On 23 October 1941 the camp commander of the Gross
Rosen concentration camp reported to Müller, Chief of the
Gestapo, a list of the Soviet prisoners of war who had been executed
there on the previous day.
An account of the general conditions and treatment of Soviet
prisoners of war during the first eight months after the German
attack upon Russia was given in a letter which the Defendant
Rosenberg sent to the Defendant Keitel on 28 February 1942:
"The fate of the Soviet
prisoners of war in Germany is on the contrary a tragedy of the
greatest extent . . . . A large part of them has starved, or died
because of the hazards of the weather. Thousands also died from
spotted fever.
"The camp commanders have forbidden the civilian population
to put food at the disposal of the prisoners, and they have rather
let them starve to death.
"In many cases, when prisoners of war could no longer keep
up on the march because of hunger and exhaustion, they were shot
before the eyes of the horrified population, and the corpses were
left.
"In numerous camps, no shelter for the prisoners of war was
provided at all. They lay under the open sky during rain or snow.
Even tools were not made available to dig holes or
caves."
In some cases Soviet prisoners of war were branded
with a special permanent mark. There was put in evidence the OKW
order dated 20 July 1942 which laid down that:
"The brand is to take the shape of
an acute angle of about 45 degrees, with the long side to be 1 cm. in
length, pointing upwards and burnt on the left buttock . . . . This
brand is made with the aid of a lances available in any military
unit. The coloring used is Chinese ink."
The carrying out of this order was the responsibility
of the military authorities, though it was widely circulated by the
Chief of the SIPO and the SD to German police officials for
information.
Soviet prisoners of war were also made the subject of medical
experiments of the most cruel and inhuman kind. In July 1943
experimental work was begun in preparation for a campaign of
bacteriological warfare; Soviet prisoners of war were used in these
medical experiments, which more often than not proved fatal. In
connection with this campaign for bacteriological warfare,
preparations were also made for the spreading of bacterial emulsions
from planes, with the object of producing widespread failures of
crops and consequent starvation. These measures were never applied,
possibly because of the rapid deterioration of Germany's military
position.