Babi Yar - information about the massacre, and the coverup

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White Rose
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Babi Yar - information about the massacre, and the coverup

#1

Post by White Rose » 22 Oct 2004, 23:31

I've read a number of messages about Babi Yar on this board and others. I got interested when I found John Ball's claim that it hadn't happened, which had an excellent refutation on this forum.

I've seen a smattering of information about Babi Yar, and there are a few conflicting sources on how many actually died, and where. I would figure this would be one of the larger mass killings in Russia, so I thought there would be an abundance of info out there, but I don't see too much.

On another note, I am also wondering about the Nazi return to the scene of the crime and the subsequent coverup in the face of advancing Soviet troops. I know that they dug up the bodies and burned them to cover the evidence of the crime.

However, was it necessary to do so? What did the German's think it was buying them by destorying the bodies? (Aren't the burned ashes ample proof that they perpetrated the killings? Did they dispose of these too?) Wouldn't there be some evidence of the digging operations, as well as evidence "on the ground" left of the dead?

I'm very interested to know more about this. My local library only has general books on the Holocaust, and they usually simply mention that Babi Yar occured, without going into too much detail on it. Are there any specialist books on it, and are any of them in English?

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#2

Post by David Thompson » 23 Oct 2004, 00:03

White Rose -- Here are some previous threads in this section of the forum on the subjects you raised:

1969 Stuttgart trial over SK1005
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=55380
Extraordinary Commission Report on Kiev 1944
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=42076
Babi Yar
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=439
Babi Yar
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=55367
John Ball on Babij Jar (Babi Yar)
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=41827
Destroying the evidence - Hitler, Himmler, Blobel etc.
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=10722

and here are some on a related subject:

Mass Graves (continuation)
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=16688
Mass Graves
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=16440

There is also a German report which mentions one of the massacres in passing, at:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 398#555398

I haven't seen any history books specifically on Babi Yar -- I'm only familiar with the Russian poem -- but perhaps our readers have seen more detailed treatment of the massacres.


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#3

Post by Helly Angel » 23 Oct 2004, 00:42


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Tom Houlihan
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#4

Post by Tom Houlihan » 23 Oct 2004, 03:29

Find a copy of Harvest of Despair, by Karel C. Berkhoff. I just started it, and it talks a lot about Kiev, and some about Babi Yar.

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#5

Post by White Rose » 23 Oct 2004, 08:53

David Thompson wrote:White Rose -- Here are some previous threads in this section of the forum on the subjects you raised:

[...]
John Ball on Babij Jar (Babi Yar)
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=41827
This is the article I refrenced above.

As I've seen in other threads, you have a great command of relevant material, both sources and threads. And your quick, too. :)
David Thompson wrote:Destroying the evidence - Hitler, Himmler, Blobel etc.
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=10722

and here are some on a related subject:

Mass Graves (continuation)
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=16688
Mass Graves
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=16440
The evidence destruction thread was quite good, as was the Mass Graves thread.

Two things are still on my mind. Did investigators find any remains from the cremations around the Babi Yar site? From a general prospective, were any sites of mass killings or graves abandoned by the Nazis and subsequently discovered by the allies?

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#6

Post by David Thompson » 23 Oct 2004, 09:00

White Rose -- In answer to your questions:

(1)
Did investigators find any remains from the cremations around the Babi Yar site?
I don't know. I haven't seen any translated documents about it one way or the other.

(2)
were any sites of mass killings or graves abandoned by the Nazis and subsequently discovered by the allies?
Yes. They're still being found (as are mass graves of victims of Soviet mass killings). Some of the discoveries are mentioned in the "Mass graves" threads you've already seen cited. Here are some other threads on the subject:

German mass murders:

Mass grave of fascism victims found in Crimea
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=47302
New Grave
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=10091
Holocaust mass graves?
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=3970

Soviet mass murders:

Nazi Camps were used by soviets for murdering german citizen
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=1422
NKVD execution grounds at Toksovo excavated
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=17634

and there is more material on the discovery of graves of persons massacred in former Yugoslavia by victorious partisans as well.

There are a fair number of Soviet forensic reports of excavations of mass graves in the USSR. Some of these have been reprinted in English language books -- "Nazi Crimes in Ukraine" comes to mind. Others are only available in Russian, and on microfilm. The first of these finding guides is probably your best resource (under "Extraordinary Commission"), but the others have information as well:

Nazi War Crimes Records in Russia (ECIG-FC)
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=16071
Nazi War Crimes Records in Russia (former KGB Holdings)
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=16023
Belarus War Crimes Records
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=15949

The Electric Zen Einsatzgruppen website at:

http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/

has some materials on excavations of mass graves in their photo collection.

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#7

Post by Sergey Romanov » 23 Oct 2004, 18:13

Since Babij Jar topic came up again, I will post another comment about "revisionist" arguments.

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Mattogno and Graf on Babi Yar

#8

Post by Sergey Romanov » 23 Oct 2004, 18:21

Last edited by Sergey Romanov on 23 Oct 2004, 19:18, edited 1 time in total.

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#9

Post by Konrad » 23 Oct 2004, 19:11

And besides all these testimonies by all these eyewitnesses, were their testimonies backed up by any excavations undertaken at the site after the war, or some core drillings, similar to those by Prof. Kola in Belzec, Poland?

And what were the results?

Konrad

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#10

Post by Sergey Romanov » 23 Oct 2004, 19:29

Konrad, I haven't seen the report of the Commission which worked there. If I will get it, I'll post some info here. Anatolij Kuznetsov informs us that there were lots of ashes and bone fragments in that place for a long time after the tragic events. Also there was some melted gold, teeth.
We walked around, found many whole bones, fresh, wet skull, and again - the pieces of the black ashes among they gray sand. I picked up one piece, about 2 kg, took it with me, saved it. This is the ashes of many people, everything is mixed in it - so to say, the international ashes.
Then there was a flood caused by the break of the dam and now the whole territory is buried under many meters of dirt.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... 9?v=glance

Anyway, these facts don't need to be "verified", there are documents and witnesses, all that is needed.

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#11

Post by David Thompson » 23 Oct 2004, 19:37

Konrad and Sergey -- There is a finding aid to the microfilm records of the Soviet investigations of this and other mass killings posted at:

Nazi War Crimes Records in Russia (ECIG-FC)
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=16071

If the material has been translated into English, I haven't seen it.

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#12

Post by Konrad » 24 Oct 2004, 00:17

This is all I found in the IMT trial protocols about Babi Yar:

Title: "Indictment, Part 06: Count Three: War Crimes: (A) Murder and Ill Treatment of Civilian Populations Of Or In Occupied Territory and On The High Seas: Murders and Ill-Treatment At Places In The Eastern Countries and In The Soviet Union", in Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal. Volume I: Official Documents. [Official text in the English language.] Nuremberg: IMT, 1947. pp. 48-50.

and

Title: "First Day, Tuesday, 11/20/1945, Part 04: Count Three: War Crimes, Part 2", in Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal. Volume II. Proceedings: 11/14/1945-11/30/1945. [Official text in the English language.] Nuremberg: IMT, 1947. pp. 59-69.

THE PRESIDENT: I will now call upon the Chief Prosecutor for the Soviet Union.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL J. A. OZOL (Assistant Prosecutor for the USSR): COUNT THREEWAR CRIMES.

"In the Soviet Ukraine there were monstrous criminal acts of the Nazi conspirators. In Babi Yar, near Kiev, they shot over 100000 men, women, children, and old people. In this city in 1/1942 after the explosion in German Headquarters on Dzerzhinsky Street the Germans arrested as hostages 1250 persons, old men, minors, women with nursing infants. In Kiev they killed over 195000 persons."

There was no other evidence shown, just this statement.

I did not find the name of "Babi Yar" here either:
Nazi War Crimes Records in Russia (ECIG-FC)
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=16071

And I found nothing in the NMT protocols about Babi Yar either.

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#13

Post by Sergey Romanov » 24 Oct 2004, 00:54

> I did not find the name of "Babi Yar" here either:

Search for "Kiev". ;]

> And I found nothing in the NMT protocols about Babi Yar either.

You have full NMT protocols? Wow! ;]

I think some info on Babij Jar may be found in the materials of Blobel's trial and SK1005 trial in Stuttgart.

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#14

Post by David Thompson » 24 Oct 2004, 01:30

I don't think a search for "Babi Yar" will turn up much, since the name of the ravine was all but unknown in the West until Yevgeny Yevtushenko's poem "Babii Yar" was translated and published (I first saw it in the early 1960s). Interested researchers will have better luck searching under more pedestrian search terms like "Kiev," as Sergey suggested. There is a report of the 454th Security Division dated 12 October 1941, in the published NMT proceedings, which mentions one of the massacres generally associated with the spot. The NMT document, mentioned in the links given above, is posted at:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 398#555398

This tracks the date given in the Extraordinary Commission summary report posted at:

Extraordinary Commission Report on Kiev 1944
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=42076

Konrad remarked:
I did not find the name of "Babi Yar" here either:
Nazi War Crimes Records in Russia (ECIG-FC)
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=16071
That's right. It's because you didn't check the entries under "Kiev." At the beginning of the linked finder's guide there was an explanation of the arrangement of the microfilm collection:
Structure of the collection.--The collection, or Fond 7021 (____ 7021 in Russian), is divided into subcollections called opisi (_____). Opis numbers follow the fond number in this Inventory, e.g., 7021-30.

For the most part, there is one opis (_____) for every Soviet province (oblast or kray) which was occupied by the German Army in World War II.

Within each opis, documents are organized by folder (delo, ____). Each folder can be about the oblast or kray as a whole or can cover one or more subregions. Such subregions can be rayony (______), which we have translated as "regions". They can also be districts called uezdy (_____). They can also be cities or large towns.
If you use the search term "Kiev", the relevant items are easily found:
REEL 3

Ukraine: Zhitomir oblast
Chernigovsk oblast--also on Reel 2
Kiev oblast
Vinnitsa oblast
and:
REEL 7

Ukraine: Donetsk oblast (formerly Stalino oblast)
Crimea oblast--also on Reel 1
Sumy oblast
Voroshilovgrad oblast
Ukraine: Kiev oblast--also on Reel 3
Belarus: Minsk oblast
In the meantime, readers may appreciate Yevtushenko's poem, so here it is:
Poetry of Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Babii Yar

No monument stands over Babii Yar.
A drop sheer as a crude gravestone.
I am afraid.
Today I am as old in years
as all the Jewish people.
Now I seem to be
a Jew.
Here I plod through ancient Egypt.
Here I perish crucified, on the cross,
and to this day I bear the scars of nails.
I seem to be
Dreyfus.
The Philistine
is both informer and judge.
I am behind bars.
Beset on every side.
Hounded,
spat on,
slandered.
Squealing, dainty ladies in flounced Brussels lace
stick their parasols into my face.
I seem to be then
a young boy in Byelostok.
Blood runs, spilling over the floors.
The bar-room rabble-rousers
give off a stench of vodka and onion.
A boot kicks me aside, helpless.
In vain I plead with these pogrom bullies.
While they jeer and shout,
"Beat the Yids. Save Russia!"
some grain-marketeer beats up my mother.
O my Russian people!
I know
you
are international to the core.
But those with unclean hands
have often made a jingle of your purest name.
I know the goodness of my land.
How vile these antisemites--
without a qualm
they pompously called themselves
"The Union of the Russian People"!
I seem to be
Anne Frank
transparent
as a branch in April.
And I love.
And have no need of phrases.
My need
is that we gaze into each other.
How little we can see
or smell!
We are denied the leaves,
we are denied the sky.
Yet we can do so much--
tenderly
embrace each other in a dark room.
They’re coming here?
Be not afraid. those are the booming
sounds of spring:
spring is coming here.
Come then to me.
Quick, give me your lips.
Are they smashing down the door?
No, it’s the ice breaking...
The wild grasses rustle over Babii Yar.
The trees look ominous,
like judges.
Here all things scream silently,
and, baring my head,
slowly I feel myself
turning gray.
And I myself
am one massive, soundless scream
above the thousand thousand buried here.
I am
each old man
here shot dead.
I am
every child
here shot dead.
Nothing in me
shall ever forget!
The "Internationale", let it
thunder
when the last antisemite on earth
is buried forever.
In my blood there is no Jewish blood.
In their callous rage, all antisemites
must hate me now as a Jew.
For that reason
I am a true Russian!


Translated by George Reavey
http://lightning.prohosting.com/~zhenka/015.html

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#15

Post by David Thompson » 24 Oct 2004, 03:07

Konrad said:
And I found nothing in the NMT protocols about Babi Yar either.
Again, that's because American references to the massacres from the 1940s speak of "Kiev," rather than "Babi Yar" or "Babi Yar ravine," where the victims were shot and buried.

Looking under the search term "Kiev" in the NMT proceedings' Einsatzgruppe trial, here are references to some of the Babi Yar massacres, starting with the indictment:

Under Count One: Crimes Against Humanity, paragraph 8, there is this charge:
8. Einsatzgruppe C and the units under its command committed murders and other crimes which included, but were not limited to, the following:

(A) During the period 22 June 1941 to 3 November 1941 in the vicinity of Zhitomir, Novo Ukrainka and Kiev, Einsatzgruppe C murdered more than 75000 Jews.
and
(H) On 29-30 September 1941 in Kiev, Einsatzkommando 4a, together with the group staff and police units, murdered 33771 Jews and confiscated their clothing and valuables.
and
(U) During the period 20-26 October 1941 in Kiev, Einsatzkommando 5 murdered 4372 Jews and 36 political officials.
In the opening statement of the prosecution is this reference:
The largest of these actions took place immediately after the occupation of Kiev; it was carried out exclusively against Jews with their entire families.
"The difficulties resulting from such a large-scale action--in particular concerning the seizure--were overcome in Kiev by requesting the Jewish population through wall-posters to move. Although only a participation of approximately 5000-6000 Jew had been expected at first, more than 30000 Jews arrived who, until the very moment of their execution, still believed in their resettlement, thanks to an extremely clever organization.

"Even though approximately 75000 Jews have been liquidated in this manner, it is already at this time evident that this cannot be a possible solution of the Jewish problem. Although we succeeded, in particular in smaller towns and also in villages, in accomplishing a complete liquidation of the Jewish problem, again and again, it is however observed in larger cities that after such an execution all Jews have indeed disappeared. But when after a certain period of time a Kommando returns again, the number of Jews still found in the city always considerably surpasses the number of the executed Jews."
The killing of 33000 Jewish inhabitants of Kiev in only 2 days stands out even among the ghastly records of the Einsatzgruppen. It was the defendant Blobel, who with his unit under the command of the defendant Rasch, accomplished this massacre which nearly defies human imagination. Einsatzgruppe C received high praise for its activities from the Commanding General of the 6th Army, Field Marshal von Reichenau. This ruthless, mass killing shamed some of the German witnesses, and the Einsatzgruppe had to report that
"Unfortunately it often occurred that the Einsatzkommandos had to suffer more or less hidden reproaches for their consequent stand on the Jewish problem."


But the Jews were by no means the only part of the population which was marked for extermination. They were only the most helpless victims.
In the documentary evidence attached to the NMT case, there is "Extracts From Operational Situation report USSR No. 111, 12 October 1941: Security Police Measures":
Einsatzgruppe C, Location Kiev, reports:

Security Police Measures: Sonderkommando 4a now has reached thetotal number of more than 51000 executions. Apart from the special action in Kiev of 28-29 September 1941, for which 2 Kommandos of the Police Regiment South were detached, all executions carried out so far were made by that special Kommando without any assistance from outside. The executed persons were mainly Jews, a minor part was political officials as well as saboteurs and looters.
and in another exhibit, "Extracts From Operational Situation Report USSR No. 106, 7 October 1941:
Einsatzgruppe C Station Kiev

A Vorkommando of the Sonderkommando 4a led by SS 1st Lieutenants [Obersturmfuehrer] Haefner and Janssen, 50 men strong, arrived on 19 September 1941 with the fighting troop in Kiev. The Haupt [Main]Kommando of the Sonderkommando 4a reached Kiev on 25 September1941 after SS Colonel [Standartenfuehrer] Blobel had already been in Kiev on 21-22 September 1941.

The Vorkommando of the group staff, Captain of the Police Krumme, SS 1st Lieutenants [Obersturmfuehrer] Dr. Krieger and Breun and SS Sergeant [Oberscharfuehrer] Braun arrived in Kiev on 21 September 1941. The group staff followed on 25 September 1941.

The Wehrmacht first of all systematically secured public buildings, factories, and stocks of the scarcest goods, so that no large scale plunder occurred either by members of the Wehrmacht or by the population. Reports on mines and other explosive material in public buildings and apartment houses were made by the population in great numbers from the very first day of the occupation of Kiev. On 20 September 1941 a delayed action mine exploded in the citadel where an artillery staff was quartered. Among others, General of the Artillery von Seydlitz was killed by this. [Apparently a case of mistaken identity. General von Seydlitz-Kurzbach was captured by the Russians at Stalingrad, February 1943. He subsequently became vice chairman of the "Free German" national Committee and chairman of the Union of German officers.] On 24 September 1941 an explosion occurred in the offices of the German Rear Area Military Headquarters which developed during the day into a large fire, particularly through the lack of water. A large part of the city center
and several large buildings in the suburbs were destroyed by further explosions and resulting fires. In order to control the fire, the Wehrmacht was forced to blow up more building to prevent the fire from spreading to other districts respectively buildings. As a result of these necessary explosions, the offices of the group staff and of the Sonderkommando 4a had to be evacuated among others. The office building of the group staff (formerly a castle, later a boarding school for girls and for several years, office building of the NKVD [Political National Commissariat for Internal Affairs] ) suffered considerably by the necessary explosions. The clearing away of the rubble and repair work will require some time.

In the office building of the group staff, the Vorkommando found in an intensive search of the office rooms approximately 75 so-called "Molotov cocktails" (explosives) and rendered them harmless. In another case, the search group of the armed forces found about 70 centner [7716 pounds] of explosives in the Lenin Museum which were to be detonated by a short wave transmitter. Meanwhile the responsible authorities succeeded in limiting the large fire to the district where it had occurred, and also in controlling it. According to testimony from parts of the population, there exists in Kiev a Red sabotage battalion as well as numerous members of the NKVD and of the Communist Party, which have orders to commit continuous acts of sabotage. In the last days there occurred no more acts of sabotage, like explosions or fires. Extensive counter-measures for this purpose were successfully taken.

As a result of the destruction of buildings in particular and of the evacuation of the endangered districts ordered by the authorities, approximately 25000 persons were deprived of shelter and had to spend the first few days of the occupation outdoors. The inconveniences resulting from this were accepted by the population with calm. No serious incidents or panic occurred. Meanwhile the evacuated apartments, as far as they were not destroyed by fires or explosions, have again been put at the disposal of the population. Besides an adequate number of apartments has been evacuated through the liquidation of approximately 35000 Jews on 29-30 September 1941, so that now shelter for thehomeless is secured and has meanwhile also been allocated.

Partly because of the better economic situation of the Jews under the Bolshevist regime and their activities as informers and agents of the NKVD, partly because of the explosions and the resulting fires, the public feeling against the Jews was very strong. As an added factor it was proved that the Jews participated in the arson. The population expected adequate retaliatory measures by the German authorities. Consequently all Jews of Kiev were requested, in agreement with the city commander, to appear on Monday, 29 September 1941 by 8 o'clock at a designated place. These announcements were posted by members of the Ukrainian militia in the entire city. Simultaneously it was announced orally that all Jews were to be moved. In collaboration with the group [Gruppen] staff and 2 Kommandos of the police regiment South, the Sonderkommando 4a executed on 29-30 September 1941, 33771 Jews. Money, valuables, underwear and clothing were secured and placed partly at the disposal of the NSV [Nazi Party Public Welfare Organization] for use of the racial Germans, partly given to the city administration authorities for use of the needy population. The transaction was carried out without friction. No incidents occurred. The "Resettlement measure" against the Jews was approved throughout by the population. The fact that in reality the Jews were liquidated was hardly known until now, according to up-to-date experiences it would, however, hardly have been objected to. The measures were also approved by the Wehrmacht. The Jews who were not yet apprehended as well as those who gradually returned from their flight to the city were in each case treated accordingly.

Simultaneously a number of NKVD officials, political commissars and partisan leaders was arrested and liquidated.

The Bandera [Ukrainian independence movement, named after its leader.] men had lost their impact through the arrests before Kiev effected by the Kommandos and their activity was reduced to the mere distribution of leaflets and the posting of placards. Three arrests were effected, further arrests are planned.

Communications with the local authorities were immediately established by the group staff as well as the Sonderkommando 4a and the Einsatzkommando 5 also stationed in Kiev. A constant cooperation with these authorities was accomplished and the actual problems were discussed in daily consultations.

On the activity of the Einsatzkommando must be reported in detail in separate action reports, because of the great extent of the material.
The massacres are also mentioned in the closing speech of the prosecution, in the final statement of Paul Blobel, and on several occasions in the judgment, 3 examples of which follow:
In Kiev a clever stratagem was employed to ensnare the Jews.

The word "clever" is taken from the report covering the action.

"The difficulties resulting from such a large scale action--in particular concerning the seizure--were overcome in Kiev by requesting the Jewish population through wall posters to move. Although only a participation of approximately 5000 to 6000 Jews had been expected at first, more than 30000 Jews arrived who, until the very moment of their execution, still believed in their resettlement, thanks to an extremely clever organization." (No-3157.)

Practically every page of these reports runs with blood and is edged with a black border of misery and desolation. In every paragraph one feels the steel and flinty pen with which the report-writer cuts through the carnage described therein. Report No. 94 tells of Jews who, driven from their homes, were compelled to seek primitive existence in caves and abandoned huts. The rigors of the elements, lack of food, and adequate clothing inevitably produced serious illness. The report-writer chronicles: "The danger of epidemics has thus increased considerably, so that, for that reason alone, a thorough clean-up of the respective places became necessary." (No-3146.); and then, he adds: "The insolence of the Jews has not yet diminished even now."

Thus, after evicting, starving, and shooting their victims the evictors still complained. The Jews were not even courteous to their executioners!
and
On two days alone (29-30 September 1941), Sonderkommando 4a, with the help of the group staff and two police units, slaughtered in Kiev, 33771 Jews. The money, valuables, underwear, and clothing of the murdered victims were turned over to the racial Germans and to the Nazi administration of the city. The report-writer who narrates the harrowing details of this appalling massacre ends up with the phrase, "The transaction was carried out without friction--" and then adds, as he was about to put away the typewriter, "No incidents occurred." (No-140.)
and
Then, if the reports are assumed to be correct, it is argued that the defendant was under the jurisdiction of the army, coming directly under the orders of Field Marshal von Reichenau of AOK 6 [Sixth Army] . The Tribunal has already spoken on the defense of superior orders. But Blobel asserts that the persons executed by his Kommando were investigated and tried, and that Field Marshal von Reichenau had reviewed every case. There is nothing in Blobel's record which would suggest that his bare statement would be sufficient to authenticate a proposition which, on its face, is unbelievable. It is enough to refer to the massacre at Kiev where 33771 Jews were executed in two days immediately after an alleged incendiary fire, to disprove Blobel's utterance in this regard. Incidentally Blobel, whose Kommando took an active part in this mass killing, said that the number reported was too high. "In my opinion", he states, "not more than half of the mentioned figure was shot."

The defendant stated further that all his shootings were done in accordance with international law. He testified:

"Executions of agents, partisans, saboteurs, suspicious people, indulging in espionage and sabotage, and those who were of a detrimental effect to the German army were, in my opinion, completely in accordance with the Hague Convention." [Emphasis supplied.]

It is to be noted that Blobel's ideas of international law are somewhat primitive if he is of the opinion that he may execute people merely because he thinks they are suspicious.

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