. NMT04-T0140
Volume IV · Page 140
| of my activity in the security police, and
until my arrest in the summer of 1947 I lived under my own name as a servant to
a farmer. 2. I have been a member of the NSDAP since 1 May 1933. My party number is 3,282,505. I have been a member of the SS since the summer of 1934 or 1935. My SS number is 267,224. 3. During the setting up of the Einsatzgruppen and Einsatzkommandos during the months of May-June 1941 I was at Dueben. During June, Heydrich, Chief of the Security Police and SD, and Streckenbach, head of office I of the Reich Security Main Office, held lectures on the duties of the Einsatzgruppen and Einsatzkommandos. At this time we were already being instructed about the tasks of exterminating the Jews. It was stated that eastern Jewry was the intellectual reservoir of bolshevism and, therefore, in the Fuehrer's opinion, must be exterminated. This speech was made to a small, selected audience. Although I cannot remember the individuals present, I assume that many of the Einsatzgruppen chiefs and Einsatz- and Sonderkommandos chiefs were present. I heard another speech by Heydrich in the Prinz Albrecht Palace in Berlin, in the course of which he again emphasized these points. 4. As chief of Sonderkommando 7a I carried out one execution in the course of my duty. I remember one occasion on which between 70 and 80 people were executed in Vitebsk and another occasion on which a similar number were executed in Minsk. On the latter occasion I only received a direct order from Nebe, chief of Einsatzgruppe B, to find out whether this execution had taken place. I was not present during the whole execution, but convinced myself that it was carried out. In both cases a kind of trench was dug; the persons destined to die were placed in front of it and shot with carbines. About 10 people were shot simultaneously by an execution force of 30 to 40 men. There was no doctor present at the execution, but the leader of the execution force who was responsible made sure that the people were dead. Coups de grace were not necessary. Neither was there in my unit any specialist in the art of shooting in the neck. I did not take part in any further mass execution. 5. I received all orders regarding executions, direction, and duties of Sonderkommando 7a, which was subordinate to me in Dueben or in the Prinz Albrecht Palace in Berlin. During the campaign I never received any further orders. 6. I do not know by whom the reports of the Einsatzgruppen were compiled in Berlin. Nuernberg, 29 June 1947 |
| [Signed] WALTER BLUME |
