Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremburg 14 November 1945-1 October 1946, Volume 08

by Various

Afternoon Session

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: Mr. President, in order to exhaust fully the presentation of evidence on the subject matter of my report I ask your permission to examine witness Joseph Abgarovitch Orbeli who has been brought to the courthouse. Orbeli will testify to the destruction of the monuments of culture and art in Leningrad.

[Dr. Servatius approached the lectern.]

THE PRESIDENT: Do you have any objections to make?

DR. ROBERT SERVATIUS (Counsel for Defendant Sauckel and for the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party): I would like to ask the Court to decide whether the witness can be heard on this subject, whether this single piece of evidence is relevant. Leningrad was never in German hands. Leningrad was only fired upon with the regular combat weapons of the troops and also attacked from the air, just as it is done regularly by all the armies of the world. It must be established what is to be proved by this witness.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal considers that there is no substance in the objection that has just been made, and we will hear the witness.

[The witness Orbeli took the stand.]

THE PRESIDENT: What is your name?

JOSEPH ABGAROVITCH ORBELI (Witness): Joseph Abgarovitch Orbeli.

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

[The witness repeated the oath in Russian.]

THE PRESIDENT: You may sit if you wish.

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: Witness, will you tell us, please, what position do you occupy?

ORBELI: Director of the State Hermitage.

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: What is your scientific title?

ORBELI: I am a member of the Academy of Science of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, an active member of the Academy of Architecture of the U.S.S.R., an active member and president of the Armenian Academy of Science, an honorable Member of the Iran Academy of Science, member of the Society of Antiquarians in London, and a consultant member of the American Institute of Art and Archeology.

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: Were you in Leningrad at the time of the German blockade?

ORBELI: Yes, I was.

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: Do you know about the destruction of monuments of culture and art in Leningrad?

ORBELI: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: Can you tell the Tribunal the facts that are known to you?

ORBELI: Besides general observations which I was able to make after the cessation of hostilities around Leningrad, I was also an eyewitness of the measures undertaken by the enemy for destruction of the Hermitage Museum, and the buildings of the Hermitage and the Winter Palace, where the exhibits from the Hermitage Museum were displayed. During many long months these buildings were under systematic air bombardment and artillery shelling. Two air bombs and about 30 artillery shells hit the Hermitage. Shells caused considerable damage to the building, and air bombs destroyed the drainage system and water conduit system of the Hermitage.

While observing the destruction done to the Hermitage I could also see, across the river, the buildings of the Academy of Science, namely: the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, the Zoological Museum, and right next to it the Naval Museum, in the building of the former Stock Exchange. All these buildings were under especially heavy bombardment of incendiary bombs. I saw the effect of these hits from a window in the Winter Palace.

Artillery shells caused considerable damage to the Hermitage. I shall mention the most important. One shell broke the portico of the main building of the Hermitage, facing the Millionnaya Street and damaged the piece of sculpture “Atlanta.”

The other shell went through the ceiling of one of the most sumptuous halls in the Winter Palace and caused considerable damage there. The former stable of the Winter Palace was hit by two shells. Among court carriages of the 17th and 18th centuries that were there displayed, four from the 18th century of high artistic value, and one 19th century gilt carriage were shattered to pieces by one of these shells. Furthermore, one shell went through the ceiling of the Numismatic Hall and of the Hall of Columns in the main building of the Hermitage, and a balcony of this hall was destroyed by it.

At the same time, a branch building of the Hermitage Museum on Solyanoy Lane, namely the former Stieglitz Museum was hit by a bomb from the air which caused very great damage to the building. The building was absolutely unfit for use, and a large part of the exhibits in this building suffered damage.

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: Please tell me, Witness, do I understand you correctly? You spoke about the destruction of the Hermitage and you mentioned the Winter Palace. Is that only one building? Where was the Hermitage located, the one you mentioned?

ORBELI: Before the October Revolution, the Hermitage occupied a special building of its own facing Millionnaya Street, and the other side facing the Palace Quay of the Neva. After the Revolution, the Little Hermitage, the building of the Hermitage Theater, the building which separated the Hermitage proper from the Winter Palace, and later even the entire Winter Palace were incorporated into the Hermitage.

Therefore, at the present moment the series of buildings comprising the Hermitage consist of the Winter Palace, the Little Hermitage, and Great Hermitage, which was occupied by the museum prior to the Revolution, and also the building of the Hermitage Theater, which was built during the reign of Catherine II by the architect Quarenghi and which was hit by the incendiary bomb which I mentioned.

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: Besides the destruction of the Winter Palace and the Hermitage, do you know any other facts about the destruction of other cultural monuments?

ORBELI: I observed a series of monuments of Leningrad which suffered damage from artillery shelling and bombing from the air. Among them damage was caused to the Kazan Cathedral, which was built in 1814 by Architect Voronikhin, Isaak’s Cathedral, whose pillars still bear the traces of damage pitted in the granite.

Within the city limits considerable damage was done to the Rastrelli Wing near the Smolny Cathedral, which was built by Rastrelli. The middle part of the gallery was blown up. Furthermore, considerable damage by artillery fire was done to the surface of the walls of the Fortress of Peter and Paul, which cannot now be considered a military objective.

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: Besides Leningrad proper do you know anything about the destruction and devastation of the suburbs of Leningrad?

ORBELI: I had the chance to acquaint myself in detail with the condition of the monuments of Peterhof, Tzarskoye Ssyelo, and Pavlovsk; in all those three towns I saw traces of the monstrous damage to those monuments. And all the damage which I saw, and which is very hard to describe in full because it is too great, all of it showed traces of premeditation.

To prove, for instance, that the shelling of the Winter Palace was premeditated, I could mention that the 30 shells did not hit the Hermitage all at once but during a longer period and that not more than one shell hit it during each shooting.

In Peterhof, besides the damage caused to the Great Palace by fire which completely destroyed this monument, I also saw gold sheetings torn from the roofs of the Great Palace, the dome of Peterhof Cathedral, and the building at the opposite end of this enormous palace. It was obvious that the gold sheetings could not fly off because of the fire alone, but were intentionally torn off.

In Monplaisir, the oldest building of Peterhof, built by Peter the Great, the damage showed also signs of long and gradual ravages, and was not a result of a catastrophe. The precious oak carvings covering the walls were torn off. The ancient Dutch tile stoves, of the time of Peter the Great, disappeared without trace, and temporary, roughly-built stoves were put in their place. The Great Palace, built by Rastrelli in Tsarskoye Ssyelo, shows indubitable traces of intentional destruction. For example, the parquet floors in numerous halls were cut out and carried away, while the building itself was destroyed by fire. In Catherine’s Palace, an auxiliary munition plant was installed, and the precious carved 18th century fireplace was used as a furnace and was rendered absolutely worthless.

Paul’s Palace, which was also destroyed by fire, showed many a sign that the valuable property that once could be found in its halls was carried out before the Palace had been set on fire.

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: Tell me, please, you said the Winter Palace as well as the other cultural monuments that you mentioned were intentionally destroyed. Upon what facts do you base that statement?

ORBELI: The fact that the shelling of the Hermitage by artillery fire during the siege was premeditated was quite clear to me and to all my colleagues because damage was caused not casually by artillery shelling during one or two raids, but systematically, during the methodical shelling of the city, which we witnessed for months. The first shells did not hit the Hermitage or the Winter Palace—they passed near by; they were finding the range and after this they would fire in the same direction, with just a little deviation from the straight line. Not more than one or two shells during one particular shelling would actually hit the Palace. Of course, this could not be accidental in character.

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: I have no more questions for the witness.

THE PRESIDENT: Do any of the other Prosecuting Counsel want to ask any questions? Do any of the Defense Counsel want to ask any questions?

DR. HANS LATERNSER (Counsel for the General Staff and High Command of the German Armed Forces): Witness, you have just said that through artillery shelling and also through aerial bombs, the Hermitage, the Winter Palace, and also the Peterhof Palace were destroyed. I would be very much interested to know where these buildings are located; that is, as seen from Leningrad.

ORBELI: The Winter Palace and the Hermitage, which stands right next to it, are in the center of Leningrad on the banks of the Neva on the Palace Quay, not far from the Palace Bridge, which during all the shelling, was hit only once. On the other side, facing the Neva, next to the Winter Palace and the Hermitage, there are the Palace Square and Halturin Street. Did I answer your question?

DR. LATERNSER: I meant the question a little differently. In what part of Leningrad were these buildings—in the south, the north, the southwest, or southeast section? Will you inform me on that?

ORBELI: The Winter Palace and the Hermitage are right in the center of Leningrad on the banks of the Neva, as I have already mentioned before.

DR. LATERNSER: And where is Peterhof?

ORBELI: Peterhof is on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, southwest of the Hermitage, if you consider the Hermitage as the starting point.

DR. LATERNSER: Can you tell me whether near the Hermitage Palace and Winter Palace there are any industries, particularly armament industries?

ORBELI: So far as I know, in the vicinity of the Hermitage, there are no military enterprises. If the question meant the building of the General Staff, that is located on the other side of the Palace Square, and it suffered much less from shelling than the Winter Palace. The General Staff building, which is on the other side of Palace Square was, so far as I know, hit only by two shells.

DR. LATERNSER: Do you know whether there were artillery batteries, perhaps, near the buildings which you mentioned?

ORBELI: On the whole square around the Winter Palace and the Hermitage there was not a single artillery battery, because from the very beginning steps were taken to prevent any unnecessary vibration near the buildings where such precious museum pieces were.

DR. LATERNSER: Did the factories, the armament factories, continue production during the siege?

ORBELI: I do not understand the question. What factories are you talking about—the factories of Leningrad in general?

DR. LATERNSER: The Leningrad armament factories. Did they continue production during the siege?

ORBELI: On the grounds of the Hermitage, the Winter Palace, and in the immediate neighborhood, no military enterprise worked. They were never there and during the blockade no factories were built there. But I know that in Leningrad munitions were being made, and were successfully used.

DR. LATERNSER: I have no further questions.

DR. SERVATIUS: Witness, the Winter Palace is on the Neva River. How far from the Winter Palace is the nearest bridge across the Neva River?

ORBELI: The nearest bridge, the Palace Bridge, is 50 meters from the Palace, at a distance of the breadth of the quay, but, as I have already said, only one shell hit the bridge during the shellings; that is why I am sure that the Winter Palace was deliberately shelled. I cannot admit that while shelling the bridge, only one shell hit the bridge and 30 hit the near-by building. The other bridge, the Stock Exchange Bridge, connecting Vasilievsky Island with the Petrograd side, is on the opposite bank of the Great Neva. Only a few incendiary bombs were dropped from planes on this bridge. The fires which broke out on the Stock Exchange Bridge were extinguished.

DR. SERVATIUS: Witness, those are conclusions that you are drawing. Have you any knowledge whatever of artillery from which you can judge whether the target was the palace or the bridge beside it?

ORBELI: I never was an artillery man, but I suppose that if German artillery was aiming only at the bridge then it could not possibly hit the bridge only once and hit the palace, which is across the way, with 30 shells. Within these limits—I am an artillery man.

DR. SERVATIUS: That is your conviction as a non-artillery man. I have another question. The Neva River was used by the fleet. How far from the Winter Palace were the ships of the Red Fleet?

ORBELI: In that part of the Neva River there were no battleships which were firing or were used for such kind of service. The Neva ships were anchored in another part of the river, far from the Winter Palace.

DR. SERVATIUS: One last question. Were you in Leningrad during the entire period of the siege?

ORBELI: I was in Leningrad from the first day of the war until 31 March 1942. Then I returned to Leningrad when the German troops were driven out of the suburbs of Leningrad and had a chance to inspect Peterhof, Tsarskoye Ssyelo, and Pavlovsk.

DR. SERVATIUS: Thank you. I have no more questions.

THE PRESIDENT: General, do you want to ask the witness any questions in re-examination?

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: We have no further questions.

THE PRESIDENT: The witness can retire.

[The witness left the stand.]

STATE COUNSELLOR OF JUSTICE OF THE 3RD CLASS MAJOR GENERAL N. D. ZORYA (Assistant Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): May it please Your Honors, I want to begin to submit documentary evidence on the part of the Soviet Prosecution with regard to the employment of compulsory slave labor practiced by the Hitlerite conspirators on an enormous scale.

Fascism, with its plans for world domination, with its denial of law, ethics, mercy, and humane considerations, foresaw the enslavement of the peaceful population of the temporarily occupied territories, the deportation of millions of people to fascist Germany, and the compulsory utilization of their labor power. Fascism and slavery—these two concepts are inseparable.

I shall begin, Your Honors, the presentation of documents relating to this count with the report of the Yugoslav Republic, which has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-36 (Document Number USSR-36). I shall ask you to look at Page 40 of the report, which is on Page 41 of the document book at the disposal of the Tribunal. I read into the record extracts from the report of the Yugoslav Republic, which is entitled, “Forced Labor of Civilians.” I quote:

“The Nazi policy of the wholesale exploitation of the occupied territories has also been applied in Yugoslavia.

“Immediately after the occupation of Yugoslavia the Reich Government and the OKW introduced obligatory labor service for the population of the occupied territory. The exploitation of manpower in Yugoslavia has been carried out within the framework of the general German plan. The Defendant Göring, as the leader of the German economic plan, issued directives to his subordinates concerning the systematic exploitation of manpower of the occupied territories.

“In a report from Berlin, written by one of the head functionaries of the economic service of the German Kommandantur in Belgrade, named Ranze, instructions by Göring are communicated, according to which the economic measures in the occupied territories do not aim at the protection of the local population, but at the exploitation of manpower of the occupied countries for the benefit of the German war economy.

“Immediately after the occupation of Yugoslavia, the Germans established offices for enlisting workers for ‘voluntary’ labor in Germany. They also used the organizations which already existed in Yugoslavia for arranging employment of workers, and began to carry out their plans through these organizations. Thus, for example, in Serbia they used the central office for arranging employment of workers as well as the labor exchange. Through these organizations, until the end of February 1943, and from Serbia alone the Germans sent 47,500 workers to Germany. Later on this number considerably increased but the relative data in this respect have not yet been fully established. These workers were employed in agriculture and various industries in Germany, mostly in the heaviest work.”

In the report of the Yugoslav Republic it is stated that the Gestapo and a special commission used pressure and force. This went so far that these “volunteer” workers were hunted in the streets, collected in units, and herded into Germany by force.

“Apart from these so-called ‘volunteer’ workers, the Germans sent into forced labor in Germany a large number of prisoners from various camps, as well as politically ‘suspicious’ persons, who had to perform the heaviest kinds of work under disgusting living and working conditions. As early as 1942 many innocent victims of the Banyitza, Saimishte, and other camps, were sent into Germany.

“The first transport of them left on 24 April 1942, and these transports continued without interruption until 26 September 1944. Old and young, men and women, farmers, workers, intellectuals, and others were taken not only to Germany, but to other countries under German occupation as well.

“According to the registers of Banyitza Camp, which are far from giving an exact picture, over 10,000 prisoners were sent for forced labor from this camp alone.

“The German authorities in Serbia issued a series of orders, aiming at maximum exploitation of manpower. Among the first measures two decrees were passed: The Decree for General Labor Service and Restriction of the Freedom of Labor, of 14 December 1941, and the Decree for the National Labor Service for the Reconstruction of Serbia, of 5 November 1941. According to the first decree all persons between 17 and 45 years of age could be called up for compulsory labor in certain enterprises and branches of economy. According to the second order, such persons could be called up for civilian service in the National Reconstruction, which in fact meant that they had to work for the strengthening of the German economic and war effort.

“The persons eligible for labor in accordance with these two laws, although remaining in the country, worked in fact for the aims and benefit of the Germans’ economic exploitation. They were primarily used for work in the mines (Bor, Kostolac, et cetera), for road building and railway line repairs, in the water transport, and so on.

“On 26 March 1943 the German Commander of Serbia, Befehlshaber Serbien, in a special order introduced the so-called war economy measures of the Reich in the occupied territory of Serbia, and by this act imposed the general mobilization of manpower in Serbia. . . .

“By this decree, therefore, the entire population of occupied Serbia was mobilized for the German war economy. The Germans exploited Serbian manpower, in fact, to the greatest possible extent. . . .

“The situation was in no way different in the other occupied areas of Yugoslavia. Without entering into numerous details of this planned exploitation, we shall quote here only one example from occupied Slovenia.

“According to an official announcement of the German Farmers’ Union in Carinthia (Landesbauernschaft Kärnten) of 10 August 1944, issued in Klagenfurt, every case of pregnancy of non-German women was to be reported, and in all such cases these women were to be obliged to have their child ‘removed by operation in a hospital.’ The announcement itself explains that in cases when non-German women give birth to their children this ‘creates difficulties for their use in work,’ and besides, it is also ‘a danger for the population policy.’ Furthermore, this announcement states that the Office of Labor Service should try to influence these women to commit an abortion.

“As another proof of the exploitation of manpower, we quote the circular instructions of the German Landrat for the Marburg (Maribor) district, of 12 August 1944. This circular deals with the question of enlisting everybody eligible according to that decree into the armed forces and into the labor service, and it calls upon all the inhabitants of Lower Styria, and not only upon the indigenous population, but also upon the Dutchmen, Danes, Swedes, Luxembourgers, Norwegians, and Belgians who may find themselves living there.”

I shall pass on now to the Report of the Polish Government which was presented to the Tribunal by the Soviet Prosecution as Exhibit Number USSR-93 (Document Number USSR-93). First we should note the special role of the Defendant Frank in organizing deportations of the Polish population for compulsory labor to Germany. I shall read into the record several excerpts from a document known under the title “Frank’s Diary,” which is at the disposal of the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-223 (Document Number USSR-223).

Frank described his attitude toward the Poles at the meeting of the section chiefs which took place in Kraków, 12 April 1940, as follows—I shall quote an excerpt on Page 62 of the document book, to be exact, on the reverse side of the page. I quote:

“Under pressure from the Reich, it had now been decreed that, since sufficient labor did not present itself voluntarily for service in the German Reich, compulsion could be used. This compulsion meant the possibility of arresting male and female Poles. A certain amount of unrest had been caused by this, which, according to some reports, had spread very widely and which could lead to difficulties in all spheres. Field Marshal Göring had once pointed out, in his big speech, the necessity for sending a million workers to the Reich. One hundred and sixty thousand had been delivered to date. . . . To arrest young Poles as they left church or the cinema would lead to ever-increasing nervousness among the Poles. Fundamentally Frank had no objections to removing people capable of work who were lounging about in the streets. But the best way would be to organize a round-up, and one was absolutely justified in stopping a Pole in the street and asking him what work he did, where he was employed, et cetera.”

During his conversation with Defendant Sauckel, 18 August 1942, the Defendant Frank stated—I quote the part which is on Page 67 of the document book:

“I am pleased to be able . . . to inform you officially that we have now supplied more than 800,000 workers for the Reich. . . .

“You recently requested the supply of a further 140,000 workers. I am pleased to be able to inform you that, in accordance with our agreement of yesterday’s date, we shall deliver 60 percent of these newly requested workers to the Reich by the end of October and the remaining 40 percent by the end of the year. . . .

“Over and above the present figure of 140,000, you can, however, count on a further number of workers from the Government General next year, as we are going to use the police to recruit them.”

Frank fulfilled his promise given to the Defendant Sauckel.

At the conference of the political leaders of the Labor Front in the Government General, 14 December 1942, Frank stated in his address—this is on the same page of the document book:

“You know that we have delivered more than 940,000 Polish workers to the Reich. The Government General thereby stands absolutely and relatively at the head of all European countries. This achievement is enormous and has also been recognized as such by Gauleiter Sauckel.”

Will you kindly permit me to quote that section of the report of the Government of the Polish Republic which is entitled, “Deportation of the Civilian Population for Forced Labor.” This document is on Page 72 and 73 of the document book:

“a) As early as on 2 October 1939 a decree was issued by Frank concerning the introduction of forced labor for the Polish civilian population within the Government General. By virtue of the said decree Polish civilians were under the obligation to work in agricultural establishments, on the maintenance of public buildings, road construction, regulation of rivers, highways, and railways.

“b) A further decree of 12 December 1939 extended the groups of those liable to forced labor to children from the age of 14 years. And a decree of 13 May 1942 gave the authorities the right to use forced labor even outside the Government General.

“c) The practice which developed on the basis of those decrees turned into mass deportation of civilians from Poland to Germany.

“Throughout the Government General, in towns and villages, posters were continually inviting Poles to go ‘voluntarily’ to work in Germany. At the same time however every town and village was told how many workers it was to supply.

“The result of the ‘voluntary’ recruitment was usually very disappointing. As a result of that the German authorities invited the people to go or arranged round-ups in the streets, restaurants, and other places, and those caught were sent straight to Germany. There was a particular hunt for young workers of both sexes. The families of those deported received no news from them for months and only after some time postcards arrived describing the poor conditions in which they were forced to live. Often, after several months, the workers used to return home in a state of spiritual depression and complete physical exhaustion.

“There is substantial evidence that while on that forced labor thousands of men were sterilized, while young girls were forced into public houses.

“d) These laborers were either sent to live with German farmers to work on their land, to work in factories, or to special work in forced labor camps. The conditions in those camps were terrible.

“e) According to provisional estimates, in 1940 alone 100,000 women and men were sent to Germany as laborers.

“f) To this great army of slave workers thousands of Poles deported from the incorporated territories have to be added and also 200,000 Polish prisoners of war who, by a decree issued by Hitler in August 1940, were ‘released’ from camps, but only to be sent to forced labor into various parts of Germany.

“g) These deportations continued throughout the years of war. The total number of those workers reached at a certain point a figure of 2 million.

“Exact figures are obviously not available. But if one considers that in spite of the very high death rate among those people, there are now about 835,000 Polish citizens registered in western Germany, the estimate appears correct.

“The whole chapter concerning the deportations to forced labor is presented here in a very condensed form. Behind these few lines lies the history of hundreds of thousands of Polish families destroyed, tragedy, death, and sorrow. The history of each of these laborers was a continuous tragedy: fathers leaving their families without means; husbands their wives with no possibility of maintaining them, with no protection and little hope of return. The quoted number of 2 million conceals an ocean of broken lives, involving, at the least, 10 percent of the total population of Poland.

“This was a terrible crime. Deportation and forced labor were a flagrant violation of the laws and customs of war.”

The Greek Report on German atrocities, submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-369 (Document Number USSR-369) states the following—I beg you to refer to Page 74 of the document book:

“As in all the other occupied territories, the Germans pursued two main objectives in their occupational policy in Greece: the maximum exploitation of the country’s resources in the interests of the German military economy, and the enslavement of the population by means of systematic terror and general repression. The Germans pursued their two-sided policy of plunder and revenge, violating commonly accepted laws.”

The section of the report of the Greek Government entitled “Recruitment of Manpower” contains two paragraphs which I intend to read into the record:

“One of the problems confronting the German administration was that of recruiting labor. All males between 16 and 50 years of age were liable to labor conscription. Strikes were declared illegal, and severe penalties enforced for resort thereto. Persons who organized and directed a strike were liable to the death penalty. Strikers were tried by military courts.

“At first the Germans, by propaganda and various forms of indirect pressure, tried to recruit Greek labor to work within Germany. They promised high wages and better conditions of life. As this kind of ‘voluntary’ recruitment failed to produce the expected results they abandoned it and confronted the workers with the dilemma either of being taken as hostages or else of being sent to Germany to work.”

Similar measures of deportation of manpower to Germany were applied by the fascists also in Czechoslovakia.

But the deportation by the fascist criminals of the peaceful populations into slave labor reached its climax in the temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union. I would like now to dwell briefly on the preparatory measures taken by the Hitlerite criminals for the utilization of forced labor in the temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union.

Even before their attack on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, in a document which is known to the Tribunal as the “Green File” of the Defendant Göring, Exhibit Number USSR-10 (Document Number EC-472), a whole chapter was dedicated to the problem of organizing compulsory labor in the Soviet territories which the war criminals intended to occupy; the chapter was called “Allocation of Labor and Recruitment of Indigenous Population.”

This chapter—Pages 17 and 18 of the Russian text of the Green File, which is on Page 83 of the document book—lays down the Principle of compulsory labor for the peaceful Soviet population.

Paragraphs 3 and 2 of Subsection A in the second part of that chapter entitled, “Recruitment of the Local Population,” point out that:

“The workers in public utilities—gas, water, electricity, oil drilling, oil distilling, and oil storage, as well as emergency work in important industries . . . will be ordered to continue their work under threat of punishment, if necessary.”

And several lines above that:

“In case of necessity, the workers will be organized into labor gangs.”

The nonpayment of wages for the compulsory labor of Soviet citizens had already been provided for in this so-called Göring’s Green File. It was presupposed that the problem of payment was reduced to the question of providing the workers with food. The fascist slave owners were only interested in maintaining the working potential of the people and nothing more—Page 18 of the Russian text of the Green File. This is the back of Page 83 of the document book. . .

THE PRESIDENT: This document has already been read into the record.

GEN. ZORYA: I think that this particular part of the document has not been read into the record. This is a document of the Soviet Prosecution, which was published completely for the first time in the note of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, V. M. Molotov, in May 1942.

THE PRESIDENT: If you say that it has not yet been read into the record, please go on.

GEN. ZORYA: On Page 18 of the Russian text of the Defendant Göring’s Green File it is mentioned at least three times that food was to be the only payment. I do not wish to take more time of the Tribunal with this document, but will proceed with my presentation.

Defendant Göring, who signed this directive for the plunder of the Soviet Union—for how else could we refer to the above-mentioned document—continued to organize forced labor in the temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union.

As evidence I present to the Tribunal Exhibit Number USSR-386 (Document Number USSR-386), a document which discloses this phase of the Defendant Göring’s activity. This document, or to be precise, these two documents are the record of the conference of 7 November 1941, on “Allocation of Russians,” in which Göring participated, and a covering letter to this record.

One hundred copies of the document were originally prepared and mailed to the 14 addresses which are listed, as Your Honors may see, on Page 5 of the Russian text of the document, at the end of the covering letter.

The covering letter attached to the record bears the signature of the Chief, Military Administration, Economic Staff East, Dr. Rachner. The minutes of the conference in question have been written by one Von Normann who was evidently an official of the same organization.

I think it will promote clarification if I read into the record certain parts of these minutes. I quote Page 6 of the Russian text of the document which corresponds to Pages 95 and 96 of the document book:

“Conference of 7 November 1941 on the allocation of Russian manpower. The Reich Marshal gave the following directives for the utilization of Russian manpower:

“I. Russian labor has demonstrated its capacity for production in building up the gigantic industry of Russia. It must now be successfully allocated in the Reich. In the face of such an order of the Führer, objections are of secondary importance. The disadvantages that may result from the employment of Russian labor must be reduced to a minimum, and this is primarily the concern of the counterintelligence service (Abwehr) and the Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei).

“II. Russians in the operational zone. The Russians are to be used primarily in the construction of roads and railroads, for clearing work, clearing out mine fields, and in the construction of air fields. The German construction battalions are largely to be dissolved (for example in the Air Force). German skilled workmen belong in war industry. Digging and stone breaking is not their work. The Russian is there for that.

“III. Russians in the territories of the Reich commissioners and of the Government General. Here the same principle applies as in the second paragraph. In addition, increased use in agriculture; if machines are lacking, manpower must produce what the Reich will have to demand in the agrarian sector from the Eastern territories. Further local manpower should be made available for the ruthless exploitation of the Russian coal deposits.

“IV. Russians in the territory of the Reich, including the Protectorate. The number to be employed is to be determined by the need. Need is to be decided from the standpoint that foreign workers who eat much and produce little are to be sent away from the Reich and that in the future the German woman is not to be used as extensively in the field of labor as hitherto. Along with Russian prisoners of war, free Russian manpower is also to be utilized.”

I shall now omit one page of this document and refer to Page 7. In the middle of the page there is Section B, entitled “The Free Russian Worker.”

My colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, already mentioned the fact that the Hitlerites considered the civilian population as prisoners of war. This gave them the opportunity to increase for propaganda purposes the number of the allegedly captured Red Army soldiers in their reports on military operations, on the one hand, and to draw on them for manpower, on the other hand.

The section to which I just referred begins as follows, “Employment and treatment is not actually to be other than that given to Russian prisoners of war.” It should here be noted that the minutes of the conference end with the following statement by Göring—you will find this excerpt on Page 98 of the document book:

“Enlistment of workers and the utilization of prisoners of war are to be carried on in a uniform manner, and they must be organizationally combined.”

Coming back to Page 7 of the same minutes we come across the following eloquent statement by Göring on the subject of labor conditions for Russian workers and particularly their wages. . .

THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now.

[A recess was taken.]

THE PRESIDENT: General Zorya, can you tell the Tribunal whether you think you will be able to finish the presentation of your documents this afternoon?

GEN. ZORYA: My intention is to finish my presentation today.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.

GEN. ZORYA: I would like to read into the record statements by Göring which concern the labor conditions of Russian workers and particularly their wages, from the document I have just presented:

“In connection with the labor conditions of the free Russians it is to be kept in mind that:

“1. He may receive a little pocket money. . . .

“3. Since his labor is available to the employer cheaply, financial compensation from the employer is to be given attention.”

To clarify the above statement the Defendant Göring makes further the following suggestion—I quote on Page 8 of the Russian text of the document, Paragraph B, Subparagraph 6:

“The allocation of Russians must under no circumstance be allowed to prejudice the wage problem in the eastern territories. Every financial measure in this sphere must proceed from the standpoint that lowest wages in the East—according to a specific Führer decree—are a prerequisite for the equal distribution to balance war costs and the clearing of war debts by the Reich at the end of the war.

“Infractions are subject to the severest penalties.”

This is followed by two lines which are of interest, not only because they incriminate the Defendant Göring for introducing the system of forced labor. Having expressed himself so categorically against the “prejudice of the wage problem in the eastern territories,” Göring stated at the same conference as follows—Page 98 of the document book, “The same applied in substance to every encouragement of ‘social aspirations’ in the Russian colonial territory.”

The covering letter appended to the minutes of the meeting consists of comments which really do not add anything new to the facts already presented to the Tribunal. Therefore I shall not quote this letter.

The next document which I consider necessary to submit to the Tribunal and which I beg you to accept as evidence under Exhibit Number USSR-379 (Document Number UK-82) is a decree issued by the Defendant Göring on 10 January 1942. I will quote only the first 18 lines of this decree, which are on Page 100 of the document book:

“In the coming months the employment of manpower will acquire still greater importance. On the one hand, the recruiting situation of the Armed Forces necessitates the release of all members of the younger age groups for this task. On the other hand, urgent armament production and other phases of the war economy, and also of agriculture, must be provided with the manpower urgently needed by them. For this, the utilization of prisoners of war, especially from Soviet Russia, plays an important role.

“The measures that will be necessary in this field in the future promise success only under unified leadership, and I shall use every means to attain it.

“For that reason I have now granted my manpower commission—which had already been dealing with all the manpower questions of the Four Year Plan—the unlimited power to direct . . . the entire manpower program.”

Later on, Your Honors, the criminal activity of the fascist conspirators in organizing and extending the system of forced labor acquired such magnitude that on 21 March 1942 Hitler issued a decree creating a special department under the Defendant Sauckel, who developed these activities on a large scale. I shall not dwell any longer on these historical facts as they have already been covered by our American, English, and French colleagues.

The vital bond between fascism and the system of forced labor is especially apparent when we consider the part played in this field not only by the fascist government machine but by the fascist Party itself. I should like to submit to the Tribunal a few documents which illustrate this fact.

I present to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-365 (Document Number USSR-365) a printed edition entitled, “Report of the Delegate of the Four Year Plan—Plenipotentiary for the Allocation of Labor.” This document is on Page 101 of the document book. The copy of the report, which I present, has the order Number 1 and it is dated 1 May 1942. The first page of the report contains Hitler’s decree of 21 March 1942, appointing Sauckel to this post. On the second page there is an order of the Defendant Göring dated 27 March of the same year, explaining the duties of the Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor within the framework of the Four Year Plan organizational structure. And on the third page of this report there is a program prepared by Sauckel for the “Führer’s birthday” in 1942.

Your Honors, the above-mentioned documents have already been submitted to the Tribunal by the Prosecution of the United States. But I wish to draw your attention to Page 17 of the Russian translation of this document, where you will find an order of the Defendant Sauckel, dated 6 April 1942: Order Number 1. This order is presented for the first time and is entitled, “Concerning Appointment of Gauleiter as Commissioners for the Allocation of Labor in the Gaue. This order begins as follows—I quote Page 118 of the document book:

“I hereby appoint the Gauleiter of the NSDAP my commissioners for allocation of labor in the Gaue administered by them.

“A. Their tasks are:

“1) The achievement of smooth co-operation between all offices set up by the State, the Party, the Wehrmacht, and the economic authorities to deal with questions of manpower; and by means of this, the regulation of different interpretations and claims in such a way as to utilize manpower to the best possible effect.”

I omit some points.

“4) Investigation of the results obtained by utilizing the labor of all foreign male and female workers. Special regulations will be issued with regard to these.

“5) Investigation of the correct feeding, housing, and treatment of all foreign workers and prisoners of war engaged in work.”

In his program for the allocation of labor, presented—as I have already pointed out—for Hitler’s birthday in 1942, the Defendant Sauckel wrote—this part of the program was not read into the record by the United States Prosecution; it is on Page 105 of the document book:

“IV. The Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor will, therefore, with a very small personal staff of his own choice, make exclusive use of existing institutions set up by the Party, State, and industry, and the goodwill and co-operation of all will assure the quickest success of his measures.

“V. The Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor has, therefore, with consent of the Führer and in agreement with the Reich Marshal of Greater Germany and the Chief of the Party Chancellery, appointed all the Gauleiter of Greater Germany as his commissioners in the Gaue of the National Socialist Labor Party (NSDAP).

“VI. The commissioners for allocation of labor will use the competent offices of the Party in their Gaue. The chiefs of the highest competent State and economic offices in their Gaue will advise and instruct the Gauleiter in all-important questions relative to labor allocation.

“Especially important for that purpose are the following: The President of the State Labor Office, the Trustee for Labor, the State Peasant Leader, the Gau Economic Adviser, the Gau Trustee of the German Labor Front, the Gau Women’s Leader, the District Hitler Youth Leader, the highest representative of the Interior and General Administration, especially if the Office for Agriculture falls within his jurisdiction.

“VII. The most elevated and most essential task of the Gauleiter of the NSDAP in their capacity of commissioners in their Gaue is to secure the maximum agreement between all offices dealing with questions of manpower in their Gau.”

In this document Sauckel addressed himself to the Gauleiter asking them repeatedly to give him all possible assistance in every respect. I would like to draw Your Honors’ attention to only one of Sauckel’s assertions in this document. He mentions the decision of Hitler to send to the Reich “in order to help the German peasant women, four or five hundred thousand selected, healthy, and strong girls from the eastern territories,” thus to relieve German women and girls of labor duty. Apparently in order to explain the advantage of this measure, Sauckel wrote, “Please trust me as an old and fanatical National Socialist Gauleiter when I say that in the end the decision could not be different.”

The importance of the part played by the fascist Party in the organization of compulsory slave labor and how far this Party went into the matter, is shown by the following document which I am submitting to the Tribunal as evidence, Exhibit Number USSR-383 (Document Number USSR-383). This document is a letter of the Defendant Sauckel, dated 8 September 1942, and is entitled, “Special Action of the Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor for the Purpose of Procuring Female Workers from the East for the Benefit of Town and Country Households with Many Children.”

In the course of my presentation I shall have the opportunity to refer once more to this document. In the meantime I wish to draw your attention to the passage which has direct bearing on the role of the fascist Party in this measure. On Page 3 of the Russian text of the document, which I hereby submit, there is a section entitled, “Viewpoints for Selecting Households.”

THE PRESIDENT: Does it matter whether these women were brought into a house where they ought not to have been brought and whether a particular German housewife was entitled to a woman worker or not? The whole point, it would seem, is whether they were deported—and forcibly deported.

GEN. ZORYA: Mr. President, I just had it in view to abridge this passage which you mentioned. But now I am talking about something else. I would like to show the part which the fascist Party played in organizing slave labor inside Germany and in particular in the distribution of those Soviet women who were transported for this purpose to Germany. Here are two short documents which I consider necessary to submit to the Tribunal. As for the rest, which concerns the regime which has already been described sufficiently by the United States and British Prosecutions, I do not intend to dwell upon it and contemplated cutting down this part to the minimum.

I wish to dwell on this part of the document which says that applications for obtaining an eastern woman worker for household duties, are to be examined by the Labor Department which would decide whether there is a real need for the worker and are then to be forwarded for final approval to the corresponding leader of NSDAP. Should the district leader object to granting a woman worker to the household, the Labor Department declines to send an eastern woman worker to the applicant and accordingly declines the permission for the employment of such. The refusal need not be motivated, and the decision is final.

You may find this on Page 129 of the document book. It is followed by the application form. You will find this in the appendix to Exhibit Number USSR-383 (Document Number USSR-383). This application form contains a brief questionnaire about the family which would like to employ a domestic worker in the household. This application form also contains the reply form of the corresponding fascist Party organization whether it recommends or not the use of an eastern slave in this household.

I request the Tribunal to pay attention to the appendix to Exhibit Number USSR-383. This appendix is entitled, “Memo for Housewives Regarding Employment of Eastern Woman Workers in Urban and Rural Households.” This memo has already been mentioned by Mr. Dodd. I will not dwell upon it in detail, but will only draw the attention of the Tribunal to the subtitle which is on Page 133.

I beg Your Honors to pay attention to the subtitle of this slave owner’s memo.

The statement between brackets announces that this memo is published by the Plenipotentiary for the Allocation of Labor in agreement with the chief of the Party Chancellery and other corresponding authorities. It is difficult to state it more precisely. Millions of foreign slaves were languishing in Germany. A German could become a slave-owner with the sanction and under the supervision of the fascist Party. Apparently this also constituted one of the elements of the New Order in Europe.

I deem it indispensable to refer also to the order of the Defendant Göring, dated 27 March 1942. I do not submit this document, as it is already at the disposal of the Tribunal, having been presented by the United States Prosecution:

“The Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor, in order to carry out his tasks, herewith receives the power which the Führer has given me to issue directives to the superior Reich authorities and to their subordinate offices, to Party authorities and to Party organizations and attached units.”

This order of the Defendant Göring does not only determine the special part of the fascist Party in the execution of the compulsory labor system, but also emphasizes the extraordinary powers of Defendant Sauckel in this field.

The documents to which I have been referring thus far give grounds for the Soviet Prosecution to assert that within the general framework of the fascist State the fascist Party was the center of all measures for the organization of compulsory slave labor.

I would like now to turn to the part taken by the German High Command in the organization of compulsory labor and deportation into slavery of Soviet people. With this object in view, I submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-367 (Document Number USSR-367), an OKH document regarding—I am using the words of the document itself—the “Enlistment of Russian Manpower for the Reich.” I beg the Tribunal to refer to Page 138 of the document book in which this document is to be found.

First of all, let us look at the source from which this document emanates. In the upper left-hand corner of the first page you will find, “High Command of the Army, General Staff of the Army, Quartermaster General, Office of Military Administration, (EC) Number II 3210/42—secret.” In the upper right-hand corner: “Headquarters, High Command of the Army, 10 May 1942,” and again the stamp “secret.” After the title it states:

“Subject: OKH, Gen Qu/Ec/II, Number 2877/42, secret, 25 April 1942; OKH, Gen Qu/Section Mil. Adm. Number 3158/1942, secret, 6 May 1942.”

Therefore, the document which I intend to quote here originates from the OKH and is based on orders previously issued by the OKH. At the end of the document there is a list of addresses to which it was distributed. I will not quote this list in full, but it leaves no doubt as to who were the executors of the orders contained in the above document. These executors were the military authorities.

Let us now turn to the contents of the submitted document. First of all, what induced the OKH when it issued this letter? The reply to this question is contained in the first paragraph of our document, which I shall now read into the record. I abridge the quotation:

“The Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor appointed by the Führer, Gauleiter Sauckel . . . in consideration of the increased armament requirements of the Reich and in order to secure the manpower requirements of the German war and armament economy, has ordered that the enlisting and transferring into the Reich of Russian manpower be speeded up and considerably increased.

“For the execution of this recruiting action . . . influence of the military and local administrative authorities (field Kommandantura, local Kommandantura, I A—organization of the Economic Staff East, district administrations, town mayors, et cetera) . . . is necessary. This is a task of decisive importance for the outcome of the war. The labor situation of the Reich makes it necessary that the ordered measures are carried out on a priority basis and in a large scale manner. This must be the chief task of all organizations.”

The next two paragraphs of the quoted document, part of which is entitled, “Priority of Manpower Needs in the Armed Forces and Economy in the East,” contain the following statement—I quote Page 139 of your document book which runs:

“The immediate manpower needs of the Army must be satisfied in the highest priority inasmuch as the need is actually inescapable . . . and unalterable. The scale of the needs of the Army is to be determined by the armies, the commanders of the front areas, and the Wehrmacht commanders. However, in consideration of the urgent labor needs of the Reich . . . the severest standard is to be applied, and especially the scale of the troops’ own manpower needs is to be most carefully examined.”

THE PRESIDENT: Isn’t it sufficient to say that this document provides for the speeding up of the mobilization of manpower and slave labor for the purposes of the necessities of the Reich? Does it do anything more than that?

GEN. ZORYA: Yes, you are quite right, Mr. President. It would be enough if we add that this document contains the demand not only to accelerate the mobilization of manpower but also the demand for immediate participation by the military authorities who had to arrange a suitable machinery in the form of suitable officers.

I pass on to the next document which I submit to the Tribunal.

It would be a mistake to think that the OKH gave orders only of such general character. In July 1941 the Defendant Keitel learned that the subdepartments of the Organization Todt in the Lvov district paid the local workers a wage of 25 rubles. This fact made Keitel indignant. Todt immediately received an appropriate reprimand. And so we come to the next document, which I present to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-366 (Document Number USSR-366).

The Reich Minister directly refers, in this document, to the fact that Field Marshal Keitel expressed his displeasure that the subdepartments of the Organization Todt in the suburbs of Lvov paid the local workers wages of 25 rubles and that the subdepartments of the O.T. were making use of the factories.

Todt declares that during his last trip he had explained in detail to all members of the staff that the rules for the allocation of labor in Russian territory were different from those in Western Europe. Further in this document Todt categorically prohibits the paying of any sums of money at all. He concludes this document in the following terms:

“No compensation shall be given to the firms for payments not in conformity with the above principles.

“This order is to be brought to the attention of all subordinate labor allocation offices and to all firms.

“Signed: Dr. Todt.”

The German Government and the High Command ordered the use of peaceful Soviet citizens for work which endangered life. This was mentioned by Göring at a conference on 7 November 1941. I now submit to the Tribunal Exhibit Number USSR-106 (Document Number USSR-106), which contains the translation of the Führer’s directive, signed by him on 8 September 1942. This directive concerns the allocation of labor for the construction of fortifications on the Eastern Front. This document comes from the German archives captured by the Allied armies in the West. The covering letter to this document states that this document “is top secret, and that copies of it will be sent to staffs and divisions and are to be returned to the Army staffs and destroyed.”

On the second page of the document, we find Hitler’s order. I read it into the record:

“HQu, 8 September 1942.

“The heavy defensive battles in the area of Army Groups Center and North induce me to fix my views on some fundamental tasks of the defense.”

The next Paragraphs, 1 and 2 on Pages 1 to 7, concern general principles of defense, which do not interest us today. On Page 148 of the document book is the following passage which I read into the record:

“The enemy carries on construction to a far greater extent than do our own troops. I know that it will be argued that the enemy has at his disposal more labor for construction of such positions. But it is therefore an absolute necessity at exactly this point to make use, with ruthless energy, especially of prisoners of war and the population for these tasks. Only in this respect is the Russian superior to us in his brutal way. By this means, however, the German soldier, too, can be spared to a large extent from labor on defensive works behind the front lines, in order that he may be kept free and fresh for his real duties. Frequently the necessary ruthlessness which the present fateful battle demands is not yet being employed here, for in it not a victory but the existence and survival of our people is contested. Besides, it is in all circumstances still always more humane to drive the Russian population to work, with every means, as it has always been accustomed to be driven, than to sacrifice our most precious possession, our own blood.”

This order is signed by Hitler.

Units of the Red Army also captured a decree issued by the German occupation authorities, which referred to an order of the General Staff about forced labor in combat zones. I submit this document as Exhibit Number USSR-407 (Document Number USSR-407), and I deem it necessary to quote a few sentences from Page 149 of the document book:

“Decree: In accordance with the regulations of the Chief of the OKW, dated 6 February 1943, regarding transfer for labor in the combat zone of the newly occupied eastern territory, all women born in 1924 and 1925 are hereby summoned for labor in Germany.

“Point V of this order provides that: . . . those who do not present themselves on the given dates shall be held responsible as saboteurs in accordance with military laws.”

I am summarizing this section.

The High Command of the German Armed Forces and the Defendant Keitel took a direct part in the execution of this system of forced slave labor. For the realization of this criminal objective they used on a large scale from bottom to top, the entire machinery of the military administration.

Your Honors, I beg to refer to the next document which I am now presenting as Exhibit Number USSR-381 (Document Number USSR-381).

THE PRESIDENT: General, was that last order that you gave us Keitel’s order? It is signed apparently by the Chief of the General Staff of the Military Command.

GEN. ZORYA: This is not an order of Keitel. This document which was submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-381 is entitled “Instruction to the Economic Offices, ‘Section Labor,’ on the Organization of Labor Allocation in the East.”

THE PRESIDENT: I thought you said that was by Keitel.

GEN. ZORYA: The preceding document which was submitted to the Tribunal was actually one of Keitel’s orders, but now I wish to speak of this instruction. I beg Your Honors to pay attention to the date on which this instruction was issued, namely 26 January 1942. In this instruction, on Page 150 of the document book, it is stated that the hopes which the Reich Marshal had placed in the office for the allocation of labor must be justified at all costs:

“The task of the economic organizations and the office for the allocation of labor in the East consists in bridging, during the coming months, the gaps in the economy which arose owing to the departure into the army of men of younger conscription age due to the universal enlistment of Russian manpower. This is of decisive importance for the war and must therefore be achieved. If the number of volunteers does not come up to expectations, then the enlistment measures already ordered should be reinforced by all available means.”

The United States Prosecution has submitted to the Tribunal a document of the Soviet Prosecution, Exhibit Number USSR-381 (Document Number USSR-381), entitled, “Memo on the Treatment of Foreign Civilian Workers in the Reich.”

I do not wish to quote this document again, but consider it necessary only to show. . .

DR. OTTO NELTE (Counsel for Defendant Keitel): The President has just now asked about the Document Number USSR-407 and the prosecutor has presented it here as a document of Keitel. I have only just now found this document. If it is a question of the same document that I have marked as USSR-407, then it is signed by a local commander and by a chief of the labor office.

Is this document the same as that presented to you as USSR-407?

THE PRESIDENT: I have already pointed out, have I not, that it was not by Keitel?

DR. NELTE: Yes, Sir. But the Prosecutor has thereupon repeatedly said that this Document 407 represents an order by Keitel. That is why I wanted to clarify it.

GEN. ZORYA: Perhaps the Tribunal will allow me to clarify this matter. Apparently a misunderstanding arose through faulty translation. I said that troops of the Red Army had seized a German order, and added that the order had been issued by the German occupational authorities—you can verify this by looking up the stenographic record—which referred to an order of Keitel regarding forced labor in the combat zones. This order begins with the following words, “In accordance with the regulations of the Chief of the OKW, dated 6 February 1943, transfer for labor in the combat zone,” and so forth. I shall not quote any further.

If I may beg the Tribunal to consider once more a document which I have already submitted previously, that is, the document of the High Command of the Army, Number II/3210/42, it is because this order refers to corresponding orders of the General Staff of the Army on questions of allocation of labor in the East. This order of the occupational authorities, which I submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-407, refers to one of these orders. It states quite clearly, “In accordance with the regulations of the Chief of the OKW.” That is why I submitted this document.

THE PRESIDENT: I am afraid I really don’t understand you. What I have got in the translation before me is this, “The units of the Red Army captured a copy of the German decree which mentioned Keitel’s order on forced labor in the combat zone,” and continues further that those persons refusing to work shall be apprehended as saboteurs. This document is submitted as Exhibit USSR something or other.

It may be useful to read a few excerpts of it, “By order of the Chief of the General Staff of the Military Command, of 6 February 1943, concerning the compulsory labor service . . . in the combat zone”—and then it goes on to deal with persons who don’t present themselves being considered saboteurs.

Well, I thought you were saying that the Chief of the General Staff of the Military Command was Keitel. He was the Chief of the OKW. Are you still saying that he was the Chief of the Military Command?

GEN. ZORYA: I quote only that which is in the document: “In accordance with the regulations of the Chief of the General Staff of the Military Command.” That is in the document, and I do not wish to add anything.

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think it is worth taking any more time over it.

GEN. ZORYA: I will now go back to that document which was submitted to the Tribunal by the United States Prosecution and which was entitled, “Memo for the Treatment of Foreign Civilian Laborers in the Reich.” I will not quote this document in detail; I would like to stress only that it established a special regime for Eastern Workers. They lived in camps surrounded by guards and under supervision of a camp commander. The latter forbade a normal life for workers from the East. They were thus forbidden to visit churches or public places and they were obliged to wear special insignia—a rectangle with pale blue edges, and in the middle the word “Ost” in white letters on the dark blue background.

In the memorandum to housewives regarding the employment of women from the East in town and rural households it was stated that—Page 131 of the document book:

“Every foreigner judges the standard of our entire people by the personal and political conduct of the individual. The foreign workers must see in the housewife and the members of her family worthy representatives of the German people.”

I proceed further:

“If, in exceptional cases, German and eastern female domestic workers are employed in the same household, the German domestic workers must be given mainly tasks of serving the family and must also be given the supervision of the Eastern woman worker. The German living in the household must always have precedence.”

General conditions of work did not apply to the women workers from the East. Their labor was regulated only by the discretion of their masters. This was expressed in Paragraph 4 of the same memorandum. I quote:

“Eastern women workers are employed in the households in a special labor relation. German regulations on working conditions and on labor protection refer to them only insofar as this is specifically decreed.”

The character of these special instructions can be seen in Paragraph 9, Section B of the memorandum, which states quite openly:

“No claim to leisure time is given. Eastern women domestic workers may leave the household only when on duty connected with the needs of the household. . . . Visiting the theaters, restaurants, cinemas, and similar . . . institutions is forbidden.”

Paragraph 10 of the memorandum states:

“Eastern female domestic workers are enlisted for indefinite time.”

Paragraph 12 of the memorandum states that:

“Germans may not share a room with the Eastern woman worker.”

Paragraph 14 states that:

“Clothing as a rule cannot be supplied.”

These two documents just mentioned by me, “Memo on the Treatment of Foreign Civilian Laborers” and “Memorandum for Housewives on the Employment of Eastern Female Workers,” reflect the inhuman conditions of work for the forcibly mobilized Soviet citizens. The Soviet Prosecution has at its disposal numerous documents, the testimonies of persons who themselves experienced the terror of fascist slavery. The enumeration of all these documents would take too much time. The Soviet Government had at its disposal, already in the early phases of the war against fascist Germany, many proofs of the crimes of the fascist conspirators in this field.

The first document of this kind published by the Soviet Government is the note of the People’s Commissar of Foreign Affairs, Molotov, dated 6 January 1942, which was presented to the Tribunal by the Soviet Prosecution as Exhibit Number USSR-51(2), (Document USSR-51(2)) and this note stated that:

“The peaceful citizens forcibly deported for compulsory labor were proclaimed ‘prisoners of war’ by the German authorities and treated as such as far as their maintenance is concerned. It has been established by reports of Staffs of the German Army that peasants and other peaceful citizens seized by the Germans and deported for compulsory labor were automatically put on the list as prisoners of war. Thus the number of prisoners of war was artificially and unlawfully increased.

“In the vicinity of the town of Plavsk, in the region of Tula, a camp was established where Soviet war prisoners and the civilian population from neighboring villages were interned at the same time. The Soviet citizens were there subjected to inhuman tortures and sufferings. There were young boys and girls, women, and old men among them. Their only food consisted of two potatoes and some barley grits each day. The death rate reached 25 to 30 persons daily.

“After the occupation of Kiev, the Germans drove into slave labor all the civilian population from 11 to 60 years of age, irrespective of their profession, their sex, state of health, or nationality.

“People who were too ill to stand on their feet were fined by the Germans for every day of work they missed.

“In Kharkov the German invaders decided to make the local Ukrainian intellectuals an object of their mockery. On 5 November 1941 all actors were ordered to appear at the Shevtshenko Theater for registration. When they had gathered, they were surrounded by German soldiers who harnessed them to carts and drove them along the most frequented streets to the river for water.”

The second document of the Soviet Government was the Foreign Commissar’s note, dated 27 April 1942. This note is submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit USSR-51 (Document Number USSR-51). Section 3 of this note is entitled, “Installation of a Regime of Slavery and Bondage in the Occupied Territories of the Soviet Union and Deportation of Civilian Population as Prisoners of War.” This note states that:

“In the Ukraine and Bielorussia the Germans introduced a 14- or 16-hour workday, in most cases without any compensation and in some cases with ridiculously low wages.

“In the secret instructions entitled, ‘On Current Tasks in the Eastern Regions,’ captured by Red Army troops at the beginning of March 1942, the chief of the Military Economic Inspectorate Central Front, Lieutenant General Weigang, admits that:

“ ‘It has proved impossible to maintain industrial production with the labor of semi-starved and semi-clad people,’ that ‘the devaluation of money and the commodity crisis coincide with a dangerous lack of confidence in the German authorities on the part of the local population,’ and that ‘this constitutes a danger to the peace in the occupied regions which cannot be permitted in the rear of the combat troops.’ The German general in this document presumes to call these occupied regions ‘our new eastern colonial possession.’

“Acknowledging that the complete collapse of industrial production in the occupied districts has led to mass unemployment, the German General Weigang issued the following orders for speeding up the forcible dispatch of the Russian, Ukrainian, Bielorussian, and other workers to Germany.

“ ‘Only the shipping to Germany of some millions of Russian workers and only the inexhaustible reserves of healthy and strong people in the Occupied Eastern Territories . . . can solve the urgent problem of manpower shortage and therewith meet the lack of labor in Germany.’

“In an order . . . seized by units of the Red Army, recruiting the entire civilian population of the occupied districts for all kinds of heavy labor was ordered; and it was stated that this forced labor was not to be paid for; and it was insolently declared that by this unpaid labor the population would atone for its guilt for the acts of sabotage already committed as well as for the acts of sabotage which might be committed by them in the future.

“In Kaluga, on 20 November 1941, an announcement was posted, signed by the German commandant, Major Portatius, which ran as follows:

“ ‘1. Citizens who do poor work or do not work the specified number of hours will be subject to a monetary fine. In the event of nonpayment, delinquents will be subjected to corporal punishment.

“ ‘2. Citizens who have received a work assignment and who have not reported for work will be subject to corporal punishment and will receive no food rations from the municipality.

“ ‘3. Citizens evading work in general will, in addition, be expelled from Kaluga. Citizens shirking work will be attached to labor detachments and columns, and billeted in barracks. They will be used for heavy labor.’ ”

This note indicated also that land would be transferred to German landowners. This was established by a land law which was promulgated at the end of April 1942 by the Hitlerite Gauleiter Alfred Rosenberg.

I pass on to the next note of People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov which was published a year after the note dated 27 April 1942.

On 11 May 1943 the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Molotov, sent to all Ambassadors and Ministers of all the countries with which the U.S.S.R. had diplomatic relations a note, “Concerning the Wholesale Forcible Deportation of Peaceful Soviet Citizens to German Fascist Slavery and Concerning the Responsibility Borne for this Crime by German Authorities and Individuals.” This note is submitted to the Tribunal as evidence as Exhibit Number USSR-51(4) (Document Number USSR-51(4)).

I consider it necessary to read a few quotations from this note. On Page 165 of the document book there is a reference to a declaration of Göring of 7 November 1941, which has already been mentioned by me. I will not again repeat all that Göring said at that conference. I will only stress that Göring issued a blood-thirsty order “not to spare the Soviet people deported into Germany and to handle them in the most cruel manner under any excuse.” This order is included in section IV-A7 of the above-mentioned note. It reads as follows:

“In applying measures for the maintenance of order, the main principle must be swiftness and severity. Only the following forms of punishment must be employed, without intermediary grades: deprivation of food and death by sentence of field court-martial.”

On 31 March 1942 Sauckel issued the following order by telegraph:

“The enlistment, for which you are responsible, must be speeded up by every available means, including the stern application of the principle of labor service.”

The Soviet Government is in possession of the complete text of a report by the Chief of the Political Police and Security Service with the Chief of the SS in Kharkov, headed, “The Situation in the City of Kharkov from 23 July to 9 September 1942.”

“The recruiting of labor power”—states this document—“is causing the competent bodies disquietude, for the population is displaying extreme reluctance to go to work in Germany. The situation at present is that everybody does his utmost to evade enlistment. Voluntary departure to Germany has long been entirely out of the question.”

Your Honors, I must stress that the Defendant Sauckel, as Plenipotentiary for the Allocation of Labor, actively pursued criminal activity, as it is pointed out in the note of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, which I just presented. On 31 March 1942 Sauckel sent to his subordinate departments a telegraphic instruction regarding the utilization of Russians and the work of the enlistment committee. I submit this telegram of Sauckel to the Tribunal as evidence, Exhibit Number USSR-382 (Document Number USSR-382). In this telegram Sauckel writes:

“The rate of mobilization must be increased immediately and under all circumstances to insure, in the shortest possible time, that is to say, by April, that a three-fold increase in the number of dispatched workers is achieved.”

Sauckel’s efforts were appreciated by the Defendant Göring at the time when he was Delegate for the Four Year Plan. I refer now to the conference which Göring held on 6 August 1942. This protocol has been submitted by the Soviet Prosecution to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-170 (Document Number USSR-170). I beg you to refer to Pages 12 and 13 of this document, Page 184 of the document book. Göring came forth with the following words,

“I have to say one thing to this. I do not wish to praise the Gauleiter Sauckel; he does not need it.”

THE PRESIDENT: All this was read the other day. The actual words were read yesterday.

GEN. ZORYA: I am quite sure, Mr. President, that my colleague, who read into the record this document, did not read this particular passage.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but I still think that he read this excerpt which you have got set out in your document, “I do not wish to praise Gauleiter Sauckel; he does not need it.” He certainly referred to the excerpt which you have just summarized about Lohse.

GEN. ZORYA: I do not wish to argue but I had the information that this excerpt had not been read into the record. If you like, I will not read this passage into the record.

THE PRESIDENT: Maybe you are right. I don’t know.

GEN. ZORYA: Then, I will read it into the record very briefly:

“I do not wish to praise Gauleiter Sauckel; he does not need it. But what he has done in such a short time to collect workers so quickly from the whole of Europe and supply them to our undertakings is a unique achievement. I must tell that to all these gentlemen; if each of them used in their sphere of activity a tenth of the energy used by Gauleiter Sauckel, the tasks laid upon them would indeed easily be carried out. This is my sincere conviction and in no way fine words.”

I return again to the note of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, V. M. Molotov, dated 11 May 1943. This note further gives data concerning the number of Soviet people who were deported to Germany. This note states that the deportation of Soviet people to German slavery was accompanied nearly everywhere by bloody repressive measures against Soviet citizens seeking refuge from slave merchants who were hunting for them. It has been established that in Gjatsk 75 peaceful inhabitants of the town were shot and that in Poltava 65 railroad men were hanged. The same thing in other towns also—executions, shootings, and hangings were carried out on the same scale.

THE PRESIDENT: I understood from you at the beginning of your speech that you were going to finish this afternoon your presentation. It is now 5 minutes past 5. Is there any chance of your finishing today?

GEN. ZORYA: If I had not been interrupted by Defense Counsel for 10 minutes in connection with a discussion about the order of the German occupational authorities, I would have finished my statement.

THE PRESIDENT: How long do you think will it take you now?

GEN. ZORYA: A maximum of 10 minutes.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

GEN. ZORYA: The note states that the Soviet citizens in the territories captured by the Germans are, with growing frequency and organization, offering courageous resistance to the slave owners. The growth of the partisan movement in connection with the resistance the Soviet citizens are offering to forcible transportation into German slavery is admitted with alarm in a number of secret reports from German army and police administrations.

This note quotes further a number of testimonies of Soviet people who had escaped German slavery. I will only quote one of these testimonies of Kolkhoz member Varvara Bakhtina of the village of Nikolayevka, Kursk region, who stated:

“In Kursk we were pushed into cattle wagons, 50 to 60 persons in each wagon. Nobody was permitted to leave. Every now and then the German sentry hustled and punched us. In Lgov we had to get out and be examined by a special commission there. In the presence of the soldiers we were compelled to undress quite naked and have our bodies examined. The nearer we got to Germany, the fewer were the people left in the train. From Kursk they took 3,000 persons but at nearly every station the sick and those dying from hunger were thrown out. In Germany we were put into a camp with Soviet prisoners of war. This was in a forest section surrounded by a high barbed-wire fence. Four days later we were taken to different places. I, my sister Valentina, and 13 other girls were sent to an armament factory.”

The third section of this report describes further the treatment under which the Soviet workers lived in German slavery. This part of the report also mentions the statement made by Göring concerning Russian workers. Göring states in the above-mentioned directives:

“The Russian is not fastidious and, therefore, it is easy to feed him without affecting our food stocks to any appreciable degree. He must not be spoiled or allowed to get accustomed to German food.”

Finally the note quotes a number of letters from home to the German soldiers on the Eastern Front, which describe the humiliation to which the Soviet workers were subjected. I will quote a passage from one of such letters. A letter from his mother in Chemnitz was found on the body of Wilhelm Bock, killed German private, of the 221st German Infantry Division. This letter reads:

“Many Russian women and girls are working at the Astra Works. They are compelled to work 14 and more hours a day. Of course, they receive no pay whatever. They go to and from the factory under escort. The Russians literally drop from exhaustion. The guards often whip them. They have no right to complain about the bad food or ill-treatment. The other day my neighbor obtained a servant. She paid some money at an office and was given the opportunity to choose any woman she pleased from a number here from Russia.”

Letters also mention mass suicides of Russian women and men.

The note ends with a declaration of the Soviet Government, which states that it places responsibility for atrocities in this domain on the leading Hitlerite clique and the High Command of the German fascist Army:

“The Soviet Government also places full responsibility for the above enumerated crimes upon the Hitlerite officials who are engaged in recruiting, abducting, transporting in camps, selling into slavery, and inhumanly exploiting peaceful Soviet civilians who have been forcibly transported from their native land to Germany. . . . The Soviet Government holds that stern responsibility should be borne by such already exposed criminals as . . . Fritz Sauckel and . . . Alfred Rosenberg.”

And finally the note points out:

“The Soviet Government expresses the conviction that all the Governments concerned are unanimous on the point that the Hitler Government and its agents must bear full responsibility and receive stern punishment for the monstrous crimes they have committed, for the privation and suffering they have inflicted upon millions of peaceful citizens who have been forcibly deported into German fascist slavery.”

This is the end of People’s Commissar Molotov’s note. Kindly allow me to close my statement also with these words.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now adjourn.

[The Tribunal adjourned until 23 February 1946 at 1000 hours.]

SIXTY-SIXTH DAY
Saturday, 23 February 1946