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Last-Modified: 1999/05/27

It transpired that it was not a matter of 8,000 male Jews,
but only of 4,000, and it was decided that 500 of them were
needed by the German State Police to maintain health
services and order in the Belgrade Ghetto.  The rest "would
be shot by the end of this week, thus solving the problem
raised by the Embassy" (T/883).

Already in April 1941, a Special Operations Group of the
Security Police, headed by a man by the name of Fuchs, was
sent to operate in this country.  In Belgrade, Krauss and
Helm were in command of one of the sub-units of this Group.
On 16 May 194l, heads of departments of the RSHA were
informed accordingly (T/887).  We have before us
declarations about the murderous activities of this Group
(T/893-896).  It set up the Sajmiste concentration camp,
where Jews were killed in gas vans.  Some of the camp
prisoners were taken off to the East.  The official Yugoslav
report (T/892) also describes the death of the Jews in the
Sajmiste camp by disease, evacuation and gassing.  This
report states that of the 47,000 Serbian Jews, there were
only slightly more than 5,000 survivors.

The ordinary lines of command in dealing with the Jews of
Serbia did not become quite clear to us, in contrast to the
situation in other countries dealt with in this chapter.
Fuchs, who commanded the Special Operations Group there,
says in his affidavit (T/894) that it was known to him that
"a Standartenfuhrer, named Eichmann, specially appointed by
the Head Office for Reich Security," used to transmit
instructions to them in connection with the handling of the
Jews.  There is, however, no clear evidence that the Accused
used to issue or transmit directives to this Operations
Group right from the commencement of its activities in April
1941 (except for the proposal he put forward in connection
with the 8,000 detainees, about whom we have already spoken
at length.)  On the other hand, it appears from the
affidavit of Meisner, Senior Commander of Police in Serbia
from 1942, that a special Department for Jewish Affairs was
attached to one Schefer, Senior Commander of the Security
Police (BdS), who was active in Serbia in Meisner's days,
and that this department received its orders from the RSHA.
It has not been proved that in Serbia there was an Adviser
on Jewish Affairs who belonged directly to the Accused's
Section, but it is to be assumed - and thus we find - that
the instructions to the Jewish Department attached to the
BdS in Belgrade were transmitted to them through the
Accused's Section, in accordance with the usual RSHA
routine.

107. The northern part of Greece was a German military-
occupied territory, named "Salonika-Aegaeis."  In July 1942,
the Accused's Section already shows interest in the marking
of Greek Jews (T/955, signed by Suhr).  Wisliceny was sent
to Greece in January 1943 "to prepare and carry out the
deportation of the Jews from the Salonika region as planned
within the framework of the Final Solution of the Jewish
Question in Europe" (T/959, dated 25.1.43, a letter from
IVB4 signed by Guenther).  Actual operations begin in 1943
with the carrying out of the marking.  Basic "legislative"
action is taken by Merten (who testified in this case for
the Defence) in the name of the German Military Governor
(T/960, dated 6.2.43), and Wisliceny publishes regulations
for executive measures (T/961 and T/962).  In accordance
with the well-tried method, Merten appoints the Jewish
community as trustee for all Jewish property in March 1943
(Order No. VII, dated 13.3.43, attached to Merten's second
testimony of 7.6.61), and Wisliceny on 15 March 1943
completes the robbery by giving further instructions
(T/965).  Already in February 1943, the Jews of Salonika are
concentrated in a ghetto (report of 26 February 1943 sent
through the German Foreign Ministry to the Accused, T/970),
and the expulsion of 56,000 Jews from this area to the
Generalgouvernement area (T/971) began on 15 March 1943 and
was completed at the end of May 1943 (Wisliceny's
declaration, T/992, p. 4).

Already in March 1943, the Accused also interested himself
in the deportation of the Jews who lived in Italian-occupied
territory, especially those in Athens (T/991), but for the
time being without results.  After the coup in Italy, action
did begin in Athens as well, but in the meantime most of the
Jews of Athens had succeeded in hiding or escaping, so that
only 1,200 Jews remained there.  But the 1,200 Jews of the
Island of Rhodes still fell into the hands of the murderers
in June 1944 (declaration by Lentz, T/999).

As a result of the deportation, the Jewish population of
Greece decreased from 77,000 to 10,000 (T/953).
108. As far as we know, the RSHA and the German Foreign
Ministry both began to show keen interest in the Jews of
Bulgaria in November 1942.  A letter, signed by the Accused,
dated 17 January 1942, to the Foreign Ministry (T/928)
deserves special mention.  It says:

     "I must add once again that sufficient possibilities
     exist for the reception of Jews from Bulgaria.  I
     therefore consider it appropriate to approach the
     Bulgarian Government once again, with the aim of
     transferring all the Jews from Bulgaria to the Reich
     now, as part of the process of the general solution of
     the European Jewish problem.  The Police Attache in
     Sophia will take care of the technical implementation
     of the deportation."

Dannecker is sent to Sophia in December 1942 as "Assistant
to the Police Attache, to handle Jewish Affairs" (letter
from the Accused's Section, signed by Mueller, dated
10.12.42, T/931).  Dannecker reaches an agreement with
Belev, the Bulgarian Commissioner for Jewish Affairs, on 22
February 1942 for the deportation of 20,000 Jews "to the
Eastern areas of Germany" (T/938), and 15 March 1943 is set
as the date for the beginning of the deportation (T/936,
letter signed by Guenther from the Accused's office, dated
9.3.43).  On 5 April 1943, the RSHA receives a report that
until then over 4,000 Jews had been evacuated from Thrace
and over 7,000 from Macedonia.  On the other hand, the
Bulgarians objected to the evacuation of Jews from the old
part of Bulgaria (T/941), and they themselves mobilized
6,000 Jews from this area for work in Bulgaria.  The
Accused's office, in a letter dated 17 May 1943 (T/942,
signed by Guenther), objects to this change of policy on the
part of the Bulgarian Government and demands intervention by
the German Foreign Ministry to ensure the renewal of
deportations to the East; but later, the Bulgarian
authorities are content with transferring the Jews from
Sophia to the provinces (report dated 7.6.43, T/943).  We
know of no further deportations across the borders of
Bulgaria.

109. In Italy, the position of the Jews in the national
economy was impaired under the Fascist regime, but until the
Badoglio coup in September 1943, they were not physically
hurt (Mrs. Campagnano's evidence, Session 36, Vol.  II, p.
656).  During this period, the efforts of the RSHA and the
Accused's Section were chiefly directed to removing
obstacles put in their way by the Italians in the
territories occupied by the latter, namely Southern France,
Dalmatia, and Southern Greece.

The road towards execution of the Final Solution against the
Jews of Italy was cleared in September 1943, when the
Germans established their domination over the greater part
of Italy.  SS men began carrying out arrests (Mrs.
Campagnano's evidence, supra, pp. 656, 657).  The detainees
were concentrated in camps in Northern Italy and were
deported across the Italian border (Vitale's declaration,
T/633).

An order was given by Himmler in October 1943 to arrest the
8,000 Jews of Rome and transfer them to Northern Italy for
extermination (T/615).  This task was given to the witness
for the Defence, Kappler, who headed the local unit of the
Security Police and the SD, and the Accused's assistant,
Dannecker, who had already shown particular energy in other
countries, was sent to Rome to assist him.  Arrests were
carried out on 17 October 1943, but the results disappointed
the Germans, for only 1,259 Jews were caught, and after the
release of the children of mixed marriages and foreign
nationals, only 1,007 remained for deportation.  Further
arrests followed (evidence of Kappler, p. 38), and the
detainees were sent to Northern Italy.

Kappler contends in his testimony, given in this trial, that
not he, but Dannecker alone, carried out the operation in
Rome.  He does not deny the truth of the report on the
action, signed by himself, but claims that he did not draft
it (supra, p. 33).  We do not need to decide exactly which
part was played by each of these two men.  It is clear to us
that both Kappler and Dannecker took part in the action in
Rome on 17 October 1943, that both of them acted in
accordance with RSHA directives, and that Dannecker received
his instructions from the Accused's Section.

After Mussolini's release, the Italian Government, which was
under Hitler's orders, decided to concentrate all the Jews
in Italian concentration camps.  In all, 7,500 Jews were
deported from Italy, and only just above 600 of them
returned (Vitale's declaration, T/633).

110. Romania

Dr. Loewenstein Lavi gave evidence about mass extermination
actions taken against the Jews of Romania in the year 1941
(Session 48, Vol. 11, p. 870):

     "During the conquest of Bessarabia and Northern
     Bukovina, an almost complete extermination took
     place... from the beginning of June 1941 to September
     1941, 160,000 were killed in Bessarabia.  Then this was
     followed by a second wave in Bukovina...the survivors
     were transported to Transnistria."

The RSHA Operation Group D was active in this area.  On 9
July 1941, one of the Operation Units belonging to this
Group reports from Czernowitz that 100 "Jewish Communists"
were killed (T/1000).  The Operation Group sends information
in August 1941 about the killing of 3,106 more Jews in
Czernowitz and the Dniester area (T/319, p. 11).

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