“In retreating from the village of Gratschevo in the district of Geschatsk, in March 1943, the assistant chief of the German Field Police, Lieutenant Boss, drove 200 inhabitants into the house of the peasant woman Chistyakowa.”—The names of still more villages are then given.—“He locked the doors, set fire to the house, and all the 200 were burned alive.”
I will not enumerate the names of the people, but I wish to draw the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that some of these people were 63 and 70 years old, some of the children were 3, 4, and 5 years old.
I omit two paragraphs and quote another excerpt:
“The fascists burned all the inhabitants, both young and old, of the villages of Kulikovo and Kolesniki, of the Geschatsk district, in one farmhouse.”
I conclude the reading of this document.
I now ask the Tribunal to accept in evidence a German document, submitted in evidence as Exhibit Number USSR-119 (Document Number USSR-119). This is a certified photostat of an operational report and other documents of the 15th Police Regiment. Among them we find one entitled, “Summary of a Punitive Expedition to the Village of Borysovka, 22 and 26 of September 1942.” The Tribunal will find this document on Page 309 of the document book.
I quote in brief from this document, which proves beyond doubt that under the guise of the anti-partisan struggle the Hitlerite criminals mercilessly annihilated the peaceful population of the Soviet villages. I quote the first part under the heading:
“1. Mission: The 9th Company must destroy the village of Borysovka, which is infested by partisans.
“2. Forces: Two platoons of the 9th Company of the 15th Police Regiment, one platoon of gendarmes of the 16th Motorized Regiment, and one tank platoon from Beresy-Kartuska.”
I emphasize, Your Honors, that the expedition included a tank platoon from Beresy-Kartuska. Against whom were these tanks and the two platoons supposed to operate? We find an answer to this question in the following item of this report: