mistreated in numerous Stalags in Germany and in the
occupied countries, particularly in 1943, 1944, and 1945.
2. In the Eastern Countries: At Orel prisoners of war were
exterminated by shooting, exposure, and poisoning.
Soviet prisoners of war were murdered en masse on orders from the
High Command and the Headquarters of the SIPO and SD. Tens of
thousands of Soviet prisoners of war were tortured and murdered at
the "Gross Lazaret" at Slavuta.
In addition, many thousands of the persons referred to in
paragraph VIII (A) 2, above, were Soviet prisoners of war.
Prisoners of war who escaped and were recaptured were handed over
to SIPO and SD for shooting.
Frenchmen fighting with the Soviet Army who were captured were
handed over to the Vichy Government for "proceedings".
In March 1944, 50 R.A.F. officers who escaped from Stalag Luft
III at Sagan, when recaptured, were murdered.
In September 1941, 11,000 Polish officers who were prisoners of
war were killed in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk.
In Yugoslavia the German Command and the occupying authorities in
the person of the chief officials of the Police, the SS troops
(Police Lieutenant General Rosener) and the Divisional Group Command
(General Kübler and others) in the period 1941-43 ordered the
shooting of prisoners of war.
(D) KILLING OF HOSTAGES
Throughout the territories occupied by the German
Armed Forces in the course of waging aggressive wars, the defendants
adopted and put into effect on a wide scale the practice of taking,
and of killing, hostages from the civilian population. These acts
were contrary to international conventions, particularly Article 50
of the Hague Regulations, 1907, the laws and customs of war, the
general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws
of a]l civilized nations, the internal penal laws of the countries in
which such crimes were committed, and to Article 6 (b) of the
Charter.
Particulars by way of example and without prejudice to the
production of evidence of other cases, are as follows:
1. In the Western Countries:
In France hostages were executed either individually or
collectively; these executions took place in all the big cities of
France,