First of all I shall deal with the Documents USSR-90, 386, 364, 366, 106, 407, submitted by the Prosecution for the specific purpose of establishing Keitel’s responsibility.
They will show that not in a single case are they orders, decrees, or regulations issued by the German High Command of the Armed Forces and that it has not been proved that the latter was even informed thereof.
(1) The document Exhibit USSR-90 is a court-martial sentence against the German Generals Bernhardt and Hamann, and includes the following sentence:
“During the temporary occupation of the Orlova area ... German Fascist intruders committed bestial crimes in huge numbers against the peaceful populations and prisoners of war on direct orders of the rapacious Hitler Government and the command of the Armed Forces, thus violating the rules of warfare established by international law....”
The argumentation leading up to the verdict does not reveal proof of the claim that the “German Armed Forces command”—if this means the OKW and the Defendant Keitel—ordered the crimes with which the court-martial verdict is dealing. This is another of the frequent confusions as to the status of the High Command of the Army and the High Command of the Armed Forces. Statements on Page 2 of the verdict seem to indicate this; it is said there:
“The defendant, Lieutenant General Bernhardt ... acted according to plans and instructions of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army ...”
This document, therefore, cannot furnish proof for the Prosecution’s contention that the Defendant Keitel is connected with the crime which is described in Document USSR-90.
(2) In connection with the facts in the case dealing with “compulsory labor,” the Prosecution submitted in proof of its charge against Keitel Document USSR-36, a letter by Reich Marshal Göring, in whom Hitler had vested general powers within the framework of the Four Year Plan for this essential project—Plan Barbarossa-Oldenburg—as shown in the Green File.
(3) Nor does the report or discussion of the Economic Staff East (Wirtschaftsstab Ost) of 7 November 1941 (USSR-386) touch upon the competency and responsibility of OKW, because the Economic Staff East had nothing to do with the OKW and the Defendant Keitel.
This is also proved by the Green File, the Thomas Document 2353-PS, and Keitel’s affidavit, Keitel Document Book 2, Exhibit Number Keitel-11.