In all the territories of the U.S.S.R., Yugoslavia, Poland, Greece, and Czechoslovakia which they occupied, the German fascist invaders systematically destroyed inhabited localities according to plan, under the pretense of fighting the partisans. Punitive expeditions, detachments, and commandos, specially detailed by the German military command, burned down and blew up tens of thousands of villages, hamlets, and other inhabited localities.
I skip a paragraph of my report.
From the numerous documents in the possession of the Soviet Prosecution I shall quote, as examples, a few which are typical and which characterize the whole system developed by the Hitlerites.
The report of Captain Kasper, a company commander, dated 27 September 1942 and entitled, “Conclusive Report on the Results of the Punitive Expedition Carried out in the Village of Borisovka from 22 to 26 September 1942,” starts as follows: “Tasks: Company 9 must destroy the band-infested village of Borisovka.” This document has been presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-119 (Document Number USSR-119).
I omit the beginning of Page 42 of my report.
In January 1942, in the Rezeknes district of the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic, the Germans destroyed the village of Audrini with its entire population, ostensibly for having aided members of the Red Army. In the towns of Latvia a notice to this effect was posted by the chief of the German State Security Police in Latvia, SS Obersturmbannführer Strauch, in German, Latvian, and Russian.
I present to the Tribunal a certified photostatic copy of this notice as Exhibit Number USSR-262 (Document Number USSR-262), and I read into the record an excerpt from this document. This excerpt is on Page 158:
“The commander of the Security Police in Latvia hereby announces the following:
“. . . 2) The inhabitants of the village of Audrini, in the Rezeknes district, concealed members of the Red Army for over one-quarter of a year, armed them, and assisted them in every way in their anti-government activities. . . .
“As punishment I ordered the following: