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Volume IV · Page 433
| [un…] mistakably chronicled in the
Einsatz reports, but do not show up in their statistics. In addition, it must be noted that there were other vast numbers of victims of the Einsatzgruppen who did not fall under the executing rifles. In many cities, towns, and provinces hundreds and thousands of fellow-citizens of those slain fled in order to avoid a similar fate. Through malnutrition, exposure, lack of medical attention, and particularly, if one thinks of the aged and the very young, of exhaustion, most if not all of those refugees perished. These figures, of course, do not appear in the Einsatzgruppen reports, but the criminal responsibility for their deaths falls upon the Fuehrer Order program as much as the actual shooting deaths. |
| EMPLOYMENT AS LABOR BEFORE EXECUTION |
| At times, part of the Jewish population in a given community was temporarily spared, not for humanitarian reasons, but for economic purposes. Thus, a report from Esthonia specifies — |
"The arrest of all male Jews of over 16 years of age has been nearly finished. With the exception of the doctors and the Elders of the Jews who were appointed by the special [Sonder] Kommandos, they were executed by the self-protection units [home guard] under the control of the special detachment [Kommandos] la. Jewesses in Parnu and Tallin of the age groups from 16 to 60 who are fit for work were arrested and put to peat-cutting or other labor." (L-180.) |
| In Lithuania, however, the executions went so fast that there was a great shortage of doctors for the non-Jewish population. |
"More than 60 percent * of the dentists were Jews; more than 50 percent of the other doctors as well. The disappearance of these brings about an extreme shortage of doctors which cannot be overcome even by bringing in doctors from the Reich." (L-180. ) |
| A report from the Ukraine in September 1941 recommends that the Jews be killed by working and not by shooting. |
"There is only one possibility which the German administration in the Generalgouvernement has neglected for a long time: Solution of the Jewish problem by extensive labor utilization of the Jews. This will result in a gradual liquidation of the Jewry — a development, which corresponds to the economic conditions of the country." (NO-3151.) |
| In the cities of Latvia, German agencies used Jews as forced unpaid manpower, but there was always the danger that, despite |
* Original German document read 80 percent but, due to clerical error, translation of document which was submitted in Court read 60 percent.
