Document USSR-38 is entitled:
“Communication of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Determination and Investigation of the Atrocities of the Fascist German invaders and their Accomplices. Regarding atrocities of the Fascist German invaders in the city of Minsk.”
In this document it is stated on Page 1:
“Following instructions, which were issued directly by the German Government, the Hitlerite military authorities destroyed without any limitation scientific research institutes, et cetera ... they exterminated thousands of peace-loving Soviet citizens and also prisoners of war.”
Page 13 states:
“Responsible for the crimes committed by the Germans at Minsk ... are the Hitler Government and the High Command of the Armed Forces.”
Nowhere in this document have either concrete or verifiable instructions or orders by the Defendant Keitel or from the OKW been given.
Then, on Page 134, Paragraph 1:
In the documents previously quoted, either Keitel or the OKW is named as the responsible party. However, during the Prosecution’s presentation many such official reports were quoted as evidence for Keitel’s guilt, which do not even mention either the name of the defendant or the OKW. In this connection, I draw your attention to Documents USSR-8, 39, 45, 46, and 63. I only ask the Tribunal to examine the remaining documents with equal care in order to ascertain whether, if submitted in connection with Keitel and the OKW, they allow Keitel’s guilt to be concluded or whether that is not the case. In this connection I should like to add that I am not going to read, and am not referring to, the remarks at the bottom of Page 134 (USSR-3).
I beg the Tribunal to take note of my statements on the economic exploitation of the occupied territories—Pages 137 to 142—without my reading them. Since Reich Marshal Göring’s defense counsel has already dealt with this problem and has clarified the spheres of competency and responsibility, it would mainly be repetition for me to speak on it. However, I wish to draw attention to this part of my presentation and beg the Tribunal to take judicial notice of it.