Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremburg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946, Volume 07

by Various

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.

On 7 November 1941 a secret conference took place in Berlin, at which Göring gave directives to his officials concerning the utilization of Soviet citizens for forced labor. These directives came to our knowledge from a document which is Secret Circular Number 42006/41 of the Economic Staff of the German Command in the East, dated 4 December 1941. This is how these directives run:

“1. Russians must be used chiefly for road and railway construction, cleaning-up operations, demining and airfield construction. German construction battalions must be disbanded (for instance those of the air force). Skilled German workers must work in war production; they must not dig and break stones—the Russian is there for that purpose.

“2. It is essential to utilize the Russian primarily for the following types of work: Mining, road construction, war production (tanks, guns, aircraft equipment), agriculture, building, in large workshops (shoemaking) and in special detachments for urgent unforeseen jobs.

“3. In taking measures to keep order, the decisive considerations are speed and severity. Only the following types of punishment, without any intermediate punitive sanctions, will be imposed: deprivation of food or death by sentence of court-martial.”

The Defendant Fritz Sauckel was appointed Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor by Hitler’s order of 21 March 1942. On 20 April 1942 Sauckel sent to several government and military organs his top-secret “Program of the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor,” which is no less foul than the circular referred to above. This is what is said in the “Program”:

“It is extremely necessary fully to utilize the human reserves available in occupied Soviet territories. If attempts to attract the necessary labor voluntarily do not succeed, it will be necessary to resort immediately to recruitment or to the compulsory signing of individual contracts.

“Besides the prisoners of war we already have, and who are still located in the occupied territories, there is need mainly for the recruitment of skilled male and female civilian workers over 15 years of age from the Soviet provinces for utilization in Germany.

“In order that the burden on the overworked German peasant woman should be noticeably lightened, the Führer has ordered me to bring 400,000 to 500,000 selected, healthy, and strong girls to Germany from the Eastern territories.”

Yet another secret document concerning the utilization of women workers from the Eastern territories, for domestic labor in Germany, has been presented to the Tribunal by the Prosecution. This document is composed of excerpts from the report on a meeting held by Sauckel on 3 September 1942. I quote some of these excerpts:

“1. The Führer has ordered that between 400,000 and 500,000 Ukrainian women aged between 15 and 35 be brought immediately for domestic labor.

“2. The Führer has expressed categorically his desire that a large number of these girls . . . be Germanized.

“3. It is the Führer’s will that, in 100 years’ time, 250 million German-speaking people should live in Europe.

“4. . . . to consider these women workers from the Ukraine as workers from the East, and to put the sign ‘Ost’ “—East—” on them.

“5. Gauleiter Sauckel added that apart from the introduction of women workers for domestic labor it was intended to utilize an additional million workers from the East.

“6. References to the difficulty of bringing stocks of grain to Germany from other countries did not worry him (Sauckel) at all. He would find ways and means to utilize Ukrainian grain and cattle, even if he would have to mobilize all the Jews in Europe and make of them a living chain of conveyors to get all the necessary boxes to the Ukraine.”

Foreseeing the inevitability of the failure of existing measures to recruit Soviet citizens by force for labor in Germany, Sauckel ordered, in a secret directive of 31 March 1942, Number FA 578028/729:

“The recruitments for which you are responsible must be enforced by all available means, including the severe application of the principle of compulsory labor.”

Sauckel and his agents used all possible methods of pressure and terror to carry out the plans of recruitment. They starved the Soviet citizens condemned to this recruitment, lured them to the stations under pretense of distribution of bread, surrounded them with soldiers, loaded them into trains under the threat of shooting them, and took them to Germany. But even these coercive methods did not help. The recruitment was not successful. Then Sauckel and his agents had recourse to a quota system. This is testified to by an order of a German commandant, captured by the Red Army forces when the occupied part of the Province of Leningrad was liberated. It runs as follows:

“To the mayors of village communities. . . . Since a very small number of people have so far presented themselves for labor in Germany, every mayor of a village community must, in accord with the elders of the villages, provide 15 or more persons from each village community for labor in Germany. Healthy people aged between 15 and 50 must be provided.”

The chief of the political police and of the Security Service in Kharkov stated in his report on the situation in the town of Kharkov, covering the period from 24 July to 9 September 1942:

“The recruitment of labor is worrying the competent agencies, since an extremely antagonistic attitude to transportation for work in Germany is observed among the population. At present the situation is such that everyone tries by every available means to escape recruitment (malingering, escape into the forests, bribery of officials, et cetera). As for working in Germany voluntarily, this has been out of the question for a long time past.”

That citizens deported to German slavery were subjected to the most brutal treatment is shown by a vast quantity of complaints and statements collected by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union for ascertaining and investigating the crimes of the Germano-fascist invaders.

Polish, Czechoslovak, and Yugoslav citizens deported to German slavery suffered the same fate.

In carrying out their plans of conquest and plunder, the Hitlerites systematically destroyed towns and villages, destroyed the treasures created by labors of many generations and plundered the peaceful population. Together with their accomplices—the criminal Governments of Finland and Romania—the Hitlerites developed their plans for the destruction of the largest cities of the Soviet Union. A document, emanating from the naval war staff, dated 29 September 1941 and entitled “The Future of the City of Leningrad,” contains the following statement:

“The Führer has decided to wipe the city of Leningrad from the face of the earth. Finland has also declared clearly that she is not interested in the further existence of the city in the immediate vicinity of her new boundary.”

On 5 October 1941 Hitler addressed a letter to Antonescu, the special object of which was to co-ordinate their plans for seizing and destroying the city of Odessa.

An order of the German Commander-in-Chief, dated 7 October 1941 and signed by the Defendant Jodl, prescribed that Leningrad and Moscow should be wiped from the face of the earth.

“In the case of all other towns, too”—states the order—“the rule should hold that, prior to their occupation, they should be reduced to ruins by artillery fire and by air raids. It is inadmissible that a German soldier’s life should be risked in order that Russian towns be saved from fire.”

These directives of central German authorities were widely applied by military commanders of all ranks. Thus an order to the 512th German Infantry Regiment, signed by Colonel Schittnig, prescribes that the regions and districts conquered by the Hitlerites be turned into a desert area. In order that this crime should lead to the most destructive results, the order gives a detailed plan for the annihilation of inhabited localities.

“Preparations for the destruction of inhabited localities”—the order states—“should be made in such a manner that: (a) No suspicion be aroused among the civilian population, prior to announcement; (b) it should be possible to start the destructions at once, by one blow, at an appointed time. . . . On the day designated, particularly strict watch should be kept on inhabited localities so as not to allow any civilians to leave them, especially from the moment the announcement regarding the destruction is made.”

An order by the commander of the 98th German Infantry Division, dated 24 December 1941, is even entitled, “Program of Destruction.” This order gives concrete directions regarding the destruction of a number of inhabited localities and suggests that:

“Available stocks of hay, straw, food supplies, et cetera, are to be burnt. All stoves in homes should be put out of action by hand grenades so that their further use be made impossible. On no account is this order to fall into the hands of the enemy.”

Special squads of fire raisers (torch bearers) were formed, which set fire to the treasures created by the labor of generations.

Your Honors, I wish to draw your attention to the document known as “Directives for the Control of Economy in the Newly Occupied Eastern Territories”—the “Green File.” Göring is the author of these directives. This secret document is dated “Berlin, June 1941.” I will quote only a few excerpts from it. The first quotation is:

“Pursuant to the Führer’s”—Hitler’s—“orders, it is necessary to take all measures for the immediate and full exploitation of the occupied territories for Germany’s benefit. To obtain for Germany the largest possible amount of food supplies and crude oil—such is the main economic objective of the campaign. At the same time German industry must also be supplied with other kinds of raw materials from the occupied territories. The first task is to supply the German armies with the utmost speed entirely from the resources of the occupied territories.”

Second quotation:

“The opinion that the occupied territories should be restored to order as soon as possible, and their economy re-established, is quite out of place. . . . The . . . restoration of order must take place only in those areas from which we can obtain considerable supplies of agricultural products and crude oil; in others . . . economic activity must be limited to the exploitation of such stocks as are discovered.”

Third quotation:

“All raw materials, semi-manufactured, and finished goods must be withdrawn from the markets by means of orders, requisitions, and confiscations. Platinum, magnesium, and rubber should be collected immediately and removed to Germany. Foodstuffs, as well as articles of domestic and personal use, and clothing discovered in the combat zone and in the rear areas, are to be placed, in the first instance, at the disposal of the economic detachments to satisfy the needs of the armies. . . . What is rejected by them will be passed on to the next highest war economy agency.”

As I have already said at the beginning, the main objective of the German aggression against the Soviet Union was to plunder the Soviet country and to obtain the economic resources necessary for Hitlerite Germany, without which she could not carry out her imperialistic plans of aggression.

Göring’s Green File represented the extensive program, developed beforehand by the fascist conspirators, for the organized plunder of the Soviet Union.

This program laid down in advance concrete plans for plunder: The forcible confiscation of valuables, the organization of slave labor in our cities and villages, the abolition of wages in industrial establishments, the uncontrolled issue of completely insecure currency, et cetera. To materialize this program of plunder, the creation of special machinery was provided with its own economic command, economic staffs, its own intelligence, inspectorate, army units, detachments for collecting means of production, detachments for collecting raw materials, military agronomists, agricultural officers, et cetera.

Together with the advancing German armies, there also moved detachments of the economic departments of the Army, whose task was to determine the available supplies of grain, cattle, fuel, and other property. These detachments were subordinated to a special economic inspectorate which had its seat in the rear areas.

Soon after the attack on the U.S.S.R. Hitler’s decree of 29 June 1941 placed the entire control of the loot of occupied territories in the hands of the Defendant Göring. By this decree Göring was given the right to take “all measures necessary for the maximum utilization of all stocks discovered and of the country’s economic capacity in the interests of German war economy.” The Defendant Göring directed the predatory activities of the German military and economic detachments with the greatest zeal.

At a conference held on 6 August 1942 with the Reich commissioners and representatives of the military command, Göring demanded that the plunder of occupied territories be intensified:

“You are sent there”—Göring pointed out—“not to work for the benefit of the peoples entrusted to you, but in order to pump out of them all that is possible.”—And further on—“I intend to plunder and to plunder effectively.”

As established by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union, these directives of Göring were carried out by the Reich ministers and representatives of German firms, under whose control were various kinds of economic groups, technical battalions, economic staffs, and economic inspectorates. Particularly active in the plunder of property of the Soviet Union were the German firms Friedrich Krupp A.G.; Hermann Göring; Siemens-Schuckert; the Mining and Metallurgical Company “Ost”; the Corporation “Nord”; Heinrich Lanz; Landmaschinenbauindustrie; I. G. Farbenindustrie, and many others.

While they plundered and pillaged state and private property, the Hitlerite invaders doomed to starvation and death the population of the districts thus plundered. Field Marshal Reichenau’s order of 10 October 1941, which was distributed as a model among all German units together with a note saying that Hitler considered it an excellent order, contained the following incitement to plunder and exterminate the population, “To supply local inhabitants and prisoners of war with food is an act of unnecessary humanity.”

The notes on the conference held in Rovno, from 26 to 28 August 1942, which were discovered in Defendant Rosenberg’s files, state:

“The object of our work is to make the Ukrainians work for Germany; we are not here to make these people happy. The Ukraine can give us what is lacking in Germany. This object must be achieved irrespective of losses.”

Following the directives of the Defendant Göring, the local authorities mercilessly and completely plundered the population of the occupied territories. An order discovered at a number of places in the Kursk and Orel districts by units of the Red Army contains a list of property to be handed over to the military authorities. Things like scales, sacks, salt, lamps, saucepans, oilcloth, blinds, and gramophones with records are mentioned in the order. “All this property,” the order states, “must be delivered to the commander. Those guilty of infringing this order will be shot.”

In their fierce hatred of the Soviet people and their culture, the German invaders destroyed scientific and artistic institutions, historical and cultural monuments, schools and hospitals, clubs and theaters.

“No historic or artistic treasures in the East”, Field Marshal Reichenau decreed in his order, “are of importance.”

The destruction of historical and cultural treasures carried out by the Hitlerites assumed vast proportions. Thus, in a letter of 29 September 1941 from the Plenipotentiary General for Bielorussia to Rosenberg, it is stated:

“According to the report of the major of the 707th Division, who today handed over to me the remaining treasures, the SS men left the rest of the pictures and works of art to be plundered by the armed forces; these included extremely valuable pictures and furniture dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, vases, marble sculptures, et cetera. . . .

“. . . the museum of history was also completely destroyed. From the geographical section, valuable precious and semi-precious stones were looted. In the university, scientific instruments to a total value of hundreds of thousands of marks were senselessly smashed or stolen.”

In the territory of those districts of the Moscow province which were temporarily occupied by the fascists, the occupants destroyed and looted 112 libraries, 4 museums, and 54 theaters and cinemas. The Hitlerites looted and burnt the famous museum at Borodino, whose historical relics pertaining to the patriotic war of 1812 are particularly dear to the Russian people. In the small village of Polotnyanny Zavod the occupants looted and burnt Pushkin’s house, which had been turned into a museum. The Germans destroyed manuscripts, books and pictures which had belonged to Leo Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana. The German barbarians desecrated the grave of the great author.

The occupants looted the Bielorussian Academy of Science housing extremely rare collections of historic documents and books, and destroyed hundreds of schools, clubs, and theaters in Bielorussia (White Russia).

From the Pevlovsk Palace in the town of Slutzk the extremely valuable palace furniture, made by outstanding craftsmen of the 18th century, was removed to Germany. From the Peterhof palaces the Germans removed all the remaining sculptured and carved ornaments, carpets, pictures, and statues. The Great Palace of Peterhof, constructed in the reign of Peter I, was barbarously burnt after it had been looted. The German vandals destroyed the State Public Library at Odessa, containing over 2 million volumes.

At Tchernigov a famous collection of Ukrainian antiquities was looted. At the Kievo-Petchersk Monastery the Germans seized documents from the archives of the metropolitans of Kiev and books from the private library of Peter Mogila, who had collected extremely valuable works on world literature. They looted the precious collections of the Lvov and Odessa museums and removed to Germany or partially destroyed the treasures of the libraries of Vinnitza and Poltava, where extremely rare copies of medieval literary manuscripts, the first printed editions of the 16th and the 17th centuries, and ancient missals were kept.

The wholesale plunder in the occupied regions of the U.S.S.R., carried out on direct orders of the German Government, was not only directed by the Defendants Göring and Rosenberg and by the various staffs and detachments subordinated to them, but the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, with the Defendant Ribbentrop at its head, also took part in the looting through a special organization.

The statement by Obersturmführer, Dr. Norman Förster of the 4th Company, Special Task Battalion of the SS Troops (Waffen-SS), published by the press at that time, bears witness of the fact. Förster stated in his deposition:

“In August 1941, while I was in Berlin, I was detached from the 87th Antitank Division and assigned to the Special Task Battalion of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, through the help of Dr. Focke, an old acquaintance of mine at Berlin University, who was then working in the Press Division of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. This battalion was formed on the initiative of Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, and acted under his direction. . . . The task of this Special Task Battalion consisted in seizing, immediately after the fall of large cities, their cultural and historical treasures, libraries of scientific institutions, selecting valuable editions of books and films, and then sending all these to Germany.”

And further:

“We obtained rich trophies in the library of the Ukrainian Academy of Science, treasuring the rarest Persian, Abyssinian, and Chinese manuscripts, Russian and Ukrainian chronicles, the initial copies of books printed by the first Russian printer, Ivan Fyodorov, and rare editions of works by Shevtchenko, Mitzkevitch, and Ivan Franko.”

Side by side with the barbarous destruction and looting of villages, towns, and national cultural monuments, the Hitlerites also mocked the religious feelings of the believers among the Soviet population. They burnt, looted, destroyed, and desecrated on Soviet territory 1,670 Greek Orthodox churches, 237 Roman Catholic churches, 69 chapels, 532 synagogues, and 258 other buildings belonging to religious institutions.

They destroyed the Uspensky Church of the famous Kievo-Petchersky Monastery, built in 1073, and with it eight monastery buildings. At Tchernigov, the Germano-fascist armies destroyed the ancient Borisoglebsky Cathedral, built at the beginning of the 12th century, the Cathedral of the Efrosiniev Monastery of Polotzk, built in 1160, and the Church of Paraskeva-Piatniza-in-the-Market, an extremely valuable monument of 12th century Russian architecture. At Novgorod the Hitlerites destroyed the Antoniev, Khutynsky, Zverin, Derevyanitzky and other ancient monasteries, the famous church of Spas-Nereditza, and a series of other churches.

The German soldiers scoffed at the religious feelings of the people. They dressed up in church vestments, kept horses and dogs in the churches, and made bunks out of the icons. In the ancient Staritzky Monastery, units of the Red Army found the naked bodies of tortured Red Army prisoners of war, stacked in piles.

The damage inflicted on the Soviet Union as a result of the destructive and predatory activities of German army units is extremely great.

The German armies and occupational authorities, carrying out the orders of the criminal Hitlerite Government and of the High Command of the Armed Forces, destroyed and looted Soviet towns and villages and industrial establishments and collective farms seized by them; destroyed works of art, demolished, stole, and removed to Germany machinery, stocks of raw and other materials and finished goods, art and historic treasures, and carried out the general plundering of the urban and rural population. In the occupied territories of the Soviet Union 88 million persons lived before the war; gross industrial production amounted to 46 million rubles (at the fixed Government prices of 1926-27); there were 109 million head of livestock, including 31 million head of horned cattle and 12 million horses; 71 million hectares of cultivated land, and 122,000 kilometers of railway lines.

The German fascist invaders completely or partially destroyed or burned 1,710 cities and more than 70,000 villages and hamlets; they burned or destroyed over 6 million buildings and rendered some 25 million persons homeless. Among the damaged cities which suffered most were the big industrial and cultural centers of Stalingrad, Sevastopol, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Odessa, Smolensk, Novgorod, Pskov, Orel, Kharkov, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, and many others.

The Germano-fascist invaders destroyed 31,850 industrial establishments employing some 4 million workers; they destroyed or removed from the country 239,000 electric motors and 175,000 metal cutting machines.

The Germans destroyed 65,000 kilometers of railway tracks, 4,100 railway stations, 36,000 post and telegraph offices, telephone exchanges, and other installations for communications.

The Germans destroyed or devastated 40,000 hospitals and other medical institutions, 84,000 schools, technical colleges, universities, institutes for scientific research, and 43,000 public libraries.

The Hitlerites destroyed and looted 98,000 collective farms, 1,876 state farms, and 2,890 machine and tractor stations; they slaughtered, seized or drove into Germany 7 million horses, 17 million head of horned cattle, 20 million pigs, 27 million sheep and goats, and 110 million head of poultry.

The total damage caused to the Soviet Union by the criminal acts of the Hitlerite armies has been estimated at 679,000 million rubles at the Government prices of 1941.

All the defendants prepared, organized, and perpetrated indescribable and blasphemous crimes, such as have never before been committed in history, against humanity and against the principles of human ethics and of international law.

In the statement of the offense in Count Four of the Indictment, it is rightly pointed out that the very plan or conspiracy was organized also for committing Crimes against Humanity. The fascist conspirators started committing Crimes against Humanity from the moment of the formation of the Hitler Party. These crimes attained vast proportions after the coming into power of the Hitlerites.

The concentration camp of Buchenwald, set up in 1938, and the camp at Dachau, established in 1934, turned out to be only the anemic prototypes of Maidanek, Auschwitz, Slavuta, and numerous death camps, set up by the Hitlerites in the territories of Latvia, Bielorussia, and the Ukraine.

The very coming into power of the Hitlerites was marked by many provocations which served as an excuse for committing grave Crimes against Humanity. Inflicting punishments without due process of law by the Hitlerites upon all who did not share the ideology of the fascist clique became widespread.

“We deny the protection of law to the enemies of the people. We National Socialists knowingly take a stand against false soft-heartedness and false humaneness. We do not recognize the sophistry of tricky lawyers and cunning juridical subtleties”—wrote Göring, as early as 1934, in an article published overseas in the Hearst press. (Göring, Hermann, Reden und Aufsätze, Zentralverlag der NSDAP, Munich, 1940, Page 159.)

In one of the articles, dated 1933, Göring regarded it as his special merit that he had reorganized the entire management of the Gestapo, having placed the Secret Police under his immediate control and organized concentration camps to be used in fighting political opponents.

“Thus”—spoke Göring—“arose the concentration camps in which we soon had to stick thousands of people belonging to the Communist and Social Democratic Party machines.”

At the disposal of the Soviet Prosecution are the notes of Martin Bormann, found in the archives of the German Foreign Office and captured by the Soviet troops in Berlin, on the conference held by Hitler on 2 October 1940. This document refers to occupied Poland. It will be submitted to the Tribunal. At the moment I shall only quote from it a few points of the Hitlerite leadership program. The conference started with the statement by Frank that his activities as Governor General could be considered very successful: The Jews in Warsaw and other cities were locked up in ghettos. Very soon Kraków would be entirely cleared of Jews.

“There must be no Polish gentry”—the document went on to state—“wherever they may be, they must be exterminated, no matter how brutal this may sound.

“. . . all representatives of the Polish intelligentsia must be exterminated. This sounds brutal, but such is the law of life. . . . Priests will be paid by us and, as a result, they will preach what we want. If we find a priest acting otherwise short work is to be made of him. The task of the priest consists in keeping the Poles quiet, stupid, and dull-witted. This is entirely in our interests. The lowest German workman and the lowest German peasant must always stand above any Pole economically.”

A special place among the unheard-of crimes of the Hitlerites is occupied by the bloody butchery of the Slavic and Jewish peoples. Hitler said to Rauschning:

“After all these centuries of whining about the protection of the poor and the lowly, it is about time we decided to protect the strong against the inferior. It will be one of the chief tasks of German statesmanship for all times to prevent, by every means in our power, the further increase of the Slav races. Natural instincts bid all living beings not merely to conquer their enemies but to destroy them. In former days it was the victor’s prerogative to destroy entire tribes, entire peoples.” (Rauschning, H., The Voice of Destruction, New York, 1940, Page 138.)

If Your Honors please, you have already heard the testimony of the witness, Eric Von dem Bach-Zelewski, about Himmler’s aims, as given by him in his speech at the beginning of 1941.

In answer to a question by a representative of the Soviet Prosecution, the witness declared, “Himmler mentioned in his speech that it was necessary to cut down the number of Slavs by 30 million.” The Tribunal will see by this what monstrous proportions the criminal ideas of the Hitlerite fanatics attained.

The Hitlerites vented their ferocity particularly on the Soviet intelligentsia. Even before the attack on the U.S.S.R., directives were prepared regarding the merciless annihilation of Soviet people for political and racial reasons. In Appendix 2 to Operational Order Number 8 of the Chief of the Security Police and SD, dated 17 June 1941, it was stated:

“It is above all essential to ascertain the identity of all prominent Government and party officials, particularly professional revolutionaries, persons working for the Comintern, all influential members of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R. and the affiliated organizations in the Central Committee and the district and regional committees, all people’s commissars and their deputies, all former political commissars in the Red Army, leading personalities of the state institutions of the central and middle administrative levels, leading personalities in economic life, the Soviet Russian intelligentsia, and all Jews.”

In a directive of 17 June 1941 for Security Police and SD detachments it is pointed out that it is necessary to take such measures, not only against the Russian people, but also against the Ukrainians, Bielorussians, Azerbaidzhanians, Armenians, Georgians, Turks, and other nationalities.

The Soviet Prosecution will present to the Tribunal actual documents and facts in this connection. The fascist conspirators planned the extermination to the last man of the Jewish population of the world and carried out this extermination throughout the whole of their conspiratorial activity from 1933 onwards.

My American colleague has already quoted Hitler’s statement of 24 February 1942, that “the Jews will be annihilated.” In a speech by the Defendant Frank, published in the Kraków Gazette on 18 August 1942, it is stated:

“Anyone who passes through Kraków, Lvov, Warsaw, Radom, or Lublin today must in all fairness admit that the efforts of the German administration have been crowned with real success, as one now sees hardly any Jews.”

The bestial annihilation of the Jewish population took place in the Ukraine, in Bielorussia, and in the Baltic States. In the town of Riga some 80,000 Jews lived before the German occupation. At the moment of the liberation of Riga by the Red Army there were 140 Jews left there.

It is impossible to enumerate in an opening statement the crimes committed by the defendants against humanity. The Soviet Prosecution has at its disposal considerable documentary material which will be presented to the Tribunal.

If Your Honors please, I here appear as the representative of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, which bore the main brunt of the blows of the fascist invaders and which vastly contributed to the smashing of Hitlerite Germany and its satellites. On behalf of the Soviet Union, I charge the defendants on all the counts enumerated in Article 6 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal.

Together with the Chief Prosecutors of the United States of America, Great Britain, and France, I charge the defendants with having prepared and carried out a perfidious attack on the peoples of my country and on all freedom-loving nations.

I accuse them of the fact that, having initiated a world war, they, in violation of the fundamental rules of international law and of the treaties to which they were signatories, turned war into an instrument of extermination of peaceful citizens—an instrument of plunder, violence, and pillage.

I accuse the defendants of the fact that, having proclaimed themselves to be the representatives of the “master race,” a thing which they have invented, they set up, wherever their domination spread, an arbitrary regime of tyranny; a regime founded on the disregard for the elementary principles of humanity.

Now, when as a result of the heroic struggle of the Red Army and of the Allied forces, Hitlerite Germany is broken and overwhelmed, we have no right to forget the victims who have suffered. We have no right to leave unpunished those who organized and were guilty of monstrous crimes.

In sacred memory of millions of innocent victims of the fascist terror, for the sake of the consolidation of peace throughout the world, for the sake of the future security of nations, we are presenting the defendants with a just and complete account which must be settled. This is an account on behalf of all mankind, an account backed by the will and the conscience of all freedom loving nations.

May justice be done!

THE PRESIDENT: We shall now adjourn. General Rudenko, your delegation will be prepared to go on after the adjournment, will you not?

GEN. RUDENKO: Yes. I would also prefer that there should now be an adjournment.

THE PRESIDENT: Do you mean an adjournment altogether for the day or what the Tribunal proposed, to adjourn now for 10 or 15 minutes, then continue until 5 o’clock? Would that not be convenient to you?

GEN. RUDENKO: All right; yes, Sir.

[A recess was taken.]

GEN. RUDENKO: If it please Your Honors, Colonel Karev will report on the order of submitting the documents to the Tribunal.

COLONEL D. S. KAREV (Assistant Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): The Soviet Prosecution begins its presentation of evidence on all counts of the Indictment. The Tribunal is already familiar with the large number of important documents presented on behalf of the Prosecution by our honorable colleagues. On its own part the Soviet Prosecution has at its disposal numerous documents relating to the criminal activities of the fascist conspirators.

In connection with Count One, dealing with the Crimes against Peace, we shall submit the following types of documents: Administrative regulations by the German authorities, orders and plans by the German military command, diaries and personal archives of several of the leaders of the fascist party and the German Government, as well as other documents. These documents were in part found by units of the Red Army on German soldiers and officers, or were discovered in concentration camps and in offices of German authorities.

In connection with Counts Two and Three, that is, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, we shall offer in evidence, in the first place, the reports and files of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union for the determination and investigation of crimes committed by the German fascist invaders and their accomplices. This commission was set up by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., dated 2 November 1942. For local work there were set up state, regional, district, and municipal commissions to assist in the work of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union for the determination and investigation of the misdeeds committed by the Germano-fascist invaders. Both the central office, as well as the local offices of the Extraordinary State Commission, were composed of prominent statesmen and representatives of different public scientific and cultural organizations, as well as of religious denominations. The Extraordinary State Commission, through its representatives and with the assistance of representatives of local groups and local state authorities has collected and checked data and drawn up protocols on the atrocities of the German invaders and on the damage caused to the Soviet Union and its citizens. Counting only the crimes committed by the Germano-fascist monsters against the peaceful citizens of the Soviet Union, 54,784 files were drawn up. In accordance with Article 21 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, these files represent unquestionable evidence. Of all these files of the Extraordinary State Commission, only an insignificant number will at present be submitted to the Tribunal by the Soviet Prosecution. In the possession of the Soviet Prosecution are also photographs showing the atrocities and destruction committed by the German invaders in the temporarily occupied territories of the U.S.S.R. Part of these photographs will be submitted to the Tribunal. Several documentary films will be offered to the Tribunal in evidence by the Soviet Prosecution. In submitting evidence relating to War Crimes committed by the conspirators, the Soviet Prosecution will also use several German documents, photographs, and films which were captured from the Germans.

The Soviet Prosecution will also submit evidence relative to crimes committed by the defendants and their accomplices against Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia. Out of this evidence special mention must be made of the official report by the Czechoslovakian Government entitled “German Crimes against Czechoslovakia.” This report was prepared on the direction of the Czechoslovakian Government by the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Dr. Boguslav Ecer, the representative of Czechoslovakia in the United Nations Commission for Investigation of War Crimes. There are documents appended to the official report on German crimes against Czechoslovakia. Among these documents there are laws, decrees, orders, et cetera, issued and officially published by the Germano-fascist authorities; documents from the archives of the Czechoslovak Government; and affidavits by persons who held prominent positions in Czechoslovakia during the occupation. There will be shown a special film concerning the destruction of Lidice. It was, in its time, prepared by official German agencies. The film was found by officials of the Czechoslovakian Ministry of the Interior. The official report on the German crimes against Czechoslovakia, as well as the documents appended thereto, on the strength of Article 21 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, represent unquestionable evidence and will be presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit USSR-60 (Document Number USSR-60).

The Soviet Prosecution will likewise present evidence regarding the crimes perpetrated by the conspirators in Poland. The basic document to be presented on this subject by the Soviet Prosecution will be the report of the Polish Government dated 22 January 1946. The official documents of the Polish Government were the primary source of the report of the Polish Government on the German crimes committed in Poland. Both the official report of the Polish Government and the documents appended thereto, on the strength of Article 21 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, represent unquestionable evidence.

And finally, the Soviet Delegation will present to the Tribunal documents concerning the crimes of German invaders committed on Yugoslav territory. The investigation of the criminal activity of the German Command and of the German occupational authorities in Yugoslavia was carried out by the Yugoslav State Commission for the investigation of crimes committed by the German occupants. The commission was created on 29 November 1943 by a decision of the Yugoslav Anti-Fascist Committee for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia. This commission, which from the beginning has always been presided over by Dr. Doushan Nedelkovitsch, professor at Belgrade University, started its work when a part of Yugoslavia was still under the domination of the German, Italian, Hungarian, and other occupants. Besides the Yugoslav State Commission, the investigation of the crimes committed by the Germano-fascist invaders was carried out by eight specially created federal commissions, as well as by district and regional commissions. On the strength of the material collected, the Yugoslav State Commission has issued 53 communiques describing the atrocities committed by the German occupants and submits its report dated 26 December 1945. This report represents unquestionable evidence, and is submitted by us as Exhibit USSR-36 (Document Number USSR-36).

It is my duty to mention that documentary evidence which has been already presented by our honorable American, British, and French colleagues will, to some extent, be used by the representatives of the Soviet Prosecution.

May it please Your Honors, in conclusion I would like to make known to the Tribunal the order in which the prosecutors from the U.S.S.R. will present their case.

The Count dealing with the Crimes against Peace (aggression against Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia) will be presented by Colonel Pokrovsky, the U.S.S.R. Deputy Chief Prosecutor.

The Count dealing with the aggression against the U.S.S.R. will be presented by State Counsellor of Justice, Third Class, Zorya.

Thereupon, Colonel Pokrovsky will present to the Tribunal the crimes committed in violation of the laws and customs of war relating to the treatment of prisoners of war.

The Count on crimes against the peaceful population of the U.S.S.R., Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia will be presented by Chief Counsellor of Justice Smirnov.

Report on the subject of the plunder of private, public, and state property will be made by General Shenin, State Counsellor of Justice of the Second Class.

Report on the plunder and destruction of cultural treasures and wanton destruction and annihilation of towns and villages will be presented by Raginsky, State Counsellor of Justice of the Second Class.

State Counsellor of Justice of the Third Class Zorya will speak on the subject of forced labor and deportation into German slavery.

Finally, Chief Counsellor of Justice Smirnov will present the report on the last subject, Crimes against Humanity.

I now end my statement.

COLONEL Y. V. POKROVSKY (Deputy Chief Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): Your Honors, Mr. President, the opening statements of the Chief Prosecutor have dealt with the question of how fascist Germany pursued the ideological preparation for aggressive war.

The connection between Hitlerite propaganda and acts of aggression against peace was also revealed in the statement of the U.S.S.R. Chief Prosecutor. Therefore may I be allowed to quote just one short extract from Horst von Metzsch’s book entitled Krieg als Saat (War as Seed), which was published in Breslau in 1934. I quote:

“It is impossible to conceive of the National Socialist movement without war. German soldier glory is its father; its finest musketeer is its leader; and war’s hardy spirit is its soul.”

That is not just a phrase dropped by a garrulous fascist penman; that is a program which is blurted out. War, and only war, was considered by the Hitlerite conspirators as the most effective means of attaining the objectives of their foreign policy. It is, therefore, only natural that Germany was turned into an armed camp and became a constant menace to her neighbors after the fascists had seized power in the country.

The East was the first objective of the fascist conspirators.

In his book Mein Kampf—it is already at the disposal of the Tribunal—Hitler wrote, as far back as 1930—in that document book which is now being handed to each member of the Tribunal, you will find the passage I am quoting from Mein Kampf in Volume I, Page 1—I consider it advisable to inform the Tribunal that for its convenience all the passages which I shall quote are marked in red pencil.

I quote: “The movement eastwards is continuing, even though Russia must be erased from the list of European powers,” (Page 732, of Mein Kampf, 1930 edition).

Hypocritically proclaiming her love of peace and giving all her neighbors assurances of her intention to live in peace with them, Hitlerite Germany merely strove to conceal her real, her ever-present aggressive intentions. The conspirators gladly concluded any agreement on arbitration, non-aggression, et cetera. They did it not because they were really striving for peace, but with the sole intention of waiting for a suitable moment to strike the next treacherous blow and of lulling to sleep the vigilance of the nations. Having committed one of their scheduled aggressive acts, they strove with still greater energy to convince everybody that from now on they had no further aggressive plans. A combination of hypocrisy and fraud, of treason and aggression, ruled the entire system of German foreign policy.

With incredible insolence the fascist conspirators violated all their international obligations, all their international agreements, including those which directly prohibited the use of war as a solution of international disputes. Not one of the wars provided by the Hitlerites can be classified under the concept of defensive wars. In every instance the Germano-fascists acted as aggressors. They admitted, themselves, that they did not hesitate to resort to provocation in order to have an excuse for attacking their next victim at the most propitious moment.

Count Two of the Indictment contains a complete list of the wars which were provoked, prepared, initiated, and waged by the fascist conspirators.

The insane imagination of the Hitlerites visualized the East as a paradise for the fascist invaders, a paradise built on the bones and blood of the millions of people who inhabited these lands.

Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe has informed the Tribunal that the Soviet Delegation would submit some new evidence regarding the criminal conspiracy against peace, and also warned you that certain repetitions could not be avoided. While striving to reduce these repetitions to a minimum, I wish to draw the attention of the Tribunal to some of the documents relating to the criminal aggression of the fascist conspirators.

As documentary evidence I submit to the Tribunal Exhibit USSR-60 (Document Number USSR-60), an official Czechoslovak report. It begins with the following significant phrase—and this phrase will be found on Page 10 of the document book, Volume I, Part 1, and is marked in red pencil: “Czechoslovakia was an obstacle to the German ‘Drang nach Osten’ (Drive to the East) or to the domination of Europe.” That is followed by an analysis of the strategic and political aspects of the aggression against Czechoslovakia.

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Pokrovsky, when you want to put in a document in evidence, you will produce the original document, will you not, and hand it to the Secretary of the Tribunal?

COL. POKROVSKY: As I stated, this (Document Number USSR-60) is followed by an analysis of the strategic and political aspects of the aggression against Czechoslovakia. I quote, beginning with the second sentence of Subparagraph (a), which for convenience is marked with a red pencil. I quote:

“Czechoslovakia was indeed of foremost strategic importance as a natural obstacle and a fortress against a military drive towards the Danube basin, and from there eastwards, across the eastern Carpathians and along the valley of the Danube, towards the Balkans.”

The gist of Subparagraph (b) is that Czechoslovakia was a democratic country; and finally Subparagraph (c) gives an analysis of Czechoslovakia from the national point of view. I shall quote this subparagraph as it is formulated in the report. You will find this in Volume I, Part 1, end of Page 11 and beginning of Page 12:

“c. From the national point of view, Czechoslovakia, as far as the vast majority of its population is concerned, was a Slav country, intensely conscious of the unity of all Slavs.”

The Tribunal will remember that the annihilation of Slavism and the destruction of democratic principles was one of the basic aims of the fascist conspiracy.

The Tribunal may have noticed that the methods of execution of aggression by the Hitlerite conspirators nearly always followed the same pattern. In all cases, lightning speed and suddenness of military attack were considered indispensable. They endeavored to attain the element of surprise by giving the prospective enemy treacherous and hypocritical assurances of their sincerely peaceful intentions. Simultaneously, wide use was made of the foul system of bribery, blackmail, provocation, financing of various kinds of pro-fascist organizations, and using as paid agents unprincipled politicians and downright traitors to their respective countries.

Mr. Alderman began his presentation of documents by giving several examples of this nature. He told the Tribunal in detail and proved by documentary evidence that the representatives of the so-called Slovak autonomous movement were bought with German money—that is, one Hans Karmazin, and the same also applies to Deputy Prime Minister Durcanski, to the notorious Tuka, and many other leaders of the Hlinka Party.

It was presented to you that at the beginning of March 1939, that is, immediately prior to the day planned for the final entry of the Nazis into Czechoslovakia, the activity of the Fifth Column reached its climax.

I believe I should present to the Tribunal certain facts about the Hitlerite organizations established for the purpose of subversive activity, and also about the part played by the SS official, Lorenz, whose name I shall mention later on in connection with the action against Czechoslovakia.

Himmler, the holder of several offices, combined in his person the position of Reichsleiter of the security units (SS) and of Reich Commissioner for the Preservation of German Nationality (Reichskommissar für die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums). As such, he was charged with the leadership of all State and Party organs within Germany, which, in turn, controlled the German settlements, the work among the Germano-fascist minorities in other countries and the remigration of Germans into Germany. In this field his executive apparatus was the so-called Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle. The leader of this organization, and therefore the actual deputy of Himmler, in this special sphere, was SS Obergruppenführer Lorenz, who will be discussed later.

There was also another criminal organization. I have in mind the foreign organization of the NSDAP (Auslands-Organisation der NSDAP), abbreviated to AO. It played an important part in creating the Fifth Column in countries which were later subjected to Hitlerite aggression.

AO united such Germans who were members of the Nazi Party living outside Germany. Apart from the wide propaganda of fascism, AO was engaged in political and other kinds of espionage. Germans living in other countries received material help through AO and maintained contact with various pro-German and espionage groups of the country in which they lived.

The sub-branches of the Hitlerite party abroad were under the guidance of German diplomatic missions. For this purpose the leader of AO, Gauleiter Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, was installed in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the rank of State Secretary.

There are several appendices to the official Czechoslovak report. One of them is registered under Document Number 3061-PS. It contains excerpts from the testimony of Karl Hermann Frank, former deputy of the Reich Protector. I submit this document to the Tribunal and, without reading it in its entirety, I wish to refer briefly to those parts of the document which deal with question of the Fifth Column.

At the interrogation of 9 October 1945—the Tribunal will find the passage quoted in Volume I, Part 1, Page 185 of the document book—Frank declared that in his opinion the Henlein Party received money from Germany from 1936 onwards. In 1938 it received funds from the so-called Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle in Berlin, through the German Minister in Prague. Frank confirmed that, together with Henlein, he several times visited the German Minister in Prague, who handed him and Henlein money for the Party. Frank admits that the acceptance of this money was incompatible with the duties of a Czechoslovak citizen. Frank further admitted that he visited the German Legation in Prague several times, alone, informed the German Minister of the inner political situation in Czechoslovakia and thus, considering the character of the information communicated, committed high treason.

Frank testifies—what I am now quoting will be found in Volume I, Part 1, Page 187:

“All negotiations in the summer of 1938 between Henlein and myself on the one hand, and the Reich authorities, in particular Adolf Hitler, Hess, and Ribbentrop on the other hand, were conducted for the purpose of providing the Reich authorities with information on the development of the political situation in Czechoslovakia. These discussions took place on the initiative of the Reich authorities.”

I have quoted this excerpt from Page 5 of the Russian translation, Document Number 3061-PS.

On Page 188 of your document book you will find another excerpt which I shall now submit to you. Frank confesses that he was aware of “the treason committed by the Party and its central leadership corps by receiving money from abroad for effecting measures inimical to the State.”

The so-called Henlein Free Corps (Sudeten Freikorps) was established in Bohemia and Moravia. During the interrogation of 15 August 1945, Karl Hermann Frank testified that Henlein and his staff were in Tandorf Castle near Reuch. Henlein himself was the chief of staff of the corps, which bore the title “Freikorps Führers.” According to Frank the Free Corps was established by Hitler’s order. Part of that corps which was in the territory of the German Reich was equipped with small arms in small quantities, as stated by Frank. According to him, the Free Corps consisted of about fifteen thousand people, chiefly Sudeten Germans. We find this information on Page 3 of the Russian translation of Document Number 3061-PS. In your book it is Page 185 of Volume I, Part 1.

Among the trophies collected by our heroic Red Army are the archives of the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The Soviet Delegation has at its disposal new documents which I consider advisable to read in part in order to supplement the data previously submitted to the Tribunal. They are particularly interesting, if we bear in mind that one of the favorite pretexts for aggression of the Hitlerite conspirators was their intention to protect the interests of the German minorities.

I shall read an excerpt from the top-secret minutes of the meeting held in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at noon, 29 March 1938 in Berlin especially on the subject of the Sudeten Germans. I shall refer to our Document Number USSR-271. You will find this passage on Page 196, Volume I, Part 1. I quote:

“The conference was attended by the gentlemen mentioned in the attached list: In his opening address the Reich Minister emphasized the importance of keeping this conference strictly secret and later, referring to the Führer’s instruction which he had personally given to Konrad Henlein yesterday afternoon, he stated that there were primarily two questions of importance to the political guidance of the Sudeten German Party.

“1) The Sudeten Germans must know that they are backed by a German nation of 75 million inhabitants who will not tolerate any further oppression of the Sudeten Germans by the Government of Czechoslovakia.

“2) It is the responsibility of the Sudeten German Party to submit to the Czechoslovak Government those demands the fulfillment of which it considered necessary to achieve the liberties it desired.”

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Pokrovsky, I am sorry to interrupt you but it is not quite clear, on the translation that has come through, whether you have deposited the original of this document and have given it an exhibit number, that is, if it has already been put in.

COL. POKROVSKY: All the documents presented by the Soviet Delegation are submitted by us to the Tribunal in Russian and they are then handed for translation to the international translators’ pool, which is charged to serve the Tribunal with translation into all the other languages. This document is referred to by me in precise correspondence with its registration number—our Number USSR-271.

THE PRESIDENT: If the original document is not in Russian, it must be deposited with the Tribunal in its original condition. I do not know what the document is. It is about a conference, apparently, and I suppose the original is in German.

COL. POKROVSKY: The original document is in German.

THE PRESIDENT: If that is so, we would like to see the original in German.

COL. POKROVSKY: The photostatic copy of the original document, in the German language, is at present at the disposal of the Tribunal. May I continue?

THE PRESIDENT: One moment. Is this the original?

COL. POKROVSKY: It is a photostat.

THE PRESIDENT: I am afraid that we must insist upon having the original.

COL. POKROVSKY: The original document is at the disposal of the Soviet Government and, if the Tribunal wishes, it can be sent for and presented to the Tribunal a little later. The photostat is certified.

THE PRESIDENT: I am afraid we must have the original documents. After the original documents have been produced and exhibit numbers given to them, they will remain in the hands of the Tribunal. Of course, the subject of the translations is quite a different one, but for the purpose of insuring that we get really genuine evidence we must have the originals deposited with the General Secretary.

COL. POKROVSKY: I note the wish of the Tribunal and we shall give instruction for the original documents to be submitted to the Tribunal, although in this case we have followed the established precedent where the Tribunal considers it sufficient to accept the certified photostats. We can submit the original, but we shall have to do it somewhat later, as not all the requisite material is in Nuremberg at the present time.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, so long as you undertake to do it. But I do not think you are right in saying that it is the practice that has been already established, because we have been demanding the production of the original document from the French prosecutors, and they have been produced.

COL. POKROVSKY: We shall take the necessary measures so that the Tribunal will receive, although of course somewhat later, all the original documents from which the present photostats were taken. May I now continue? I now continue the quotation. . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Pokrovsky, I imagine that you will be able to produce tomorrow the originals of the documents which were referred to today.

COL. POKROVSKY: I cannot promise that, because not all the originals are here. A considerable part of these documents are unique and consequently not kept in Nuremberg. Here we keep only a certain part of the originals. All that I can do is to submit, in the future, the originals at our disposal. Those which we do not have here we shall request the Soviet Government to send over in exchange for the photostats. This we can do.

THE PRESIDENT: I think the Tribunal had better adjourn for the purpose of considering this matter.

[A recess was taken.]

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal has considered the matter of the deposition of original documents, and they wish the following procedure to be adopted:

In the first place, they want original documents deposited with the General Secretary of the Tribunal, wherever possible. Secondly, where it is impossible for original documents to be deposited, or highly inconvenient, they will accept photostat copies of the original documents, provided that a certificate accompanies the photostat document that it is a true copy of an original document, and that the original is an authentic document, giving the origin of the original document and the place of its present custody. Thirdly, they will accept photostat copies for the present, on the undertaking of counsel that certificates, such as I have indicated, will be furnished as soon as possible.

Is that clear, Colonel Pokrovsky?

COL. POKROVSKY: I would ask the Tribunal to explain one point to me. Do I understand that the Tribunal only confirms its former decision and practice, which was established in connection with the presentation of the document in evidence by my American and British colleagues, or is it something new that the Tribunal is introducing? I am asking this because a similar document to the one which caused the interruption in my presentation today has already been accepted as a photostat in the same Trial under Exhibit Number USA-95 or Document 2788-PS. Therefore, it is not quite clear to me whether I am dealing with a new decision or with the confirmation of an old practice.

THE PRESIDENT: I think what you have stated is true, that this particular document does not appear to have any certificate that it is a true copy. But the Tribunal expects that the United States will produce such a certificate that it is a true copy of an authentic document and will state the origin and the custody of the original document.

COL. POKROVSKY: Pray forgive me, but I consider that the question which I wish to elucidate is of equal interest to all the prosecutors. Am I, and with me all the representatives of the Prosecution, to understand the decision of the Tribunal to mean that we are to present supplementary documentation in support of all photostats, including the photostats previously accepted by the Tribunal, or does it only refer to documents which the Soviet Delegation will present in the future?

THE PRESIDENT: If a document had been accepted in photostatic form and there has been no certificate that it was a true copy of an authentic document, then such a certificate must be given. And we desire that the certificate should also show that the document was authentic, and the place of its present custody. And that applies equally to all the chief prosecutors.

COL. POKROVSKY: Now, I understand that the Tribunal is confirming its former practice which means that we can present a photostat, but that they must be certified and that the originals should be presented whenever possible. Have I understood you correctly?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, we desire originals, if possible. If it is impossible or if it is highly inconvenient, then we will accept photostats. And in the meantime, and for your convenience—because this practice has not been perhaps adequately stated before—we will accept photostat copies without certificate, on your undertaking that you will have the certificate later on. Is that clear?

COL. POKROVSKY: I understand. The former practice will continue in operation.

If the Tribunal will permit me, I shall draw your attention to the paragraph the misunderstanding about which led to the interruption of my presentation. I have in mind the three last lines of Page 196 of the document book before you:

“The final aim of the forthcoming negotiations between the Sudeten German Party and the Czechoslovakian Government is to avoid entering the Government by widening the scope of their demands and by formulating them with ever-increasing precision. In the course of negotiations it must be pointed out very clearly that the sole partner in these negotiations with the Czechoslovakian Government is the Sudeten German Party, and not the Reich Government. . . .”

Now I can omit a few lines and go on to Page 199:

“. . . for purposes of further collaboration Konrad Henlein was advised to maintain the closest possible contact with the Reich Minister and with the leader of the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle, as well as with the German Minister in Prague, who was representing the Reich Foreign Minister there. The task of the German Minister in Prague was to uphold, unofficially, the Sudeten German Party’s demands, especially in private discussions with Czechoslovakian statesmen, by referring to them as reasonable, but without exerting any direct influence on the scope of the Party’s demands.

“Finally, the question of the advisability of the Sudeten German Party’s collaboration with the other national minorities in Czechoslovakia, especially with the Slovaks, was discussed. The Reich Minister decided that ‘the Party should be given a free hand to contact the other national groups with activities of a parallel nature which might be considered useful. Berlin, 29 March 1938.’ ”

Mr. President, Your Honors, you will find on Page 200, Volume I, Part 1 of the document book, a list of those present at the conference of 29 March 1938, in Berlin. The part which I shall quote is marked with a red pencil:

“Reichsminister Von Ribbentrop, State Secretary Von Mackensen, Ministerialdirektor Weizsäcker, Minister Plenipotentiary to Prague Eisenlohr, Minister Stiebe, Legationsrat Von Twardovsky, Legationsrat Altenburg, Legationsrat Kordt (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Others of the group were SS Obergruppenführer Lorenz, Professor Haushofer (Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle), Konrad Henlein, Karl Hermann Frank, Dr. Kuenzel, Dr. Kreisel (Sudeten German Party).”

It is not difficult to draw the correct conclusions as to the genuine intentions of the fascist conspirators with respect to Czechoslovakia, if only from the sole fact that among those attending the conference were such people as the Defendant Ribbentrop, two ministers, two representatives of the so-called Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle, including one Obergruppenführer of the SS, the prospective Secretary of State of the Czecho-Moravian Protectorate, Karl Hermann Frank, and the leader of the so-called Sudeten German Party, Konrad Henlein, a paid factotum and agent provocateur of Hitler.

German diplomatic missions directed the activities of Nazi Party branches abroad. For this purpose the leader of the AO, Gauleiter Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

On 3 June 1938 two documents were prepared by SS-man Lorenz, a participant of the conference to which I have just called the attention of the Tribunal. I shall read both of them. The first one, referring to the interview with Ward Price, indicates that Henlein was under the direct control of the SS, and it was to the SS that he was responsible for his activities. This document also contains the direct threat to resort to a “radical operation” in order to bring about the solution of the so-called Sudeten German problem.

I will read this short document into the Record under Document Number USSR-270 in full; it is on Page 202, Volume I, Part 1, of the document book:

“Regarding the interview with Ward Price which appeared in the foreign press, SS Obergruppenführer Lorenz requested an explanation from Henlein. Henlein stated about as follows:

“Ward Price was present at the burial of those executed in the town of Eger. He asked Henlein’s collaborator, Sebekovsky, to arrange a meeting with Henlein for him. Henlein knew of the interview given by the Führer to Ward Price. He had a talk with Ward Price over a cup of tea. There was no real interview. The conversation about the Sudeten German and the Czech problems took the form of a talk about appendicitis. In this connection Henlein said that one could suffer chronic attacks of appendicitis, but the best thing was a radical operation. Later on, when Ward Price published an account of this conversation, Henlein intended to disavow him. But at that moment, an order came through the Legation in Prague from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, that Henlein should settle the matter with Ward Price amicably, since the latter was in the Führer’s confidence and was in no way to be insulted by Sudeten Germans. When Henlein met W. P. again, he backed out, putting the blame on the members of the Sudeten German Party. For this reason, he wrote a letter to W. P., thus settling the matter. Lorenz.”

The second document, which is on Page 203, which is our Document Number USSR-268, shows that, upon direct orders of the SS and the leaders of the Hitlerite conspiracy, Henlein negotiated with the Czech Government for the settlement of the Sudeten German question solely to create a provocation, and that these negotiations were closely followed by the leaders of the fascist conspiracy who guided Henlein’s further steps.

I would now like to quote from that document:

“In his conversation with SS Obergruppenführer Lorenz, Henlein put the following question: ‘What shall I do if Czechoslovakia, under foreign pressure, suddenly fulfills all my demands and as counterdemand asks me to enter the Government?’

“It was quite clear that this question at that moment would not be acute, and that further lengthy and painful negotiations were inevitable. Nevertheless he asked for instructions on his possible line of action regarding this problem, in case he were not able to communicate with Germany.

“He himself suggested the following: If Czechoslovakia accedes to all my requests I will answer, ‘Yes,’ but I will insist upon the change of its foreign policy. This the Czechs would never accept. Henlein was promised that this question would be elucidated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Lorenz.”

A very brief excerpt from a top-secret document of state. . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Isn’t it time to break off? It is now a quarter past 5.

[The Tribunal adjourned until 9 February 1946, at 1000 hours.]

FIFTY-FIFTH DAY
Saturday, 9 February 1946