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Volume IV · Page 451
"I have seen the report of Stahlecker (Document L-180) concerning Einsatzgruppe A, in which Stahlecker asserts that his group killed 135,000 Jews and Communists in the first four months of the program. I know Stahlecker personally, and I am of the opinion that the document is authentic." (2620-PS.) |
| How can all this be explained? Even when
Germany was retreating on all fronts, many troops sorely needed on the
battlefield were diverted on this insane mission of extermination. In defiance
of military and economic logic, incalculable manpower was killed off, property
of every description was destroyed — all remained unconsidered as against
this insanity to genocide. Here and there a protest was raised. The SS Commissioner General for White Ruthenia objected to the executions in his district — not on the grounds of humanity, but because he believed the unbridled murder program was lowering the prestige of Germany. |
"Above all, any act lowering the prestige of the German Reich and its organizations in the eyes of the White Ruthenian population should be avoided. * * * I am submitting this report in duplicate so that one copy may be forwarded to the Reich Minister. Peace and order cannot be maintained in White Ruthenia with methods of that sort. To bury seriously wounded people alive, who worked their way out of their graves again, is such a base and filthy act that this incident as such should be reported to the Fuehrer and Reich Marshal. The civil administration of White Ruthenia makes very strenuous efforts to win the population over to Germany in accordance with the instructions of the Fuehrer. These efforts cannot be brought in harmony with the methods described herein." (1104-PS.) |
| The report referred to gave a graphic description of the extermination action. It told of the arrival of a police battalion with instructions to liquidate all Jews in the town of Slutsk within two days. The commissioner for the territory of Slutsk protested that the liquidation of all Jews, which naturally included the tradesmen, would shut down the economic life of that area. He asked, at least, for postponement of the executions. The lieutenant in charge of the battalion refused to wait. The report continues — |
"For the rest, as regards the executions of the action, I must point out to my deepest regret that the latter bordered already on sadism. The town itself offered a picture of horror during the action. With indescribable brutality on the part of both the German police officers and particularly the Lithuanian partisans, the Jewish people, but also among them White Ruthenians, were taken out of their dwellings and herded to- […gether] |
