Evening star., 1946-01-03

Describes Liquidation
OF Jews and Russians
BY the Associated Press.
NUREMBERG, Jan. "A for
mer aide of Gestapo Chief Helm
rich Himmler told the Interna-
tional Military Tribunal today
that special SIS commandos
we're attached to the German
Army on the eastern front with
orders to kill every Jew and So
Wet political commissar in occu-
pied Russian regions.
Otto Ohlendorf, major general of
police, testifying in the trial of %
Nazi leaders, declared the high COM
mand of the German Army had full
knowledge of the Commando order.
The 38-year- witness, who had
been in the SIS since his teens, said
his own Einsatzgrupp. operating
with the German 11th Army In the
Ukraine, alone had liquidated co.
600 persons in the first year of the
war with Russia.
Himmler Gave Orders.
Outlining the inner workings of
the security police system under
questioning by Col. John Harlan
Amen, Assistant American Prose-
cutor, Ohlendorf testified that
Himmler personally gave liquidation
orders to leaders of the special
Einsatzgrupps.
He told us that the men had no
responsibility for the acts and that
the responsibility was his alone, as
well as that of the Fuehrer." the
witness said.
Ohlendorf, who admitted giving
orders himself for mass executions
testified that he conferred frequent
ly with army commanders on the
execution of Himmlers orders.
He said the victims included men,
women and children. and explained
how they were wiped out en- masse
after being lined up on the pretext
that they would be relocated.
Standing erect, Ohlendorf spoke
through the microphone without
hesitation, frequently turning his
eyes toward the defendants sitting
in the prisoners box on the opposite
side of the room.
Steely Looks for Witness.
Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering
sucked In his lips and shook his head
slightly. Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl and
Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel gave
the witness steely looks, but showed
no emotion.
Ohlendorf hedged when pressed
for a direct statement as to whether
the army commanders condoned the
plan to liquidate Jews and Soviet
political commissars. but declared
without qualification:
Since the liquidations took place
in operations regions. the Einsatz-
grupps would not have been able to
function in the sense described
without army support"
Ohlendorf also testified to the vital
position which hulking Ernst Kalten-
Drummer, former chief of the security
police, held in the Nazi terror control
over occupied Europe. Kaltenbrun-
ner, one of the defendants, is re-
covering from a cranial hemorrhage
and Is being tried In absentia.
Giving details Of the mass execu-
tions in Russia, Ohlendorf said lead
ers of some other groups reported
that they had surpassed the 10000
which his own group accounted for
but added that he believed theil
figures were Ito large extent ex.
aggerated."
II was present at the mass exc.
cutions," be declared calmly under
questioning. IA local Einsatz com.
mander would collect all the Jews
in one area. They would be rounded
up on the pretext that they wert
to be relocated. .s-fSs e. rAj
Executed Immediately.
After registration, the Jews wer.
collected at certain places, ther
transported to the place OF execu.
ton, which was usually an anti.
tank ditch or a natural gully.
"The Jews were transported ir
trucks and executed Immediately
The time during which the victim!
knew what was going to happer
TO them was kept as short as pos.
sible."
Ohlendorf said the victims "wert
shot standing or kneeling" and thai
unit leaders had orders to admin.
lister the coup de grace in the event
any of the. victims still lived after
being shot.
They we're executed in military
fashion," he added.
He said, however, that in some oi
the massacres the leaders simply
killed their victims by shooting then
in the back of the neck"
Il was against that procedure,
he continued, because 1t resulted
in unnecessary emotional disturb.
ances among the men who had tt
do the work e. 1t was in
tolerable to me that the individual
men should have to form their owr
decisions and take their own re-
sponsibility in the executions"
Procedure Changed In '42.
In the spring of 1912, he said
the procedure was changed wher
Himmler ordered that women anC
children should be killed only Ii
gas vans" These were disguised
as ordinary trailers,. he said, but
we're so designed that gas engine
could pump enough gas into then
in Is minutes to kill the occupants
He declared that the victims dice
on their way to their burial place
without knowing they were being
executed. They suffered no pain,
he commented.
All the personal property ane
other belongings of the victims
whether they were shot or executed
in the gas vans, was collected anl
given to the Reich finance ministr.
or to the central command office o
the Gestapo and security police. h
said,
The latter office was headed b,
Reinhardt Heydrich until his as
sassination in Czechoslovakia ir