"Substantially the same system of acquiring documentary evidence was utilized by the British Army and the British War Crimes Executive as that hereinabove set forth with respect to the United States Army and the Office of the United States Chief of Counsel.
"Therefore, I certify in my official capacity as hereinabove stated, to the best of my knowledge and belief, that the documents captured in the British Zone of Operations and Occupation, which will be offered in evidence by the United States Chief of Counsel, have been authenticated, translated, and processed in substantially the same manner as hereinabove set forth with respect to the operations of the United States Chief of Counsel.
"Finally, I certify, that all Documentary evidence offered by the United States Chief of Counsel, including those documents from British Army sources, are in the same condition as captured by the United States and British Armies; that they have been translated by competent and qualified translators; that all photostatic copies are true and correct copies of the originals and that they have been correctly filed, numbered and processed as above outlined."
"William H. Coogan, Major, Quartermasters Corps, 0-455814."
If the Court pleases, I should like to request that the marshal be directed to summon the witness, Nicolas Neris.
THE PRESIDENT: The Marshal will present the witness named to the Tribunal.
DR. SAUTER (Counsel for defendant Lanz); Mr. President, I ask first of all to determine whether the examination of this witness has been announced at all previously. We were given the names of seven witnesses who were supposed to be examined but, if I correctly understood the name of this witness, this witness does not seem to have been previously announced. It might be a good idea to clarify this point.
MR. DENNEY: Do you have the list up there, Major Hatfield, of the witnesses?
If your Honors please, this witness -- notice was sent down on 1 August. The first name of the witness was unknown at the time and I notice now that it is typed here as "Nezis" N e z i s. The address given is: "Police Headquarters, Athens, Greece"; and his occupation as, "Chief of Police", and the nature of his testimony, "Pertaining to the activities of the German occupation troops in Greece during 1941-1945." That was the best information which we had at that time.
DR. SAUTER: A witness Nezis, N e z i s, has been announced. That's true, but a witness, Nicolas Neris has not been announced. If this witness is identical with this police chief Nezis who has been announced to us, then, of course, we would have no objection to the examination of this witness.
MR. DENNEY: I can assure Dr. Sauter that this is the man that is over there, who is purportedly described on page 2 of the notice which was sent him which has: "(Blank) Nezis, Greek, Police Headquarters, Athens, Greece, Chief of Police, pertaining to the activities of the German occupation troops in Greece during 1941-1945."
DR. SAUTER: Thank you. The matter is all right now.
THE PRESIDENT: Are we ready to proceed with the examination of this witness?
MR. DENNEY: Yes, your Honor, please.
THE PRESIDENT: The interpreter, Dr. Dimitrios, will rise and be sworn.
I do solemnly swear that I will perform my duties as interpreter to the Tribunal according to the best of my ability and skill.
(The interpreter repeated the oath).
THE PRESIDENT: The witness will now be sworn.
I, Nicolas Neris, swear to speak the truth, and only the truth, in reply to whatever I am asked, without fear and without prejudice.
(The witness repeated the oath).
THE PRESIDENT: You may be seated.
PRESIDENT WENNERSTRUM: You may be seated.
DIRECT EXAMINATION OF NICOLAS JOHAN NERIS BY MR. DENNEY:
Q. What is your name?
A. Nicolas Johan Neris.
Q. Where were you born?
A. In the Island of Mykenes in Cyhlandes, in Greece.
Q. When?
A. On the 15th of February, 1900.
Q. Where did you go to school?
A. In the law school, of the University of Athens.
Q. Did you finish your studies?
A. Yes.
Q. Are you a lawyer?
A. Yes.
Q. Are you licensed to practice law in Greece?
A. Yes.
Q. What was your position in 1940?
A. I was Deputy Police of the Chief of Athens and Director of the Protection against the aircraft.
Q. You say Deputy of Protection against aircraft. Do you mean in charge of the air raid warning system?
A. Protection of the non-fighting population against the air raids.
Q. What is your present position?
A. I am the acting General of the National Institute of the Organization under Reconstruction.
Q. The organization in reconstruction of what?
A. Of the country.
Q. What country?
A. Greece.
Q. Thank you. Do you recall approximately when the German troops came to Greece?
A On the 27th of April, 1941 the German troops entered Athens.
Q. And at that time what was your position?
A I was Deputy Chief of the Police in Athens.
Q. How long did you remain in that position?
A. Approximately 6 months.
Q. Then what did you do?
A. I was transferred as Chief of Staff of the Police Court.
Q. How long did you retain that post?
A. Approximately for one and one-half years.
Q. And what did you do after that?
A. I was chief of the school for police officers.
Q. Where were you during all of this period?
A. In Athens.
Q. Was the school for the police officers in Athens?
A. Yes.
Q. And how long did you stay there?
A. Nine months.
Q. And then what did you do after that?
A. After the bombardment of Pyraeus I was again nominated as the director of the protection from the aircraft.
Q. That is, you returned to this job in connection with the air raid protection?
A. Yes, the protection of the civilian population.
Q. How long did you keep that position?
A. Until the day of the liberation.
Q. And when was that?
A. The 12th of October, 1944.
Q. And what did you do after that?
A. I was nominated as director of the police in the Ministry of the Interior.
Q. Directing your attention now to the period immediately following the German entry into Athens, which you have stated was some time late in April, 1941, will you tell the Court what you observed in your official capacity, about the conduct of the German troops?
A. As soon as the German Army entered Athens, and hoisted the German flag over the Acropolis, and captured all of the positions that were good for occupying, they began to requisition all of the stores and warehouses of food that were at that time in Athens. By the stores and warehouses, I do not mean only all public ones, and the Army storehouses, but the private ones and every store and shop that contained any foodstuff.
Apart from the foodstuffs, every hotel or restaurant was requisitioned for the need of the German Army. During our fighting against the Italians the Greek government had ordered the population to buy no more foodstuffs than they needed for a period of two or three days, to prevent the lack of food stuffs from the market without any good reason. According to this order of the Greek government, the population had not stored in their houses any big quantities of food stuff.
After the requisition and confiscation of all of these storehouses, the Germans notified the people of Athens that they should not have in their possession more foodstuff than was needed for some days, under a heavy penalty of imprisonment. As it was natural, after some days the lack of foodstuff was noticed in the markets. At the beginning the poorer classes, later on the middle class, and still later on the more wealthy classes, had no food.
During the months of May, June, July, and August, the situation was not so bad because the population could buy fruit and vegetables and could feed themselves by that way, but by the month of September the hunger and starvation begun to be shown on the population of Athens.
Many things happened, and since that period, that is to say from September, 1941, the hunger and mass starvations were mounting continuously.
PRESIDENT WENNERSTRUM: The Tribunal will take its recess at this time.
(A recess was taken until 1515 hours.)
THE MARSHAL: Persons in the Courtroom will please be seated.
The Tribunal is again in session.
JUDGE WENNERSTRUM: You may proceed.
MR. DENNEY: May it please Your Honors, with reference to the list which has been furnished to the Tribunal and the defense counsel, we should like to apologize for my lack of familiarity with the Greek language and some of its characters. And at this time we advise, particularly the defense counsel, as to some minor changes in spelling which will be necessitated whenever the individuals in each case are those whom we have specified. And in order that the proceedings will go along when the other Greek witnesses are produced, I think it might be well to read the names. The first name should be "Karamertzanis," which is spelled K A R A M E R T Z A N I S, and the first name of that witness -- that is the last name -- is "Panayotis," which is spelled P A N A Y O T I S. The next name...
DR. LATERNSER: Dr. Laternser. We don't want to hear these names so exactly. They will be repeated. The way the names are presented will be repeated when the witnesses appear.
MR. DENNEY: Well, perhaps that may be taken on behalf of the defense counsel that Prosecution will not be held responsible for lack of interest with Greek or familiar names -- names which are submitted to us.
JUDGE WENNERSTRUM: Do I take it, Dr. Laternser, that there will be no question raised as to the identity and the correctness of the names as sent in the notices presented to the Court and to the defense counsel? Dr. Laternser has indicated that there would be no objection, and the record may so show.
MR. DENNEY: If it please Your Honor.
DIRECT EXAMINATION CONTINUED BY MR. DENNEY:
Q: Now, may I ask if you will continue your narration please?
A: This situation got worse by the issuing of an order by which the import of foodstuff was forbidden in the area of Athens. At that time the population of Athens started to find ways of getting out of Athens to find food. But for every exit from Athens a special permit of the German Kommandantur was needed, but such permits were very difficultly issued. Only for causes of illness or death were such permits issued to those who demanded them. During the last of October, November, December, January, and February 1942, the situation was tragic.
Q: Let me -- may I interrupt for just a moment so that the record will be correct. You are speaking of October, November, and December, 1941, and January and February 1942. Is that right?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: Proceed.
A: In the streets of Athens women and children were found, and many of them were falling down out of starvation. All the edges of the streets were covered with garbage because they had not the means in Athens to carry them away, because the Germans had confiscated all the means of transportation. In this garbage, and especially the garbage near the German billets, men, women, and children searched in vain to find something to eat. Many people fell on the garbage dead. As for the means of communication, everything was requisitioned by the German Army except - with the exception of some useless means of transportation. All those useless means of transportation could not be moved because of the lack of petrol.
The dead were transported on small wheelbarrows, many time on the shoulders of their relatives. The families who had some one of the members dead did not notify the authorities, with the intention of keeping his ration book and having something more to eat. And at that time the cemeteries of the suburbs of Athens were ordered to accept dead from Athens because the numbers were so big that the cemeteries of Athens were not sufficient for their burial. They managed, at that time, to find a little bit of gasoline so as to use big motor vehicles in which they transported fifty to sixty corpses to the cemeteries.
Q: About what had been the death rate in Athens prior to the entry of the German troops?
A: Approximately 18 persons per day.
Q: And 18 persons per day is about 240 a month -- or 540 a month? Excuse me.
A: Yes.
DIRECT EXAMINATION CONTINUED BY MR. DENNEY:
Q And what was the death rate during the period of which you spoke--the year-end 1941 and the beginning of 1942--for that six-months' period?
A From the registry of Athens and from the authorities of the cemeteries, or those people to whom they are declared when they did, we know, at that time, the death rate was 5,000 a month; that is to say, ten times more than before the war.
Q Now, you spoke of the registry. (Withdraw) You spoke of the registry. Will you tell the Court what that was?
A The registry is the public office when you declare someone when he has died. His name is put on a list, and that public office gives you the permission for the burial of that person.
Q And the other source of your information you said was from the cemetery people. How did you get that information?
A The police asked the directors of the cemeteries to give the numbers of the persons who were buried without any permission from the registry because many people were thrown over the fence of the cemeteries and were left there by their relatives.
Q And, of course, there was no way of identifying these dead bodies which were thrown into the cemeteries?
A No, It was impossible. The relatives did not want his body to be identified because they wanted to keep his ration book.
Q Now, does that conclude what you have to say with reference to the food conditions and the resulting conditions of the population in Athens during this period?
A This period is so tragic that you could talk on for days and days; but I do not want to take the precious time of the Court.
Q Now, will you tell the Tribunal what happened with reference to the hospitals in Athens?
AAs soon as the Germans entered Athens all the hospitals of Athens were requisitioned by the German Army for the needs of their men.
In most of these hospitals were the wounded soldiers of the Albanian War. But as the Army had capitulated and was dissolved the Army doctors of these hospitals remained in the hospitals as civilian doctors to take care of the wounded soldiers. One after the other, the hospitals were requisitioned by the Germans, and these wounded persons who were in them were put out in the streets. The wounded soldiers who were without legs, without arms, and without eyes were kept in a hospital situated on the Avenue of Queen Sophia. The Germans ordered the requisition of this hospital with a notice of three hours. The director of the hospital had not the means to transport his wounded men and no house where he could put them in. He applied to the police and I went personally myself in my uniform on the spot. The wounded men were lying on the pavement on the laps of the female nurses. When I got there a wounded soldier, without arms and legs, spat into my face. I understood that by doing that he intended to show his contempt for the Greek Government who could not protect and take care of him any more. I did my best to find a house, and at last I found a school called Marashion. But we had no means to transport them; so we transported them on our hands in blankets. This is the way we were obliged to take the heroes of the Albanian Front.
Q Did they allow (Withdraw). What did they allow the people who were evicted from the hospital to take with them?
A They were allowed to take only their blankets.
Q Did they leave the hospital equipment in the hospital?
A Yes.
Q And who took the hospital over?
A The Germans who had the intention to occupy that hospital at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
Q How many hospitals in Athens did the Germans requisition?
A I can't say precisely. But I remember that they left over to the Greeks a small part of the hospital called Evzone and another small section of the Red Cross hospital.
Q How big a hospital was this one of which you have spoken?
A It had approximately three hundred beds.
Q Did there come a time when the SS moved into Greece?
A Yes.
Q And will you--when was that approximately?
A I don't know; I don't remember exactly the date.
Q Will you tell us what happened after the SS came?
A I would like to tell you what happened before the arrival of the SS.
Q All right.
DR. LATERNSER: Your Honor, I object to this question. It refers to the activity of the SS in Greece. None of the defendants charged here had any discipline in a jurisdictional way in any activity of the SS. And the fact that it was illegal can never be charged against the defendants. This complex cannot interest us, and I ask you not to allow it to be discussed here.
MR. DENNEY: In connection with that, Your Honor, it may not interest Dr. Laternser, but it's certainly of interest to us and there is no condition, and I assume there won't be, that the defendants-some of them--were in that theater. That is, in Greece. It was all part of the Southeast. The Tribunal has seen documents with references to SS divisions--the 5th SS Corps, the Waffen SS, the SS Skanderbeg Division. And for Dr. Laternser to maintain that the SS is not in any way concerned with these people is, I submit, extending it a little far, and I submit the witness may testify as to what was done by Germans down there.
JUDGE WENNERSTRUM: The matters to which Dr. Laternser refers, appear to this Tribunal to be defensive in nature and will receive such attention as the defense desires to present at the time they submit their testimony in evidence. The objection will be over-ruled.
BY MR. DENNEY:
Q Witness, I had asked you a question but you said there was something else you wanted to say first. Will you please continue with what you wanted to tell the Tribunal.
A I would like to tell you about the requisition of the houses and of the means of transportation.
Q Please do.
A The requisition of the means of transportation was done on such a big scale that only very few remained for the use of the population. All the communications of the civilians was made by walking and sometimes in big distances. And about this time many requisitions of central houses was made and the citizens had nowhere to live.
Q It is true-
DR. LATERNSER: I object to this statement. The witness cannot state what he wants to state -- it is usual that a witness answers his questions. What he has just said now has nothing to do with the question put to him. When the question was put to him the witness said, "I want to talk about this now". He has to answer questions.
MR. DENNEY: I would suggest that Dr. Laternser keep his ear phones on and listen in German. He would understand that I had withdrawn the question in view of the witness's statements that he had something he wanted to tell the Tribunal, and I asked him to please tell the Tribunal what he wanted to tell them.
We have not questioned on the SS as yet.
PRESIDENT: WENNERSTRUM: The objection is overruled.
BY MR. DENNEY:
Q Please continue.
A It is true that later on the German authorities instituted the service in the German commandatur to take care of the people who were driven away from their homes, but at the beginning, it was hopeless for them. They had nowhere to go. At the same time, the electric current was cut from the houses of the civilians and only the German institutions had any electricity.
By that way the Greek people were in the dark. For the telephonic connections of the different German services and units, the Germans put on a special service of telephones. These wires were put on the pavements, on the ground, and if they were cut during the night, - any of these wires was cut - it was considered sabotage.
We asked the Germans to put these wires on high poles so that the population was not endangered by any reprisals, if any such wire was cut. They did not allow it to us. We ordered Greek civilians to keep an guard on these wires during the night, and one night one of these wires was cut off. Then the Mayor of Athens, Professor Meringis, thereupon was arrested, and was taken to the Ministry of the Interior of Greece.
Later on, the chief of the Police was ordered to be arrested; at that time I was deputizing for him being away and so I went to the Ministry of the Interior where I was detained. The Germans asked us to give them 20 names of 20 Greek citizens who would be considered as hostages, and we refused to give away these names. Two ministers of the Quissling government were called to come to the Ministry of the Interior. The ministers ordered us to give away these names. Both the mayor and myself refused again to give these names, and we said that we could only give our own names. The ministers left, and we were under arrest until 6 o'clock in the afternoon.
And later on the Germans asked us to pay a fine of one million drachmas. It was late in the evening, and the banks were closed, and the cashier of the police was also closed, so the Mayor under custody, went to his own house, brought back to the Ministry of the Interior the one million and handed it over to the Germans. The Germans kept our names and liberated us, set us free. The railway going to Larissa, Peloponnesus, - on these railways a wagon was put in front of the engine. This wagon was uncovered, but had wires, and in this wagon 20 or 30 or 40 Greek hostages were put. They were unprotected from the sun, the rain and the cold, and they were put into that wagon for the safety of the German troops against the attacks of the guerillas.
Q Did you see such cars on the trains?
A I used to see such cars every day, because I lived near the railway of Larissa and Pelopennesus. Very seldom there was a train without one or two such cars.
Q And those cars were placed where on the train?
A. These cars were placed before the engine. They were covered with wires only. Then followed the engine. After the engine came a car or wagon where the German guard was and then was the rest of the train.
Q. Well, all right, now were these cars placed there in winter and summer?
A. Yes, winter and summer.
Q. And did you see them winter and summer?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And you saw them in front of most of the trains that left Athens during the occupation?
A. Yes, on the trains that left Athens and came into Athens.
Q. Now, was there a concentration camp in Athens?
A. Yes, a concentration camp of Chaidari.
Q. Where was it?
A. Northwest of Athens, on the road leading from Athens to Eleusis, a little bit farther out of the street, not exactly on the main road but a little bit inside.
Q. When was that camp opened?
A. I don't exactly remember but I think it was opened in 1943.
Q. What people were sent there?
A. People who were arrested in different blockings-off.
Q. I am sorry, I didn't understand you.
A. People who were arrested during the different blockings-off of different districts in Athens.
Q. Will you tell the Court how these district blockings-off took place?
A. At different districts of Athens and in different times of the day or of the night the Germans surrounded a district of the town or a street and they arrested a certain number of citizens who inhabited that surrounded area. Of those arrested, some were sent to the concentration camp of Chaidari and the most, the great bulk of them, were sent to Germany for forced labor and very often some of them were executed on the spot.
Q. Did you receive reports of these executions in these blockingoff actions?
A. I received a report from police headquarters of Piraeus of the execution of people during the blocking-off of Kokinia.
Q. Will you tell the Court what that report was?
A. The report said that on a certain date, which I cannot remember now, the Germans surrounded or made a blocking-off, as it was said at that time, in the district of Nea-Kokinia, and they arrested a great number of civilians. Out of this number, a number of ten to fifteen people, I cannot exactly tell you the exact number, were led near a wall which was near the place of the arrest and were executed on the spot without any trial or any formality.
Q. How were these people picked?
A. They used an informer who was hiding his dress by a black garb and a black mask on his face. He passed over the lines of the arrestees and he indicated some of them. By this manner the persons who were to be executed were picked.
Q. Did he say anything when he designated these people?
A. He only showed in his hand without speaking at all. This was the usual manner in every blocking-off and in Valuja (?) and in Chaidavi and in Kaphallenia (?) and in Verroia (?). Those are districts of Athens.
Q. How were the Jewish people treated in Athens?
A. At first, an order was issued by the Germans that every Jew had to report to the Rabbi. After a certain short time, those Jews who were ordered to report to their Rabbi were ordered to present themselves to the German Kommandantur where their names were taken down and then they were set free.
Later on, during a religious celebration they had at their synagogue, they were arrested in masse by the Germans. Later on, they were persecuted in their own private houses because in Greece they didn't live in a separate part of the town but they were living among other people and there was no distinction between Jews and non-Jews.
At the beginning the Spanish Jews were protected but later on the Spanish Jews also were persecuted and some of them managed to escape to the Middle East or went to the mountains.
Q. One or two questions about some of the matter you have gone over. Were the police armed? The Athens police, that is, were the Greek police armed?
A. The Greek police had nothing else but clubs but during the last months of the occupation they gave them very few arms.
Q. You spoke of the requisitioning of food by the German troops. Did they pay for that food?
A. No, they never paid. They paid later on when they were taking Greek banknotes of three billion drachmas.
Q. Now did there come a time when you received a report with reference to some deaths with occurred in Kalavrita?
A. In Kalavrita all the male population of the town was executed.
Q. Did you receive reports of this?
A. When I knew of this happening, I went to my superior--
Q. Now please answer my question. I asked you if you received reports of the deaths in Kalavrita?
A. I was not competent to receive such a report because my competence did not extend to Kalavrita.
Q. Did you have something to do with Greek pension system?
A. As the director of the air raid protection, I was the competent authority to give pensions for all those who were killed by the air raid bombardments and to those who were executed by the Germans without previous military decision.
Q. Did you receive in that capacity reports which requested pensions for people in Kalavrita?
A. Yes.
Q. Approximately how many reports did you receive and what did they state?
A. I cannot exactly remember the total number but the reports I received and the demands for pension mentioned the execution of the fathers and all the male children of every family in Kalavrita. I have in mind requests of the widow of a father who was killed with his five and another with his six male children.
Q. In your capacity on this pension committee did you receive other requests for pensions?
A. I received thousands of these requests but I cannot exactly remember all of them but I remember the most important of them and those were those of Kalavrita, Distomon, Rogon, Lamerno, Zachlorou.
Q. And what did these reports give as the cause of death on them?
A. Mass execution by the Germans.
Q. Do you recall when the Italians withdrew from Greece?
A. Late in the summer of 1943.
Q. Do you recall any events which happened after that?
A. Yes. Could you restate your question, Mr. Denney?
Q. Well, I am directing your attention to the time late in 1943 when the Italian forces withdrew from Greece and asking you whether or not you recall any events which took place thereafter in Athens about which you would like to tell the Tribunal.
A. Then the executions of the hostages were intensified.
Q. Dr. Dimitrios, will you please speak a little louder. Please speak into the microphone.
A. After the recapitulation of the Italians the executions by the Germans were intensified; they grew in numbers.
Q. Did you get reports in the police office in Athens with reference to executions?
A. We could not receive official reports because these would be considered as espionage.
Q. Well, did your police officers report to you nevertheless?
A. After every execution the police officer of the (district of Skopeftirion) rifle range - that is where most of the executions took place - was called by the Germans to take them away and see to the burial.
Q. Did he then advise you as to the numbers of people who were buried?
A. Yes.
Q. And how long did these killings take place, over what period of time?
A. I remember the execution of 7 officers and that was the first one in Athens, of 7 Navy officers among whom was the Lieutenant Kasagros; the execution of 120 people, and then the execution of 73 people near Defni, the last days before the withdrawal of the German forces from Athens. I remember also several executions of smaller numbers of persons, that is to say, 7 to 10, but I cannot certify their dates.
Q. During what period of time did these executions take place?
A. Especially after the arrival of the SS these executions and the blockings-off were intensified.
Q. And when did the SS come to Athens?
A. I am not very sure; I don't remember it well, but I believe it was in the late summer of 1943.
Q. You have told us about the attitude toward the Jewish people.