"After my return to Bucharest from Munich, I began energetic preparation for the coming war."
Antonescu, which will also be submitted to the Tribunal. took place between Antonescu and Dernberg, Head of the Protocol Department of the German Foreign Office, on the 10th of February 1942 (conversation after meeting at the frontier):
"....I declared," remarks Antonescu, "that Rumania entered into an alliance with the Axis not for the purpose of altering the treaty of Versailles, but in order to fight the Slavs...." united Hitler and Antonescu in their preparation and realisation of a war of aggression.
incontestably the complicity of Hungary in the conspiracy to violate peace and in the preparations of an aggressive war against the Soviet Union. Army through the Carpathian Mountains at the very moment when the German and the Rumanian Armies were to open military operations against the Soviet Union. the peace-loving nations, with fascist Germany in the man.
Coming back to the so-called "Case Barbarossa", I wish to twell on the most important points of this document "Case Barbarossa" consists of three parts.
In the first its general aims are set forth, the second deals with the allies of Germany in the war against the Soviet Union. The third part is devoted to the execution of military operations on land, in the air and on the sea. This document has the highly pertinent feature of having been issued, in view of its top secret contents, in only nine copies to comply with the demand for absolute secrecy on Germany' preparations for the attack on the Soviet Union.
The first part of the plan reads as follows:
"Troops of the Russian army massed in the western part of Russia must be destroyed.
"...... The retreat into the vast expanses of Russian territory of units fit for combat must be prevented. Then, by rapid pursuit, a line must be reached from which the Russian air force will not be able to carry out attacks against German territory.--" was to consolidate the line Archangel - Volga, paralyze the last remaining industrial area in the Urals by air operations, put the Baltic fleet out of commission, and prevent the possibility of active interference on the part of the Russian air force.
In the third part of the document we find the directive: "To seize Leningrad and Kronstadt and to continue offensive operations with the objective of taking the most important center of communications and war-production Moscow".
"The seizure of this city" - according to the plan - "will mean a decisive success both politically and economically," Such was the plan to invade the USSR; conceived, worked out and prepared long in advance by Hitlerite Germany.
predatory attack against the USSR, the Nazi government conceived and planned beforehand the commission of war crimes on the territory of the USSR. The so-called "Case Barbarossa" was a strategic plan. But this plan was supplemented by a number of instructions and orders, designed to embrace all the innumerable measures, relative to the problems which would arise on the invasion of the Soviet Union. Among these measures, we must mention, in the very first place, the instruction issued on 13 March 1941, by the Headquarters of the German High Command. civilian nature and, in particular, with the problems relative to the organization of administrative power. It is of importance to note that this instruction placed German troops stationed in East Prussia and the so-called Government-General (that is to say, Poland) to be under the laws and regulations which were to be put in force in the zone of operations at least four weeks prior to the beginning of the campaign. authorized to assume executive power and to delegate it to the Commanding Generals of the Army Groups and Armies, One also cannot overlook in this instruction sub-paragraph "B" which characterizes the tasks and objectives pursued by the conspirators. In this sub-paragraph it states;
"In the theater of military operations, in connection with the preparation of political administration, the Reichsfuehrer of the SS, by order of the Fuehrer, has been given special tasks arising from the conclusive and decisive struggle between two opposing political systems. Within the limits of these tasks, the Reichsfuehrer of the SS acts independently, upon his own responsibility.
Mankind is now well aware of the meaning of these "special tasks", the execution of which was exclusively entrusted to the SS generals and officers, who made full use of this right to act "independently" and "upon their own responsibility."
It meant unheard of terror, plundering, violence and killing of prisoners of war and peaceful citizens. as the plundering and predatory exploitation of the areas occupied by the German troops. The instruction is signed by the defendant KEITEL. In another instruction, issued in June 1941, as a supplement to the "Plan Barbarossa", orders are issued, which in the guise of propaganda directives, prescribe the ruthless treatment of all those who oppose the German aggressors. As to actual propaganda, the directives frankly mention the usual dirty Nazi methods of columny, lies and provocation, which were to be used by the so-called "propaganda companies." "Orders concerning military jurisdiction in the Barbarossa area and special measures to be taken by the troops." These orders, whilst sanctioning a complete arbitrary action on the part of the German authorities and troops in regard to the civilian population in the territories seized by the German armed forces, begin with a demand made to the German troops to "protect" themselves ruthlessly against hostile actions of the civilian population. peaceful populations and partisans, we find indications as to the brutal punishment to be imposed upon persons defined in those orders as "suspected elements." these rules, Paragraphs 4 and 5.
Paragraph 4: "In those places where it is too late to adopt these measures or where it had not been possible to do so immediately, suspected elements must be handed over without delay to the officer, who will decide whether or not they should be shot."
Paragraph 5: "It is absolutely prohibited to hold these suspects for trial by courts, to be instituted for the local population at a later date."
Thus, according to these so-called "rules", the fate and life of every apprehended person depended exclusively on the officer, and it was prohibit as the order cynically stressed, "to hold the suspects for trial". In other words, it was a definite order to exterminate the "suspects."
Moreover in case of attacks against the German Armed Forces, the order prescribed "mass measures of repression", that is to say. the wholesale extermination of absolutely innocent people. application of sanguinary terror, can be seen from the fact that this "order freed the German soldiers, officers and officials of any responsibility for the commission of crimes against the peaceful Soviet population. According to these "orders", the German troop commanders were entitled to confirm only those "sentences" which, as the said document states, were in accordance with the "political objectives of the leaders." German High Command, whose representatives are now in the dock, planned and prepared in detail those war crimes which were subsequently committed in the territory of the USSR. These plans inexorably disclose that the defendants premeditated the monstrous crimes which were organized by them. the pact of non-aggression between the USSR and German, without a declaration of war, started an attack against Soviet territory, initiating thereby an aggressive war against the USSR, without the slightest provocation on the pa of the Soviet Union. borders beforehand, were thrown against the USSR. As planned, Finnish troop took part in the attack on the USSR in the North and Hungarian and Rumanian troops in the south. In order to create panic and confusion, the German Air force immediately began the bombing of peaceful towns subjecting them to destruction. called a conference, which was attended by Rosenberg, Goering, Bormann, Lammers and Keitel.
the outside world the true aims of the war begun by the Hitlerites. Referring to their campaign against Norway, Denmark, Holland and Belgium, Hitler stressed the necessity of continuing this line of action; i.e. to conceal by all possible means the real intentions of the conspirators.
"Therefore", said Hitler, "we shall emphasize again that we were compelled to occupy a region to establish order and security there....our method of regulation is the natural outcome of this. Thus, it must not be revealed that our campaign concerns a final solution. However, despite and not withstanding this, we shall take all necessary measures such as mass-shootings, deportation etc." German slavery, shooting, all that was called, in the words of Hitler and his accomplices: "regulation." Hitlerite Government in respect of the Soviet Union as follows :
"In the main, the problem amounts to this: first to conquer it, secondly to rule it, and thirdly, to exploit it......
"The basic idea: The creation of a military power west of the Urals must never occur again, even if, in order to prevent it, we have to fight for a hundred years. All the adherents of the Fuehrer must know this: The Reich will only be secure of no foreign military force exists west of the Urals. The iron law must be: none but the Germans shall be permitted to bear arms..... only a German has the right to carry a weapon, no Slav, no Czech, no Cossack, no Ukrainian."
Hitler continued: "The Baltic countries must become a province of the Reich. The Crimea and the surrounding area must likewise become a province of the Reich.... This surrounding area must be as extensive as possible....The Volga colonies as well as the Baku region must become a province of the Reich. The latter must become a German concession (military colony). The Finns want East Karelia. However, because of its great nickel production, the Kolsky peninsula must go to Germany.
The Finns claim the Leningrad region.... Level Leningrad to the ground, then give it to the Finns," are frankly set forth in an article by the director of the Fascist propaganda, the notorious Goebbels, under the title: "What For."
Goebbels wrote:
"This war is not a war for a throne nor an altar; this is a war for grain and bread, a war for a well-laden dinner-table, for plentiful breakfasts and suppers.......a war for raw materials, for rubber, iron and ore." Berlin Sports Palace, 5 October 1942, published in the "Voelkischer Beobachter" of Octber 6, 1942, exclaimed greedily:
"Don't forget we have taken away from the Russians their best regions....Eggs, butter and flour are there in such quantities as you can hardly imagine....We will have to see that everything is properly assimilated and properly processed at the spot..." Soviet cities, such as "Gotenburg" for Simferopol and "Theodorichshafen" for Sevastopol. This occupation Rosenberg combined with the leadership of a special staff concerned with the "assimilation" of the Caucasus. the Hitlerite aggressors against the Soviet Union. Above all these criminal designs aimed at plundering the Soviet Union and the enslavement and exploitation of the Soviet people. Hitlerite domination in Europe and in the whole world. For this reason, in a document submitted in the case which was published by the High Command of the Navy, and dealt with the plans for an invasion of North Africa, Gibraltar, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, the Hitlerite Government stated that at the realization of the above plan would depend entirely on the results of the war against the Soviet Union.
hysterically shrieked, as usual, about a danger alleged to be forthcoming from the USSR, and proclaimed that the predatory war which it started against the Soviet Union with aggressive purposes was a "preventive" war.
A pitiful effort:
How can one speak of a "preventive" war when documents prove that, long in advance, Germany worked out and prepared a plan for an attack on the USSR, formulated the predatory aims of this attack, earmarked the territories of the Soviet Union which she intended to seize, established the methods for pillaging of these territories and for the extermination of their population, mobilized her army in good time and moved to the borders of the USSR 170 fully equipped divisions, which waited only for a signal to advance. as well as the original documents of the Hitlerite Government which now have been made public, definitely show to the whole world and to history how untrue and laughable was the assertion of Hitlerite propaganda about the "preventive" character of the war against the USSR.
Much, as the Fascist wolf might disguise himself in a sheep's skin, he cannot hide his teeth: Government calculated that lengthy preparation for this attack, the concentration of all the armed forces of Germany for this thrust, the participation of Rumanian and Finnish armies, as well as of Italian and Hungarian units in this operation and, finally, the advantage of surprise, would assure a rapid defeat of the USSR. heroic resistance of the Red Army, which defended the honour and the independence of its country with self-denial. The German plans of attack were broken up one after another. People against the German Fascist invaders and the great and courageous struggle of the Red Army with German, Rumanian, Finnish and other armies that invaded the Soviet soil.
be forgotten by history. unmatched in history, steadfastly defended and saved the freedom and independence of their country, and together with the Allied Armies, liberated the freedom-loving nations throughout the whole world from the terrible menace of Nazi enslavement. freedom-loving nations, Nazi Germany turned the war into a system of militarized banditry. plunder of occupied territories and other war crimes, were committed as a part of a totalitarian lightning war, Blitzkrieg, projected by the Nazis. In particular, the terrorism practised by Nazis on the temporarily-occupied Soviet territories, reached fabulous proportions and was carried out with a fiendish cruelty.
"We must", said Hitler to Rauschning, "pursue a policy of systematic depopulation. If you ask me what I mean by the term 'depopulation,' I would tell you that I understand it as the complete removal of whole racial groups. And that is what I am going to do; such, roughly speaking is my purpose. Nature is cruel, and so we have to be cruel too. If I can send the cream of the German nation into the hell of war . . .. without any regret for the shedding of precious German blood, I have surely the right to remove millions of an inferior race, who multiply like flies!" by the Extraordinary State Commission for the Prosecution and investigation of crimes committed by the German Nazi aggressors and their accomplices, which constitute irrefutable evidence of countless crimes perpetrated by German authorities.
We have at our disposal a document, known as the "Appendix #2 to the Operational Order #8 of the Chief of the SIPO and SD, dated "Berlin, 17 June 1941", and signed by Heydrich who, at that time, held the office of Himmler's deputy. This document was worked out in collaboration with the High Command of the German Armed Forces. The appendices to Order #8, as well as Orders #9 and 14 and the appendices thereto, make it evident that the systematic extermination of Soviet people in Nazi concentration camp in the territories of USSR and other countries occupied by the Nazi aggressors, was carried out under the form of "filtration", "cleaning measures", "purge", "extraordinary measures", "special treatment", "liquidation", "execution", and so on.
The perpetration of these crimes was entrusted to the "Sonder-Kommandos" especially formed for this purpose, by agreement between the Chief of Police and the SD and the High Command, of the German Armed Forces.
The Appendix #1 to Order #14 shows that these "Sonderkommandos", acted independently on the basis of their special powers and in accordance with general directives given to them within the scope of camp's regulations, maintaining close contact with the camps C.O.s and the officers of the counter intelligence. the Nazis created a special "Sonderkommando Moscow", which was supposed to carry out the mass killings of the inhabitants of Moscow.
Hitler's Government and the German Military Command were afraid that these monstrous Orders #8 and #14 might fall into the hands of the Red Army and the Soviet Government, and they took all possible measures to keep these Orders completely secret. In Order #14, Heidrich declared:
"I especially emphasize that the Operational Orders #8 and #14, as well as the regulations pertaining thereto, must be immediately destroyed in case of imminent danger. Their destruction is to be reported to me." the Nazi annihilation of the Soviet population, numerous orders and regulations were issued to the civil "administration", as well as to the German military authorities, prescribing mass extermination, and mass execution of Soviet people, Keitel's order of 12 December 1941, reads as follows:
"In Fuehrer's opinion the punishment by imprisonment or even life sentence would be considered as a symptom of weakness. Effective intimidation can be realized only by executions or measures which would leave the population in complete ignorance about the criminal's fate. This latter aim is reached through the deportation of criminals into Germany. The attached instructions for the prosecution of criminals is in accordance with Fuehrer's opinion. It is approved by him. Keitel". of Soviet citizens were also intentional infection with spotted fevers; murdering by poison gas in murder vans. Upon investigations by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union it was found that at the front near their main line of defense, the Hitlerites had systematically constructed special concentration camps where they kept tons of thousands of children, women, not fit for work, and aged men. The approaches to these camps were mined. No barracks or shelters of any kind were built within the areas of the camps, and the internees had to camp on the bare ground. For the slightest infractions of established ruthless camp regulations, the internees were shot. Many thousands of typhus patients were found in these camps who, through contact with the population brought there by force from the surrounding villages, systematically infected them with the disease. in detail these heinous crimes perpetrated by the German Fascist occupants. Bekker May 16, 1942. This document is a report to his superiors concerning the use of murder vans. This is what one reads in this monstrous document:
"The place of execution is located at about 10 - 15 kilometers from a thoroughfare and is difficult to reach because of its location. In wet or damp weather it is quite inaccessible. this spot, they immediately realize what awaits them and become restless. This should be avoided by loading them into trucks at an assembly point, and driving them to the place of execution. and that a window be inserted on each side of the smaller vehicles, and in the larger trucks, two windows, all of the country peasant cottage type. However, these machines became so well known that even the civilians called them the "Death Machines" as soon as they saw them. In my opinion it is impossible to camouflage and keep them secret for any length of time. Also I gave orders, that during asphyxiation by gas, the operating personnel should keep away from the machine so that their health would not be impaired by escaping gas. In this connection I would like to call attention to the following: In certain units, men are ordered to unload the machines after the gassing. I have drawn the attention of the commanders of the corresponding special units to the enormous physical and moral injury this kind of work could cause the men, if not immediately, certainly later. The men complained of headaches after every unloading. Nevertheless they do not want to change the procedure, for they are afraid that prisoners entrusted with the work may use it as an opportunity for escape. To protect the men from the injury, I would ask that appropriate orders be issue.
"The procedure of poisoning by gas is not always carried out in a correct manner.
So as to end the business as quickly as possible, the drivers always open the throttle wide. As a consequence of this the condemned die of asphyxiation rather than falling asleep as had been originally intended. As a result of my explanation of the correct way of setting the lever, death follows more rapidly, and in addition, the condemned people drop off peacefully to sleep. Distorted faces and defecations, two symptoms which formerly had been noticed, were no longer observed. tion. Dr. Bekker, Untersturmfuehrer." and Auschwitz with their gas-chambers, in which over 5-1/2 million people, citizens of Pland, Czechoslovakia, U.S.S.R., U.S.A., Great Britain, France and other democratic countries, people who were not guilty of a single offense, were killed. I must name the concentration camps of Smolensk, Stavropol, Kharkov, Kiev, Lwow, Poltava, Novgorod, Orel, Rovno, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Kamenetz-Podolsk, Gomel, Kerch, of the Stalingrad region, of Kaunas, Riga, Mariampol, of the Lithuanian S.S.R. of Kloga, of the Esthonian S.S.R. and many others in which hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens belonging to the civilian population, and also soldiers and officers of the Red Army, were tortured to death by the Hitlerites. the Lisenitz forest, which is on theoutskirts of Lwow in the direction of Tarnopol. It was to this forest that the Germans daily drove or brought in motor vehicles large parties of Soviet prisoners of war from the camp "Citadel", internees from the Yanov camp and from the Lwow prison as well as peaceful Soviet citizens who had been seized on the squares and streets of Lwow in the course of numerous round-ups. fact that the Germans shot over 200 thousand people in the Lisenitzki forest. the defendant Rosenberg, in his speech at the meeting of the German Labor Front in November 1942:
"Apparently, declared Rosenberg, if we are to subjugate all these peoples, (i.e. peoples inhabiting the territory of the USSR), the arbitrary rule and tyra nny will be an extremely suitable form of Government". hordes, the Soviet Union territory temporarily occupied by them, and when the organs of Soviet authorities began discovering abominable crimes perpetrated by Fascist monsters and finding numerous graves of Soviet citizens, soldiers and officers, tortured to death by the Fascists - the German Command took urgent measures to conceal and destroy all traces of their crimes.
For this purpose, the German command organized everywhere exhumations of corpses from the graves and their cremation. Special order of the Obersturmfuehrer, dated "Rovno, 3 August 1943-IVAI-# 35/43c", and addressed to the Regional Leader of Gendarmerie in Kamen-Kashirsk, prescribed "to supply immediately information concerning location and number of graves (common) of persons to whom special repressive measures were applied in the district. Among the documents discovered in the Gestapo building of the Rowno district, has been found a report concerning the execution of the above-mentioned order with the enumeration of about 200 localities, where such graves were found. One can see by these lists, that the German fascist henchmen chose as burial-grounds for the interrment of their victims, primarily secluded and isolated points.
At the end of the list, we read: "the list includes all the tombs, including those of the commandos which worked here previously." the world of the representatives of several thousand former internees at Auschwitz:
"The gassing of countless numbers of people took place upon the arrival of 'transports' from various countries including: France, Belgium, Holland, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland, the USSR, Norway and others. The new arrivals had to pass before an "SS" doctor or else before the "SS" Commandant of the camp. The latter pointed his finger to the right or left. The left meant death by gas. Out of a transport of 1,500, an average of 1,200 to 1, 300 were immediately sent to be gassed.
Now and then, the quota of people who were sent to the camps was a little higher.
It often occurred that the "SS" doctors MENGELE and THILO performed this "selection" whilst whistling a jolly ditty. The people, destined to be gassed, were obliged to undress in front of the gas-chambers, after which they were whipped into the gas-chamber. Then, the door of the under round gas-chamber was shut and the people were gassed .... Death came approximately four minutes later. After eight minutes the gas chamber was opened, and workemn belonging to a 'special outfit', the so-called 'Sonderkommando', transported the bodies to the cremation ovens which burned day and night.
"There was a shortage of ovens at the time of the arrival of transports from Hungary, consequently enormous ditches were dug for the purpose of burning the bodies. Fires made of wood soaked in gasoline were laid in these ditches and bodies were thrown therein. However, the SS men frequently hurled alive children and adults into those ditches, where the most unfortunate perished a terrible death. To effect a saving in gasoline, fats and oils necessary for cremations were often derived from the bodies of gassed peoples. Fats and oils for technical purposes and for the manufacture of soap were also obtained from bodies."
The petition ends with the following words: "Together with 10,000 saved inmates of all nationalities we demand that the crimes andthe inconceivable atrocities of the Hitlerites should not remain unpunished." all freedom-loving peoples.
2. Ill treatment and assassinations of prisoners of war. of the vilest crimes of Hitlerite conspirators. prisoners of war were subjected have been definitely established. They were tortured with red-hot irons, their eyes were gouged, their extremities were severed, etc. officers and men of the Red Army were not chance episodes or the results of the criminal activities of individual officers of the German Army and German officials.
ruthlessly exterminated prisoners of war. Numerous documents, orders and decrees of the Nazi Government and orders of the German Supreme Command testify to this. testified during his interrogation, - a secret conference took place at the headquarters of the High Command in Berlin, when measures were planned for the organization of camps for Russian Prisoners of war, and "rules" laid down for their treatment. These "rules" and "measures", were essentially a plan for the extermination of Soviet prisoners of war, as is made clear in Osterreich's evidence. perished from hunger and infectious diseases, from cold and tortures, systematically employed by the Germans according to a plan which was developed beforehand and had as its object the mass extermination of Soviet persons.
In appendix 3 to order No. 8 of the Chief of the Security Police and SD, dated the 17th of July 1941, a list is given of Prisoner of War camps set up in the area of the 1st Military district and of the socalled Government-General. In the 1st Military district, camps were set up in particular in Prokuls, Heidekrug, Schierwinds, Schutzenrode (Ebenrode) in Prostken, Suwalki, Fischbor-Tursen andOstwlyenka. In the so-called Government General, camps were set up at Ostrov-Mesovetzky, Sedlitz, Byelopedlasko, Kholm, Jaroslavl, etc. In the appendix to operational order No. 9, issued in development of order No. 8 of the 17th July 1942, lists are given of the camps for Soviet prisoners of war situated in the territory of military districts 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11 and 13, at Hammerstein, Schneidemuehl and many other places.
A recess was taken until 1400 hours) Military Tribunal in the matter of:
The
MARSHAL OF THE COURT: May it please the Court, I desire to announce that the Defendant Hess will be absent until further notice on account of illness.
THE PRESIDENT: Would it be convenient to you and the Soviet delegation if the Tribunal sat in open session until half past eleven tomorrow morning, and then after that we would adjourn for a closed session for administrative business? Would that be convenient to the Soviet delegation?
GEN. RUDENKO: We have no objection.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, then, that is what we will do. The Tribunal will sit tomorrow from ten until half past eleven in open session and will then adjourn.
GEN. RUDENKO: In these prisoners of war camps, as well as in camps for the civilian population, extermination and tortures were practiced, referred to by the Germans as "filtering", "execution", "special regime". The "Gross-Lazarett" set up by the Germans in the town of Slavuta has left grim memories. The whole world is familiar with the atrocities perpetrated by the Germans against Soviet prisoners of war and those of other democratic States at Auschwitz, Maidanek and many other camps. out in collaboration with the Staff of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, whose chief was the defendant Keitel, - were applied here.
Operational order No. 8 stated: "executions must not take place in the camp or in the immediate vicinity of the camp. If the camps in the GovernmentGeneral are situated in the immediate vicinity of the frontier, the prisoners intended for special treatment should, if possible, be transported to former Soviet districts. Should executions be necessary owing to violations of camp discipline, the chief of the operational detachment should in this case approach the camp Commandant.
The activities of the "Sonderkommondos" sanctioned by the Army commanders of the Rear Areas (district commandants dealing with affairs connected with prisoners of war) must be conducted in such a way as to carry out of "filtering" with as little notice as possible, while the liquidation must be carried out without delay and at such a distance from the transit camps themselves, and from populated places, as to remain unknown to the rest of the prisoners of war and to the population".
The following "form" for the carrying out of executions is recommended in Appendix 1 to Operational Order No. 14 of the Chief of the. Security Police and SD, dated "Berlin, the 29th October 1941, No. 21 B/41 G R S - IV A.I.Z".: "Chiefs of operational groups decide questions about execution on their own responsibility, and give appropriate instructions to the Sonderkommandos. In order to carry out the measures laid down in the directives issued, the Kommandos are to demand from the commandants of the camps the handing over to them of the prisoners. The High Command of the Army has issued instructions to the commandants for meeting such demands.
"Executions must take place unnoticed, in convenient places, and, in any event, not in the camp itself, nor in its immediate vicinity. It is necessary to take care that the bodies are buried immediately and properly".
The report of the Operational kommando (Obersturmbannfuehrer Lipper to Brigadefuehrer, "Dr."Thomas) in Vinnitza, dated December 1941, speaks of the way in which all the above-mentioned instructions were carried out. It is pointed out in this report that, after the so-called "filtering" of the camp, only 25 persons who could be classed as "suspects" remained in the camp at Vinnitza.
"This limited number", the report states, "is explained by the fact that the local organizations, in conjunction with the commandants or with the appropriate counter-intelligence officers, daily undertook the necessary measures, in accordance with the rules of the Security Police, against the undesirable elements in the permanent Prisoner of War camps." Thus, apart from the mass executions conducted by "Sonderkommandos", specially created for this purpose, the systematic extermination of Soviet persons was widely practiced by comman dants and their subordinates in camps for Soviet prisoners of war.
tigation of crimes committed by the Germans in the temporarily seized territories of the U.S.S.R., there are several notes of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, V. M. Molotov, on the subject of the extermination of prisoners of war and of their cruel treatment, and in these notes numerous instances of these monstrous crimes of the Hitlerite Government and of the German Supreme Command are quoted.
The note of V. M. Molotov, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, dated the 25th of November 1941, on the subject of the revolting bestialities of the German authorities against Soviet prisoners of war, addressed to all ambassadors and ministers plenipotentiary of the countries with which the U.S.S.R. has diplomatic relations, points out that Red Army soldiers were subjected by the German High Command and by the German military units to brutal tortures and killings. The wild fascist fanatics stabbed and shot on the spot defenseless sick and wounded Red Army soldiers who were in the camps; they raped hospital nurses and workers, and brutally murdered representatives of the medical personnel. tions of the German Government and the Supreme Command. Thus, the directive given in Appendix 2 to Heydrich's Order No. 8, points out the necessity for keeping an account of the executions performed, i.e., of the extermination of prisoners of war, in the following form: 1. Serial number; 2. surname & first name; 3. date and place of birth; 4. profession; 5. last place of domicile; 6. grounds for the execution; 7. date and place of the execution. kommandos for the extermination of Soviet prisoners of war was given in operational order No. 14, of the Chief of the Security Police and S.D. dated the 29th of October 1941. branding with special identification marks, which was laid down by a special order of the German Supreme Command, dated the 20th of July, 1942. This order provides for the following methods of branding: "The tightly stretched skin is to be cut superficially with a heated lancet dipped in India ink."
only humane treatment for prisoners of war, but also respect for their patriotic feelings, and forbids their being used to fight against their own fatherland. Article 3 of the Convention, which refers to the laws and customs of war, forbids the combatants to force enemy subjects to participate in military operations directed against their own country, even in cases where these subjects had been in their service before the outbreak of war. The Hitlerites trod underfoot even this elementary principle of international law. By beatings and by threats of shooting they forced prisoners to work as drivers of carts, motor vehicles and transports carrying ammunition, and other military loads to the front, as ammunition bearers to the firing line, as auxiliaries in anti-aircraft artillery, and so on. in the Gomel district of the Byelorrussian S.S.R., in the Poltava district and in other places, cases were recorded where the German Command drove captured Red Army soldiers forward under threat of shooting, in front of their advancing columns during attacks. investigations of the Extraordinary State Commission, is also confirmed by the documents of the German Police and of the Supreme Command, captured by the Soviet and Allied armies on German territory. of hunger, typhus and other diseases. The camp commandants forbade the civil population to give food to the prisoners and doomed them to death by starvation. In many cases, prisoners of war who were unable to keep in line on the march because of starvation and exhaustion were shot in full view of the civil population and their bodies left unburied. In many camps no arrangements of any sort were made for living quarters for the prisoners of war. They lay in the open in rain and snow. They were not even given tools to dig themselves pits or burrows in the ground. One could hear the arguments of the Hitlerites: "The more prisoners who die, the better for us."