dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I quote only one line: "As a result of the hunger blockade of Leningrad, 632,253 people perished." I omit the following two pages and pass on to evidence concerning the adoption by the Hitlerites of special machines for the extermination of people by monoxide gas-in special machines (Sondermaschinen), by "gas vans" or "murder vans," (dushegubk~) as the Soviet people rightly named them. The very fact of employing such machines for the mass murder of people constitutes a very heavy charge against the leaders of German fascism. The special equipment for mass extermination of people in hermetically closed automobiles in which the exhaust pipes were connected to the bodies of the car by means of special movable tubes was utilized by the German fascists for the first time in the U.S.S.R. in 1942. I would like to remind the Tribunal that these gas vans were mentioned for the first time in a report which I have already submitted to the Tribunal concerning the atrocities of the German fascist aggressors in the town of Kerch. This document was submitted as Document Number USSR-63 and refers to the spring of 1942. I remind the Tribunal of an excerpt from the statements of the witness Darya Demchenko who saw how from two murder vans German military personnel in Kerch dragged out the bodies of the murdered and dumped them into an antitank ditch. However, the mass extermination of people in gas vans was ascertained without reasonable doubt for the first time in the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on atrocities of the German occupiers in the Stavropol region. This document was submitted to the Tribunal by me earlier as Exhibit Number USSR-1 (Document USSR-1). Investigation of the crimes committed by the German fascists in the Stavropol region was directed by a prominent Soviet writer and member of the Extraordinary State Commission, Academician Alexey Nikolaevitch Tolstoy, who now is deceased.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: This very thorough investigation was undertaken with the assistance of the most prominent specialists in forensic medicine, inasmuch as human imagination, having set definite logical limits to any crime, could only with difficulty then accept the existence of these machines. However, the results of the investigation corroborate in full the testimony of surviving witnesses regarding the murder vans and the German fascist mass murders of peaceful citizen s executed by this means. The report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the Stavropol region gives the first detailed description of the mechanism of these murder vans; and I am reading a quotation which the Tribunal will find on Page 268 of the document book, Paragraph 4. I quote this excerpt in full as the technical matter here detailed coincides with those technical details which the American Prosecution so fully reported to the TribunaL This is corroborative evidence, and is therefore important. I begin my quotation: "The mass extermination of peaceful citizens of the U.S.S.R. by the Germans was done by poisoning them with carbon monoxide in specially constructed machines or 'murder vans.' "Prisoner of war E.M. Fenchel testified: " While working as a motor mechanic, I had the opportunity of studying in detail the van construction especially adopted for suffocating and exterminating people with exhaust gases. There were several such vans in the town of Stavropol at the disposal of the Gestapo. " 'Their construction was as follows: The body was approximately 5 meters long by 21/z meters wide by approximately 2~/z meters in height. It was shaped like a railway car without windows. Inside it was lined with galvanized sheet iron; on the floor, also covered with galvanized iron, was a wooden grating. The door of the body was lined with rubber and was tightly closed with an automatic lock. On the floor of the van, under the grating, were two metal pipes.' " 19 Feb. 46 I omit the end of the sentence.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: " 'These pipes were connected with a transverse pipe of equal diameter....'" I omit the next part of the sentence. " 'These pipes had frequent holes a half centimeter in width. From the transverse pipe down through a hole in the galvanized iron floor went a rubber hose with a hexagonal screw at the end, threaded so as to fit the thread on the end of the engine exhaust pipe. This hose is screwed on to the exhaust pipe and when the engine is running all the exhaust gas goes into the body of this hermetically closed van. From the accumulation of these gases, a man inside the van died within a short space of time. The machine could contain approximately 70 to 80 people. The motor of this machine usually bore the trademark "Saner." "' I omit the following part of the quotation, because the data contained therein is already known to the Tribunal and I beg the Tribunal to pay attention to Page 270 of the document book, first paragraph, which says that in the Stavropol region the murder vans were used for the killing of 660 people who were ill in the local hospital. Further I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission regarding the Crimes of the German fascist criminals in Krasnodar. I submit this document to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-42 (Document Number USSR-42). It concerns the mass killing of people in murder vans. I will not quote this document. I pass on to Page 243. I submit to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-55 the verdict of the military tribunal of the North Caucasian Front. I wish only to quote a short excerpt from this verdict in order to save time. The Tribunal will find this on Page 439 of the document book, Volume II, Paragraph 2.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I begin the quotation: "The legal investigation has also ascertained as facts the systematic torture and burning, in the cellars of the Gestapo by the Hitlerite criminals, of many arrested Soviet citizens, as well as the extermination by carbon-monoxide gases in specially built cars (murder vans), that is, the asphyxiation of approximately 7,000 innocent Soviet people, including more than 700 patients from the hospitals of the town in Krasnodar region; among them were 42 children, from 5 to 16 years old." I omit the pages of the text. Next I submit to the Tribunal a report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union on the atrocities of the German fascist invaders in the town of Kharkov and the Kharkov region. I submit this document to the Tribunal under Document Number USSR-43. I will not quote this document, but will go over to another, more comprehensive document, namely, the verdict of the military tribunal of the 4th Ukrainian Front which was pronounced in this case. This document has been introduced to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-32 (Document Number USSR-32). The Tribunal will find this excerpt which I would like to quote on Page 222 of the document book, first paragraph. I begin the quotation: "For the mass executions of Soviet citizens the German fascist invaders used the so-called gas wagons: Large, closed cars which were known to the Russians as 'murder vans.' Into these gas wagons the German fascist invaders drove Soviet citizens and murdered them by special poisonous gas, carbonmonoxide. In order to hide the traces of the monstrous crimes committed and the mass extermination of Soviet people by way of asphyxiation with carbon-monoxide in these gas wagons, the German fascists burned the bodies of their victims." I conclude this quotation and omit the next page of the text and another page, and go on to Page 252 of my statement.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: In order to prove that the murder vans were used not only at places I mentioned, I now refer to a report of the Extraordinary State Commission which has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-9 (Document Number USSR-9), on the atrocities committed in the town of Kiev. The Tribunal will find there a proof of the fact that murder vans were used in Kiev.
THE PRESIDENT: We have just had handed up to us, in the written translation of your address, Page 234. We already had Page 234. Do you want this to be 234(a)? Is it just one page that you are handing up now?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: There is a different numbering in the English text, Mr. President; and it is difficult for me to talk about the text which is in your possession, because I simply do not know the numbering of the English translation. THE PRESII}ENT: Maybe it is 234(a)?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I am on Page 251 of the Russian text.
THE PRESIDENT: I think the better course will be to adjourn now and perhaps the slight muddle in these translations can be cleared up. [A recess was taken.]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I have interrupted my report of the wide application of murder vans in the temporarily occupied regions of the U.S.S.R.-that is, I interrupted the report of the Extraordinary State Commission concerning crimes in Rovno and the Rovno region. The members of the Tribunal will find reference to this on Page 291, second column of the text, Paragraph 10 of the document book. I limit myself to one paragraph only. I begin the quotation: "The extermination of peaceful citizens and prisoners of war in the town of Rovno used to take place by means of mass shooting from tommy-guns and machine guns, murder with carbon-monoxide in murder vans, while in separate instances people were thrown into pits and buried alive. Some of the victims, particularly those executed at the quarries near the village of Vydumka, were burned on special places prepared in advance." I end my quotation and go over to Page 253 of the text, Paragraph 3. Further, in conjunction with the same matter, I refer to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes in Minsk. The members of the Tribunal will find this quotation on Page 215 of the document book, second paragraph, second column of the text. I read one quotation from this report. I begin the quotation, "Thousands of Soviet citizens have perished in concentration camps at the hands of the German executioners." I omit the following four sentences and pass on to the testimony of witness Moisievitch. He says-I begin the quotation: "I was an eyewitness to the manner in which the Germans killed people in their murder vans. From 70 to 80 people were forced into a murder van and then driven away to an unknown destination." I end my quotation, and I ask the Tribunal's permission to draw its attention to the fact that in Minsk the principle of the murder van was used for stationary gas chambers, which were installed by the criminals in common bath houses. It is also mentioned in this report of the Extraordinary State Commission.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Further, I refer to the verdict of the court-martial of the Smolensk military region, dated 15-19 December 1945, which the Tribunal will find on Page 72 of the document book. There it is related that in Smolensk the Germans also employed special gas automobiles, the so-called murder vans for killing Soviet people with carbon-monoxide. It seems to me that it is not merely coincidence that murder vans appeared in the territory of the U.S.S.R. in the year of 1942. At that time the chief criminals were still quite convinced of victory and started carrying out in practice their premeditated plans for the extermination of the people of Europe. They were not then afraid of responsibility for these crimes. That is why in 1942 there appeared new links in the long chain of the crimes committed by the leaders of German fascism. The fascist technique of extermination was once again in full swing. It created murder vans, gas chambers in the concentration camps, special electrical appliances for the mass murder of the doomed, crematoria, and also "Zyklon" banks. Now, I pass over to the next section of my presentation: "Concentration camps for the peaceful population." Inasmuch as this subject has already been extensively treated by the members of the Prosecution who presented their cases before me, I shall try to be as brief as possible; I shall limit myself either only to absolutely new information or to the text of the documents which serve as an explanation to the movie films which will be shown today before the Tribunal. I beg to draw the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that at the end of 1941 and in 1942 the scale of German fascist crimes committed in concentration camps reached vast proportions. In particular, I refer to the report of the Polish Government in confirmation of this statement. On Page 138 of the document book the members of the Tribunal will find the testimony to the effect that in 1942 one of the most terrifying extermination camps, the Treblinka Camp Number 2, was in rapid process of erection.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The Germans called this "Treblinka B." Further, I refer to the report of the extraordinary State Commission on Auschwitz. The members of the Tribunal will find the extract which I am going to quote on Page 353 in the document book, Volume II, second column of the text, Paragraph 2. I quote a short excerpt from Page 257: "In 1941 the first crematorium for burning the corpses of murdered people was built in the Auschwitz Camp. This crematorium had three ovens. Attached to the crematorium was a so-called 'special purpose bath-house.' That was a gas chamber for asphyxiating people." I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the following sentence: "In the summer of 1942 the Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler inspected Auschwitz Camp and ordered it to be greatly enlarged and technically perfected." I end my quotation here, and I call the attention of the Tribunal to Page 136 on the reverse side of the document book; this is from a report of the Polish Government, which shows that the Camp Sobibur was founded during the first and second liquidation of the Jewish ghetto. But the extermination on a large scale in this camp really started at the beginning of 1943. In this same report, in the last paragraph on Page 136 of the document book, we may read that Camp Belsen was founded in 1940; but it was in 1942 that the special electrical appliances were built in for mass extermination of people. Under the pretext that the people were being led to the bath-house, the doomed were undressed and then driven to the building where the floor was electrified in a special way; there they were killed. Usually the concentration camps of German fascism can be divided into two groups: the labor concentration camps and the extermination camps. It seems to me that such a differentiation is not quite correct, because the labor camps also served the purpose of extermination. I omit two pages of the text and I pass on to the Page 260. In confirmation of what I said just now, I refer to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission relative to Yanov Camp in the city of Lvov.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The Tribunal will find this on Page 59 in the document book, Paragraph 5 of the first column of the text. But at the same time, I ask the members of the Tribunal to refer to Page 6 of the album of documents relative to the Lvov Camp. One of them is a picture of "a trench in the valley of death." The ground is soaked with human blood to the depth of 11/2 meters. On the next pages are shown the belongings taken from the executed persons. This picture was taken by the experts of legal medicine about 2 months after the mass shootings. From the reports of the Extraordinary State Commission on crimes in the Yanov Camp it can be seen that here in what was officially a usual work camp, over 200,000 Soviet citizens were exterminated, according to the findings of the legal experts. I quote only the first paragraph on Page 261 of the Russian text. I begin the quotation: "In view of the total area of burial grounds and the area of 2 square kilometers in which the ashes and bones were scattered as well the expert commission concluded that in the Yanov Camp there were exterminated over 200,000 Soviet citizens." I omit the next part of my presentation, which deals with the regime of starvation in concentration camps. This was already very well presented by the representative of the British Prosecution, Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe. This must be already quite clear to the Tribunal and I don't think it will be necessary to give any additional proofs. But I ask the Tribunal's permission for a presentation of evidence on a camp which was created by the German fascists only during the last stage of the war. I refer to Page 265 of my presentation. Maidanek and Auschwitz camps served as a means of extermination only for those who really were sent to these camps.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: These two camps were not a direct menace for those people who were outside the walls of the camp; but, in the course of the war, having already suffered grave defeats, German fascism began to practice new bestialities for exterminating peaceful citizens-thus, in Bielorussia camps of death, not only to exterminate the inmates of the camp itself but, first and foremost, to spread infectious diseases among the peaceful population and the ranks of the Red Army. There were no crematoria and gas chambers in these camps but these camps should in all justice be considered as among the most brutal concentration camps which were created by fascism for extermination of people. I present to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-4 (Document Number USSR-4) the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union for the investigation of the murder of people by means of spreading typhus epidemics. Such evidence was not presented before, and I shall therefore quote several excerpts from this report. I begin the quotation on Page 454 of the document book, first column of the text, first paragraph; last paragraph on Page 266 of the Russian text. I begin the quotation: "On 19 March 1944 advancing Red Army units discovered, near the settlement of Osaritchi in the region of Polesskoy in the Bielorussian S.S.R., within the limits of German defense lines, three concentration camps in which there were over 33,000 children, women, and old men incapable of work." I interrupt my quotation, and I omit one paragraph. "The camps were really open squares surrounded by barbed wire. The approaches to them were mined. There were no buildings whatever even of the most insignificant type in the camp grounds." I call the Tribunal's attention to the fact that all this happened in March, in Bielorussia, when it is really very cold there. "The inmates were sitting on the ground. Many of them had lost their ability to move and were lying unconscious in the mud. It was forbidden to the inmates to build fires, to gather brush or branches for bedding.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The Hitlerites shot Soviet people for the slightest attempt to violate this order. "For concentration camps close to the nearest line of defense, the Germans, in the first place, selected sites in such places where they did not hope to retain their position. Secondly, they concentrated large masses of Soviet people in the camps, placing there primarily women, children, and old men unable to work. Thirdly, they placed in these camps thousands of typhus patients who were brought from various temporarily occupied regions of the Bielorussian S.S.R., especially for this purpose. They were kept together with the starved, weak inmates who no longer could serve as labor and who were living there under the most unhygienic conditions. "Among those liberated from these camps were 15,960 children up to the age of 13; 13,072 women incapable of work, and 4,448 old men." I omit the next page and read Page 269 of the Russian text. I quote only one paragraph which reveals the methods used by the criminals to drive into the camps peaceful citizens from various regions of Bielorussia. Witness Mrs. L. Pikarskaya, who was liberated from the camp, testified before the commission: "On 12 March 1944 late in the afternoon, we, the inhabitants of the city of Jlobin, were forced to assemble within half an hour at the station Jlobin South. Here the Germans selected all the young ones and took them away. Having herded us into railroad cars, the Germans closed the doors tightly. Where we were going we didn't know, but we all anticipated some evil.... "As we found out later on, we were taken along the Rudobelkovsky railway and unloaded late in the afternoon on 15 March. During the night, knee deep in sticky mud, we were driven into a camp. From this camp were driven into another one. On the way the Germans beat us, and those who lagged behind were shot. One woman was walking with three children. One of the children fell down. The Germans shot at him. Horrified, the mother and the two other children looked back; the monster soldiers shot them down one by one.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The mother cried out in agony, but her shriek was interrupted by a direct shot. Another mother and son, the Bondarews, walked side by side. The child could not stand the tiring journey and fell down. The mother bent over him, she wanted to encourage him with a word; but neither the son nor the mother rose or saw the blue sky again; the Germans shot them." I omit the next page of this document and I pass to the presentation of some evidence testifying to the fact that the Germans purposely concentrated in this camp the typhus-stricken people. I quote three paragraphs from Page 271 of this text: "A. S. Mitrachovich, a resident of the village of Novo-Belitza who was liberated from the camp, testified: " 'We who were sick with typhus were driven to the village of Mikul-Gorodok into a camp surrounded by barbed wire.' "An inhabitant of the hamlet of Novogrudok, Z. P. Gavrilchik, testified: " 'During 3 days typhus-stricken patients were brought in motor cars into camp, with the result that many who were healthy also became sick.'" I omit the next two pages of the document and I pass over to what the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 254, on the reverse side, second column of the text, Paragraph 6. I quote: "The German Army Command used to send their own agents to the camps near the front line to observe how the typhus was spreading among the inmates and also among the Red Army units." Next there is the testimony of one of such agents, the traitor Rastorguev. I omit this quotation. To conclude the presentation of evidence relative to this matter, I shall only quote a few excerpts from the findings of the medical experts of epidemical diseases. The Tribunal will find it on the back of Page 454, second column of the text. This is Page 274 of the Russian text. I begin the quotation: "(a) The German authorities placed together in concentration camps both the healthy and the typhus-stricken Soviet citizens. "(b) In order to expedite the dissemination of typhus in the camps, the Germans used to transfer the typhus patients from one camp to another.