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Volume IV · Page 490
| they were being sent into Russia not as
combat soldiers, but as ideological exponents. In the field they were a
travelling RSHA, they were a Gestapo on wheels. Report No. 128 describes the executions by Einsatzgruppe C of 80,000 persons and explains that 8,000 of them were "convicted of anti-German or Bolshevistic activities". The report goes on further to say — |
"Even though approximately 75,000 Jews have been liquidated in this manner, it is already at this time evident that this cannot be a possible solution of the Jewish problem." |
| The report-writer explains that, in small
towns and villages, they had achieved a complete liquidation of the "Jewish
problem, and that, in the larger cities, after executions, all Jews had
disappeared". It is evident from this statement that the main objective of the
Kommandos was to kill Jews, not partisans. Counsel for Sandberger, in his final argument, quoted from the United States [War Department] Basic Field Manual, Rules of Land Warfare — |
"If the people of a country, or any portion thereof, already occupied by an army rise against it, they are violators of the laws of war and are not entitled to their protection." |
| Dr. von Stein, however, failed to show that
the people in the respective German-occupied areas took part in any uprising.
On the contrary, it was the Einsatz leaders who attempted to stir up popular
tumult by instigating pogroms. The defendant Haensch declared that, during the entire time he served in Russia, he never saw a Jew, and that he never heard of the Fuehrer Order. Although his Kommando, prior to his arrival in Russia, had admittedly slaughtered thousands of Jews, no one ever told him of this nor did he ever hear of it. This is simply incredible. And, in support of this admittedly incredulous utterance, an even more extraordinary assertion was made by his attorney, namely, that Heydrich was anxious for Haensch not to know about these things since they had nothing to do with his work in Berlin. In defense of Blobel, who admitted in a pretrial statement that his Kommando had killed 10,000 to 15,000 people, his attorney declared in a final summation that Blobel's duties were purely administrative — adding, to be sure that these administrative duties were to be interpreted in their "widest sense". One of Blobel's administrative duties was to conduct executions. History will be his debtor for the authoritative account he rendered on mass executions from the standpoint of the spirit and philosophy of slayer and slain. He was asked at the trial whether the doomed, as they were being led to their waiting |
