dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: In the trenches corpses of children were discovered who, according to the testimony of witnesses, had been buried alive." Furthermore, I refer to a document which has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-1, a report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of the German fascist occupants in the area of Stavropol. I quote from Page 271 of the document book, Paragraph 3, beginning as follows: "During the inspection of a ravine in the vicinity of Koltso Hill and a distance of 250 meters from the high road..." I omit the next sentence. ". . . a washed-out grave was discovered, 10 meters in depth, from which protruded separate parts of human bodies. As from 26 to 29 July 1943, excavations were carried out at this spot and, as a result, 130 corpses were exhumed. The legalmedical examination proved that the corpse of a 4-monthsold girl showed no traces of violence. The child had been thrown alive into the ditch where it perished from suffocation." I skip the next phrase and quote from the next paragraph: "The autopsy performed on bodies of dead infants by the legal-medical investigation proved that they had been thrown into the ditch alive, together with their mothers who had been shot. All the other corpses showed traces of torture." I will now refer to the verdict of the Military Tribunal of the 4th Ukrainian Front, which I had already submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-32.
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps we had better break off. [The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours.]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Have I your permission to continue?
THE PRESIDENT: Please do.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Continuing the presentation of evidence on atrocities of German fascist criminals with regard to children, I refer to the testimony of the witness, Bespalov, included in the document previously presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-32 (Document Number USSR-32). The members of the Tribunal will find the place which I refer to on Page 33, fifth paragraph of the document, Column 1 in the document book. Bespalov testified: "At the end of June last year I myself saw up to 300 girls and women brought on 10 to 12 trucks to the forest park. The unfortunate women were throwing themselves from side to side, weeping, tearing their hair, and rending their clothes. Many fainted, but the German fascists paid no attention to this. By kicks and beatings with rifle butts and sticks they forced them to get up; the executioners themselves stripped and threw into the pits, those who did not rise. Several girls- among them children-tried to run away, but were killed. "I saw how, after a burst of machine gun fire, some of the women, swaying and helplessly flinging up their arms, staggered toward the standing Germans with heart-rending cries. At this time the Germans were shooting them with pistols. Maddened with terror and grief, mothers clutched their children to their breasts, running with terrible wails into the forest clearing, seeking help. "The Gestapo members snatched the children from them, seized them by the arms or legs, and threw them alive into the pit; when the mothers ran after them to the pit, they were shot." I quote one paragraph out of Exhibit Number USSR-9 (Document USSR-9), already presented to the TribunaL This is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union of the crimes of the German fascist invaders in the city of Kiev. The members of the Tribunal will find this document on Page 238, second column of the text, sixth paragraph: "On 29 September.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: 1941 Hitler's bandits drove thousands of the peaceful Soviet citizens to the corner of Melnik and Doktorovskaya Streets and from there to Baybe-yar, where they shot them, after taking all their valuables from them. "Citizens N. F. Petrenko and N. T. Gorbacheva, who lived near Baybe-yar, stated that they had seen how the Germans threw babies at the breast into graves and buried them alive with their dead or wounded parents. One could see the surface of the ground moving over the buried people who were still alive." These were not individual occurrences, but a systematic plan. This inhuman terror was practiced on children, since the chiefs of German fascism understood that this form of terrorism would be particularly frightful for the survivors. Compassion for the weak and the defenseless is an inalienable human trait. By applying their particularly barbarous methods' to children, the German fascist criminals showed the rest of the population that there was no crime, no cruelty at which they would stop for the purpose of pacifying the occupied territories. Children did not simply share the fate of their parents. The so-called "actions" were frequently directed against the children themselves. They were taken forcibly from their parents, concentrated in one place, then murdered. I refer to a very brief report of the Extraordinary State Commission, already submitted to the Tribunal, entitled, "Concerning the Crimes of the German Conspirators in Latvia." The members of the Tribunal will find the place I refer to on Page 286, on the reverse side, in the second column of the document book, Paragraph 5.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Here it states, and I quote: "In the main jail in Riga they murdered over 2,000 children who had been torn from their parents, and in the Salaspil Camp, more than 3,000." From the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of the Hitlerites in Lithuania, the Tribunal will learn of the brutal methods employed by the Germans to separate children from their parents incarcerated in prisons, concentration camps, or ghettos -these methods usually preceded the murder of the children. This document has already been submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-7 (Document USSR-7) to the Tribunal. The members of the Tribunal will find the place referred to on Page 295, first column, sixth paragraph of the document book. I omit the first paragraph, which mentions the organization of the camp. This has no direct relation to children, and I begin with the second paragraph, which shows what was done with them: "In the beginning of 1944 the Germans in this camp forcibly took children from 6 to 12 years old and carried them off. An inhabitant of the city of Kovno, Vladislav Blum, testified: " 'Heart-rending scenes occurred under my eyes. The Germans took the children away from their mothers and sent them, no one knows where. Many children were shot together with their mothers.' "On the walls of the camp buildings inscriptions were discovered concerning the crimes of the Hitlerite monsters. Here are some of them: " 'Avenge us! Let the whole world know and understand how savagely our children were exterminated! Our days are counted! Farewell! Let the whole world know and let it not forget to avenge our innocent children! Women of all the world, remember and understand all the atrocities which befell our innocent children in the 20th century! My child is already dead, I am indifferent to everything!' " Further, I refer to the document which has already been presented to the Tribunal under Document Number USSR-63. This is an official report on the torture and shooting of children in the Domachev children's asylum of the Brest region in the Bielorussian S.S.R.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The members of the Tribunal will find this document on the reverse side of Page 223, fifth paragraph, first column. I shall quote three or four paragraphs out of this document, omitting the remainder: "By order of the German occupational authorities of the district, the Chief of the Prokopchuk district ordered the principal of the children's home, A. P. Pavliuk, to poison a sick 12-year-old child, Lena Renklach. After Pavliuk refused to carry out the order, the child was shot by policemen in the vicinity of the children's home, allegedly 'while trying to escape.' "In order to save the children from starvation and death, 11 of them were distributed among the local population in 1942, and 16 children were taken by their relatives." And this was the further fate of those children. I continue with my quotation: "On 23 September 1942, at 7 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 54 and the teacher were driven away in the truck in the direction of the station of Dubitz, 11/z kilometers from the village of Leplevka. The car stopped at a frontier gun emplacement, 800 meters from the River West Bug. The children were undressed-which was proved by the fact that the children's clothes were found in the truck after its return to Domachev- and shot." 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 Lisbenitzky, in the Lvov region, who was confined by the Germans in Yanov Camp at Lvov.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Hamaidas' occupation in the camp consisted in burning the corpses of those who had been shot. At the same time, he was a witness to the mass shootings 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 Number USSR-6(c) (Document USSR-6(c)); I quote two lines from the testimony of Hamaidas, from Page 55 of the document book, 11th 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 while they were still alive, 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 Number USSR-6(c), in which are other documents on reports of legalmedical experts employed in the exhumation of corpses in Yanov Camp. I shall quote only 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 at the top of the column, reverse of Page 330. 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 torture." 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 27 April 1942.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The members of the Tribunal will find the place to which I refer on Page 8, reverse side, second column, third paragraph: "The invaders subjected children and adolescents to the most brutal tortures. Among the 160 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 then had had his right arm sawed off with a rusty saw. The Germans chopped off both hands of 12-year-old Vanya Kryukov, of the village of Kryukovo, in the Kursk region, and drove him, bleeding profusely, toward 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 Number USSR-1 (Document USSR-1), which is the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union on the crimes 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, Oberleutnant Otto Weber, an extraordinarily cruel massacre was carried out on Soviet children undergoing treatment for bone tuberculosis in the sanatorium of the Teberda health resort. Eyewitnesses to this crime, members of the sanatorium, medical sister, S. E. Ivanova, and medical aide, Polypanova, have testified as follows: "Before the entrance of the first section of the sanatorium, on 22 December 1942, a German automobile drew up.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Seven German soldiers, who had arrived in the vehicle, dragged 54 seriously sick children, ranging in age from 3 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 Number USSR-63 (Document USSR-63), on the "Indictment of German Atrocities in Sevastopol." The members of the Tribunal will find the place I am referring to on the reverse side of Page 226, Paragraph 7, second column of the text: "In addition to the mass shootings, the Hitlerites cruelly drowned peaceful citizens in the open sea. "Prisoner Corporal Friedrich Heile, of Troop Battalion 2-19 MKA, Naval Transport Detachment, testified as follows: " 'When I was in the port of Sevastopol, I saw large groups of peaceful citizens, including women and children, brought to the harbor by trucks. All the Russians were loaded on barges. Many resisted. However, they were beaten and driven forcibly onto the barges. About 3,000 people, all told, were loaded on. The barges put out to sea. For a long time the crying was heard in the bay. Several hours passed, and the barges slipped again into their moorings. From the ships' crews 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 Honorable Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-85 (Document Number USSR-85).
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I shall not quote any long passage from this report. I shall merely draw the Tribunal's attention to the fact that on Page 347, Volume II, 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 only a short excerpt from the testimony of the director of School Number 218, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 348, Volume II, first paragraph. The director of School Number 218, located at 13 Rubenstein Street, writes: "On 18 May 1942, School Number 218 underwent artillery fire. A 12-year-old boy, Lenia Isarow, was killed. A lithe girl, Dona Binamowa, turned 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, second column, Paragraph 6. Your Honors will find there a document submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-8 (Document Number 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 Honors to pay special attention to Page 47 of the Auschwitz album (Exhibit Number USSR-30), as well as to Pages 48 and 49. The photographs on these pages clearly show how emaciated these children were.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I omit the first paragraph, and I quote: "Investigations have proved that the Germans completely sapped the strength of children between 8 and 10 years of age, by forcing them to do the same heavy work 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 Vilna, 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 Waltraut of Dusseldorf, Germany, testified: "'In 1943 when we worked on the construction of a hedge surrounding Crematorium Number 5, I myself saw SS 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 12-year-old boy, Zihmlich, and a boy of 13, Mandel, and the Tribunal can see the deformation of these children from exposure to cold. I continue: "A 9-year-old boy, Andrasz 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.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Thereupon, the leader of the women's camp, Brandem, and her assistant, Mendel, drove us all into the street at 1 o'clock 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 180 children liberated from Auschwitz and examined by physicians, 52 under 8 years of age and 128 between the ages of 8 and 15. All arrived in the camp in the second half of 1944, that is, they spent between 3 to 6 months in the camp. All 180 children underwent a medical examination, which established that 72 suffered from tuberculosis of the lungs and glands, 49 suffered from the consequences of malnutrition and elementary dystrophy (complete exhaustion), and 31 from frostbite." I submit to the Tribunal and request Your Honors to accept as evidence Exhibit Number USSR-92 (Document Number 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 babes 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. I quote: "There has recently been a considerable increase in the birth rate among women of non-Germanic origin.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Difficulties have arisen in consequence, not only in connection with the use of these people for labor but, to a greater extent, with a danger of a social-political nature, which should not be underestimated." 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 labor, of the pregnancy of the non-Germanic women." I draw your special attention to the last sentence, "These institutions must attempt to 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 Honor, 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 should emphasize that in selecting the photographs I was not guided, so to speak, by the horror of their contents, but simply by the fact that they demonstrate typical procedures of the German fascist crimes. [Pictures were then projected on the screen.7* (1) Here we see one person being shot. This snapshot \VQS 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 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, that is, by a shot in the back of the neck.