A large number of documents and facts concerning this question are in the possession of the Soviet Prosecution. I shall limit myself to reading into the record an excerpt from the verdict of the regional military court in the case of the German war criminals Lieutenant General Bernhardt and Major General Hamann. I submit this verdict to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-90 (Document Number USSR-90).
The military court established that the generals, Bernhardt and Hamann, had acted in accordance with the common plans and directives of the High Command of the German Army and that they—I quote a short excerpt from the verdict which Your Honors will find on Pages 24 and 25 of the document book:
“. . . had carried out a planned destruction of towns and inhabited localities, determined in advance, along with the destruction of industrial buildings, hospitals, sanatoria, educational institutions, museums, and other cultural educational institutions, as well as dwellings. The latter were blown up without any previous warning to the Soviet citizens living in them, with the result that people as well perished.”
As in the case of the destruction of inhabited localities, plants, and factories, power-stations and mines were also destroyed with premeditation.
For confirmation I shall draw the attention of the Tribunal to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union which was submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-2 (Document Number USSR-2). This document is on Page 28 of the document book.
In this report is quoted the secret directive of the leader of the department of economics (Wirtschaftsoffizier) of Army Group South of 2 September 1943, under Number 1/313/43, which ordered army leaders and leaders of the economics detachments to carry out a thorough annihilation of industrial institutions, emphasizing particularly that “. . . the destruction must be carried out not at the last moment when the troops may be engaged in combat or in retreat, but ahead of time.”
The note by V. M. Molotov, the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R. of 27 April 1942, deals with the orders of the German Supreme Command and with the manner in which these orders were executed. This note was submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-51(3) (Document Number USSR-51(3)).
I shall now quote several excerpts from Part II of the note just mentioned, which is entitled, “The Devastation of Cities and Towns,” excerpts which were not read into the record before. These excerpts will be found on Pages 6, the reverse side, and 7 of the document book which is in the hands of the Tribunal. I read:
“By direct order of its High Command the German fascist Army has subjected Soviet towns and villages to unparalleled devastation upon seizure and in the course of the army’s occupation.”
I omit the end of Page 4 and the beginning of Page 5 of my report.