EBERBACH: Never. He was supposed to speak there but it was cancelled on the last day. We were supposed to go over from SONTHOFEN to the BERCHTESGADEN district to see him, but that was cancelled, because some foreign diplomats had arrived, with whom he had to confer. At the whole session at which I was present, there were many less so-called noted speakers taking part than there were at the former one. ROSENBERG, too, for instance, who was said to have spoken always was not present and neither was GOEBBELS.
Document 106
CSDIC (UK), GRGG 189
Report on information obtained from Senior Officers (PW) on 29 Aug. 44 [TNA, WO 208/4364]
CHOLTITZ: The worst job I ever carried out – which however I carried out with great consistency – was the liquidation of the Jews. I carried out this order down to the very last detail.[265]
THOMA: The whole thing is done on HITLER’s orders. EBERBACH said yesterday again: ‘HITLER has no idea that the people have been hanged.’ Ha! Ha! Ha! It’s a good thing that you can now produce such unimpeachable proofs.
Document 107
CSDIC (UK), GRGG 195
Report on information obtained from Senior Officers (PW) on 16–17 Sept. 44 [TNA, WO 208/4363]
THOMA: The men were sitting together one evening in December in a peasant’s cottage at ALEXANDROWKA – that was about 20 km from my HQ – there were the ‘Hauptmann’, the tank ‘Oberleutnant’ and the ‘Unteroffiziere’, all together in the only warm room. They were drinking their miserable wine ration together. That was all established in the court proceedings. Each man probably had about half a field cup of ‘Schnapps’. You can’t get drunk on that, and the Commandant himself strongly denied that they were in the least bit drunk. He said that they were completely sober, which is the extraordinary part of it. Anyway, the following occured: The ‘Hauptmann’ said to the ‘Oberleutnant’: ‘I can’t stand the sight of these peasants’ faces!’… pulled out his revolver and shot down the peasant over the table to which he himself had invited him.
EBERBACH: But the ‘Hauptmann’ received a heavy sentence.
THOMA: Yes, but just wait till you hear the rest: He then told one of the orderlies to take his body away. His wife screamed and howled and ran with their children – a little girl, a little boy and a two-month-old baby – into the farthest corner and sat down on the top of the stove, where she cried, which, after all, is only very natural. He then said to the ‘Oberleutnant’: ‘I want my peace; clear them out from up there!’ And he drew his revolver and shot down the woman. She was likewise dragged outside. That left the little girl, a ten-year-old boy and a two-month-old baby. In the meantime, they got in a fellow who was a musician by trade and he played the accordion and they went on drinking. Suddenly he said: ‘She must go, too!’ So the… said: ‘Shoot the other one!’ Whereupon he shot the girl. Then there was the ten-year-old boy. The ‘Hauptmann’ said: ‘Take him out and shoot him outside.’ He was taken outside and he, too, was shot in the neck. The two-month-old brat was lying up there yelling and he said: ‘Away with the little beast.’ They knocked it off the stove, picked it up by its foot and threw it out into the snow. Of course, the people reported it the following day. I immediately sent a Judge Advocate there. ‘I must take a psychiatrist along with me,’ he said. They completely denied that they were in the least bit drunk and said they were absolutely sober. During the proceedings they were asked why they had done it. He said: ‘They weren’t human beings, they only count as animals; nothing at all can happen to us.’ ‘They are certainly human beings who go about their business like anybody else!’ ‘Sir, the FÜHRER says they are not human beings, we do not admit the fact that we can be charged with murder, for they are not humans.’ That was their defence. Then came the findings of the court martial and one was sentenced to be degraded and to penal servitude and the other, the ‘Hauptmann’ – because he took part in the shooting as well – got more because he was responsible, and was sentenced to several years’ penal servitude.
I didn’t sign the findings. All the troops were up in arms over that terrible affair. I tell you, the Germans have kind hearts. I demanded the death penalty for both and, what’s more, that they be shot publicly by the troops. But, because they were officers, the Judge Advocate said I was not permitted to shoot them before the FÜHRER had given his consent. Then a week later notification arrived that: ‘The FÜHRER confirms that it is absolutely in order for the men to be punished. But he refused to authorise the death sentence, because according to his standards, the Russians are not human beings.’ They were not punished. They were sent to a sort of penal ‘Kompanie’.[266]
Document 108
GRGG 198(C) [TNA, WO 208/4363]
Provisional report on information obtain from CS/382 – General der Fallschirmtruppen RAMCKE (Commander, Brest) – Captured 19 Sept. 44 in Brest.
[…]
RAMCKE: When I took over the command at BREST, I first of all brought four high officials up for trial by court martial, and officers; then I immediately had six men shot for defeatist talk, and for going over to the enemy and desertion; in fact I had them shot after I had called up representatives from each unit – 300 men in all. After that there was order![267]
Document 109
GRGG 199 [TNA, WO 208/4363]
Provisional report on information obtained from Generalmajor BOCK VON WÜLFINGEN (Oberfeldkommandatur, Liege) – Captured 8 Sept. 44 in Liege.
SEYFFARDT (re Russian PW): They had to kill them all.
? HEYKING: The Commissars etc.?
SEYFFARDT: No. ‘No prisoners are to be taken!’ stated the order.
?: That was so for a time.
? SEYFFARDT: They were all killed, all of them. They were killed in thousands. They captured about 600,000 prisoners in that one pocket near GSCHATSK,[268] and, of those 600,000, 400,000 were said to have died on the march from GSCHATSK to SMOLENSK alone.[269]
? TRESCKOW: Whose idea was that, and what was the reason for it?
? SEYFFARDT: The FÜHRER, that was one of the FÜHRER’s orders.
Document 110
GRGG 201(C) [TNA, WO 208/4364]
Provisional report on information obtain from CS/443 Generalleutnant HEIM (Commander, Boulogne) – Captured 23 Sept. 44 in Boulogne.
HEIM: HIMMLER does an incredible amount for his SS; a man has only to do like this and everything he wants is there.
ELSTER: Well, why doesn’t he take steps to prevent these swinish tricks that the SS and Security Service have done?
HEIM: He’s supposed not to have been in favour of that.
? HEYKING: The SS and Security Service in general are blamed for all the Jewish massacres and so on. On the other hand, HIMMLER is supposed to have said at a big CO’s conference – he was asked about the Jewish question and he merely replied: ‘Well, gentlemen, as to this “Jewish question” I can only say that the orders were given and I carry out orders.’ He wasn’t giving them a chance. In the end everyone merely says that they haven’t the final word in these matters.[270]
265
It is not known where Choltitz carried out these shootings of Jews. Presumably they occurred in his time as regimental commander in the Crimea, 1941/42, see note 285 below.
266
There are no court-martial papers for 20.Pz.Div. at the Bundesarchiv Kornelimünster, and so this case cannot be examined.
267
Later he admitted to having carried out only three death sentences on German soldiers. GRGG 228, 24–26.11.1944, TNA WO 208/4364. Nothing is known about these executions, and Ramcke did not mention them in a comprehensive signal describing the situation on taking over the fortifications, see 1.Skl.27479/44 gKdos 5.9.1944 BA/MA RM7/149, nor were executions mentioned in a long report from Oberleutnant (Naval Artillery) Jenne, AII to the Naval Commandant, Brittany, who escaped to Lorient on 10.9.1944 aboard a KFK, nor in a report by Naval Commandant Konteradmiral Kähler to the Lorient harbour commander. ‘Kampf um Brest, Bericht Oberlt.(MA) Jenne, AII Seekommandant Bretagne’, BA/MA RM 35II/68.
268
Meant here is Gzhatsk (or Gshask) 200 kilometres east of Smolensk on the main highway to Moscow.
269
Seyffardt refers here to the transportation of about 673,000 PoWs from the battles at Viasma and Briansk in October 1941 in which he was involved as CO, Inf.Reg.111/35.Inf.Div./3.Pz.Armee. The prisoners were force-marched cross-country as the crow flies for 150–250 kilometres to Smolensk before being entrained for PoW camps in the ‘Reich Commissariat Ostland’. The death rate was very high, exact numbers are not known. Streit, ‘Keine Kamaraden’, pp. 162–71, Gerlach, ‘Kalkulierte Morde’, pp. 843–8.
270
Heyking was probably talking here of Himmler’s speech to the generals at Sonthofen on 5.5.1944 in which he said, ‘You may imagine how heavy a burden it was for me to carry out this order, which I obeyed and executed from obedience and utter conviction’, Himmler, ‘Geheimreden’, p. 202.