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

by Various

Morning Session

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

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: If Your Lordship pleases.

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

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Colonel Smirnov.

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

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

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

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

[The witness, Suzkever, took the stand.]

THE PRESIDENT: What is your name?

ABRAM GERZEVITCH SUZKEVER (Witness): Suzkever.

THE PRESIDENT: Are you a Soviet citizen?

SUZKEVER: Yes.

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

[The witness repeated the oath in Russian.]

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

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

SUZKEVER: In the town of Vilna.

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

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

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

SUZKEVER: Yes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE PRESIDENT: Which year?

SUZKEVER: 1941.

THE PRESIDENT: Go on.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Were these official orders?

SUZKEVER: Yes, issued by Muhrer.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Were they posted?

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

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Who were these hunters?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE PRESIDENT: Do you have the document?

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

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

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

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

SUZKEVER: Certainly.

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

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

THE PRESIDENT: Where did you say it was found?

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

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

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

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

SUZKEVER: Certainly.

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

THE PRESIDENT: Will you hand it in, please?

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

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

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

SUZKEVER: Yes.

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

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

SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: No questions.

MR. DODD: No questions.

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

[The witness left the stand.]

Yes, Colonel Smirnov.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I omit three sentences and proceed with the quotation:

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

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

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

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

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

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

With this I end the quotation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I believe that it was not by accident that the experiments on people began with sterilization and castration. This was a quite natural result of the theories of German fascism, interested in lowering the birthrate of those people whom they considered to be vanquished. It was a part of Hitler’s depopulation technique; and in confirmation of this I would now like to quote a very short excerpt from Rauschning’s book, The Voice of Destruction, which has already been submitted to the Tribunal. This extract has not yet been read into the record, and the Tribunal will find it on Page 207 of the document book.

Hitler said to Rauschning:

“And by ‘destruction’ I do not necessarily mean extermination of these people—I shall simply take systematic measures to prevent their procreation.”

I skip the next three sentences and quote one more sentence:

“There are many means by which a systematic and comparatively painless extinction of undesirable races can be attained, at any rate without blood being shed.”

This excerpt is on Page 137 of the original book.

Sterilization and castration became a criminal practice of the Hitlerites in the occupied territories in Eastern Europe. I beg the Tribunal’s permission to draw its attention to two of these documents.

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, perhaps that would be a convenient time to break off.

The Tribunal would like to know how long you think you will take before you conclude your statement.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I believe, Mr. President, that I will finish the presentation of evidence today.

I would like the Tribunal to allow me to question three more witnesses today and I still have about one hour of reading. But it is very difficult for me to determine the time exactly, as that sometimes depends on other factors, known to you, which may force me to change my intentions.

THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now for 10 minutes.

[A recess was taken.]

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I ask the permission of the Tribunal to draw its attention to two very short German documents, which are submitted under Exhibit Number USSR-400 (Document Number USSR-400) in photostats certified by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union. They are two communications from Lieutenant Frank, head of a Security Police division, regarding the conditions under which a gypsy woman, Lucia Strasdinsch had the right to reside in the town of Libau.

“Libau, 10 December 1941.

“Security Police Post, Town of Libau; to the Prefect of the Town of Libau.

“It has been decided that the Gypsy Lucia Strasdinsch will be allowed to take up residence here again only on the condition that she submits to being sterilized. She is to be informed accordingly and a report on the result is to be rendered to this office.

“Frank, Lieutenant, Security Police and O. C. Security Police Station.”

The second document is a memorandum from the Prefecture of Libau, H. Grauds, to the head of the Security Police Post. The text:

“I herewith return your letter of 10 December 1941 regarding the sterilization of the Gypsy Lucia Strasdinsch and beg to report that this person was sterilized in the local hospital on 9 January 1942. Pertinent letter Number 850 of 12. 1. 42 from the hospital is attached.”

In order to show the extent of the experiments which were performed on live persons, I would ask Your Honors to turn to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on Oswieczim. The extract which I should like to quote, the members of the Tribunal may find on Page 197 of the book of documents, first column, second paragraph. It is stated there that a statistical report by the commandant of the camp has been discovered in the archives of the camp. This report is signed by the deputy commander of the camp, Sella. It has a column under the heading, “Internees designated for experiments.” This column reads as follows; “Women subject to experiments: on 15 May 1944—400, on 15 June—413, on 19 June—348, and so on.”

I would like to conclude this chapter on experiments on live persons, by the following: I would like to quote the memorandum of the judicial and medical report, an excerpt of which is in the report on Oswieczim Camp. The members of the Tribunal may find the passage which I should like to quote on Page 197 of the document book, first column, Paragraph 5. I omit the part which refers to sterilization and castration because I think that this question has been sufficiently elucidated. I will quote only Points 4, 6, and 7 of the memorandum, indicating that in Oswieczim:

“Researches were carried out with various chemical preparations of German firms. According to the testimony of one German physician, Dr. Valentin Erwin, there was a case where the representatives of the chemical industry of Germany, a gynecologist, Glauber, from Königshütte, and a chemist, Gebel, bought from the administration of the camp 150 women for such experiments.”

I omit Point 5 and I quote Point 6:

“Experiments on men by applying irritant chemical substances on the skin of the calf in order to create ulcers and phlegmons.

“7) A series of other experiments—artificial infection with malaria, artificial insemination, and so forth.”

I omit the next three pages of my statement which give the particulars of these experiments. I would like only to draw the attention of the Tribunal to other crimes perpetrated by the German doctors and, in particular, to the extermination of patients in mental hospitals. I am not going to quote all the examples which the Tribunal will find in the report of the Extraordinary State Commission but will dwell on one crime only, which was perpetrated in the town of Kiev. I quote a paragraph from the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the town of Kiev, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 212 of the document book, first column, Paragraph 6:

“On 14 October 1941 an SS detachment under the leadership of the German garrison physician Rikowsky, entered the mental hospital. The Hitlerites drove 300 patients into one building, kept them there without food and water, and then shot them in a gully of the Kirilov wood. The remaining patients were exterminated on 7 January, 27 March, and 17 October 1942.”

In the subsequent part of the Extraordinary State Commission’s report a statement is quoted, a statement made by Professor Kapustianski, by a woman doctor Dzevaltovska, and the nurse Troepolska. I submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-249 (Document Number USSR-249) the photostat of this testimony, and I request that it be included in the files of the case as evidence. I am quoting some of the extracts from this document:

“During the German occupation of the city of Kiev, the Kiev Psychiatric Clinic had to experience tragic days, which culminated in the complete ruin and destruction of the hospital. A crime was committed against the unfortunate mentally sick people, the like of which had not been known in history up to this time.”

I omit the next part and I quote further on:

“In the course of the years 1941-42, 800 patients were killed.”

I omit the next two paragraphs and I read on:

“On 7 January 1942 the Gestapo came to the hospital. They posted guards everywhere in the grounds of the hospital. To enter or leave the hospital was forbidden. A representative of the Gestapo requested the selection of the incurably sick people to be sent to Zhitomir.”

I skip the next sentence.

“What was in store for the sick people was carefully concealed from the medical staff. After that, special cars arrived at the hospital. The sick people were pushed into them, some 60 to 70 persons into each car. Everyone could see these atrocities which were perpetrated in front of the ward windows. The patients were pushed into the cars and murdered there. Their corpses were thrown out on the spot. This awful deed went on for two days, during which 365 patients were exterminated. The patients who had not completely lost their minds soon realized the truth. There were heart-rending scenes. Thus, a young girl, patient Y, in spite of all of the efforts of the doctor, understood that death was awaiting her. She came out of the ward, embraced the doctor, and quietly asked him, ‘Is this the end?’ Pale as death, she went to the car and, refusing any assistance, climbed inside. The entire staff was told that any criticism or any expression of displeasure would be completely out of place and would be regarded as sabotage.”

I shall quote one more sentence from this report:

“It is a characteristic detail that these murders—unprecedented by their abomination—were committed on Christmas Day, when Christmas trees were being distributed to the German soldiers; and the inscription ‘God is with us’ sparkled on the belts of the executioners.”

Herewith I end my quotation.

I think it possible to omit the following four pages of my speech because they deal with similar cases of the murder of mental patients in other parts of the country. Similar methods were used for these murders as those used in Kiev. I will request the Tribunal to accept as evidence the photostats of three German documents, certified by the Extraordinary State Commission, which testify to the fact that special standard forms of documents were worked out for the report on the murder of the insane by the German fascists.

I submit these documents. The first document is submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-397 (Document Number USSR-397.) The members of the Tribunal may find it on Page 218 of the document book. I am quoting the text of the document:

“To the Registrar’s office in the Town of Riga:”

I omit the next paragraph.

“I hereby certify that 368 incurably insane patients, whose names appear on the annexed list, died on 29 January 1942.”—Signed—“Kirste, SS Sturmbannführer.”

The second document is submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-410 (Document Number USSR-410). This is a report of the head of the Security Police and SD in Latvia, Number 357/42g, dated 28 May 1942. I am quoting the one paragraph from this document:

“I hereby certify that 243 incurably insane patients, whose names appear on the enclosed list, died on 14 April 1942.”—Signed—“Kirste, SS Sturmbannführer.”

The third document is submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-398 (Document Number USSR-398). This is a report by the head of the Security Police and SD, Latvia, dated 15 March 1943. I will read into the record the one paragraph of this document:

“I hereby certify that 98 incurably insane patients, whose names appear on the enclosed list, died on 22 October 1942.”—Signed—“Kirste, SS Sturmbannführer.”

I think I can also omit the next one and a half pages of my statement; but I would request the Tribunal to accept as evidence the following document without reading it, as proof of the experiments carried out on live persons. I submit as Exhibit Number USSR-406 (Document Number USSR-406) the data about the experiments carried out in another camp, the Ravensbrück Camp. It contains the results of the investigation by the Polish State Commission. The photographs contained therein are very characteristic and I need not comment on them.

I would now request the Tribunal’s permission to summon as witness a Polish woman, Shmaglevskaya, to have her testify regarding only one question, the attitude of the German fascists toward the children in the concentration camps. Would the President permit the calling of this witness?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly.

[The witness, Shmaglevskaya, took the stand.]

THE PRESIDENT: Will you first of all tell me your name?

SEVERINA SHMAGLEVSKAYA (Witness): Severina Shmaglevskaya.

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 that is known to me—so help me God, Amen.

[The witness repeated the oath.]

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, were you an internee of Oswieczim Camp?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: During what period of time were you in the camp of Oswieczim?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: From 7 October 1942 to January 1945.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Do you have any proof that you were an internee of this camp?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I have the number which was tattooed on my arm, right here.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: That is what the Oswieczim inmates call the “visiting cards”?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, please, Witness, were you an eyewitness of German SS men’s attitude toward children?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Will you please tell the Tribunal about this?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I could tell about the children who were born in the concentration camp, about the children who were brought to the concentration camp with the Jewish transports and who were taken directly to the crematories, as well as about those children who were brought to concentration camps and there interned. Already in December 1942 when I went to work about 10 kilometers from Birkenau. . .

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Excuse me. May I interrupt you? Then, you were in the Birkenau section of the camp?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes, I was in the Camp Birkenau, which is a part of the Oswieczim Camp, which was called Oswieczim Number 2.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please go on.

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I noticed then a woman in the last month of pregnancy. It was obvious from her appearance. This woman, together with the others, had to walk 10 kilometers to the place of work and there she toiled the whole day, shovel in hands, digging trenches. She was already ill and she asked the German superintendent, a civilian, for permission to rest. He refused, laughed at her, and together with another SS man, started beating her. He scrutinized her work very strictly. Such was the situation of all the women who were pregnant. And only during the very last minutes were they permitted to stay away from work. The newborn children, if Jewish, were immediately put to death.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Pardon me, Witness, what do you mean by “were immediately put to death”? When was it?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: They were immediately taken away from their mother.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: When the transport arrived?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: No, I am speaking of the children who were born in the concentration camps. A few minutes after delivery the child was taken from the mother, who never saw it again. After a few days the mother had to return to work. In 1942 there were no special blocks in the camp for the children. At the beginning of 1943, when they started to tattoo the internees, the children born in the concentration camps were also branded. The number was tattooed on their legs.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Why on the leg?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Because the child is very small and there was not enough room on their tiny arms for the number, which contained five digits. The children did not have special numbers but bore the same numbers as the grown-ups; that is to say, they were given serial numbers. The children were placed in a special block and after a few weeks, sometimes after a month, they were taken away from the camp.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Where to?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: We were never able to find out where these children were taken. They were taken away all the time this camp existed; that is to say, in 1943 and 1944. The last convoy of children left the camp in January 1945. These were not only Polish children, because, as you know, in Birkenau there were women from all over Europe. Even today we don’t know whether these children are alive.

I should like, in the name of all the women of Europe who became mothers in concentration camps, to ask the Germans today, “Where are these children?”

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, did you yourself see the children being taken to gas chambers?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I worked very close to the railway which led to the crematory. Sometimes in the morning I passed near the building the Germans used as a latrine, and from there I could secretly watch the transport. I saw many children among the Jews brought to the concentration camp. Sometimes a family had several children. The Tribunal is probably aware of the fact that in front of the crematory they were all sorted out.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Selection was made by the doctors?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Not always by doctors; sometimes by SS men.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: And doctors with them?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes, sometimes, by doctors, too. During such a sorting, the youngest and the healthiest Jewish women in very small numbers entered the camp. Women carrying children in their arms or in carriages, or those who had larger children, were sent into the crematory together with their children. The children were separated from their parents in front of the crematory and were led separately into gas chambers.

At that time, when the greatest number of Jews were exterminated in the gas chambers, an order was issued that the children were to be thrown into the crematory ovens or the crematory ditches without previous asphyxiation with gas.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: How should we understand that? Were they thrown into the ovens alive or were they killed by other means before they were burned?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: The children were thrown in alive. Their cries could be heard all over the camp. It is hard to say how many there were.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Nevertheless, there was some reason why this was done. Was it because the gas chambers were overworked?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: It is very difficult to answer this question. We don’t know whether they wanted to economize on the gas or whether there was no room in the gas chambers.

I should also add that it is impossible to determine the number of these children—like that of the Jews—because they were driven directly to the crematory, were not registered, were not tattooed, and very often were not even counted. We, the internees, often tried to ascertain the number of people who perished in gas chambers; but our estimates of the number of children executed could only be based on the number of children’s prams which were brought to the storerooms. Sometimes there were hundreds of these carriages, but sometimes they sent thousands.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: In one day?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Not always the same. There were days when the gas chambers worked from early morning until late at night.

I should also like to tell you about the children—and their number is large—who were interned in concentration camps. At the beginning of 1943 Polish children from Zamoishevna arrived at the concentration camp with their parents. At the same time Russian children from territories occupied by the Germans began to arrive. The Jewish children were added to these. In smaller numbers, one could also meet Italian children in the concentration camp. The conditions were as difficult for the children as for adults; perhaps even more onerous. These children didn’t receive any parcels because there was no one to send them. Red Cross packages never reached the internees. In 1944 a great number of Italian and French children arrived at the concentration camp. All these children suffered from skin diseases, lymphatic boils, and malnutrition; they were badly clad, often without shoes, and had no possibility of washing themselves.

During the Warsaw uprising captured children from Warsaw were brought to the concentration camp. The youngest of the children was a little 6-year-old boy. The children were quartered in special barracks. When the systematic deportation of internees from Birkenau to the interior of Germany commenced, these children were used for heavy labor. At the same time there arrived in the concentration camps the children of Hungarian Jews, who had to work together with the children who were brought after the Warsaw uprising. These children worked with two carts which they had to pull themselves to transport coal, iron machines, wood for floors, and other heavy things from one camp to the other. They also labored at dismantling barracks during the liquidation of the camp. These children remained in the concentration camp until the very end. In January 1945 they were evacuated and had to march to Germany on foot under conditions as difficult as those of the front, under an SS guard, without food, covering about 30 kilometers a day.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: During this march the children died of exhaustion?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I wasn’t in the group where there were children, as I managed to escape on the second day after this evacuation march.

I should also like to add a few words regarding the methods of demoralization of the people who were interned in concentration camps. Everything that we had to suffer was the result of a whole system for degrading human beings.

The concentration camp cars in which the internees were transported had previously been used for cattle. When the transports were about to move the cars were nailed shut. In each one of these cars there was a great number of people. The convoy of SS men never considered that human beings have physical needs. Some of these people happened to have necessary pots with them, and they often had to use them for physical needs.

For some time I worked at the store, where kitchen utensils of internees were brought.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Do you mean that you worked in the warehouse where the belongings of these who were murdered were brought. Did I understand you correctly?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: No, only the kitchen utensils of people who arrived at the concentration camps were brought to this warehouse.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: These things were taken away from them?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: What I want to say is that in some cases the kitchen utensils and pots contained remains of food, and in others there was human excrement. Each of the workers received a pail of water, and had to wash a great number of these kitchen utensils during one half of the day. These kitchen utensils, which were sometimes very badly washed, were given to people who had just arrived at the concentration camp. From these pots and pans they had to eat, so that often they caught dysentery and other diseases from the first day.

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, I don’t think the Tribunal wants quite so much of the detail with reference of these domestic matters.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The witness was called here with a view to describing the attitude of the Germans toward the children in the camps.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you keep her to the part of her testimony which you wish to bring out?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, can you add anything else to your description of the attitude of the Germans towards the children in the camp? Have you already told us about all of the facts which you know regarding this question?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I should like to say that the children, as well as the adults, were also subjected to the system of demoralization and degradation through famine. Often starvation caused the children to look for potato peels in garbage heaps.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, do you certify in your testimony, that sometimes the number of carriages remaining after the murder of the children amounted to a thousand per day?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes, sometimes there were such days.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I have no further question to ask of the witness.

THE PRESIDENT: Do any of the chief prosecutors wish to ask any questions?

[There was no response.]

Do any of 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: Mr. President, I should like to take up the next section of my presentation which deals with the organization, by German fascism, of secret centers for the extermination of people. These cannot even be considered concentration camps because the human beings in these places rarely survived more than 10 minutes or 2 hours at the most. Out of all these terrible centers, organized by the German fascists, I would submit to the Tribunal evidence on two such places, that is to say, on Kwelmno center (Kwelmno is a village in Poland) and on the Treblinka Camp. In connection with this I would ask the Tribunal to summon one witness, whose testimony is interesting, because he can be considered a person who returned from “the other world,” for the road to Treblinka was called by the German executors themselves “The Road to Heaven.” I am speaking of the witness Rajzman, a Polish national, and I beg the Tribunal’s permission to bring this witness here for examination.

THE PRESIDENT: It is just a quarter to 1 now, so we had better have this witness at 2 o’clock. We will adjourn now.

[The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours.]