14 Dec.
45
portion of the summary, together with brief excerpts
from the daily teletype reports, will suffice for the oral record. I
would like the Court to examine it; and I present it to the Court,
together with the duplicate original thereof, and ask that the Court
rule that the entire document may be accepted.
THE PRESIDENT: Major Walsh, the Court will take that course, provided
that the Prosecution supplies as soon as possible, both to the Soviet
and to the French members of the Tribunal, copies in Russian and French
of the whole document.
MAJOR WALSH: Yes, Sir; may I consult with . . .
THE PRESIDENT: I do not say present immediately, but present as soon as
possible.
MAJOR WALSH: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: You are going to read the passages that you think
necessary?
MAJOR WALSH: Yes. From Page 6 of the translation before the Court of
Document 1061-PS I would like to read the boastful but nonetheless vivid
account of some of this ruthless action within the Warsaw ghetto. I
quote, second paragraph, Page 6:
"The resistance put up by the Jews
and bandits could be broken only by the relentless and energetic use
of our shock-troops by day and night. On 23 April 1943 the Reichsführer
SS issued through the Higher SS and Police Leader East at Kraków
his order to complete the combing out of the Warsaw ghetto with the
greatest severity and relentless tenacity. I therefore decided to
destroy the entire Jewish residential area by setting every block on
fire, including the blocks of residential buildings near the armament
works. One building after the other was systematically evacuated and
subsequently destroyed by fire. The Jews then emerged from their
hiding places and dugouts in almost every case. Not infrequently the
Jews stayed in the burning buildings until, because of the heat and
the fear of being burned alive they preferred to jump down from the
upper stories after having thrown mattresses and other upholstered
articles into the street from the burning buildings. With their bones
broken they still tried to crawl across the street into blocks of
buildings which had not yet been set on fire or were only partially in
flames. Often the Jews changed their hiding places during the night
by moving into the ruins of burnt-out buildings, taking refuge there
until they were found by our patrols. Their stay in the sewers also
ceased to be pleasant after the first week. Frequently from the street
we could hear loud voices coming through the sewer shafts. Then the
men of