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Volume IV · Page 513
the Security Police and SD (KdS) the same as those of a Chief of a Sonderkommando or Einsatzkommando, respectively." |
| During the time the territory under his
jurisdiction was subject to army control, Jost as Chief of Einsatzgruppe A
cooperated with the army command. When the territory came under civilian
administration, he, as Commander in Chief of Security Police and SD received
his orders from the Higher SS and Police Leader or SS and Police Leader. Under
this double designation he was responsible for all operations conducted in his
territory. Report No. 195, dated 24 April 1942, reporting on activities within the area under the command of Einsatzgruppe A, states — |
"Within the period of the report a total of 1,272 persons were executed, 983 of them Jews, who had infectious diseases or were so old and infirm that they could not be any more used for work, 71 gypsies, 204 Communists and 14 more Jews who had been guilty of different offenses and crimes." |
| The prosecution charges the defendant with
responsibility for these murders. The item itself does not carry the exact date
of its happening, but the latest date revealed in the entire document is 26
March. Thus the execution of the 1,272 persons mentioned therein could not have
occurred on a date subsequent to 26 March. The defendant testified that he was
in Smolensk when, on 24 or 25 March he received his orders to take over the
command of Einsatzgruppe A and that he did not arrive in Riga, headquarters of
the Einsatzgruppe, until 28 and 29 March. The record shows that Einsatzgruppe A had accomplished some hundred thousand murders prior to 29 March and, as late as 26 March as indicated by the report above-mentioned, was still killing Jews. It would be extraordinary that it should suddenly cease this slaughter for no given reason and with the Fuehrer Order still in effect, three days before Jost arrived. The prosecution argues that it would not take an officer of Jost's rank (major general of police) four days to travel the 400 miles between Smolensk and Riga. But whether Jost arrived the day before or the day after is not controlling in the matter of responsibility for the program involved. The Fuehrer Order was in effect prior to Jost's arrival at Riga, and he did not revoke it when he took over the Einsatzgruppe. The defendant does state that, when in May 1942 he received an order from Heydrich to surrender Jews under 16 and over 32 for liquidation, he placed the order in his safe and declined to transmit it. Report No. 193, dated 17 April 1942, reports an execution in Kovno [Kaunas], as of 7 April 1942, of 22 persons "among them 14 Jews who had spread Communist propaganda". The defendant was asked on the witness stand — |
