Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-02/tgmwc-02-19.09
Last-Modified: 1999/09/17


The second step was to segregate and concentrate the Jews
within restricted areas, called ghettos. This policy was
carefully worked out, and perhaps the confidential statement
taken from the files of the defendant Rosenberg will best
serve as an illustration.

I offer in evidence a copy of memorandum from defendant
Rosenberg's file, entitled "Directions for Handling of the
Jewish Question", Document 212-PS, Exhibit USA 272. I quote
from the top of Page 2 of the translation before the Court:-

"The first main goal of the German measures must be strict
segregation of Jewry from the rest of the population. In the
execution of this, first of all is the seizing of the Jewish
population by the introduction of a registration order and
similar appropriate measures -"

And then, in the second sentence, in the second paragraph on
Page 2, I continue:-
" - all rights of freedom for Jews are to be withdrawn. They
are to be placed in ghettos and at the same time are to be
separated according to sexes. The existence of many more or
less closed Jewish settlements in White Ruthenia and in the
Ukraine makes this mission easier. Moreover, places are to
be chosen which make possible the full use of the Jewish
manpower in case labour needs exist. These ghettos can be
placed under the supervision of a Jewish self-government
with Jewish officials. The guarding of the boundaries
between the ghettos and the outer world is, however, the
duty of the Police.

Also, in the cases in which a ghetto cannot yet be
established, care is to be taken through strict prohibitions
and similar suitable measures that a further intermingling
of blood of the Jews and the rest of the populace does not
continue."

In May, 1941, Rosenberg, as the Reich Minister for the
Eastern Regions, issued directions confining the Jews to
ghettos in the Ukraine.

                                                  [Page 387]

I offer in evidence Document 1028-PS, Exhibit USA 273, and
from the first sentence of the translation before the Court,
I read:-

   "After the customary removal of Jews from all public
   offices, the Jewish question will have to have a
   decisive solution through the institution of ghettos."

The policies expressed in the quoted Rosenberg memoranda
were not isolated instances nor the acts of one individual.
It was the expressed State policy. Defendant von Schirach
played his part in the programme of forming ghettos. I offer
in evidence Document 3048-PS, Exhibit USA 274. Before the
Court is a full translation of that which I wish to quote.
The defendant von Schirach spoke before the European Youth
Congress held in Vienna on 14th September, 1942, and from
Page 2, Column 2, of the Vienna edition of the Volkischer
Beobachter of 15th September, I quote:

   "Every Jew who exerts influence in Europe is a danger to
   European culture. If anyone reproaches me with having
   driven from this city, which was once the European
   metropolis of Jewry, tens of thousands upon tens of
   thousands of Jews into the ghetto of the East, I feel
   myself compelled to reply: I see in this an action
   contributing to European culture."

One of the largest ghettos was within the City of Warsaw.
The original report made by S.S. Major General Stroop
concerning this ghetto is entitled "The Warsaw Ghetto is no
More". I now offer this in evidence, if the Court please,
and request leave to refer to it later on in this
presentation, as Exhibit USA 275, top of Page 3, of the
translation, Document 1061-PS:

   "The ghetto thus established in Warsaw was inhabited by
   about 400,000 Jews.
   
   It contained 27,000 apartments with an average of two
   and a-half rooms each.
   
   It was separated from the rest of the city by partitions
   and other walls and by walling-up of thoroughfares,
   windows, doors, open spaces, etc."

Some idea of the conditions within this ghetto can be
gathered from the fact that an average of six persons lived
in every room. Himmler received a report from the S.S.
Brigadefuehrer Group A, dated 15th October, 1941, which
further illustrates the establishment and operation of the
ghettos. I offer Document L-180 in evidence as Exhibit USA
276. The translation, if the Tribunal please, is from the
second paragraph from the bottom of Page 9:-

   "Apart from organising and carrying out measures of
   execution, the creation of ghettos was immediately begun
   in the larger towns during the first days of operations.
   This was especially urgent in Kowno because there were
   30,000 Jews in a total population of 152,400."

And from the last paragraph on Page 9 continuing to Page 10
I quote:-

   "In Riga the so-called 'Moscow Suburb' was designated as
   a ghetto. This is the worst dwelling district of Riga,
   already mostly inhabited by Jews. The transfer of the
   Jews into the ghetto district proved rather difficult
   because the Latvian dwellings in that district had to be
   evacuated and residential space in Riga is very crowded.
   24,000 of the 28,000 Jews living in Riga have been
   transferred into the ghetto so far. In creating the
   ghetto the Security Police restricted

                                                  [Page 388]

   themselves to mere policing duties, while the
   establishment and administration of the ghetto as well
   as the regulation of the food supply for the inmates
   were left to Civil Administration; the Labour Offices
   were left in charge of Jewish Labour.
   
   In the other towns with a larger Jewish population,
   ghettos shall be established likewise."

Jews were also forced into ghettos in the Polish Province of
Galicia. No words in my vocabulary could describe quite so
adequately the conditions as those found in the report from
Katzmann, Lt. General of Police, to Kruger, General of the
Police East, dated 3rd June, 1943, entitled "Solution of
Jewish Question in Galicia". I offer Document L-18 in
evidence as Exhibit USA 277. From the translation, if the
Court please, we will begin with the last three sentences on
Page ii, that is, the last three sentences prior to the word
"nothing" which is there on that page: "Nothing but
catastrophical conditions were found in the ghettos of Rawa-
Ruska and Rohatyn."

THE PRESIDENT: Where is this?

MAJOR WALSH: Sir, it is on Page 11, it would be about eight
lines above the ending or bottom of the page; the story
beginning with the words "Nothing but catastrophical
conditions".

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

MAJOR WALSH:

   "The Jews of Rawa-Ruska, fearing the evacuation) had
   concealed in underground holes those suffering from
   spotted fever. When evacuation was to start the police
   found that 3,000 Jews suffering from that disease lay
   about in this ghetto. In order to destroy this centre of
   pestilence at once, every police officer inoculated
   against spotted fever was called into action. Thus we
   succeeded in destroying this plague-boil, losing thereby
   only one officer. Almost the same conditions were found
   in Rohatyn."

On Page 19 of this same Document L-18, the last paragraph, I
wish to quote further.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

MAJOR WALSH:

   "Since we received more and more alarming reports on the
   Jews becoming armed in an ever increasing manner, we
   started during the last fortnight in June, 1943, an
   action throughout the whole of the District of Galicia,
   with the intention of using the strongest measures to
   destroy the Jewish gangsterdom. Special measures were
   found necessary during the action to dissolve the ghetto
   in Lwow where the dug-out mentioned above has been
   established. Here we had to act brutally from the
   beginning in order to avoid losses on our side; we had
   to blow up or to burn down several houses. On this
   occasion the surprising fact arose that we were able to
   catch about 20,000 Jews instead of the 12,000 who had
   registered. We had to pull at least 3,000 Jewish corpses
   out of every kind of hiding place; they had committed
   suicide by taking poison."

On Page 20 of this document, the third paragraph I read

   "Despite the extraordinary burden heaped upon every
   single S.S. Police officer during these actions, the
   mood and spirit of the men were extraordinarily good and
   praiseworthy from the first to the last day."

These acts and actions of removal and slaughter were not
entirely without profit. The author of this report on the
ninth page of this translated copy stated, and I quote the
last paragraph:-

                                                  [Page 389]

"Together with the evacuation action we executed the
confiscation of Jewish property. Very high amounts were
confiscated and paid over to the Special Staff 'Reinhard'.
Apart from furniture and many textile goods, the following
amounts were confiscated and turned over to Special Staff
'Reinhard'."

I would like to read a few of the many and assorted items
listed under this confiscation:-

   20.952 kilograms of golden wedding rings.
   7 stamp collections, complete.
   1 suitcase with pocket knives.
   1 basket of fountain pens and propelling pencils.
   3 bags filled with rings - not genuine.
   35 wagons of furs.

I will not burden the Court with the detailed lists of
objects of value and of the money confiscated, but the
foregoing is cited to illustrate the thoroughness of the
looting of a defenceless people, even to the 11.73 kilograms
of gold teeth and inlays.

By the end Of 1942, Jews in the Government General of Poland
had been crowded into 55 localities, whereas before the
German invasion there had been approximately 1,000 Jewish
settlements within this same area. This is reported in the
1942 Official Gazette for the Government General, No. 94,
Page 665, 1st November, 1942.

The Jews having been registered and confined within the
ghettos now furnished a reservoir for slave labour. It is
believed pertinent at this time to point out the difference
between the slave labour and labour duty. The latter group
were entitled to reasonable compensation, stated work hours,
medical care and attention, and other social security
measures, while the former were granted none of these
advantages, being in fact on a level below a slave.

Defendant Rosenberg, as Reich Minister for the Eastern
Occupied Territories, set up within his Organisation a
department which, among other things, was to seek a solution
for the Jewish problem by means of forced labour. His plans
are contained in another Document, 1024-PS, which I now
offer in evidence, Exhibit USA 278.

I quote the first part of Paragraph 3 Of Page 1 of the
document entitled "General Organisations and Tasks of our
Office for the General Handling of Problems in the Eastern
territory". This is dated 29th April, 1941. This brief
excerpt reads as follows:-

   "A general treatment is required for the Jewish problem
   for which a temporary solution will have to be
   determined (forced labour for the Jews, creation of
   ghettos, etc.)."

Thereafter he issued instructions that Jewish forced labour
should be effected and utilised for every manual labour, and
I refer to Document 212-PS, - already in evidence, as
Exhibit USA 272 - from Page 3 of that document, Paragraphs 5
and 7. I quote Paragraph 5:-

   "The standing rule for the Jewish labour employment is
   the complete and unyielding use of Jewish manpower
   regardless of age in the reconstruction of the Eastern
   Occupied Territories."

And from Paragraph 7 of the same page I read:-

   "Violations of German measures, especially of the forced
   labour regulations, are to be punished by death in the
   case of the Jews."

                                                  [Page 390]


From the ghettos Jewish labour was selected and sent to a
concentration area. Here the usable Jews were screened from
those considered worthless. For example, a contingent Of
45,000 Jews would be expected to yield 10,000 to 15,000
usable labourers. My authority for this statement is
contained in a R.S.H.A. telegram to Himmler, marked "urgent"
and "secret", dated 16th December, 1942.

I offer this Document, 1472-PS, in evidence, Exhibit USA
279, and from the translation before the Court I read the
last four lines:

   "In the total Of 45,000 are included physically
   handicapped and others (old Jews and children). In
   making a distribution for this purpose, at least 10,000
   to 15,000 labourers will be available when the Jews
   arriving at Auschwitz are assigned."

From Document L-18, a report from the Lieutenant General of
the Police, Katzmann, to General of the Police East, Kruger,
already in evidence as Exhibit USA 277, we find the clearly
outlined nature of the forced labour situation for the Jews.
On Page 2 of the translation, starting with Paragraph 6, I
read:-

   " The best remedy consisted in the formation by the S.S.
   and Police Leader of Forced Labour Camps. The best
   opportunity for labour was offered by the necessity to
   complete the 'Dg. 4' road which was extremely important
   and necessary for the whole of the southern part of the
   front, and which was in a catastrophically bad
   condition. On 15th October, 1941, the establishment of
   camps along the road was commenced, and despite
   considerable difficulties there existed, after a few
   weeks only, seven camps containing 4,000 Jews."

From Page 2, Paragraph 7, I read:-

   "Soon more camps followed these first ones, so that
   after a very short time the completion of 15 camps of
   this kind could be reported to the Superior Leader of
   S.S. and Police. In the course of time about 20,000
   Jewish labourers passed through these camps. Despite the
   hardly imaginable difficulties occurring at this work I
   can report today that about 16o kilometres of the road
   are completed."

And from Page 2, Paragraph 8, I read:-

   "At the same time all other Jews fit for work were
   registered and distributed for useful work by the labour
   agencies."

And on Page 5, last part of Paragraph 1 -

THE PRESIDENT Do you not want the remainder of that
paragraph on Page 2?

MAJ0R WALSH It is such a lengthy document I hesitated to
burden the record with so much of it, and had extracted
certain portions therefrom, but I shall be very glad to read
it into the record.

THE PRESIDENT: Then, for instance, the Municipal
Administration at Lwow had no success in their attempts to
house the Jews within a closed district which would be
inhabited only by Jews. This question, too, was solved
quickly by the S.S. and the Police Leader through his
subordinate officials.

MAJOR WALSH: With the Court's permission, I add that to the
record.

Reading the last paragraph of Page 2:

   "When the Jews were marked by the Star of David, as well
   as when they were registered by the labour agencies, the
   first symptoms appeared
   
                                                  [Page 391]
   
   in their attempts to dodge the order of the authorities.
   The measures which were introduced thereupon led to
   thousands of arrests. It became more and more apparent
   that the Civil Administration was not in a position to
   solve the Jewish problem in an approximately
   satisfactory manner. For instance, the Municipal
   Administration at Lwow had no success in their attempts
   to house the Jews within a closed district which would
   be inhabited only by Jews. This question, too, was
   solved quickly by the S.S. and Police Leaders through
   their subordinate officials. This measure became the
   more urgent as in the winter, 1941, big centres of
   spotted fever were noted in many parts of the town."

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