THE PRESIDENT: Please, proceed.
COL. POKROVSKY: Thank you. I thought the members of the Tribunal were deliberating. I, therefore, interrupted my report. Thank you.
Österreich also speaks about directives which provide for the shooting of all political commissars of the Red Army, Communists, and Jews. Such an arrangement practically opened the way for the extermination of any Soviet prisoner of war under the pretext that he was suspected of belonging to the Communist Party or if he looked like a Jew.
In rounding up General Österreich’s testimony it is necessary to quote a sentence mentioned, as I believe, by the Commander-in-Chief, General Field Marshal Von Reichenau, in “The Conduct of the Army in the East.” I submit this document to the Tribunal as our Exhibit Number USSR-12 (Document Number USSR-12). This quotation is on Page 33 in your document book, “Supplying the civilian population and the prisoners of war with food is a misunderstood humanitarian act as well as . . .” I submit to the Military Tribunal this despicable directive of Hitler’s Field Marshal and request it be accepted as evidence. This document is registered under Number USSR-12.
Three of Hitler’s high-ranking officers confirmed that even at the beginning of the war, at a special conference. . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Could you tell us if this order was issued by Field Marshal Von Reichenau? By the general himself?
COL. POKROVSKY: The order is signed by General Field Marshal Von Reichenau.
THE PRESIDENT: Was it captured or what?
COL. POKROVSKY: This document was one of the trophies captured by the Russian Army.
THE PRESIDENT: By the Russian Army?