20 Dec. 45
own officers against the streaming back of
the population. This is so much easier because the task forces in
Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have at their disposal native police
units, as described in Enclosure 1, and because so far 150 Latvian
reinforcements have been sent to White Ruthenia.
"The distribution of the leaders of Security Police and SD
during the individual phases can be gathered from Enclosure 2; the
advance and activities of the task force group and the task force
commands, from Enclosure 3. It should be mentioned that the leaders of
the Waffen-SS and of the uniformed police, who are on the reserve,
have declared their wish to stay with the Security Police and the SD."
I now quote from Enclosure la which was referred to, showing the
constitution of the force. This will be found on Page 14 of the
translation. It is the graphic chart which I showed the Court a few
moments ago, the translation having simply the breakdown of the
components. I quote:
"Total strength of Task Force Group
A, 990; Waffen-SS, 340, 34.4 percent; drivers, 172, 17.4 percent;
administration, 18, 1.8 percent; Security Service" — SD —
"35, 3.5 percent; Criminal Police" — Kripo — "41,
4.1 percent; State Police " — Stapo — "89, 9.0
percent; auxiliary police, 87, 8.8 percent; Order Police, 133, 13.4
percent; female employees, 13, 1.3 percent; interpreters, 51, 5.1
percent; telautograph operators, 3, 0.3 percent; wireless operators,
8, 0.8 percent."
The
Tribunal will observe that in that list there appear the Waffen-SS, the
SD, Criminal Police, the Gestapo, and the ordinary police, all of which
were part of the SS or under SS jurisdiction.
One final report of anti-partisan activity may be referred to. It is a
report from the General Commissar for White Ruthenia to the Reich
Minister for Occupied Eastern Territories. It is our Document R-135,
which I think is in the document book under 1475-PS - two document
numbers have been combined. That document was introduced into evidence
by Major Walsh as Exhibit Number USA-289, and he read into the record
the letter from the Reich Commissar of the Eastern Territories
transmitting the report in question. The letter he read appears on Page
1 of the translation. I desire to read a paragraph or two from the
report itself, which is found on Page 3 of the translation. It deals
with the results of the police operation "Cottbus." I quote
the first paragraph:
"SS Brigadeführer, Major General
of Police Von Gottberg reports that the operation 'Cottbus' had the
following result during the period mentioned: Enemy dead, 4,500; dead
suspected of belonging to bands, 5,000; German dead, 59."