Sixty-First Day:
Monday, 18th February, 1946
[Page 101]
Will you now permit me to submit further documentary
evidence?
In the first part of my presentation I dealt with German
mass terrorism, and spoke specifically about the
extermination of children and the infamous methods used by
the Germans with regard to them, since terror, applied to
children, terror most savage, most brutal, is one of the
characteristic features of fascist bestiality.
I now present to the Tribunal evidence of mass extermination
of the population in various parts of Eastern Europe. I
submit to the Tribunal brief excerpts from the report of the
Polish Government, which your Honours will find on Page 127
of the Document Book in the second paragraph of the text. It
describes the so-called Anin massacre. I quote:-
In reply the German authorities, on 26 December, 1939,
ordered mass reprisals, and a punitive expedition made
its appearance in the village.
A detachment of 'Landesschutz,' under the command of an
officer, was dispatched to Vaver and to the summer
resort of Anin. Both of these localities were surrounded
by a cordon of soldiers. The proprietor of the
restaurant where the event had occurred was immediately
hanged, and his body left hanging in front of his house
for three days. At the same time men were dragged out
from every house. Having thus rounded up about 170
persons, the Germans made them stand in the railway
station, facing the wall and with their hands held above
their heads, for several hours. Afterwards their
documents were checked and a few were dismissed, but the
vast majority were informed that they would be executed.
They were then taken to a field, split up into groups of
ten to fourteen, and executed by volleys from machine
guns.
The number of individual graves discovered on the
execution ground amounted to 107. Among those executed
were: two doctors, thirty youths under sixteen years of
age and twelve men over sixty. One was an American
citizen of Polish origin. He was shot together with his
son." [Page 102]
I quote the part of the report of the Yugoslav Government
entitled "Mass Murder of the Civilian Population and the
Destruction of Villages."
I beg the Tribunal to accept as evidence a photostat of the
order of Lieutenant-General Neidholt, which is presented as
exhibit USSR 188. I cite this order which was quoted in the
report of the Yugoslav Government:-
In confirmation of this report of the Yugoslav Government,
we submit to the Tribunal a certified photostat copy of a
communication from the German commander of the garrison at
Kragujevac, in which he admitted the shooting of 2,300
people. This document is being submitted to the Tribunal,
and I ask you to accept this as evidence under Exhibit USSR
74. I quote from the report of the Yugoslav Government on
the mass murder in Kragujevac.
Ten to fifteen days before the perpetration of the crime
in Kragujevac, one battalion arrived to reinforce the
German garrison. First of all the following villages were
destroyed in the vicinity of Kragujevac: Mechkovac,
Marsic and Groshnic. In Mechkovac the punitive expedition
murdered 66 people; in Marsic 101, and in Groshnic 100.
All the victims were peaceful citizens of the villages in
question.
When, after the perpetration of these crimes, the
punitive expedition arrived in Kragujevac, they began
carrying out their plan to exterminate the citizens of
Kragujevac, especially the Serbian intelligentsia. As
early as the beginning of October the district
commandant, Dr. Zimmermann,
[Page 103] [Page 104]
Measures of reprisal, which at first were of a temporary
nature, later grew in intensity, especially after the
resistance begun by organised partisan detachments
throughout the country in the beginning of 1943. The
technique was always the same. The day after an act of
sabotage or any other action committed by the partisans
near a village, the German troops would appear in this
village. The inhabitants would be rounded up in the
central square or some other place suitable for the
occasion, to listen to a public announcement, but in
reality to be killed on the spot by machine-gun fire.
After this the Germans either burned the village or
else, in some cases, they would first plunder a village
and then open fire on it. The inhabitants were killed
openly in the streets, houses and fields, regardless of
age and sex. There were cases when only the male
population of the age of sixteen years and over, were
executed. In other cases, when the men succeeded in
hiding in the mountains, the Germans would execute the
old men, women and children who had remained in the
villages, hoping that their age and their sex would
protect them. The villages of Arachoea, Kalovryta,
Gestamon, Klissoura, Kommeno and Lissovouni, may be
considered as typical examples. Some villages were
destroyed for the sole reason that they were located in
a region where partisans had been active." [Page 105] [
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(Part 6 of 7)
[COLONEL L. N. SMIRNOV continues] "At the end of December, 1939, a German policeman was
shot in the vicinity of Warsaw by a bandit. Subsequent
investigations showed that the murderer was in a
restaurant in Vaver, near Warsaw. When the police
entered the restaurant he opened fire, killing one
policeman and wounding another.
I shall omit the next paragraph of the report of the Polish
Government dealing with the massacre in Piastoshyn and I
quote only an announcement from a German paper, the
"Weichseler Zeitung," of 23 October, 1939. This announcement
was quoted in the Polish report.
" In the Tuchel district, the farm of a Reich citizen,
Fritze, in the vicinity of Pretzin, was burned, in the
night of 21-22 October, by Polish bandits. The result
was that citizen Fritze had a heart attack. By order of
the Chief of the Civil Administration a punitive
expedition was despatched to this locality in order to
teach the guilty bandits a lesson which would show them
that acts of this kind would be severely punished. As a
reprisal, ten Poles, known for their hostile attitude
towards Germany, were shot. In addition, an order was
given to the Polish inhabitants of this locality to
rebuild the burned buildings and to pay for the damage
done."
I shall omit half of the following page, and I quote briefly
the circumstances of the Jozefew massacre in Poland. Your
Honours will find this quotation on page 128, paragraph 2,
of the document book:-
"In the middle of January, 1940, a family of German
colonists in the village of Jozefew was robbed and
murdered by bandits, as the Germans themselves stated in
the newspapers at a later date. A punitive expedition
set out for Jozefew."
I omit the next paragraph, and then I continue:-
" All the men who were caught in Jozefew and the
vicinity, even young boys, were arrested and shot on the
spot. Altogether 300 people were murdered."
Mass extermination of the peaceful population in Yugoslavia
were of an exceptionally cruel nature.
"The settlements of Zagnizde and Udora must be
destroyed, the male population of these settlements
hanged and the women and children taken to Stoliac."
I omit the next page of the text and begin the quotation
regarding the atrocities of the German fascist criminals in
Kragujevac.
"This was mass murder committed on 21 October, 1941, in
Kragujevac, by a German punitive expedition under the
command of Major Konig. Besides Konig, the regional
commander, Bischofshausen, and the commandant of the
settlement, Dr. Zimmermann, participated in the
organisation and execution of this crime.
I omit the next two sentences and continue:-
"Together with the others, all the prisoners from the
Kragujevac prison were taken off to the barracks. Then
the order was given to them to go into the courtyard of
the barracks. Here all their personal belongings were
taken from them. The first to be shot were those
originally incarcerated in the prison - approximately
fifty persons. The rest were locked up in barracks. The
next day, 21 October, as from seven o'clock in the
morning, they were taken off in batches to Stanovlensko
Field and there shot down with machine-gun fire. Those
who did not die at once were finished off by the Germans
with automatic pistols."
I conclude this quotation and continue after the next three
paragraphs.
"The relatives of the victims of this mass slaughter were
forbidden to visit the place of execution until the
burial of the victims had been completed and all traces
of the crime eliminated. They were also forbidden to hold
any requiem masses or religious services for the victims.
In the obituary notices in the papers it was forbidden to
mention that the victims had met their death in the mass
execution."
I omit the next five paragraphs and invite the attention of
the Tribunal to a short part of the report of the Yugoslav
Government dealing with the so-called "death march" or
"march of blood," that march of dire fame to the camp of
Yarak. I quote that particular part which deals with this
atrocious crime of the Hitlerites.
"In the beginning of September, 1941, a large German
punitive expedition rounded up all the male population
between the ages of fourteen and seventy years and drove
them from Shabatka across the Sava River into the
settlement of Yarak in Sirinya. That was the so-called
'death march'. About 5,000 men had to run a distance of
twenty-three kilometres and back again. Those who could
not stand the pace and fell by the way were ruthlessly
shot on the spot. Because many were old and weak, the
number of victims was great, especially while crossing
the bridge over the Sava."
I conclude this and I continue with the next paragraph:-
"On the way back they met another group of 800 peasants
who had to cover the same distance, but the treatment of
this group was still more brutal. They had to run with
their arms raised over their heads. They were
systematically murdered on the way. Only 300 men of the
group reached Yarak alive."
I interrupt the quotation here, I omit this page and the
next and concluding my presentation of the mass murders of
the civilian population in Yugoslavia, I would ask the
Tribunal to accept in evidence the public announcement of
the Chief of the German Armed Forces in Serbia. This
document is presented to the Tribunal
"In the village of Skela, a communist detachment opened
fire at a German military truck. It was established that
several of the inhabitants had been watching and saw the
preparations for this attack. It was further established
that these inhabitants could have warned the nearest
station of the Serbian gendarmerie. It was also
established that they could have secretly warned the
German military trucks against the imminent attempt. The
inhabitants did not profit by the opportunity and had
thus placed themselves on the side of the criminals. The
village of Skela was burned to the ground. Supplies of
ammunition exploded in several houses during, the fire
and this was accepted as a proof of complicity on the
part of the inhabitants. All the male inhabitants of the
village whose participation in the attack had been
proved were shot, and 50 communists were hanged on the
spot."
I now omit five pages of my presentation and I invite the
attention of the Tribunal to the brief excerpts from the
report of the Greek Government, on Pages 39 and 40 of the
Russian text of this report, from which we can see that the
same inhuman and criminal methods of mass shootings were
used by the Hitler criminals in the temporarily occupied
territory of Greece. I begin my quotation:-
"As soon as the island of Crete was occupied by the
Germans, the Hitler Supreme Command proclaimed that,
wherever German soldiers were attacked, all the villages
would be burned down and all the inhabitants punished by
death. In compliance with this announcement the first
reprisals were made and several people, most of them
absolutely innocent, were shot, and the villages of
Skiki, Prassi and Kandanes" - and perhaps I am stressing
the wrong syllables since I do not know how these words
should be pronounced in Greek - "all these villages were
burned down as a reprisal for an attack by partisans
during the invasion of Crete. On the sites where these
villages formerly existed, posts were erected with
inscriptions in Greek and in German: 'Destroyed as a
reprisal for the brutal murder of a detachment of
paratroopers and half a platoon of sappers by armed men
and women in the rear'.
I omit the next sentence since it has a direct bearing on
another subject of the report. I continue my quotation:
"The number of people murdered amounts to nearly
30,000."