Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-07/tgmwc-07-60.07
Last-Modified: 1999/11/06


I further submit to the Tribunal as exhibit USSR 18, a
photostat of a plain-spoken terroristic order of the German
military authorities, and I beg your Honours to accept this
document as a relevant part of the evidence. This is an
order of the German Kommandantur of the City of Pskov. The
Tribunal will find the text of this order on Page 235 of the
document book. It is evident from this document that the
peaceful civilian population was even forbidden to appear on
the highways of their own locality. Any peaceful citizens
seen there by the German soldiers were to be shot. I quote
the text of the document, beginning with paragraph 3:-

   "I order on the basis of the above-mentioned:
   
   1. All members of the civilian population, regardless of
   age or sex, seen on or in the vicinity of railroad
   tracks are to be considered as bandits and shot as such.
   Excepted, of course, are the labour units under guard.
   
   2. All people mentioned in paragraph one who cross the
   roads are to be shot.
   
   3. All persons mentioned in paragraph one, who at night
   or at twilight are found on the roads are to be shot.
   
   4. Persons mentioned in paragraph one, if found on the
   roads during day time, are subject to arrest and most
   detailed examination.

Such were the terroristic "decrees" and "orders" based upon
the so-called Fuehrerprinzip that were issued by high-
ranking officials and representatives of the military
authorities of the German Fascist Reich. But the right of
relentless reprisals against the peaceful populations was
not confined to them only; any local Kommandantur, any
commander of a small unit, and, finally, any soldier of
Hitler's army acquired the right of reprisal against the
peaceful population of the occupied regions.

I shall now submit to the Tribunal several documents which
will reveal how the Hitlerite criminals invariably made the
most of this right, introducing into the crimes perpetrated
against the Soviet people the cruel devices of base and evil
creatures who had been granted the right of mocking and
murdering with impunity. I submit to the Tribunal, as
Exhibit USSR 9, a report of the Extraordinary State
Commission on the atrocities perpetrated by the German
fascist occupants in the city of Kiev. The Tribunal will
find the passage in question on Page 238 of the document
book, paragraph 5. I quote:-

   "The German executioners, from the very first days of
   their occupation of Kiev, carried out a wholesale
   slaughter of the population by torture, shooting,
   hanging and poisoning by gas in the murder vans. People
   were seized in the streets, and shot either in large
   batches or singly. Announcements of the shootings were
   posted up in order to intimidate the population."

I shall interrupt my quotation at this point to ask the
Tribunal to accept in evidence photostats of several of
these posters. Partial mention has already been made of them
in the report of the Extraordinary State Commission. From
among their number I would request the Tribunal to accept in
evidence the photostat of one such poster which I submit as
Exhibit USSR 290. The text reads as follows (I ask the
Tribunal to excuse me if the translation is, perhaps,
slightly incorrect, since the original text is in Ukrainian.
I am a Russian, I understand the meaning of the Ukrainian
text, but the translation might possibly not be quite
correct in every detail). Here is the text:-

                                                   [Page 69]

   "As a reprisal for an act of sabotage 100 inhabitants of
   the city of Kiev were shot this day. Let this be a
   warning.
   
   Every inhabitant of Kiev is responsible for every act of
   sabotage.
   
   Kiev, 22 October 1941.
   
   The Commandant."

Under Exhibit USSR 291 (the Tribunal will find the text on
Page 243 of the document book) I submit a photostat of the
following poster, signed by the commandant of the city of
Kiev. I quote the text:

   "Means of communication - telephone and telegraph wires-
   have been damaged in Kiev.
   
   Since the saboteurs could not be found, 400 men have
   been shot in the city.
   
   This should serve as a warning to the population, and
   once again, I demand that all suspects be immediately
   reported to the German troops or the German police in
   order that the criminals may be adequately punished.
   
   Signed: Eberhard, Major General and City Commandant,
   Kiev,
   
   29 November 1941."

As Exhibit USSR 333, I submit a photostat of the third and
last poster in Kiev. The Tribunal will find the text of this
poster on Page 242 of the document book.

   "Repeated cases of arson and sabotage in Kiev, force me
   to resort to extreme measures.
   
   Consequently 300 inhabitants of Kiev will be shot today.
   
   For every new case of arson or sabotage several times
   this number will be shot.
   
   Every inhabitant of Kiev is obliged to report any
   suspects to the German police.
   
   I shall maintain order and calm in Kiev by all measures
   at my disposal and under any circumstances.
   
   Kiev, 2 November 1941.
   
   Eberhard, Major General and City Commandant."

I refer to another document which has been only partially
read into the record. I refer to Exhibit USSR 63. It
contains a report of the Commissar of the Dzerjinski
District Council of the city of Stalingrad. I invite the
Tribunal's attention to the fact that this official report,
which was drawn up by the members of the local Soviet
authorities and the community of the Ejerjinski District of
Stalingrad city, was approved by the Extraordinary State
Commission and that the authenticity of the cases listed
therein was confirmed, You will find confirmation to this
effect in the report of the Extraordinary State Commission,
under the signature of a member of the Commission, the
academician Trainin, and of other persons.

The members of the Tribunal will find the report in question
on Page 222 of the document book.

I shall begin the quotation of the official report of the
Commission which investigated the territory of the
Djerjinski District of Stalingrad city after the rout of the
Germans at Stalingrad. This report contains information
regarding the announcements posted in the streets of
Stalingrad by the German Kommandantur and concerning the
meaning of these posters.

I begin my quotation on Page 222 of the document book, last
paragraph.

   "... The military Kommandantur sowed death everywhere.
   
   It posted announcements in the streets, threatening
   death by shooting at every step. For instance, the
   following announcement was posted up in Aral Street:
   'Death to him who passes here'. On the comer of the
   Nevskaya and Medvedevskaya: 'Right of way forbidden to
   Russians; for violation of this order - death'.
   
                                                   [Page 70]
   
   As a matter of fact, the Germans shot the citizens at
   every step; hundreds of graves along the streets of
   Djerjinski District of the city of Stalingrad bear
   witness to the shooting. The bodies of those who were
   tortured, shot or hanged in the Kommandantur proper,
   were, at first, thrown into a pit near the building of
   the Kommandantur.
   
   After the occupants had been thrown Out, 516 corpses of
   Soviet citizens were found in this grave, including the
   bodies Of 50 children who had been tortured to death,
   shot or hanged in the building of the Kommandantur and
   in other places. An examination of the bodies on 25
   March, 1943, established that the Hitlerites had
   savagely tortured the Soviet people before murdering
   them. In addition to the bodies of the children, the
   corpses of 323 women, 69 old men and 74 younger men were
   discovered. 141 corpses bore traces of wounds inflicted
   by firearms in the head and on the chests; 92 corpses
   had marks on their necks which showed that they had been
   hanged. All the other bodies were mutilated and bore
   traces of torture. 130 victims, women and girls, had
   their arms twisted behind their backs, and tied with
   wire, and 18 of the corpses had their breasts cut off,
   some had their ears, fingers and toes chopped off, and
   the majority showed traces of burns on their bodies.
   
   An examination of these corpses revealed that 21 women
   died of torture and wounds, and that the remainder had
   been first tortured and then shot.
   
   Even the corpses of children were mutilated. Some had
   their small fingers cut off, their buttocks chopped up,
   their eyes gouged out."

I now cease to quote from this document and, in compliance
with the wishes of the Tribunal to the effect that not
details, but instances testifying to some new data in the
system of the Hitler terror be reported, I omit three pages
of the report and turn to the following section on the
presentation of evidence: "On Tortures Inflicted by the
Hitlerites in the Course of Interrogation."

In general, tortures were officially provided for and
sanctioned by the Hitlerites. I present to the Tribunal as
Exhibit USSR 11 one of the documents testifying to the fact
that tortures were sanctioned officially. This document is
an official guide for concentration camps, "The
Concentration Camp Statutes", published in Berlin in 1941,
You will find the excerpt I am quoting on Page 244 of your
document book. Section 3 of the instructions, for instance,
entitled "Corporal Punishment", states:

   "Between 5 and 25 strokes are permitted on the loins and
   buttocks. The number of strokes is to be determined by
   the camp commandant and is to be entered in the
   corresponding column in the punishment order."

I should have liked to refer to one more document, but as it
has already been presented to the Tribunal, I, in compliance
with the Tribunal's instructions, will omit this document,
and continue:

Official formulas to be used in "especially severe
interrogations," or, rather, interrogations with application
of torture, were issued by the competent German police
departments. I submit to the Tribunal, and would request it
to accept in evidence, an original formula of such an
"especially severe interrogation".

I submit it as Exhibit USSR 254. It represents an appendix
to the report of the Yugoslav Government. This formula, as
is evident from the certificate attached to it, was seized
from the German archives by units of the Yugoslav Army. I
shall not describe it in my own words but shall quote the
report of the Yugoslav Government on Page 21 of the
document, from the last paragraph at the bottom of the page.
The Tribunal will find this passage on Page 256 of the
document book, in the last paragraph:

   "In order to give a clearer description of the savage
   cruelty practised by the Germans in carrying out this
   plan of extermination, we submit to the Tribunal another
   original document which was seized in the German
   archives
   
                                                   [Page 71]
   
   in Yugoslavia. It is a blank formula for the so-called
   'especially severe interrogations' of the victims of the
   German criminals. Such interrogations were conducted in
   Slovenia by the German Security Police and the S.D.
   
   On the first page of the 'formula', the Police
   organisation suggest submitting one particular person to
   an 'especially severe interrogation'. The answer to the
   question, what this special 'severe interrogation'
   consisted of, is found in the following instructions of
   this 'formula'.
   
   The especially severe interrogation should consist of
   ... Minutes of the interrogation should be kept. A
   doctor may (or may not) be asked to be present.
   
   The mention of the doctor and of his presence at the
   interrogation leaves no doubt at all that the person to
   be interrogated, was to be physically torture. The fact
   that printed instructions existed for these
   interrogations obviously suggests a wholesale resort to
   such criminal methods."

The Reichsfuehrer S.S. clearly foresaw cases of attempted
suicide by persons under suspicion.

The S.S. Leader therefore not only permitted but even
ordered the prisoners to be tied hand and foot or shackled
in chains.

I submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit USSR 298 a photostat of
a directive of the Chief of the German Police No. 202/43 of
1 June, 1943. The document is certified by the Extraordinary
State Commission, and I quote the text of the document:

   " Subject, Prevention of Escape during Interrogations.
   
   In all cases where, owing to circumstances or the
   importance of the prisoner, there exists a possibility
   of escape or of an attempt to commit suicide, I order
   the hands and feet of the arrested person to be tied in
   such a way that escape is impossible. Rings and chains
   if available should be used."

I have not submitted the official directives of the German
Central Police Authorities to the Tribunal merely to prove
that the German officials provided for the application of
torture and torment during interrogations. This fact is well
known and calls for no special evidence. But I am submitting
a document, in the possession of the Soviet prosecution,
which will show how far tortures, to which arrested persons
were subjected in the police cells, exceeded even the
instructions issued by the criminals and the officially
sanctioned forms of torture.

I submit to the Tribunal Exhibit USSR 1, which is a report
of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of the
German fascist aggressors in the region of Stavropol. An
investigation of these crimes was conducted under the
leadership of the eminent academician and Russian author,
the late Alexei Nikolaievitch Tolstoy. The Tribunal will
find this document on Page 272 of the document book. I begin
my quotation from the first paragraph. Academician A. N.
Tolstoi, as the Tribunal will doubtless remember, was a
member of the Extraordinary State Commission.

   " ... Tortures and torments, exceptional in their
   cruelty, were applied to the Soviet citizens on the
   premises of the Gestapo. Thus, for instance, citizen
   Phillip Akimovitch Kovaltchuk, born in 1891 and an
   inhabitant of the town of Pyatigorsk, was arrested on 27
   October, 1942, in his own apartment, beaten unconscious
   taken to the Gestapo and thrown into one of the cells.
   Twenty-four hours later the Gestapo began to torture
   him; he was interrogated and beaten at night only. For
   the interrogation he was put in a separate torture
   chamber equipped with special devices for torture, such
   as chains with handcuffs for shackling both hands and
   feet. These chains were fastened to the cement floor of
   the chamber. To begin with, the prisoners were stripped
   to the skin and laid on the floor. Then their hands and
   feet were shackled. Citizen Kovaltchuk was subjected to
   this form of torture. When
   in chains
   
                                                   [Page 72]
   
   
   he was completely unable to move. He lay on his stomach
   and in this position was lashed with rubber truncheons
   on 16 successive days.
   
   Apart from these inhuman forms of torture, the Gestapo
   also resorted to the following: a wide board was placed
   on the back of the shackled prisoner and blows were
   struck on this board with heavy dumb-bells. As a result
   of these blows the prisoner bled from the nose, mouth
   and ears and lost consciousness.
   
   The torture chamber of the Gestapo was so constructed
   that while one prisoner was being tortured, the
   prisoners awaiting their turn in the neighbouring cell
   could watch the torture and ill-treatment.
   
   After the torture, the unconscious prisoner would be
   thrown on one side while the next victim of the Gestapo
   would be forcibly dragged in from the neighbouring call,
   shackled and tortured in the same fashion.
   
   The torture chambers were always covered with blood. The
   board placed on the back of the prisoners was also
   soaked in it. The rubber cudgels used for beating the
   prisoners were red with blood.
   
   The arrested Soviet people, doomed to be shot after
   unspeakable torture and beatings, were dragged into
   trucks, driven out of town and shot."

I omit two paragraphs and continue my quotation:

   "Witness Varvara Ivanovna Tchaika, born in 192,
   domiciled in No. 31, Djerjinksaya Street (apartment No
   3) states that during her incarceration in the prison of
   the Gestapo she had been subjected to incredible torture
   by the Chief of the Gestapo, Captain Wintz. Witness V.
   I. Tchaika said on this subject: 'I was subjected to ill-
   treatment and torture by the Chief of the Gestapo, the
   German Captain Wintz. He summoned me once for
   interrogation to the torture chamber. There were four
   tables in the cell, wooden grills on the floor and two
   basins of water in which leather thongs had been placed.
   Two rings were attached to the ceiling with ropes drawn
   through them from which the prisoners were suspended
   during the time of their torment. By order of Captain
   Wintz I was laid on the table by the Gestapo men,
   stripped and severely beaten with leather thongs. I was
   beaten twice. On the whole I received 75 strokes of the
   lash, my kidneys were almost torn out and I lost eight
   of my teeth."

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