THE PRESIDENT: Well, you better go on and quote it because these interruptions take a very long time.
COLONEL SMINOV: "Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death interests me only in so far as we need them as slaves for our culture. Otherwise it is of no interest to me. Whether 10,000 Russian females fall down from exhaustion while digging an anti-tank ditch interests me only in so far as the anti-tank ditch for Germany is finished." that the legalization of mass murders and extermination of the peaceful population of the Soviet Union, which were carried out by the Army for the purpose of terrorization, were introduced by Hitler and his clique as early as May 13, 1941, that is over one month before the beginning of the war.
It is at this time that I refer to the well-known directive, Keitel's order about the "Application of military jurisdiction and procedure in the Area Barbarossa and special military measures." This document was read by the American prosecution on January 7, 1946. I shall not quote from this document inasmuch as the document has been read by the Tribunal, and I merely take the liberty to remind the Tribunal that this directive stated that it was not necessary to be sure of the guilt; that it was sufficient to have a suspicion in order to execute a person. A system was officially established of joint responsibility for a crime. Furthermore, it was also stated that the ones that were suspected were to be exterminated in any case. I refer to paragraph 5 of the directive. document only as a special privilege and only in the territories which were considered to be "sufficiently pacified."
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now.
(Whereupon at 1250 hours the hearing of the Tribunal adjourned to reconvene at 1400 hours.)
COLONEL SMIRNOV: In accordance with your orders, Mr. President, I skip to the next document, which I want to stress, which was already submitted to the Tribunal, such as Document 625-P.
THE PRESIDENT: The English translation is not coming through.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: May I continue? I go over to the next document which was already submitted to the Tribunal yesterday by my colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky.
THE PRESIDENT: It still isn't coming through.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: I was speaking formerly, Mr. President, that according to your instructions I skipped documents which were already submitted to the Tribunal and go over to a document which was submitted to the Tribunal yesterday by my colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, as USSR Exhibit 3. It is the report of the Extraordinary State Commission, entitled "The directives and orders of the Hitlerite Government and the German Military Command on the Annihilation of the Soviet people." of this document concerning the execution of mass killings, "so-called executions" in camps where civilians and prisoners of war were interned. The first part was already written in the record. I skip it and go over to other parts of this report, concerning the organization by the German Fascist Commanders from the very first days of the war with the Soviet Union, of so-called Sonderkommandos, special commandos. kommandos in the camps, the prisoners of war on the side and civilians on the other. I quote this part as the Sonderkommando acquired a terrible name among the civilian population, as it is one of the most cruel and most brutal organizations created by German Fascism for the extermination of the people.
I beg the Tribunal to allow me to refer to page 207 of the document book, first column of the text. henchmen, still before the attack on the USSR, had compiled lists and data concerning leading Soviet personalities according to the bloodthirsty plans, who were supposed to be exterminated. In this way they prepared an investigation book, German investigation book, which list is for ascertaining the addresses of the people, which were supposed to help the Hitler murderers in the extermination of the leading people of the USSR.
In the document Appendix No.2 the operational order No.8 of the chiefs of the SP and the SD, dated "Berlin, 17 July 1941", signed by Heydrich who then acted as Himmler's deputy; my Lord, it is on page 80 of the English translation and mentions however that the lists and directories are insufficient and emphasizes in particular that the initiative of the murderers should not be hampered. The document states; "It is impossible to lend any assistance to the commandos in the execution of their work. The'German information directory', the 'Lists to ascertain the whereabouts of people', the 'special information directories for the USSR' will only be useful in a few cases. The 'special information directory for the USSR' is incomplete because it contains only an insignificant number of Soviet Russians who must be considered dangerous elements."
I skip a paragraph and continue. "For the carrying out of their crimes the German aggressors organized in German territory, in the so-called Polish Government General and in occupied Soviet territory, so-called 'special commandos.'" the document, sixth paragraph, second column of the text; in Appendix No.1, to the operational order No. 14, of the SP and SD, marked "Secret, of state importance, copy No.15" and dated 29 October 1941. We see how the special commandos were formed:
out in accordance with the agreement reached between the Chief of the SP and SD and the OKW, dated 7 October 1941. The unit will act on the basis of special powers and independently and according to the general directives issued them within the frame work of the camp regime. It is evident that the unit will keep in close contact with the camp commander and the officers of the counter intelligence division." document book, first paragraph. The Tribunal will see on what a great scale these organizations, the Sonderkommandos, were organized in the town of Krasnogardeisk: it is a little town near Leningrad: and to the town of Nikolaov. 1941, about the organization of the special commandos was sent to the special units in Krasnogardeisk, Smolensk, Kiev, Nikolajev and -- "for information" -- Riga, Mogiliev and Krivolrog. It must also be pointed out that the Hitlerites during their attacks on Moscow organized in Smolensk the "Moscow special operation unit", the task of which was the mass annihilation of the Moscow population.
The tasks of the "special operational unit" are outlined in the operational orders which are attached to the decree No.8 of the Chiefs of the SP and the SD, dated Berlin 17 July 1941, which under the pretext of "examining the civilians and suspicious prisoners of war captured on the east front" point out that "special circumstances of the eastern campaign make special measures necessary which they must take upon their own responsibility without regard to bureaucratic or administrative influences." lines which I have already outlined. extermination of peaceful citizens of the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe. I have already submitted to the Tribunal several documents depicting the nature of the Hitlerite criminals. These were special massacres and crimes.
However, it was evident that it was not sufficient to create these vile charters. One had to ascertain that by committing the crime, the criminals should feel themselves irresponsible. In order to fulfil the envisaged crimes in all its aspects, it was necessary to create for the criminals the atmsophere of lawless irresponsibility. into the record by the American Prosecution which is entitled "Orders Concerning the Application of Martial Law and Special Measures in the Barbarossa Area." I think that the contents of this document may be recalled by the Tribunal, and without this text one cannot understand the mass extermination of the population on the Soviet territory. I will allow myself only to outline that the order signed by Keitel was fulfilled upon the order of Hitler, and was accepted by all the soldiers and officers of the German Fascist army on a personal order of Hitler; and as a confirmation of the deductions which the German Fascists made out of these orders of Keitel, I will allow myself to refer to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the Crimes of the German Fascists in the town of Minsk.
I submit to the Tribunal this Document as USSR Exhibit 338. This document contains excerpts from the testimony of Captain Julius Reichhof, the chairman of the military tribunal of the 267th German Rifle Division. I beg the Tribunal to turn to this document which is on page 217 of the document book, first column of the text. I quote according to the report. I quote the testimony of Reichhof.
"For actions committed against the Soviet population, the Germans could not be put to trial by a military tribunal according to an order by Hitler. This can only be done by the commander of the unit if he considers it necessary. According to the same order of Hitler, a German army officer had even more far-reaching rights. He could handle the extermination of the Russian population according to his own opinion. The commanders have the unlimited right to use punitive action against the civilian population; such as, the burning of entire villages and towns, taking away of food and livestock from the population, the deportation of Soviet citizens to Germany for work.
"Hitler's order was distributed to every single soldier of the German army on the day before the beginning of the attack on the Soviet Union. According to Hitler's order, the German soldiers under the leadership of of officers committed a number of atrocities." But even that wasn't enough for the Hitlerite leadership. In 1942, a very sharp instruction confirmed that, without any exceptions whatsoever, no crimes of German Fascist military personnel perpetrated against peaceful inhabitants of the Soviet Union should ever be punished. Reich and military leadership particularly emphasized that the crimes should be left unpunished, unconditionally, even if the victims of these atrocities, no matter how perpetrated, happened to be women and children.
THE PRESIDENT: What was the reference to what you called "sharp instruction"?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: I will directly present it to the Tribunal. I will submit to the Tribunal this directive as USSR Exhibit 16. It is a photostatic copy of the document. The Tribunal will find the text of this directive on page 219 of the document book. This directive is signed by Keitel and entitled "The Struggle with Bandits." The document is dated December 16, 1942. I will quote this document nearly in full, starting with the title.
"Very Secret.
"The Fuehrer has reports that individual members of the Wehrmacht who took part in the struggle against the bandits..." Tribunal that the conception of "bandits" was with the Hitlerites attributed to all parts of the Soviet population. I will therefore not dwell on the description of this term. I continue the quotation: I skip one paragraph. Page 219 of the document book:
"If this fight against the bandits will not be led with every means of cruelty the forces actually at its disposal, it will undoubtedly be insufficient to clean up this place. The troops are therefore in their right and obligated to use in this fight without limitation, every means against women and children if it leads to success."
I beg the Tribunal to allow me to stress that they mentioned "every means against women and children."
"Considerations of any kind are a crime against the German people and the soldiers on the front who have to bear the consequences of the partisan plots and who can have no understanding whatsoever for any kind of consideration of the partisans or their cohorts.
"Those regulations must be also in force for the use of the combatting of partisans in the East.
"2. No German who is engaged in the fighting of partisans can be punished by disciplinary action or by court martial on account of his behavior in the fight against the partisans and their cohorts. The commanding officers of the troops engaged in fighting the partisans are responsible for:
that all officers instruct in the most urgent manner the units which are subordinated to them about these regulations, that their legal advisers receive immediate notice of this order, no sentences be confirmed which oppose this ordern. Signed Keitel." the first two Counts of the Indictment; hitherto, the documents which I have submitted to the Tribunal were to prove three facts:
1. The major war criminals directly incited very wide steata of the personnel of the German Fascist armed forces to perpetrate the greatest war crimes against a peaceful population.
2. The Hitlerite leadership, through special education, created large contingents of criminals for the effective execution of their plans for extermination.
3. Setting free of the lowest instincts of the perpetrators of the crimes and the creation of conditions with complete impunity for the criminal In the occupied territory of the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe, the Hitlerites committed crimes against peaceful populations which neither in their scope nor in the cynicism and cruelty of the manner and actions of the organizers and perpetrators have any precedence in world history. and methods of these crimes committed by the German Fascists.
I would like to show what Keitel's conception of pacification meant in the lives of peaceful people. the appearance of German Fascist authorities, regardless of whether they were military or civilian authorities, in the territories of the USSR and other countries of eastern Europe. forms, was started first of all with those who were considered by the Fascists as the most dangerous and most capable of offering resistance.
In confirmation of this, I refer to a document which I have already presented to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit 36, report of the Extraordinary State Commission in the Territory of the Lvow Region." The Tribunal will find this quotation, to which I am referring, on page 68 of the document book, first column of the text, last paragraph:
"The Gestapo detachments even before the seizure of Lvow, had at their disposal, following the orders of the German Government, lists of most prominent representatives of the intelligentsia predestined to annihilation. Immediately after the seizure of Lvow, massacres and executions began. The Gestapo men arrested: A member of the Union of Soviet Authors, writer of numerous works of literature, Professor Thaddeus Boi-Yelensky; Professor of the Medical Institute, Roman Renzky; University Dean, Professor of Forensic Medicine, Vladimir Seradsky; Doctor of Judicial Science, Roman Longsham-de-Berye, together with his three sons; Professor Thaddeus Ostrovsky; Professor Jan Grek; Professor of Surgery, Heinrich Hilrovich . . ." arrested in Lvow. I skip the list of familiar names and continue with the quotation.
"F.B.Groer, Professor of the Medical Institute at Lvow, who, by accident escaped death, has told the Commissions:"
"When I was arrested at midnight on July 3, 1941, and placed in the tr I found there already Professors Crek, Boi-Yelensky, and others. We were brought to the house of "theological College of Agamovich". While we were led along the corridor, Gestapo people jeered us. They hit us with rifle butts, pulled our hair, and beat us on the head. Later on, I saw how, from the dormitory of the Theological College of Agamovich the Germans led under convey five professors;four of them were carrying the blood spattered body of the son of Professor Rouff, who was killed by the German: at the interrogation. The young Rouff was also a specialist. This whole group of professors, under the escort, went in the direction of the Cadetsky Height. In 15 or 20 minutes I heard a rifle-burst from the direc where the professors were led.
With a view to humiliating human dignity, the Germans used the most refined methods of torture against these men of science, and then shot them. B.O. Galtsman, who lived in the city of Lvow, has testified before the Special Commission that he himself saw how, in July 1941, "20 people were brought by the SS into the courtyard of House No. 8, on Artshevsky Street, among them professors, lawyers, and physicians. One of them I know by name, Doctor of Judicial Science Kreps. Among them were 5-6 women. The SS forced them to wash the stairs on the seven entrances to the four-story house with their tongues and lips. After these stairways were washed, the same people were forced to collect garbage in the courtyard with their lips. All garbage had to be transferred to one place in the courtyard."
I skip the end of this quotation and continue:
"The Fascist invaders carefully concelaed facts concerning the extermination of the intelligentsia. To repeated requests of their relative and friends for information as to the fate of these men of science, the Germans replied, "No information."
"In Autumn of 1943, on the order of Reichsminister of Germany Himmler, to Hitlerites burned the bodies of the professors who were shot. Former internees of the Yanovsky Camp, Mendel and Corn, who carried out the exhumation of the bodies, have told the Commission the following:
"In the night of October 5, 1943, between Cadetsky and Boulesky Streets, upon the order of one of the Gestapo men, we opened the pit from which we lifted 36 bodies. This was done under the light of projectors and by the orders of the Gestapo. We burned all these corpses.
"While lifting the corpses from the pit we found the documents of Professor Ostrovsky, of the Doctor of Natural Science Otegek and Professor of the Politechnical Institute Kasimir Bartel.
"It was established by the investigation that in the course of the first few months of occupation the Germans have arrested or killed over seventy of the most prominent men of science, techniques, and arts in the City of Lvow.
local organizations and representatives of the intelligensia were the victims of Fascist terror. In the above I was referring only to thefact that the Fascist terror was directed against these people in the very first place. the fact that it was administered by the German Fascist leaders and carried out by the executioners as terror in general. down, that the Defendant Keitel declared any actions against women and children is not subject to punishment either by criminal or disciplinary procedure. constitute the appendix to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on German Atrocities in the City of Kerch. submitted to the Tribunal but was not read into the record. It is document USSR Exhibit 63, which is a report of the Extraordinary Commission for the Investigation of Crimes in the town of Kerch. Two words of introduction. The town of Kerch was a comparatively small town. Many hundreds of kilometers separated it from Lvow. They reached Kerch only in November, and in January 1942 the Germans were already thrown out of the city by units of the Red Army. Germans did not last more than two months. But here are the crimes which were committed by the German Fascists in this city. I quote. I will greatly summarize the text. The Tribunal will find this part on page 227 of the document book, second column, fifth paragraph:
"After capturing the city in November 1941, the Hitlerites immediately issued an order which stated, as follows:
"The inhabitants of Kerch are ordered to deliver to the German Commandant all food supplies at the disposal of or possessed by any family. For non-delivery the owner will be shot.
"The next Order Number 2 -- the municipal government ordered all inhabitants to register at once all chickens, roosters, ducks, turkeys, geese, sheep, cows, calves, and cattle. The owners of fowl were strictly prohibited from using the fowl and the cattle for their own needs without the permission of the German Commandant. After these orders were issued a wholesale search of all apartments and houses had begun.
"The Hitlerites were behaving rowdily. For each kilogram of beans or flour found in excess, the head of the family was shot.
"The monstrous atrocities in the city by the Germans began by poisoning 245 children of school age."
"According to the order of the German Commandant, all school children were ordered to come to the school at a fixed time. After they arrived, 250 children, with their school books, were sent out of town to the factory school, allegedly for a walk. There the hungry and cold children were offered hot coffee with cakes, which were poisoned. Those children who didn't get coffee the German orderly called to the dispensary and smeared their lips with quick-acting poison.
"In a few minutes all the children were dead. Then the school children of the older classes were transported in trucks and shut down with machine guns at eight miles distance from the town. The bodies of the poisoned children were transported there later. There was a very long anti-tank ditch in which they were buried.
"On the evening of the 28th of November 1941, an order, Number 4, of the Gestapo was hung up in town, according to which the inhabitants who had previously been registered at the Gestapo were to present themselves on the 29th of November between 8:00 O'clock and 12:
00 o'clock noon at the Sennaya Square, with three days stock of food. All men and women were to present themselves without regard to their age or state of health. These who did not present themselves were threatened with public shooting. These who presented themselves at the Square on the 29th of November were persuaded that they were summoned in order to be sent to work. At 12:00 o'clock noon, over 7,000 people assembled in the Square. There were young boys, young girls, children of all ages, aged men, and pregnant women. They were all of them transferred to the town prison by the Gestapo men.
"This fiendish extermination through treachery of the peaceful population done in the prison was carried out by the Germans according to a plan of the Gestapo formulated beforehand.
"First of all, the internees were ordered to hand over the keys of their flats and to designate the exact addresses to the commandant of the prison. Then all valuables were taken away from the arrested people, including watches, rings and ornaments.
"Notwithstanding the cold, boots, pants, shoes, costumes and coats were taken off all those who had been put into prison. Many womer and young girls were separated from the rest of the internees by the Fascists, shut up in separate cells, where the unfortunate creatures were subjected to specially refined torture. They were raped. Their dresses were cut off. Their stomachs were ripped open, and their feet, hands, were cut off, and their eyes torn out.
"After the Germans had been expelled from Kerch on the 30th of December 1941, the Red Army men discovered in the yard of the prison a formless mass of tortured and unrecognizable naked women's bodies, tortured by the Fascists.
"As a cite for the mass execution the Hitlerites chose an anti-tank ditch near the village of Baguerovo where, during several days, entire families of condemned were transported to the place of execution in trucks and cars.
"After the Red Army entered Kerch in January 1942 when the Baguerovo ditch was investigated, it was discovered that it stretched out for a distance of 1 kilometer in length, 4 meters in width, and 2 meters in depth, and was over-filled with bodies of women, children, old men, and young people. Near the ditch were frozen pools of blood. Children's caps, toys, ribbons, torn-off buttons, gloves, milk bottles with nipples, little shoes, galoshes, with tornoff hands and feet, were lying nearby. All this was spattered with blood and brains.
"The Fascist fiends shot the defenseless population with explosive bullets.
2 Near the rim of the ditch lay the body of a tortured young woman. In her arms was a baby wrapped up carefully in a shite cape. Next to this woman lay an eight-year old firl and a 12-year old boy, killed with explosive bullets Their hands gripped the dress of their mother."
numerous witnesses who were lucky enough to escape from this death ditch. I will quote two statements: states:
"Then we were brought to the anti-tank ditch and lined up near this terrible tomb, we still believed that we had been brought here in order to fill in the ditch with earth or to dig new trenches. We did not believe that we had been brought to be shot, but when we heard the first shots out of the automatic weapons aimed at us, I understood that we were being shot. I instantly threw myself into the ditch and hid between two dead bodies. Thus, unharmed, in a half fainting condition, I lay there practically until the evening.
"Whilst lying in the ditch, I heard several wounded shout to the gendarmes who were shooting at them, "Finish me off, blackguard.' "You didn't get me, blackguard. Shoot again.'
"Then when the Germans went away to lunch one of the inhabitants of my village began to cry out of the ditch, 'Get up, those who are still alive.'
"I got up, and we, I and the other men, began to drag out the live people who were assembled among the dead. I was all in blood. Over the ditch there hung light mist and vapor from the evaporation of the blood, and from the last breathing of the dying.
"We dragged out Theodore Naoumenko and my father, but my father had been killed outright by an explosive bullet in the heart.
"Late at night I reached the house of some friends in the village of Baguerovo, and there awaited the arrival of the Red Army."
The witness Kamenev stated:
"Behind the airdrome the chauffeur stopped the car, and we saw that Germans were shooting people near a ditch. We were dragged out of the cars, and we were pushed forward in groups of ten people to the ditch. I stood with my son with the first ten people. We reached the ditch. We were placed facing the ditch, and the Germans began to shoot us with bullets in the neck.
"My son turned to them and shouted Why are you shooting the peaceful population?' But the shots rang out, and my son fell into the ditch. I threw myself after him, and people began to fall around me into the ditch.
"At 3:00 o'clock out of the mass of bodies, an 11-year old boy stood up and began shouting 'Little' fathers, those of you who are alive stand up. The Germans have gone.' I was afraid to get up, as I thought that the boy was shouting that on the order of the policeman.
"The boy again started shouting, and then my son answered him. He stood up and asked, 'Father, are you alive?' I could not answer anything and only shook my head. My son and the other boy dragged me out from under the bodies. We saw some other live people who were shouting, 'Help us.' Several of them were wounded. All the time while I was lying in the ditch under the bodies I could hear the shouting and crying of women and children. Germans were shooting after us, old men, women and children." details. to may attention to that part which concerns the mocking and jeering of children. It is very characteristic of German Fascist terror. I skip six pages of the text which I intended to bring out, and beg the Tribunal to turn to the text on page 282 of the book of documents, tenth paragraph. I quote a short excerpt concerning the mocking of children.
"The German barbarians, in their mocking of the Soviet people did not spare children.
"The witness Kolessnikova, a teacher, states that Germans shot a 12-year old boy only for the reason that he took an old car tire and tried to swim in it.
"The witness Sabelnikova stated that Bondarenko, who lived in the village of Adjimushkay, was attempting to save her three children from hunger. She asked the Germans for something to eat. The Germans were watching in the kitchen. They poured into a little sauce pan some gruel. The family Bondarenko ate it greedily. In a few hours the mother and the three children were dead. The Germans had poisoned them.
"The statement of Shoumilova ascertained that in the month of July a German officer shot a six-year old boy only for the reason that he was singing a Soviet song while walking about in town.
"In the garden of Sakko and Venzetti, during the whole summer the body of a nin-year old boy was hung only for the reason that he had picked some apricots from a tree." cerning the town of Kerch. cause the atrocities committed by the Hitlerites in this town were of an extraordinary scale of had a special feature of cruelty. On the contrary, the act of the Extraordinary Commission was quoted for the solo reason that it gives a detailed enumeration of the crimes committed by the Hitlerites in one of the towns temporarily occupied by the German criminals. This town had promptly become the victim of the Fascist regime. Similar atrocities were committed by the Hitlerites in all territories temporarily occupied by the Hitlerites. already submitted to the Tribunal as USSR Exhinit 51, but which has not yet been read into the record. I mean the memorandum of the Peoples Kommissar Molotov, dated the 27th of April, 1942. the following deductions. It said the following:
"Fresh documents and fresh information continues to be put at the disposal of the Soviet Government stating that the Hitlerite usurpers are committing everywhere plundering of the Soviet population without hesitating before any crimes or before any cruelty or act of terrorism on the territories which they temporarily occupied or which they are still occupying.
"The Soviet Government had already declared that these atrocities were not accidental excesses of single undisciplined military units or single German officers or men. At the present moment the Soviet Government disposes of documents seized lately from the staff of beaten German formations, which proves that the blood-thirsty crimes committed by the German Fascist Army were committed in accordance with plans detailed, set out and elaborated of the of the German Government, and according to orders of the German High Command."
I skip the last part of this conclusion and skip to Part 5. The Tribunal will find this part which I am going to quote on Page 8 of the Document Book, in the fourth column of the text, fifth paragraph. I will briefly outline this note. cerning the establishment of the terror regime were interpreted by the Gauleiters and local leaders and commanders of the German units.
I quote the beginning of the fifth paragraph of this note, page 9:
"The inhuman cruelty, born from the atrocities committed upon their own people, and which the Hitlerite clique applied to the inhabitants of the European countries temporarily occupied by the German Army, have already been outdone by the German Army during their attack of Soviet territory.
"The cruel treatment to which the Hitlerites submitted the peaceful Soviet population have obscured all the most somber pages of history of mankind and denounce fully the blood-thirsty and criminal plans of the Fascists, in view of the extermination of Russian, Ukrainian, Bielo Russian, and other peoples of the Soviet Union.
"These monstrous Fascist plans inspired the orders and instruction of the German High Command concerning the extermination of peaceful Soviet citizens. Thus, instructions of the German High Command, entitled 'Treatment of the Civilian Population and of the Enemy Prisoners of War' proclaims that 'Officers are responsible that the treatment of the civilian population be merciless;' and this instruction orders that one should apply to the entire masses of the population.
"In the instructions sent by the German High Command as a directive for the occupational authorities on Bielo Russian territory, We read 'Any hostile acts of the population as regards the German armed forces and their organizations will be punished by death. If a partisan has not been found one must take hostages from among the population. These hostages must be hung.'"
THE PRESIDENT: What is the USSR number of what you are reading now?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: This document was submitted as USSR Exhibit 51. It is one of the memorandums of Kommissar Molotov. It is the memorandum of the 27th of April 1942. Four memorandums have been submitted under this number to the Tribunal. It is on Page 4 of your file of documents. The quotation which I am now reading is on Page 8 of your document book.
THE PRESIDENT: It is thought that this is part of the document that you read yesterday. Are you sure that it is not--on page 4-
COLONEL SMIRNOV: No, Mr. President. I read into the record a note from the 6th of January 1942, and this is a note of the 27th of April. May I continue?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: "These hostages must be hung if the guilty or their accomplices are not found before 24 hours have lapsed. During the following 24 hours, a double number of hostages must be hung in the same spot."
Point 7 of Order Number 431/41 of the German Commandant of the town of Feodossia, a Captain Eberhardt, reads as follows:
"During an alarm every citizen who appears in the street must be shot. Groups of citizens who appear must be surrounded and mercilessly shot. Leaders and inciters must be hung in public." treatment of the civilian population, single officers are ordered that indispensable cruelty is not being applied everywhere. Orders which are posted by the occupants in the Soviet towns and villages announce the death penalty for various reasons: For going out in the streets after 5:00 o'clock in the evening; for offering hospitality to strangers; for not handing over Rod soldiers to the authorities; for attempting to put out a fire in an inhab ited spot; for traveling from one point to another; for refusing to fulfil forced labor," and so on.
I continue this quotation on Page 8 of the memorandum:
"The German Fascist High Command does not only admit but actually orders the murder of women and children.
Organized child murder in some of the orders is presented as away of struggling against the partisan movement.
Thus, an order of the Commander of the 254th German Division, Lt. General von Beschnitz, "It also orders the responsibility should be placed upon the mayors iately shot."
"Some of the crimes of the German occupants committed by them in the very first "Thus, when units of the Red Army in the district of the town of Toropetz, Russia.
The Commander of the regiment reports that besides 239 prisoners, the "The report states further that the unit acted according to order to the regiment, Number 42, dated 27th of July 1941.
The Commander of the Second August 1941: