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Volume IV · Page 442
| [econ...] omy", "the Soviet Russian
intellectuals", and as a separate category-the category which was again to
yield the largest number of victims of this "action" — "all Jews".
It, in fact, emphasized that in — "taking any decisions, the racial origin has to be taken into consideration." (NO-3414.) Concerning executions, the directives specified — |
"The executions must not be carried out in the camp itself or in its immediate neighborhood. They are not public and are to be carried out as inconspicuously as possible." (NO-3414.) |
| Further -- |
"In order to facilitate the execution of the purge, a liaison officer is to be sent to Generalmajor von Hindenburg, commander in chief of the PW camps in Military District I, East Prussia, in Koenigsberg, Prussia, and to Generalleutnant Herrgott, commander in chief of the PW camps in the general government in Kielce." |
| Under this program doctors, if found in the PW camps, were doomed either because they were "Russian intellectuals" or because they were Jews. However, by 29 October 1941, Heydrich found it necessary to rule — |
"Because of the existing shortage of physicians and medical corps personnel in the camps, such persons, even if Jews, are to be excluded from the segregation and to be left in the PW camps, except in particularly well-founded cases." (NO-3422.) |
| Another passage in this order of Heydrich vividly demonstrates to what extent the Reich went officially in flouting the most basic rules of international law and the principles of humanity — |
"The chiefs of the Einsatzgruppen decide on the suggestions for execution on their own responsibility and give the Sonderkommandos the corresponding orders." |
| It is apparent that all those involved in this program were aware of its illegality. |
"This order must not be passed on in writing-not even in the form of an excerpt. District commanders for prisoners of war and commanders of transit camps must be notified verbally." (NO-3422.) |
| It is to the credit of an occasional army officer that he objected to this shameful and degrading repudiation of the rules of war. In one report we find — |
"As a particularly clear example the conduct of a camp commander in Vinnitsa is to be mentioned who strongly objected to the transfer of 362 Jewish prisoners of war carried out by his deputy and even started court martial proceedings against the deputy and two other officers." (NO-3157.) |
| Field Marshal von Reichenau, commanding the Sixth Army, |
