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Volume IV · Page 558
| resulted in numerous executions, he could not
or would not state the number of people who had been killed. It is
extraordinary that he should recall the alleged investigation of this incident
but not recall what happened as a result of the investigation. Despite his constant refusal to estimate the number of people executed by his Kommando, he did finally say that he knew it had killed at least 244. Taking his testimony as a whole, the Tribunal is convinced that the Kommando executed a number considerably larger than 244. Nor is it convinced that the rules of war and international law were observed in all these cases. Report No. 95, dated 25 September 1941, covering the period from 19 August to 15 September 1941, speaks of various executions conducted by Einsatzgruppe D of which Sonderkommando 12 formed a part. In his summation, defense counsel says — |
"Even if the report contains reports on shootings which were forwarded to the group by Einsatzkommando 12, nevertheless, this report does not provide any reason for believing that shootings reported in this way were carried out by virtue of the Fuehrer Order." |
| But the report itself says — |
"From 19 August until 15 September, 8,890 Jews and Communists were executed. Total number: 13,315. The Jewish question is at present being solved in Nikolaev and Kherson. About 5,000 Jews were rounded up in each town." |
| While Nosske cannot be charged with any
particular number of killings enumerated here, it is obvious that the shooting
of the Jews, since no qualifying phrase limits the reference to the Jews, was
done on the basis of the Fuehrer Order. His statement heretofore quoted about refusing to kill Jews for the Romanians shows a familiarity with the Fuehrer Order which belies his general assertion that he was opposed to it. In that statement he practically asserted that he was against killing Jews for the Romanians, but that there was no objection to the same kind of a performance if it took place in the territory of his own organization. In September 1944, the defendant having in the meantime returned to Germany, the Higher SS and Police Leader in the Duesseldorf area instructed him to round up all Jews and half-Jews in that area and shoot them. The defendant stated that he protested this order and that, eventually, it was revoked or at any rate not enforced. Nosske's protest against this order was undoubtedly due mostly to the fact that many of the intended victims, because of the conjugal relationship of the half-Jews, were considered Germans. Nonetheless, his action in refusing categorically to obey the order, demonstrated, contrary to the |
