. NMT04-T0370
Volume IV · Page 370
| indicted here. The members of these units
were carefully instructed as to their mission by Heydrich himself. Their
general task was to insure the "political security" of the conquered
territories in Russia, and as part of this function they were directed to
exterminate all Jews, gypsies, government officials, Communist party leaders,
and other so-called "undesirable elements" in their assigned territories. With
the support of the army leaders, this program was faithfully carried out, and
resulted in the murder of at least a million Jews and other human beings during
the first two years of the Russian campaign. The defendants have not seriously
endeavored to controvert these facts, which conclusively prove the crimes of
genocide and the other war crimes and crimes against humanity charged in the
indictment. Nor, with a few exceptions as to precise dates — for the most
part insignificant — have the defendants attempted to contradict the clear
proof that they commanded or were otherwise connected with the Einsatzgruppen
as charged in the indictment. All of the foregoing is clearly established by
the documents introduced by the prosecution, consisting chiefly of the
defendants' own reports of their activities. What, then, have the defendants endeavored to contrive in order to escape the damning effect of the conclusive proof afforded by their own records? Only a few of them have been so utterly foolish as to deny that they knew that the Einsatzgruppen had been directed to kill Jews and government officials as described above, or that such executions indeed took place, and in the face of the proof, such a defense is preposterous. These defendants who were in charge of these units at the outset of the Russian campaign received instructions which were terribly clear. Those who came in later learned about it from their superiors and predecessors. Mass executions of Jews by the Einsatzgruppen took place in all sectors of the Russian front. We may well believe that the members of the Einsatzgruppen were brutalized by what they did and what they saw being done around them, but they did not become so blasé as to carry out these mass executions without even talking about it among themselves. The subject matter of this proceeding is horrible, but it is hardly boring. And furthermore, quite apart from the inherent incredibility of this defense, it is easy to see why very few of the defendants have ventured to put it forth. Most of the defendants have relied upon the so-called defense of "superior orders", and if no order was given to kill Jews and others, or if such an order was not perfectly well known to all the members of the Einsatzgruppen, then of course the defense that these executions were committed under the compulsion of such an order cannot be made. In any event, the very idea that |
