Seventy-Third Day:
Monday, 4th March, 1946 [Page 128]
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, you are offering the
document, are you, as evidence? You are seeking to put the
document in evidence?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: This document has already been presented in
evidence and has already been accepted by the Tribunal. I
only wished to read into the record certain extracts from
this document. It has been submitted as Exhibit USSR 413.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: I am quoting Paragraph 1 of the official
British report.
[Page 129]
I shall, with your permission, read into the record in
confirmation of this fact two paragraphs, or rather - two
points - from the official British report, i.e., Point 7 and
Point 8.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I should like to read out
only from the text proper and particularly those parts of
the report which testify to the methods of investigation
applied in the case of individual officers. I should like to
begin reading from the paragraph dealing with the three
groups of officers.
THE PRESIDENT: Paragraph 4?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: "On or about the 26th of March, 1944, these
officers were interrogated at the Police Station in
Hirschberg and were then moved to the civil gaol in that
town. On the morning of the 29th March, Pawluk and
Kiewnarski were taken away, and later in the day Skanizklas
and Wernham. left.
[Page 130]
And now the next group of British officers.
Between 26th and 30th March, 1944, these officers were
interrogated at the Kripo H.Q. in Goerlitz and then
returned to the gaol there. During the interrogation
Casey was told that 'he would lose his head,' Wiley that
'he would be shot' and Leigh that 'he would be shot'.
Hake was suffering from badly frost-bitten feet and was
incapable of travelling for any distance on foot. On 30th
March the officers left Goerlitz in three motor cars
accompanied by ten German civilians of the Gestapo type.
The urns later received at the Stalag bear their names
and show them to have been cremated at Goerlitz on 31st
March, 1944.
Flight-Lieutenants Humpreys, McGill, Swain, Hall,
Langford and Evans, Flight-Officers Valenta, Kolanowski,
Stewart and Birkland.
"These officers were interrogated at the Kripo H.Q. in
Goerlitz between 26th and 30th March. Swain was told that
'he would be shot,' Valenta was threatened and told that
'he would never escape again'. Kolanowski was very
depressed after his interview. On 31st March these
officers were collected by a party of German civilians,
at least one of whom was in the party which had come on
the previous day. The urns later received at the Stalag
bore their names and show them to have been cremated at
Liegnitz on a date unspecified."
The following page of the text includes identical data
relating to Flight-Lieutenants Grisman, Gunn, Williams and
Milford, Flight-Officer Street and Lieutenant McGarr.
Similar information is given concerning Flight-Lieutenant
Long, Squadron-Leader J. E. Williams, Flight-Lieutenants
Bull and Mondschein, and Flight-Officer Kierath. The same
information is given with reference to Flight-Officer
Stower, Flight-Lieutenant Tobolski, Flight-Officer Krol,
Flight-Lieutenants Wallen, Marcinkus and Brettell, Flight-
Officer Picard, and Lieutenants Gouws and Stevens, Squadron-
Leader Bushell and Lieutenant Scheidhauer, Flight-Officer
Cochran, Lieutenants Espelid and Fugelsang, Squadron-Leader
Kirby-Green and Flight-Officer Kidder, Squadron-Leader
Catanach and Flight-Officer Christensen, and Flight-
Lieutenant Hayter.
I shall, with your permission, read into the record one more
paragraph from this official report. I refer to Paragraph 6
of the official British report and also to Paragraph 5,
because it is of essential importance.
THE PRESIDENT: I was going to suggest you should read
Paragraph 5.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: I am going to read Paragraph 5 of the
English text.
6. The Swiss representative (M. Gabriel Naville) pointed
out on 9th June, 1944, in his report on his visit to
Sagan that the cremation of deceased prisoners of war was
most unusual (the normal custom being to bury them in a
coffin with military honours) and that was the first case
known to him where the bodies of deceased prisoners had
been cremated. Further it may be noted that if, as the
Germans alleged, these fifty officers who were
[Page 131]
THE PRESIDENT: I think it would perhaps be better if you
also read the Appendix so as to show the summary of the
evidence upon which the report proceeded, Paragraph 9.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: I refrained from reading the Appendix
because it had already been read by Sir David Maxwell Fyfe.
I shall read it once more with pleasure.
Appendix
Proceedings of Court of Inquiry held at Sagan by order of
the Senior British Officer in Stalag Luft 3 and forwarded
by the Protecting Power.
(2) Statements of the following Allied witnesses:-
(5) Report of the Representative of the Protecting Power
on his visit to Stalag Luft 3 on 5th June, 1944."
COLONEL SMIRNOV: The document is signed by H. Chapcott,
Brigadier, Military Deputy, and is certified by the Military
Department, Judge Advocate General's Office, London, 25th
September, 1945.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, so far as the Russian Chief
Prosecutor is concerned, does that conclude the case for the
prosecution?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
DR. NELTE (counsel for the defendant Keitel): Mr. President,
Paragraph 9 of the report which has just been read by the
prosecution mentions the documents
[Page 132]
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Nelte, do you mean that you have only had
the report made by the Brigadier and you have not seen any
part of the other evidence upon which the report proceeds?
DR. NELTE: Mr. President, the Tribunal decided during an
earlier phase of this trial...
THE PRESIDENT (interposing) : Yes, but I did not ask you
what we had decided. I asked what you had received. Have you
received from the prosecution the whole of this document or
only the report made by the Brigadier?
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Nizkor
© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012
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(Part 1 of 7)
"1. On the night of 24/25th March, 1944, 76 R.A.F.
Officers escaped from Stalag Luft 3 at Sagan in Silesia
where they had been confined as prisoners of war. Of
these, 15 were recaptured and returned to the camp, 3
escaped altogether, 8 were detained by the Gestapo after
recapture. Of the fate of the remaining 50 officers the
following information was given by the German
authorities:
The official German version, the official version of the
German authorities, indicated that these officers were shot
allegedly while attempting to escape. As a matter of fact,
as definitely proved by the documentation of the
investigation
(a) On 6th April, 1944, at Sagan the acting Commandant
of Stalag Luft 3 (Oberstleutnant Cordes) read to the
Senior British Officer (Group-Captain Massey) an
official communication of the German High Command that
41 officers (unnamed) had been shot 'some of them
having offered resistance on being arrested, others
having tried to escape on the transport back to their
camp'.
(b) On 15th April, 1944, at Sagan, a member of the
German camp staff (Hauptmann Pieber) produced to the
new Senior British Officer (Group-Captain Wilson) a
list of 47 names of the officers who had been shot.
(c) On the 18th May, 1944, at Sagan, the Senior British
Officer was given three additional names, making a
total of 50.
(d) On or about the 12th June, 1944, the Swiss Minister
in Berlin received from the German Foreign Office, in
reply to his inquiry into the affair, a note to the
effect that 37 prisoners of British nationality and 13
prisoners of non-British nationality were shot when
offering resistance when found or attempting to re-
escape after capture. This note also referred to the
return of urns containing the ashes of the dead to
Sagan for burial."
"7. General-Major Westhoff at the time of the escape was
in charge of the 'General' Department relating to
Prisoners of War, and on 15th June, 1945, he made a
statement in the course of which he said that he and
General von Graevnitz, the Inspector of the German P.O.W.
Organization, were summoned to Berlin a few days after
the escape and there interviewed by Keitel. The latter
told them that he had been blamed by Goering in the
presence of Himmler for having let the prisoners of war
escape. Keitel said, 'Gentlemen, these escapes must stop.
We must set an example. We shall take very severe
measures. I can only tell you that the men who have
escaped will be shot; probably the majority of them are
dead already.' When von Graevnitz objected, Keitel said,
'I do not care a damn; we discussed it in the Fuehrer's
presence and it cannot be altered'."
Point 8: I begin the quotation of the official British
report.
"Max Ernst Gustav Friedrich Wielen was then the officer
in charge of the Criminal Police (Kripo) at Breslau, and
he also made a statement dated 26th August, 1945, in the
course of which he said that as soon as practically all
the escaped R.A.F. officers had been recaptured he was
summoned to Berlin where he saw Arthur Nebe, the Chief of
the Kripo Head Office, who showed him a teleprint order
signed by Kaltenbrunner which was to the effect that on
the express order of the Fuehrer over half of the
officers who had escaped from Sagan were to be shot after
their recapture. It was stated that Muller had received
corresponding orders and would give instructions to the
Gestapo. According to Wielen the Kripo, who were
responsible for collecting and holding all the recaptured
prisoners, handed over to the Gestapo the prisoners who
were to be shot, having previously provided the Gestapo
with a list of the prisoners regarded by the Camp
authorities as 'troublesome'."
I would also ask the Tribunal's permission to read into the
record that part of the text of the official report of the
British Government which deals with the methods of
investigation in regard to individual officers. This
documentation has been systematized and divided into three
parts. I take the liberty of reading into the record the
data of the findings referring to the three separate parts.
I quote Page 3 of the Russian text, beginning from Paragraph
2:
"F/Lts. Wernham, Kiewnarski, Pawluk and Skanizklas.
On or about 26th March, 1944 . . ."
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, are you going to read now
some of the evidence upon which the report is based?
"Squadron-Leader Cross, Flight-Lieutenants Casey, Wiley
and Leigh and Flight-Officers Pohe and Hake.
I wish to draw the attention of the Tribunal to the fact
that similar data also relate to different groups of British
officers slain by the Germans in Stalag Luft 3.
"According to the evidence of the survivors there was no
question of any officers having resisted arrest or of the
recaptured officers having attempted a second escape. All
were agreed that the weather conditions were against them
and that such an attempt would be madness. They were
anxious to be returned to the Stalag, take their
punishment and try their luck at escaping another time.
Those are the parts of the official report of the British
Government which I had the honour to communicate to the
Court.
"9. The Appendix attached hereto gives a list of the
material upon which this Report is based. The documents
referred to are annexed to this Report.
THE PRESIDENT: Then, for the purposes of the record, you had
better read in the signature and the department at the
bottom.
(a) Wing-Commander Day.
(3) Statements taken from the following Germans
(b) Flight-Lieutenant Tonder.
(c) Flight-Lieutenant Dowse.
(d) Flight-Lieutenant van Wymeersch.
(e) Flight-Lieutenant Green.
(f) Flight-Lieutenant Marshall.
(g) Flight-Lieutenant Nelson.
(h) Flight-Lieutenant Churchill.
(i) Lieutenant Neely.
(k) P.S.M. Hicks. (a) Major-General Westhoff.
(4) Photostat copy of the official list of dead
transmitted by the German Foreign Office to the Swiss
Legation in Berlin on or about 15th June, 1944.
(b) Oberregierungs- und Kriminalrat Wielen (two
statements).
(c) Oberst von Lindeiner.