Tribunal a certified photocopy of the order of the German Kommandatur at Kragujevac, in which the German Kommandatur admitted the shooting of 2,300 people. This document is being presented to the Tribunal and I ask the Tribunal to accept this as evidence as USSR Exhibit 74. I quote one sentence of the report of the Yugoslav Government report in regard to mass extermination in Kragujevac. This was a mass murder which was committed on the 21st of October, 1941, in Kragujevac by a German punitive expedition which was commanded by Major Koenig.
I omit the next two paragraphs and continue: their plan of extermination of the citizens of Kragujevac, especially exterminating the intelligenstia. As early as the beginning of October, the region commandant, Doctor Zimmerman, demanded of the director of schools in Kragujevac the regular attendance of the school children; otherwise, they would be considered diversionists. After such a threat, all school children regularly attended school. On the 18th of October, 1941 in accordance with a prepared list, all male Jews were arrested, and also all these who were considered to be communists. They were taken into prison, the barracks of the former Yugoslav auto transport Kommandatur, to a place called Stanovljansko. They were kept without any food until the 20th of October, and all were shot at around 6 o'clock in the evening. There were about 60 men. On the same day, the 20th of October, they began to pull in all of the male population of Kragujevac. into allpublic buildings and drove out of there all of the civil servants. Then out of high school and parochial institutes all professors and pupils from the fifth grade and higher were taken, together with the school directors.
I omit the next two sentences and then I quote:
"Together with others, all of the prisoners were taken into the barracks from the prison of Kragujevac. Then the order was given to them to go into the courtyard near the barracks. There all of their personal belongings were taken-away from them. The first people to be shot were these who were prisoners in the jail, approximately fifty men.
The rest of them were locked in the barracks. The next day, on the 21st of October, beginning at seven o'clock in the morning, they were led by groups into the so-called Stanovljansko- Field and there were shot with machine-gun fire. These who were not killed at once the Germans finished off with automatic rifles and guns."
I conclude my quotation and. I omit the next three paragraphs.
"It was forbidden to the relatives of the victims of this mass extermination to visit the place where the execution took place until the- burial of the victims was finished, and until all traces of the crimes were destroyed. The relatives of the victims were also forbidden to have any church masses or religious services. In the death notices in the newspapers it was forbidden to mention that mass shootings was the reason for death."
I omit the next five paragraphs and. I ask the Tribunal to pay particular attention to a short part of the report of the Yugoslav Government dealing with the so-called bloody or death march, notorious march which took place in the camp of Yarak. I quote this particular part that deals with that atrocious crime.
"In the beginning of September, 1941, a large German punitive expedition collected all of the male population from the ages of fourteen to seventy years and drove the men across the Save River into the settlement Yarak in Srom. This wasthe so-called 'bloody march'. Around 5,000 men had to ever the distance of twenty-three kilometers in double time both ways. These who could not stand it and who would, fall behind were ruthlessly shot on the spot. Because there were many old and weak people, the number of victims was great, especially in the crossing of the bridge of the Sava River."
I conclude this and I continue the next paragraph:
"On the way back they met another group which was composed of 800 peasants who had to cover the same distance. The treatment of the litter group was even more cruel. They had to walk with their arms raised, and run. On the route they were systematically murdered. Only 300 men of the group reached Yarak alive."
conclusion of my presentation of mass murders of civilian population in Yugoslavia, I ask the Tribunal to admit as evidence the public announcement of the chief of German armed forces in Serbia. This document is being presented to the Tribunal as USSR-200. Without any comments whatever, I simply quote this document, quoting the same quotation which is incorporated in the report of the Yugoslav Government. I begin it:
"The Chief of the Armed Forces in Serbia makes it known:
"In the Village of Skela, a communist detachment shot at a German military truck.
"It was established that several people in the village observed it and saw the preparation for this attack.
"It has been established that these inhabitants had an opportunity to start an alarm at the nearest place wherethere were Serbian Gendardarmes.
"It has been established that the inhabitants of the village could ales secretly inform German military trucks and cars about the attempt prepared against them. The inhabitants did not use this opportunity, and, therefore, found themselves on the side of the criminals.
"The Village of Skela was burned down completely. In several houses, during the burning of the village, there were explosions of ammunition. This serves aslproof of participation of the inhabitants of the village in the crime.
"All male inhabitants of the village or whom it was established that they were accomplices were shot."
I omit five pages of my presentation, and I draw the Tribunal's attention to the short quotations of the Greek Government's report, which are found on page 39 and 40 of the Russian text of this report and which serves as evidence of the fact that the same inhumane and cruel methods of shooting and mass extermination were being used by the Hitler criminals in the territory temporarily occupied by Greece. I begin my quotation:
"As soon as the Island Crete was occupied, the German Supreme Command proclaimed thatin the vicinity where, there were attacks on German soldiers, all the settlements will be burned to the ground and the inhabitants will be held responsible for it. In compliance with this announcement the first reprisals were taken.
Several people, in majority absolutely innocent, were shot, and the villages of Skini, Prassi and Kandanos" -- perhaps my accent may be different. I really do not know the pronounciation in Greek. -- "All these villages were burned down as a reprisal for an attack during the invasion of Crete, and in the place where those villages formerly were, there were posts with inscriptions in Greek and in German: Destroyed as a reprisal for brutal killing of the detachment of paratroopers and half a platoon of the engineers by armed men-and women.
"Measures of reprisal, which at first were temporary in character, later on became more andmore strict, especially after the resistance which was made by organized detachments throughout the country.
"In the beginning of 1943, the technique of reprisals was the same. The next day, after the act of sabotage or some other action which was committed by the Guerrilla Detachments near the village, the German troops appeared near this, village. The inhabitants used to be concentrated in the central square in the village or some other opportune place allegedly for the reason to hear a public announcement. Really they were shot on the spot with machine-gun fire. After this the Germans either burned or sometimes subjected it to artillery fire, first plundering.
They used to kill them openly in the streets, in houses, in the fields, regardless of their age or sex. There were cases when only the male population was subjected to mass shooting and went from sicteen years on up. In other cases, when men were successful in hiding in mountains, the Germans would execute old men, women and children who remained in villages in hopes that their age and their sex will serve as a defense for them.
"The villages Arachoea, Kalavryta, Distomon, Klisoura, Kommeno, Messovouni, may serve as an example.
"Some villages were destroyed merely for the reason that they were located in the region where Guerrilla Detachments were active." and then I continue my quotation:
"The number of murdered meople reaches the figure of 30,000 people." of the peaceful population in the territory USSR, from the testimony of eye witnesses the performances of the crime itself. In part we can also judge of them, on the basis of the material gathered by the legal-medical commission. I say "in part," because at the beginning of 1943, afraid of the retribution for the crimes committed, the Hitlerites began to destroy traces of their crimes. The excavated, exhumed, and burned the corpses. They ground the bones and straw the ashes on the field, and also used the slime (slag) from the crmation of corpses, and the bone flour for field fertilization, for road repair, and used it as fertilizer. crimes, it was impossible to destroy all the corpses of the murdered people. Going into the first mass shooting in the USSR was when thousands of people by proclamation were murdered in the town of Kiev. In order to have an idea of these killings, of these mass crimes, I ask the members of the Tribunal to refer to the order of the Extraordinary Commission document, which has already been presented to the Tribunal as USSR No.9. I quote from page 238, the last part of the third paragraph at the top. I begin:
"There were murders, tortures, and poison in the murder vans. In Kiev, v over 195,000 Soviet citizens, including in Babii Yar, over 100,000 men, women and, children, and all people. In Darnitza, over 68,000 Soviet prisoners of war and peaceful citizens. In the anti-tank ditch in the vicinity of Scretzk Camp and the camp itself, over 25,000 peaceful Soviet citizens and prisoners of war. Within the grounds of the Kirillov Hospital, 800 inmates of the lunatic asylum. Within the grounds of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, about 500 peaceful Soviet citizens." and I use two short excerpts from this page. I begin:
"In 1943, sensing the uncertainty of their position in Kiev, the occupants, attempting to conceal the traces of their crimes, excavated the tombs of their victims, and began to burn the corpses. For the work on burning of the corpses in Babii-Yar, the Germans recruited the inmates of the Syrezk Camp. SS Officer Topade was placed in charge of this work together with members of the Gendarmerie Johann Merker, and Focht, and the commander of the SS platoon, Rever. The witnesses, L.K. Ostrovski, S.B. Bryand, V.U. Davydov, P. YaSteuk, W.M. Brodski, who were fortunate to escape from the shootings in Babi-Yar on 29 September 1943, testified:
'As war prisoners, we were located in the Syrezk concentration camp, situated in the vicinity of Kiev. On 18 August, numbering 100 men, we were sent to Babi-Yar. There we were put into chains and were ordered to excavate and to burn the corpses of Soviet citizens who had been exterminated by the Germans. The Germans brought here granite monuments, and iron grills from the cemetery. From these monuments we made platforms on which we placed rails; on top of these rails we placed the iron grills. On the iron grills a layer of firewood was placed, and on top of this layer of firewood a layer of corpses. On the corpses again there was placed a layer of firewood, and all - or the whole was covered with gasoline. This system was employed in preparing layer after layer of corpses; then they were ignited. In each one of such "ovens" there was placed from 2,500 to 3,000 corpses. The Germans formed special crews (brigades) of people who were employed for the removal from the corpses of earrings, rings, and gold teeth.
After all the corpses were burned, new "ovens" were arranged, and so forth. The bones were ground into minute particles, and any ashes were strewn in the ditch so that no traces would be left. The men worked from twelve to fifteen hours per day.
'In order to expedite the work, the Germans used excavaters. From 18 August until the day of our escape, 29 September, approximately 70,000 corpses were burned," I close my quotation here. 2 of the document book, second column. This is the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of crimes in the territory of Latvia USSR, The place I refer to I show the Tribunal is the mentioning of the Hitlerites systematic carrying of of mass executions in the Forest of Bikernek. I quote this place, because further on we shall present the documentary record which refers in full detail to these mass shootings. I begin the quotation:
"In the Forest of Bikernek, located on the outskirts of Riga, the Hitlerites shot 46,500 Soviet citizens. The witnesses who lived in the vicinity of the -wood not far from this Forest testified: 'On Friday and Saturday, before Easter 1942, fully occupied busses went back and forth twenty-four hours a day from the town to the forest, I counted forty-one busses from the beginning of the morning on Friday to noon, -- forty-one busses passed my house. On the first day, Easter, many inhabitants, and I among, them, went into the forest to the place of the executions, saw there one large open pit where there were corpses of shot people women and children, naked, nude, or in their underwaer. There were traces of tortures on the corpses, women and children, many of whom had black and blue spots on their faces and on their heads. Some had their hands and fingers cut off; their eyes gouged out; their stomachs ripped opened."
I also quote one paragraph and continue "The commission discovered at the place of execution fifty-five graves, with a total area of 2885 meters."
I quote one more paragraph which was in this communication:
"In the Forest of Dreilein, five or seven kilometers from Riga, along the crosscountry highway to Luban, the Germans, I say, shot over 13,000 peaceful Soviet citizens and prisoners of war." The witness Ganus testified:
"Beginning of August 1944, the Germans organized excavation crews to open the graves, and they were burned the bodies throughout the whole week. The Forest was surrounded by German guards with machine guns. After 20 August, black-closed autocars filled with women and children, among whom one-third of the people were women, children, and so=called refugees from Riga began to arrive: They were shot and their bodies were burned at once. I had hidden in the brush and watched the terrible scene. The people cried terribly. I heard shouts of murderers, butchers, hangmen, and executioners, and the children cried, Mama, don't leave me. The bullets of the murderers interrupted their cries." I conclude this document because it is more or less repetitious, and because I want to call the Tribunal's attention to the fact that in this Forest there were 38,000 people who were shot. the Tribunal as USSR-47, the report of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission on crimes committed by the Germans in Odessa and the Odessa Region. I shall refer to two short excerpts, and the two paragraphs are very short. The one place I would like to quote to the members of the Tribunal will be found on page 287, volume 1, second column of the text, the fifth paragraph, and I begin:
"On 21 December 1943 the Rumanians started executing the inmates of the camp. The inmates, under guard, were driven to the building which is found on the edge of the forest. There they were made to kneel down near the ditch, and then they were shot. The people who were shot, and sometimes, the people who were only wounded, used to fall into the bottom of the ditch, where there was a gigantic bonfire built, and the small children were thrown by the executioners, alive, into this fire. Burning of the corpses was going on around the clock." Tribunal to refer to page 283, second column, third paragraph where there is, in summary fashion, a resume of the statements contained. Commission, the German-Rumanian occupants shot, turtored and burned in Odessa and the Odessa region up to 200,000 people. criminals would bury in the ground people who were still alive during the mass executions, I submit to the Tribunal, under USSR Number 37, the report of the Extraordinary State Commission, dated 24 June 1943, and I am going to quote the report, which the members of the Tribunal will find on page 259 in the second volume of the document. The place that I refer to is to be found on page 362: Kupinsk 71 bodies were discovered. Among them were corpses of 52 men, 18 female corpses, and one corpse of an infant. All the people shot were without footwear, and some of them were without any clothes at all. I begin the quotation at paragraph 4 "The Commission notes that there were many who did not have fatal wounds, and evidently they were thrown into the pit and murdered while still alive.
It has also been testified to by citizens who used to pass near this pit soon after the shooting, and they saw how the ground was stirring on the top of the pit, and they heard groans coming from under the ground."
record as an official act of the Extraordinary Commission, the report and interrogation of the witness who was testifying before the Prosecutor of the city of Stanoslav. This document is being presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit 346. I shall quote two paragraphs:
"In the beginning of 1943 we burned people there in the cemetery where we took some firewood. There were cases when women and children were thrown into the pits alive and were murdered in the ground.
"One woman, whose name I do not know, begged an officer not to shoot her, and he gave her his word that she would not be shot. He even said, I give an officer's word that you will not be shot', and after the group of which this woman was a member had been shot, this officer grabbed her and while she was alive, he threw her into the pit, and I buried her while she was alive." criminals in order to give a special cruelty. In other case, this burying alive was because the murderers did not consider it necessary to see whether the people who were being exterminated were still alive or dead. the Germans could not destroy traces, snows that at the end of 1941 and in 1942- the criminals did not particularly attempt to hide or mask the places of mass shootings, in spite of the instructions about keeping secret so-called mass executions. I think it can be explained by the fact that the Germans, though they had suffered already in individual battles, were still absolutely certain of their final victory. Later on, this was changed. Tribunal as Exhibit USSR 28, a report of the Extraordinary Commission about atrocities committed by Germans in the region of Stalinsk. There is a report of the Medical-Legal Commission about the atrocities in the alabaster quarries in the vicinity of the city of Artemovsk. I shall quote only a few brief excerpts from this large document, which is an official report. members of the Tribunal will find the following:
"Two kilometers from the city of Artemovsk in the tunnel of the alabaster quarries, at a distance of 400 meters from the entrance, there is a small hole which is covered with brick. After the bricks were removed, there was a continuation of the tunnel which was discovered. This was a narrow passage, going steeply up, and at the entrance there was a wide broad cavern, 200 meters in length, 300 meters in width, and three or four meters high. The whole cavern was filled with bodies, and only a small area at the entrance and a very narrow strip in the center were free from the corpses. They were closely pressedn one to the other, and their backs were towards the entrance to the cavern.
"This is quite typical because it shows the usual methodical German routine, shooting at the back of the head. The corpses were wedged in so closely that at first lance, it appeared as though there was just one mass of bodies intertwined one with another. The rear ranks were thrown on first and they were pressed to the walls of the cavern. They laid in several ranks." Legal-Medical Commission. You will find this on page 366, volume two, second columns "According to thetestimony of the inhabitants of Artemovsk, on 9 November 1942, in the abandoned alabaster quarries, several thousand people were driven.
They had with them their small household possessions and food."
I omit the remaining part of the paragraph and continue: either in a standing position or feeling down. Then another group would be driven in and would be shot right on the corpses of the first group, and then the corpses that were shot were piled one on top of another. Several people tried to run away from the murderers but died in tortures."
on page 209 of my presentation. In the period of mass executions, the Germans fascist criminals created definite methods, and I would like to cite several of the most typical, because, as in the matter of presentation, the Tribunal will see how this criminal technique was effected by the Germans and how more and more cynical and mere and more cruel and premeditated those atrocities were, and in confirmation of this, I would like to present several documents to the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: We shall have to break off now. It is four o'clock. will be.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: I shall finish my presentation of evidence tomorrow.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 19 February 1946 at 1000 hours.)
Military Tribunal in the matter of: The
THE PRESIDENT: I have an announcement to make.
The defense motion for a recess cannot be granted. When a recess at Christmas was decided upon the Tribunal informed the Defense Counsel that no further recess would be granted. already had several months in which to prepare their defenses to a case which depends principally upon documents in the German language, written by the defendants themselves or their associates. They have also had constant assistance from the Tribunal and the Prosecution in connection with documentary evidence and witnesses. found it possible, quite properly, to absent themselves from Court and the Tribunal sees no reason why some of the time which must elapse for the conclusion of the case for the Prosecution should not be utilized in preparation of their defenses out of Court. case against the individual defendants, the argument on the groups or organizations alleged to be criminal shall take place and that thereafter applications for documents and witnesses by those defendants whose witnesses and documents have not already been decided upon shall be heard in open session. In this way several days will be occupied in which many of the Defense Counsel can be absent from Court and they can prepare their defenses out of Court.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: May I continue?
Mr. President: Yesterday you asked me who, in January 1942, was the Chief of the Armament and Equipment Department of the German Army. I could not answer yesterday but I report to you today that that person was General of the Infantry Thomas.
were taken as to the report of Major Roesler, I questioned Moscow, where this correspondence is being kept. There are only excerpts from this correspondence there and the rest of the correspondence is in another archive. We questioned this archive yesterday and as soon as the further disposition of this correspondence is ascertained I will immediately report to the Tribunal. It will be a day or two. my statement today. I have to submit a considerable number of documents and therefore, the following statement will be rather fragmentary. I will not dwell on particulars and will endeavor not to repeat what has already been said by the Prosecutors of other countries, therefore, my statement will be rather summarized and I beg the indulgence of the Tribunal.
The legal-medical experts' report has already been submitted to the Tribunal as U.S.S.R. Exhibit Number 48, It was signed by the President of the Medical Academy Burdenko, by the principal legal-medical expert Dr. Prozorovsky and other experts. Besides these conclusions which have already been submitted by my colleague Colonel Pokrovsky, I now submit to the Tribunal a detailed conclusion of this expert commission. From this the Tribunal will not only be able to judge the conclusions but also the methods. I will not now again cite these parts of the account which were already quoted by Colonel Pokrovsky, in part.
I will skip four pages of my statement and pass on to page 213. That part which I wish to quote now the Tribunal will be able to find on page 307-308 of the document book. Volume 2, second part of the page. This is a typical scene of victims of German terror in 1941 and the beginning of 1942.
"The ditches from which the corpses were exhumed do not represent common burial grounds. The corpses were not laid out in rows and did not lie one next to the other but constituted multi-levered or a compact mass of women and men's bodies massed in disorder and clutching each other. In this mass of corpses son were bent or half bent, some were lying on their sides, standing on their knees, with their heads downwards or upwards, with legs and arms mixed.
It was impossible to determine the contours of each corpse before they were exhumed from the ditch." ize only the mass burials which were performed towards the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942. very many burial grounds where the corpses were laid down in an orderly fashion, layer on layer. the album regarding the Lvov Camp, on page 13 of this album, where there is a picture of a burial ground. The bodies are lying in regular layers.
THE PRESIDENT: Which album is this?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: It is the album which concerns the Lvov Camp. It was submitted to the Tribunal yesterday. This scent is on page 15 of the album. It is a photograph which was discovered in the Gestapo headquarters at Lvov. will be able to judge by excerpts from the report of the Extraordinary State Commission.
THE PRESIDENT: Is this a photograph of the bodies as they lay in the trench or after they had been moved?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: No, it is a photograph taken by the Gestapo, Mr. President. It was taken by some member of the Gestapo and was discovered in archives. You will see how they march in rows to the execution.
What provoked this regular laying out of the bodies? The Tribunal will find the answer to this on page 213 of the document book, paragraph eight. This is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on Atrocities in the Town of Rovno.
"The witness Karpuk, who worked on a German farm near the stree Belaya testified: Ukrainians Russians, Poles and Jews. This took place usually in the following manner:
"The German henchmen brought the condemned to the execution place, forced them to dig a ditch, ordered them to undress and to lie dawn in the ditch, face downward. The Nazis fired at the back of the necks of the victims with machine pistols. Then another group of people lay down on top of the bodies of the shot and were finished off in the same manner and then a third row and so on until the ditch was filled. Then they poured quicklime over the corpses and covered them with earth." by an excerpt concerning the executions in Maidanek. I quote from a document by a Soviet-Polish Commission, already admitted by the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit Number 29. The Tribunal will find this on page 65 of the document book, first column of the text:
"On 3 November, 1943, 18,400 people were shot in the camp. 8,400 originated from the camp itself, whereas 10,000 were brought there from the city or from other camps."
"The shootings started early in the morning and ceased late in the evening. The people had been stripped naked, were brought in groups by the SS. These groups were fifty or one hundred people. They were laid down in the ditch with their faces down and shot with automatic rifles. Then a new group of people were laid on the corpses and shot in the same manner until the pits were full." epoch of the appearance of this method. The Soviet documentation is testimony to the fact that this started in the second half of 1942 and similar methods of shooting were adopted by the German police Detachments in Poland, beginning with 1939. a document which was received by the British Prosecution. It is a photostatic copy -- the original is in the archives of the British delegation and I think I can state that if the Tribunal need s the original copy the British delegation will be so kind as to submit it to the Tribunal. The authenticity of the information which is contained in this document cannot be questioned. It is a German report which was taken from the archives of Hitler's headquarters. document book. The German staff doctors considered it necessary to report to Hitler about these shootings. I quote:
"These shootings, since they are done publicly, give a great deal of food to enemy propaganda." examination of Corporal Paul Kluge. Paul Kluge belonged to a sentry detachment. He heard that on Sunday October 8, 1939, at the Jewish cemetery, shooting of Poles would take place and out of curiousity he decided to visit the place of execution. I quote only that part of the examination which speaks of the methods of shooting. The Tribunal will find this quotation on page 393 of the document book, second volume, second paragraph. to our barracks, when suddenly a large truck full of women and children drove into the cemetery.
We returned to the cemetery. Then we saw how a party consisting of one woman and three children of three to eight years old were led to an open grave about two meters wide and eight meters long. The woman was forced to get into this grave and she took her youngest child with her in her arms. Two men, members of the punitive expedition took the other two children and gave them to her. The woman was forced to lie down face downwards in the ditch and her three children lay down in the same manner at her left side. After that four men of the punitive detail also climbed down into the grave and aimed their guns so that the barrels were about ten centimeters away from the nape of the neck. In this fashion they shot the woman and her three children. Then the supervising Sturmbannfuehrer called on me to help fill in the grave. I obeyed this order and therefore being quite near, I was able to see how the next party of women and children were shot in the same manner as were the first persons.
"In all, nine or ten groups of women and children were shot, every time four at a time in the same grave." origin. examination and submit to the Tribunal proof of other, even worse methods of mass shootings which were invented by the Hitlerite criminals, beginning with 1943 and until the end of the war. methods of hide their crime and then they started to burn the bodies. It has been proved by documents that in many cases the Hitlerites compelled their victims first to prepare the firewood, then to lie down on these piles of wood and they were then shot. The next party of condemned persons brought fresh firewood, laid it down on the layer of corpses and then lay down themselves on this stack of firewood and were shot. You will find there a typical example of this cruel manner of shooting. In order to prove this statement, I turn to a document which has already been submitted previously to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit 39. The excerpt which I wish to quote is on page 233 of the document book, second column of the text:
"On the 19 of September, 1944 the Germans began the liquidation of the Kloga camp. Camp Unterscharfuehrer Schwarze, the head of the main camp and Scharfuehrer Max Dalmann selected three hundred people from among the prisoners, and forced them to carry firewood to a clearing in the woods.
Seven hundred other men were forced to build funeral pyres. When these pyres were ready the German henchmen began mass shootings of the internees.
"In the first place were shot these who carried the wood and built up the pyres of firewood and then the others. The shooting occurred in the following manner:
"At the point of a pistol members of the Security Service Police forced the prisoners to lie face downwards on the prepared funeral pyres and then they shot then with submachine guns or revolvers. The bodies were burned on the funeral pyres." methods were even more cruel, I beg the Tribunal to turn to a document, which has already been submitted as USSR Exhibit 38. It is the report on the atrocities of the German usurpers in the town of Minsk. I refer to a quotation which the Tribunal will find on page 214 of the document book in the second column of the text, last paragraph. to hide the traces of their crimes the German Hitlerite usurpers built up near the Village Maly Trostianets a concentration camp. I begin my quotation from that part of the report which speaks of the shootings which occurred in the immediate neighborhood of this primitive camp. stated as fallows;
"Having reached a point ten kilometers from Minsk, near the Village of Maly Trostianets, the car stopped near one of the barns. We all understood that we were brought here to be shot.
"By order of the German henchmen the interned women were brought out in groups of four from the car."
THE PRESIDENT: I cannot find where this is. What is the name of the witness?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: Savinsky -- it is on page 228 or 229 of the translation.
"Soon it was my turn. With Anna Golubovich, Yulia Semashko and another woman, whose name I do not know, I climbed on to the pile of bodies. Shots were fired. I was slightly injured on the head and fell."
herself. these bodies there were bullet wounds and the bodies of 63 persons were discovered. proof of the -
THE PRESIDENT: The translation came through to us that 63 people were killed. The translation in writing is 65,000.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: That is agross mistake on the part of the interpreter. They diminished the number of shot by ten times. It is 65,000. existence of special places of mass executions where the number of persons shot was numbered in the hundreds of thousands of persons and where the condemned were brought not only from the surrounding regions but from many countries of Europe. acquired an especially grim reputation. It was in the locality of Panarai, eight kilometers from Vilnus. It acquired a very grim reputation and it was called Fort Number 9 of the Fort of Death. the Extraordinary Commission on the Atrocities of the Hitlerite Usurpers in Lithuania. The Tribunal will find this quotation on page 293, second column of the text, last paragraph. I skip the first lines, which states that the mass execution place at Panarai was organized in July 1941 and existed until June 1942, I start with the fourth paragraph where it refers to the Hitlerite attempts to obliterate the traces of their crimes.
"In December 1943, (stated witness Saydel Matvey Fedorovich) we were forced to exhume and burn the corpses."
I skip the next sentence and continue:
"In this way we placed on each bonfire approximately three thousand corpses, poured crude oil over them, placed incendiary bombs on four sides and set it on fire." period more than one hundred thousand corpses were dug out from nine pits of a total volume of 21,179 cubic meters and they were burnt on bonfires.