“It cannot be prevented that the German people take notice of these occurrences.
“Even if the transportation to the camps is generally taken care of by the Wehrmacht, the population will attribute this situation to the SS.
“In order to prevent, if possible, similar occurrences in the future, I therefore order that, effective from today on, Soviet Russians declared definitely suspect and obviously marked by death (for example with hunger-typhus) and therefore not able to withstand the exertions of even a short march on foot shall in the future, as a matter of basic principle, be excluded from the transport into the concentration camps for execution.”
More evidence of the confinement of Russian prisoners of war in concentration camps is found in an official report of the investigation of the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp by the Headquarters of the United States Third Army, the Judge Advocate Section, and particularly the War Crimes Branch, under the date of the 21st day of June 1945. It is our Document Number 2309-PS and bears Exhibit Number USA-245. At the bottom of Page 2 of the English text the last two sentences of that last paragraph say, and I quote:
“In 1941 an additional stockade was added at the Flossenbürg camp to hold 2,000 Russian prisoners. Of these 2,000 prisoners only 102 survived.”
Soviet prisoners of war found their allies in the concentration camps too; and at Page 4 of this same Document Number 2309-PS, it will show, particularly Paragraph 5 on Page 4, and I quote it:
“The victims of Flossenbürg included among them: Russian civilians and prisoners of war, German nationals, Italians, Belgians, Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, British, and American prisoners of war. No practical means was available to complete a list of victims of this camp; however, since the foundation of the camp in 1938 until the day of liberation, it is estimated that more than 29,000 inmates died.”
Escaped prisoners of war were sent to concentration camps by the conspirators, and these camps were specially set up as extermination centers; and we refer to Document Number 1650-PS, bearing Exhibit Number USA-246. This document is a communication from the Secret State Police of Cologne and it is dated the 4th day of March 1944. At the very top of the English text it says, “To be transmitted in secret—to be handled as a secret Government matter.”