“It is quite evident that the Standgerichte did not possess the characteristics which, in accordance with the general opinion, are those of a tribunal and that the trials of the Standgerichte in reality violated all the principles which should be observed in the legislations of all civilized people. Standgerichte cannot be called tribunals and its court examination cannot be called a trial and a decision. I think the proper term would be ‘verdict.’
“The executions resulting from the verdicts of the Standgerichte differ in no way from executions performed without trial. They should be classified as murders.
“It is impossible to find in the regulations which determined the methods of procedure of the Standgerichte even a trace of humanity. For instance, the rule which imposed immediate execution and accorded practically no time to the condemned to prepare for death, is a form of cruelty which, just as the entire institution of the Standgerichte, had as its aim the terrorization of the population.”
I shall conclude the quotation with this excerpt, and I shall take the liberty of remarking that the institution of the Standgerichte did not countermand or exclude simple police sentences passed by means of a procedure similar to the one which was established by Frank in Poland.
It seems to me that all the laws which were cited by me above testify to the fact that the Hitlerites tried to turn the legislation, intended to punish crimes, into one which commits crimes. This is the sole purpose why their “laws” were created.
If Your Honors please, I shall now turn to the terroristic laws and directives of Hitlerite criminals which were issued for the civilian population of the Soviet Union.
Having started the criminal war against the U.S.S.R., the German fascist gang of bandits considered even these laws and “legal” principles especially created for the justification of their crimes, insufficient.
Most of these documents had already been submitted to the Tribunal and I shall confine myself to some very brief quotations. With the Tribunal’s permission I shall read only three lines from a previously submitted document. I am referring to Document Number L-221 submitted to the Tribunal by the United States Prosecution. It contains a brusque reply made by Hitler to Göring at a meeting on 16 July 1941. The Tribunal will find the place on Page 189 in the document file in the first paragraph, first line.
THE PRESIDENT: That document has been read already.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, Your Honor. I shall take the liberty of quoting only three lines of this document.