THE PRESIDENT: I do not think you ought to omit the first four lines of Page 5.
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: I omitted it inasmuch as I read this document into the record yesterday, but if the Tribunal wishes—I shall gladly do it.
THE PRESIDENT: If you read it yesterday, do not read it again. I do not remember. Was it read yesterday?
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: Yes, I read this into the record yesterday.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
I am told that—and I think—that you did not read those lines “from 10 October 1941” at the top of Page 5. I think you had better read them. I am referring to the order of 10 October 1941, which is set out in your exposé.
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: This is the excerpt from the order given to the 6th German Army, on 10 October 1941, signed by Von Reichenau. This document is presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-12 (Document Number USSR-12). I quote:
“The troops have an interest in extinguishing fires only inasmuch as military quarters have to be conserved. Otherwise the disappearance . . . also of buildings, is within the limits of the fight of extermination.
“At the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942 the German command issued a number of orders instructing German army units to destroy, in the course of their retreat under the pressure of the Red Army, everything that had remained unscathed during the occupation. Thousands of villages and hamlets, whole city blocks, and even entire cities are reduced to ashes, blown up, or razed to the ground by the retreating German fascist army. The organized destruction of Soviet towns and villages has become a special branch of the criminal activity of the German invaders on Soviet territory; special instructions and detailed orders of the German command are devoted to methods of devastating Soviet populated centers; special detachments, trained in this criminal profession, are set up for this purpose. Here are some of the many facts which are at the disposal of the Soviet Government:”
Once again I refer to the order addressed to the 512th Infantry Regiment already presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-168 (Document Number USSR-168).