Mass Graves (continuation)

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Roberto
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Mass Graves (continuation)

#1

Post by Roberto » 19 Feb 2003, 14:29

The thread

Mass Graves
http://www.thirdreichforum.com/phpBB2/v ... 7890af155f

having been led astray by off-topic exchanges, I suggest continuation of this rather interesting topic – convergence of physical, documentary and/or eyewitness evidence on Nazi mass killings in the Soviet Union – on the basis of the following material contributions contained in this thread:

1. The posts of Max/Hans from the Air Photo forum
max wrote:
http://www.ushmm.org/photos/19/19120.jpg

A Latvian policeman leads a group of Jews to the execution site on the beach near Liepaja.

http://www.ushmm.org/photos/19/19116.jpg

A group of Jewish women and children undress prior to their execution by Latvian collaborators on the beach near Liepaja.

http://www.ushmm.org/photos/19/19113.jpg

Members of the 21st Latvian Police Battalion assemble a group of Jewish women for execution on a beach near Liepaja.

http://www.ushmm.org/photos/19/19115.jpg

A group of Jewish children is led to an execution site on a beach near Liepaja.

http://www.ushmm.org/photos/19/19118.jpg

A Latvian policeman leads a group of Jewish women to the execution site on the beach near Liepaja.

http://www.ushmm.org/photos/19/19123.jpg

A group of Jewish women stand at the edge of an open mass grave facing the sea, where they await execution by a firing squad of Latvian SD and police.

http://www.ushmm.org/photos/19/19122.jpg

A group of naked Jewish women and girls walk to the execution site on the beach near Liepaja. In the background other Jews are being forced to undress by Latvian police.

http://www.ushmm.org/photos/19/19117.jpg

Jews are forced to undress prior to their execution by Latvian police on the beach near Liepaja.

http://www.ushmm.org/photos/19/19125.jpg

A Latvian policeman walks along the edge of a mass grave towards the bodies Jewish women and children who have just been executed.

http://www.ushmm.org/photos/19/19124.jpg

A group of Jewish women who have been brought to a beach near Liepaja, stand at the edge of an open mass grave facing the sea, where they await execution by a firing squad of Latvian SD and police.

Date: Dec 15, 1941
Locale: Liepaja, [Kurzeme] Latvia
Photographer: Carl Strott
Credit: Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives
Copyright: Public Domain

http://www.ushmm.org/photos/46/46695.jpg

A Yugoslav war crimes investigator (Professor Sh. Premer) examines exhumed bodies in the Uskoci Forest.

Date: 1945
Locale: [Croatia] Yugoslavia
Photographer: Unknown
Credit:
Copyright: Agency Agreement (No Fees)

http://www.ushmm.org/photos/46/46694.jpg

A Yugoslav war crimes investigator (named Rodic) examines exhumed bodies in the Uskoci Forest.

Date: 1945
Locale: [Croatia] Yugoslavia
Photographer: Unknown
Credit:
Copyright: Agency Agreement (No Fees)

http://www.gfh.org.il/gfhview/PrintItem ... t%25253D21

Dr. Alexander Libo standing beside a mass grave at the Ponary mass extermination site near Vilnius (Vilna). Photographed on February 2, 1958.

http://www.gfh.org.il/gfhview/PrintItem ... t%25253D21

A mass grave at the Ponary mass extermination site near Vilnius (Vilna).

http://www.gfh.org.il/gfhview/PrintItem ... t%25253D21

Corpses exhumed from a mass grave at the Ponary mass extermination site near Vilnius (Vilna).

http://www.gfh.org.il/gfhview/PrintItem ... art%253D21


The bodies of Jews from the Zolochev (Zloczow) ghetto, in a mass grave. This was located beside the village of Jelichowice, some four km east of Zloczow. Photographed in 1942.

http://www.gfh.org.il/gfhview/PrintItem ... art%253D21

The bodies of Jews from the Zolochev (Zloczow) ghetto, exhumed from a mass grave after the liberation.

http://www.gfh.org.il/gfhview/PrintItem ... art%253D21

The bodies of Jews from the Zolochev (Zloczow) ghetto, exhumed from a mass grave after the liberation.

http://www.gfh.org.il/gfhview/PrintItem ... art%253D21

A man and woman viewing the body of a child from the Zolochev (Zloczow) ghetto, which was exhumed from a mass grave after the liberation.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000035980 ... _1_Web.jpg

People viewing the corpses of Jews in a mass grave that was discovered in Iwje.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000035981 ... _1_Web.jpg

People viewing the corpses of Jews in a mass grave that was discovered in Iwje.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000035982 ... _1_Web.jpg

People viewing the corpses of Jews in a mass grave that was discovered in Iwje.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000036004 ... _1_Web.jpg

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000036005 ... _1_Web.jpg

Gravediggerers lowering bodies into a mass grave in Lancut.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000036132 ... _1_Web.jpg

A mass grave of Lenin Jewry (in the Polesye region, on the Russo - Polish border). Jewish gravediggers are standing in and on the upper edge of the grave.
Note: The Jewish community of Lenin was killed on the first day of the Hebrew month (Rosh Hodesh) of Elul, in August 1942.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000036225 ... _1_Web.jpg

Jewish gravediggers in a mass grave in the Belzec cemetery. In the grave are some ten bodies wrapped in shrouds.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000036289 ... _1_Web.jpg

People standing by the site of a mass grave of the Jews of Dubno.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000036357 ... _1_Web.jpg

The coffins of thirty - five Jews in a mass grave in Nowe Miasto. This photograph was apparently taken after the war.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000036311 ... _1_Web.jpg

Soldiers of the Red Army beside a mass grave of the Jews of Wysock. The city was liberated in January 1944.
Tue Feb 11, 2003 4:41 am
http://www.air-photo.com/forum/viewtopi ... 3587da4d46

max wrote: http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000036506 ... _1_Web.jpg

The location of a mass grave in Chepilovo where the Jews of Slonim were murdered and buried. Photographed in 1959.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000036507 ... _1_Web.jpg

The location of a mass grave in Chepilovo where the Jews of Slonim were murdered and buried.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000036591 ... _1_Web.jpg

A Soviet investigating committee excavating a mass grave of the Jews of Kozin. Photographed in 1944.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000036592 ... _1_Web.jpg

A Soviet investigating committee beside a mass grave of the Jews of Kozin, which they excavated. Photographed in 1944.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000036618 ... _1_Web.jpg

Two men and two women beside a mass grave of the Jews of Kurenets.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000036704 ... _1_Web.jpg

A mass grave of the Jews of Svencionis (Svencionys) and the surrounding area. Some eight thousand Jews were killed here between September 27 and October 9, 1941.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000001506 ... _1_Web.jpg

The remains of Jewish victims from Utena (Utian), Lithuania, being exhumed from a mass grave after the liberation.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000001569 ... _1_Web.jpg

A mass grave of Jews in a forest in Lithuania. Photographed in 1941.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000001580 ... _1_Web.jpg

Residents of Lithuania beside the bones of Jews found in a mass grave at Utena (Utian), Lithania. Photographed in 1964.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000001589 ... _1_Web.jpg

A mass grave in which 3,000 Jews were shot in Pajust, near Panevezys in Lithuania. Photographed after the liberation.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000001590 ... _1_Web.jpg

Corpses lying atop a mass grave in Siauliai, Lithuania. 215 Jews were murdered here.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000001592 ... _1_Web.jpg

The bones of Jews uncovered in a mass grave at Utena (Utian), Lithuania.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000001855 ... _1_Web.jpg

A mass grave in a cemetery in Nove Zamky, Czechoslovakia. 19 Jews were buried there.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000002039 ... _1_Web.jpg

A German soldier shooting a Jew from Vinnitsa, Ukraine, at the edge of a mass grave. German soldiers are watching him from behind. The photograph was found on the body of a German soldier and he had written on the back: "The last Jew in Vinnitsa". Photographed in 1943.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000002040 ... _1_Web.jpg

Two uniformed men beside a vast mass grave containing the bodies of Jews murdered in Vinnitsa, Ukraine.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000002042 ... _1_Web.jpg

German soldiers shooting Jews who are still alive in a mass grave in Vinnitsa, USSR. Photographed in 1943.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000002043 ... _1_Web.jpg

German soldiers among the bodies in the mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000002055 ... _1_Web.jpg

Two uniformed men standing beside or on a mass grave in Mineralni Vodi, Caucasus. Three hundred Jews were interred in the grave.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000002059 ... _1_Web.jpg

German Gestapo men shooting Soviet POWs at the edge of a mass grave. German soldiers are watching them from behind. Photographed in September 1943.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000002062 ... _1_Web.jpg

The execution of civilians at the edge of a mass grave in the USSR. Those being killed are standing beside an earthen rampart and below them is a mass grave filled with many bodies.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000002063 ... _1_Web.jpg

Civilians beside a mass grave of Jews in Zhmerinka, Ukraine. Beside them are the remains of some bodies that were exhumed from the grave.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000002064 ... _1_Web.jpg

The exhumation of Jews' bodies from the mass grave in Zhmerinka, Ukraine.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000002075 ... _1_Web.jpg

A German soldier with a pistol, shooting at bodies in a mass grave in the USSR.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000002080 ... _1_Web.jpg

The corpses of Jews in a mass grave that was discovered in Iwje. The Jews were murdered on May 1, 1942 and the exhumation took place on July 15, 1944.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000002085 ... _1_Web.jpg

A mass grave in Drobitski Yar near Kharkov. Fifteen thousand Kharkov Jews were murdered here in March 1942.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000002346 ... _1_Web.jpg

A mass grave in Kragujevac, Serbia, containing bodies of Jewish men. Photographed on May 21, 1941.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000005177 ... _1_Web.jpg

The opening of a mass grave in the city of Bialystok.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000005178 ... _1_Web.jpg

The opening of a mass grave in the city of Bialystok. Photographed in 1946.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000005882 ... _1_Web.jpg

A mass grave containing the bodies of Janowska camp inmates.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000006433 ... _1_Web.jpg

A mass grave on the grounds of the Skarzysko - Kamienna camp.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000006768 ... _1_Web.jpg

Members of the Soviet investigating committee in the Klooga camp beside a mass grave there. Photographed in 1944.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000013063 ... _1_Web.jpg

Victims in a mass grave.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000013066 ... _1_Web.jpg

Corpses in a mass grave.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000013080 ... _1_Web.jpg

Bodies that were removed from temporary mass graves being reburied in a mass grave.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000013399 ... _1_Web.jpg

Bodies of Jews removed from a mass grave in order to be decently buried.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000013421 ... _1_Web.jpg

The funeral and burial of bodies that were removed from a mass grave at a mass extermination site

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000013943 ... _1_Web.jpg

Bones and skulls that were exposed in a mass grave.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000013949 ... _1_Web.jpg

Civilians beside an exposed mass grave.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000013973 ... _1_Web.jpg

Rows of bodies, possibly exposed in a mass grave.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000013974 ... _1_Web.jpg

Rows of bodies, possibly exposed in a mass grave.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000013975 ... _1_Web.jpg

A row of corpses in a mass grave, after exhumation.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000013990 ... _1_Web.jpg

A row of bodies that were removed from a mass grave.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000014006 ... _1_Web.jpg

Bodies in a mass grave.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000014012 ... _1_Web.jpg

Bodies in a mass grave.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000014054 ... _1_Web.jpg

Jews in the Ukraine digging a mass grave for themselves.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000022763 ... _1_Web.jpg

The bodies of women killed by the German army, in a mass grave in Kerch.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000022764 ... _1_Web.jpg

Bodies taken from a mass grave in Taganrog, Russia. These were Russian civilians killed by the Germans.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000023179 ... _1_Web.jpg

Jews who returned to the town of Iwje, beside a mass grave discovered there. The grave contained the bodies of 2600 Jews who had been killed there. Photographed on April 20, 1945.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000024263 ... _1_Web.jpg

The area where Jews of the town of Lazdijai were killed and buried in a mass grave. In this place, the Katkiskis estate, Jews from Lazdijai were killed in November 1941. Photographed in 1998.

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000045372 ... _1_Web.jpg

Jewish Holocaust survivors beside a mass grave where Jews from Gorodok are buried.
Note: In the summer of 1941, Jews were massacred here by German Einsatzgruppen units

http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000072306 ... _1_Web.jpg

The Jewish cemetery in Radomsko in 1975. The gravestone in the photo was put on a mass grave of murdered Radomsko Jews. The upright square stones mark the boundaries of the grave.

http://www.holocaust-info.dk/treblinka/ ... _grave.htm

mass grave in Treblinka

http://shamash.org/holocaust/photos/images/EG2.jpg

A mass execution of Jews in Nazi occupied Soviet Union. Naked Jews, including a young boy, just before their murder.

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/holoca ... izocz1.jpg

Jewish women from the Mizocz Ghetto in the Ukraine, which held roughly 1,700 Jews. Some are holding infants as they are forced to wait in a line before their execution by Germans and Ukrainian collaborators.
[Photo credits: Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes]

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/holoca ... izocz2.jpg

German policeman shoots individual Jewish women who remain alive in the ravine after the mass execution. (1942)
[Photo credits: Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes]
Tue Feb 11, 2003 4:42 am
http://www.air-photo.com/forum/viewtopi ... 3587da4d46

max wrote:
Image

Document by the local NKVD committee about the discovery of one of three mass grave sites where the citizens of Urechye were buried.

Image

Schematic map drawn to show the site of the same mass grave in Urechye.

http://www.angelfire.com/or/yizkor/urholo.html

List of the Holocaust victims in Urechye.
(shortly thereafter)
http://www.air-photo.com/forum/viewtopi ... 3587da4d46


max wrote:Evidence from the Estonian State Archives of the Former Estonian KGB (State Security Committee) records relating to war crime investigations and trials in Estonia, 1940-1987.

- Forensic examination of a mass grave near Kovno

- Photograph of mass grave near Tartu

- Military procurator's statement on examination of mass grave site in company of accused Kullamaa, May 23, 1956.
- Sketch of execution site near town of Paide.
- Statement on exhumation of remains, May 23, 1956.
- Forensic examination of remains
- Photos of remains

- Baltic Fleet "Smersh" report on mass killings in Birkeneks woods near Riga
- Forensic report on mass killings in the Riga area, December 12, 1944.
- Photos of killings, bodies, mass graves.

Source: http://www.ushmm.org/
Tue Feb 11, 2003 4:47 am
http://www.air-photo.com/forum/viewtopi ... 3587da4d46

User avatar
Roberto
Member
Posts: 4505
Joined: 11 Mar 2002, 16:35
Location: Lisbon, Portugal

#2

Post by Roberto » 19 Feb 2003, 14:30

2. Jonathan Swift’s post from the same forum
Jonathan Swift wrote:
max wrote:Evidence from the Estonian State Archives of the Former Estonian KGB (State Security Committee) records relating to war crime investigations and trials in Estonia, 1940-1987.

- Forensic examination of a mass grave near Kovno

- Photograph of mass grave near Tartu

- Military procurator's statement on examination of mass grave site in company of accused Kullamaa, May 23, 1956.
- Sketch of execution site near town of Paide.
- Statement on exhumation of remains, May 23, 1956.
- Forensic examination of remains
- Photos of remains

- Baltic Fleet "Smersh" report on mass killings in Birkeneks woods near Riga
- Forensic report on mass killings in the Riga area, December 12, 1944.
- Photos of killings, bodies, mass graves.

Source: http://www.ushmm.org/
Excellent posts, Max!

Let me add an excerpt from the report of a Soviet investigation commission in Zhitomir, 5 to 16.02.1944.

Source: West German criminal trial procedure Js 4/65 GstA Frankfurt/Main, Russian files, Volume 1, quoted in Klee/Dressen, "Gott mit uns": Der deutsche Vernichtungskrieg in Osten 1939-1945, pages 31 and following. What follows is my translation of the German text, which is a translation of the Russian original.
[…]The commission of forensic medical experts, composed of: professor Voronyj Ju., the physicians Stoliza, B., Iskra F.I., Skalkij M.N., in the presence of the Representative of the Extraordinary State Commission, Candidate of Law Vjel’nikov D.G, the members of the Zhitomior Regional Support Commission: the Reverend Father Feodot Tysljukjevich, Kharchenko, K.S., Colonel Shapovalov. Roshanchuk N.M. and a great number of local inhabitants, established that the fascist German occupants and their helpers shot local inhabitants at the following places:
1) 500 meters to the south of the factory [German: “Vorwerk”] Dovshik, which is located in the forest 10 kilometres away from the city of Zhitomir, two shooting sites and places of burial for corpses were found. At first two places were found along the way that leads to the N.-Volynsk street at kilometre 9 from the Dovshik factory. Six graves were found, from which 962 human corpses of both sexes and various ages were exhumed. Then on the way leading from this factory to the street at kilometre 8 an area of two hectares was found which was fenced in by wire three meters high among which thick oak branches had been woven which couldn’t be looked through from the outside. On this area 13 graves were found, with the measurements 16 x 2 x 2.5 meters. When the graves were opened a male corpse, the rests of a corpse partially eaten by fire and a huge number of human bones were found. During the exhumation a strong smell of corpses was noticeable.
The witnesses present at the exhumation stated that at the location sighted civilian citizens had been shot and also buried in the course of the years 1941/42. In July 1943 this site had been fenced in, and guards had also been posted. Eyewitnesses had observed that during one month smoke had gone up from the fenced-in place, which had had an extremely foul smell and spread in such a way that it could still be sensed in the houses of the Dovshik factory, 500 – 600 meters away from the place.
The commission of forensic medical experts reached the conclusion that on the mentioned area burials and later exhumations and burning of human corpses, not less than 20,000 in number, had taken place.
2) South of the N.-Volynsk street, 8 kilometres away from Zhitomir, in the forest along the way leading to the village of Barachevka, 28 graves and two uncovered pits were discovered. When opening the graves 14,110 corpses were found. There was found a whole grave full of bodies that were completely unclad. In one grave was found the corpse of a women who had a bind with a huge red cross on her arm. A large part of the bodies had their hands tied with wire or strips. In one of the uncovered pits four well-conserved corpses were found, 3 men and one women. In the clothes of the male corpse papers on the name Vlassov, F.I., resident at Zhitomir, Proviantskaja 13/14, were found. The dead man’s wife, Mrs. Vlassova A.C., stated that he had been arrested by the Gestapo in Dezember 1943 because he was under suspicion of having hidden Jews and kept a rifle in his appartment.[…]
Zhitomir, as we know, was the place where Einsatzgruppe C, according to OPERATIONAL SITUATION REPORT USSR No. 106, 7 October 1941, shot 3,145 Jews on 19 September 1941. The excerpt from the report, as translated under

http://www.nizkor.net/hweb/orgs/german/ ... r-106.html

reads as follows:
[…]Zhitomir, action against the Jews

The Militia headquarters, according to a suggestion of Sonderkommando 4a, arranged a temporary, local concentration of Jews in Zhitmmir. This resulted in a quieter atmosphere, for example, in the markets, etc. At the same time, obstinate rumors diminished and it seemed that together with the concentration of the Jews, the Communists, too, lost much ground. However, it became obvious after a few days that concentration of the Jews without building a ghetto did not suffice, and that the old difficulties emerged again after a short while. Complaints about the impertinence of the Jews in their various places of work stemmed from various quarters. It was noted that strong propaganda activity among the Ukrainians, claiming that the Red Army would return very soon into the areas that had been taken away from them, had their origin in the Jewish quarter. The local militia was shot at, at night, and even in the daytime from an ambush. It was also established that Jews exchanged their belongings for money in order to move into Western Ukraine where a civil administration already exists.
All these phenomena could be observed. However, it was possible to get hold of the involved Jews only in the rarest cases, as they had sufficient opportunities to evade arrest. Therefore, a conference was called together with military H.Q. on September 10, 1941. The resulting decision was the final and radical liquidation of the Jews of Zhitomir, since all warnings [threats] and special measures [punishments] had not led to any perceptible change.
On September 19, 1941, from 4 o'clock [a.m.], the Jewish quarter was emptied after having been surrounded and closed the previous evening by 60 members of the Ukrainian militia. The transport [deportation] was accomplished in 12 trucks, part of which had been supplied by military headquarters and part by the city administration of Zhitomir. After the transport had been carried out and the necessary preparations made with the help of 150 prisoners, 3,145 Jews were registered and shot.[…]
The Soviet Commission's investigation cited before suggest that this was by no means the only massacre committed by German forces in the area of Zhitomir.
Tue Feb 11, 2003 5:02 am
http://www.air-photo.com/forum/viewtopi ... 3587da4d46


User avatar
Roberto
Member
Posts: 4505
Joined: 11 Mar 2002, 16:35
Location: Lisbon, Portugal

#3

Post by Roberto » 19 Feb 2003, 14:31

and

3. My own modest contribution
Roberto wrote:
Max/Hans wrote:
http://www.gfh.org.il/museum/0000002085 ... _1_Web.jpg

A mass grave in Drobitski Yar near Kharkov. Fifteen thousand Kharkov Jews were murdered here in March 1942.

Operational Situation Report USSR No. 164 of 4.2.1942
Bundesarchiv R58/217
, my translation:
[...]Collecting Jews in Kharkov
Within the scope of S.K. 4 a the extensive preparations required within the scope of the general collection of the Jews of Kharkov were carried out at an accelerated pace. The priority was to find an appropriate area for the evacuation of the Jews in close co-ordination with the quarters service of the city.
An area was chosen where the Jews could be accommodated in the barracks of a labor settlement. On 14.12.1941 a proclamation by the city commander to the Jews of Kharkov appeared wherein they were called upon to move to the settlement described in the proclamation until 16.12.1941. The evacuation of the Jews was carried out without incidents except for some looting that took place on the march of the Jews to their new quarters and in which almost exclusively Ukrainians took part. A numeric overview if the Jews collected so far in the evacuation is not yet available. At the same time preparations for the shootings of the Jews are taking place. 305 Jews who spread rumors unfavorable to the Wehrmacht were immediately shot. [...]

Protocol of the Extraordinary State Commission For The City Of Kharkov To Investigate The Crimes There Committed, 5.9.1943
ZStdLJV, 4 AR-Z-269/60, collection of documents, pages 164-169, quote pages 164 and following.

(ZStdLJV = Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen zur Aufklärung Nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen, Central Office of the Judicial Administrations of the Federal States for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes, Ludwigsburg, Germany)


(my translation):
[...]According to incomplete data in the months of December 1941 and January 1942 in the proximity of the Rogan works, eight kilometers away from Kharkov, in the so-called “Drobizk Ravine”, over 15 000 Jews, inhabitants of the city of Kharkov, were shot. These monstrous crimes against the peaceful population are confirmed by the depositions of witnesses, the forensic medical report and other documentary material. [...]
On 14 December 1941 the German military commander of the city of Kharkov issued an order, according to which the whole Jewish population was to move to the city periphery within two days, into the barracks of the works of a machine factory. In the order it was stated that people who did not follow this order would be shot. Thus several days later a crowd of many thousands of elder people, women and children was moving in the direction of the resettlement site through the streets of the city. As it was forbidden to walk through the city after 16ºº hours, but many of those to be resettled were still on their way at this time, the movement stopped. The people spent the night on the street, under open sky, in icy frost. Due to this many of them died already on the way. [...]

Deposition of Phillip F, former member of the 297th Infantry Division, on 23. March 1961
HHStAW, 631 a, 1856, pages 223-227, quote page 225 and following.

(HHStAW = Public Prosecutor’s Office of the City of Hamburg)


(my translation)
[...] It was in the middle of December 1941, when I spent several weeks in Kharkov. I still know exactly today that it was on 15.12.41 when I saw in Kharkov how a trek several kilometers long of Jews in long rows with handcars and luggage moved from the city eastwards to the tractor factory. The tractor factory is about 15 km away from the city center. Among the Jews there were men, women and children. Some cars were drawn by small horses who sometimes broke down under their load. On the cars there were sometimes little children, women and sick people sitting on the luggage. The cold was about 15 degrees (celsius) below zero. I watched the Jews passing by for a full hour and still the trek didn’t end. I estimate the number of Jews who on this day were led from Kharkov to the tractor factory at ca. 15 000 persons.
I still recall that the trek was secluded and guarded by uniformed men. I cannot tell anymore today, however, whether these were members of the SS or Ukrainian auxiliary police in uniform. I didn’t observe any mistreatment of the Jews during this. When on the next day I drove in my car from Kharkov to Tshugev, I used the same road that the trek of Jews had used on the previous day. On the left and right side of the street I repeatedly saw corpses that were from the trek of the Jews. Whether these Jews had die from mistreatment or shooting or from exhaustion I cannot tell. The corpses lay there abandoned and nobody cared about them.
The reason why I know exactly that the Jews were led to the tractor factory on 15.12.41 is that at that time there were posters in German and Russian language hanging everywhere in the city, on which the Jews were called upon to gather at a certain place of the city in order to be taken away. I no longer know today what service had issued these posters. But I still remember exactly that 15.12.1941 was mentioned as the day of gathering. [...]

Deposition of Karl G., former member of police battalion 314, 9 November 1964
HHStAW, 631a, 1868, page 2551-2555, quote page 2553
, my translation:
[...] In my opinion the executions of Jews at Kharkov took place at the beginning of the year 1942. At least I never was present at such an execution before. The Jews in Kharkov had been gathered in a ghetto somewhat outside the city and were guarded by us. One day, it was certainly after Christmas 1941, I was commanded to an area seclusion also outside the city of Kharkov. Under what leadership I was then I no longer know. We were taken to hilly terrain where we had to form a huge seclusion ring that the civilian population was not allowed to enter. Into this are the Jews from the ghetto were taken with trucks. The Jews had to undress and to lie down nearby or right inside crevices in the earth. The crevices were natural ones and not tank ditches or other dug-outs. In these pits the Jews were shot by the SD. The number of Jews shot in this area is not known to me, but I think that it was a larger number because the shootings lasted several days. I didn’t see members of the police being part of the execution detachments. [...]
Deposition of Viktor T., former member of Sonderkommando 4 a, 25 June 1960 ZStdLJV, 4AR-Z 269/60, Volume 1, page 1-18, quote page 16 and following, my translation:
[...] With a truck and several passenger cars in which the commanders drove we went out of the city in the direction of the tractor factory. About 5-10 km after the tractor factory we stopped in an open area. Close to the execution site there was an anti-aircraft gun emplacement. The Jews were already at the place. There were members of our detachment present who were guarding the Jews. The shooting of the Jews was carried out in a ravine. It was a crevice which went up to the middle of a larger hill.
I was ordered to the execution detachment. The execution detachment with a strength of 10 men entered the crevice that went about 20 meter inside the mountain. The Jews were led inside in groups of 20-25 people and had to lay down on the ground. The were shot in the neck with machine pistols. The shooting didn’t last long, approximately 1 ½ hours. The whole procedure lasted longer because we were constantly fired at by Russian planes. Due to this fire a number of these Jews were already killed. A member of the detachment was also wounded by the fire. The detachment which had to do the shooting was not relieved during the execution. The rising walls were then blown up onto the corpses.
As far as I know, however, more Jews were liquidated in Kharkov than are mentioned in the Operation Situation Report. The ensuing executions were no longer carried out by shooting but by using a gas van. This van, which had already been used in Poltava, was also used at Kiev and thereafter also at Kharkov.[...]
The passages translated above were taken from:

Verbrechen der Wehrmacht
Dimensionen des Vernichtungskrieges 1941-1944
Ausstellungskatalog
pages 182 – 185
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2003 12:59 pm Post subject: Mass Graves
http://www.thirdreichforum.com/phpBB2/v ... 7890af155f

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#4

Post by witness » 19 Feb 2003, 16:40

Just one example of these activities
( from the testimony of Obersturmfuhrer August Hafner about the massacre at Belaja Tzerkov ):
I went out to the woods alone.The Wehrmacht had already dug a grave. The children were brought along in a tractor [-drawn wagon ]. I
had nothing to do with this technical procedure .The Ukrainians were standing round trembling. The children were taken down from the tractor.
They were lined up along the top of the grave and shot so they fell into it.
The Ukrainians did not aim at any particular part of the body.They fell into the grave.The wailing was undescribable.I shall never forget the scene throughout my life.I find it very hard to bear.I particularly remember a small fair-haired girl who took me by the hand.She was shot later..
The grave was near some woods.It was not near the firing range ,The execution must have taken place in the afternoon at about three-thirty or
four...Many children were hit four or five times before they died

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#5

Post by Roberto » 19 Feb 2003, 18:21

max wrote:
Image

Document by the local NKVD committee about the discovery of one of three mass grave sites where the citizens of Urechye were buried.

Image

Schematic map drawn to show the site of the same mass grave in Urechye.

http://www.angelfire.com/or/yizkor/urholo.html

List of the Holocaust victims in Urechye.
Excerpts from Christian Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, Hamburg 1999

Footnote 1472 on page 770
Es gab eine Reihe weiterer Vernichtungsorte in der Umgebung von Minsk. Außer den Gräbern von Glinischtschi im Nordwesten mit etwa 66 000 und bei Uretschje mit schätzungsweise 12 500 (offiziell 30 000) vernichteten Kriegsgefangenen gab es den Graben von Drosdy (10 000 tote Zivilisten), die Gräber bei Petraschkewitschi (14 000 – 20 000 tote Zivilisten; offiziell einmal 25 000, einmal 54 000) sowie bei Tutschinka, am jüdischen Friedhof, im Kulturpark usw. […] Die genannten Abweichungen meiner Schätzung von den offiziellen Zahlen ergeben sich teilweise – nicht immer – soweit die Abmessungen der Massengräber bekannt sind.[…]
My translation:
There were a number of other extermination sites in the surroundings of Minsk. Beside the graves of Glinishchi in the north-west with about 66,000 and at Urechye with an estimated 12,500 (officially 30 000) destroyed prisoners of war there were the pit of Drosdy (10,000 dead civilians) and the graves of Petrashkevichi (14,000 to 20,000 dead civilians; officially 25,000 according to one source, 54,000 according to another) and at Tuchinka, at the Jewish cemetery, in the cultural park etc. […] The mentioned deviations of my estimation from the official figures result partially – not always – insofar as the measurements of the mass graves are known.[…]

Pages 852 and following
[…]Im Raum Minsk kam es im Januar 1943 zur größten Erschießung sowjetischer Kriegsgefangener auf weißrussischem Boden. Nach Aussagen mehrerer Zeugen, insbesondere des deutschen Mittäters Alois Heterich, wurde das 3. Bataillon des Infanterieregiments 595 während eines Transports der 327. Infanteriedivision nach Krasnodar Ende Januar 1943 in Minsk ausgeladen und hatte in drei Nächten Ende Januar oder Anfang Februar 10 000 Personen, meist Kriegsgefangene aus einem Lager am Güterbahnhof, einige Kilometer von dort entfernt zu erschießen. Allein Heterichs Zug habe 1 500 Mann hingerichtet. Angeblich fanden in den Folgetagen noch Massentötungen durch Gaswagen statt. Die Opfer (unter ihnen nach dem Exhumierungsergebnis auch ein geringer Anteil Zivilisten, darunter Frauen) wurden durch Genickschuß ermordet und trugen Uniformen der sowjetischen Panzertruppe. Die Zahl der Toten im Massengrab von Uretschje 6 Kilometer östlich von Minsk, die mit Rücksicht auf Zeugenaussagen von den sowjetischen Behörden auf 30 000 geschätzt wurden, betrug nach der Beschreibung der Massengräber zu urteilen etwa 12 500. [Fußnote: Es handelt sich um zehn Massengräber mit einer Grundfläche von 24 mal 5 Metern, in denen Leichen in drei Reihen und sieben Schichten übereinander aufgefunden wurden. Vgl. Akt v. 13.8.1944, Stadt Minsk, Sonderarchiv Moskau 1525-I-473, Bl. 309-316; “Das in Minsk gesammelte Beweismaterial”, Nbg. Dok. USSR-38 BA F 16030.[…]]
My translation:
[…]In the area of Minsk the largest shooting of Soviet prisoners of war on Belorussian soil took place in January 1943. According to the depositions of several witnesses, especially the German perpetrator Alois Heterich, the 3rd Battalion of Infantry Regiment 595 was unloaded at Minsk at the end of January 1943 during the transport of the 327th Infantry Division to Krasnodar and had the task of shooting 10,000 people, mostly prisoners of war from a camp at the freight train station, a few kilometers away from there during three nights at the end of January of beginning of February of 1943. Heterich’s platoon alone is said to have executed 1,500 people. Allegedly there were further mass killings with gas vans in the following days. The victims (among them, according to the result of the exhumation, also a small portion of civilians, among them women) were murdered by a shot in the neck an carried uniforms of the Soviet tank forces. The number of dead in the mass grave of Urechye, 6 kilometers to the east of Minsk, which the Soviet authorities estimated at 30,000 taking into consideration the depositions of witnesses, was about 12,500 according to the description of the mass graves. [Footnote: These were 10 mass graves with an area of 24 by 5 meters, wherein corpses were found in three rows and seven layers on top of each other. See Act of 13.8.1944, City of Minsk, Special Archive Moscow 1525-1-473, pages 309-316; “The Evidence Collected at Minsk”, Nuremberg Document USSR-38, Federal Archives Freiburg 16030.[…]]
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 3428-PS
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT I I I


SECRET MEMORANDUM FROM KUBE, GENERAL
COMMISSIONER OF WHITE RUTHENIA, TO GAULEITER
LOHSE, REICH COMMISSIONER OF OSTLAND, 31 JULY 1942,
CONCERNING ACTIONS AGAINST PARTISANS AND
LIQUIDATION OF JEWS IN WHITE RUTHENIA

[Stamp] Secret
[Stamp] Department IIa No. 2407/ 428

The General Commissioner for White Ruthenia Department Gauleiter/ G.-507/ 42 Secret
(To be quoted in the reply)
To the Reich Commissioner for the Eastland Gauleiter Heinrich Lohse
Riga [Handwritten] HS 10 August 1942
[Stamp]
The Reich Commissioner for the Eastland
Journal Nr. 1122/ 42 Secret
Secret

[Stamp]
Reich Commissioner
Ostland, 7 August 1942
Main Department II Pol.

[Handwritten] II Administration
[Handwritten]
To be referred to me with previous correspondence
Jr. 12 August
correspondence furnished
Sr. 19 August

Page 192


Subject: Actions Against Partisans and Anti-Jewish Action in the District General White Ruthenia

In every encounter with partisans in White Ruthenia, it has been established that in the former Soviet part of the district general as well as in the former Polish part the Jews together with the Polish Resistance Movement in the East and the Red Army men of Moscow are the mainstay of the partisan movement. As a result of this, and in view of the danger to the whole economy, the treatment of the Jews in White Ruthenia is a predominantly political matter which, therefore, should not be solved according to economic but political angles. 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. In the Minsk-Land area, the Jewry was completely exterminated, without endangering the allocation of labor in any way. In the prevailing Polish Licla area, 16,000 Jews, in Slonim 8,000 Jews, etc., were liquidated. The preparations for the liquidation of the Jews in the Glebokie area were completely disrupted by the 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. 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, Brno, Bremen, and Berlin in November of the previous year at the Fuehrer's orders.

The Slutsk area was also ridded of several thousand Jews. The same applies to Novogrudok and Vileika. Radical measures still remain to be taken for Baranovichi and Hanzevichi. In Baranovichi, about 10,000 Jews are still living in the town alone, 9,000 of whom will be liquidated next month. In the town of Minsk, 2,600 Jews from Germany have been left over. Besides, all the 6,000 Jews and Jewesses are still alive who have been working, during the action, with the units who had employed them previously. Even in the future the largest Jewish labor force will be in Minsk, since the centralization of armament industries and the burden on the railways makes this necessary for the time being. In all other areas the number of Jews utilized for labor by the SD and myself will be fixed at 800 at the outside but at 500 if possible so that after the completion of the action 8,600 Jews will remain in Minsk and approximately 7,000 in the

Page 193

10 remaining territories, including the territory Minsk-Land, which is already free from Jews. The danger that the partisans will, in future, derive any important support from the Jews will then have ceased to exist. 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 requirements of the Wehrmacht who is the main employer of the Jewish population are still being considered. The clear anti-Jewish attitude of the SD and the difficult task of the units in White Ruthenia to deliver again and again new Jewish transports from the Reich to their destination, both put an undue strain on the physical and spiritual strength of men of the SD and diverts them from their real purpose, which lies in the White Ruthenian region itself.

I should therefore be grateful if the Reich Commissioner could see his way to stop further Jewish transports until the partisan threat has finally been overcome. I must make 100 per-cent use of the SD against partisans and against the Polish Resistance Movement, both of which demand the use of the full strength of the SD units, which are none too strong as it is. After the conclusion of the anti-Jewish action in Minsk, Dr. Strauch, SS Lieutenant Colonel, reported to me tonight, with justifiable wrath, that without any order from the Reich Leader SS and without notification of the commissioner, a transport of 1,000 Jews has suddenly arrived from Warsaw for use in this air fleet area.

I should like to ask the Reich Commissioner (who has already been advised by teletype), in his capacity as the highest authority in the Ostland, to stop such transports. The Polish Jew is, exactly like the Russian Jew, an enemy of all that is German. He represents a politically dangerous factor, the political danger of which exceeds by far his value as a specialized worker. Under no conditions must Wehrmacht agencies of the army or the Luftwaffe, be allowed to import, without the approval of the Reich Commissioner, into an area under civil administration, Jews from the General Government who might endanger the entire political work and security of the district general. I am in full agreement with the commander of the SD in White Ruthenia, that we are to liquidate every Jewish transport which has not been ordered or announced by our superior officers, so as to avoid further unrest in White Ruthenia.

The Commissioner General for White Ruthenia
[Signed] KUBE
Source of quote:
http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/Einsatz2b.htm
Last edited by Roberto on 20 Feb 2003, 21:31, edited 2 times in total.

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#6

Post by David Thompson » 19 Feb 2003, 19:52

Roberto -- Thanks for an excellent and highly informative series of posts!

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#7

Post by witness » 19 Feb 2003, 23:01

This is my translation of the posted by Max document ( very clumsy :( )
September 22 1944 ( then smeared and difficult to understand -Probably “ area of Urechie ‘’ ? )
We -committee signing this document :
1 .Commtee Chairman : - NKVD Commander of the city of Slutsck
( Then smeared –My reading – Michackovich ? Kaspir …?)
2.Vice –chairman of the Distict counsel of laborers
Vorobyev Adam Antonovich
3. Surgeon-physician of the Slutcks Health Care Department
Murayko Ignatiy Prochorovich
4.Land –surveyer (?) of the city of Slutck
Golub Yriy Ivanovich

We compiled the following document testifying that :

We investigated the spot of
the mass execution of the Soviet citizens by the Germans
in the area of Urechie in the former place of stationing of the 4th artillery regimen.
We discovered the mass grave of the shot Soviet citizens
The pit-grave measurements :Length -11 meters ; breadth 4 meters .
Upon opening the grave the committee established : the depth 1,5 meters
The location of cadavers ( corpses ) 0,5 meter (depth) ;Number of the buried bodies 110 including women ,children and men at about of one square meter of soil
per 6 ( ?.. smeared ) corpses.
The medical expertise established – the corpses buried in the chaotic order
Majority of the corpses have bullet-made holes therefore t all were killed from some firearms which corroborates with the eyewitness testimonies.


In addition to the document are the eywitness testimonies and
the maps of the area attached

Signatures …..
Again the translation is clumsy and really verbatim.

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#8

Post by Roberto » 20 Feb 2003, 15:33

witness wrote:This is my translation of the posted by Max document ( very clumsy :( )
September 22 1944 ( then smeared and difficult to understand -Probably “ area of Urechie ‘’ ? )
We -committee signing this document :
1 .Commtee Chairman : - NKVD Commander of the city of Slutsck
( Then smeared –My reading – Michackovich ? Kaspir …?)
2.Vice –chairman of the Distict counsel of laborers
Vorobyev Adam Antonovich
3. Surgeon-physician of the Slutcks Health Care Department
Murayko Ignatiy Prochorovich
4.Land –surveyer (?) of the city of Slutck
Golub Yriy Ivanovich

We compiled the following document testifying that :

We investigated the spot of
the mass execution of the Soviet citizens by the Germans
in the area of Urechie in the former place of stationing of the 4th artillery regimen.
We discovered the mass grave of the shot Soviet citizens
The pit-grave measurements :Length -11 meters ; breadth 4 meters .
Upon opening the grave the committee established : the depth 1,5 meters
The location of cadavers ( corpses ) 0,5 meter (depth) ;Number of the buried bodies 110 including women ,children and men at about of one square meter of soil
per 6 ( ?.. smeared ) corpses.
The medical expertise established – the corpses buried in the chaotic order
Majority of the corpses have bullet-made holes therefore t all were killed from some firearms which corroborates with the eyewitness testimonies.


In addition to the document are the eywitness testimonies and
the maps of the area attached

Signatures …..
Again the translation is clumsy and really verbatim.
Thanks for the translation, Michael. I wish I could read Russian (I'll start learning it next month).

This means it was a different massgrave from the ones mentioned by Gerlach, described by a commission of the city of Minsk on 13.08.1944. While those graves contained mainly prisoners of war, this one obviously contained the bodies of executed civilians.

Best regards,

Roberto

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#9

Post by Krasnaya Zvezda » 20 Feb 2003, 17:11

witness wrote:Just one example of these activities
( from the testimony of Obersturmfuhrer August Hafner about the massacre at Belaja Tzerkov ):
I went out to the woods alone.The Wehrmacht had already dug a grave. The children were brought along in a tractor [-drawn wagon ]. I
had nothing to do with this technical procedure .The Ukrainians were standing round trembling. The children were taken down from the tractor.
They were lined up along the top of the grave and shot so they fell into it.
The Ukrainians did not aim at any particular part of the body.They fell into the grave.The wailing was undescribable.I shall never forget the scene throughout my life.I find it very hard to bear.I particularly remember a small fair-haired girl who took me by the hand.She was shot later..
The grave was near some woods.It was not near the firing range ,The execution must have taken place in the afternoon at about three-thirty or
four...Many children were hit four or five times before they died
Everytime I read something like this I keep asking myself : how was this possible? Could I be also doing this if I was them? Has Germany been blessed with the share fact that they still exist despite all that they have done? I just can not reconicile inside me that something like this is possible and really happened and find all the accusation for the behavior of Soviet army in Germany ridiculous. All the best to you.

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#10

Post by Roberto » 20 Feb 2003, 21:29

Maly Trostinets and other extermination sites in Belorussia

Excerpt from Christian Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, pages 770 and following.
[…]Die offiziöse Zahl der Opfer, die in und um Trostinez ermordet und verscharrt wurden, beträgt 206 500. Solche Ziffern – unmittelbar nach dem Krieg wurden sogar 546 000 Opfer angegeben – sind nach der vorliegenden Untersuchung bei weitem zu hoch. Zu rekonstruieren scheinen etwa 40 000 Opfer sowie zusätzlich eine unbekannte Zahl von Gefängnis- und Lagerhäftlingen aus dem Raum Minsk, die bei Razzien und Unternehmen der Partisanenbekämpfung festgenommen worden waren.
[Fußnote: Die Zahl 40 000 setzt sich zusammen aus: je etwa 5 000 Opfern bei den Ghettoaktionen im Juli 1942 und Herbst 1943; etwa 20 000 aus Mitteleuropa 1942 zur Vernichtung nach Trostinez deportierten Juden; 3 000 sogenannten Bandenverdächtigen, die an zehn Tagen im Februar 1943 im Gas getötet wurden, und 6 500 Opfern bei den Massakern an den Lager – und Gefängnisinsassen Ende Juni 1944 beim deutschen Rückzug. – Mindestens 546 000 Opfer waren es nach dem Bericht v. 25.7.1944 über Gewalttaten im Konzentrationslager in der Umgebung des Dorfes Trostinec, ZStL UdSSR Bd. 424, Inhaltsangabe zu Bl. 766-778.]
Genaue Angaben sind unmöglich, da die Massengräber ab Oktober 1943 vom deutschen Sonderkommando 1005 exhumiert und die Leichen verbrannt wurden. Die Aussagen der daran beteiligten weisen ebenfalls auf etwa 40 000 bis 50 000 Tote in den dortigen Massengräbern hin.
[Fußnote: Darin waren die Opfer im letzten halben Jahr der Besatzung, vor allem aber die 6,500 aus ihren letzten Tagen, die in Schaschowka umgebracht wurden, nicht enthalten. Zur Gesamtzahl siehe Spector, Aktion 1005, S. 166; Vern. Adolf Rübe v. 17.12.1947, GLA Karlsruhe 465A/51/5/460, US Vernehmungen, Bl. 91 (50 000 Leichen südlich Minsk und 15 000 – 20 000 am entgegengesetzten Ende der Stadt), Vern. Ders. v. 1.9.1959, StA Hamburg 141 Js 204/60, Akte „Ludwigsburg – Vorgänge Rübe“, Bl. 17f. (40 000 Leichen südöstlich Minsk; Vern. Georg Heuser v. 28.2.1964, ebd., Bl. 5404.]
Die Berichte der Untersuchungsbehörden von 1944 gaben etwa 150 000 oder bis zu 150 000 Opfer, griffen aber wohl auch zu hoch.
[Fußnote: Zahl und Größe der Massengräber ist nicht ganz klar; nur einige wurden geöffnet. Allgemein wurde ihre Zahl in Blagowschtschina mit 34 angegeben (Rübe und Heuser sprachen von 15-18, Vern. wie Anm. zuvor), von denen jedoch, anders als bei Kohl, S. 97, ausgeführt, nur einige bis zu 50 m lang und nicht alle 60 m lang waren. Ihr Rauminhalt betrug also deutlich weniger als 25 000 m3 (die bei schätzungsweise höchstens 6 Leichen je m3 bis zu 150 000 ermordeten Menschen entsprochen hätten), ist jedoch nicht genau anzugeben. Selbst das ursprüngliche Ausmaß der Massengräber war schon 1944 kaum noch feststellbar, da das Sonderkommando 1005 Erdarbeiten mit Raupenschleppern vorgenommen hatte. Vgl. „Das in Minsk gesammelte Beweismaterial“, Nbg. Dok. USSR-38, BA F 16030; Angaben zu Trostinez in ZstA Minsk 845-I-62, Bl. 1-48, besonders Bl. 1 und undatierte Vernehmung W.A. Buzewitsch, Bl. 27-32; Akt Stadt Minsk v. 13.8.1944, Sonderarchiv Moskau 1525-1-1473, Bl. 309-316, auch in: Beluga (Hg.), S. 224-226.]
Insgesamt – das ist eine grobe Schätzung – könnten 60,000 Menschen bei Trostinez vernichtet worden sein.
[Fußnote: Es gab eine Reihe weiterer Vernichtungsorte in der Umgebung von Minsk. Außer den Gräbern von Glinischtschi im Nordwesten mit etwa 66 000 und bei Uretschje mit schätzungsweise 12 500 (offiziell 30 000) vernichteten Kriegsgefangenen gab es den Graben von Drosdy (10 000 tote Zivilisten), die Gräber bei Petraschkewitschi (14 000 – 20 000 tote Zivilisten; offiziell einmal 25 000, einmal 54 000) sowie bei Tutschinka, am jüdischen Friedhof, im Kulturpark usw. Siehe ebd. und Kohl, Anm. 132, S. 264 f. Die genannten Abweichungen meiner Schätzung von den offiziellen Zahlen ergeben sich teilweise – nicht immer – soweit die Abmessungen der Massengräber bekannt sind. Zu weiteren Vernichtungsorten in Minsk siehe Kohl, S. 77-90; Schlootz, S. 75; Vern. Eberhard Herf v. 26.12.1945, ZStl 202 AR-Z 184/67, Bd. 1, Bl. 67][…]

My translation:
[…]The officious number of victims who were murdered and buried in and around Trostinets is 206,500. Such figures – immediately after the war even as many as 546 000 victims were indicated – are far too high according to the present study. It is possible to reconstruct about 40 000 victims and additionally an unknown number of prison – and camp inmates from the Minsk area who were apprehended during raids and anti-partisan operations.
[Footnote: The number 40,000 is made up of: about 5,000 victims at each of the ghetto actions in July 1942 and in the autumn of 1943; about 20,000 Jews deported for extermination from Central Europe to Trostinets in 1942; 3,000 so-called banditry suspects, who were killed by gas in ten days in February 1943, and 6 500 victims of the massacres of camp – and prison inmates at the end of June 1944 during the German retreat. – At least 546,000 victims were given in the report of 25.07.1944 about acts of violence in the concentration camp in the surroundings of the village of Trostinec, ZStL (=Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen zur Aufklärung Nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen, Central Office of the Judicial Administrations of the Federal States for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes, Ludwigsburg, Germany) USSR Volume 424, Index to pages 766-778.]
Exact data are impossible to provide because from October 1943 onward the mass graves were exhumed by the German Special Detachment 1005 and the corpses were burned. The depositions of those participating therein also point to about 40 000 to 50 000 dead in these mass graves.
[Footnote: The victims of the last half year of occupation, and especially the 6,500 who in its last days were killed at Shashovka, were not included herein. For the total number see Spector, Action 1005, page 166; interrogation of Adolf Rübe[my emphasis, see trial summary after this translation] on 17.12.1947, General State Archive Karlsruhe 465A/51/5/460, US interrogations, volume 91 (50 000 corpses south of Minsk and 15 000 – 20 000 at the opposite end of the city), interrogation of the same on 01.09.1959, Public Prosecutor’s Office Hamburg 141 Js 204/60, file “Ludwigsburg – Case Rübe“, pages 17 and following (40 000 corpses to the southeast of Minsk; interrogation of Georg Heuser[my emphasis, see trial summary after this translation] on 28.02.1964, as above, page 5404.]
The investigation authorities’ reports of 1944 indicated about 150,000 or up to 150,000 victims, but they were obviously also on the high side.
[Footnote: The number and size of the mass graves is not quite clear; only some of them were opened. Generally their number in Blagovshchina is given at 34 (Rübe and Heuser spoke of 15-18, interrogation as mentioned in previous note), of which, however, and contrary to the description of Kohl, page 97, only some were up to 50 meters long, instead of all being 60 meters long. Their volume was thus considerably lower than 25,000 cubic meters (which at an estimated maximum of 6 corpses per cubic meter would have corresponded to up to 150,000 murdered people), but cannot be indicated exactly. Even the original size of the mass graves could hardly be established already in 1944 because Special Detachment 1005 had carried out earth works with caterpillars. See “The Evidence Collected at Minsk“, Nuremberg Document USSR-38, Federal Archives Freiburg 16030; data about Trostinets in Central State Archive Minsk 845-I-62, pages 1-48, especially page 1, and undated interrogation of W.A. Buzewich, pages 27-32; Act of the City of Minsk dated 13.08.1944, Special Archives Moscow 1525-1-1473, pages 309-316, also in: Beluga (editor), pages 224-226.]
In total – this is a rough estimate – 60,000 people may have been destroyed at Trostinets.
[Footnote: There were a number of other extermination sites in the surroundings of Minsk. Beside the graves of Glinishchi in the north-west with about 66,000 and at Urechye with an estimated 12,500 (officially 30 000) destroyed prisoners of war there were the pit of Drosdy (10,000 dead civilians) and the graves of Petrashkevichi (14,000 to 20,000 dead civilians; officially 25,000 according to one source, 54,000 according to another) and at Tuchinka, at the Jewish cemetery, in the cultural park etc. See as above and Kohl, note 132, pages 264 and following. The mentioned deviations of my estimation from the official figures result partially – not always – insofar as the measurements of the mass graves are known. Regarding other killing sites in Minsk see Kohl, pages 77-90; Schlootz, page 75; interrogation of Eberhard Herf on 26.12.1945, ZStl 202 AR-Z 184/67, Volume 1, page 67][…]
Case Nr.298
Crime Category: NS-Crimes in Detainment Centers
Accused:
Rübe, Adolf life sentence + 15 Years
Court:
LG Karlsruhe 511107
LG Karlsruhe 491215
OLG Stuttgart 510629
BGH 520718
Country where the crime was committed: GUS
Crime Location: Minsk
Crime Date: 42-43
Victims: Jews
Nationality: Soviet, German
Office: Polizei Kripo Minsk
Subject of the proceeding: Individual killings of inhabitants (men, women and children) of the Minsk ghetto, on orders as well as on personal initiative. Furthermore: Participation in the mass killing of German and Soviet Jews by means of shooting and gassing in a 'gas van'
Source of quote:

http://www1.jur.uva.nl/junsv/brd/brdeng ... eng298.htm
Case Nr.552
Crime Category: War Crimes, Euthanasia, Mass Extermination Crimes by Einsatzgruppen, Mass Extermination Crimes in Camps, Other Mass Extermination Crimes
Accused:
Dalheimer, Karl Robert 4 Years
Harder, Arthur Alexander Judgment annulled by the BGH; no subsequent judgment could be ascertained
Heuser, Georg Albert Wilhelm 15 Years
Merbach, Friedrich 7 Years
Schlegel, Rudolf 8 Years
Stark, Franz life sentence
Wilke, Artur Fritz 10 Years
Court:
LG Koblenz 630521
Country where the crime was committed: GUS
Crime Location: Minsk, HS KL Gut Trostinez, Koidanow, Rakow, Slonim, Sluzk
Crime Date: 41-4406
Victims: Jews, Civilians, Mentally Disabled
Nationality: Soviet, German, Austrian
Office: Polizei Sipo Minsk, Sonderkommando 1005
Subject of the proceeding: Shootings, gassings in 'gas vans', as well as burning alive of thousands of Soviet and West European Jews, who had been deported to Minsk, of Gypsies, mentally disabled, other Soviet civilians and Soviet agents, during the years1941-1944, within the jurisdictional territory of the KdS/BdS Minsk. Reprisal shootings: among them, execution of 300 men, women and children from Minsk, after the attempt on the life of Generalkommissar Kube.
Source of quote:

http://www1.jur.uva.nl/junsv/brd/brdeng ... eng552.htm

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Roberto
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#11

Post by Roberto » 20 Feb 2003, 21:43

David Thompson wrote:Roberto -- Thanks for an excellent and highly informative series of posts!
I'm glad you appeciate it, David.

A document, or collection of documents, that is repeatedly mentioned in connection with mass graves in the surroundings of Minsk is “The Evidence Collected at Minsk“, Nuremberg Document USSR-38.

Do you have a translation of this in your Nuremberg collection?

If so, could you provide a scan thereof ?

Thanks,

Roberto

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witness
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#12

Post by witness » 21 Feb 2003, 00:16

Krasnaya Zvezda wrote:
witness wrote:Just one example of these activities
( from the testimony of Obersturmfuhrer August Hafner about the massacre at Belaja Tzerkov ):
I went out to the woods alone.The Wehrmacht had already dug a grave. The children were brought along in a tractor [-drawn wagon ]. I
had nothing to do with this technical procedure .The Ukrainians were standing round trembling. The children were taken down from the tractor.
They were lined up along the top of the grave and shot so they fell into it.
The Ukrainians did not aim at any particular part of the body.They fell into the grave.The wailing was undescribable.I shall never forget the scene throughout my life.I find it very hard to bear.I particularly remember a small fair-haired girl who took me by the hand.She was shot later..
The grave was near some woods.It was not near the firing range ,The execution must have taken place in the afternoon at about three-thirty or
four...Many children were hit four or five times before they died
Everytime I read something like this I keep asking myself : how was this possible? Could I be also doing this if I was them? Has Germany been blessed with the share fact that they still exist despite all that they have done? I just can not reconicile inside me that something like this is possible and really happened and find all the accusation for the behavior of Soviet army in Germany ridiculous. All the best to you.
Yes . For me this is also one of the most terrible accounts I've ever read
About ninety kids were murdered at Belaja Tzerkov .
The Protestant and Catholic chaplains of 295th Infantry division were trying to interfere when these children were kept in
some house ( for about day and a half AFAIK without water and food ) after their parents were executed by the Blobel Zonderkommando.
The chaplains conveyed what they saw in this house to the one of the men of 295th Infantry Division general staff Lietenant Colonel Groscurth.
This Werhmacht officer tried to find out what would happen with the kids
and got the answer upon his request from the Oberscharfurher SS Hafner ( I think it was Hafner ) that the children "were also to be eliminated ". He could not believe this and ordered the field commander of his unit to guard the area around the house and informed (of what he had found out from the SS officer) the division headquarters and from there was directed to contact the Six Army headquarters.
The Six Army headquarters ordered to postpone the execution but then after interferring of Blobel himself it was decided that the execution has to be carried out .
Best Regards.

David Thompson
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#13

Post by David Thompson » 21 Feb 2003, 02:24

Roberto -- I did appreciate those cites. I thought they were an excellent contribution, and the fact that they were all gathered in one place makes for easy reference, as well. It is an excellent curative for the less well-read contributor, who might otherwise bring little more than an extreme, noisy and belligerent ignorance to these discussions.

Unfortunately, the Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression set I've been scanning only has the Anglo-American Nuernberg exhibits, and not the Soviet or French ones. Those exhibits exist on microfilm (US National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 238, Prosecution Exhibits Submitted to the International Military Tribunal. Microfilm PublicationT988. 54 rolls, with Roll list available), but none of my local university or public libraries has a set. I'll keep pestering the librarians to acquire the rolls, and if I can get access to them I'll copy and scan them for the forum.

Charles Bunch
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#14

Post by Charles Bunch » 21 Feb 2003, 04:59

David Thompson wrote:Roberto -- I did appreciate those cites. I thought they were an excellent contribution, and the fact that they were all gathered in one place makes for easy reference, as well. It is an excellent curative for the less well-read contributor, who might otherwise bring little more than an extreme, noisy and belligerent ignorance to these discussions.

Unfortunately, the Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression set I've been scanning only has the Anglo-American Nuernberg exhibits, and not the Soviet or French ones. Those exhibits exist on microfilm (US National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 238, Prosecution Exhibits Submitted to the International Military Tribunal. Microfilm PublicationT988. 54 rolls, with Roll list available), but none of my local university or public libraries has a set. I'll keep pestering the librarians to acquire the rolls, and if I can get access to them I'll copy and scan them for the forum.
I suspect Harry Mazal of THHP has them and would be happy to supply them if asked.

David Thompson
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#15

Post by David Thompson » 21 Feb 2003, 05:32

Charles -- Is Harry Mazal connected to the Mazal Library at

http://www.mazal.org/Default.htm

I'm not familiar with the THHP (at least by its initials; please pardon my ignorance). I'd love to get these primary source documents scanned and posted. If you've got some suggestions about how to do this, step right up (on the forum or by private mail).

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