DR. NELTE (Counsel for defendant Keitel): Lieutenant General Halder is in the prison here at Nurnberg, and he is a very important witness not only to the testimony at hand but in general also. And I believe, according to our principles, which have been formulated by the High Tribunal in connection with Article XXI of the Charter, it might be significant to hear this witness personally rather than use written testimony, and I ask for a decision.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Pokrovsky, did you wish to make any answer to Dr. Nelte's request?
COLONEL POKROVSKY: With the permission of the Tribunal, I will submit to him my consideration in this case. The testimony of Halder is of importance to us only in one respect, namely, that he states the fact of the meeting with Hitler before the war; the conference at which the question of treatment of Russian war prisoners was discussed. This fact also finds confirmation in other testimonies which were submitted by us to this Tribunal, and therefore I think that there is no reason and no need for examination of this witness, because this interrogation may cause a further delay as it will refer only to this question, and the German defense may ask questions which are not necessary. I also would consider this proposal, that it would be proper for the German defense to request the Tribunal and explain for what reason it wants to cross-examine Halder; and if this Tribunal will agree then it will render a proper decision.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal considers that if the interrogation of General Halder is to be used and it has been used, that General Halder must be brought for cross-examination, provided it is true that he is in Nurnberg.
reason for allowing interrogations to be used is on account of the difficulty of bringing -witnesses to Nurnberg. Therefore, if an interrogation is allowed to be used and the witness is in Nurnberg, the witness must be produced for cross-examination, I mean of course, at a time which is convenient to counsel. will have him brought here at a time which is convenient to you during the presentation of your case.
COLONEL POKROVSKY: With the permission of the Court, we will finally find out where Halder is at the present time and if he is in Nurnberg he will be produced as a witness.
COLONEL POKROVSKY: We must note here another Fascist lie. Hitler was intentionally misrepresenting facts. That the Soviet Union pledged to follow the statutes of the Hague Convention is generally known. Even the Criminal Code of the Soviet Union provides for the defense of the rights of the prisoners of-war, in accordance with international law, and those guilty of violations are considered criminally responsible.
The Note of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the USSR, Mr. V.M. Molotov, of 27 April 1942, once again mentions the obligations of the Hague Convention which the Soviet Union had pledged to follow. To that Note I have already referred.
Continuing, I shall again quote from Halder's deposition concerning Hitler's speech: (You will find it on page 24) "Then he said that considering the level of the Russian troops' political developement (in the original here follows dots or marks of a meaningful and intend pause), in a ward he said that the so-called Commissars should not be considered prisoners-of-war."
consciousness of the Red Army soldiers, the Hitlerites saw a Commissar or a communist in almost every prisoner of war. Then there is recorded the following question of the investigating officer and the reply to it: "Investigating Officer: Did the Fuehrer say anything about an order which should be issued on the subject?
"Witness: What I just said was his order. He said that he wanted it carried out even if no written order followed."
After Halder's deposition, in the document book on your table, there is an extract from the deposition of the former Deputy Chief of the Operations Section of the OKW Headquarters, General Warlimont, dated 12 November 1945. He was testifying on oath before Lot. Colonel Hinkel of the American Army. I do not intend to read the whole statement as it largely repeats Halder's deposition.
DR. OTTO NELTE: (Counsel for Defendant Keitel) Mr. President: Regarding General Warlimont, we have the same reasons which I just mentioned regarding Lt. General Halder. General Warlimont is also present in Nurnberg and is at your disposal for examination in the Court. intended to start reading. I beg that he do not use this document but rather uses the personal testimony of General Warlimont because he is, at present, in Nurnberg.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal has just ruled that the interrogation of General Halder be used but that if it is used, and it is being used, he must be submitted for cross-examination by the other Counsel for the defendants. What more do you want?
DR. NELTE: I am not speaking about Lt. General Halder but about General Warlimont.
THE PRESIDENT: I thought we had already ruled upon General Warlimont; that he had to be called - - that is only yesterday or the day before.
DR. NELTE: I believe that the Russian Prosecutor does not remember this ruling otherwise he would not be reading this document but he would be introducing General Warlimont in Court in person.
THE PRESIDENT: I think the ruling of the Tribunal was that the Prosecutor should be entitled to use the interrogation but if he did so, he must submit the witness for cross-examination. Therefore, the Soviet Prosecutor is entitled to read the interrogation and General Warlimont will then be produced for the purpose of cross-examination.
DR. NELTE: Will he have to do that or is it up to him? May he use his own discretion?
THE PRESIDENT: I suppose he mighy use his own discretion and call the witness if he wanted to and not put in the interrogation.
You see, Dr. Nelte, the position of the Tribunal is this. If the Prosecuting Counsel chooses to call the witness and not to use the interrogation then, of course, he calls the witness, examines the witness and the witness is liable to cross-examination by Defense Counsel. If, on the other hand, the Prosecuting Counsel wishes to use the interrogation, which he already has, he can do so but if the witness is available in or near Nurnberg he must still be produced for cross-examination. they use an interrogation which they have already got or call the witness. But in either case the witness, if he is here, must be produced for crossexamination.
DR. NELTE: Does that mean both witnesses? Halder and Warlimont are both in Nurnberg and at the disposal of the Court. I am just asking for information as to what period of time these two witnesses will be produced. with the documents as they are produced by the Prosecution.
THE PRESIDENT: I thought that was a matter you might settle with the Prosecuting Counsel as to whether you wished to cross-examine him directly after the interrogation has been presented or after as short delay. If I were to say that he is to be cross-examined immediately after the interrogation has been put in probably Defense Counsel would say the wanted time to consider the interrogation. But you can surely settle that with Colonel Pokrovsky.
DR. NELTE: I will deal with the Russian Prosecution on this matter then. Thank you.
COLONEL POKROVSKY: With the permission of the Tribunal I will commence form the point where I stopped. under oath, of General Warlimont given to Colonel Hinkel of the American Army.
Warlimont, in many cases, repeats Halder. The important thing is that he confirms in it the two facts:
(1) That it was Hitler who conducted the meeting described by Halder.
(2) That even before the war, Hitler directed that the prisoners-of-war were to be shot; that special units were to be created for the purpose and that the SD was to follow the Army.
Warlimont further testified: (I quote from page 26):
"Hitler then added that he did not expect his officers to understand to his orders."
We have one more testimonial, that of the Lt.General of the German Army, Kurt von Osterreich, the former Chief of the POW Section of the Danzig Military District. He testified personally before the representatives of the Red Army on 29 December 1945. His testimonial is registered as document No. USSR-151 and can be found in your document book. I shall quote a few excerpts "I began my work as the Chief of the POW Section at the Headquarters of the Danzig Military District on 1 February 1941.
"Prior to that I was the Commanding Officer of the 207th Infantry Division, located in France. It was towards March 1941 that I was summoned to Berlin to attend a secret meeting at the Headquarters of the Commander-inChief.
"This conference was conducted by Lt. General Reinecke, who was Chief of POW Section at the General Staff.
"More than twenty Chiefs of the District POW Sections from various region were present at this conference, as well as several Staff Officers, whose names I can't just now recall.
"General Reinecke told us as a great secret that for the beginning of the Summer 1941 there is planned a tentative invasion of the Soviet territory and that in connection with this the High Command made provisions for the necessar measures, including the creation of camps for the Russian prisoners-of-war expected after the start of operations on the Eastern Front". greater importance:
"On this occasion he ordered to construct open-air camps surrounded by barbed wire, in cases where there would be no time to construct roofed barrack for the Russian prisoners.
"Further Reinecke gave instructions as to the treatment of the Russian prisoners-of-war, directing us to shoot without any warning those prisoners who might try to escape...."
I now quote from page 28:
.... "Sometime later I received a directive from the Headquarters of the Supreme Command confirming Reinecke's order to shoot without warning any Russian prisoners attempting to escape. I do not now recollect who signed this directive..." military district chiefs on POW affairs; this conference took place in Berlin, either towards the end of 1941 or the beginning of 1942. The conference was conducted by Major-General von Grebenitz. The question under discussion was what to do with those Russian prisoners-of-war who were unable to work as the result of wounds, illness or exhaustion. document book.
"... On the proposal of Grebenitz this question was discussed by several officers who were present, including doctors, who stated, that such war prisoners should be concentrated in one place -- in the camp of hospital and killed by poisoning. As a result of this discussion Grebenitz ordered us to murder war prisoners incapable of work, using for this purpose medical personn of the camps". line of duty, he learned there, as he says: (this is also on page 29) "A method of murdering Russian war prisoners is already adopted there". It is important to note reference to this which is quoted on the fourth page of the Russian text (you will find it on page 29 in your document book, third paragraph from the top.)
"... When I was in the Ukraine I received from Headquarters a top-secret order signed by Himmler, directing that beginning with August 1942 Russian war prisoners must be branded with a special mark. Russian war prisoners were kept in concentration camps under severe conditions, were poorly fed, suffered from moral debasement and died of hunger and illness."
Osterreich names facts which confirm this testimony. The following episode is revealingly characteristic.
I quote the second paragraph of the fifth page: (it is on page 31 in your document book).
"In the beginning of 1942 when an echelon of Russian war prisoners was being moved from Ukraine to the city of Torn, there died approximately 75 people, the corpses of which were not taken away and were left together with the living people. About 100 was prisoners who could not bear such conditions and tried to escape were shot."
Many such and similar cases are known to the witness. He enumerates them, but I do not think it is necessary to cite all of them to the Tribunal all political workers of the Red Army, Communists and Jews. Soviet war prisoners under the pretext that he is suspected of belonging to Communist party or if he resembled a Jew. sentence mentioned, as I believe, by the Commander-in-Chief General Fieldmarshal von Reichenau in "The conduct army in the East". This quotation is on page 33 in your document book:
"Supplying peaceful population and the war prisoners with food is an unnecessary act of humanness".I submit to the Military Tribunal this despicable directive of Hitler's Field-marshall and request to accept it as evidence.
This document is registered under No. SSSR-12.
THE PRESIDENT: Could you tell us what the nature of this order of Field Marshal von Reichenau was? Was it a general order or was it a report?
COLONEL POKROVSKY: The order is signed by General Field Marshal von Reichenau.
THE PRESIDENT: Was it captured or what?
COLONEL POKROVSKY: This document was one of those captured by the Russian Army.
Three of Hitler's important officers have confirmed that already at the beginning of the war the question of extermination of Soviet war prisoners was settled during a special conference. They differ slightly in details, but this fact is established quite definitely.
Reichenau confirms also, that even the supply of food to the soldiers of the Red Army, which were taken prisoners by the Germans, was considered as "unnecessary humanness."
Perhaps it is useful to produce to you the Document No. 884-PS. It bears the signature of Warlimont and a postscript of Jodl. The document was prepared at the Fuehrer's Headquarters 12 May, 1941. It said that "OKH proposed a draft of directive in connection with dealings with responsible political workers and similar persons." This quotation is on page 35 in the book of documents, as well as the following ones which I am going to quote.
The draft foresaw "the removal" of persons of this category. The decision on the question whether the war prisoner falls under the indication which require the decision about "removal" must be taken by the officer.
The document states: "Officer who has the right to impose disciplinary punishment."
Paragraph 3 of this document states:
"Political Commissars of the army are not recognized as transient prisoner of war camps.
No deportation to the rear areas."
of him. You will find it on page 37 of the document book.
"One must consider the possibility of retaliation against German airmen.
Therefore, it is better to represent all these measures as retaliation."
General Osterreich's testimony concerning the existence of the order to brand the Soviet prisoners of war is fully confirmed.
I submit it to the Tribunal in evidence under number USSR 14,802/42, was made public.
In the first paragraph of this order we read-
the quoted paragraph is on page 38:
"The Soviet prisoners are to be branded with a special "2. The brand is to take the shape of an acute angle of about 45 degrees, with the long side to be 1 cm.
in length, pointing the hand from the rectum.
This brand is made with the aid of a lancet, available in any military unit.
The coloring used is The third paragraph underlines that:
"Branding is not a sanitary precaution."
Reichs Plenipotentiaries for Labor. The order is dated July 10, 1942.
fields and carry on work which endangered their lives. Order explanation of the inhuman treatment meted out to the Soviet warriors:
"The Russian soldiers and the junior commanders are very brave in battle.
Even small individual units are always ready to resist attack."
This quotation is on page 44 in the book of documents.
THE PRESIDENT: We have had that already, haven't we, or almost an identical one?
COLONEL POKROVSKY: You are right. We quoted this part as a now I quoted it as a part of an order.
For that reason it is far read in the court.
Document 3257-PS is a secret report of the addressed to the Section Chief of OKW.
It is in your document book on page 45 and the beginning of 46.
It states:
"Living conditions, the food and clothing situation, and the Mortality is very high.
It can be expected that by the tens and by the thousands people will perish."
"The prisoners of war camp in Negerat Street is in a terrible condition.
The men live in kennels, in old stoves and self-made huts.
There is hardly any food. Krupp is responsible for the food supply.
Medicine and bandages were so scarce that in many cases medical treatment was impossible.
No medical services were possible.
These deficiencies are to be imputed to the permanet camp."
of war. A copy found in Rosenberg's files is unsigned, but there fifth paragraph of the Russian text.
You will find it on page 48 "Out of 3,600,000-
THE PRESIDENT: I think the United States read, this letter, did they not?
COLONEL POKROVSKY: It is a document partly read, but I ask permission to read it again, because it is of importance to my presentation.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Pokrovsky, we have been preventing other Prosecuting Counsel from reading documents which have already been read, and we are directed by the Charter to conduct an expeditious trial, and I don't really see her it can be expeditious if documents are read more than once.
COLONEL POKROVSKY: In this document, which is already known to the Court, is presented a very clear picture as to what happened in a concentration camp. The author of this letter states:
"In most cases the camp commanders prohibited the citizens to give food to the prisoners of war, who were doomed to starvation. More than that, in many cases those prisoners who were not strong enough to march as a result were shot and their corpses were not taken care of." deliberate exaggeration, or of having any sympathies for the Soviet people. On the contrary, there is every reason to state that the matters have not been fully thrown light on. This document, addressed by one of the Defendants to another, enables us to imagine the facts that took place in the camps assigned for the Soviet prisoners of war. a definite aim before me. After you were informed of the attitude of the Hitlerites toward the Soviet prisoners, and as soon as you, however, briefly, learned of the way the camps for the Soviet prisoners were kept, as is told by the Hitlerites themselves, it is easier for you to evaluate the probative value of the documents which will be presented in evidence of non-German origin.
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps that would be a convenient time to adjourn.
(A recess was taken until 14.00 hours.)
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel, the Tribunal proposes to adjourn at half-past four this afternoon, as they have some administrative work to do.
COLONEL POKROVSKY: I refer to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Investigation of Atrocities Committed by the German-Fascist Invaders in Smolensk and in the Smolensk Region." A great part of this report is dedicated to the mass execution of the prisoners of war by the Germans. I would like to quote excerpts of this document, presented to you as Exhibit USSR-56, page 6, paragraph fourth from the top. You will find it in your document book on page 58. It says:
"The German-Fascist invaders systematically exterminated the wounded and imprisoned Soviet citizens. Physicians A.N. Smyrnov, A.N. Glasunov, A.M. Demidov, A.S. Pogrebnov and others, who were prisoners in a camp, stated that on the way from Vasma to Smolensk the Hitlerites shot several thousand people.
"In the autumn of 1941 the Germans drove a party of prisoners of war from Vasma to Smolensk. A great number of the men were not able to walk as a result of continuous beating and exhaustion. When the citizens attempted to give a piece of bread to some of the prisoners, the German soldiers pushed them off, beat the Soviet people with canes and butts and shot them on the Bolshaya Sovetskaya street, on the roads Roslavskoye and Kievskoye the Fascist scoundrels opened a disorderly fire at a column of prisoners of war. The prisoners attempted to escape, but the soldiers overtook them and shot at them. In that way nearly 5,000 Soviet people were executed. The corpses were left in the streets for several days." Document No. 081-PS, which has been just presented, and the contents which I in my own words have related once again to the Tribunal.
On the same page, six, two lines lower, it says:
"The German military authorities exterminated the prisoners of war. On the way to Smolensk and especially at the camp the prisoners perished by tens and hundreds. In Camp No. 128 for prisoners of war the Soviet people were subjected to torture, sick people ordered to do hard work, no medical help rendered. The prisoners in the camp were tortured, made to do work beyond their strength, shot. From starvation, torture, typhus and dysentery epidemics, freezing cold, excessive work and bloody terror, about 150 to 200 men died daily. Over 60,000 citizens and prisoners of war were exterminated here by the German-Fascist invaders. The facts of the extermination of the imprisoned officers and men of the Red Army and of the citizen population were confirmed by the testimony of physicians who had been imprisoned in the camp: A.N. Smyrnov, V.A. Hmyrov, A.S. Pogrebnov, P.N. Erpylov, A.M. Demidov, nurses T.S. Shubina, A.G. Lenkovskaya and several Red Army soldiers and Smolensk citizens. Sonderfuehrer Eduard Gyss. Corporal Gatlyn brutally avenged himself on prisoners. Being aware of it, they tried not to come before his eyes. So Gatlyn put on a Red Army soldier's clothes, mixed with the crowd, and, having chosen himself a victim, beat him nearly to death. Private Rudolf Radtke, former wrestler in a circus in Germany, prepared himself a lash made out of aluminum wire -- for the purpose of exterminating the prisoners. On Sundays he would come to the camp, drunk, throw himself at the first prisoner, torture him and kill him. exhausted and worn-out Soviet people work. Very often, prisoners worn out by starvation and work beyond their strength, would break down and fall. Then they were immediately shot by Sonderfuehrer Szepalsky, Sonderfuehrer Bram, Hofman Mauser, Sonderfuehrer Wagner.
There was a hospital forprisoners of war in Smolensk. Soviet physicians who worked at that hospital stated:
"Up to July, 1942, the patients had to lie on the floor without having their wounds dressed. Their clothes and bedding were covered not only with dirt but also pus.
The rooms where they were kept were not heated and the floors of the halls were covered with an icy crust." ment of the Extraordinary State Commission. Academician Burdeno, chief medico-judicial expert of the People's Commissariat in Charge of Public Health, Doctor Prosorovsky, professor of forensic medicine of the Second Moscow Medical Institute, Doctor of Medical Sciences Smolaninow and other specialists from the 1st until the 16th of October, 1943, conducted numerous exhumations and medico-judicial explorations of the corpses in the town of Smolensk and its suburbs. Numerous pit-graves were opened, which contained the corpses of those killed during the German-Fascist invasion. The number of corpses found in those pit-graves varied from 500 to 4,500 in every place where mass executions took place. direct bearing on my general subject. On page 9 of your document book you have this paragraph, which I now quote -- page 9 of our Exhibit USSR-56, it says:
"The corpses found in the pits were for the most part naked, some were clothed in worn-out underwear, only a few bodies had clothes or military uniforms." that is page 62 in the document file -- second paragraph, it says:
"Documents certifying identity have been found in sixteen cases only (three passports, one Red Army book and twelve military identification tags)" -- what I mean by that, that is the identification which is worn by every soldier; it was really a medallion, the compartment within which there is placed a document identifying the man's name and rank, and also his home address -- "in several cases only parts of preserved clothing and tattoo could be used to prove the identity of the deceased." identification of their victims impossible as it was demanded in certain directives. The first paragraph on page 11 of Exhibit 56, corresponding to your page 63 in the document book says:
"The dissection of corpses taken out of graves situated within the confines of the large and small concentration camps, Plant No. 35, the former German hospital for prisoners of war, a saw-mill works, concentration camp near village Pecherskaya and village Rakytna show that in the overwhelming majority of cases, taking into consideration the results of the inquiry, death was caused by starvation and acute infectious illnesses. That death was caused by starvation can be objectively proved -- apart from the complete lack of hypodermic fatty cellular tissue disclosed upon dissection -- by the discovery in a number of cases of grassy masses, pieces of rough leaves and stems of plants in the stomach cavity."
On the same page, but below, in the fourth paragraph, we read:
"A significant number of opened pitgraves, totalling eighty-seven, filled with masses of corpses -- taking into consideration the differences in the time of burial, covering the second half of 1941, the years 1942 and 1943 -- give testimony of a systematic destruction of the Soviet people. In most cases, the men thus exterminated ranged between the ages of twenty and forty years."
Somewhat lower, on the same page:
"Special attention should be given to the fact that the dissected corpses regularly lacked footwear, accept in extremely rare cases. Clothing, too, was absent as a rule, or consisted of worn-out underwear or pieces of old coats. A conclusion can naturally be drawn from these facts, that the removal of clothes and footwear having some value had become a constant legalized process and that it preceded the execution of the Soviet citizens." exterminating people, including shooting, asphyxiation and so on. All this is not new to us and I see no necessity for reading at this time that part of the report. the records of the medico-judicial committees and the conclusion of the Medical Expert Committee. We find them on pages 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the document. I shall briefly report on the contents of the protocols and quote a few words of the conclusion.
In the reports it is said that in the town of Ravva-Russkaya, 52 kilometers northeast of Lvov, Hitlerites set up a big camp for prisoners of war. In this concentration camp there were imprisoned and exterminated a great number of Soviet and French prisoners of war. They were shot, they died of infectious diseases, and of starvation. The committee of the medico-judicial experts exhumed a number of bodies from the large graves. Some of the graves were disguised by means of green shrubbery and grass. In the graves there was discovered a substantial number of corpses clothed in military and semi-military uniforms. Some of the corpses had in their clothing identification medallions of members of the Red Army. The age of the prisoners whose bodies were exhumed ranged from twenty to forty years.
I am now quoting from the conclusions of the committee. This portion is found in page 70 of your document book.
"The investigation data bearing on the bodies exhumed from the graves give us a right to conclude that in the aforementioned graves there were buried corpses of the Soviet prisoners of war. The burial was of a mass character. The bodies were placed -- in graves 4 by 7 meters in size -in layers, one layer upon another, from 350 to 400 bodies to a grave. They were buried in the same clothing which they had on at the time of death. The absence of footwear would indicate that either it was taken off at the time of death or else that the prisoners were kept in confinement bootless. The conditions of imprisonment must have been extremely unsanitary, as signs of vermin were found in all clothing. To judge by the state of the clothes, death must have taken place during the cold season. However, practically no warm clothing is found on any of the bodies. Instead, evidently to escape the cold, the corpses were found clothed in two or three sets of their summer uniforms, towels, bits of sackcloth, etc." conclusions which deals with the number of discovered corpses. That is page 70, the same page, in your document book.
"The number of graves, thirty-six, and their size, as well as the number of bodies exhumed, give basis for a conclusion that from ten to twelve thousand corpses of the Soviet prisoners-of-war were buried in this territory. The degree of decomposition points to the fact that the corpses have been underground about three years; in other words, the time of burial must be placed around late autumn or winter of 1941-1942." for the Determination and Investigation of the Crimes Committed by the German Fascist Invaders in the City and the Region of Orel -- which I submit to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit No. 46 -- describes the mass extermination of the prisoners of war conducted over a long period of time.
The prisoner-of-war camp was set up in the city jail of Orel. After the Hitlerite aggressors had been driven away from the city of Orel, the Extraordinary Commission had an opportunity of procuring the testimony of doctors who had been in this camp and who by chance survived. There are included in this report personal observations of the member of the Extraordinary State Committee, Academician Burdenko, who personally examined persons liberated by the Red Army from this camp and from the so-called prison "hospital". The general conclusion which can be reached is that in the city camp of Orel, as well as in the other camps, Hitlerites carried out physical extermination of the Soviet people with the methodical routine so characteristic of the Germans. rotten soya beans and stale flour. Bread was baked with an admixture of sawdust. The camp administration, including the doctors, treated prisoners in the most atrocious manner. I shall begin with the fifth paragraph on page 2:
"The camp commander, Major Hoffmann, beat prisoners and forced the hunger-exhausted persons to unload shells and do hard manual labor in the stone quarries. The boots and leather shoes were taken away from the prisoners and wooden shoes given then instead.
In the winter, the wooden shoes became slippery and the prisoners of war often slipped and crippled themselves in walking, especially when going up or down the stairs.
Dr. H.I. Tsvetkov, who had been an inmate of the prisoner-of-war camp, testified as follows, and you will find it quoted on page 72. It is the second half of the page and the beginning of page 73.
"I can describe the attitude of the German Command toward the prisoners of war during my stay in the Orel Camp as one of deliberate extermination of manpower. The food ration which at the most equalled 700 calories, was all they had under conditions of hard work, usually beyond the prisoner's strength, and led to complete exhaustion of the organism (cachexia) and to death.
"In spite of our protests and struggle against this mass murder of Soviet people, the German camp doctors -- Kuper and Beckel -- asserted that the food was completely satisfactory. Moreover, they denied that the edemata or the hunger edema shown by many of the prisoners was caused by starvation, and ascribed the condition entirely to heart or kidney trouble. The mortality in camp assumed mass proportions. Of the total number of murdered men, three thousand died of starvation and of complications produced by malnutrition.
"The prisoners lived under conditions so horrible that they almost defy description. Fuel and water were completely lacking. Everything was vermin-infested. The prison wards were unbelievably overcrowded, firty to eighty people being crammed into a ward 15 to 20 square meters in size. Prisoners would die five or six in each ward and the living would sleep on the dead." these who were placed in the category of the "recalcitrants". They were put into a special building, called the "death block." The inmates of this block were shot on schedule, five to six persons being taken every Tuesday and Friday. During the shootings, among others, the German physician Kuper was also present.
Academician Burdenko ascertained that in the so-called "hospital", people were exterminated in the same manner as in the rest of the camp.