Afternoon Session
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal has been informed that the witness who was referred to yesterday, Wielen, is in a prisoner-of-war camp or in prison near London, England; and he can, therefore, be brought over here to be examined at short notice. The Tribunal, therefore, wishes defendants’ counsel to make up their minds whether they wish Colonel Westhoff and this man Wielen to be brought here during the Prosecution’s case for them to cross-examine those witnesses or whether they prefer that they should be brought when the defendants are presenting their case. But, as I have stated with reference to all witnesses, they can only be called once. If they are examined as part of the Prosecution’s case, then all the defendants must exercise their rights, if they wish to do so, of interrogating the witnesses at that time. If, on the other hand, the defendants’ counsel decide that they would prefer that these witnesses should be called during the defendants’ case, then similarly, the witnesses will be called only once, and the right of examining them must then be exercised.
At the same time, the statement or the report which was presented yesterday and which the Tribunal ruled was admissible, will be read in the course of the Prosecution’s case at such time as the Prosecution decide.
DR. NELTE: Mr. President, may I be allowed to postpone making a statement until after discussion with my colleagues. I hope this will be possible in the course of the afternoon.
THE PRESIDENT: I understand you want to consult the other defendants’ counsel before you let us know. Very well; you will let us know at your convenience. Go on, Colonel Smirnov.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I should like to proceed with the interrogation of the witness.
[The witness Rajzman took the stand.]
THE PRESIDENT: What is your name?
SAMUEL RAJZMAN (Witness): Rajzman, Samuel.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat this oath after me: I hereby swear before God—the Almighty—that I will speak before the Tribunal—nothing but the truth—concealing nothing of what is known to me—so help me God, Amen.
[The witness repeated the oath.]
THE PRESIDENT: You may sit down.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Witness Rajzman, will you please tell the Tribunal what was your occupation before the war?
RAJZMAN: Before the war I was an accountant in an export firm.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: When and under what circumstances did you become an internee of Treblinka Number 2?
RAJZMAN: In August 1942 I was taken away from the Warsaw ghetto.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: How long did you stay in Treblinka?
RAJZMAN: I was interned there for a year—until August 1943.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: That means you are well acquainted with the rules regulating the treatment of the people in this camp?
RAJZMAN: Yes, I am well acquainted with these rules.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I beg you to describe this camp to the Tribunal.
RAJZMAN: Transports arrived there every day; their number depended on the number of trains arriving; sometimes three, four, or five trains filled exclusively with Jews—from Czechoslovakia, Germany, Greece, and Poland. Immediately after their arrival, the people had to leave the trains in 5 minutes and line up on the platform. All those who were driven from the cars were divided into groups—men, children, and women, all separate. They were all forced to strip immediately, and this procedure continued under the lashes of the German guards’ whips. Workers who were employed in this operation immediately picked up all the clothes and carried them away to barracks. Then the people were obliged to walk naked through the street to the gas chambers.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I would like you to tell the Tribunal what the Germans called the street to the gas chambers.
RAJZMAN: It was named Himmelfahrt Street.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: That is to say, the “street to heaven”?
RAJZMAN: Yes. If it interests the Court, I can present a plan of the camp of Treblinka which I drew up when I was there, and I can point out to the Tribunal this street on the plan.
THE PRESIDENT: I do not think it is necessary to put in a plan of the camp, unless you particularly want to.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, I also believe that it is not really necessary.
Please tell us, how long did a person live after he had arrived in the Treblinka Camp?
RAJZMAN: The whole process of undressing and the walk down to the gas chambers lasted, for the men 8 or 10 minutes, and for the women some 15 minutes. The women took 15 minutes because they had to have their hair shaved off before they went to the gas chambers.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Why was their hair cut off?
RAJZMAN: According to the ideas of the masters, this hair was to be used in the manufacture of mattresses for German women.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you mean that there was only 10 minutes between the time when they were taken out of the trucks and the time when they were put into the gas chambers?
RAJZMAN: As far as men were concerned, I am sure it did not last longer than 10 minutes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Including the undressing?
RAJZMAN: Yes, including the undressing.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, were the people brought to Treblinka in trucks or in trains?
RAJZMAN: They were brought nearly always in trains, and only the Jews from neighboring villages and hamlets were brought in trucks. The trucks bore inscriptions, “Expedition Speer,” and came from Vinegrova Sokolova and other places.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, what was the subsequent aspect of the station at Treblinka?
RAJZMAN: At first there were no signboards whatsoever at the station, but a few months later the commander of the camp, one Kurt Franz, built a first-class railroad station with signboards. The barracks where the clothing was stored had signs reading “restaurant,” “ticket office,” “telegraph,” “telephone,” and so forth. There were even train schedules for the departure and the arrival of trains to and from Grodno, Suwalki, Vienna, and Berlin.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Did I rightly understand you, Witness, that a kind of make-believe station was built with signboards and train schedules, with indications of platforms for train departures to Suwalki, and so forth?
RAJZMAN: When the persons descended from the trains, they really had the impression that they were at a very good station from where they could go to Suwalki, Vienna, Grodno, or other cities.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: And what happened later on to these people?
RAJZMAN: These people were taken directly along the Himmelfahrtstrasse to the gas chambers.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: And tell us, please, how did the Germans behave while killing their victims in Treblinka?
RAJZMAN: If you mean the actual executions, every German guard had his special job. I shall cite only one example. We had a Scharführer Menz, whose special job was to guard the so-called “Lazarett.” In this “Lazarett” all weak women and little children were exterminated who had not the strength to go themselves to the gas chambers.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Perhaps, Witness, you can describe this “Lazarett” to the Tribunal?
RAJZMAN: This was part of a square which was closed in with a wooden fence. All women, aged persons, and sick children were driven there. At the gates of this “Lazarett,” there was a large Red Cross flag. Menz, who specialized in the murder of all persons brought to this “Lazarett,” would not let anybody else do this job. There might have been hundreds of persons who wanted to see and know what was in store for them, but he insisted on carrying out this work by himself.
Here is just one example of what was the fate of the children there. A 10-year-old girl was brought to this building from the train with her 2-year-old sister. When the elder girl saw that Menz had taken out a revolver to shoot her 2-year-old sister, she threw herself upon him, crying out, and asking why he wanted to kill her. He did not kill the little sister; he threw her alive into the oven and then killed the elder sister.
Another example: They brought an aged woman with her daughter to this building. The latter was in the last stage of pregnancy. She was brought to the “Lazarett,” was put on a grass plot, and several Germans came to watch the delivery. This spectacle lasted 2 hours. When the child was born, Menz asked the grandmother—that is the mother of this woman—whom she preferred to see killed first. The grandmother begged to be killed. But, of course, they did the opposite; the newborn baby was killed first, then the child’s mother, and finally the grandmother.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, does the name Kurt Franz mean anything to you?
RAJZMAN: This man was deputy of the camp commander, Stengel, the biggest murderer in the camp. Kurt Franz was known for having published in January 1943, a report to the effect that a million Jews had been killed in Treblinka—a report which had procured for him a promotion from the rank of Sturmbannführer to that of Obersturmbannführer.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Witness, will you please tell how Kurt Franz killed a woman who claimed to be the sister of Sigmund Freud. Do you remember this incident?
RAJZMAN: A train arrived from Vienna. I was standing on the platform when the passengers left the cars. An elderly woman came up to Kurt Franz, took out a document, and said that she was the sister of Sigmund Freud. She begged him to give her light work in an office. Franz read this document through very seriously and said that there must be a mistake here; he led her up to the train schedule and said that in 2 hours a train would leave again for Vienna. She should leave all her documents and valuables and then go to a bathhouse; after the bath she would have her documents and a ticket to Vienna. Of course, the woman went to the bathhouse and never returned.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, why was it that you yourself remained alive in Treblinka?
RAJZMAN: I was already quite undressed, and had to pass through this Himmelfahrtstrasse to the gas chambers. Some 8,000 Jews had arrived with my transport from Warsaw. At the last minute before we moved toward the street an engineer, Galevski, an old friend of mine, whom I had known in Warsaw for many years, caught sight of me. He was overseer of workers among the Jews. He told me that I should turn back from the street; and as they needed an interpreter for Hebrew, French, Russian, Polish, and German, he managed to obtain permission to liberate me.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: You were therefore a member of the labor unit of the camp?
RAJZMAN: At first my work was to load the clothes of the murdered persons on the trains. When I had been in the camp 2 days, my mother, my sister, and two brothers were brought to the camp from the town of Vinegrova. I had to watch them being led away to the gas chambers. Several days later, when I was loading clothes on the freight cars, my comrades found my wife’s documents and a photograph of my wife and child. That is all I have left of my family, only a photograph.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, how many persons were brought daily to the Treblinka Camp?
RAJZMAN: Between July and December 1942 an average of 3 transports of 60 cars each arrived every day. In 1943 the transports arrived more rarely.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, how many persons were exterminated in the camp, on an average, daily?
RAJZMAN: On an average, I believe they killed in Treblinka from ten to twelve thousand persons daily.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: In how many gas chambers did the killings take place?
RAJZMAN? At first there were only 3 gas chambers, but then they built 10 more chambers. It was planned to increase this number to 25.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: But how do you know that? Why do you say, Witness, that they planned to increase the number of gas chambers to 25?
RAJZMAN: Because all the building material had been brought and put in the square. I asked, “Why? There are no more Jews.” They said, “After you there will be others, and there is still a big job to do.”
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: What was the other name of Treblinka?
RAJZMAN: When Treblinka became very well known, they hung up a huge sign with the inscription “Obermaidanek.”
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: What do you mean by “very well known”?
RAJZMAN: I mean that the persons who arrived in transports soon found out that it was not a fashionable station, but that it was a place of death.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, why was this make-believe station built?
RAJZMAN: It was done for the sole reason that the people on leaving the trains should not be nervous, should undress calmly, and that there should not be any incidents.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: If I understand you correctly, this criminal device had only one purpose—a psychological purpose of reassuring the doomed during the first moments.
RAJZMAN: Yes, exclusively this psychological purpose.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I have no further questions to ask this witness.
THE PRESIDENT: Does any of the other chief prosecutors wish to ask any questions?
[There was no response.]
Do the defendants’ counsel wish to ask any questions?
[There was no response.]
Then the witness can retire.
[The witness left the stand.]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I should like to submit to the Tribunal a very short excerpt from a document which is submitted as an appendix to the Polish Government report. I mean an affidavit. . .
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, have you got any more witnesses?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, I still have a request to call one more witness on the last count of my statement. In connection with the presentation of evidence on this last count I would request the Tribunal’s permission to summon as witness the Archdeacon of Leningrad Churches and Rector of the Leningrad Seminary, the Permanent Dean of Nikolai Bogoiavlensky Cathedral in Leningrad, Nikolai Lomakin.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, and you will be able to include his evidence today and conclude your statement; is that right?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, Mr. President. I should like to read another short excerpt from this report of the Polish examining magistrate, which I have submitted to the Tribunal (Document Number USSR-340). I shall read only that excerpt which demonstrates the scale of the crimes. The number of victims murdered at the Treblinka Camp, according to the Polish magistrate’s estimate, is about 781,000 persons. At the same time he mentions that the witnesses interrogated by him testified to the fact that when the clothes of the internees were sorted out, they even found British passports and diplomas of Cambridge University. This means that the victims of Treblinka came from every European country.
I should like further to quote, as proof of the existence of another secret extermination center, the depositions of Wladislav Bengash, the district examining magistrate in the city of Lodz, made before the Chief Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. This testimony is also an official appendix to the Polish Government report. I should like to read two excerpts from this statement which would give us an idea of the methods of extermination practiced in the village of Helmno. The two paragraphs are on the back of Page 223 of the document book:
“In the village of Helmno there was an abandoned mansion surrounded by an old park—the property of the state. Nearby . . . there was a pine forest with a nursery and dense undergrowth. At this point the Germans built an extermination camp. The park was closed in by a high wooden fence, and one could not see what was going on in the park nor in the house itself. The inhabitants of the village of Helmno were all evacuated.”
I interrupt the quotation and pass on to Page 226 of the document book, first paragraph. I quote:
“The whole organization set up for the extermination of people was so cunningly devised and carried out that right up to the last moment the next transport of doomed persons could not guess the fate of the group which had preceded them. The departure of transports—consisting of 1,000 to 2,000 persons—from the village of Sawadki to the extermination camp and the extermination of the arrivals lasted until 2 o’clock.
“The cars loaded with Jews arrived in the camp and stopped before the mansion. A representative of the Sonderkommando made a short speech to the new arrivals. He assured them that they were going to work in the East. He promised them just treatment by the authorities and adequate food and, at the same time, instructed them to take a bath before leaving, while their clothing was disinfected. From the courtyard the Jews were then brought to a big warm room on the second floor of the mansion. There they had to undress, and, clad in underclothes only, they went downstairs, passed through a corridor with signs such as ‘To the medical officer’ and ‘To the bath’ on the walls. The arrow which showed the way ‘To the bath’ pointed toward the exit. The Germans told the Jews who came out into the yard that they would go to the bath in a closed car; and, true enough, a large car was brought up to this door so that the Jews coming out of the house found themselves on a ladder leading straight inside the car. The loading of the Jews into the car lasted a very short time. Police were on guard in the corridor and near the car. With blows and shouts they forced the Jews to enter the car, stunning them, so that they could not attempt any resistance. When all the Jews were piled inside the car, the doors were carefully locked, and the chauffeur switched on the motor, so that those in the car were poisoned by the exhaust gas.”
I consider it unnecessary to quote that part of the report which testifies that the car in question was the “murder van” already well known to the Court.
I will just quote one sentence from Page 10 of this document, Paragraph 3:
“Thus, at least 340,000 men, women, and children, from newborn babies to aged persons, were exterminated in Helmno.”
I believe that I can end here that part of my statement which concerns the secret exterminating centers. And now I pass on to the part of my statement dealing with religious persecutions.
In the Soviet Union as well as in the occupied countries of Eastern Europe, the German fascist criminals brought shame upon themselves by their mockery of the religious feelings and faith of the people, by persecuting and murdering the priesthood of all religious creeds. In proof of this I shall read a few excerpts from the pertinent reports of the various governments.
On Page 70 of the Russian text, which corresponds to Page 80 of the document book, we find the description of the persecution of the Czech Orthodox Church by the German fascist criminals. I quote only one paragraph:
“The hardest blow was directed against the Czech Orthodox Church. The Orthodox parishes in Czechoslovakia were ordered by the Berlin Ministry for Church Affairs to leave the jurisdiction of Belgrade and Constantinople dioceses and to become subordinate to the Berlin bishop. The Czech Bishop Gorazd was executed together with two other priests of the Orthodox Church. By a special order of the Protector Daluege, issued in September 1942, the Orthodox Church of Serbian-Constantinople jurisdiction was dissolved on Czech territory, its religious activity forbidden, and its property confiscated.”
On Page 69 of the same report, which corresponds to Page 79 of the document book, in the last paragraph, there is a description of the persecutions of the Czech National Church, which was persecuted by the German fascists, according to the report, “Just because of its name, because of its sympathy for the Hus movement, the democratic constitution, and because of the role it played in founding the Czech Republic.” The Czech national church in Slovakia was prohibited and its property confiscated by the Germans in 1940.
The Protestant church in Czechoslovakia was also persecuted. The excerpt which I would like to read may be found on Page 80 of the document book, Paragraph 2:
“The Protestant churches were deprived of the freedom to preach the Gospel. The German Secret State Police watched carefully to see that the clergy observed the restrictions imposed on it. Nazi censorship went so far as to prohibit the singing of hymns which praised God for liberating the nation from the enemy. Some passages from the Bible were not allowed to be read in public at all. The Nazis strongly opposed the promulgation of certain Christian doctrines, especially those which proclaimed the equality of all men before God, the universal character of Christ’s Church, the Hebraic origins of the Gospel, et cetera. Any reference to Hus, Ziska, the Hussites, and their achievements, as well as to Masaryk and his doctrines, were strictly forbidden. Even religious text books were confiscated. Church leaders were especially persecuted. Scores of ministers were thrown into concentration camps, among them the general secretary of the Christian Student Movement in Czechoslovakia. One of the assistants of their president was executed.”
On Page 68 of this report we find information as to the persecution of the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia. This excerpt is on Page 79 of the document book, second paragraph. I quote a short excerpt:
“In the territory annexed to Germany after the Munich Pact a number of Czech priests were robbed of their property and expelled. . . . Pilgrimages to national shrines were prohibited in 1939.
“At the outbreak of the war 437 Catholic priests were among the thousands of Czech patriots arrested and sent to concentration camps as hostages. Venerable church dignitaries were dragged to concentration camps in Germany. It was a common thing to see on the road near the concentration camps a priest, dressed in rags, exhausted, pulling a cart, and behind him a youth in the SS uniform, whip in hand.”
The believers and clergy in Poland also suffered most ruthless persecution. I quote short excerpts from the Polish Government report, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 10 of the document book:
“By January 1941 about 700 priests were killed; 3,000 were in prisons or in concentration camps.”
The persecution of the clergy began immediately after the capture of Polish territory by the Germans, according to Page 42 of the Polish report:
“The day after the occupation of Warsaw the Germans arrested some 330 priests. . . . In Kraków the closest collaborators of Archbishop Sapieha were arrested and sent to Germany. The Reverend Canon Czeplicki, 75 years of age, and his assistant were executed in November 1939.”
The report of the Polish Government quotes the following words of Cardinal Hlond:
“The clergy were persecuted very violently. Those who were permitted to stay were subjected to humiliation, were paralyzed in the exercise of their pastoral duties and were stripped of parochial benefices and of all their rights. They were entirely at the mercy of the Gestapo. . . . It is like the Apocalyptic vision of the Fides Depopulata.”
On the territory of the Soviet Union the persecution of religion and clergy took the form of sacrilegious desecration of churches, destruction of shrines connected with the patriotic feelings of the Russian people, and the murder of priests.
I beg the Tribunal to call the witness of the Soviet Prosecution, the Archdean of the churches of the City of Leningrad, the Very Reverend Nikolai Ivanovitch Lomakin.
[The witness Lomakin took the stand.]
THE PRESIDENT: Would you tell me your name?
THE VERY REVEREND NIKOLAI IVANOVITCH LOMAKIN (Witness): Nikolai Ivanovitch Lomakin.
THE PRESIDENT: Is it the practice for you to take an oath before giving evidence or not?
LOMAKIN: I am an Orthodox priest.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you take the oath?
LOMAKIN: I belong to the Orthodox Church, and when I entered the priesthood in 1917 I took the oath to tell the truth all my life. This oath I remember even to the present day.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. You can sit, if you wish.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, are you the Archdean of the Churches of the City of Leningrad? Does that mean that all the churches in that city are subordinate to you?
LOMAKIN: Yes, all the churches are directly subordinate to me. I am obliged to visit them periodically to inspect their condition and the life of the parish. I must then make my report to His Grace the Metropolitan.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The churches of the Leningrad region were also under your authority?
LOMAKIN: They are not subordinated to me at the present time, but during the siege of Leningrad by the Germans and the occupation of the Leningrad region they were under my authority.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: After the liberation of the Leningrad region from the German occupation, were you obliged to visit and inspect the churches throughout the region on the request of the Patriarch?
LOMAKIN: Not by request of the Patriarch, but by request of the Metropolitan Alexei, who was then at the head of the Leningrad Eparchy.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please speak more slowly.
LOMAKIN: Not by request of Patriarch Alexei—the Patriarch was then Sergei—but by request of Metropolitan Alexei, who administered the Eparchy and later became Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, where were you during the siege of Leningrad?
LOMAKIN: I was all the time in Leningrad.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: If I am not mistaken, you were decorated with the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad”?
LOMAKIN: Yes, on my birthday I was awarded this high government medal for my participation in the heroic defense of Leningrad.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, at the beginning of the siege of Leningrad, at which church did you officiate?
LOMAKIN: At the beginning of the siege I was in charge of the Georgievsky Cemetery—I was rector of the church of the cemetery of St. Nicholas.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: It was, therefore, a cemetery church?
LOMAKIN: Yes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Maybe you will be able to relate to the Tribunal the observations you made during your office in this church?
LOMAKIN: Yes, of course.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Will you please.
LOMAKIN: In 1941 and at the beginning of 1942 I was rector of the cemetery church, and I witnessed certain tragic scenes which I should like to relate in detail to the Tribunal.
A few days after the treacherous attack on the Soviet Union by Hitlerite Germany I witnessed the rapid increase of masses for the dead. The dead were mostly children, women, and old people—victims of the air raids on the city by German planes—peaceful citizens of our town. Before the war the number of dead varied from 30 to 50 persons a day, but during the war this number rose quickly to several hundred a day. It was physically impossible to bring the bodies inside the church. Long rows of boxes and coffins with remnants of the victims stood outside the church; the horribly mutilated bodies of Leningrad’s peaceful citizens—victims of barbarous air raids of the German planes.
Side by side with the increasing number of funeral masses for the deceased, there grew up the practice of saying the so-called requiems in absence. The faithful could not bring to the church the bodies of their relatives or friends, as they lay buried under the ruins and the debris of the houses destroyed by the Germans. The church was each day surrounded by masses of coffins—100, 200 coffins—over which one priest used to sing a funeral service.
Forgive me—it is difficult for me to speak of all this, for as the Tribunal already knows, I lived through the whole siege. I, myself, was dying of hunger. I saw the terrible, uninterrupted air raids of the German planes. I was hurt several times.
In the winter of 1941-42 the situation of besieged Leningrad was particularly terrible. The ceaseless air raids of the Luftwaffe, the shelling of the city, the lack of light, of water, of transportation, of sewerage in the city, and finally the terrible starvation—from all this, the peaceful citizens of the town suffered privations unique in the history of mankind. They were indeed heroes, who suffered for their country, these innocent, peaceful citizens.
Together with all that I have just told you, I could describe other terrible scenes which I witnessed during the period when I was the rector of this cemetery church. The cemetery was very often bombed by German planes. Please imagine the scene when people who have found eternal rest—their coffins, bodies, bones, skulls—all this is thrown out on the ground. Tombstones and crosses lay scattered in disorder, and people who had just suffered the loss of their kin, had to suffer once more seeing the huge craters made by bombs sometimes on the very spot where they had just buried their relatives or friends, had to suffer once more, knowing that they had no peace.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, during the period of hunger, in what proportion did the number of burial services at this cemetery church increase?
LOMAKIN: I have already said that as a result of the terrible conditions imposed by the siege, as a result of the nonstop air raids, as a result of the shelling of the city, the number of burial services reached an incredible figure—up to several thousand a day. I would especially like to relate to the Tribunal the facts which I observed on 7 February 1942. A month earlier, quite exhausted by hunger and the long walk from my house which I had to the church every day, I fell ill. Two of my assistant priests replaced me.
On 7 February, on the Parents’ Saturday before the beginning of Lent I came for the first time since my illness to my church. A horrifying picture was before my eyes. The church was surrounded by piles of bodies, some of which even blocked the entrance. These piles numbered from 30 to 100 bodies. They were not only at the church door, but also around the church. I witnessed people, exhausted from starvation, who, in their desire to bring the bodies of their relatives to the cemetery, would fall down themselves and die on the spot beside the body. Such scenes I witnessed quite frequently.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Witness, will you please answer the following question: What damage was done to the Leningrad churches?
LOMAKIN: Your Honors, as I have already reported to you, my duty as Archdean of these churches was to observe from time to time the condition of the churches in the city and to report in detail to the metropolitan. The following were my personal observations and impressions:
The Church of the Resurrection on Griboiedov Canal, which is a very remarkable artistic church, was very seriously damaged by shelling from the German enemy. The domes were destroyed, the roofs pierced by shells, numerous frescos were either partly damaged or entirely destroyed. The Holy Trinity Cathedral in the Ismailovskaya Fortress, a memorial ornamented by beautiful artistic friezes commemorating the heroic siege of Izmailovskaya Fortress, was severely damaged by systematic shelling and bombing by the Germans. The roof was broken in. All the sculpture was broken; only a few fragments remained.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, how many churches were destroyed and how many were severely damaged in Leningrad?
LOMAKIN: The Church of the Serafimov Cemetery was almost completely destroyed by artillery fire; this church was not only hit by shells, but great damage was caused to it by air raids. The Luftwaffe caused great damage to churches. I must first of all mention two churches which suffered most from the Leningrad siege. To begin with, the Church of Prince Vladimir, where, by the way, I have the honor of officiating at the present time. In 1942 from February until the first of July, I was rector of this church; and I should like to acquaint Your Honors with the following very interesting but terrible incident which occurred on Easter Eve of 1942.
On Easter Saturday, at 5 p. m. Moscow time, the Luftwaffe carried out a mass raid over the city. At 5:30 two bombs fell on the southwestern part of the Church of Prince Vladimir. The faithful were at that moment waiting to approach the picture of our Lord’s interment. There was an enormous mass of faithful, who wished to fulfill their Christian duty. I saw some 30 persons lying wounded in the portico and in different places about the church. They lay helpless for some time, until we could give them medical aid.
It was a scene of utter confusion. People who had had no time to enter the church tried to run away and hide in the air-raid ditches, while the others who had entered scattered in terror against the walls of the church, awaiting death. The concussion of the bombs was so heavy that for some period of time there was a constant fall of shattered glass, mortar, and pieces of stucco. When I came down from a room on the second floor, I was quite astounded by the scene before me. People flocked around me:
“Little father, are you alive? Little father, how can we understand this? How can we believe what was said about the Germans—that they believe in God, that they love Christ, that they will not harm those who believe in God? Where is their faith then, if they can shoot about like this on Easter eve?”
I must add that the air-raid lasted right through the night until Easter morning; this night of love, this night of Christian joy, the Resurrection Night, was turned by the Germans into a night of blood, a night of destruction, and a night of suffering for innocent people. Two or three days passed. In the Church of Prince Vladimir—it was obvious to me, as rector—and in other churches and cemeteries the victims of the Luftwaffe Easter raid appeared: women, children, and aged. . .
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, you also visited the Leningrad region to verify the condition of the churches. Were you not a witness to. . .
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, if your examination is going on, I think perhaps we’d better adjourn now for 10 minutes.
[A recess was taken.]
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Nelte, can you let the Tribunal know what your wishes are about General Westhoff and Wielen?
DR. NELTE: In reply to the suggestion by the Court, as to calling the witnesses Westhoff and Wielen, I should like to make the following statement after discussion with my colleagues:
First, we abstain from calling both witnesses at this stage of the proceedings provided that the Prosecution also abstains at present from reading out Documents RF-1450 and USSR-413 at this stage of the Trial. Second, I call General Westhoff as witness; and I gather, from the Court’s suggestion, that this witness has been allowed.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly.
Mr. Roberts, could Sir David attend here in the course of a short time, do you think?
MR. ROBERTS: He is at the Chief Prosecutors’ meeting now, but I can get him in a few moments if there is a question which I couldn’t answer on his behalf.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think perhaps it will be best if he were here. It is only a question, really, as to whether the document should be read.
MR. ROBERTS: Well, I am told the meeting has just ended. I didn’t quite get what Your Lordship said.
THE PRESIDENT: I said that the question was whether the document is to be read by the Prosecution. Dr. Nelte, as I understand it, was suggesting that perhaps the Prosecution would forego their right to read the document.
MR. ROBERTS: My Lord, speaking for myself, I feel quite certain that so far as the British Delegation is concerned we should not forego reading that document. We do put it forward, or our Russian colleagues put it forward, as a very cold-blooded murder of brave men; and we are most anxious that the document should be read.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
DR. NELTE: Mr. President, I have not made it a condition that the documents should not be submitted at all, but only at this stage of the proceedings.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but you see, the Prosecution want it read as part of the Prosecution case. If it is postponed until your case begins, it will not be read as part of the Prosecution case.
DR. NELTE: I think that the Prosecution, when cross-examining the witness, could present the documents they want to submit now.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we can’t get Wielen over here tomorrow, and the case of the Prosecution, we hope, will close tomorrow.
DR. NELTE: Yes, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Therefore, the document must be read tomorrow. We will then get General Westhoff and Wielen over for you at any time that is convenient to you.
DR. NELTE: I think the Prosecution has reserved the right to adduce, at any time during the proceedings, other charges and documents. This follows from the Indictment. It therefore seems to me that the Prosecution, without prejudice to its case, could postpone the presentation of this charge until I have examined the witness.
GENERAL RUDENKO: I should like to add something to what my colleague, Mr. Roberts, has said. The point is that the document presented to the Tribunal was put at our disposal by the British Delegation and was submitted by us in accordance with Article 21 of the Charter. This document, being an irrefutable proof, can be read into the record or not, in accordance with the decision of the Tribunal of 17 December 1945.
If the Defense, as Sir David already stated this morning, intends to oppose this document by summoning witnesses, it is their right. This is what I wanted to add to Mr. Roberts’ statement.
MR. ROBERTS: Perhaps Your Lordship would allow me to add one thing. The Tribunal has ruled that this document is admissible, and it has been admitted, as I understand; and therefore, I would submit that it ought to be read as part of the Prosecution case, or perhaps it might be equally convenient after the discussion on organizations.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, yes, I see that Sir David has just come into court.
Sir David, I think the view the Tribunal take is that it is a matter for the Prosecution to decide when they put in this document; and if they wish to put it in now, or as Mr. Roberts suggested, after the argument on organizations, they are at liberty to do so. Then these witnesses can be called at a later stage when the defendants’ counsel wish them to be called.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: My Lord, I entirely agree with what I am told Mr. Roberts has put forward. We consider that this document ought to be put in as part of the case for the Prosecution. If it will be of any assistance to counsel for the defendants, I shall be glad to take up the matter of the time that shall be fixed, after the organizations; but the reading of the document certainly should be part of the Prosecution’s case.
THE PRESIDENT: The document may be read, then, at the end of the Prosecution’s case.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Yes.
May I apologize to the Tribunal for being absent. There was other business, connected with the Trial, in which I was engaged.
THE PRESIDENT: Certainly.
Then, Dr. Nelte, the Tribunal would like you to let us know when you wish those witnesses called, so that we can communicate with London in order that the witness, Wielen, may be brought over here.
DR. NELTE: As to when exactly during my presentation the witnesses should appear I cannot say, for I cannot say when the stage for the presentation of my witnesses will be reached. I think the Court is in a better position to judge when it will be my turn for the presentation of evidence. In the course of the examination of those witnesses who will be granted to me, I shall also question this witness.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Nelte, you see these witnesses not only affect your client, but they affect the Defendant Göring and the Defendant Kaltenbrunner; and therefore, what the Tribunal wish is that you, in consultation with Dr. Stahmer and counsel for Kaltenbrunner, should let the Tribunal know what would be the most appropriate time for those two witnesses to be called, so that time may be given for summoning Wielen here and letting the prison authorities know about Westhoff.
DR. NELTE: We spoke about that and have agreed that the witnesses be called during my presentation.
I just understand from Sir David that we are all agreed that the documents be presented after the case against the organizations.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: May I continue my questioning, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT: Continue, yes.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I have one last question to put to you, Witness. Tell me, when you left the city to go into the country to inspect the churches, did you sometimes witness instances of derision of religion and desecration of churches?
LOMAKIN: Yes, I did.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Would you be kind enough to relate this to the Tribunal?
LOMAKIN: In June 1943, by order of Metropolitan Alexei, I went to visit the district of Old Peterhof and Oranienbaum. From personal observations and from my conversations with the members of the church I learned the following, which I know to be true, and which was all corroborated later on when New Peterhof was freed from the German occupation. All that I shall now relate may be verified by inspection.
In Old Peterhof soon after the Germans occupied New Peterhof, exactly within 10 days, all churches were destroyed by the enemy’s artillery fire and aircraft. At the same time the Luftwaffe and German artillery forces timed their raids so that not only would the churches be demolished, but the peaceful worshipers who sought refuge there from the fighting and the artillery fire would be killed as well.
All the churches in Old Peterhof, namely the Znamenskaya Church, the Holy Trinity Cemetery Church, and the small Church of Lazarus attached to it, the church museum at the Villa of Empress Maria Feodorovna, the Serafimovskij Church and the church of the military cemetery—all these were destroyed by the Germans. I can state with certainty that under the ruins of the Cemetery Church of the Holy Trinity and the Lazarus Church, in their crypts, as well as in the cemetery tombs and vaults of the Znamenskaya Church, up to 5,000 persons perished.
The Germans wouldn’t let the survivors come outside. It is easy to picture the sanitary conditions and the general state of the people confined in those church crypts—air fouled by the breathing and excrements of these unfortunate people, frightened to death. They fainted, they grew dizzy, but their slightest attempt to leave the church and come out into fresh air was punished by shots from the inhuman fascists.
Much time has already passed since that time, but I remember especially well one instance which a close relative of the people about whom I am now going to speak related to me. A little girl came out of the crypt of Trinity Church for a breath of fresh air; she was immediately shot by a German sniper. The mother followed in order to pick her up, but she also fell down bleeding at the side of her child. The citizen Romashova, who related this to me, is still alive, and I have seen her many times—she recalls this incident with horror. And many were the incidents of that kind.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, in the other districts of the Leningrad region did you ever witness the desecration of shrines and sacred objects?
LOMAKIN: Yes, for example in Pskov. Pskov presented a horrible picture of ruins and devastation. I feel that I must recall to Your Honors that Pskov is a museum city, a shrine of the Orthodox faith, ornamented by numerous churches, and situated on the Velikaya River and its tributaries.
In that city, there were no less then 60 churches of various sizes and various denominations. Of these 39 were not only priceless monuments of church architecture of high artistic value, with beautiful icons and frescos, but also wonderful historical monuments, reflecting all the greatness and century-old multiform history of the Russian people. The Kremlin (walled city)—the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. . .
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Well, what did the Germans do to those churches?
LOMAKIN: That is just what I want to relate. The Kremlin—the whole Holy Trinity Cathedral, with its remarkable altar screen, was plundered by the German soldiers. Everything was carried out of it as well as out of all the other churches in the city. You won’t find even a single tiny icon left, not a single church vestment or sacramental vessel—all has been taken away by the Germans. The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity—I speak again of this Cathedral. I almost paid with my life for my visit there. Just half an hour before my arrival a mine exploded right in front of the altar gates. The gates were destroyed; the altar was blood-spattered. Before my own eyes I saw three of our Soviet soldiers who had perished in the explosion, right in front of the altar.
Mines were also laid in other places. I could give another interesting detail. Pskov was liberated in August 1944, but on Epiphany, in January 1946, another mine exploded, killing two persons. Likewise the church of St. Vasili-on-the-Hill was also mined. There a mine was laid at the very entrance to the church. In all the churches the abundance of all kinds of refuse, dirt, bottles, cans, et cetera, was strikingly noticeable. The Cathedral of St. John’s Monastery was turned by the Germans into a stable. In another church, the Church of the Epiphany, they set up a wine cellar. In a third church I saw a depot of fuel—coal, peat, et cetera. But why speak of individual churches? Wherever we turn, our hearts bleed at the spectacle of all the suffering, all the plunder, brought about by people who shouted all over Europe about their culture, who despised mankind, while some proclaimed their belief in God. What kind of faith is theirs!
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I have no more questions to ask the witness.
LOMAKIN: I should like to ask the Prosecutor’s permission to say a few more words about what happened in Leningrad.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: With regard to that, you must ask the Tribunal.
LOMAKIN: I am slightly diverging from the usual order. I beg your permission, Your Honors.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
LOMAKIN: The Church of Nikolai Bogoiavlensky is the Cathedral of Leningrad. The present Patriarch Alexei lived at this church during the siege. Since I served there from July 1942 to the end of the war, I witnessed on numerous occasions artillery fire directed at the cathedral. One wonders what kind of military objectives those heroic warriors could seek in our holy church! On high feast days or ordinary Sundays immediately the artillery would begin fire. And what a fire! In the first week of Lent in 1943, from the early morning and until late at night, neither we, the clergy, nor the worshipers praying in the church could possibly leave it. Outside was death and destruction. With my own eyes I saw some fifty persons—I don’t know exactly how many—members of my congregation, killed right near the church. They tried to leave in haste before the “all clear” signal, and death met them near the church. In this sacred cathedral I had to bury thousands of peaceful citizens torn to pieces, victims of the predatory raids of the air force and artillery. An ocean of tears was shed here during the memorial services. During one of the bombardments His Grace, our Metropolitan Alexei, escaped death by a hair’s breadth, as several shell fragments smashed his cell.
I should just like to add, not wishing to take up too much of your time, that it is a remarkable thing that most of the intensive artillery fire on Leningrad always took place on feast days; the houses of God, tramway stops, and hospitals were put under fire, and destroyed with all means. The homes of peaceful citizens were bombed.
It would take too long, Your Honors, to relate everything which I have seen during these grim war days of blood and sorrow of the Leningradians. But I just want to say in conclusion that the Russian people and the people of Leningrad have fulfilled their duty to their fatherland to the very end. In spite of the heavy artillery fire and raids of the Luftwaffe there was organized efficiency and order, and the Orthodox Church shared this suffering. By prayer and preaching of God’s word, she brought consolation and gave courage to the hearts of the faithful. She has laid an unsparing sacrifice on the altar of the fatherland.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I have no more questions to ask the witness, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Do any of the other members of the Prosecution wish to ask any question?
[Each indicated that he had no question.]
Do any of the defendants’ counsel wish to ask any questions?
[Each indicated that he had no question.]
Then the witness can retire.
[The witness left the stand.]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: May I say a few words by way of concluding my report?
THE PRESIDENT: You may, certainly.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Your Honors, in his note of 6 January 1942 the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R. declared that the Soviet Government considered it their duty to inform the “entire civilized world and all honest people throughout the world” of the monstrous crimes committed by the Hitlerite bandits.
In the battles of this war, the greatest ever fought by men, millions of honest people achieved victory over fascist Germany. The will of millions of honest people created this International Tribunal for the purpose of judging the main criminals of war. Behind him each representative of the Prosecution feels the invisible support of these millions of honest people, in whose name he accuses the leaders of the fascist conspiracy.
The honor of concluding the presentation of the evidence submitted by the Soviet Prosecution has fallen to my lot. I know that at this very moment millions of citizens of my country and with them millions of honest persons throughout the world await a just and speedy verdict. Your Honors, may I conclude with this.
MR. DODD: May it please the Tribunal, I have a few matters that will take just a very few minutes, with respect to the record.
In the course of the presentation of the 23rd day of November 1945, pertaining to the economic aspects of the conspiracy, certain documents were read from; but they were not formally offered in evidence. At the time, the Tribunal indicated that sufficient time had not been allowed Counsel for the Defense to make an examination of these documents, and we did not offer them and said instead that we would make them available in the defendants’ Information Center. We did so, and they have been there all of the time since. They should be offered formally and, as the extracts were read, there is no necessity for going through that again. They are as follows:
The first one referred to in the record was one bearing the Document Number EC-14, which we offer as Exhibit USA-758. Extracts from this document were quoted on Page 297 of the record (Volume II, Page 233).
The next one is Document Number EC-27, which we offer as Exhibit Number USA-759. Extracts from this document were quoted on Pages 279 and 280 of the record (Volume II, Page 221).
The third one is Document Number EC-28, which we offer as Exhibit Number USA-760. Extracts from this document were quoted on Page 275 of the record (Volume II, Pages 218, 219). On that page the document was erroneously referred to as USA Exhibit 23, but the correct number is Exhibit Number USA-760.
Document Number EC-174 was quoted from on pages 303 and 304 of the record (Volume II, Page 238). We offer that as Exhibit Number USA-761.
Document Number EC-252—extracts from it were quoted on Page 303 of the record (Volume II, Page 238). We offer it as Exhibit Number USA-762.
Document Number EC-257—extracts from this document were quoted on Page 303 of the record (Volume II, Page 237). We offer it as Exhibit Number USA-763.
Document Number EC-404—we summarized and quoted from this document on Pages 291 and 292 of the record (Volume II, Page 229). We now offer it as Exhibit Number USA-764.
Document Number D-157 was read from, on Page 288 of the record (Volume II, Page 227), and we now offer it as Exhibit Number USA-765.
Document Number D-167 was summarized and extracts were quoted from it on Page 298 of the record (Volume II, Page 234), and we offer it as Exhibit Number USA-766.
Document Number D-203—extracts from it were quoted on Pages 283 to 286 of the record (Volume II, Pages 224-226), and we offer it as Exhibit Number USA-767.
Document Number D-204, which was quoted from on Pages 286 and 287 of the record (Volume II, Pages 226-227), is offered as Exhibit Number USA-768.
Document Number D-206—extracts from this paper were quoted on Pages 297 and 298 of the record (Volume II, Page 234), and it is offered as Exhibit Number USA-769.
Document Number D-317—extracts were quoted from it on Pages 289 and 290 of the record (Volume II, Page 227), and we offer it as Exhibit Number USA-770.
Now in addition to these documents, Lieutenant Bryson, who presented the case for the Prosecution against the individual Defendant Schacht, offered in evidence Documents EC-437 and 258 in their entirety, on the condition that the French and Russian translations subsequently be filed with the Tribunal. Now, EC-437 was assigned as Exhibit Number USA-624 and EC-258 was assigned as Exhibit Number USA-625, and the Tribunal ruled on Page 2543 of the record (Volume V, Page 129) that the documents would be received in their entirety only after the translations had been completed. Copies of these documents in all four languages have been filed with the Tribunal and in the defendants’ Information Center, and that was done a few weeks ago and in accordance therefore with the ruling of the Tribunal. We now offer these documents in evidence in their entirety, and we assume that they will retain the numbers Exhibit Number USA-624 and Exhibit Number USA-625.
Also in the trial brief on the individual responsibility of the Defendant Schacht, which was recently submitted to the Tribunal and to the defendants’ counsel, reference is made to a few documents which have not already, or heretofore, been offered in evidence. I think there is no necessity for taking the time of the Tribunal to read from these documents, and instead we have had pertinent extracts made available in German, French, Russian, and English; copies in all the four languages have already been distributed to the Tribunal and placed in the defendants’ Information Center. They are these documents, and we ask that they be received in evidence:
They are: Document Number EC-384, which we offer as Exhibit Number USA-771; Document Number EC-406, offered as Exhibit Number USA-772; Document Number EC-456, offered as Exhibit Number USA-773; Document Number EC-495, offered as Exhibit Number USA-774; Document Number EC-497, offered as Exhibit Number USA-775; and in addition an interrogation of the Defendant Schacht, dated 11 July 1945, which is one of those referred to in the trial brief as Exhibit Number USA-776; and, finally, with respect to this economic aspect of this person, we respectfully ask that the secret minutes of the meeting of the ministers, dated 30 May 1936, which are included in the set of documents, Number 1301-PS, and assigned Exhibit Number USA-123, be received in evidence in their entirety. These minutes have been made available to the Tribunal and the defendants’ counsel in all four languages.
I also wish to refer to Document Number 1639-PS, which we offer as. . .
DR. KRAUS: The Prosecution has just made the motion to accept in supplementary evidence a number of documents concerning the Defendant Schacht. These documents are contained in a supplementary volume which we received after the special case against the Defendant Schacht had been finished, even a considerable time afterwards.
I do not intend to protest against this procedure; but in my opinion this procedure, if admitted by the Court, has some consequences for Defense Counsel. If this procedure is approved, we ought also to be permitted to offer evidential material on behalf of our clients after this case has been concluded and until the end of the entire presentation of evidence, if we feel that such evidential material, that is, mainly documents, should still be submitted on behalf of our clients.
It is necessary that we should be in a position also to present witnesses later on, and I should like to ask the Tribunal for clarification of this.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Dr. Kraus, the Tribunal thinks that the Prosecution are entitled to apply, as they have applied, to have these documents admitted in evidence and, similarly, that the defendants will be entitled to apply to have any evidence which they wish offered in evidence even after the individual defendants’ case has come to an end.
DR. KRAUS: Thank you, Sir.
MR. DODD: Now I wish to refer to the document bearing our Number 1639-PS, which we wish to offer as Exhibit Number USA-777. For the benefit of the Tribunal, this document is entitled Mobilization Book for the Civil Administrations and is the 1939 edition. It was published in February—or put out in February 1939, over the signature of the Defendant Keitel as Chief of the OKW. It is classified “top secret” and was distributed in 125 copies to the highest Reich Ministries, as well as to the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
In its original German the document runs to some 150 pages. We have had translated into English, Russian, and French Pages 2 to 18, which give the essential text of the document. It appears from statements in the document itself that the Mobilization Book had previously been issued and was revised annually. This particular book which we introduce, or offer to introduce, was effective the 1st day of April 1939 and thus was the operative basis, we say, for the mobilization calendar at the time the Nazis launched their aggression against Poland. However, we wish to relate it back primarily to that part of the record dealing with the Nazi plans and preparations for aggression, because the Mobilization Book, or such a Mobilization Book, had been in effect for years prior to 1939.
Secondly, we say it fits in with the secret Nazi Defense Laws of 1935 and 1938, which are contained in Documents 2261-PS and 2194-PS, introduced before the Tribunal as Exhibits USA-24 and 36 respectively.
Thirdly, it is another clear indication, we submit, of the Nazi plans and preparations for aggressive war. That portion of the Prosecution’s case dealing with Nazi preparations for aggression was presented by Mr. Alderman of the American prosecution staff at the morning and afternoon sessions of the Tribunal on 27 November 1945 and may be found at Pages 399 to 464 of the record (Volume II, Pages 303-347).
Inasmuch as this document has been translated into all four languages, we assume that it is not necessary to read it into the record; but we do wish to quote, however, directly two extracts—rather, we will withdraw that. They are included in the translation and I see no necessity for reading it into the translation system.
This document was also, I might say, referred to by the Chief Prosecutor for the United States in his opening address, and it is the only document therein referred to which has not been offered formally to the Tribunal in evidence.
Thirdly, I should like to take up one other matter. I wish to move to strike out one piece of evidence offered by an American member of the Prosecution.
[Mr. Dodd then quoted the evidence in question.]
THE PRESIDENT: Has the Defendant Rosenberg’s counsel any objection to this being struck out of the record?
DR. THOMA: I have no objection, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Then it will be struck out.
MR. DODD: I have only one last matter, which I am sure I can conclude before the usual recess time.
In the course of the presentation of the individual case against the Defendant Ribbentrop, our distinguished colleague Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, the Deputy Chief British Prosecutor, introduced Document Number 3358-PS as Exhibit GB-158. This was on the 9th day of January 1946 and may be found at Page 2380 of the record (Volume V, Page 17).
This document is a German Foreign Office circular dated the 25th day of January 1939, and it is on the subject of the “Jewish Question as a Factor in German Foreign Policy in the Year 1938.” Sir David read portions of this document into the record, including the first sentence of the full paragraph appearing on Page 3 of the English translation of the document.
I have discussed the matter with Sir David, and he has very graciously agreed that we might ask the permission of the Tribunal to add two more sentences to the quotation which he read, because we feel, and Sir David feels with us, that the additional two sentences which follow immediately the sentence which he read add something to the proof with reference to the persecution of the Jews as related to Crimes against Peace. It is desired, therefore, by the Prosecution that the entire paragraph on Page 3 of the English translation of this document be considered as in evidence by the Tribunal, and in accordance with the ruling of the Tribunal generally made as to other such situations we submit now an English, German, French, and Russian translation of that entire paragraph to obviate the necessity for reading it; and the original, of course, is in the German language.
It is a very brief paragraph, but I don’t think that the Tribunal would care to have me read it, even to take a minute or two. It is in the record. There are only two additional sentences. It does not wrench anything from the text; in our opinion, it only adds a little to the proof. If you would like to have it read, I can do so.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I think we would.
MR. DODD: The sentence read by Sir David reads as follows:
“It is certainly no coincidence that the fateful year 1938 brought nearer the solution of the Jewish question simultaneously with the realization of the ‘idea of Greater Germany,’ since the Jewish policy was both the basis and consequence of the events of the year 1938.”
That is the end of the sentence, and that is what was quoted by Sir David on the 9th day of January, at Page 2380 (Volume V, Page 17). We wish to add the following, beginning right after that sentence:
“The advance made by Jewish influence and the destructive Jewish spirit in politics, economy, and culture paralyzed the strength and the will of the German people to rise again, perhaps even more than the political antagonism of the former Allied enemy powers of the World War.”
And this second sentence which follows immediately, as well:
“The curing of this malady of the people was therefore certainly one of the most important prerequisites for exerting the force which, in the year 1938, resulted in the consolidation of the Great German Reich against the will of the world.”
We felt that that would add something to our proof with respect to this persecution of the Jews. Those are the only matters I have to bring up with reference to the record.
THE PRESIDENT: Some time ago I wrote to Mr. Justice Jackson on behalf of the Tribunal, asking whether a list of the persons who formed the German Staff could be submitted to the Tribunal. Has that been done?
MR. DODD: I am familiar with that communication. I recall Mr. Justice Jackson’s showing it to me. If it has not, it shall be directly. It may have been overlooked.
THE PRESIDENT: I had a letter back from Mr. Justice Jackson saying that it should be done.
MR. DODD: Yes, I recall it.
THE PRESIDENT: And the Tribunal will be glad for you to verify that it has been done.
MR. DODD: I am afraid I must say that if it hasn’t been done, it is probably my fault. I recall the Justice’s handing it to me, and I think I passed it to Colonel Taylor’s organization, but I will check up on it directly and see that it is delivered.
THE PRESIDENT: It will be an appropriate time for it to be done, I should think, during the course of the argument on the organizations, if it hasn’t been done.
MR. DODD: Very well.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, and an affidavit accompanying it, showing how it has been made up.
MR. DODD: Very well, Your Honor.
Lieutenant Margolies tells me that he thinks it has been sent in 2 days ago, but he is not certain.
THE PRESIDENT: He thinks it has been done?
MR. DODD: He thinks so, but we will look into it.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, very well.
Then tomorrow morning at 10, Counsel for the Prosecution will be ready, will they, to argue the case of the organizations which they have asked the Tribunal to be declared criminal under Article 9 of the Charter?
MR. DODD: The Prosecution is prepared to be heard tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock on that.
THE PRESIDENT: And counsel for the various organizations are prepared to argue against that? So that is understood that at 10 o’clock tomorrow the Tribunal will sit for that purpose and will continue until the argument is concluded.
DR. KUBUSCHOK: The Counsel for the organizations are prepared, according to the Tribunal’s suggestion, to join in the discussion of the new argument to be put forward by the Prosecution tomorrow. The Prosecution has helped us by making available to us a copy of the factual points which so far had not been submitted as a basis of the Indictment.
According to the Tribunal’s suggestion not only these factual points would be discussed tomorrow but also new legal questions which have arisen recently, inasmuch as they have bearing on the scope and relevancy of the evidence. The Defense Counsel for the organizations would be obliged if the Prosecution would beforehand make available to us the speech they are going to give on legal questions tomorrow so that we are in the position to answer immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know, but we haven’t had any copy of any written argument presented to us. I don’t know whether Counsel for the Prosecution would say whether they have any written argument?
MR. DODD: Well, Sir David can speak much better for himself. What I was going to say is what I said previously, that I am informed that he has already presented his outline both to the Tribunal and to counsel.
Mr. Justice Jackson is still working on his remarks, and while he did hope to submit a draft, late communications received only this morning from interested persons in the War Department have made it necessary for him to work right up to now, and therefore we think that the practical difficulty results in not having a prepared statement to submit.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: May it please the Tribunal, I have prepared two appendices which endeavor to cover the first two points in the Tribunal’s statement of January, the elements of criminality and the connected defendants mentioned in Article 9 of the Charter. I arranged that copies in German should be given to all the Defense Counsel. I hope everyone has got a copy. I have also arranged that copies be submitted to the Tribunal.
I have added to that an addendum showing the references to the transcript, and in some cases to the documents, on each of the points, and I am afraid that is in English; but it is reference to paragraphs, so it shouldn’t be difficult for the Defense Counsel to fit it into their document.
I am afraid that it would be impossible to give a copy of the Justice’s speech and mine. What I intended to add was largely on the facts which I have endeavored to put before the Defense Counsel already, but if the Defense Counsel for the organizations would care to hear informally what is the sort of general line, I should be very pleased to tell them, if it would be any help. I want to help in every way I can.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, very well. We will now adjourn.
[The Tribunal adjourned until 28 February 1946 at 1000 hours.]