7 Jan. 46
COL. TAYLOR: It will conclude it. Firstly, Affidavit
Number 24, which becomes Exhibit USA-565, Document Number 3718-PS. This
is by Colonel Bogislav von Bonin, who, at the beginning of the Russian
campaign, was a staff officer with the 17th. Panzer Division:
"At the beginning of the Russian
campaign, I was the first General Staff officer of the 17th Panzer
Division which had the mission of driving across the Bug, north of
Brest-Litovsk. Shortly before the beginning of the attack my division
received, through channels from the OKW, a written order of the Führer
This order directed that Russian commissars be shot upon capture
without judicial process immediately and ruthlessly. This order
extended to all units of the Eastern Army. Although the order was
supposed to be relayed to companies, the commanding general of the
37th Panzer Corps — General of Panzer Troops Lemelsen —
forbade its being passed on to the troops because it appeared
unacceptable to him from military and moral points of view."
That brings us to the final affidavit, Number 20, Exhibit USA-564,
Document Number 3717-PS, which is by Adolf Heusinger, Generalleutnant in
the German Army, and from 1940 to 1944 Chief of the Operations Section
at OKH. I read:
"1. From the beginning of the war in
1939 until autumn 1940, I was I-a of the Operations Section of the
OKH, and from autumn 1940 until 20 July 1944 1 was chief of that
section.
"When Hitler took over supreme command of the Army, he gave to
the Chief of the General Staff of the Army the function of advising
him on all operational matters in the Russian theater.
"This made the Chief of the General Staff of the Army
responsible for all matters in the operational areas in the East,
while the OKW was responsible for all matters outside the operational
areas, for instance all troops — security units, SS units, Police
— stationed in the Reich commissariats.
"All Police and SS units in the Reich commissariats were also
subordinate to the Reichsführer SS. When it was necessary to
transfer such units into operational areas this had to be done by
order of the Chief of the OKW. On the other hand, corresponding
transfers from the front to the rear were ordered by the OKW with the
concurrence of the Chief of the General Staff of the Army.
"The Higher SS and Police Leaders normally had command of
operations against partisans. If stronger army units were committed
together with the SS and Police units within operational areas, a
higher commander of the Army could be designated commander of the
operation.