legal expert commission.
"The corpses that were examined were for the most part these of the civilian population. A small number of corpses was found dressed in military uniforms. On same of the corpses were found items of religious worship of the Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches. According to the objects and documents found it has been established that among those who were shot were physicians, engineers, students, chauffeurs, mechanics, railroad workers, and so on."
I skip the next three paragraphs and pass on to the conclusion:
"The Medico-Legal. Expert Commission has established that the German Fascist henchmen shot and burned in Paneriay not less than 100,000 people."
I quote further proof concerning the Fort of Loath in Kaunace. Fort No.9 was called by the residents of Kaunace the "Fort of Death". This fort is located six kilometers northwest of the city and represents an old concrete fortification work. Inside of it there are numerous vaults, which have been used by the Germans as cells for prisoners. On all sides, this fort is surrounded by a concrete wall and barbed wire. In the very first days after their arrival in Kaunace, the Hitlerites drove into the fort approximately 1,000 Soviet war prisoners and forced them to dig ditches in a field of an area of some five odd hectares at the western wall of the fort. each of them three meters wide, 200 meters long, and over two meters in depth. All those persons who happened to get into Fort No. 9 never survived.
In columns of several thousand people, the Hitlerites drove here women, children, adolescents, men and aged persons with the purpose of shooting them and turning their bodies.
I skip the next three paragraphs and continue my quotation:
"In Fort No. 9 people of different nationalities were shot: Russians, Ukrainians, Byelo-Russians, Lithuanians, Poles and Jews were shot there.
"The following people where shot in this fort: A representative of the Supreme Soviet Council of SSR, Bougginskiene; Representative of the Supreme Soviet Council of the Lithuanian SSR, Sibertas, and others.
"Besides Soviet citizens the Hitlerites exterminated in Fort No. 9 citizens from France, Austria and Czechoslovakia."
A former supervisor of Fort No. 9, the witness Nauggunas, testified:
"The first group offoreigners, numbering 4,000, arrived at the fort in December 1941. I talked to one of the women, who said that they were being transported to Russia, allegedly for work. On 10 December 1941 the extermination of foreigners began. They were ordered to leave the fort in groups of 100 people, allegedly for inoculations. Those who left did not return. All 4,000 foreigners were shot. On 15 December 1941 another group arrived, numbering approximately 3,000 persons, which was also exterminated." page, and give only conclusive data. Fort No. 9 over 70,000 people, peaceful inhabitants. mention some methods which are vile indeed. In order to prove this statement, I refer to the Report of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Stavropol region, which has already been submitted to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit No. 1. The Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 268 of the document book, second paragraph of the text:
"It is established that prior to deserting the city of Gerogievsk on 9 January of this year, obeying the command of the Chief Physician of the German hospitals in the city, Baron Dr. von Heiman, the German soldiers were selling at the city market methyl alcohol and oxalic acid, pretending the first to be drinking alcohol and the second soda water.
This was done with the intentional purpose of poisoning the people." I must mention especially the terror which the inhabitants of Leningrad were subjected to. I have already mentioned this in speaking of the city of Leningrad yesterday. In order to shorten my quotation -- although, being a citizen of Leningrad myself, I would like to dwell on this part -- I will only quote general data regarding these crimes. The Tribunal will find this quotation on page 345 of the document book, second volume, last paragraph.
"During the 900 day siege of Leningrad when the Germans were in possession of its suburbs the atrocities they perpetrated on the civilians were countless.
"The Germans dropped on Leningrad 107,000 demolition and incendiary bombs and 150,000 heavy artillery shells. Every Leningrad resident, every minute, all through the days of the seige, was in the same danger as if he had been on a field of battle. He was threatened with death every instant. Bombing and artillery fire killed a total of 16,747 and wounded 33,782 persons." the Tribunal to pay attention to page 347 of the second volume of the document book, an excerpt from the report of the German artillerist who shelled Leningrad. I will now only give figures concerning the persons who died of hunger in Leningrad. It is the terrible winter of 1941-1942. I quote only one line:
"as a result of the hunger blockade of Leningrad, 632,253 people perished." adoption by the Hitlerites of special machines for the killing of people. People were poisoned by gas, by special machines, "sondermaschinen", or gas vans, by asphixiation vans. people constitutes a very heavy charge against the leaders of German fascism.
The special equipment for the mass extermination of people in hermetically closed machines, such as exhaust pipes of motors which were connected to the bodies of machines by means of special mobile tubes were utilized by the German Fascists for the first time in the USSR in 1942. sable only to remind the Tribunal that for the first time these machines of death were mentioned in an act which I have already submitted to the Tribunal concerning the atrocities of the German Fascist aggressors, in the town of Kerch. This document was submitted as USSR 63 and refers to the spring of 1942. Darya Demchenko, who saw how the German servicemen in Kerch threw out the bodies of the murdered into an anti-tank ditch. However, it can not be contested that the mass extermination of people in gas vans was ascertained for the first time in the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on atrocities of the German occupants in the Stavropol region. This document was submitted to the Tribunal by me earlier as USSR 1. Stavropol region was directed by the presently deceased, prominent Soviet writer and member of the Extraordinary State Commission, Academician Tolstoi. the most prominent specialists in judicial medicine as human imagination, which has definite logical limits, could with difficulty accept the existence of these machines. However, as a result of the investigation, as the testimony of witnesses regarding the murder vans and mass murders of peaceful citizens -
THE PRESIDENT: What page is this?
THE RUSSIAN-ENGLISH INTERPRETER: Page 246.
THE PRESIDENT: We've got it.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: The interpreter translated that and asked me what was the date of this document, and that is why I was looking for a date.
Forgive me, please. region, we read the first detailed description of the mechanism of these murder vans, and I am quoting in this excerpt which the Tribunal will find on page 268 of the document book, fourth paragraph. I quote this excerpt in full as the technical details which we find here coincide fully with those technical details which were so fully reported to the Tribunal by the American Prosecution. This is corroborative evidence, and, therefore, is important. I begin my quotation:
"Mass extermination by the Germans of the peaceful citizens of the USSR by means of poisoning by carbon monoxide in specially constructed machines or motor vans was definitely determined. The prisoner of war Fenichel testified:
"'While working as a mechanic, I had the opportunity to get acquainted in detail with the mechanisms of these machines, which were specially equipped for strangulation and extermination of people by means of gases. of the Gestapo.
"'Their construction was as follows: The body was approximately five meters long and two and a half meters wide; the height of the body was approximately two and a half meters. The body had the shape of a wagon without windows. Inside, it was lined, with galvanized iron. On the floor; which was also lined with galvanized iron, there were wooden grills. The door of the body was lined with rubber and could be hermetically closed by means of an automatic lock. On the floor of these machines under the grill, there were placed two metal pipes."
"These pipes were interconnected by means of a cross pipe of similar diameter."
"These pipes had frequent openings of one and a half centimeters in diameter. From the cross pipe led a rubber tube through an opening in the iron lined floor. At the end of the tube was a sextagonal spike with threading which corresponded to the threading at the end of the motor exhaust pipe. This tube could be screwed to the exhaust pipe. During the use of the motor, all the gas which was thus obtained penetrated into the body of this hermetically closed machine.
As a result of the accumulation of these gases, a man who was placed inside the body died within a short time. The body of the machine could contain approximately 70-80 people. The motor of this machine usually bore the trademark 'Sauer'." are already known to the Tribunal and beg the Tribunal to pay attention to page 270 of the document book, first paragraph, which says that in the Stavropol district the motor van was used for the murder of 660 people who were ill. State Commission regarding the crimes of the German criminals in the Krasnodar district. I submit this document to the Tribunal as USSR 42. It concerns data of the mass killing of people in murder vans. I will not quote this document. as USSR Exhibit 65 the verdict of the military tribunal of the North Caucasion Front. I wish only to quote a short excerpt. The Tribunal will find this on page 239 of the document book, volume 2. systematic torture and burning by the Hitlerite criminals of many arrested Soviet citizens, which were in the cellars of the Gestapo, as well as the facts of the extermination by asphixiation by gases of carbon-monoxide in specially built cars, machines of death; namely, the asphixiation of 7,000 innocent Soviet people, including more than 700 ill persons who were in the hospitals of the town of Krassnodar and the Krassnodar region. Among them were 32 children, from five to 16 years old. but I will not do so, in order to save time, and I skip four pages of the text and pass on to page 249 of the Russian text. mission on the atrocities of the German Fascist criminals in the town of Krarkov and the Kharkov district. I submit this document to the Tribunal as USSR 43. I will not quote this document, and will only draw the attention of the Tribunal to a summarizing document; namely, the verdict of the military tribunal of the Ukrainian Front, a verdict which was pronounced in this case.
This has been introduced to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit 32. The Tribunal will find this excerpt on page 22 of the document book, first paragraph. I quote:
"In the mass killing of Soviet citizens, the German Fascist usurpers adopted the so-called gas wagons, large closed cars which were known to the Russians as 'machines of death'. Into these gas wagons by letting out special poisonous gas, carbon-monoxide.
In order to victims."
THE PRESIDENT: We have just had handed up to us in the written translation of your address, page 234.
We already had page 234. Do you want this to be 234A? Is it just one page that you are handing up now?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: There is a different numbering in the English possession, and I do not know this new numbering.
I can therefore not follow.
I am on page 251 of the Russian text.
THE PRESIDENT: I think the better course will be to adjourn now (A recess was taken.)
COLONEL SMIRNOV: May I continue?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: In confirmation of the wide application of 291, second column of the page, 10th paragraph.
I limit my "Extermination of peaceful citizens and prisoners of war in the they were alive, and buried alive."
I end my quotation here. To confirm the same, I further refer in the second paragraph, second column, of the page.
I read one quotation from it.
I begin.
"Thousands of Soviet citizens have perished in Minsk concentration camps at the hands of the German executioners."
"I was eye witness of how Germans killed people in their murder vans.
From 70 to 80 people were forcibly put into a murder van and they were carried in an unknown direction."
I end my quotation, and I ask the Tribunal's permission to draw it which was usually done in bath houses.
It is also mentioned in the of 1942.
At the time the chief criminals were still quite convinced Europe.
They were not afraid of responsibility for those crimes.
sway. It created murder vans, gas chambers and concentration camps, Now, I pass over to the next section of my presentation:
concentration camps. I refer to the report of the Polish Government the Camp Treblin Number 2. The Germans called this Treblin B.Commission relating to Auschwitz.
The members of the Tribunal will "In 1941 the crematorium for burning the corpses of murdered people was built in the Camp of Auschwitz.
This crematorium had three ovens.
Attached to the crematorium there was a so-called bath house for a special purpose.
That is a gas chamber for murdering people.
The first crematorium existed until the middle of 1943."
"In the summer of 1942 Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler inspected Auschwitz technically."
was founded in 1941; but it was in 1942 that the special electrical building where the floor was electrified in a special way.
Thus they into two groups:
the ordinary concentration camps and the camps of extermination.
It seems to me that such a separation or differentiation fifth paragraph of the first column of the text.
But at the same time, exterminated.
I quote only one paragraph on page 260, the first.
"In considering the general area and also the area in which the exterminated over 200,000 Soviet citizens."
regime of exhaustion in concentration camps. It was already very well Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, and I don't think it will be necessary to give any further presentation of it.
But I ask the Tribunal's permission stage of the war.
I refer to page 265 of my presentation.
only for those who really were sent to the camps. These two camps ways of extermination of the peaceful citizens.
Thus were created diseases.
There were no crematoria and gas chambers in the camp, but murdering people by spreading an epidemic of typhus.
Such evidence was passages from it.
I cannot quote it in full, because there isn't sufficient time.
I begin the quotation on page 454, first column, "On the 19th of March, 1944, advancing units of the Red Army and old men who were not capable of work."
"The camps were really open squares surrounded by barbed wire.
Entrances and approaches to it were mined. There were no buildings whatever even of the most insignificant type.
There were none on the grounds of the camp."
I call the Tribunal's attention to the fact that it was in the "The inmates were sitting on the ground.
Many of them, who had lost their ability to move, were lying in the mud unconscious.
It branches for bedding.
For a significant attempt to violate this order, the Hitlerites used to shoot Soviet people.
"Creating concentration camps right near the front lines, the Germans, first of all, were selecting places for camps. They did not hope to retain their position. Secondly, concentrating large masses of Soviet people in the campt, they used to place in them primarily women, children, incapable of work, and old men. Thirdly, together with those exhausted and incapable of work, in unsanitary conditions, they used to put in the camps thousands of people sick with typhus who were especially brought from different regions of Byelo-Russia SSR.
"Among those who were liberated from these camps there were children up to the age of 13. There were 15,960. Women who were incapable of work numbered 13,072, and there were 4, 448 old men."
I omit the next page, and I read page 269 of the Russian presentation. I quote from the one paragraph which serves as testimony of the fact of how the unfortunate people from different regions of Byelo-Russia were driven to these camps.
Witness Mrs. L. Pekarski, who was liberated from the camp, testified before the Commission:
"Om the 12th of March 1944, late in the afternoon, we, the inhabitants of the city of Jlobin, met together for a period of half on hour at the station of Jlobin-South: Here the Germans selected the young ones and took them away. Having herded us into railroad cars, the Germans boarded the doors. Where we were going we didn't know, but we all anticipated some evil.
"We were driven along the railroad line Rudobelski, and we were unloaded late in the afternoon on the 15th of March. During the nighttime, knee deep in mud, we were driven into a camp. From this camp we were driven into another one. En route the Germans were beating us. Those who were lagging behind were shot.
"Here walks one woman with three children. The Germans shot at one of them. When the mother and two other of her children turned and looked at him then the beasts of soldiers took their turns in shooting at them. And then the mother shrieks after her family and her shriek is interrupted by a direct shot.
Here walked a mother and son. The child couldn't stand this and he fell. The mother bends over him. She wants to console him with her words but neither the son nor the mother arose. They didn't see the blue sky. The Germans shot him." of the evidence of the fact that the Germans premiditatedly drove to this camp those who were sick with typhus."
I quote three paragraphs of page 271:
"P.S. Mitrachovich, who was liberated from the camp and who was a resident of the village Onovo-Abelitza, testified:
"We, who were sick with typhus, were driven to the village of MikulGorodok, into the camp which was surrounded by barbed wire."
"An inhabitant of the hamlet of Novogorudok, Gavrilchik, P.S., testified:
"During three days there were brought into the camp in motor-cars typhus patients, as a result of which many who were healthy also became sick with typhus.'" bers of the Tribunal will find on page 454, second column, sixth paragraph.
"The German command used to send to the camps, especially the camps located right near the front line, their own agents who were charged with observing how the epidemic of typhus was spreading among the population and also amont the Red Army Units. Further, there is the testimony of one of his agents Kastorgouev who was a traitor. only quote a few excerpts from the findings of the legal medical experts. It is on page 454 in the document book, second column, fourth paragraph. I begin:
"The German authorities placed in concentration camps, both the healthy and those who were sick with typhus, Soviet citizens. In order to expedite the dissemination of typhus in the camps, Germans practiced moving the typhus patients from one camp to another one. On many occasions when typhus patients refused to go into the camp, the German authorities used violent measures.
camps and next to the healthy population in the camps. In the last paragraph, E, the infecting of the Soviet population with typhus took place in the period of the second half of February and in the first half of March. The result of it was mass infection of the people who were inmates of the camp and the confirmation of which the members of the Tribunal will find in the next paragraph where it is said that the Red Army Command sent to the hospitals 4,052 Soviet citizens, out of which 2,370 were children below 13 years of age. information as to the hardships of those who were inmates of these concentration camps and I pass to page 277 of my presentation where I deal with concentration camps of the usual type. dealing with Camp Banyitza, near Belgrade, from which it is evident that the camps near Yugoslavia so far as bestial conditions are concerned were quite identical with the camps in other countries of Eastern Europe. The members of the Tribunal will find on page 263 in the document book, second paragraph. I quote three paragraphs of this report:
"In Camp Baniytza, near Belgrade, this camp was established by the German occupational authorities as far back as June, 1941. From the documents of this camp, seized by the authorities, it is evident that there were registered 23,673 inmates. However, from the testimony of the surviving witnesses, especially the employees of the Quisling authorities who worked in this camp, it was possible to establish that through this camp passed really a much greater number of victims."
I omit the next paragraph and continue my quotation:
"The witness Monchilo Gemyanoviche at the end of 1943 participated in burning corpses of the victims of the Camp Baniytza."
And I omit the remainder of the paragraph. I continue my quotation:
"At the interrogation of the 7th of February, 1945, he testified before the Yugoslav State Commission that during his period of work there he counted 68,000 corpses."
Tribunal. I omit five pages of the presentation and I pass to the page 283. And I present to the Tribunal as Exhibit USSR-193 an excerpt from an official of the hospital, Dr. S. Dielinel. hospital reminds one more of a mortuary or chapel, where the bodies of those were delivered for final mass. On some days there were delivered to the hospital tens and hundreds of people who died of starvation. For instance, in one excerpt it says 87 bodies were delivered to the hospital. Under No. 1272 it is mentioned that 122 bodies were delivered to this hospital and that under No. 204 there were 112 bodies delivered. I don't consider that these figures need any comment to illustrate the regime in the camp especially as far as conditions are concerned in the camps in the territory of the USSR temporarily occupied by Germans. I quote a short excerpt from the report of the State Extraordinary Commission relative to the crimes in Lithuanian SSR. I begin:
"In the territories of Lithuanian SSR Hitlerites exterminated in great numbers not only the local population but also people who were driven here from Orlov District the Smolensk, Vitebsk and Leningrad Districts. Through this camp for the evacuated population near the town of Alitous, you will see from movie document which will be presented today, that from summer 1943 to June 1944 200,000 people passed through this camp. I omit the next part of the quotation and I skip one paragraph.
"In the city there was no sanitation, there was absence of water, starvation and disease and also shootings, resulting in the fact that during the period of 14 months in this camp there perished up to 60,000 peaceful Soviet people.
It mentions here that for the families of the members of the Red Army in the territories of Lithuanian SSR there were created special concentration camps. And the following order was posted in this camp. I begin:
"For expressing displeasure with German authorities and for violation of the camp regime the Soviet people should be shot without any trials, should be jailed and should be sent for permanent exile to Germany."
I omit one paragraph and continue:
"The four commanders mentioned frequently to the inmates 'You are our slaves: I shall punish you however I want.' relative to the Crimes in the City of Kiev. There are described murders in camps which will be shown in the movies today.
THE PRESIDENT: The interpreters are having difficulty, so would you please try to talk more slowly?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: I shall speak slowly, but I speak rapidly quite unconsciously, since I have a lot of presentation and such presentation will be quite lengthy, such as the documentary films. That is why I quote only one quotation, which shows the methods of extermination of people in one Camp. Third paragraph of the Russian text. devious means in extermination of Soviet people. For instance, they invented the following means of murder: down. The people would fall down together with the tree and be killed. Commission in regard to crimes in Estonian SSR. This also shows a highly severe regime in the camps in Estonia. I quote the last paragraph:
"Daily in the camp there were mass floggings of the inmates. Besides this, for the smallest violation of the rules people were left without any food for days then they were given a period of severe cold, and were tied to a post for two or three hours. This shocking treatment of the inmates was not only on the part of the SS Guards but also the administration of the camp and the German physicians. The German doctor, Bortmann, personally beat two inmates, Dr. Salkingson and Dr. Gezon.
This Dr. Bortmann systematically poisoned sick inmates, injecting under the skin poison at every point. The medical attendant Unterscharfuehrer Gent, killed with an axe 23 elderly inmates. The witness Ranter testified in February 1944 in the camp at Kloga there were born two children. Both of those children were thrown alive into the furnace and burnt." such concentration camps is already quite clear. therefore I shall limit myself only with presentation and evidence which really serves as material of explanation of those movies which will be shown to the Tribunal today. I consider that the Tribunal has already a very clear idea of the fact that in concentration camps there were exterminated citizens of all countries of Europe. Into these camps there were brought people both from Western Europe and from the countries of Eastern Europe. Besides official reports on these camps we also get information from a picture of which can be found in the album on Auschwitz where inhabitants of a 11 countries of Europe were listed. A special technique was used in the extermination of the people. And here I shall dwell on one new item, which was especially investigated by me when I was analyzing testimony in concentration camps. However, I wanted to find out how many special firms in Germany were engaged in building at least only crematoria for the concentration camps. And now I shall present to the Tribunal the evidence that in Fascist Germany there were at least three special business firms which were engaged only in building of crematoria for concentration camps. This serves as testimony of the crime.
I skip to page 303 of my presentation. I begin my presentation of evidence in this section and I ask the Tribunal to refer to the report of the State Extraordinary Commission about the crimes of German Fascist occupants in Auschwitz. I quote this document, which is on page 353 in the document book, and it is recorded in the text. I begin:
"Construction of new vast crematoria was given to the German firm of Topf & Sons, of Erfurt, which immediately began to build in Birkenau four vast crematoria and gas chambers. Berlin impassionedly demanded the expediting of the construction and finish of all the work before the beginning of 1943. In the records of the office of Auschwitz Camp there was discovered a vast amount of correspondence between the administration of the camp and the firm Topf & Sons, and among them the following two letters:
"Topf & Sons, Erfurt, "12 February 1943.
"To Central Construction Office of SS and Police, Auschwitz.
"Subjects: Crematoria in the Camps 2 and 3 for the prisoners of war.
"We acknowledge receipt of your wire of the 10th of February of the following contents:
"Once again we acknowledge receipt of your order for five triple furnaces, including two electric elevators to raise the corpses and one elevator of temporary construction for corpses. There was also ordered a practical device for lifting coal and for transport of the ashes. We shall deliver the full installation for Crematory No. 3 and we expect that you shall take measures to deliver immediately all machines with their parts." special purpose, and I present to the Tribunal Exhibit USSR-64, a document which is appended to the report of the Yugoslav Government. This is a certified photostat of a document and concerns the correspondence with the business firm, Didi, on the question of construction of crematoria designed for a large camp in Belgrade. as one firm that had considerable experience in construction of crematoria for concentration camps and it represented itself as a firm that understood the demands of its clients. In order to get the bodies into the furnace the firm created a special conveyor of special design and the firm considered that it could fulfil their orders much better than other firms, and it asked for a small advance, to begin preliminary work connected with the drawing up of blue-prints for the crematoria of the camp. I quote very short excerpts from this document -- the first two paragraphs: