(NO-3143) In the vicinity of Ostrowo, the resident Jews, according to Report No. 124, dated October 25, 1941, had repeatedly shown hostile conduct and disobedience to "the German authorities". Thus, the current kommando went into Ostrowo and shot 169 Jews.
(NO.3160) In Marina-Gorka, the labor assigned to Jews was done, according to Report No. 124, dated October 25, 1941, "very reluctantly". Thus, 996 Jews end Jewesses were given "special treatment."
(NO-3160) Report No. 108, dated October 9, 1941, advises that for the death of 21 German soldiers near Topola, 2,100 Jews and Gypsies were to be executed, thus a ratio of 100 to one.
There is no pretense in the report that any of the 2,100 slain were in the slightest way connected with the shooting of Germans. (NO-3156) An item in Operation Report No. 108, October 9, 1941, points out that "19 Jews who were under suspicion of having either been communists or of having committed arson" were executed.
(NO-3156) In Mogilew, the Jewish women were "extremely resistive" and not wearing the prescribed badge, so 28 of them were liquidated.
(NO-3156) Report No. 73, dated September 4, 1941, acquaints the world with the fact that 733 civilians were exterminated in Minsk, the reason being that they "were absolutely inferior elements with a predominant mixture of Asiatic blood."
The method of determining the inferiority of character and the predominance of Asiatic blood is not indicated. (NO-2844) The executioners were, however, not always without thought for the Jews.
Sometimes apparently the liquidation took place for the benefit of the Jews themselves. Thus, Einsatzgruppe B reported in December 1941:
"In Gorodok, the Ghetto had to be evacu ated because of the danger of an epidemic, 394 Jews were shot."
(NO-2833) Einsatzgruppe C, reporting on conditions in Radomyschl, declared:
"A supply of food for the Jews as well as for the children was impracticable.
In consequence, there was an ever in creasing danger of epidemics."
(NO-3149) The situation was met bravely and chivalrously:
"To putaan end to these conditions 1,107 Jewish adults were shot by the kommando and 561 Juveniles by the Ukrainian militia.
Thereby, the Son derkommando has taken care of a total of 11,328 Jews till 6 September 1941."
(NO-3149) Operational Report No. 92, dated September 23, 1941, related how scabies had broken out in the ghetto of Newel.
"In order to prevent further contagion, 640 Jews were liquidated and the houses burnt down." This treatment undoubtedly overcame the scabies. (NO-3143) The same report proclaims further that, in the town of Janowitschi, a contagious disease, accompanied by fever, broke out.
It was feared that the disease might spread to the city and the rural population. To prevent this from happening, 1,025 Jews were shot. The report closes proudly with the statement: "This operation was carried out solely by a commander end 12 men." (NO-3143) As the kommandos became more and more familiar with the therapeutic capabilities of their rifles, they turned to the field of preventive medicine.
In October of 1941, the kommando leader in Witebsk came to the conclusion that there was an "imminent danger of epidemics" in the town, and to forestall that this should come to pass, he shot 3,000 Jews. (NO-3160) Mention had been made of the execution of the insane.
The reports are dotted with references to the liquidation of inmates of mental institutions. It seems that the kommandos, in addition to the executions carried out under their own orders, were ready to perform other killings on request. Einsatzgruppe C reports that a teilkommando of Sonderkommando, 4a, passing through Tschernigow, was asked by the director of the mental asylum to liquidate 270 incurable.
The teilkommando obliged. (NO-2832) In Poltawa, Sonderkommando 4b found that the insane asylum located there maintained a farm for the inmates.
Since there was not enough full cream milk in the town to supply the three large German military hospitals there, the milk shortage was met by executing a part of the insane. The report on the subject explains:
"A way out of this difficulty was found by deciding that the execution of 565 incurables should be carried out in the course of the next few days under the pretext that these patients were being removed to a better asylum in Charkow."
(NO-2832) It was also stated:
"The underwear, clothing and other wearing apparel collected on this oc casion have also been handed over mainly to the hospitals."
(NO-2827) The grim casualness with which these exdcutions were conducted comes to light in an item taken from a report made by the Russian Government (USSR-41) which reads:
"On 22 August 1941, mental patients from the Psychiatric Hospital in Daunapilsk -- approximately 700 adults and 60 children -- were shot in the small town of Aglon.
Among them were 20 healthy children who had been temp orarily transferred to the building of the hospital from a Children's home."
(USSR-41) Report No. 47, dated August 9, 1941, after generally discussing conditions in the Ukraine, stated of the operations of Einsatzgruppe C: "Last but not least, systematic reprisals against marauders and Jews were carried out."
Under their meticulous taskmasters, the Jews were bound to be wrong no matter what they did. If they were their badges they could expect maltreatment, since they were recognized as Jews; if they left them off, they were punished for not wearing them. If they remained in the wretched and overcrowded ghettos they suffered from hunger, if they left in order to obtain food they were "marauding".
Operation Report No. 132, describing the activities of Einsatzkommando 5, declared that, between October 13 and October 19, 1941, it had among others executed 21 people guilty of sabotage and looting, and 1,847 Jews. It also reported the shooting of 300 insane Jews, which achievement, according to the report, "represented a particularly heavy burden for the members of Einsatzkommando 5 who were in charge of this operation". (NO-2830) Operation Report No. 194, detailing the activities of Einsatzkommando 8, states that, from March 6 to March 30, 1942, this kommando executed:
"20 Russians for subversive Communist activities, sabotage and membership of the NKWD, 5 Russians because of theft, burglary and embezzlements, 33 Gypsies, 1,551 Jews."
Einsatzkommando 5, for the period between November 2 and November 8, 1941 killed, as Report No. 143 succinctly states:
"15 political officials, 21 saboteurs and looters, 414 hostages, 10,650 Jews."
Report No. 150, dated January 2, 1942, speaking of actions in the Western Crimea, stated:
"From 16 November thru 15 December 1941, 17,645 Jews, 2,504; Krimtschaks, 824 Gypsies and 212 Communists and partisans have been shot."
The report also states, as if talking of Cleaning out swamps:
"Simferopol, Jewpatoria, Aluschta, Kar asubasar, Kertsch and Foodosia and other districts of the Western Crimea have been cleaned of Jews."
One report complains that the Wehrmacht had failed to plan the executions and, consequently, many Jews escaped. This irritated the report-writer considerably. He stated:
"Naturally,the systematic action of Einsatzkommando 5 suffered extremely by these planless excesses against the Jews in Uman.
In particular, a large number of the Jews were now forewarned and escaped from the city.
Besides the numerous Jews, many of the Ukrain ian officials and activistssstill liv ing in Uman, were warned by the excesses, and only two co-workers of the NKWD were found and liquidated.
The re sults of these excesses were cleaned up immediately by Einsatzkommando 5, after its arrival."
(No-3404) It rill be noted that the word "excesses" is here used in its opposite sense, that is deficiency.
Not as many persons were killed as should have been.
It also objected that people talked about these executions:
"Rumors about executions in other areas rendered action at Simferopol very dif ficult.
Reports about actions against Jews gradually filter through from fleeing Jews, Russians, and also from unguarded talks of German soldiers."
(NO-2834) In spite of these difficulties the operations were not entirely unsuccessful because this particular report sums up with:
"Altogether, 75,881 persons have been executed."
A report from the northern Crimea reads:
"Between i and 15 February, 1,451 persons were executed, of which 920 were Jews, 468 Communists, 45 partisans and 12 looters, saboteurs, associals.
Total up to now is 86,632."
(NO-3339) Einsutzgruppe D, giving an account of its activities from October 1 to October 15, 1941, stated in Report No. 117:
"The districts occupied by the kom mandos were cleaned out of Jews.
4,091 Jews and 46 Communists were ex ecuted in the time the report covers, bringing the total up to 40,699."
(NO-3406) Coming back to Simferopol, in Report No. 153, dated January 9, 1942, we find:
"The operational areas of the teilkommandos, particularly in smaller villages, were pruged of Jews, During the period covered by the report, 3,176 Jews, 85 partisans, 12 looters, and 122 Communist officials were shot.
Sun total: 79,276. In Simfero pol, apart from Jews also the Krimtscjak and Gypsy question was solved". (NO-3258).An entry from Operational Situation Report Nr. 3, on the period August 15 to August 3, 1941, states.
"During a scruting of the civilian prison camp in Hinsk, 615 persons were liquidated.
All those executed were racially inferior elements". (NO-2653).Many more examples could be given from the reports but the above will suffice to indicate their tenor and scope and the attitude of those who participated in the events described therein.
How did the action groups operate? As kommando leaders entered a town they immediately assembled what they called a Jewish Council of Elders made up of from 10 to 25 Jews, according to the size of the town. These Jews, usually the more prominent ones, and always including a Rabbi, were instructed to register the Jewish population of the community for the purpose of resettlement. The registration completed, the Jews were ordered to appear at a given place, or vehicles went to their homes to collect them. Then they were transported into the woods and shot. The last step of the kommando in closing the books in the whole transaction was to call on the Council of Elders, express appreciation for their cooperation, invite then to mount the truck standing outside, drive them out to the same spot in the woods, and shoot them, too. One report illustrates the procedure described:
"The Jew a of the city were ordered to present themselves at a certain place and time for the purpose of numerical registration and housing in a camp.
About 54,000 reported, including women and children.
After they had been made to give up their clothing and valuables, all were killed; this took several days". (NOKW-2129) Another report lauded the leader of Einsatzkommando 4b for his resourcefulness and skill in rounding up the intelligentsia of Winnica:
Caurt 2 case 9 "He called for the most prominent Rabbi of the town ordering him to collect within 24 hours the whole of the Jewish intelligentsia and told him they would be required for certain registration work.
When this first collection was insuffi cient in numbers, the intellectual Jews assembled were sent away again with the order to collect themselves more of the intellectual Jews and to appear with these the following day."
(NO-2947) And then the report ends triumphantly on the note:
"This method was repeated for a third time so that in this manner nearly the entire intelligentsia was got hold of and liquidated."
In Kiev a clever stratagem was employed to ensnare the Jews. The word "clever" is taken from the report covering the action:
"The difficulties resulting from such a large scale action - in particular concerning the seizure - were overcome in Kiev by requesting the Jewish population through wall posters to move.
Although only a participation of approximately 5,000 to 6,000 Jews had been expected at first, more than.
30,000 Jews arrived who, until the very moment of their execution, still believed in their resettlement, thanks to an extremely clever organization."
Practically every page of these reports runs with blood and is edged with a black border of misery and desolation. In every paragraph one feels the steel and flinty pen with which the report-writer cuts through the orange described therein. Report No. 94 tells of Jews who, driven from their homes, were compelled to seek primitive existence in caves and abandoned huts. The rigors of the elements, lack of food and adequate clothing inevitably produced serious illnesses. The report-writer chronicles:
"The danger of epidemics has thus increased considerably, So that, for that reason alone, a thorough clean-up of the respective places became necessary."
and then, he adds:
"The insolence of the Jews has not yet diminished even now."
Thus, after evicting, starving and shooting their victims the evictors still complained: The Jews were not even courteous to their executioners!
One of the defendants denied that there were any Jews in his territory. In this connection the prosecution introduced an interesting letter from one Jacob, Laster of Field Police to his Commanding General. The letter, dated June 21, 1942, is very chatty and companiable, the writer sends birthday greetings to the addresses, talks about his horses, his girl-friend, and then casually about Jews:
"I don't know if you, General, have also seen in Poland such horrible figures of Jews.
I thank the fate I saw this mongrel race like the man in the youngest days.
....
Now, of the 24,000 Jews living here in Kamenets Podolsk we have only a disappearing percentage left.
The little Jews (Juedlein) living in the districts (Rayons) also belong to our customers.
We surge ahead without pinges of conscience, and then.
... the waves close and the world is at peace."
But then he becomes serious and determines to be hard with himself for the sake of his country.
"I thank you for your reprimand. You are right.
we men of the new Germany have to be hard with our selves.
Even if it means a longer separation from our family.
Now is the time to clean up with the war criminals, once and forever, to create for our descendants a more beautiful and eternal Germany.
we don't sleep here. Every week 3-4 actions, one time Gypsies, the other time Jews, partisans and other rabble.
It is very nice that we hove now a SD unit (SD Aussenkommando) with which I can work excellently."
In another letter this officer becomes very sentimental and is sorry for himself that he is far away from home and thinks of his children: "One could weep sometimes. It is not good to be such a friend of children as I was." However, this does not prevent him from taking up lodging in a former Children's Asylum.
"I have a cozy apartment in a farmer children's asylum.
One bedroom and a livingroom with all the accessories."
The Magnitude of the Enterprise One million human corpses is a concept too bizarre and too fantastical for normal mental comprehension.
As suggested before, the mention of one million deaths produces no shock at all commensurate with its enormity because to the average brain one million is more a symbol than a quantitative measure. However, if one reads through the reports of the Einsatzgruppen and observes the small numbers getting larger, climbing into ten thousand, tens of thousands, a hundred thousand and beyond, then one can at last believe that this actually happened - the cold-blooded, premeditated killing of one million human beings.
Operation Report 88, reporting on the activities of only one kommando, states that up to September 6, 1941, this Kommando 4a "has taken care of a total of 11,328 Jews".
Einsatzgruppe A, reporting its activities up to October 15, 1941, very casually declares: "In Latvia, up to now, 30,000 Jews were executed in all".
Einsatzgruppe D, reporting on an operation near Kikerino, announces that the operational area has been "cleared of Jews. From 19 August to 25 September 1941, 8,890 Jews and Communists were executed. Total number 13,315".
This same Einsatzgruppe communicated from Nikolajew as of November 5, 1941, that total executions had reached the figure of 31,767.
Reporting on one month's activities (October 1941), Einsatzgruppe B advised that "during the period of the report, the liquidations of 37,180 people took place".
Einsatzgruppe C, reporting on its operations in Kiew as of October 12, 1941, declared that Sonderkommando 4a had now reached the total number of more than 51,000 executions.
The Commissioner General for White Ruthenia reported with selfapprobation on August 10, 1942:
"During detailed consultations with the SS-Brigadefuehrer Zenner and the extremely capable Chief of the SD, SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Dr. jur.
Strauch, we found that we had liquidated approximately 55,000 Jews in White Ruthenia during the last 10 weeks".Speaking of another place, the Commissioner General proclaimed:
"In the Minsk-Land area the Jewry was completely exterminated." Then he complained that the Army had been encroaching on the Einsatz prerogatives:
"The preparations for the liquidation of the Jews in the Glebokie area were completely disrupted by an arbitrary action by the Rear Army Area, which has already been reported to your office.
In the Rear Army Area - I was not contacted, 10,000 Jews were liquidated who were scheduled for extermination by us anyway".However, the Commissioner General quickly got over his resentment and went on with his narrative:
"In the city of Minsk, about 10,000 Jews were liquidated on 28 and 29 July, 6,500 of whom were Russian Jews mainly old people, women and children - the remainder consisted of Jews unfit for work, most of whom had been sent to Minsk from Vienna, Bruenn, Bremen and Berlin in November of the previous year, at the Fuehrer's orders.
The Sluzk area was also ridded of several thousand Jews.
The same applies to Nowogrodek and Wilejka".In Baranowitschi and Hanzewitschi he found that the killings had not been going as well as he desired:
"Radical measures still remain to be taken." He explained: "In Baranowitschi, about 10,000 Jews are still living in the town alone." However, he would attend to that situation at once. He promised that 9,000 of them would be "liquidated next month."
As of October 15, 1941, Einsatzgruppe A declared that the sum total of Jews executed in Lithuania was 71,105.
As an appendix to the report, Einsatzgruppe A submitted the inventory of the people killed as a business house might submit a list of stock on hand:
"Total: Jews Communists Total Lithuania 80,311 860 81,171 Latvia 30,025 1,845 31,868 Estonia 474 684 1,158 White Ruthenia 7.620 - - 7,620 ------ ----- -----to be added to these figures:
"In Lithuania and Latvia Jews annihilated by pogroms 5,500 Jews, Communists and partisans executed in old Russian area 2,000 Lunatics executed 748 ------(correct total 130,065) 122,455 Communists and Jews liquidated by State Police, and Security Service Tilsit during search actions 5,502 ------135,567"
THE PRESIDENT:Judge Dixon will continue with reading of the opinion and the judgment.
JUDGE DIXON:It would not take, and it did not take many reapings of this character to reach the figure of one million.
Operational Report No. 190, speaking of the activities of Einsatzgruppe D, announces quite matter-of-fact that , in the second half of March 1942, a total of 1,501 people were executed, and then adds, perhaps boredly: "Total number shot up to date, 91,678".
Descanting on the activities of Einsatzgruppe A, around Leningrad, Operation Report No. 150 declares: "There is no longer any Jewish civil population".
Activity and Situation Report No. 9, covering the period of January 1942, apprised Berlin:
"In White Ruthenia the purge of Jews is in full swing.
The number of Jews in the Territory handed over to the civil authorities up to now, amounts to 139,000.
33,210 Jews were shot meanwhile by the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD."
A special report prepared by Einsatzgruppe A, committed to the Eastern Territories, left nothing to conjecture as to the purpose of their organization.
"The systematic mopping up of the Eastern Territories embraced, in accordance with the basic orders, the complete removal, if possible, of Jewry.
This goal has been substantially attained - with the exception of White Russia - as a result of the execution up to the present time, of 229,052 Jews."
Referring specifically to Lithuania, the report carried the observation that many of the Jews used force against the officials and Lithuanian auxiliaries who performed these excutions and that, before they were shot, they even abused Germany!
Describing operations in White Ruthania, Einsatzgruppe A complained that it did not take over this area until a heavy frost had set in. The report points out this "made mass executions much more difficult". And then another difficulty, the report-writer emphasizes, is that the Jews "live widely scattered over the whole country. In view of the enormous distances, the bad condition of the roads, the shortage of vehicles and petrol, and the small forces of Security Police and SD, it needs the utmost effort in order to be able to carry out shootings."
The report-writer almost wistfully complains that the Jews were unreasonable in not coming themselves over these long distances to present themselves for shooting. In spite of all the difficulties, however, the report ends up with: "Nevertheless, 41,000 Jews have been shot up to now."
So inured had the executioners become to the business of death that in one report, where the question of setting up a ghetto was concerned the report-writer communicated that in getting things started there would be "executions of a minor nature of 50 to 100 persons only".
Report No, 155, dated January 14, 1942, disclosed that in Audrini "On 2 January, at the order of Einsatzgruppe A of the Security Police and the Security Service, the village was completely burnt down after removal of all foodstuffs, etc.
, and all the villagers shot.
301 men were publicly shot in the market square of the neighboring town, Rossitten".The report ends on the very casual note:
"All these actions were carried out without incident."
A town had been pillaged and destroyed and all its inhabitants massacred. In another village 301 people were herded into the public square and shot down mercilessly. But for the report-writer this mass violence did not even constitute an incident!
On two days alone (September 29 and September 30, 1941) Sonderkommando 4a, with the help of the Gruppenstaff and two Police Units, slaughtered in Kiew 33,771 Jews. The money, valuables, underwear and clothing of the murdered victims were turned over to the racial Germans and to the Nazi administration of the city. The massacre ends up with the phrase:
"The transaction was carried out without friction - " and then adds, as he was about to put away the typewriter:
"No incidents occurred."
The shooting of Jews eventually became a routine job and at times kommandos sought to avoid executions, not out of charity or sympathy, but because it meant just that much more work. The defendant Nosske testified to a caravan of from 6,000 to 7,000 Jews who had been driven across the Dnjester River by the Rumanians into territory occupied by the German forces, and whom he guided back across the river.
When asked why these Jews had been expelled from Rumania, Nosske replied:
"I have no idea. I assume that the Rumanians wanted to get rid of them and sent them into the German territory so that we would have to shoot them, and we would have the trouble of shooting them.
We didn't want to do that.
We didn't want to do the work for the Rumanians, and we never did, nor at all other places where something similar happened.
We refused it and, therefore, we sent them back."
One or two Defense Counsel have asserted that the number of deaths resulting from acts of the organizations to which the defendants belonged did not reach the total of one million. As a matter of fact, it went far beyond one million. As already indicated, the International Military Tribunal, after a trial lasting ten months, studying and analyzing figures and reports, declared:
"The RSHA played a leading part in the 'final solution' of the Jewish question by the extermination of the Jews.
A special section, under the AMT IV of the RSHA was established to supervise this program.
Under its direc tion, approximately six million Jews were murdered of which two million were killed by Einsatzgruppen and other units of the Security Police."
Ohlendorf, in testifying before the International Military Tribunal, declared that, according to the reports, his Einsatzgruppe killed 90,000 people. He also told of the methods he employed to prevent the exaggeration of figures. He did say that other Einsatzgruppen were not as careful as he was in presenting totals, but he presented no evidence to attack numbers presented by other Einsatzgruppen. Reference must also be made to the statement of the defendant Heinz Schubert who not only served as adjutant to Ohlendorf in the field from October 1941 to June 1942, but who continued in the same capacity of adjutant in the RSHA, Office Amt III B, for both Ohlendorf and Dr. Hans Emlich, until the end of 1944. If there was any question about the correctness of the figures, this is where the question would have been raised, but Schubert expressed no doubt nor did he say that these individuals who were momently informed in the statistics entertained the slightest doubt about them in any way.
Schubert showed very specifically the care which was taken to prepare the reports and to avoid errors:
"The Einsatzgruppe reported in two ways to the Reich Security Head Office.
Once through radio, then in writing.
The radio reports were kept strictly secret and, apart from Ohlendorf, his deputy Standartenfuehrer Willi Seibert and the head telegraphist Fritsche, nobody, with the exception of the radio personnel, was alloed to enter the radio station.
This is the reason why only the above-mentioned persons had knowledge of the exact contents of these radio reports.
The reports were dictated directly to Fritsche by Ohlendorf or Seibert.
After the report had been sent off by Fritsche I received it for filing.
In cases in which numbers of executions were reported a space was left open, so that I never knew the total amount of persons killed.
The written reports were sent to Berlin by courier.
These reports contained exact details and des criptions of the places in which the actions had taken place, the course of the operations, losses, number of places destroyed and persons killed, arrest of agents, reports on interrogations, reports on the civilian sector, etc."
The defendant Blume testified that he completely dismissed the thought of ever filing a false report because he regarded that as unworthy of himself.
THE PRESIDENT:The Tribunal will now be in recess fifteen minutes.
THE MARSHAL:The Tribunal will be in recess until 11:15 o'clock.
(recess)
THE MARSHAL:The Tribunal is again in session.
THE PRESIDENT:Judge Dixon continues with the reading of the opinion and judgment.
JUDGE DIXON:Then, the actual figures mentioned in the reports, staggering though they are, do by no means tell the entire story. Since the objective of the Einsatzgruppen was to exterminate all people falling in the categories announced in the Fuehrer-Order, the completion of the job in any given geographical area was often simply announced with the phrase: "There is no longer any Jewish population." Cities, towns and villages were combed by the kommandos and when all Jews in that particular community were killed, the report-writer laconically telegraphed or wrote to Berlin that the section in question was "freed of Jews". Sometimes the extermination area covered a whole country like Esthonia or a large territory like the Crimea. In determining the numbers killed in a designation of this character one needs merely to study the atlas and the census of the period in question. Sometimes the area set aside for an execution operation was arbitrarily set according to kommandos. Thus one finds in the reports such entries as: "The fields of activity of the kommandos is freed of all Jews."
And then there were the uncounted thousands who dies a death premeditated by the Einsatz units without their having to do the killing. When Jews were herded into a few miserable houses which were fenced off and called a "ghetto", this was incarceration -- but incarceration without a prison warden to bring them food. The reports make it abundantly clear that in these ghettos death was rampant, even before the Einsatz units began the killing off of the survivors. When, in a given instance, all male Jews and Jewesses over the age of 12 were executed, there remained, of course, all the children under 12. They were doomed to perish. Then there were those who were worked to death. All these fatalities are unmistakably chronicled in the Einsatz Reports, but do not show up in their statistics.
In addition, it must be noted that there were other vast numbers of victims of the Einsatzgruppen who did not fall under the executing rifles.
In many cities, towns end provinces hundreds and thousands of fellow-citizens of those slain fled in order to avoid a similar fate. Through malnutrition, exposure, lack of medical attention and particularly, if one thinks of the aged and the very young, of exhaustion, most if not all of those refugees perished. These figures, of course, do not appear in the Einsatzgruppen Reports, but the criminal responsibility for their deaths falls upon the Fuehrer-Order program as much as the actual shooting deaths.
Employment as Labor Before Execution At times, part of the Jewish population in a given community was temporarily spared, not for humanitarian reasons, but for economic purposes.
Thus, a report from Esthonia specifies:
"The arrest of all male Jews of over 16 years of age has been nearly finished.
With the exception of the doctors and the Elders of the Jews who were appointed by the Special Kommandos, they were executed by the Self-Protection Units under the control of the Spe cial Detachment 1 a. Jewesses in Pernau and Reval of the age groups from 16 to 60 who are fit for work were arrested and put to peat-cutting or other labor."
(L-180) In Lithuania, however, the executions went so fast that there was a great shortage of doctors for the non-Jewish population:
"More than 60% of the dentists were Jews; more than 50% of the other doctors as well.
The disappearance of these brings about an extreme shortage of doctors which cannot be overcome even by bringing in doctors from the Reich."
(L-180) A report from the Ukraine in September 1941 recommends that the Jews be killed by working and not by shooting:
"There is only one possibility which the German ad ministration in the Generalgouvernement has neglec ted for a long time:
Solution of the Jewish prob lem by extensive labor utilization of the Jews.
This will result in a gradual liquidation of the Jewry -- a development, which corresponds to the economic conditions of the country."
(NO-3151) In the cities of Latvia, German agencies used Jews as forced unpaid manpower, but there was always the danger that, despite these economic advantages to the Germans, the security police would shoot the working Jews.
(NO-3146) Einsatzgruppe C reports in September 1941:
"Difficulties have arisen, in so far as Jews are often the only skilled workers in certain trades.
Thus, the only harness-makers and the only good tailors at Nowo-Ukrainka are Jews.
At other places also only Jews can be employed for carpentry and locksmith work.
"In order not to endanger reconstruction and the repair work also for the benefit of transient troop units, it has become necessary to exclude provisionally especially the older Jewish skilled workers from the executions."
(NO-3146) In a certain part of the Ukraine, described as between Krivoi-Rog and Dnepropetrovsk, collective farms, known as Colchoses,were found to be operated by Jews.
They were described in the report as being of low intelligence but since they were good workers the einsatz commander did not liquidate them. However, the report goes on to say that the einsatz commander was satisfied with merely shooting the Jewish managers. (NO-3153) The Nazi Commissioner-General for White Ruthenia, reporting in July 1942, expressed quite frankly his desire to strike down all Jews in one murderous stroke.
However, he was willing to stay his arm temporarily until the requirements of the Wehrmacht should be satisfied:
"I myself and the SD would certainly much prefer that the Jewish population in the District General of White Ruthenia should be eliminated once and for all when the economic requirements of the Wehrmacht have fallen off.
For the time being, the necessary require ments of the Wehrmacht who is the main employed of the Jewish population are still being considered."
(3428-PS) Operation Report No. 11, dated July 3, 1941, also explains that in the Baltic region the Wehrmacht is not "for the time being" in a position to dispense with the manpower of the Jews still available and fit for work.
(NO-4537) It must not be assumed, however, that once being assigned to work the Jews were free from molestation.
Einsatzgruppe B, reporting on affairs in Witebsk, declared:
"By appointed Jewish Council, so far about 3,000 Jews registered.
Badges for Jews introduced.
At present they are being employed with clearing rub ble.
For deterrent, 27 Jews, who had not come to work, were publicly shot in the streets."
(NO-2954) One report-writer, describing conditions in Esthonia, complained that as the Germans advanced, the Esthonians arrested Jews but did not kill them.
He shows the superior methods of the Einsatzgruppe:
"Only by the Security Police and the SD were the Jews gradually executed as they became no longer required for work."
(2273-PS) He then adds as an obvious deduction:
"Today there are no longer any Jews in Esthonia."
Just as a heartless tradesman may work a superannuated horse until he has drained from its body the last ounce of utility, so did the action unit in Minsk dispose of the Jews:
"In Minsk itself--exclusive of Reich Germans -- there are about 1,800 Jews living, whose shooting must be post poned in consideration of their being used as labor."
(2273-PS) In White Ruthenia the kommando leaders were instructed on orders of Heydrich to suspend the killing of Jews until after they had brought in the harvest.
Instigation to Pogroms Certain Einsatzkommandos committed a crime which, from a moral point of view, was perhaps even worse than their own directly committed murders, that is, their inciting of the population to abuse, maltreat and slay their fellow citizens.
To invade a foreign country, seize innocent inhabitants and shoot them is a crime, the mere statement of which is its own condemnation. But to stir up passion, hate, violence and destruction among the people themselves, aims at breaking the moral backbone, even of those the invader chooses to spare. It sows seeds of crime which the invader intends to bear continuous fruit, even after he is driven out.
On the question of criminal knowledge it is significant that some of those responsible for these shameless crimes endeavored to keep them secret. SS-Brigadier General Stahlecker, head of Einsatzgruppe A, reporting on activities of Einsatzgruppe A, stated in October 1941 that it was the duty of his Security Police to set in motion the passion of the population against the Jews. "It was not less important", the report continued, "In view of the future to establish the unshakable and provable fact that the liberated population themselves took the most severe measures against the Bolshe vist and Jewish enemy quite on their own, so that the directions by German author ities could not be found out."
(L-180) In Riga this same Stahlecker reported:
"Similarly, native anti-Semitic forces were induced to start pogroms against Jews during the first hours after cap ture, though this inducement proved to be very difficult.
Following out ord ers, the Security Police was determined to solve the Jewish question with all possible means and most decisively.
But it was desirable that the Security Po lice should not put in an immediate ap pearance, at least in the beginning, since the extraordinarily harsh measures were apt to stir even German circles.
It had to be shown to the world that the na tive population itself took the first ac tion by way of natural reaction against the suppression by Jews during several decades and against the terror exercised by the Communists during the preceding period."
(L-180) Stahlecker was surprised and disappointed that in Lithuania it was not so easy to start pogroms against the Jews.
However, after certain prodding and assistance, results were attained. He reports:
"Klimatis, the leader of the partisan unit, mentioned above, who was used for this pur pose primarily, succeeded in starting a pogrom on the basis of advice given to him by a small advanced detachment acting in Kowno, and in such a way that no German order or German instigation was noticed from the outside.
During the first pogrom in the night from 25 to 26 June the Lith uanian partisans did away with more than 1,500 Jews, set fire to several synagogues or destroyed them by other means and burn ed down a Jewish dwelling district con sisting of about 60 houses.