Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-07/tgmwc-07-61.05
Last-Modified: 1999/11/11

And this was the subsequent fate of those children. I
continue with my quotation :

   "On 23 September, 1942, at seven o'clock in the evening,
   a 5-ton truck appeared in the yard of the Children's
   Home, bringing six armed Germans in military uniform.
   The group leader, named Max, explained that the children
   would be taken to Brest and ordered them to be placed in
   the truck. Fifty-five children and their teacher,
   Grocholskaya, were placed in the truck. One girl, 9-year-
   old Tossia Schachmatova, succeeded in climbing out of
   the truck and escaping. The remaining fifty-four and the
   teacher were driven away in the truck in the direction
   of the station of Dubitz, 1 1/2 kilometres from the
   village of Leplevka. The car stopped at a frontier gun
   emplacement, 800 metres from the River West Bug. The
   children were undressed" which was proved by the fact
   that the children's clothes were found in the returning
   truck, - "and shot."

                                                   [Page 96]

I omit the remaining part of this official report. It has
been proved by documents dealing with the shootings that in
mass executions of children they were torn in half while
still alive and thrown into the flames. To confirm this I
refer to the testimony of the witness Hamaidas, a native of
the village of Lisinchi in the Lvov Region, who was confined
by the Germans in Yanov Camp at Lvov.

Hamaidas' occupation in the camp was to burn the corpses of
those who had been shot. At the same time he was a witness
to the mass shooting of the peaceful population, men, women
and children.

The testimony of Hamaidas, together with other documents
concerning the Lvov camps, has already been submitted to the
Tribunal as Exhibit USSR 6-c; I quote two lines from the
testimony of Hamaidas, from Page 55 of the document book,
eleventh line from the bottom of the page:

   "I was a witness to such facts, The executioner would
   seize children by the feet, tear them apart and throw
   them into the fire."

Having shot the parents, the German murderers considered it
unnecessary to waste ammunition on children. When they did
not throw the children into the grave pits they often
murdered them simply by hitting them with a heavy object or
by pounding their heads against the ground.

I refer, in confirmation of this, to the document already
presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit USSR 6-c, which
contains medico-forensic reports of experts employed in the
exhumation in Yanov Camp. I shall only quote two lines of
the conclusion.

The members of the Tribunal will find the place where I
refer to the conclusion of the legal-medical experts on
Yanov Camp on Page 330 of the document book, second
paragraph. I quote this brief excerpt:-

   "The executioners did not consider it necessary to waste
   ammunition on children. They simply killed them by
   hitting them over the head with a blunt instrument.
   
   Children were often cut in half with rusty saws and
   subjected to other forms of tortures."

I ask the permission of the Court to read into the record
only one paragraph from a note of the People's Commissar for
Foreign Affairs of the U.S,S.R., dated 24 April, 1942. The
members of the Tribunal will find the place to which I refer
on Page 8, third paragraph:

   "The invaders subjected children and adolescents to the
   most brutal tortures. Among the 100 wounded and maimed
   children, victims of the Hitlerite terror in the
   districts of the now liberated Moscow Region, undergoing
   treatment in the Russakov Hospital in Moscow, there is,
   for instance, the case of a 14-year-old boy, Vanya
   Gromov, from the village of Novinki, who had been
   strapped to a table by the Hitlerites and had his right
   arm sawed off with a rusty saw. The Germans chopped off
   both hands of 12-yearold Vanya Kryukov, of the village
   of Kryukovo, in the Kursk Region, and drove him,
   bleeding profusely, towards the Soviet troops."

I omit the rest of the quotation - two pages - since similar
facts are related in the document which confirm the above-
mentioned episodes.

Children were the first victims of carbon monoxide poisoning
in the German gas vans. In confirmation I refer to the
material already submitted as Exhibit USSR 1, which is the
Report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the Crimes

                                                   [Page 97]

of the German Fascist Occupiers in the Stavropol Region. The
members of the
Tribunal will find that brief excerpt on Page 269 in the
document book, paragraph 4.

   "It has been established that in December 1942, by order
   of the Chief of the Gestapo for the town of Mikoian-
   Schachar, Lieut. (Oberleutnant) Otto Weber, an
   extraordinarily cruel massacre was carried out of Soviet
   children undergoing treatment for tuberculosis of the
   bone in the sanatorium of the Teberda health resort.
   Eyewitnesses to this crime have testified as
   follows:
   
   Before the entrance of the first section of the
   sanatorium, on 22 December, 1942, a German automobile
   drew up. Seven German soldiers, who had arrived in the
   vehicle dragged fifty-four seriously ill children,
   ranging in age from three years upward, out of the
   sanatorium (they were too ill to move and therefore were
   not driven forcibly into the van) and stacked them in
   layers inside the vehicle. They then closed the door,
   let in the carbon monoxide gas and drove off from the
   sanatorium. An hour later the vehicle returned to
   Teberda. All the children had perished. They had been
   exterminated by the Germans and their bodies thrown into
   the Teberda ravine near Gunachgir."

Children were also drowned in the open sea. In confirmation,
I refer to the document already submitted, Exhibit USSR 63,
on the "German Atrocities in Sebastopol ". The members of
the Tribunal will find the place I am referring to on Page
226, paragraph 7 - I quote:

   "In addition to the mass shootings, the Hitlerites
   cruelly drowned peaceful citizens in the open sea.
   
   Prisoner Cpl. Friederich Heile, of troop battalion 2-19
   MKA, Naval Transport Detachment,
   testified as follows:
   
   'When I was in the port of Sebastopol, I saw large
   groups of peaceful citizens, including women and
   children, brought to the harbour. All the Russians were
   loaded on barges. Many resisted. However, they were
   beaten and driven forcibly on to the barges. About 3,000
   people, all told, were loaded on. The barges put out to
   sea. Several hours passed and the barges slipped again
   into their moorings. From the ship's crew I found out
   that all the people had been thrown overboard."'

Heavy artillery fire was openly directed by the German
fascist criminals against schools, children's asylums,
hospitals and other children's institutions in Leningrad.

I present to the Tribunal the summary report of the
Leningrad City Commission for the Investigation of German
Crimes. This report is being submitted to the Tribunal as
Exhibit USSR 85. I shall not quote any long passages from
this report. I shall merely draw the Tribunal's attention to
the fact that on Page 347, Volume 11, paragraph 4, in the
document book, the Judges may see for themselves the list of
targets exposed to German artillery fire, which is testified
to by the logs of the fighting units. The following are some
of those targets:

   "Number 736, a school in Baburinsk Street.
   
   Number 708, Institute for the Care of Mothers and
   Infants.
   
   Number 192, Palace of Pioneers."

I also shall take the liberty of quoting a short excerpt
from the testimony of the director of School No. 218, which
the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 348, Volume
II, first paragraph.

The director of School No. 26, located at 13, Rubenstein
Street, writes:

   "On 18 May, 1942, School No. 218 underwent artillery
   fire. A twelve-year-old boy, Lenja Isarow, was killed. A
   little girl, Dora Binamowa, turned
   
                                                   [Page 98]
   
   white and moaned with pain. 'Mummy, how can I get along
   without my leg?' she said. Leva Gendelev was bleeding to
   death. He was given aid, but it was too late. He died in
   the arms of his mother, calling out, 'Accursed Hitler'.
   
   Djenia Kutareva, though seriously wounded, begged that
   his father should not be disturbed because he suffered
   from heart disease. The teacher and all the pupils
   assisted the victims."

I conclude the quotation concerning Leningrad. I omit two
pages of the text, and draw the Tribunal's attention to Page
355, Volume II, paragraph 6. Your Honours will find there a
document previously presented as Exhibit USSR 8.

This is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on
"The Infamous Crimes of the German Government in Auschwitz".
I shall quote several short passages from the second report
entitled "Murderers of Children"; at the same time, however,
I would ask your Honours to pay special attention to Page 47
of the Auschwitz Album (Exhibit USSR 30) as well as to Pages
48 and 49. The photographs on these pages clearly show how
emaciated these children were. I omit the first paragraph,
and I quote:

  "Investigations have proved that the Germans completely
  sapped the strength of children between eight and ten
  years of age, by forcing them to do the same heavy work
  as they gave to the adults. Toil beyond their strength,
  beatings and torture soon exhausted the children - then
  they were killed.
  
  Ex-prisoner Jacob Gordon, a doctor from Vilnius,
  testified:
  
  In the beginning of 1943, at Camp Birkenau, 164 boys were
  taken away to the hospital, where they were killed by
  injections of carbolic acid in the heart.
  
  Ex-prisoner Bakasch Waldraut, of Dusseldorf, Germany,
  testified:
  
  'In 1943, when we worked on the construction of a hedge
  surrounding crematorium No. 5, I myself saw S.S. men
  throw several living children into bonfires.'"

Here is what some of the children, who were saved by the Red
Army, themselves testify about the tortures to which they
were subjected.

I omit the next paragraph and ask the Tribunal, while I
read, to refer to Page 50 of the photographic documents of
Auschwitz. Here we find the photographs of a twelve-year-old
boy, Ziehmlich, and a boy of thirteen, Mando, and the
Tribunal can see the deformation of these children from
exposure to cold. I continue:

  "A nine-year-old boy, Andrazz Lerintsiakosz, a native of
  the city of Klez, Hungary, testified:
  
  'After we had been driven to Block 22 of the camp, we
  were beaten, mainly by German women who were put over us
  as guards. They beat us with sticks. During my stay in
  the camp Dr. Mengele bled me very frequently. In
  November, 1944, all the children were transferred to camp
  'A', known as the "Gypsy Camp ". During roll-call it was
  discovered that one child was missing. Thereupon the
  leader of the women's camp, Brandem, and her assistant,
  Mendel, drove us all into the street at one in the
  morning and left us standing there in the cold until
  noon.'"

I omit the next three paragraphs of the quotation, and I
read into the record the last paragraph of this section:

   "There were, among the children liberated from Auschwitz
   and examined by physicians, 180 children, fifty-two of
   them under eight years of age and 128 between the ages
   of eight and fifteen. All arrived in the camp in the
   
                                                   [Page 99]
   
   second half of 1944 ; that is, they spent between three
   to six months in the camp. All 180 children underwent a
   medical examination which established that seventy-two
   suffered from tuberculosis of the lungs and glands,
   forty-nine suffered from the consequences of
   malnutrition and elementary dystrophy (i.e., complete
   exhaustion) and thirty-one from frostbites."

I submit to the Tribunal and request your Honours to accept
as evidence Exhibit USSR 92. It is a directive from the
Administration of Food and Agriculture, entitled "Treatment
of Pregnant Women of Non-Germanic Origin".

I refer this document to the Tribunal because, in their
hatred of the Slav race, the German fascist criminals even
attempted to murder the babe in the womb.

The members of the Tribunal will find the document on Page
362, in Volume II of the document book. I shall read two
short paragraphs into the record:-

   "There has recently been a considerable increase in the
   birth rate among women of non-Germanic origin. Because
   of this difficulties have arisen, not only as to the use
   of these people for labour but, to a greater extent,
   because of the sociological menace which should not be
   under-estimated."

I omit one paragraph and quote further:

   "The simplest method for overcoming these difficulties
   would be to inform, as soon as possible, the
   institutions which employ them for labour, of the
   pregnancy of the non-Germanic women."

I draw your special attention to the last sentence:

   "These institutions must compel the women to get rid of
   their children by resorting to abortion."

I conclude my quotation.

The analysis of the material connected with the Hitlerite
terror in the countries of Eastern Europe is positive proof
that the atrocities perpetrated on children will remain
forever the most disgraceful page in the history of German
Fascism.

I request permission, your Honour, to present now the
photographic documentation which, owing to a technical
difficulty, I was unable to show before the luncheon recess.
With your consent I shall show it at once. Apparently the
presentation will now be more successful than earlier in the
day. I would emphasise that, in selecting the photographs I
was not, so to speak, guided by the horror of their
contents, but simply by the fact that they demonstrate
typical fascist procedures.

(Photographs were projected on the screen in the Court
Room.)

(1) Here we see one person being shot. This snapshot was
taken in the Moscow Region, during the German advance on
Moscow. The man was executed in reprisal for the death of a
German.

(2) Here we see four persons being shot. The four youths
condemned to death are standing on the edge of a pit which
they have dug. The members of the Tribunal can see for
themselves that the German criminals standing on the
outskirts of the wood are laughing at the victims.

(3) This snapshot was taken at the time of the execution.
The killing is carried out in the typical German style,
i.e., by a shot in the back of the neck. You will observe
that the victims are crying out at the moment of death.

(4) The snapshots, your Honours, which I am now showing were
taken by the German Obergruppenfuehrer Sauberstroh, Chief of
the Neapal Gestapo. It represents a German mass execution.
The victims have been ordered to strip on the execution
ground. Here you see a young girl seated, already undressed,
and next to her brother, Jacob, who has also been ordered to
strip. I wish to

                                                  [Page 100]

emphasise the fact that the snapshots were taken in December
when the cold is intense.

(5) In addition to some women condemned to be shot, this
snapshot also shows a very young girl trying to hide behind
her mother.

(6) In December, these naked women are being taken to the
execution ground. Condemned to death, these women have been
forced, by the same Obergruppenfuehrer, to pose before the
camera.

(7) Here we have a group of men and with them a small child
accompanied by his mother. They are going to the execution
ground.

(8) This is an amateur photograph, albeit a very clear one.
Here, your Honours, you see a group of people and some dead
bodies, with machine guns to the right of them. I would ask
the Tribunal to observe the disposal of the dead bodies. The
photograph is probably taken in the first months of the
German occupation because the bodies have been thrown into
the pit carelessly; in the latter months orders were given
to lay out the bodies tidily in rows.

(9) This is a snapshot of the same group. Here you see both
women and young girls who had been condemned to death.

(10) In Yanov Camp the executions are carried out to the
strains of the " Death Tango" played by an orchestra
conducted by Professor Strich, an internee in the camp,
together with his bandmaster, Mundt. I request your Honours
to observe two points of interest in this snapshot. To the
right we see the camp commander, Obergruppenfuehrer Gebaude,
in a white uniform, and behind him his dog, Rex, known to us
through many interrogations, as having been trained to
harass living persons and to tear them to pieces. It is
evident that Gebaude is leading the orchestra to the
execution ground.

(11) One of the gallows used by the German Fascists in their
attempt to establish a regime of terror in the temporarily
occupied territories of the Soviet Union. The snapshot was
found in the files of the Yanov Gestapo. A woman is seen
laughing at the foot of the gallows.

(12) A second gallows erected in the same market place, also
taken from the archives of the Gestapo.

(13) I am showing your Honours the snapshot of an entire
street festooned with bodies of Soviet citizens. This is a
street in the city of Lvov and I beg to remind the Tribunal
that, according to the records of the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs, similar hangings also occurred in Kharkov.

(14) The same street in Lvov. The snapshot was taken from
the archives of the Lvov Gestapo.

(15) The gallows were not the only means of execution. The
guillotine too, was used on a very vast scale. In this
snapshot you see the heads of victims guillotined in the
prison of Danzig. The snapshot was taken in the Anatomic
Institute in Danzig where the bodies of the victims were
brought after execution.

(16) I shall not show you too many snapshots of tortures
inflicted. I only wish to show a few typical examples. This
snapshot was, taken from a dead Gestapo soldier. It shows a
young girl being flogged. Later you will see what next they
did to her.

(17) It is not quite clear whether the girl is being strung
up by the hair or hanged by the neck. Judging by the
convulsive movement of her hands I think that a noose has
just been placed round her neck. Observe the bestial face of
the scoundrel who is hanging her.

(18) Here is a snapshot taken from a dead Gestapo soldier. I
wish to emphasise the manner in which the German fascists
mocked the chastity of the Russian

                                                  [Page 101]

women. They had just forced these Ukrainian women to run
naked before the German brutes.

(19) This snapshot will help you to understand subsequent
events. It represents a machine for grinding human bones.
Next to the machine stands the prisoner of war who feeds it.
It can grind the bones of two hundred persons at a time. As
has been proved to the Commission, it has a constant yield
of 200 cubic metres of bone meal.

(Photographs identified as Exhibits USSR 100, 101, 102, 212,
385, 388, 389, 390, 391.)

That is all.

Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor