
with the exception of Bielorussia, by the execution of 229,052
Jews. . . . The surviving Jews in the Baltic provinces are
urgently needed for work, and have been quartered in ghettos.”

I interrupt the quotation and read two further excerpts from a subparagraph, “Estonia,” on Page 2 of the Russian text, which corresponds to Page 171, Paragraph 2 of your document book. I begin the quotation:

“The execution of the Jews, insofar as they were not
indispensable for working purposes, was carried out gradually by
forces of the Sipo and the SD. At present there are no Jews left
in Estonia.”

I quote a few brief excerpts from the subparagraphs entitled “Latvia.” I quote one line from the last paragraph on the second page of the Russian text, Page 171, Paragraph 5 of the document book. I begin:

“When the German troops entered Latvia, there were still 70,000
Jews left there.”

I break off the quotation and read one line on Page 3, Paragraph 2 of the Russian text, Page 171, last paragraph of the document book:

“By October 1941 the Sonderkommandos had executed about 30,000
Jews.”

I again break off and continue with the following paragraph:

“Further executions were later carried out. Thus, for instance,
11,034 Jews were executed on 9 November 1941 in Dünaburg. In the
beginning of December 1941, as a result of an operation carried
out in Riga and following the order of the Higher Chief of the
SS and Police, 27,800 persons were executed, and in mid-December
1941, in Libau, 2,350 Jews were executed. At present there are
in ghettos, besides the Jews from Germany, about 2,500 Latvian
Jews in Riga, about 950 in Dünaburg, and about 300 in Libau.”

THE PRESIDENT: Can you tell me where these figures come from? Are they in an official report, or are they German figures?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: These are the data published by the Germans themselves. This particular document was discovered in the Gestapo archives. It was brought out of Latvia by troops of the Red Army. I request Your Honors to take note that this document covers only the period between 16 October 1941 and 31 January 1942. This is therefore not conclusive data but merely data connected with one German operational group during this particular period of time.

Have I your permission to proceed, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I quote one line only from the subparagraph entitled “Lithuania,” which is on Page 173 of the document book, Paragraph 3:

“In numerous individual operations, 136,421 persons were
liquidated all told.”

I request the Tribunal to allow me to quote in greater detail from the next subparagraph of the “A” group report, entitled “White Ruthenia.” I quote the last paragraph on Page 5 of the Russian text; Page 174, last paragraph, of the document book:

“The final and definite liquidation of the Jews remaining in the
territory of White Ruthenia, after the arrival of the Germans,
presented certain difficulties. As a matter of fact, it is
precisely in this territory that the Jews constitute a high
percentage of specialists and are indispensable for lack of
other reserves. Moreover, Einsatzgruppe A took over the
territory only after the hard frosts had set in, a fact which
hampered the carrying out of the mass executions very seriously
indeed. A further difficulty consists in the circumstance that
the Jews are scattered all over the territory. Bearing in mind
the fact that distances are vast, road conditions bad,
transportation and petrol lacking, and the forces of the
Security Police and SD insignificant, the executions could be
carried out only by a maximum effort. Nevertheless, 41,000 Jews
have already been shot. This figure does not include the persons
executed by former Einsatzkommandos.”

I interrupt once more and proceed to read from the following paragraph—this corresponds to Page 175, Paragraph 2 of the document book. I begin the quotation:

“The Chief of Police in White Ruthenia, despite the difficult
situation, has been given orders to solve the Jewish question as
soon as possible. All the same, this calls for about two months’
time, according to the weather.

“The distribution of the remaining Jews in special ghettos of
White Ruthenia is nearing its end.”

In order to show how mass executions of the Jews by the German criminals were carried out, I present to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-119(a) (Document Number USSR-119(a)) a photostatic copy, certified by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union of an original German document. This is the conclusive report of the commander of one of the companies of the 12th Regiment of Police, which carried out the mass extermination of the Jews assembled in the ghetto of the town of Pinsk. On 29 and 30 October 1942, the criminal elements from the 15th Regiment of Police murdered 26,200 Jews in Pinsk. This is how Company Commander Sauer described the crime. I shall not quote the document _in toto_ since it is rather long, but I shall quote a few excerpts. The passage I am about to read—and I ask the Tribunal’s permission to read it into the record—is on Page 177 of your document book, Paragraph 3. I begin the quotation:

“The ordered encirclement of the districts was accomplished at
0430 hours; owing to the personal investigations made by the
commanders and to the manner in which the secret was kept, the
encirclement was carried out in the shortest time imaginable and
it was impossible for the Jews to flee.

“The combing of the ghetto was to begin at 0600 hours, but owing
to the darkness it was postponed for another half-hour. The Jews
had noticed the proceedings and began to assemble voluntarily in
all the streets. With the aid of two Wachtmeister (Staff
Sergeants) it was possible to bring several thousand Jews to the
assembly point within the very first hour. When the remaining
Jews realized what was coming, they too joined this column, so
that the screening planned by the SD at the assembly point could
not be carried out in view of the enormous multitude which had
gathered. (For the first day of the comb-out only one to two
thousand persons had been counted on.) The first comb-out ended
at 1700 hours without any incident. About 10,000 persons were
executed on this first day. That night the company was standing
by, ready for action, in a soldiers’ club.

“On 30 October 1942 the ghetto was combed a second time. On 31
October it was combed for the third time and on 1 November for
the fourth time. About 15,000 Jews were rounded up, all told.
Sick Jews and children left behind in the houses were executed
on the spot in the yard of the ghetto. About 1,200 Jews were
executed in the ghetto.”

I request the permission of the Tribunal to allow me to continue quoting the second page of the document which corresponds to Page 178 of the document book, Paragraph 6. I quote two points from the section “Experiences.” I begin to quote:

“3) Where there are no cellars and a considerable number of
persons are huddled together in the small space between the
floor and the ground, these places must be broken into from the
outside, or else police dogs sent in (one police dog, Asta, put
up a remarkably good performance in Pinsk), otherwise a hand
grenade should be thrown in, after which the Jews invariably
come out into the open.”

I further quote Point 5:

“We recommend persuading half-grown persons to disclose these
hiding places by promising to spare their lives. This method has
fully justified its application.”

This example of this police regiment, which I have just read into the record, is typical of the methods applied for the extermination of Jews who had been rounded up in the ghetto. But the German fascist invaders did not always apply this method when proceeding to the extermination of the peaceful Jewish population.

Another, similarly criminal device was the assembling of Jews in a given spot under the pretext of transferring them to some other locality. The assembled Jews would then be shot. I submit to the Tribunal an original poster which had been put up in the town of Kislovodsk by Kommandantur Number 12. Your Honors will find the text (Document Number USSR-434) quoted on Page 180. I shall quote some extracts from this poster which is a comparatively long one. I start with the first part:

“To all Jews! For the purpose of colonizing sparsely populated
districts of the Ukraine, all Jews residing in Kislovodsk and
all Jews who have no permanent abode are ordered to present
themselves on Wednesday, 9 September 1942, at 5 a. m. Berlin
time (6 a. m. Moscow time), at the goods’ station in Kislovodsk;
the transport will take off at 6 a. m. (7 a. m. Moscow time).

“Every Jew is to bring luggage not exceeding 20 kilograms in
weight, including food for a minimum of 2 days. Further food
will be supplied by the German authorities at the railway
stations.”

I omit the next paragraph and only quote one line:

“Also subjected to transfer are the Jews who have been
baptized.”

I break off the quotation at this point.

In order to ascertain what happened to the Jewish population in the town of Kislovodsk—the same happened to the Jews in many other towns—I would request the Tribunal to refer to the contents of a document which has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-1 (Document Number USSR-1). It is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Stavropol region.

The part which I wish to read, in brief, is on Page 187 of your document book. It states there that the 2,000 Jews who had assembled at the Kislovodsk station were sent to the station of Mineralniye Vody and shot in an antitank trench 2½ kilometers distant from the town. Here too, thousands of Jews, transferred from the towns of Essentuki and Piatigorsk, were shot on the same site.

In order to show the extent of the criminal extermination of the peaceful Jewish population in Eastern Europe, I now refer to the contents of reports received from the governments of the respective Eastern European countries, which have already been submitted to the Tribunal.

I quote a report of the Polish Government, on Page 136 of the Russian text of this document. I begin the quotation:

“The official statistical yearbook of Poland, in 1931, estimates
the number of Jews at 3,115,000.

“According to unofficial figures collected in 1939 there were in
Poland 3,500,000 Jews.

“After the liberation of Poland the Jews in that country
numbered less than 100,000, and 200,000 Polish Jews are still in
the U.S.S.R.

“Thus, about 3 million Jews perished in Poland.”

In Czechoslovakia, as seen from the data published on Pages 82-83 of the Russian text of the report, the Jews numbered 118,000. At present, in the entire country, they number only 6,000 all told. Of the total number of 15,000 Jewish children, only 28 have returned.

THE PRESIDENT: Can we leave off here?

[_The Tribunal adjourned until 27 February 1946 at 1000 hours._]

SIXTY-NINTH DAY
Wednesday, 27 February 1946

_Morning Session_

SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: May it please the Tribunal, I wonder if the Tribunal would allow me to make a very short explanation as to the source of the document with regard to Stalag Luft III which the Tribunal discussed yesterday.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: The position was that when evidence for this Trial was being collected, each government that might be concerned was written to and asked if they would produce government reports, and they have produced government reports which have been put before the Tribunal by the various sections of the Prosecution.

The document with regard to the shooting of the prisoners in Stalag Luft III was a British Government report of the same type. It was compiled from various information, which is included in the appendices; that information included the interrogation of General Westhoff, which had been sent to the United Nations War Crimes Commission as thousands of other documents were sent, for that Commission to consider whether any action should be taken from the matters disclosed.

That document was then sent from the United Nations War Crimes Commission to the British Government and dealt with as part of the material on which the British Government report was based. The British Government report is certified by myself to be a Government report, and I have specific authority from His Majesty’s Government in Britain to perform such certification. It is very short, and it might be convenient if I read it so that it appears in the record. I have the copy, which was sent to me on the official Cabinet paper, purporting to be signed by Sir Edward Bridges, the Secretary to the Cabinet. The original was sent to the Attorney General, and the document is jointly to us both; but there is no doubt as to its authenticity; and the original can be produced, if necessary. The document reads:

“His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland has authorized the Right Honorable Sir
Hartley Shawcross, K. C., M. P., the Chief Prosecutor for the
United Kingdom, appointed under Article 14 of the Charter,
annexed to the agreement dated the 8th day of August 1945, and
the Right Honorable Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, K. C., M. P., the
Deputy Chief Prosecutor for the United Kingdom, to certify those
documents to be produced at the trial of war criminals before
the International Military Tribunal which are documents of His
Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom.”

My respectful submission is, therefore, that on my certification the document becomes a governmental document within Article 21, and it is thereupon a mandatory injunction to the Tribunal that it shall take judicial notice of such a document. At that point the document, in my respectful submission to the Tribunal, should be taken into evidence. And it is then, of course, a matter for the Defense, if they wish to call any witness, to make such application as they desire and for the Tribunal to rule on it.

But as a point of construction, I respectfully submit that once a document is certified as a government document, as all these government reports are, the Charter enjoins the Tribunal to take judicial notice of them.

THE PRESIDENT: Sir David, the Tribunal did admit the document yesterday; but they are glad of your explanation. Nothing in the order that they made is in any way inconsistent with what you have now said.

SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: If Your Lordship pleases.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: May I continue, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Colonel Smirnov.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Your Honors, I would like to recall to you certain figures which I mentioned yesterday afternoon. I am speaking about the number of Jews who were exterminated in Poland and Czechoslovakia. I allow myself to remind the Tribunal that the figures I mentioned yesterday, which were based on the report of the Polish Government, show that 3 million Jews in Poland have been exterminated. In Czechoslovakia out of 118,000 Jews only 6,000 remain.

I would now like to pass on to the report of the Yugoslav Government and will quote one paragraph, which the Tribunal will find on Page 75 of the document book, third paragraph:

“Out of 75,000 Yugoslav Jews and about 5,000 Jewish emigrées
from other countries who were in Yugoslavia at the time of the
attack—that is to say, out of a total number of about 80,000
Jews—only some 10,000 persons survived the German occupation.”

I beg the Tribunal to call to this Court a witness who will confirm these data. He is Abram Gerzevitch Suzkever, a Jewish writer, who together with his family became a victim of the German fascist criminals who had temporarily occupied the territory of the Lithuanian Soviet Republic. I beg the Tribunal to allow me to question this witness.

[_The witness, Suzkever, took the stand._]

THE PRESIDENT: What is your name?

ABRAM GERZEVITCH SUZKEVER (Witness): Suzkever.

THE PRESIDENT: Are you a Soviet citizen?

SUZKEVER: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat after me: I—and mention your name—citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—summoned as a witness in this Trial—do promise and swear—in the presence of the Court—to tell the Court nothing but the truth—about everything I know in regard to this case.

[_The witness repeated the oath in Russian._]

THE PRESIDENT: You may sit down, if you wish.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell me, Witness, where did the German occupation find you?

SUZKEVER: In the town of Vilna.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: You stayed in this town for a long time during the German occupation?

SUZKEVER: I stayed there from the first to nearly the last day of the occupation.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: You witnessed the persecution of the Jews in that city?

SUZKEVER: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I would like you to tell the Court about this.

SUZKEVER: When the Germans seized my city, Vilna, about 80,000 Jews lived in the town. Immediately the so-called Sonderkommando was set up at 12 Vilenskaia Street, under the command of Schweichenberg and Martin Weiss. The man-hunters of the Sonderkommandos, or as the Jews called them, the “Khapun,” broke into the Jewish houses at any time of day or night, dragged away the men, instructing them to take a piece of soap and a towel, and herded them into certain buildings near the village of Ponari, about 8 kilometers from Vilna. From there hardly one returned. When the Jews found out that their kin were not coming back, a large part of the population went into hiding. However, the Germans tracked them with police dogs. Many were found, and any who were averse to going with them were shot on the spot.

I have to say that the Germans declared that they were exterminating the Jewish race as though legally.

On 8 July an order was issued which stated that all Jews should wear a patch on their back; afterwards they were ordered to wear it on their chest. This order was signed by the commandant of the town of Vilna, Zehnpfennig. But 2 days later some other commandant named Neumann issued a new order that they should not wear these patches but must wear the yellow Star of David.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: And what does this yellow Star of David mean?

SUZKEVER: It was a six-pointed patch worn on the chest and on the back, in order to distinguish the Jews from the other inhabitants of the town. On another day they were ordered to wear a blue band with a white star. The Jews did not know which insignia to wear as very few lived in the town. Those who did not wear this sign were immediately arrested and never seen again.

On 17 July 1941 I witnessed a large pogrom in Vilna on Novgorod Street. The inciters of this pogrom were the forenamed Schweichenberg and Martin Weiss, a certain Herring, and Schönhaber, a German Gestapo chief. They surrounded this district with Sonderkommandos. They drove all the men into the street, told them to take off their belts and to put their hands on their heads like this [_demonstrating_]. When that order had been complied with, all the Jews were driven along into the Lukshinaia prison. When the Jews started to march off, their trousers fell down and they couldn’t walk. Those who tried to hold up their trousers with their hands were shot then and there in the street. When we walked in a column down the street, I saw with my own eyes the bodies of about 100 or 150 persons who had been shot in the street. Blood streamed through the street as if a red rain had fallen.

In the first days of August 1941 a German seized me in the Dokumenskaia Street. I was then going to visit my mother. The German said to me, “Come with me, you will act in the circus.” As I went along I saw that another German was driving along an old Jew, the old rabbi of this street, Kassel, and a third German was holding a young boy. When we reached the old synagogue on this street I saw that wood was piled up there in the shape of a pyramid. A German drew out his revolver and told us to take off our clothes. When we were naked, he lit a match and set fire to this stack of wood. Then another German brought out of the synagogue three scrolls of the Torah, gave them to us, and told us to dance around this bonfire and sing Russian songs. Behind us stood the three Germans; with their bayonets they forced us toward the fire and laughed. When we were almost unconscious, they left.

I must say that the mass extermination of the Jewish people in Vilna began at the moment when District Commissar Hans Fincks arrived, as well as the referant, or reporter on the Jewish problems, Muhrer. On 31 August, under the direction of District Commissioner Fincks and Muhrer. . .

THE PRESIDENT: Which year?

SUZKEVER: 1941.

THE PRESIDENT: Go on.

SUZKEVER: Under the direction of Fincks and Muhrer, the Germans surrounded the old Jewish quarter of Vilna, taking in Rudnitskaia and Jewish Streets, Galonsky Alley, the Shabelsky and Strashouna Streets, where some 8 to 10 thousand Jews were living.

I was ill at the time and asleep. Suddenly I felt the lash of a whip on me. When I jumped up from my bed I saw Schweichenberg standing in front of me. He had a big dog with him. He was beating everybody and shouting that we must all run out into the courtyard. When I was out in the courtyard, I saw there many women, children, and aged persons—all the Jews who lived there. Schweichenberg had the Sonderkommando surround all this crowd and said that they were taking us to the ghetto. But, of course, like all their statements, this was also a lie. We went through the town in columns and were led toward Lutishcheva Prison. All knew that we were going to our death. When we arrived at Lutishcheva Prison, near the so-called Lutishkina market, I saw a whole double line of German soldiers with white sticks standing there to receive us. While we had to pass between them they beat us with sticks. If a Jew fell down, the one next to him was told to pick him up and carry him through the large prison gates which stood open. Near the prison I took to my heels. I swam across the River Vilia and hid in my mother’s house. My wife, who was put in prison and then managed to escape later on, told me that there she saw the well-known Jewish scientist Moloch Prilutzky, who was almost dead, the president of the Jewish Society of Vilna, Dr. Jacob Wigotzky, and the young Jewish historian, Pinkus Kohn. The famous artists Hash and Kadisch were lying dead. The Germans flogged, robbed, then drove away all their victims to Ponari.

On 6 September at 6 o’clock in the morning thousands of Germans, led by District Commissar Fincks, by Muhrer, Schweichenberg, Martin Weiss, and others, surrounded the whole town, broke into the Jewish houses, and told the inhabitants to take only that which they could carry off in their hands and get out into the street. Then they were driven off to the ghetto. When they were passing by Wilkomirowskaia Street where I was, I saw the Germans had brought sick Jews from the hospitals. They were all in blue hospital gowns. They were all forced to stand while a German newsreel operator, who was driving in front of the column, filmed this scene.

I must say that not all the Jews were driven into the ghetto. Fincks did this on purpose. He drove the inhabitants of one street to the ghetto and the inhabitants of another street to Ponari. Previously the Germans had set up two ghettos in Vilna. In the first were 29,000 Jews, and in the second some 15,000 Jews. About half the Jewish population of Vilna never reached the ghetto; they were shot on the way. I remember how, when we arrived at the ghetto. . .

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Just a moment, Witness. Did I understand you correctly, that before the ghetto was set up, half the Jewish population of Vilna was already exterminated?

SUZKEVER: Yes, that is right. When I arrived at the ghetto I saw the following scene: Martin Weiss came in with a young Jewish girl. When we went in farther, he took out his revolver and shot her on the spot. The girl’s name was Gitele Tarlo.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, how old was this girl?

SUZKEVER: Eleven. I must state that the Germans organized the ghetto only to exterminate the Jewish population with greater ease. The head of the ghetto was the expert on Jewish questions, Muhrer, and he issued a series of mad orders. For instance, Jews were forbidden to wear watches. The Jews could not pray in the ghetto. When a German passed by, they had to take off their hats but were not allowed to look at him.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Were these official orders?

SUZKEVER: Yes, issued by Muhrer.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Were they posted?

SUZKEVER: Yes, they were posted in the ghetto. The same Muhrer, when he visited the ghetto, went into the shops where the Jews were working for him and ordered all workers to fall down on the ground and bark like dogs. On Atonement Day in 1941 Schweichenberg and the same Sonderkommando broke into the second ghetto and seized all the old men who were praying in the synagogues and drove them to Ponari. I remember when Schweichenberg went to the second ghetto and the man-hunters seized the Jews.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Who were these hunters?

SUZKEVER: The soldiers of the Sonderkommando who seized the Jews and whom the population called the hunters.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: So they were soldiers of the Sonderkommando, whom the population called hunters?

SUZKEVER: Yes, that is so. These hunters dragged the Jews out of the cellars and tried to drive them to Ponari. But the Jews knew that nobody returned alive and did not want to go. Then Schweichenberg began to shoot at the inhabitants of the ghetto. I remember that there was a big dog at his side; and when this dog heard the shots, it jumped at Schweichenberg and began to bite his throat like a mad dog. Then Schweichenberg killed this dog and told the Jews to bury it and to cry over its grave. We really cried then—we cried because it was not Schweichenberg but the dog that had been buried.

At the end of December 1941 an order was issued in the ghetto which stated that the Jewish women must not bear children.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I would like you to tell us how, or in what form, this order was issued by the German fascists.

SUZKEVER: Muhrer came to the hospital in Street Number 6 and said that an order had come from Berlin to the effect that Jewish women should not bear children and that if the Germans found out that a Jewish woman had given birth, the child would be exterminated.

Towards the end of December in the ghetto my wife gave birth to a child, a boy. I was not in the ghetto at that time, having escaped from one of these so-called “actions.” When I came to the ghetto later I found that my wife had had a baby in a ghetto hospital. But I saw the hospital surrounded by Germans and a black car standing before the door. Schweichenberg was standing near the car, and the hunters of the Sonderkommando were dragging sick and old people out of the hospital and throwing them like logs into the truck. Among them I saw the well-known Jewish writer and editor, Grodnensky, who was also dragged and dumped into this truck.

In the evening when the Germans had left, I went to the hospital and found my wife in tears. It seems that when she had had her baby, the Jewish doctors of the hospital had already received the order that Jewish women must not give birth; and they had hidden the baby, together with other newborn children, in one of the rooms. But when this commission with Muhrer came to the hospital, they heard the cries of the babies. They broke open the door and entered the room. When my wife heard that the door had been broken, she immediately got up and ran to see what was happening to the child. She saw one German holding the baby and smearing something under its nose. Afterwards he threw it on the bed and laughed. When my wife picked up the child, there was something black under his nose. When I arrived at the hospital, I saw that my baby was dead. He was still warm.

On the next day I went to my mother in the ghetto, and I found her room empty. A prayer book was still open on the table and a glass of tea, not yet touched. I learned that in the night the Germans had surrounded this house, seized all the inhabitants, and driven them off to Ponari. In the last days of December 1941 Muhrer gave a present to the ghetto. A carload of shoes belonging to the Jews executed at Ponari was brought into the ghetto. He sent these old shoes as a gift to the ghetto. Among them I recognized my mother’s.

Shortly afterwards the second ghetto was liquidated, and the German newspaper in Vilna announced that the Jews from this district had died of an epidemic.

On 23 December 1941, in the night, Muhrer came and distributed among the population 3,000 yellow tickets, the so-called Ausweise. Those who had these tickets were allowed to register their relatives; that meant some 9,000 persons. At that time about 18 to 20 thousand people lived in the ghetto. Those who had these yellow tickets went to work the next day; and the others, who remained in the ghetto without these tickets and did not want to go to their death, were slaughtered in the ghetto itself. The rest were driven away to Ponari.

I have a document which I found after the liberation of the town of Vilna, concerning the Jewish clothing from Ponari. If this document interests you I can show it to you.

THE PRESIDENT: Do you have the document?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I do not know of this document either, Mr. President.

SUZKEVER: [_Continuing._] This document reads as follows—I will read only a few lines. . .

[_The witness read the document in German, and only part of it was translated. It was later identified as Document USSR-444._]

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Witness, as you have read this document, you must hand it over to the Tribunal, as otherwise we cannot judge this document.

SUZKEVER: Certainly.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you tell us first of all where the document was found?

SUZKEVER: I found this document at the district commissioner’s building in Vilna, in July 1944, when our city was already liberated from the German invaders.

THE PRESIDENT: Where did you say it was found?

SUZKEVER: In the building of the District Commissar in Vilna on the Gedemino Street.

THE PRESIDENT: Was that the building occupied by the Germans?

SUZKEVER: Yes, it was the headquarters of the German District Commissioner of Vilna. Hans Fincks and Muhrer lived there.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, read the part of the document you were reading just now; we did not hear it.

SUZKEVER: Certainly.

“To the District Commissioner at Vilna: Pursuant to your order,
the old Jewish clothing from Ponari is at present being
disinfected by this establishment and delivered to the
administration of Vilna.”

THE PRESIDENT: Will you hand it in, please?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please, Witness, I am interested in the following question: You said that at the beginning of the German occupation 80,000 Jews lived in Vilna. How many remained after the German occupation?

SUZKEVER: After the occupation about 600 Jews remained in Vilna.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Thus, 79,400 persons were exterminated?

SUZKEVER: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Your Honors, I have no further questions to ask of the witness.

THE PRESIDENT: Does any other Chief Prosecutor want to ask any questions?

SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: No questions.

MR. DODD: No questions.

THE PRESIDENT: Does any member of the defendants’ counsel wish to ask any questions? No? Then the witness can retire.

[_The witness left the stand._]

Yes, Colonel Smirnov.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I would like to modify the plan of my statement and leave out just now that chapter of my statement which is entitled, “Religious Persecutions,” to which I shall come back a little later. I would now like, with your permission, to take up that part of my statement which is entitled, “Experiments on Living Persons.” It is on Page 47 of the Russian text.

Before reading this part of my statement, I would like to quote a few short extracts from a document which has not as yet been read into the record by our United States colleagues, because the main part of this document refers to experiments which were described in detail by the United States Prosecution with the help of other documents. This document is registered under Document Number 400-PS (Exhibit Number USSR-435). It refers to experiments by Dr. Rascher. It is submitted to the Tribunal as a photostat copy, which includes a series of documents. I quote two paragraphs only from this Document Number 400-PS. These two paragraphs testify to the predilection of Dr. Rascher for the Auschwitz Camp. This extract is on Page 149 of the document book, last paragraph:

“It would be simpler if I were soon transferred to the Waffen-SS
and could visit the Auschwitz Camp with Neff, where I could, by
a series of large scale experiments, solve the problem of
reviving people who had been frozen on land. For these
experiments Auschwitz is in every respect better adapted than
Dachau, for the climate is colder there and, as the camp area is
larger, less attention will be attracted. The victims yell when
they are being frozen.

“If it is agreeable to you, esteemed Reichsführer, to have these
experiments—so important for our land forces—quickly carried
out at Auschwitz (or in Lublin or any other Eastern camp), I
would respectfully beg you to give the necessary orders in the
near future so that we could yet profit by the last cold, winter
weather. With most obedient greetings I am, in sincere
gratitude, Heil Hitler, your always devoted servant, S.
Rascher.”

I would like to remind the Tribunal that this special interest of Dr. Rascher in the Auschwitz Camp—I remind the Tribunal that Auschwitz was the central section of the camp situated near the town of Oswieczim—was not accidental. In Auschwitz cruel experiments on live persons were carried out on a scale greatly exceeding all that was done in Dachau or other concentration camps of the Reich.

Our Exhibit Number USSR-8 (Document Number USSR-8) has already been added to the file of the case. It is the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union on the monstrous crimes of the German Government in Oswieczim. The introductory part of this report contains the following excerpt, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 196 of the document book. I read one paragraph only:

“Special hospitals, surgical blocks, histological laboratories,
and other departments were set up in the camp. But they were
intended not for the treatment but for the extermination of
people. Here German professors and doctors carried out mass
experiments on men, women, and children who were in perfectly
good health. They carried out experiments on sterilization of
women, on castration of men, experiments on children, artificial
infection with cancer, typhus, and malaria, of masses of people
who were afterward subjected to observation. They tested the
action of poisonous substances on living persons.”

I would like to stress that experiments on the sterilization and castration of women and men were carried out on a particularly large scale. Whole blocks in the camp were especially designated for experiments using particularly effective methods of sterilization and castration.

I will read two short excerpts from the report of the Extraordinary State Commission, which the Tribunal will find on the back of Page 196 of the document book, Paragraph 5. I quote:

“Experiments on women were carried out in the hospital blocks of
the Oswieczim Camp. Up to four hundred women were detained
simultaneously in Block 10 of the camp, and experiments on
sterilization were carried out on them by means of X-rays and
subsequent removal of the ovaries, experiments in engrafting
cancer in the neck of the uterus and forced abortion, and on
testing countermeasures against injuries to the uterus by
X-ray.”

I omit three sentences and proceed with the quotation:

“In Block 21”—that is another block, the women’s block was
Number 10—“mass experiments on castration of men were carried
out for the purpose of studying the possibility of sterilization
by X-ray. The castration itself was carried out some time later
after the X-ray process. These experiments on X-raying and
castration were carried out by Professor Schumann and Dr.
Dering. It frequently happened that after treatment by X-ray,
one or both testicles of the subject were removed for
examination.”

I beg the Tribunal to allow me, in order to show the extent of these experiments, to read short excerpts from the testimony of the Dutch Doctor De Vind. It is contained in the Exhibit Number USSR-52 (Document Number USSR-52) already presented to the Court. I will not read the testimony in full but will just quote the statistics, which the Tribunal may find on the back of Page 203 of the document book, last paragraph, first column. I repeat that these numbers refer only to one block, Block 10. The following women were interned in this block:

“Fifty women of different nationalities who arrived in March
1943; 100 Greek women who arrived in March 1943; 110 Belgian
women who arrived in April 1943; 50 French women who arrived in
July 1943; 40 Dutch women who arrived in August 1943; 100 Dutch
women who arrived on 15 September 1943; and 100 Dutch women who
arrived one week later; and finally 12 Polish women.”

I will quote a further excerpt from the statement of the Dutch Doctor De Vind, which has also been submitted previously to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-52 (Document Number USSR-52), I quote that part of the statement in which he speaks of experiments carried out by a certain Professor Schumann on 15 young girls. Your Honors will find this excerpt on Page 204 of the document book, first column of the text, third paragraph:

“Professor Schumann (a German). These experiments were carried
out on 15 girls of 17 to 18 years of age, including Shimmi
Bella, from Salonika (Greece) and Buena Dora, from Salonika
(Greece). Only a few of them survived; but unfortunately they
are still in the German hands, and we have consequently no
objective data on these brutal experiments. However, the
following has been established beyond doubt: The girls were
placed between two plates within the field of ultra-short waves;
one electrode was placed on the abdomen and the other on the
buttocks. The focus of the rays was directed on the ovaries
which were consequently burned out. As a result of the irregular
dosage, serious burns appeared on the abdomen and on the
buttocks. One girl died of these terrible sufferings; the other
girls were sent to Birkenau to the medical unit or to working
kommandos.

“A month later they were returned to Oswieczim, where they were
subjected to two operations for checking the results; one,
longitudinal, the other, a horizontal incision. The reproductive
organs were removed for study. As a result of the destruction of
hormones, the girls completely changed in appearance and
resembled old women.”

With this I end the quotation.

Experiments on sterilization of women and castration of men were carried out in Oswieczim on a mass scale beginning in 1942, and some time after the sterilization the men were castrated for a special study of the tissues.

You can find a confirmation of this fact in the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union on Oswieczim, where numerous statements of individual internees who underwent such operations have been quoted. The Tribunal will find the excerpt which I wish to read on Page 197 of the document book, second paragraph, second column of the text. I quote two paragraphs:

“Valigura, who was subjected to such experiments, stated:

“‘A few days after I had been brought to Birkenau, I believe it
was in the first days of December 1942, all the young men from
18 to 30 years of age were sterilized by X-raying the scrotum. I
myself was among those sterilized. Eleven months later, that is
to say, on the 1st of November 1943, I was castrated. Together
with me on that same day 200 men were sterilized.’

“Witness David Sures, from the town of Salonika (Greece), stated
the following:

“‘Toward July 1943 I myself and 10 other Greeks were placed on
some kind of list and sent to Birkenau. There we were stripped
and subjected to sterilization by X-rays. A month later we were
summoned to a central section of the camp where all those
sterilized underwent an operation of castration.’”