14 Dec.
45
contained in Document L-161, Exhibit USA-292. The
Document L-161 is an official Polish report on Auschwitz Concentration
Camp. It is dated 31 May 1945. 1 have taken a short excerpt from this
report on 'the original marked . . .
THE PRESIDENT: I think you made a mistake, did you not? It is not a
Polish report; it is a British report.
MAJOR WALSH: I understand, Sir, it was compiled originally by the
Polish Government and perhaps distributed from London.
THE PRESIDENT: I see. Very well.
MAJOR WALSH: I quote:
"During July 1944 Hungarian Jews were
being liquidated at the rate of 12,000 daily; and as the crematoria
could not deal with such numbers, many bodies were thrown into large
pits and covered with quicklime."
I offer in evidence Document 3311-PS, Exhibit USA-293. This is an
official Polish Government Commission report on the investigation of
German crimes in Poland. The document describes the concentration camp
at Treblinka; and from Page 1, Paragraph 3 and 4, I read as follows:
"In March 1942 the Germans began to
erect another camp, Treblinka B, in the neighborhood of Treblinka A,
intended to become a place of torment for Jews.
"The erection of this camp was closely connected with the German
plans aimed at a complete destruction of the Jewish population in
Poland, which necessitated the creation of a machinery by means of
which the Polish Jews could be killed in large numbers. Late in April
1942 erection was completed of the first chambers in which these
general massacres were to be performed by means of steam. Somewhat
later the erection of the real death building, which contains 10 death
chambers, was finished. It was opened for wholesale murders early in
autumn 1942."
And on Page 3
of this report, beginning with the second paragraph, the Polish
Commission describes graphically the procedure for the extermination
within the camp:
"The average number of Jews dealt
with at the camp in the summer of 1942 was about two railway
transports daily, but there were days of much higher efficiency. From
autumn 1942 this number was falling.
"After unloading in the siding, all victims were assembled in
one place, where men were separated from women and children. In the
first days of the existence of the camp the victims were made to
believe that after a short stay in the camp, necessary for bathing and
disinfection, they would be sent