21 Nov. 45
into the manholes and the Jews driven out
of the sewers and captured. Countless numbers of Jews were liquidated
in sewers and bunkers through blasting. The longer the
resistance continued the tougher became the members of the Waffen SS,
Police and Wehrmacht who always discharged their duties in an
exemplary manner. Frequently Jews who tried to replenish their food
supplies during the night or to communicate with neighboring groups
were exterminated.
"This action eliminated " says
the SS commander, "a proved total of 56,065. To that, we have to
add the number killed through blasting, fire, etc., which cannot be
counted." (1061-PS)
We charge that all atrocities against Jews were
the manifestation and culmination of the Nazi plan to which every
defendant here was a party. I know very well that some of these men
did take steps to spare some particular Jew for some personal reason
from the horrors that awaited the unrescued Jew. Some protested that
particular atrocities were excessive, and discredited the general
policy. While a few defendants may show efforts to make specific
exceptions to the policy of Jewish extermination, I have found no
instance in which any defendant opposed the policy itself or sought
to revoke or even modify it.
Determination to destroy the Jews was a binding force which at
all times cemented the elements of this conspiracy. On many internal
policies there were differences among the defendants. But there is
not one of them who has not echoed the rallying cry of nazism:
"Deutschland erwache, Juda verrecke!" (Germany awake, Jewry
perish!).
Terrorism and Preparation for
War:
How a government treats its own inhabitants generally is thought
to be no concern of other governments or of international society.
Certainly few oppressions or cruelties would warrant the intervention
of foreign powers. But the German mistreatment of Germans is now
known to pass in magnitude and savagery any limits of what is
tolerable by modern civilization. Other nations, by silence, would
take a consenting part in such crimes. These Nazi persecutions,
moreover, take character as international crimes because of the
purpose for which they were undertaken.
The purpose, as we have seen, of getting rid of
the influence of free labor, the churches, and the Jews was to clear
their obstruction to the precipitation of aggressive war. If
aggressive warfare in violation of treaty obligation is a matter of
international cognizance the preparations for it must also be of
concern to the international community. Terrorism was the chief
instrument for securing the