“2. All people mentioned in the first paragraph who cross the fields are to be shot.
“3. All persons mentioned in Paragraph 1 who are found on the roads at night or at dawn are to be shot.
“4. Persons mentioned in Paragraph 1, if found on the roads during the daytime, are subject to arrest and the most detailed examination.”
Such were the terroristic decrees and orders based upon the so-called Leadership Principle that were issued by high-ranking officials and representatives of the military authorities of the fascist German Government. But the right of relentless reprisals against the peaceful populations was not confined to them only; any local Kommandantur, any commander of a small unit, and, finally, any soldier of Hitler’s army acquired the right of reprisal against the peaceful population of the occupied regions.
I shall now submit to the Tribunal several documents which will reveal how the Hitlerite criminals invariably made the most of this right, introducing into the crimes perpetrated against the Soviet people the cruel devices of base and evil creatures who had been granted the right of mocking and murdering with impunity. I submit to the Tribunal, as Exhibit Number USSR-9 (Document Number USSR-9), a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the atrocities perpetrated by the German fascist occupiers in the city of Kiev. The Tribunal will find the passage in question on Page 238 of the document file, Paragraph 5 of Column 1 of the text. I quote:
“The German executioners, from the very first days of their occupation of Kiev, carried out a wholesale slaughter of the population by torture, shooting, hanging, and poisoning by gas in the murder vans. People were seized in the streets and shot either in large batches or singly. Announcements of the shootings were posted in order to intimidate the population.”
I shall interrupt my quotation at this point, and I ask the Tribunal to accept in evidence photostats of several of these posters. Partial mention has already been made of them in the report of the Extraordinary State Commission. From among their number, I would request the Tribunal to accept in evidence the photostat of one such poster, which I submit as Exhibit Number USSR-290 (Document Number USSR-290). The text reads as follows—I ask the Tribunal to excuse me if the translation is, perhaps, slightly incorrect, since the original text is in Ukrainian. I am a Russian, I understand the meaning of the Ukrainian text, but the translation might possibly not be quite correct in every detail. A translation will be made. Here is the text:
“As a reprisal for an act of sabotage, 100 inhabitants of the city of Kiev were shot this day. Let this be a warning.
“Every inhabitant of Kiev is co-responsible for every act of sabotage.
“Kiev, 22 October 1941; The Town Commandant.”