On December 8 the Hitlerites made use of the local civil population to cover their retreat from the village of Yamnoye, Tula Region. On December 12, in that same district, they assembled 120 persons -- old people and children -- and made them go in front of their troops during engagements with the advancing units of the Red Army. In the fighting for the liberation of the city of Kalinin units of the German 303rd Regiment, 162nd Division, attempting to launch a counter-attack, assembled the women of one of the suburban villages, placed them in front of the troops and thus went into action. Fortunately the Soviet troops succeeded in driving a wedge between the Hitlerites and their victims in boating off the attack, thus saving the lives of the women." violation of all international conventions, the criminals clothed in the uniform of Hitlerites field officers utilized the civil population for especially dangerous work, such as clearing the mine fields. the Tribunal will find on page 2 of the document book, 4th paragraph. I quote:
"Wherever German troops and German authorities have made their appearance on Soviet territory, a regime of brutal exploitation, tyranny and arbitrary rule has immediately been established over the defenceless civil population."
I skip a sentence and continue:
"Disregarding age or state of health, and compel then, under threat of torture shooting or death by starvation, to perform gratuitously various kinds of arduous labour, including work of a military nature, In a number of cases, civilians employed on one or another job of a military nature have been summarily shot to ensure secrecy.
"Thus, for instance, in the village of Kolpino, Smolensk Region, the invaders drove all the farmers to work on building bridges and dugouts for German units. Upon the completion of the fortifications, all these farmers were shot.
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps that would be a good time to break off:
(The Tribunal adjourned until 15 February, 1946, at 1000 hours.)
THE PRESIDENT: There are certain matters of a procedural nature which the Tribunal desire to consider before they consider the question of an adjournment. According, they will not sit tomorrow in open session for consideration of the question of an adjournment, but they will sit tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock in closed session for the consideration of these matters of a procedural character, and they will sit on Monday morning at 10 o'clock for half an hour to hear argument in open session on the question of an adjournment, one counsel being heard on each side and only for 15 minutes.
COLONEL SMINOV (Counsel for the USSR): I interrupted the quotation of a document on page 3 of the document file, second paragraph, first column of the text. I consider it possible to skip many items of this document, as these facts simply confirm further the general conclusions which were expressed in the beginning of the document, and which were already confirmed by many facts read into the record by me yesterday. I only beg the Tribunal to allow me to draw its attention to the conclusion of the note, which the Tribunal will find on page 3 of the document, second paragraph, first column of the text. It states that the civilian inhabitants were sent forcefully to concentration camps, artificially and illegally increasing the number of prisoners of war, and supporting the inhuman regime which was established by the German fascist authorities as regards prisoners of war. court-martial of a military tribunal of the 374th Liroban Infantry Division, held on 29 October 1944. This document is submitted as USSR Exhibit 162. The Tribunal will find this document on page 67 of the document file.
DR. KAUFMANN (Counsel for Defendant Kaltenbrunner): I would like to make two motions with regard to the present question: The first motion is that I would like to ask, with reference to Article 21, to prohibit the reading of documents, inasmuch as these documents do not contain definite information about the source for the information therein contained.
Second: The reading of statements, written statements, which are only summary information, without own experience, and to permit the rending of such statements only if the cross examination of the author as a witness is possible.
May I say the following: Article 19 of the Charter permits every proof which has probative value. Article 21 leaves the Court the responsibility to ask for proof and for documents of so-called "investigation committees." Since the purpose of both articles, however, is to facilitate the submission of proof, the admission of written statements of various kinds leads to the danger that such statements would discriminate against an entire people and entire nation. Then the demand of the Defense seems to be justified to admit only such proof, such documents, where this danger has been eliminated as far as possible. excerpts from committee reports, have had no probative value; but, furthermore, since they cannot be checked--their contents cannot be checked--they design to give a wrong impression about historical events.
THE PRESIDENT: Why doesn't it come within the last two lines of Article 21: "The records and findings of military or other tribunals of any of the United Nations"?
DR. KAUFMANN: The Defense is of the opinion that Article 21 permits an interpretation. Article 21 permits the reading of such documents and such reports, but doesn't say anything about the fact to what extent it has to be possible for the Defendants' Counsel to check the sources upon which these reports are based. We are of the opinion that the witnesses who have been questioned, for reasons of compassion, have not been in a position to describe the events objectively. As jurists we know that it is exceedingly difficult to describe even simple events truthfully. Therefore, we have the duty and the responsibility for the German people to try to check these sources and to help thereby to explain and clarify the course of events, which we see somewhat differently.
THE PRESIDENT: Defendants' Counsel will have the opportunity at the proper time of criticizing any evidence which is offered by the Prosecution They will be able to point out whether it is probable that certain evidence was given out of sympathy; they will be able to criticize the evidence which is given in any way they choose at the proper time.
But this is not the proper time. judicial notice of the various documents which are there set out, and expressly refers to the records and findings of military or other tribunals of any of the United Nations. This is a record and finding of a military tribunal of a Soviet court. Therefore, the Tribunal is directed in express terms by Article 21 to take judicial notice of it. That doesn't prevent Defendants' Counsel, when they make their speeches in defense, from criticizing the evidence upon which that record and findings proceed, but to say it ought not to be admitted appears to me, at any rate, and I think to the other members of the Tribunal, to be really entirely unfounded as an objection.
COLONEL SMINOV: May I continue? Thus, the document which has been submitted to the Tribunal will be found on page 67 of the document file. I will allow myself to repeat in my own words the biographical data concerning the defendant LeCourt, who was brought to trial. He was born and lived before the war in the town of Strafgardt; was owner of a movie theater, and was later mobilized in the army, where he served in the 1st Company of the 4th Airborne Division. I begin to quote the statements in evidence given by LeCourt, beginning with paragraph 2. The Tribunal will find this placein the document book on page 68, fifth paragraph. LeCourt stated:
"Prior to my capture by Red Army soldiers, that is, before the 4th of February, 1944 I served as laboratory assistant in the Bicycle Company of the 2nd Regiment of the 4th Air Force Infantry Division in the Headquarters of Air Field Service E 33/XI.
"In addition to the photographs, I handled other work when not on duty, that is to say, I spent my free time to satisfy my own interest by shooting Red Army prisoners of war and peaceful citizens and soldiers. I used to jot down in a special book the number of prisoners of war I had shot and peaceful citizens I had shot." LeCourt, and continue the quotation.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Sminov, the passage that you read a moment ago about jotting down the numbers in his book doesn't occur in the translation which is before me.
I don't know whether it is in your original. I suppose it is. Are you sure it is in the original?
COLONEL SMINOV: I will again verify in the book of documents this extract which I am quoting. It is exactly corresponding to the text.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. I only wanted to be certain that it was in the original, as it does not occur in the translation before me. You can continue.
COLONEL SMINOV: I interpreted the quotation on page 58, and skip three paragraphs. Thus, I have reached page 69. That is why the President of the Tribunal did not perhaps find the sentence I mentioned. I continue the quotation:
"Besides the shooting of prisoners of war, I also shot partisans, peaceful citizens, and burned houses, together with their inhabitants.
"In November 1942 I participated in the shooting of 92 Soviet citizens.
"From April to December 1942, while a member of the Air Force Infantry Regiment, I participated in the shooting of 55 Soviet citizens. I took care of the actual shooting."
I skip a paragraph and continue:
"In addition I participated in punitive expeditions and put the torch to houses.
"Altogether more than 30 houses in various villages were burned down by me, I arrived in the village with the punitive expedition, entered the houses and warned the population that no one was to leave the houses, as we would burn the houses. I set fire to one house, and if anybody tried to save himself--nobody was allowed to leave--I drove him back to the houses or shot him. In that way I burned more than 30 houses and 70 peaceful citizens, mainly aged men, women, and children.
"Altogether I have personally shot 1,200 persons."
I skip six paragraphs and quote further. You will find this on page 70 of the document book:
"The German High Command promoted in every way the shooting and killing of Soviet citizens. In recognition of good work and service in the German Army, which found expression in the shooting by me of prisoners of war and Soviet citizens, I was promoted, before my promotion was due, on 1 November to the rank of senior corporal.
This promotion should have come about the 1st of November 1942, and I was awarded the East Medal." now refer briefly to the verdict of the trial held in the town of Smolensk by the district military tribunal against a group of former members of the German Army who werebrought to justice for committing atrocities against peaceful citizens and prisoners of war in the town of Smolensk. This document was submitted to the Tribunal by my colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, as USSR Exhibit 87, and joined to the record of the present trial. The Tribunal will find tins document on page 71 of the document book. draw the attention of the Tribunal to that part of the verdict which is in the ninth paragraph on page 71 of the document book, which says that in only 80 graves which were disinterred and examined by legal-medical experts in the town of Smolensk and in the district of Smolensk, over 135,000 corpses of Soviet citizens, women, children, and men of various ages, were discovered. which gives a characterization of the criminal deeds of individual defendants brought to trial under these charges. I will not quote all ten defendants, but only tyro or three of then. I begin with Hirschfeld. This is the sixth paragraph of the text. I quote:
"Hirschfeld was interpreter for the Germany Military Command in the District Kommandatur. He personally flogged and seized for treason quite innocent Soviet citizens, without consideration for sex and age and forced them to false statements. On receiving these false statements, the arrested persons were shot by the Kommandatur troops. Hirschfeld participated personally in the annihilation of Soviet citizens in Smolensk in May 1943 by means of asphyxiation through carbon monoxide in gas vents. partisans and against peaceful Soviet citizens in the district of NewelUswjati. While he was commanding the German punitive unit, he committed, together with his soldiers, acts of violence against the peaceful populations."
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Sminov, in the Tribunal's translation in English, we have missing pages from 34 to 45. Do you think that those pages could be found? On our pages--I think your pagination is different-but the document that you are now referring to, USSR 87, begins on page 34 of our translation, and the translation then skips to page 45.
COLONEL SMINOV: Mr. President, I am not quoting the numbers of pages of the translation, but the pages of the document book.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I follow that, but I was only wondering whether, by a slip possibly, that these pages had been translated and perhaps hadn't got into our copy of the documents, and Whether they could be found.
We have 11 pages missing. I am told that -
COLONEL SMINOV: Mr. President, I have not yet seen the translation. If the President will allow me, I will verify the translation, and will bring the translation file to order.
THE PRESIDENT: Go on in the meantime.
COLONEL SMINOV: Allow me to continue.
"While commanding a German punitive unit, together with his soldiers, he committed acts of violence against the peaceful population, and together with his subordinates, burned nine Soviet villages and hamlets. They completely robbed peaceful Soviet citizens, who had come out of the woods to the places of their burned-down homes in order to search for food products. He participated in the deportation of Soviet citizens into German slavery." defendant named Modisch who was an assistant in the German MilitaryHospital Number 551. The Tribunal will find this part on page 73 of the document book, the last paragraph:
"Modisch was a sanitary assistant in the 551 German Military Hospital in the city of Smolensk from September 1941 until April 1943. He was an eye witness and immediate participant in the killing of prisoners of war, wounded soldiers and officers of the Red Army, upon whom the German professors and doctors, Schema, Getto, Meuller, Ott, Stefan. Wagner and others carried out, under the pretext of a cure, various experiments with previously unknown biological and chemical medicines. After that, the wounded prisoners of war were infected with blood poisoning and killed."
I quote further:
"Modisch himself killed by means of injections of great quantities of Strophantin and arsenic no less than twenty-four prisoners of -war, both Red Army men and officers of the Red Army. In addition, he used, in order to cure German military personnel, the blood of Soviet children, ranging in age from six to eight years, by taking great quantities of blood from them, after which the children died. He extracted from Russian prisoners of war the spinal fluid, whereupon they suffered paralysis of the arms and legs. He participated also in the plundering of Soviet medical institutions in the city of Smolensk".I skip another page in the document.
The Tribunal can convince itself that every one of these ten defendants brought to trial committed such a long series of crimes that, according to the laws of any civilized country, they would be condmened to death. I quote as an example one of the charges proved during this trial regarding the defendant Gaudian. This is the last paragraph of page 74 and then on page 75 of the document bock. I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that Gaudian raped seven young girls and then killed them.
I conclude this part by quoting only three lines. We read at the part of the verdict which concerns Gaudian:
"In the month of July 1943 with his participation, sixty inhabitants of the district of Osipowitschi were burned in a stable." on page 75 of the document file from that part of the verdict which concerns Mueller, a lance corporal in the 335th Guard Battalions:
"On various occasions, the defendant Mueller killed 96 Soviet citizens, among them old men, women andbabies. Mueller raped 32 Soviet women, of whom six were killed after having been raped. Among the women raped, some where fourteen or fifteen year old girls.
I will not continue this quotation. I believe that the nature of these criminals, seven cut of ten of whom ended their lives on the gallows, has been made clear to the Tribunal, but in order to characterize, not those who committed the crimes, but those who were actually responsible for the lives of the population of the occupied territory in the East. I beg the Tribunal to allow me to turn to the diary of the defendant. Hans Frank, which has already been submitted to theTribunal by our American colleagues as US Exhibit 2233-PS. We quote certain extracts from this diary as USSR Exhibit 223. The Tribunal will find these excerpts on page 78 of the document bock. I quote that part of the excerpt which the Tribunal will find on page 86 of the document book, third paragraph, the first column of the text. Beobachter correspondent, Kleiss. I quote this interviews:
"Interview given by the Governor General to the Voelkischer Beobachter correspondent, Kleiss, on 6 February 1940, page 3:
"Kleiss: It might be interesting to develop the thesis which distinguishes a protectorate from a government general.
"The Governor General: I might, for example, state the following: In Prague, for instance, there were hung up red posters announcing that seven Czechs had been shot that day. I then said to myself; If I wished to order that one should hang up posters about every seven Poles shot, there would not be enough forests in Poland with which to make the paper for these posters. Indeed, we must act cruelly'." diverted the attention of world public opinion from the crimes committed under the personal direction of Frank, and permitted Frank to have several thousand representatives of the Polish intelligenzia condemned to death by courtmartial and physically exterminated.
I quote Frank's statement at the police conference held on 30 May 1940, where this crime was finally decided upon. I begin this quotation on Page 86 of the document book, sixth paragraph, first column of the text:
"On the 10th of May began the offensive in the West, and on that day, the whole world last interest in the events which are taking place here. It would be quite indifferent to me whether all that which the awful propaganda and slander throughout the world alleges the National Socialist authorities to be doing in these districts was worrying the Americans, the French, the Jews, or the Pope in Rome. However, it is awful for me and for every one of you to hear unceasingly in the course of all these months from the Ministry of Propaganda, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from the Ministry of the Interior, and even from the Army, that we are establishing; a regime of murder, that we are to cease these crimes, and so forth.
"It is evident, of course, that we had to proclaim that we would no longer to this. It was also evident that as long as these districts were under the cross fire of the whole world, we were deprived of the possibility of undertaking something similar on a vast scale.
"However, since the 10th of May, we attribute no importance whatever to this awful world propaganda. We must exploit the convenient moment."
I skip now two paragraphs and continue with the quotation:
"I admit frankly that thousands' of Poles will pay with their lives for this, and it will be, in the first place, the leading representative of the Polish intelligenzia.
"We National Socialists are obliged by this epoch to insure that the Polish people shall no longer be in a position to offer resistance."
I draw the attention of the Tribunal to this sentence in particular:
"I know what responsibility we are thus assuming." find on page 86 of the document file, first paragraph. "Furthermore, SS Obergruppenfuehrer Krueger and I have decided that the pacification measures will be speeded up.
"I pray you, gentlemen, to help us with all energy in fulfilling this task. As regards myself, I will do everything in order to facilitate its execution.
"I appeal to you as the champion of National Socialism, and I have nothing else to say. This measure will be carried out by us, and, speaking frankly, it will be in accordance with an order given no by the Fuehrer. The Fuehrer told me, 'The problem of German policy and the fulfillment of its execution in the area of the Government General is a purely personal duty of the responsible persons in the Government General'.
"He expressed himself as follows: 'It is necessary to liquidate the leading kernal actually existing in Poland. These who will grew up later must be apprehended, and then, after a period of time, liquidated in their turn.'
"That is why in order not to burden the Reich organization of the German police with this task, we must not intern these elements in German concentration camps, because then we would have fresh worries, and we would have to carry on unnecessary correspondence with their families. We will liquidate them in the country itself. We will do that in the simplest form." first column of the text. I think that this quotation is characteristic, for it was precisely Frank, as the diary proves, who first thought about the "Vernischtungslager" or "Camps for Destruction" -- extermination camps.
I quote the same speech of Frank:
"As to the concentration camps, it is evident that we do not wish sense of the word.
Every suspected person must be immediately liquidated.
spot."
diary of Hans Frank concerning the year 1940. The Tribunal will find of the text.
I quote:
"We can't expect -the concentration camps in the Reich to take care of our own affiars. It is terrible how much trouble we have had with the Cracow professors. If we had started the thing right out here, it would have come out differently. This is why I want to ask you very persistently that never again shall we send anyone to the concentration camps of the Reich but that we liquidate or conduct other necessary punishment on the spot. Everything else is too much bother for the Reich and always leads to difficulties. Here we have an entirely different method of treating people, and we must stick to our own local methods. I want to draw your attention to the fact that even if peace is concluded, nothing will change in our treatment. Peace will merely mean that then, as a world power, we will carry into life the same general, political line, only with greater intensity." major extermination camps were indeed located on the territory of the Government General. proportions they assumed, and if in 1940 Frank made a long speech to the policemen justifying the so called actions with regard to several thousand Polish intellectuals, then on the 19th of March, 1944, in his speech at the Reichstag, he stated -- I quote from page 93 of the document file, third paragraph, second column:
"13th of March, 1944, Speech at Reichstag.
"Dr. Frank: If I would go to the Fuehrer and tell him, My Fuehrer, I am reporting to you that again I just destroyed 150,000 Poles,' he would say, 'Fine, if it was necessary.' governed by him and which fell only temporarily into the hands of the Fascist invaders, at least three million Jews. On this occasion Frank said -and I quote the speech at labor meeting of NSDAP in Cracow the 4th of March, 1944. The Tribunal will find this excerpt on page 93 of the document book, second paragraph, second column of the text:
"Dr. Frank: If there is some compassionate soul today who cries out about the Jews and says, 'Isn't it awful what is being done to the Jews,' then we should ask him if he still has the same opinion today. If today we had in the country two million Jews on one side and a few Germans on the other, taking into consideration the Jewish energy, we wouldn't be the master of the situation.
The Jews -- it is a race that must be destroyed. Wherever we catch even one, we will do away with him."
I pass on to that part of Frank's diary -
THE PRESIDENT: Shall we adjourn now?
(A recess was taken.)
COLONEL SMINOV: I received some information on those eleven pages which were not incorporated into the English text and the eleven pages were given to you. Is it true sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Please do.
COLONEL SMINOV: May I continue?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COLONEL SMINOV: So I am quoting now from Frank's diary ina place which the Court will find on page 93 of the document file, in the second column of the text, second paragraph, entitled with the subtitle, "The meeting of political leaders of NSDAP in Cracow, on January 15, 1944."
"DR. FRANK: I was not ashamed to state that for every German killed, up to a hundred Poles will be shot."
In these dark days the Polish people treated Frank's victims as martyrs. The Polish people cherished their memory. Scaffolds and shootings did not insure fear but a will to resist and to struggle. at a Government meeting in Cracow Frank stated -- I am quoting excerpts from the diary on page 92 in the document book, third paragraph after the heading, the first column of the text:
"We must figure out whether it will always be wise to execute, at the precise spot where the attempt to murder a German was made. "We must also figure it out whether it wouldn't be possible to organize special spots where executions take place, as it is definitely established that the Polish population simply streams to the accessible places of execution, where it gathers the earth soaked in blood and takes this earth to church."
I brought Frank's diary to your attention, Your Honors, because he was one of Hitler's closest associates and because this very well-known "learned" jurist of Fascism was actually a positive "alter ego" of those who cut in two the bodies of children in the Yanov Camp and was at the same time one of the creators of that part of the legal code of the German Fascists which completely negated justice.
After all, the whole juridical wisdom of "Mein Kampf" fundamentally comes down to just one formula, that is, that "might is right." I studied this book and it comes down to that fundamental principle. I quote the 64th Edition, page 740. Hitler needed to clothe in legal form the inhumane theories of Fascism.
And how far Frank's directives went, containing as they did all of Hitler's orders how deep they descended in degradation of the basic ideas of justice which are incorporated in the criminal and civil law of all civilized people, can be seen in the order set forth in document which I am bringing now to the Tribunal, one of Frank's directives published in the official bulletin of the Governor General. It is dated the 2nd of October, 1943, and it is being presented by the Soviet delegation as Exhibit USSR335. The Tribunal will find the document on page 95 in the document book. I quote the document at length, in full:
"A decree concerning the battle against attacks upon German construction in the Government General.
"2 October 1943.
"On the basis of Section 5, paragraph 1 of the Fuehrer's decree of 12 October 1939 (Reichsgesetzblatt, volume 1), I decree the following until further notice:
"Section 1.
"(1) Non-Germans, who violate laws, decrees or directives and orders of the authorities, with the object of hindering or disturbing German construction in the Government General are to be punished by death.
"(2) Paragraph 1 does not apply to subjects of countries allied to the Greater German Reich, nor does it apply to subjects of countries not at war with the Reich.
"Section 2.
"The abettor and the accomplice will be punished in the same manner as the one carryoug out the deed, the attempted deed as the completed deed.
"Section 3.
"(1) The summary courts of the Security Police shall be the competent authority for passing out sentence.
"(2) For exceptional reasons, the summary court off the Security Police may hand over the matter to the German prosecution.
"Section 4.
"The summary courts of the Security Police are composed of one SS Fuehrer of the office of the Commander of the Security Police and of the Security Service, as well as of two members of this office.
"Section 5.
"(1) There shall be ordered:
1. The names of the judges, 2. The names of those sentenced, 3. The evidence on which the sentence was based, 4. The offense, 5. The date of sentence, 6. The date of the carrying out of the sentence.
"(2) For the rest, the summary court of the Security Police will determine its procedure upon proper consideration.
"Section 6.
"The sentences passed by the summary courts are to go into effect immediately.
"Section 7.
"In so far as a crime as defined in Section 1 and 2 of this decree constitutes another crime punishable by summary court procedures, only the procedural provisions of this decree are applicable.
"Section 8.
"This decree is effective as of 10 October 1943.
"Cracow, 2 October 1943.
"Signed: The Governor General, Frank." single punishment, that is, death, for practically any action of the "Non-German," regardless of whether such action was classified by the German Overlords as constituting a breach of law or a violation of an administrative order.
interpreted as directed against the Germans and which for that reason any police official could so classify (paragraph 2 of the above-quoted document).
The defendant had no procedural rights and no guarantees. The document which in accordance with paragraph 5 was to take the place of the court verdict was, as it is evident from the questions which had to be recorded in writing, actually was for the purpose of registering in written form the individual point of execution.
It was not at all for the purpose of guaranteeing that the punishment was legal or had any basis.
All appeals to the higher authorities were forbidden. The verdict was to be executed immediately. basis of Frank's directives, was actually merely a mockery of justice. The court--and it seams to me that word "court" should be in quotation marks--consisted of three officials of the same SD which kept arresting innocent people on the streets of Polish towns and organizing wanton mass shootings of hostages. basis of the aforementioned document, you shall see from the text of another document submitted to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit number 332. The document which is being turned over to the Court is the original copy of the minutes of interrogation of the attorney, Stefan Korbonski, and is also a translation of the document into Russian, which was certified by the members of the Polish delegation. Stefan Korbonski lives in Warsaw according to information received from the Polish delegation, and should the Tribunal want to call Korbonski for cross-examination, he can be brought in here. introductory part of the document. Stefan Korbonski, who is a lawyer, was interrogated and testified that he was one of the leaders of resistance among the Polish people to the German invaders. In the second half of the minutes the Tribunal will find a place in the document book, on page 98, and it goes on to page 102. Stefan Korbonski mentions exactly the same directives of Frank's which were read into the record by no just now. In paragraph one of the examination he states that in the beginning of October, 1943 when the Germans posted the walls of the houses in Warsaw and other cities of the Government General, they posted the text of that particular order of Frank's which was read into the record by me.
I omit the first part on page 99 in the document book. I shall read the quotation that I do, because it seems to me that this document is very characteristic.
"Soon after the publication of this decree and quite independently from the increasing number of death penalties secretly applied by the Germans in what used to be the Warsaw Ghetto, and in the Warsaw jail, which was called 'Pavwiac,' the Germans began to introduce public executions, that is, shooting of large groups of Poles, from 20 to 200 persons.
"These public executions were performed in the various districts of the city, in streets usually opened to normal traffic, which were then surrounded by the Gestapo guards, so that all the population caught within the surrounding district would have to watch the execution either from the street, or from the windows of the houses in the neighbourhood.
"The person shot during these public executions consisted either of members of the 'Pavwiac' or other persons arrested in the street by other means as well, and sometimes even the people caught immediately before the execution at a number of these public executions, as well as the number of persons executed each time kept increasing until it reached 200 persons. These executions continued up to the very beginning of the Warsaw insurrection. At first the Germans brought the Poles to the place of execution in covered trucks. They were usually in civilian clothes, and sometimes their hands were tied behind their backs, but when the victims were thus brought to the place of execution, they would usually shout, "Down with Hitler," "Long Live Poland," "Down with the Germans," and similar things. It was then that the Germans took steps to minimize the possibility of any such disturbances, and began to fill their mouths with cement, or seal their lips together with tape.
The victims were brought from the 'Pavwiac' clothed in shirts, or in clothes made out of paper.
"I used to receive, quite often, information from our underground organization, and through our agents who were working in the Pavwiac jail, that shortly before the execution the Germans sometimes performed operations on the condemned. They would let out the blood and would inject various chemical substances to cause physical weakness, and thus prevent attempts for escape or for resistance.
"For that reason the condemned were brought to the place of execution pale, weak and apathetic, so that they were barely able to stand on their feet. Even so, they acted as heroes and never begged for mercy.
"The bodies of those who were shot were loaded on the trucks by other prisoners and were taken to what used to be a Ghetto, where, usually, they were burned. The prisoners whose duties it was to transport and to burn the corpses were primarily prisoners from the prison of Pavwiac, and were always appointed to this task.
"The Polish population immediately covered with flowers the blood spots which were left on the ground. Lighted candles were placed where the corpses were laid, and on the walls surrounding the places crosses and ikons were displayed. During the night members of the underground or resistance organizations would put an inscription in lacquer on the walls, such as 'Glory to Heroes," 'Glory to those who Perished for the Fatherland,' and so forth. When the Germans would notice these inscriptions they would arrest anybody who happened to be on the spot, and would take those persons to the Pavwiac prison. Sometimes the Germans would shoot at groups of men who were kneeling and who were praying right in those places where executions had taken place, such as, for example, on Senator "After each public execution the Germans would put on the walls "In Warsaw alone the Germans shot several thousand Poles by this method of public execution.