Chapter XV: Front Matter (15)

I believe that it was not by accident that the experiments on people began with sterilization and castration. This was a quite natural result of the theories of German fascism, interested in lowering the birthrate of those people whom they considered to be vanquished. It was a part of Hitler’s depopulation technique; and in confirmation of this I would now like to quote a very short excerpt from Rauschning’s book, _The Voice of Destruction_, which has already been submitted to the Tribunal. This extract has not yet been read into the record, and the Tribunal will find it on Page 207 of the document book.

Hitler said to Rauschning:

“And by ‘destruction’ I do not necessarily mean extermination of
these people—I shall simply take systematic measures to prevent
their procreation.”

I skip the next three sentences and quote one more sentence:

“There are many means by which a systematic and comparatively
painless extinction of undesirable races can be attained, at any
rate without blood being shed.”

This excerpt is on Page 137 of the original book.

Sterilization and castration became a criminal practice of the Hitlerites in the occupied territories in Eastern Europe. I beg the Tribunal’s permission to draw its attention to two of these documents.

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, perhaps that would be a convenient time to break off.

The Tribunal would like to know how long you think you will take before you conclude your statement.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I believe, Mr. President, that I will finish the presentation of evidence today.

I would like the Tribunal to allow me to question three more witnesses today and I still have about one hour of reading. But it is very difficult for me to determine the time exactly, as that sometimes depends on other factors, known to you, which may force me to change my intentions.

THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now for 10 minutes.

[_A recess was taken._]

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I ask the permission of the Tribunal to draw its attention to two very short German documents, which are submitted under Exhibit Number USSR-400 (Document Number USSR-400) in photostats certified by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union. They are two communications from Lieutenant Frank, head of a Security Police division, regarding the conditions under which a gypsy woman, Lucia Strasdinsch had the right to reside in the town of Libau.

“Libau, 10 December 1941.

“Security Police Post, Town of Libau; to the Prefect of the Town
of Libau.

“It has been decided that the Gypsy Lucia Strasdinsch will be
allowed to take up residence here again only on the condition
that she submits to being sterilized. She is to be informed
accordingly and a report on the result is to be rendered to this
office.

“Frank, Lieutenant, Security Police and O. C. Security Police
Station.”

The second document is a memorandum from the Prefecture of Libau, H. Grauds, to the head of the Security Police Post. The text:

“I herewith return your letter of 10 December 1941 regarding the
sterilization of the Gypsy Lucia Strasdinsch and beg to report
that this person was sterilized in the local hospital on 9
January 1942. Pertinent letter Number 850 of 12. 1. 42 from the
hospital is attached.”

In order to show the extent of the experiments which were performed on live persons, I would ask Your Honors to turn to the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on Oswieczim. The extract which I should like to quote, the members of the Tribunal may find on Page 197 of the book of documents, first column, second paragraph. It is stated there that a statistical report by the commandant of the camp has been discovered in the archives of the camp. This report is signed by the deputy commander of the camp, Sella. It has a column under the heading, “Internees designated for experiments.” This column reads as follows; “Women subject to experiments: on 15 May 1944—400, on 15 June—413, on 19 June—348, and so on.”

I would like to conclude this chapter on experiments on live persons, by the following: I would like to quote the memorandum of the judicial and medical report, an excerpt of which is in the report on Oswieczim Camp. The members of the Tribunal may find the passage which I should like to quote on Page 197 of the document book, first column, Paragraph 5. I omit the part which refers to sterilization and castration because I think that this question has been sufficiently elucidated. I will quote only Points 4, 6, and 7 of the memorandum, indicating that in Oswieczim:

“Researches were carried out with various chemical preparations
of German firms. According to the testimony of one German
physician, Dr. Valentin Erwin, there was a case where the
representatives of the chemical industry of Germany, a
gynecologist, Glauber, from Königshütte, and a chemist, Gebel,
bought from the administration of the camp 150 women for such
experiments.”

I omit Point 5 and I quote Point 6:

“Experiments on men by applying irritant chemical substances on
the skin of the calf in order to create ulcers and phlegmons.

“7) A series of other experiments—artificial infection with
malaria, artificial insemination, and so forth.”

I omit the next three pages of my statement which give the particulars of these experiments. I would like only to draw the attention of the Tribunal to other crimes perpetrated by the German doctors and, in particular, to the extermination of patients in mental hospitals. I am not going to quote all the examples which the Tribunal will find in the report of the Extraordinary State Commission but will dwell on one crime only, which was perpetrated in the town of Kiev. I quote a paragraph from the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the town of Kiev, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 212 of the document book, first column, Paragraph 6:

“On 14 October 1941 an SS detachment under the leadership of the
German garrison physician Rikowsky, entered the mental hospital.
The Hitlerites drove 300 patients into one building, kept them
there without food and water, and then shot them in a gully of
the Kirilov wood. The remaining patients were exterminated on 7
January, 27 March, and 17 October 1942.”

In the subsequent part of the Extraordinary State Commission’s report a statement is quoted, a statement made by Professor Kapustianski, by a woman doctor Dzevaltovska, and the nurse Troepolska. I submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-249 (Document Number USSR-249) the photostat of this testimony, and I request that it be included in the files of the case as evidence. I am quoting some of the extracts from this document:

“During the German occupation of the city of Kiev, the Kiev
Psychiatric Clinic had to experience tragic days, which
culminated in the complete ruin and destruction of the hospital.
A crime was committed against the unfortunate mentally sick
people, the like of which had not been known in history up to
this time.”

I omit the next part and I quote further on:

“In the course of the years 1941-42, 800 patients were killed.”

I omit the next two paragraphs and I read on:

“On 7 January 1942 the Gestapo came to the hospital. They posted
guards everywhere in the grounds of the hospital. To enter or
leave the hospital was forbidden. A representative of the
Gestapo requested the selection of the incurably sick people to
be sent to Zhitomir.”

I skip the next sentence.

“What was in store for the sick people was carefully concealed
from the medical staff. After that, special cars arrived at the
hospital. The sick people were pushed into them, some 60 to 70
persons into each car. Everyone could see these atrocities which
were perpetrated in front of the ward windows. The patients were
pushed into the cars and murdered there. Their corpses were
thrown out on the spot. This awful deed went on for two days,
during which 365 patients were exterminated. The patients who
had not completely lost their minds soon realized the truth.
There were heart-rending scenes. Thus, a young girl, patient Y,
in spite of all of the efforts of the doctor, understood that
death was awaiting her. She came out of the ward, embraced the
doctor, and quietly asked him, ‘Is this the end?’ Pale as death,
she went to the car and, refusing any assistance, climbed
inside. The entire staff was told that any criticism or any
expression of displeasure would be completely out of place and
would be regarded as sabotage.”

I shall quote one more sentence from this report:

“It is a characteristic detail that these murders—unprecedented
by their abomination—were committed on Christmas Day, when
Christmas trees were being distributed to the German soldiers;
and the inscription ‘God is with us’ sparkled on the belts of
the executioners.”

Herewith I end my quotation.

I think it possible to omit the following four pages of my speech because they deal with similar cases of the murder of mental patients in other parts of the country. Similar methods were used for these murders as those used in Kiev. I will request the Tribunal to accept as evidence the photostats of three German documents, certified by the Extraordinary State Commission, which testify to the fact that special standard forms of documents were worked out for the report on the murder of the insane by the German fascists.

I submit these documents. The first document is submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-397 (Document Number USSR-397.) The members of the Tribunal may find it on Page 218 of the document book. I am quoting the text of the document:

“To the Registrar’s office in the Town of Riga:”

I omit the next paragraph.

“I hereby certify that 368 incurably insane patients, whose
names appear on the annexed list, died on 29 January
1942.”—Signed—“Kirste, SS Sturmbannführer.”

The second document is submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-410 (Document Number USSR-410). This is a report of the head of the Security Police and SD in Latvia, Number 357/42g, dated 28 May 1942. I am quoting the one paragraph from this document:

“I hereby certify that 243 incurably insane patients, whose
names appear on the enclosed list, died on 14 April
1942.”—Signed—“Kirste, SS Sturmbannführer.”

The third document is submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-398 (Document Number USSR-398). This is a report by the head of the Security Police and SD, Latvia, dated 15 March 1943. I will read into the record the one paragraph of this document:

“I hereby certify that 98 incurably insane patients, whose names
appear on the enclosed list, died on 22 October
1942.”—Signed—“Kirste, SS Sturmbannführer.”

I think I can also omit the next one and a half pages of my statement; but I would request the Tribunal to accept as evidence the following document without reading it, as proof of the experiments carried out on live persons. I submit as Exhibit Number USSR-406 (Document Number USSR-406) the data about the experiments carried out in another camp, the Ravensbrück Camp. It contains the results of the investigation by the Polish State Commission. The photographs contained therein are very characteristic and I need not comment on them.

I would now request the Tribunal’s permission to summon as witness a Polish woman, Shmaglevskaya, to have her testify regarding only one question, the attitude of the German fascists toward the children in the concentration camps. Would the President permit the calling of this witness?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly.

[_The witness, Shmaglevskaya, took the stand._]

THE PRESIDENT: Will you first of all tell me your name?

SEVERINA SHMAGLEVSKAYA (Witness): Severina Shmaglevskaya.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat this oath after me: I hereby swear before God—the Almighty—that I will speak before the Tribunal nothing but the truth—concealing nothing that is known to me—so help me God, Amen.

[_The witness repeated the oath._]

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, were you an internee of Oswieczim Camp?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: During what period of time were you in the camp of Oswieczim?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: From 7 October 1942 to January 1945.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Do you have any proof that you were an internee of this camp?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I have the number which was tattooed on my arm, right here.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: That is what the Oswieczim inmates call the “visiting cards”?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, please, Witness, were you an eyewitness of German SS men’s attitude toward children?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Will you please tell the Tribunal about this?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I could tell about the children who were born in the concentration camp, about the children who were brought to the concentration camp with the Jewish transports and who were taken directly to the crematories, as well as about those children who were brought to concentration camps and there interned. Already in December 1942 when I went to work about 10 kilometers from Birkenau. . .

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Excuse me. May I interrupt you? Then, you were in the Birkenau section of the camp?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes, I was in the Camp Birkenau, which is a part of the Oswieczim Camp, which was called Oswieczim Number 2.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please go on.

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I noticed then a woman in the last month of pregnancy. It was obvious from her appearance. This woman, together with the others, had to walk 10 kilometers to the place of work and there she toiled the whole day, shovel in hands, digging trenches. She was already ill and she asked the German superintendent, a civilian, for permission to rest. He refused, laughed at her, and together with another SS man, started beating her. He scrutinized her work very strictly. Such was the situation of all the women who were pregnant. And only during the very last minutes were they permitted to stay away from work. The newborn children, if Jewish, were immediately put to death.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Pardon me, Witness, what do you mean by “were immediately put to death”? When was it?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: They were immediately taken away from their mother.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: When the transport arrived?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: No, I am speaking of the children who were born in the concentration camps. A few minutes after delivery the child was taken from the mother, who never saw it again. After a few days the mother had to return to work. In 1942 there were no special blocks in the camp for the children. At the beginning of 1943, when they started to tattoo the internees, the children born in the concentration camps were also branded. The number was tattooed on their legs.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Why on the leg?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Because the child is very small and there was not enough room on their tiny arms for the number, which contained five digits. The children did not have special numbers but bore the same numbers as the grown-ups; that is to say, they were given serial numbers. The children were placed in a special block and after a few weeks, sometimes after a month, they were taken away from the camp.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Where to?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: We were never able to find out where these children were taken. They were taken away all the time this camp existed; that is to say, in 1943 and 1944. The last convoy of children left the camp in January 1945. These were not only Polish children, because, as you know, in Birkenau there were women from all over Europe. Even today we don’t know whether these children are alive.

I should like, in the name of all the women of Europe who became mothers in concentration camps, to ask the Germans today, “Where are these children?”

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, did you yourself see the children being taken to gas chambers?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I worked very close to the railway which led to the crematory. Sometimes in the morning I passed near the building the Germans used as a latrine, and from there I could secretly watch the transport. I saw many children among the Jews brought to the concentration camp. Sometimes a family had several children. The Tribunal is probably aware of the fact that in front of the crematory they were all sorted out.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Selection was made by the doctors?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Not always by doctors; sometimes by SS men.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: And doctors with them?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes, sometimes, by doctors, too. During such a sorting, the youngest and the healthiest Jewish women in very small numbers entered the camp. Women carrying children in their arms or in carriages, or those who had larger children, were sent into the crematory together with their children. The children were separated from their parents in front of the crematory and were led separately into gas chambers.

At that time, when the greatest number of Jews were exterminated in the gas chambers, an order was issued that the children were to be thrown into the crematory ovens or the crematory ditches without previous asphyxiation with gas.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: How should we understand that? Were they thrown into the ovens alive or were they killed by other means before they were burned?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: The children were thrown in alive. Their cries could be heard all over the camp. It is hard to say how many there were.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Nevertheless, there was some reason why this was done. Was it because the gas chambers were overworked?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: It is very difficult to answer this question. We don’t know whether they wanted to economize on the gas or whether there was no room in the gas chambers.

I should also add that it is impossible to determine the number of these children—like that of the Jews—because they were driven directly to the crematory, were not registered, were not tattooed, and very often were not even counted. We, the internees, often tried to ascertain the number of people who perished in gas chambers; but our estimates of the number of children executed could only be based on the number of children’s prams which were brought to the storerooms. Sometimes there were hundreds of these carriages, but sometimes they sent thousands.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: In one day?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Not always the same. There were days when the gas chambers worked from early morning until late at night.

I should also like to tell you about the children—and their number is large—who were interned in concentration camps. At the beginning of 1943 Polish children from Zamoishevna arrived at the concentration camp with their parents. At the same time Russian children from territories occupied by the Germans began to arrive. The Jewish children were added to these. In smaller numbers, one could also meet Italian children in the concentration camp. The conditions were as difficult for the children as for adults; perhaps even more onerous. These children didn’t receive any parcels because there was no one to send them. Red Cross packages never reached the internees. In 1944 a great number of Italian and French children arrived at the concentration camp. All these children suffered from skin diseases, lymphatic boils, and malnutrition; they were badly clad, often without shoes, and had no possibility of washing themselves.

During the Warsaw uprising captured children from Warsaw were brought to the concentration camp. The youngest of the children was a little 6-year-old boy. The children were quartered in special barracks. When the systematic deportation of internees from Birkenau to the interior of Germany commenced, these children were used for heavy labor. At the same time there arrived in the concentration camps the children of Hungarian Jews, who had to work together with the children who were brought after the Warsaw uprising. These children worked with two carts which they had to pull themselves to transport coal, iron machines, wood for floors, and other heavy things from one camp to the other. They also labored at dismantling barracks during the liquidation of the camp. These children remained in the concentration camp until the very end. In January 1945 they were evacuated and had to march to Germany on foot under conditions as difficult as those of the front, under an SS guard, without food, covering about 30 kilometers a day.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: During this march the children died of exhaustion?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I wasn’t in the group where there were children, as I managed to escape on the second day after this evacuation march.

I should also like to add a few words regarding the methods of demoralization of the people who were interned in concentration camps. Everything that we had to suffer was the result of a whole system for degrading human beings.

The concentration camp cars in which the internees were transported had previously been used for cattle. When the transports were about to move the cars were nailed shut. In each one of these cars there was a great number of people. The convoy of SS men never considered that human beings have physical needs. Some of these people happened to have necessary pots with them, and they often had to use them for physical needs.

For some time I worked at the store, where kitchen utensils of internees were brought.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Do you mean that you worked in the warehouse where the belongings of these who were murdered were brought. Did I understand you correctly?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: No, only the kitchen utensils of people who arrived at the concentration camps were brought to this warehouse.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: These things were taken away from them?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: What I want to say is that in some cases the kitchen utensils and pots contained remains of food, and in others there was human excrement. Each of the workers received a pail of water, and had to wash a great number of these kitchen utensils during one half of the day. These kitchen utensils, which were sometimes very badly washed, were given to people who had just arrived at the concentration camp. From these pots and pans they had to eat, so that often they caught dysentery and other diseases from the first day.

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, I don’t think the Tribunal wants quite so much of the detail with reference of these domestic matters.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The witness was called here with a view to describing the attitude of the Germans toward the children in the camps.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you keep her to the part of her testimony which you wish to bring out?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, can you add anything else to your description of the attitude of the Germans towards the children in the camp? Have you already told us about all of the facts which you know regarding this question?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: I should like to say that the children, as well as the adults, were also subjected to the system of demoralization and degradation through famine. Often starvation caused the children to look for potato peels in garbage heaps.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, do you certify in your testimony, that sometimes the number of carriages remaining after the murder of the children amounted to a thousand per day?

SHMAGLEVSKAYA: Yes, sometimes there were such days.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I have no further question to ask of the witness.

THE PRESIDENT: Do any of the chief prosecutors wish to ask any questions?

[_There was no response._]

Do any of the defendants’ counsel wish to ask any questions?

[_There was no response._]

Then the witness can retire.

[_The witness left the stand._]

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I should like to take up the next section of my presentation which deals with the organization, by German fascism, of secret centers for the extermination of people. These cannot even be considered concentration camps because the human beings in these places rarely survived more than 10 minutes or 2 hours at the most. Out of all these terrible centers, organized by the German fascists, I would submit to the Tribunal evidence on two such places, that is to say, on Kwelmno center (Kwelmno is a village in Poland) and on the Treblinka Camp. In connection with this I would ask the Tribunal to summon one witness, whose testimony is interesting, because he can be considered a person who returned from “the other world,” for the road to Treblinka was called by the German executors themselves “The Road to Heaven.” I am speaking of the witness Rajzman, a Polish national, and I beg the Tribunal’s permission to bring this witness here for examination.

THE PRESIDENT: It is just a quarter to 1 now, so we had better have this witness at 2 o’clock. We will adjourn now.

[_The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours._]

_Afternoon Session_

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal has been informed that the witness who was referred to yesterday, Wielen, is in a prisoner-of-war camp or in prison near London, England; and he can, therefore, be brought over here to be examined at short notice. The Tribunal, therefore, wishes defendants’ counsel to make up their minds whether they wish Colonel Westhoff and this man Wielen to be brought here during the Prosecution’s case for them to cross-examine those witnesses or whether they prefer that they should be brought when the defendants are presenting their case. But, as I have stated with reference to all witnesses, they can only be called once. If they are examined as part of the Prosecution’s case, then all the defendants must exercise their rights, if they wish to do so, of interrogating the witnesses at that time. If, on the other hand, the defendants’ counsel decide that they would prefer that these witnesses should be called during the defendants’ case, then similarly, the witnesses will be called only once, and the right of examining them must then be exercised.

At the same time, the statement or the report which was presented yesterday and which the Tribunal ruled was admissible, will be read in the course of the Prosecution’s case at such time as the Prosecution decide.

DR. NELTE: Mr. President, may I be allowed to postpone making a statement until after discussion with my colleagues. I hope this will be possible in the course of the afternoon.

THE PRESIDENT: I understand you want to consult the other defendants’ counsel before you let us know. Very well; you will let us know at your convenience. Go on, Colonel Smirnov.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I should like to proceed with the interrogation of the witness.

[_The witness Rajzman took the stand._]

THE PRESIDENT: What is your name?

SAMUEL RAJZMAN (Witness): Rajzman, Samuel.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat this oath after me: I hereby swear before God—the Almighty—that I will speak before the Tribunal—nothing but the truth—concealing nothing of what is known to me—so help me God, Amen.

[_The witness repeated the oath._]

THE PRESIDENT: You may sit down.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Witness Rajzman, will you please tell the Tribunal what was your occupation before the war?

RAJZMAN: Before the war I was an accountant in an export firm.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: When and under what circumstances did you become an internee of Treblinka Number 2?

RAJZMAN: In August 1942 I was taken away from the Warsaw ghetto.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: How long did you stay in Treblinka?

RAJZMAN: I was interned there for a year—until August 1943.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: That means you are well acquainted with the rules regulating the treatment of the people in this camp?

RAJZMAN: Yes, I am well acquainted with these rules.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I beg you to describe this camp to the Tribunal.

RAJZMAN: Transports arrived there every day; their number depended on the number of trains arriving; sometimes three, four, or five trains filled exclusively with Jews—from Czechoslovakia, Germany, Greece, and Poland. Immediately after their arrival, the people had to leave the trains in 5 minutes and line up on the platform. All those who were driven from the cars were divided into groups—men, children, and women, all separate. They were all forced to strip immediately, and this procedure continued under the lashes of the German guards’ whips. Workers who were employed in this operation immediately picked up all the clothes and carried them away to barracks. Then the people were obliged to walk naked through the street to the gas chambers.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I would like you to tell the Tribunal what the Germans called the street to the gas chambers.

RAJZMAN: It was named Himmelfahrt Street.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: That is to say, the “street to heaven”?

RAJZMAN: Yes. If it interests the Court, I can present a plan of the camp of Treblinka which I drew up when I was there, and I can point out to the Tribunal this street on the plan.

THE PRESIDENT: I do not think it is necessary to put in a plan of the camp, unless you particularly want to.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, I also believe that it is not really necessary.

Please tell us, how long did a person live after he had arrived in the Treblinka Camp?

RAJZMAN: The whole process of undressing and the walk down to the gas chambers lasted, for the men 8 or 10 minutes, and for the women some 15 minutes. The women took 15 minutes because they had to have their hair shaved off before they went to the gas chambers.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Why was their hair cut off?

RAJZMAN: According to the ideas of the masters, this hair was to be used in the manufacture of mattresses for German women.

THE PRESIDENT: Do you mean that there was only 10 minutes between the time when they were taken out of the trucks and the time when they were put into the gas chambers?

RAJZMAN: As far as men were concerned, I am sure it did not last longer than 10 minutes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Including the undressing?

RAJZMAN: Yes, including the undressing.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, were the people brought to Treblinka in trucks or in trains?

RAJZMAN: They were brought nearly always in trains, and only the Jews from neighboring villages and hamlets were brought in trucks. The trucks bore inscriptions, “Expedition Speer,” and came from Vinegrova Sokolova and other places.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, what was the subsequent aspect of the station at Treblinka?

RAJZMAN: At first there were no signboards whatsoever at the station, but a few months later the commander of the camp, one Kurt Franz, built a first-class railroad station with signboards. The barracks where the clothing was stored had signs reading “restaurant,” “ticket office,” “telegraph,” “telephone,” and so forth. There were even train schedules for the departure and the arrival of trains to and from Grodno, Suwalki, Vienna, and Berlin.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Did I rightly understand you, Witness, that a kind of make-believe station was built with signboards and train schedules, with indications of platforms for train departures to Suwalki, and so forth?

RAJZMAN: When the persons descended from the trains, they really had the impression that they were at a very good station from where they could go to Suwalki, Vienna, Grodno, or other cities.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: And what happened later on to these people?

RAJZMAN: These people were taken directly along the Himmelfahrtstrasse to the gas chambers.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: And tell us, please, how did the Germans behave while killing their victims in Treblinka?

RAJZMAN: If you mean the actual executions, every German guard had his special job. I shall cite only one example. We had a Scharführer Menz, whose special job was to guard the so-called “Lazarett.” In this “Lazarett” all weak women and little children were exterminated who had not the strength to go themselves to the gas chambers.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Perhaps, Witness, you can describe this “Lazarett” to the Tribunal?

RAJZMAN: This was part of a square which was closed in with a wooden fence. All women, aged persons, and sick children were driven there. At the gates of this “Lazarett,” there was a large Red Cross flag. Menz, who specialized in the murder of all persons brought to this “Lazarett,” would not let anybody else do this job. There might have been hundreds of persons who wanted to see and know what was in store for them, but he insisted on carrying out this work by himself.

Here is just one example of what was the fate of the children there. A 10-year-old girl was brought to this building from the train with her 2-year-old sister. When the elder girl saw that Menz had taken out a revolver to shoot her 2-year-old sister, she threw herself upon him, crying out, and asking why he wanted to kill her. He did not kill the little sister; he threw her alive into the oven and then killed the elder sister.

Another example: They brought an aged woman with her daughter to this building. The latter was in the last stage of pregnancy. She was brought to the “Lazarett,” was put on a grass plot, and several Germans came to watch the delivery. This spectacle lasted 2 hours. When the child was born, Menz asked the grandmother—that is the mother of this woman—whom she preferred to see killed first. The grandmother begged to be killed. But, of course, they did the opposite; the newborn baby was killed first, then the child’s mother, and finally the grandmother.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, does the name Kurt Franz mean anything to you?

RAJZMAN: This man was deputy of the camp commander, Stengel, the biggest murderer in the camp. Kurt Franz was known for having published in January 1943, a report to the effect that a million Jews had been killed in Treblinka—a report which had procured for him a promotion from the rank of Sturmbannführer to that of Obersturmbannführer.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Witness, will you please tell how Kurt Franz killed a woman who claimed to be the sister of Sigmund Freud. Do you remember this incident?

RAJZMAN: A train arrived from Vienna. I was standing on the platform when the passengers left the cars. An elderly woman came up to Kurt Franz, took out a document, and said that she was the sister of Sigmund Freud. She begged him to give her light work in an office. Franz read this document through very seriously and said that there must be a mistake here; he led her up to the train schedule and said that in 2 hours a train would leave again for Vienna. She should leave all her documents and valuables and then go to a bathhouse; after the bath she would have her documents and a ticket to Vienna. Of course, the woman went to the bathhouse and never returned.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, why was it that you yourself remained alive in Treblinka?

RAJZMAN: I was already quite undressed, and had to pass through this Himmelfahrtstrasse to the gas chambers. Some 8,000 Jews had arrived with my transport from Warsaw. At the last minute before we moved toward the street an engineer, Galevski, an old friend of mine, whom I had known in Warsaw for many years, caught sight of me. He was overseer of workers among the Jews. He told me that I should turn back from the street; and as they needed an interpreter for Hebrew, French, Russian, Polish, and German, he managed to obtain permission to liberate me.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: You were therefore a member of the labor unit of the camp?

RAJZMAN: At first my work was to load the clothes of the murdered persons on the trains. When I had been in the camp 2 days, my mother, my sister, and two brothers were brought to the camp from the town of Vinegrova. I had to watch them being led away to the gas chambers. Several days later, when I was loading clothes on the freight cars, my comrades found my wife’s documents and a photograph of my wife and child. That is all I have left of my family, only a photograph.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, how many persons were brought daily to the Treblinka Camp?

RAJZMAN: Between July and December 1942 an average of 3 transports of 60 cars each arrived every day. In 1943 the transports arrived more rarely.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, how many persons were exterminated in the camp, on an average, daily?

RAJZMAN: On an average, I believe they killed in Treblinka from ten to twelve thousand persons daily.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: In how many gas chambers did the killings take place?

RAJZMAN? At first there were only 3 gas chambers, but then they built 10 more chambers. It was planned to increase this number to 25.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: But how do you know that? Why do you say, Witness, that they planned to increase the number of gas chambers to 25?

RAJZMAN: Because all the building material had been brought and put in the square. I asked, “Why? There are no more Jews.” They said, “After you there will be others, and there is still a big job to do.”

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: What was the other name of Treblinka?

RAJZMAN: When Treblinka became very well known, they hung up a huge sign with the inscription “Obermaidanek.”

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: What do you mean by “very well known”?

RAJZMAN: I mean that the persons who arrived in transports soon found out that it was not a fashionable station, but that it was a place of death.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, why was this make-believe station built?

RAJZMAN: It was done for the sole reason that the people on leaving the trains should not be nervous, should undress calmly, and that there should not be any incidents.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: If I understand you correctly, this criminal device had only one purpose—a psychological purpose of reassuring the doomed during the first moments.

RAJZMAN: Yes, exclusively this psychological purpose.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I have no further questions to ask this witness.

THE PRESIDENT: Does any of the other chief prosecutors wish to ask any questions?

[_There was no response._]

Do the defendants’ counsel wish to ask any questions?

[_There was no response._]

Then the witness can retire.

[_The witness left the stand._]

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I should like to submit to the Tribunal a very short excerpt from a document which is submitted as an appendix to the Polish Government report. I mean an affidavit. . .

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, have you got any more witnesses?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, I still have a request to call one more witness on the last count of my statement. In connection with the presentation of evidence on this last count I would request the Tribunal’s permission to summon as witness the Archdeacon of Leningrad Churches and Rector of the Leningrad Seminary, the Permanent Dean of Nikolai Bogoiavlensky Cathedral in Leningrad, Nikolai Lomakin.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well, and you will be able to include his evidence today and conclude your statement; is that right?

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Yes, Mr. President. I should like to read another short excerpt from this report of the Polish examining magistrate, which I have submitted to the Tribunal (Document Number USSR-340). I shall read only that excerpt which demonstrates the scale of the crimes. The number of victims murdered at the Treblinka Camp, according to the Polish magistrate’s estimate, is about 781,000 persons. At the same time he mentions that the witnesses interrogated by him testified to the fact that when the clothes of the internees were sorted out, they even found British passports and diplomas of Cambridge University. This means that the victims of Treblinka came from every European country.

I should like further to quote, as proof of the existence of another secret extermination center, the depositions of Wladislav Bengash, the district examining magistrate in the city of Lodz, made before the Chief Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. This testimony is also an official appendix to the Polish Government report. I should like to read two excerpts from this statement which would give us an idea of the methods of extermination practiced in the village of Helmno. The two paragraphs are on the back of Page 223 of the document book:

“In the village of Helmno there was an abandoned mansion
surrounded by an old park—the property of the state. Nearby
. . . there was a pine forest with a nursery and dense
undergrowth. At this point the Germans built an extermination
camp. The park was closed in by a high wooden fence, and one
could not see what was going on in the park nor in the house
itself. The inhabitants of the village of Helmno were all
evacuated.”

I interrupt the quotation and pass on to Page 226 of the document book, first paragraph. I quote:

“The whole organization set up for the extermination of people
was so cunningly devised and carried out that right up to the
last moment the next transport of doomed persons could not guess
the fate of the group which had preceded them. The departure of
transports—consisting of 1,000 to 2,000 persons—from the
village of Sawadki to the extermination camp and the
extermination of the arrivals lasted until 2 o’clock.

“The cars loaded with Jews arrived in the camp and stopped
before the mansion. A representative of the Sonderkommando made
a short speech to the new arrivals. He assured them that they
were going to work in the East. He promised them just treatment
by the authorities and adequate food and, at the same time,
instructed them to take a bath before leaving, while their
clothing was disinfected. From the courtyard the Jews were then
brought to a big warm room on the second floor of the mansion.
There they had to undress, and, clad in underclothes only, they
went downstairs, passed through a corridor with signs such as
‘To the medical officer’ and ‘To the bath’ on the walls. The
arrow which showed the way ‘To the bath’ pointed toward the
exit. The Germans told the Jews who came out into the yard that
they would go to the bath in a closed car; and, true enough, a
large car was brought up to this door so that the Jews coming
out of the house found themselves on a ladder leading straight
inside the car. The loading of the Jews into the car lasted a
very short time. Police were on guard in the corridor and near
the car. With blows and shouts they forced the Jews to enter the
car, stunning them, so that they could not attempt any
resistance. When all the Jews were piled inside the car, the
doors were carefully locked, and the chauffeur switched on the
motor, so that those in the car were poisoned by the exhaust
gas.”

I consider it unnecessary to quote that part of the report which testifies that the car in question was the “murder van” already well known to the Court.

I will just quote one sentence from Page 10 of this document, Paragraph 3:

“Thus, at least 340,000 men, women, and children, from newborn
babies to aged persons, were exterminated in Helmno.”

I believe that I can end here that part of my statement which concerns the secret exterminating centers. And now I pass on to the part of my statement dealing with religious persecutions.

In the Soviet Union as well as in the occupied countries of Eastern Europe, the German fascist criminals brought shame upon themselves by their mockery of the religious feelings and faith of the people, by persecuting and murdering the priesthood of all religious creeds. In proof of this I shall read a few excerpts from the pertinent reports of the various governments.

On Page 70 of the Russian text, which corresponds to Page 80 of the document book, we find the description of the persecution of the Czech Orthodox Church by the German fascist criminals. I quote only one paragraph:

“The hardest blow was directed against the Czech Orthodox
Church. The Orthodox parishes in Czechoslovakia were ordered by
the Berlin Ministry for Church Affairs to leave the jurisdiction
of Belgrade and Constantinople dioceses and to become
subordinate to the Berlin bishop. The Czech Bishop Gorazd was
executed together with two other priests of the Orthodox Church.
By a special order of the Protector Daluege, issued in September
1942, the Orthodox Church of Serbian-Constantinople jurisdiction
was dissolved on Czech territory, its religious activity
forbidden, and its property confiscated.”

On Page 69 of the same report, which corresponds to Page 79 of the document book, in the last paragraph, there is a description of the persecutions of the Czech National Church, which was persecuted by the German fascists, according to the report, “Just because of its name, because of its sympathy for the Hus movement, the democratic constitution, and because of the role it played in founding the Czech Republic.” The Czech national church in Slovakia was prohibited and its property confiscated by the Germans in 1940.

The Protestant church in Czechoslovakia was also persecuted. The excerpt which I would like to read may be found on Page 80 of the document book, Paragraph 2:

“The Protestant churches were deprived of the freedom to preach
the Gospel. The German Secret State Police watched carefully to
see that the clergy observed the restrictions imposed on it.
Nazi censorship went so far as to prohibit the singing of hymns
which praised God for liberating the nation from the enemy. Some
passages from the Bible were not allowed to be read in public at
all. The Nazis strongly opposed the promulgation of certain
Christian doctrines, especially those which proclaimed the
equality of all men before God, the universal character of
Christ’s Church, the Hebraic origins of the Gospel, et cetera.
Any reference to Hus, Ziska, the Hussites, and their
achievements, as well as to Masaryk and his doctrines, were
strictly forbidden. Even religious text books were confiscated.
Church leaders were especially persecuted. Scores of ministers
were thrown into concentration camps, among them the general
secretary of the Christian Student Movement in Czechoslovakia.
One of the assistants of their president was executed.”

On Page 68 of this report we find information as to the persecution of the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia. This excerpt is on Page 79 of the document book, second paragraph. I quote a short excerpt:

“In the territory annexed to Germany after the Munich Pact a
number of Czech priests were robbed of their property and
expelled. . . . Pilgrimages to national shrines were prohibited
in 1939.

“At the outbreak of the war 437 Catholic priests were among the
thousands of Czech patriots arrested and sent to concentration
camps as hostages. Venerable church dignitaries were dragged to
concentration camps in Germany. It was a common thing to see on
the road near the concentration camps a priest, dressed in rags,
exhausted, pulling a cart, and behind him a youth in the SS
uniform, whip in hand.”

The believers and clergy in Poland also suffered most ruthless persecution. I quote short excerpts from the Polish Government report, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 10 of the document book:

“By January 1941 about 700 priests were killed; 3,000 were in
prisons or in concentration camps.”

The persecution of the clergy began immediately after the capture of Polish territory by the Germans, according to Page 42 of the Polish report:

“The day after the occupation of Warsaw the Germans arrested
some 330 priests. . . . In Kraków the closest collaborators of
Archbishop Sapieha were arrested and sent to Germany. The
Reverend Canon Czeplicki, 75 years of age, and his assistant
were executed in November 1939.”

The report of the Polish Government quotes the following words of Cardinal Hlond:

“The clergy were persecuted very violently. Those who were
permitted to stay were subjected to humiliation, were paralyzed
in the exercise of their pastoral duties and were stripped of
parochial benefices and of all their rights. They were entirely
at the mercy of the Gestapo. . . . It is like the Apocalyptic
vision of the _Fides Depopulata_.”

On the territory of the Soviet Union the persecution of religion and clergy took the form of sacrilegious desecration of churches, destruction of shrines connected with the patriotic feelings of the Russian people, and the murder of priests.

I beg the Tribunal to call the witness of the Soviet Prosecution, the Archdean of the churches of the City of Leningrad, the Very Reverend Nikolai Ivanovitch Lomakin.

[_The witness Lomakin took the stand._]

THE PRESIDENT: Would you tell me your name?

THE VERY REVEREND NIKOLAI IVANOVITCH LOMAKIN (Witness): Nikolai Ivanovitch Lomakin.

THE PRESIDENT: Is it the practice for you to take an oath before giving evidence or not?

LOMAKIN: I am an Orthodox priest.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you take the oath?

LOMAKIN: I belong to the Orthodox Church, and when I entered the priesthood in 1917 I took the oath to tell the truth all my life. This oath I remember even to the present day.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well. You can sit, if you wish.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, are you the Archdean of the Churches of the City of Leningrad? Does that mean that all the churches in that city are subordinate to you?

LOMAKIN: Yes, all the churches are directly subordinate to me. I am obliged to visit them periodically to inspect their condition and the life of the parish. I must then make my report to His Grace the Metropolitan.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: The churches of the Leningrad region were also under your authority?

LOMAKIN: They are not subordinated to me at the present time, but during the siege of Leningrad by the Germans and the occupation of the Leningrad region they were under my authority.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: After the liberation of the Leningrad region from the German occupation, were you obliged to visit and inspect the churches throughout the region on the request of the Patriarch?

LOMAKIN: Not by request of the Patriarch, but by request of the Metropolitan Alexei, who was then at the head of the Leningrad Eparchy.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please speak more slowly.

LOMAKIN: Not by request of Patriarch Alexei—the Patriarch was then Sergei—but by request of Metropolitan Alexei, who administered the Eparchy and later became Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Please tell us, Witness, where were you during the siege of Leningrad?

LOMAKIN: I was all the time in Leningrad.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: If I am not mistaken, you were decorated with the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad”?

LOMAKIN: Yes, on my birthday I was awarded this high government medal for my participation in the heroic defense of Leningrad.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, at the beginning of the siege of Leningrad, at which church did you officiate?

LOMAKIN: At the beginning of the siege I was in charge of the Georgievsky Cemetery—I was rector of the church of the cemetery of St. Nicholas.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: It was, therefore, a cemetery church?

LOMAKIN: Yes.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Maybe you will be able to relate to the Tribunal the observations you made during your office in this church?

LOMAKIN: Yes, of course.

MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Will you please.

LOMAKIN: In 1941 and at the beginning of 1942 I was rector of the cemetery church, and I witnessed certain tragic scenes which I should like to relate in detail to the Tribunal.

A few days after the treacherous attack on the Soviet Union by Hitlerite Germany I witnessed the rapid increase of masses for the dead. The dead were mostly children, women, and old people—victims of the air raids on the city by German planes—peaceful citizens of our town. Before the war the number of dead varied from 30 to 50 persons a day, but during the war this number rose quickly to several hundred a day. It was physically impossible to bring the bodies inside the church. Long rows of boxes and coffins with remnants of the victims stood outside the church; the horribly mutilated bodies of Leningrad’s peaceful citizens—victims of barbarous air raids of the German planes.

Side by side with the increasing number of funeral masses for the deceased, there grew up the practice of saying the so-called requiems in absence. The faithful could not bring to the church the bodies of their relatives or friends, as they lay buried under the ruins and the debris of the houses destroyed by the Germans. The church was each day surrounded by masses of coffins—100, 200 coffins—over which one priest used to sing a funeral service.

Forgive me—it is difficult for me to speak of all this, for as the Tribunal already knows, I lived through the whole siege. I, myself, was dying of hunger. I saw the terrible, uninterrupted air raids of the German planes. I was hurt several times.

In the winter of 1941-42 the situation of besieged Leningrad was particularly terrible. The ceaseless air raids of the Luftwaffe, the shelling of the city, the lack of light, of water, of transportation, of sewerage in the city, and finally the terrible starvation—from all this, the peaceful citizens of the town suffered privations unique in the history of mankind. They were indeed heroes, who suffered for their country, these innocent, peaceful citizens.