Immediately after the seizure of power by the fascists, Hermann Göring began to issue laws against vivisection. He pitied dogs, guinea pigs, and rabbits subjected to scientific experiment for the benefit of humanity. In confirmation I refer to Göring’s book Speeches and Articles published in 1940 by Erich Gritzbach at Munich. (Document Number USSR-377). On Page 80 of this book we find Göring’s speech, “The Struggle Against Vivisection.” I shall not quote any lengthy extract from this book and shall only mention one sentence which testifies that for motives, so to speak, of love for animals, Hermann Göring widely exercised his right to intern human beings in concentration camps.
At a certain meeting of SS-Gruppenführer at Posen, as the Tribunal knows, Himmler stated, Document Number 1919-PS, “We Germans are the only people who treat animals kindly.”
But these criminals—from Himmler to Keitel—who sentimentally discussed the tortures of animals, persistently instructed their subordinates to exterminate children senselessly, inhumanly, and cruelly. At the meeting in question Himmler also stated:
“If anyone would come to me and say, ‘You cannot build antitank trenches with children and women, it is inhuman since they will die,’ I should reply, ‘You are the murderers of your own blood.’ ”
Numerous investigations on the German fascist atrocities in the Soviet Union have shown without any doubt that on occasion of mass shootings many children have been thrown into the grave when still alive. In confirmation of these facts I am referring to official documents, “The German criminals threw into the grave children who were still alive.”
I invite the attention of the Tribunal to a document which has already been submitted by my colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, as Exhibit Number USSR-46. It is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of the German fascist invaders in the city and region of Orel. The Tribunal will find it on Page 334 of the document book, the last three lines of the page, and on Page 335. I quote:
“Those shot in the city were collected and thrown into ditches, preferably in forest areas. In jail the executions took place as follows: The men had to stand facing a wall while the gendarme fired his pistol into the nape of their necks. The shot penetrated the vital centers and death was instantaneous. In most cases women had to lie face downward on the ground and the gendarme shot them through the base of their neck.
“A second method was to herd people in groups into a ditch, with their faces turned to one side. Then they were killed likewise by shots in the nape of the neck with machine guns. In the trenches corpses of children were discovered who, according to the testimony of witnesses, had been buried alive.”
Furthermore, I refer to a document which has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-1, a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of the German fascist occupants in the area of Stavropol. I quote from Page 271 of the document book, Paragraph 3, beginning as follows:
“During the inspection of a ravine in the vicinity of Koltso Hill and a distance of 250 meters from the high road. . . .”