Sixtieth Day:
Friday, 15th February, 1946
[Page 72]
When the city of Odessa was under the rule of the fascist
invaders, interrogations were accompanied by tortures of an
exceptionally cruel nature.
I refer to one testimony contained in the Report of the
Extraordinary State Commission, entitled "On the Atrocities
committed by the German and
[Page 73]
I submit this document to the Tribunal as Exhibit USSR 47and
request it be accepted as irrefutable evidence in accordance
with Article 21 of the Charter. I shall quote this document,
which is on Page 282 of your document book, paragraph 4,
line 10. It contains the testimony of Paul Krapyvny,
producer of News Reels. I quote this passage from the Report
of the Extraordinary State Commission, Page 282:-
Your Honours will find analogous statements in the text of
every report of the Extraordinary State Commission. I shall
not delay the proceedings by quoting any further excerpts, I
consider the evidence already presented as sufficient.
I shall now proceed to the next section of my report.
Murder of Hostages.
I shall make a few introductory remarks.
One of the most shameful crimes perpetrated by the
Hitlerites in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia was the
use everywhere by the German fascists of the bestial system
of taking hostages.
This system was introduced by the Hitlerites into all the
countries that fell victim to their aggression.
The German criminals resorted to particularly ruthless
methods when murdering hostages in Eastern Europe, and
violated every law and custom of warfare.
However, it is difficult to speak of the murder of hostages
where the Soviet Union is concerned since the crimes
committed by the Hitlerites everywhere in the temporarily
occupied territories of the USSR go even further. The same
remarks, to a great extent, apply to Poland and particularly
to Yugoslavia.
[Page 74]
I shall now present some brief data from documents
concerning the different countries of Eastern Europe.
I submit an extract from the report of the government of the
Polish Republic The Tribunal will find the passage quoted on
Page 128 of the document book, paragraph 6.
(b) Here are some typical cases of mass reprisals, they
illustrate the methods employed by the German occupants.
(c) In November, 1939, an unknown person set fire to a
barn filled with grain on the outskirts of Nove Miasto
Lubavske. The barn was the property of a German. As a
result of this action a certain S.S. Standartenfuehrer,
Sperling, received an order from the higher authorities
to resort to reprisals. A number of Poles from among the
most prominent citizens were arrested. Out of those, 15
were selected and publicly shot by S.S. soldiers. Among
the victims were: the two brothers Jankovsky, one a
lawyer, the other a priest, the tailor Malkovsky, the
blacksmith Zemny, major of the army reserve Vona, the
son of an inn keeper, the publisher of a newspaper, and
a priest - Bronislav Dembenovsky,
(d) In October, 1939, the German authorities captured a
certain number of Poles in the city of Inovrozlav, and
imprisoned them as hostages. Then they were brought to
the prison courtyard where they were unmercifully
flogged and shot, one by one, Altogether, 70 men were
killed, including the city mayor and his deputy. Among
the victims were the most prominent citizens of
the town." [Page 75]
In the same way school teachers were held responsible
for the loyal behaviour of their pupils. Many teachers
were arrested only because the pupils in their schools
were caught writing anti-German slogans or reading
forbidden books."
I shall just say a few words by way of introduction. These
criminal murders of the peaceful population developed their
own particular lines in Yugoslavia. As a matter of fact, it
is impossible at this point to speak of the execution of
hostages, although the Hitlerites constantly make use of
this term in their official documents, which will be
presented to the Tribunal at a later date.
Truth to tell, under the alleged killing of hostages, the
Hitlerite criminals were carrying out, on an enormous scale,
the regime of terroristic extermination of the peaceful
citizens, not only for crimes which somebody or other had
committed, but also for crimes which, to Hitler's way of
thinking, might be committed.
I submit the document that confirms this fact. It contains
excerpts from the report of the Yugoslav Government which
your Honours will find on Page 259 in the document book
(paragraph 1):
The murder of hostages was one of those methods which
were used by military authorities and the Reich
Government, on an incredible scale, for the mass
extermination of the Yugoslav population.
The Yugoslav State Commission for the Investigation of
War Crimes has at its disposal an innumerable quantity
of concrete details and original evidence taken from the
German archives. We submit only a very limited number of
such details and evidence, which are, however,
sufficient proof that the killing of hostages was merely
one item in the common plan and in the systematic method
of the Nazi crimes."
Firstly, as Exhibit USSR 261, a certified photostat of a
poster of the Commanding General and the Commander-in-Chief
of Serbia, dated 25 December, 1942, in which he announces
the shooting of fifty hostages;
Secondly, as Exhibit USSR 319, a certified photostat of a
poster of the same Commanding General, dated 19 February,
1943, in which he announces the shooting of 400 hostages
which was carried out in Belgrade on the same day;
Thirdly, as Exhibit USSR 320, a certified photostat of a
poster of the Regional Commandantur in Pozarevatz, dated 3
April, 1943, announcing the shooting of 75 hostages
[Page 76]
Fifthly, a certified copy of a poster of the Military
Commandant of Belgrade, dated 14 October, 1943, in which he
announces the shooting of 100 hostages.
I submit this document as Exhibit USSR 322.
I continue my quotation from the report of the Yugoslav
Government.
450 hostages were shot on 3 October, 1941, in Belgrade.
200 hostages were shot on 17 October, 1941, in Belgrade.
50 hostages were shot on 27 October, 1941, in Belgrade.
100 hostages were shot on 3 November, 1941, in Belgrade.
10 hostages shot on 12 December, 1942, in Kraguevatz.
10 hostages shot on 12 December, 1942, in Krusevatz.
30 hostages shot on 15 December, 1942, in Brush.
50 hostages shot on 17 December, 1942, in Petrovatz.
10 hostages shot on 20 December, 1942, in Brush.
50 hostages shot on 25 December, 1942, in Petrovatz.
10 hostages shot on 26 December, 1942, in Brush.
250 hostages shot on 26 December, 1942, in Petrovatz.
25 hostages shot on 27 December, 1942, in Krusevatz."
I continue to quote the report of the Yugoslav Government:
Colonel Smirnov, the Tribunal appreciates the efforts that
you have made to leave out unnecessary detail and to cut
down the length of your address and it hopes that during the
adjournment you will continue your efforts in that
direction.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: Certainly, Mr. President.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 18th February, 1946, at 1000
hours.)
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(Part 8 of 8)
[COLONEL L. N. SMIRNOV continues]
"Murders were often preceded by sadistic torture. The
Archimandrite Valerian testified that the Fascists beat
sick and feeble people till they were half dead, poured
water over them when the temperature was below zero and
finally shot them in the torture chamber of the German
Police, established in the Kievo-Petchersk Abbey."
I invite the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that the
Kievo-Petchersk Abbey is one of the most ancient
architectural monuments in the Soviet Union it is a
specially cherished cultural treasure, very dear to the
heart of the Soviet citizens as a tangible memory of the far
distant past. The torture chamber of the police had been
purposely established in the Abbey. The Tribunal will learn
of its eventual fate from the subsequent reports of my
colleagues.
"The interrogator had a voltage control switch on the
table and whenever the person interrogated did not
answer the question as the examiner wished, the dial of
the voltage control would be mercilessly turned to
increase the voltage; the body of the person
interrogated would begin to tremble and his eyes to
protrude from their sockets."
Or else:
"The person interrogated, with his hands tied behind his
back, would be hoisted up to the ceiling ... where he
would be spun round and round. After having been rotated
200 times in one direction, the victim, still suspended
on the cord, would begin to turn, at a mad speed in the
opposite direction. At that particular moment the
executioners would beat him on both sides with rubber
truncheons. The man became unconscious both from the mad
speed of the rotation and from the beating."
I refer to the document already presented by my colleague,
Colonel Pokrovsky, Exhibit USSR V, which is a report of the
Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes committed by
the German fascist invaders on the Territory of the Latvian
S.S.R. I shall quote from this document, beginning on Page
286 on the reverse side of the document book, paragraph 2:
"In the camps and prisons, the German executioners
subjected prisoners to ill-treatment, torture and
shooting. In the central prison the internees were
beaten and tortured. Day and night, shrieks and groans
were heard in the torture chambers. Every day, from 30
to 35 people died as a result of the tortures. Whoever
survived the ill-treatment and torture would return to
his cell absolutely unrecognisable: burned to the bone,
with parts of his body torn to pieces. No medical aid
was given to the tortured."
The Hitlerites subjected Soviet citizens to ill-treatment
and torture in every town of the Latvian S.S.R.
"(a) One of the most disgraceful features of the
Hitlerite occupation of Poland was the introduction of
the taking of hostages. Collective responsibility,
payment of collective fines, and the bartering of human
life were considered to be the best methods for
enslaving the Polish people.
I omit the next sentence. I quote further:
"(e) On 7 March, 1941, the film star, Igo-Sym, who
considered himself as being of German nationality
(Volksdeutscher), and who was in charge of the German
theatres in Warsaw, was murdered in his own apartment.
Although the murderers were never found, the Governor of
Warsaw, Fischer, said that Sym was murdered by the
Poles, and ordered the arrest of a large number of
hostages. He also closed the theatres, and imposed a
curfew on the Polish population. About 200 people were
arrested, including teachers, priests, physicians,
lawyers and actors. The population of Warsaw was given
three days to find Sym's murderers. After the expiration
of the three days, these still remaining unknown, 17
hostages were executed, among them Professor Kopetz, his
son, and Professor Zakrzhevsky."
I conclude this quotation from the report of the Polish
Government and ask the Tribunal's permission to refer to a
short excerpt from the report of the Czechoslovakian
Government. There is one part I would like to read into the
record. Your Honours will find it on Page 141 of the
document book.
"Even before the beginning of the war, thousands of
Czech patriots and especially Catholic and Protestant
clergymen, lawyers, doctors, teachers and others, were
arrested. Furthermore, in every district lists of
persons were drawn up who were subject to arrest as
hostages at the first sign of any breach of 'public
order and security'. At first these were only threats.
In 1940, Karl Frank announced, in a speech to the
leaders of the movement of National Unity, that 2,000
Czech hostages, interned in concentration camps, would
be shot if prominent Czech statesmen refused to sign the
declaration of loyalty. Some time after the attempt on
Heydrich's life, many of these hostages were executed.
I now interrupt the quotation from the report of the
Government of the Czechoslovak Republic and I begin to read
the section recording the killings of hostages in
Yugoslavia.
"The murder of hostages.
Further the report of the Yugoslav Government quotes an
order of the Commander of the so-called "Group West,"
General Brauner. I quote the following excerpt:
"In regions captured by partisans, the seizure of
hostages from all classes of the population remains in
force as the only really successful means of
intimidation."
To confirm the vast scale of the crimes of the Hitlerites in
connection with the murder of hostages, the Yugoslav
Government presents to the Tribunal six documents which I
now submit to your Honours and I ask for them to be
incorporated into the record as evidence. I submit the
following
documents to the Tribunal:
"Planned and systematic murder of hostages is revealed
by the following testimonies, collected by the Yugoslav
State Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes on
the basis of confiscated German archives and data found
in the archives. The testimonies refer to Serbia only.
According to the statement of the Yugoslav Government such
figures could be cited ad infinitum. I continue my
quotation:
"The shooting of hostages was, as a rule, conducted in a
most barbaric fashion. The victims were mostly forced to
stand one behind the other in batches, waiting their
turn and witnessing the execution of the preceding
batch. In this manner the batches were one after another
exterminated."
I shall submit further to the Tribunal, as Exhibit USSR 205,
the report of the Police Administration of the Quisling
Administration of Milan Nedich. It mentions the shooting, on
11 December, 1941, in Leskovatz, of 310 hostages, of whom
293 were gypsies.
"By an examination of the site and an interrogation of
the gypsies by the Regional Administration for the
Investigation of War Crimes in Leskovatz, the methods
were established by which this shooting was carried
out."
Before reading the excerpt, I submit to the Tribunal the
document which was referred to by the Government of the
Yugoslav Republic, as Exhibit USSR 226 and request it be
incorporated as evidence. In the report of the Yugoslav
Government, the following lines of this document are quoted:-
"On 11 December, 1941, from 0600 hours to 1600 hours the
Germans transported the arrested hostages in their
trucks in batches of about 20 persons each. All of them
had their hands bound. They were taken to the foot of
Hisar Mountain. From there they were driven on foot
across the mountain and then made to stand in ranks near
recently dug graves, were shot and then thrown into the
graves."
THE PRESIDENT: I think this will be a good time to break
off.