Two Hundred and Fifteenth Day:
Friday, 30th August, 1946 [Page 348]
It appears that, outside of a small section of the
"Totenkopf," not one of the units or sections of the SS had
any connection with the police and the concentration
[Page 349]
It results therefore that these seven persons murdered and
tortured over 10,000,000 people.
Among the perjured false witnesses already known to the
Tribunal, such witnesses for the defence of the SS as the
former Supreme Fuehrer of the SS and Police of the
Oberabschnitt in Munich, the SS Obergruppenfuehrer Baron von
Eberstein, General of the SS Troops Hauser, the chief of SS
recruiting section, Brill, or the SS Judges Reinecke and
Morgen, should by all rights take one of the first places,
if not the very first place, for the shamelessness of the
lies to which they resorted in their attempts to justify the
SS and its members.
However, even lies have their limits.
Carried to their utmost limits they not only failed to help
the criminals but served to expose them completely.
And it seems to me that the Tribunal must have duly
appreciated the testimony of Judge Morgen of the SS Reserve,
who describes one of the most brutal SS concentration camps,
Buchenwald, as practically a sanatorium for the internees,
abounding with good food and playgrounds, with easy work in
the open air and a large library.
In complete contradiction to the stupid lies of the
"witnesses" for the defence of the SS are the documents
which thoroughly expose this criminal organization. These
lies are also contradicted by the irrefutable logic of facts
- facts of the very grave crimes of which the organizers and
perpetrators were members of all chief detachments and
organizations of the SS.
At the beginning of the war the SS organization consisted of
the following main detachments:
2. The SS troops, whom the defence and the defendants
have so persistently tried to represent as "units of the
guard" of the former German Army, were by no means so
very remote from all police activities. The SS troops
included among other units those institutions whose
criminal character not even the defence for the SS dared
to challenge. These were the camp commands of the SS
troops, who effected the mass extermination of the
peaceful citizens and prisoners of war in the
concentration camps. It was the "Waffen SS," which also
included the SS police regiments, that in substance
composed the units responsible for the destruction of
inhabited centres and villages, and that perpetrated
innumerable crimes in the temporarily occupied
territories of the Soviet Union and countries of Eastern
Europe.
3. The machinery of the SS included the SS economic
administration in charge of the concentration camps, the
administration for the consolidation of the German
nation, which put into practice the infamous doctrines of
"racialism," and all the Hitlerite police organizations,
among which were such agencies as the Einsatzgruppen and
Sonderkommandos. [Page 350]
To this dishonourable "Black Corps" of German Fascism was
given a special role in the realization of the Fascist
criminal plans.
These degenerates, dressed in SS uniform and devoid of any
idea of human morality, were not only assured of immunity in
their crimes, but they were daily imbued with the idea that
they were the "most valuable class" racially, who would lay
the foundation of the future Greater German Empire.
This they were repeatedly told by Himmler and by the
Reichsleiter and Gauleiter who had been raised by Himmler to
the highest ranks in the SS, and according to the
appreciation of their activities by the "SS Reichsfuehrer"
were promoted in the hierarchy of the SS.
Ribbentrop, Minister for Foreign Affairs in Fascist Germany,
not only was unashamed of being compared, as a member of SS,
to the murderer Pohl or to robber and executioner
Globotschnik, but he was actually exceedingly proud of it.
"I shall always consider it an especial honour to belong to
this proud corps of the Fuehrer, the corps which is of
decisive importance in the future of our Greater German
Empire," wrote Ribbentrop in his letter to Himmler, when he
was promoted from Gruppenfuehrer to Obergruppenfuehrer of
the SS.
Thus one and the same SS system united the commandant of
Treblinka, Unterscharfuehrer Kurt Franz; the inventor of the
"death-vans," Untersturmfuehrer Becker; the SS experimenter
on live persons, Dr. Rascher, and the Reich Minister and SS
Obergruppenfuehrer Ribbentrop.
At a conference of the SS Gruppenfuehrer in Poznan, in his
speech on the unity of the SS and the police, Himmler
stated:
... the most copious breeding should be from this racial
super-stratum of the Germanic people. In twenty to thirty
years we must really be able to present the whole of
Europe with its leading class. If the SS, together with
the farmers, and we together with our friend Backe then
run the colony in the East on a grand scale, without any
restraint, without any question about any kind of
tradition but with nerve and revolutionary impetus, we
shall in twenty years push the national boundary
(Volkstumsgrenze) 500 kilometres eastwards ....
. ..We shall impose our laws on the East. We will charge
ahead and push our way forward little by little to the
Urals." [Page 351]
(a) "GENERAL SS"
No matter to which of the special SS organizations an SS
member belonged, he was first and foremost a member of the
"General SS." His expulsion from such membership signified
loss of position and all the privileges related thereto.
In this connection I shall read one of the documents
submitted by the Soviet prosecution on the subject of the
Hitlerites' criminal acts against Soviet prisoners of war.
In this case we have documents of the investigations
conducted by the SS officials in relation to an "incident,"
as it is called in these documents, which occurred during
the performance of a "special treatment" operation.
The Tribunal well knows the significance of this last term.
In this particular case, a certain SS Hauptsturmfuehrer
Kallbach, who investigated the so-called "educational labour
camp" for Soviet prisoners of war in Berdichev, decided to
put to death seventy-eight Soviet prisoners whose condition
is described in records of the interrogation by the
commander of the camp, SS Sturmbannfuehrer Knopp, as
follows: "They were very seriously wounded. Some were
without legs, some without arms and others had lost at least
one of their extremities. Only a few had no injured limbs,
but these were so crippled as a result of other kinds of
wounds that they were unable to work." The fact that the
Soviet prisoners of war could not be utilized for work was
the only reason for their murder. The execution of the
sentence was entrusted to three SS men, SS Unterscharfuehrer
Paal, SS Rottenfuehrer Hesselbach and SS Sturmfuehrer
Volprecht. These three SS men are characterized in the
evidence as follows:
It was in connection with this that the investigation was
ordered. The commander of the SS detachments in Berdichev
was prosecuted, not for his orders to murder seventy-eight
sick and innocent people but for allowing any possibility
for escape.
I have quoted this document not simply to remind you of one
of the countless episodes of SS brutality on the territory
temporarily occupied by the SS but to quote an extremely
characteristic wording of a warning against false evidence
resorted to prior to the interrogation by investigators from
SS.
It states:
[Page 352]
(b) SS TROOPS, "WAFFEN SS"
The organization of the SS troops originated in the so-
called "Leibstandarte," Hitler's bodyguard, and the "Death's
Head" Division, which was mostly active in the concentration
camps.
In war time the SS troops included, among other units and
formations, the so-called "Camp Commands" which directly
carried out the extermination of millions of people and
rendered effective the regime of exhaustion of the inmates
prior to extermination, as well as the police divisions and
units.
This simple enumeration of the units composing the Waffen SS
fully testifies to their criminal character.
The Soviet prosecution has submitted in evidence the
sentence of the Military Tribunal of the Fourth Ukrainian
Front and a report of the Extraordinary State Commission,
concerning the atrocities of the German Fascist invaders in
Kharkov and in the Kharkov area, from which it is evident
that the units of the SS - particularly the SS Division of
Adolf Hitler, under the leadership of Obergruppenfuehrer
Dietrich, and the SS Division "Totenkopf" (Death's Head)
under the leadership of Obergruppenfuehrer SS Simon, are
responsible for the extermination of more than 20,000
peaceful citizens of Kharkov, for the shooting and burning
alive of prisoners of war.
In Kiev alone, during the period of German occupation, over
195,000 peaceful citizens were tortured to death, shot and
poisoned in the death vans; most of them were exterminated
by the units of the SS, for which - according to the reports
of the Extraordinary State Commission - the former chief of
the SS troops in Southern Russia and in the Ukraine, Major-
General Troenfeld, SS Lieutenant-General Juttner, and other
commanders of the SS troops are responsible.
In the city of Rovno and in the Rovno district the Germans
exterminated 102,000 persons. Among many others, a soldier
of the Fourth Squadron of the Seventeenth SS Cavalry
Division, Adolf Mitzke, testified how the SS men carried out
these crimes; on the order of the commander of the regiment
Adolf Mitzke, together with the other soldiers of his
regiment, shot down the peaceful citizens (there were women
among them) and set the villages on fire.
In the official Note of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of
the USSR, W. M. Molotov, dated 27th April, 1942, a
description of atrocities committed by the SS Cavalry
Brigade in the Region of Toropets is reported. I quote:
[Page 353]
I now wish to remind the Tribunal of the numerous documents
presented to the Tribunal by the Soviet and British
prosecutions illustrating the crimes committed in the
territory of Yugoslavia by the SS Division "Prinz Eugen."
I particularly wish to remind the Tribunal of Communication
No. 9 of the Yugoslav State Commission, on the atrocities
perpetrated by the aforesaid SS division. This communication
described how the SS soldiers - members of the Waffen SS who
called themselves "The German Guard" - burned alive the
population of entire villages, including women and children.
I shall also remind you of the deposition given by SS Major-
General August Schmidthuber describing how, on the order of
the commander of the First Battalion SS Kaasarer, peaceful
citizens were locked up in a church in Krivaya Reka, and
then the church building was blown up.
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(Part 9 of 15)
1. The so-called "General SS" (Allegemeine SS), where the
SS members received general training before being
assigned to the SS troops or to one or the other of the
police organizations. The "General SS" served as a
reservoir from which reinforcements were drawn for the
completion of special organizations of German Fascism -
such as the Secret State Police (the Gestapo) Security
Police (SD), the administration of the concentration
camps ("Group D") and others.
It is hardly worth disputing the assertions of the defence
that the relation of the SS to the police was "purely
external" and to be explained simply by Himmler's "personal
union."
"I am always doing something towards this end, a band is
constantly being drawn around these sections of the whole
to cause them to grow together. Alas, if these bands were
ever loosened, then everything - you may be sure of this
- would sink back into the old insignificance in one
generation, and in a short space of time .... I think
that we are responsible for it to Germany, for the German
Reich needs the SS organization. She needs it at least
for the next few centuries."
In concluding his speech, he said:
" ... When the war is won, then, as I have already told
you, our work will start.
It is impossible to enumerate in a short statement the
gravest crimes committed by the members of the SS. Nor is it
necessary, since the evidence submitted to the Tribunal is
too recent and vivid in our minds.
" ... I know that the three above-mentioned persons, whom I
assigned to shoot the prisoners of war, had participated
in mass executions of many thousands of people in Kiev.
The local administration, ever since my arrival, had
given them the task of shooting many hundreds of
persons."
It so happened, however, that when twenty-eight of the
prisoners were being transported to the place of execution
they put up an heroic resistance against the executioners,
killed two of them and managed to escape.
" ... I have been notified of the substance of the
forthcoming interrogation. It has been pointed out to me
that false evidence on my part will result in punishment
and expulsion from the SS."
Upon entering the "General SS" the future member of this
criminal organization took an oath, which included the
following words:
" ... I take an oath before you, Adolf Hitler, Fuehrer
and Reichskanzler, to obey unto death you and all those
whom you have appointed to command me."
And no matter where the SS man was in service, whether he
was murdering people in Treblinka and Auschwitz or torturing
them during interrogations in the torture-chambers of the
Gestapo, he first and foremost continued to be himself - a
stupid, ruthless member of the "General SS" who knew only
two duties -
"In January, 1942, when Red Army troops smashed the
German SS Cavalry Brigade in the district of Toropets,
among the captured documents was found the report of the
1st Cavalry Regiment of the above-mentioned brigade, on
the 'pacification' of the Starobinsk District in
Bielorussia. The commander of the regiment reports that
in addition to the 259 prisoners of war shot by a
detachment of his regiment, 6,504 peaceful inhabitants
were executed. The report states that the detachment
operated in accordance with regimental order No. 42, of
27th July, 1941. The commander of the 2nd Regiment of the
same brigade, von Mahill, states in his 'Report on the
Conduct of the Pacification Operations in the District of
the Pripet Marshes from 27th July to 11th August, 1941':
'We drove the women and children into a swamp, but this
did not have the necessary effect, as the swamp was not
deep enough for them to drown. At a depth of 1 metre it
was possible, in most cases, to reach firm ground
(possibly sand).' In the same headquarters, telegram No.
37 was found, sent by the Standartenfuehrer, commander of
the SS Cavalry Brigade, to a mounted detachment of the
above-mentioned 2nd Cavalry Regiment, dated 2nd August,
1941, which announces
that the Reichsfuehrer of the SS and Police Himmler
considers the number of peaceful inhabitants who are
being exterminated as 'too negligible,' and points out
that 'it is necessary to act radically,' that 'the
commanders of the formations are too lenient in their
conduct of operations,' and orders that the number of
persons shot be reported daily."
The entire criminal activity of the SS units in the
territory of Yugoslavia, Poland and other temporarily
occupied countries of Eastern Europe, followed the same
pattern.