MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I am on Page 251 of the Russian text.
THE PRESIDENT: I think the better course will be to adjourn now and perhaps the slight muddle in these translations can be cleared up.
[A recess was taken.]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I have interrupted my report of the wide application of murder vans in the temporarily occupied regions of the U.S.S.R.—that is, I interrupted the report of the Extraordinary State Commission concerning crimes in Rovno and the Rovno region. The members of the Tribunal will find reference to this on Page 291, second column of the text, Paragraph 10 of the document book. I limit myself to one paragraph only. I begin the quotation:
“The extermination of peaceful citizens and prisoners of war in the town of Rovno used to take place by means of mass shooting from tommy-guns and machine guns, murder with carbon-monoxide in murder vans, while in separate instances people were thrown into pits and buried alive. Some of the victims, particularly those executed at the quarries near the village of Vydumka, were burned on special places prepared in advance.”
I end my quotation and go over to Page 253 of the text, Paragraph 3. Further, in conjunction with the same matter, I refer to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes in Minsk. The members of the Tribunal will find this quotation on Page 215 of the document book, second paragraph, second column of the text. I read one quotation from this report. I begin the quotation, “Thousands of Soviet citizens have perished in concentration camps at the hands of the German executioners.”
I omit the following four sentences and pass on to the testimony of witness Moisievitch. He says—I begin the quotation:
“I was an eyewitness to the manner in which the Germans killed people in their murder vans. From 70 to 80 people were forced into a murder van and then driven away to an unknown destination.”
I end my quotation, and I ask the Tribunal’s permission to draw its attention to the fact that in Minsk the principle of the murder van was used for stationary gas chambers, which were installed by the criminals in common bath houses. It is also mentioned in this report of the Extraordinary State Commission.
Further, I refer to the verdict of the court-martial of the Smolensk military region, dated 15-19 December 1945, which the Tribunal will find on Page 72 of the document book. There it is related that in Smolensk the Germans also employed special gas automobiles, the so-called murder vans for killing Soviet people with carbon-monoxide. It seems to me that it is not merely coincidence that murder vans appeared in the territory of the U.S.S.R. in the year of 1942. At that time the chief criminals were still quite convinced of victory and started carrying out in practice their premeditated plans for the extermination of the people of Europe. They were not then afraid of responsibility for these crimes. That is why in 1942 there appeared new links in the long chain of the crimes committed by the leaders of German fascism. The fascist technique of extermination was once again in full swing. It created murder vans, gas chambers in the concentration camps, special electrical appliances for the mass murder of the doomed, crematoria, and also “Zyklon” banks.