Fifty-Ninth Day:
Thursday, 14th February 1946
[Page 3]
In an attempt to shorten, if ever so slightly, the very
abundant documentation which forms the correspondence, I
will tell you, in my own words, that the seventy-eight
people in question were all that remained of a far larger
group. Sturmbannfuehrer S.S. Friedrich Knopp reports (Page
163 of your document book):-
Please permit me now to pass over to a brief summary of the
gist of the matter. It appears to me more useful to describe
it in the words of one of the documents. I quote:--
Berdichev, 24th December, 1942.
'As from the middle of August I was head of the
Berdichev Office of the Commander of the Security
Police and S.D. in the town of Djitomir. On 23rd
December, 1942, the Deputy Commander,
Hauptsturmfuehrer of the S.S., Kallbach,
inspected the local office and also the
Educational Labor Camp (Arbeitserziehungslager),
supervised by my office. In this Educational
Labor Camp, as from the end of October or the
beginning of November, there were seventy-eight
former prisoners of war who had been transferred
from the permanent Stalag (Stalag) in Djitomir as
being unfit for work. A considerable number of
prisoners of war had, in the past, been handed
over and placed at the disposal of the Commander
of the Security Police and S.D.'"
[Page 4]
I quote further (on the same page of your document book -
163):-
After this digression I continue my quotation: Having made a
few more omissions from the passage already printed in your
document book, I proceed to the following paragraph (your
Page 156) if only to carry on the description:-
Concerning the indictment - it never entered my
head to ensure the smooth procedure of an
ordinary execution to send a larger detachment,
since the execution ground was hidden from public
view and the captives were..."
COLONEL POKROVSKY: It is the text of the explanation, of
the evidence
At about 1500 hours I received a telephone call
from the Stalag to the effect that one of the co-
workers in my department, in charge of this
special task, had been wounded and that one man
had run away. I promptly sent S.S.
Hauptscharfuehrer Wenzel and S.S. Oberscharfuehrer
Fritsch to the execution ground in a horse-cart.
Some time later I received another telephone call
from the Stalag, informing me that the co-workers
of my Department had been killed."
I cannot give any further evidence. I declare that
my evidence is absolutely true and I am aware that
any false evidence on my part would result in
punishment and in exclusion from the S.S.
(signed) Friedrich Knopp, S.S. Oberscharfuehrer; [
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(Part 2 of 15)
[COLONEL POKROVSKY continues]
"There is no proof that these prisoners of war
had ever participated in any communistic
activities during the time of the Soviet regime."
Kunze's next sentence fully elucidates the question of how
and why these prisoners of war entered the Educational Labor
Camp. He states:-
"It seems that the Wehrmacht had, at the time,
placed these prisoners of war at the disposal of
our local authorities, for special treatment."
We became convinced that they had been directed to this
Stalag by the military authorities. The specialist - in
this case undoubtedly Obersturmfuehrer Kunze - states that
they were sent here especially to be subjected to the
treatment of the "special regime."
"Some of the prisoners at that time were
transported in a lorry, to some place in the
neighbourhood. Later on, further transportations
of prisoners of war were suspended, following
objections raised by the Army."
A little later I will be more explicit when dealing with the
nature of these transfers and the objections raised by the
Army.
"Commander of the Security Police and S.D. in
Djitomir:
"In Djitomir a few of them, who up to a certain
point were fit for work, had been set aside. The
remaining seventy-eight persons were transferred
to the local Educational Labor Camp."
Omitting two more extracts:-
"The seventy-eight prisoners of war in the local
Stalag were, one and all, severely wounded men.
Some had lost both legs; others - both arms;
others again had lost one or the other of their
limbs. Only a few of them had both arms and legs,
although they were so mutilated by other kinds of
wounds that they were totally unfit for work;
they had to nurse the wounded. At the time he was
inspecting the Educational Labor Camp on 23rd
December, 1942, S.S. Hauptsturmfuehrer Kallbach
issued an order to the effect that the surviving
sixty-eight or seventy prisoners of war (the
others having died in the meantime) should this
very day be subjected to special treatment. For
this purpose he assigned a motor truck, driven by
S.S. Mann Schaefer from the command division, who
arrived here to-day at 1130 hours. I entrusted
the preparations for the execution early this
morning, to my colleagues in the local
administration, S.S. Unterscharfuehrer Paal, S.S.
Rottenfuehrer Kesselbach, and S.S. Sturmmann
Vollbrecht."
I will, with your permission, omit a further part of the
quotation which, in any case, already figures in your files.
I think I may safely do so in order to save time. It is a
description of the technical preparations for the execution.
One passage, however, does appear to me to be of interest;
and I quote:-
"Usually the execution of the Jews was carried
out in the precincts of the labour Stalag. For
this particular execution I issued orders to
choose a site outside the Stalag. Concerning the
three above-mentioned persons whom I entrusted
with the shooting of the prisoners of war, I knew
that they had, in Kiev, participated in the mass
executions of many thousands of persons and that
they had previously, that is during my time of
service, been entrusted by the local
administration with the shooting of many hundreds
of victims."
I should like to invite your attention to another instance
which again shows the meaning which the Hitlerites usually
attached to the words "execution" and "treatment by special
regime." Here, in one sentence alone, the words "mass
execution" and "shooting" are definitely used as synonymous
terms, while a little higher up it is made quite clear to us
what "transportation by trucks to some place in the
neighbourhood" and "treatment by special regime" mean.
Unquestionably, these four terms have an identical
significance.
"They (the German executioners) were armed with a
German submachine gun, a Russian automatic rifle,
an 0.8 pistol, and a carbine. I would point out
that I had intended to give these three persons,
as an assistant, S.S. Hauptscharfuehrer Wenzel,
but S.S. Sturmmann Vollbrecht declined, remarking
that three men were perfectly able to execute
this order.
THE PRESIDENT: These words "Concerning the indictment," are
they in the original document?
[Page 5]
which the signatory of the document handed to his police
chief. I, with the permission of the Tribunal, will quote
the original German documents of the inquiry. The persons
responsible for carrying out the execution were accused of
provoking, by their indiscretion and carelessness, that
which they called an "incident" and they produced an
explanation of the cause of this incident.
"Concerning the charge, it never entered my head,
to ensure the smooth procedure of an ordinary
execution, to send a larger detachment, since the
execution ground was hidden from public view and
the captives were unable to escape by reason of
their physical infirmities.
I think it useless to read into the record details of a
purely technical nature. I shall omit, at this point, a
considerable part of those references which I had,
previously, intended to quote, and I will proceed to that
part of Knopp's evidence which he had handed to his police
chief. You will find the passage in question on Page 166.
"I wish to point out that the `incident' I have
described took place during the second execution.
It had been preceded by the shooting of
approximately twenty prisoners of war which had
passed without any incident at all. As soon as I
returned, I informed the command headquarters at
Djitomir accordingly...
(certified) Kunze, S.S. Obersturmfuehrer."