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NUERNBERG MILITARY TRIBUNAL
Volume IV · Page 574

The documentation in this case amply substantiates the statement that such executions did occur. At the trial the defendant claimed that executions were entirely beyond his sphere of activities, and his job was simply to make reports. One could well believe, if one were to accept as fact the statements of the various defendants who functioned in the so-called department III that these Kommandos were engaged in a scientific expedition studying the flora and fauna of the land through which they traveled, obtaining data on agriculture and economy, but in some way or other avoiding all contact with the grim enterprise to which the units were committed. It is not known what blinders these defendants wore that they could be in the very midst of the carnage caused by their own associates and yet remain entirely unaffected thereby. Again we come to the question of credibility. The witness was asked whether, in making a report on the economy of the country he would indicate that the labor supply had been affected because of the execution of Jews. He replied in the negative and the following ensued:

"Q. Making a report on the economy you would naturally have to talk about labor and, if a great number of those constituting the labor element were executed, that would affect seriously the economy of the country on which you were reporting, and you would need to include that in your reports, would you not?

"A. The situation which we found was that the entire economy had been ruined and had to be built up. There was no shop in which you could buy anything.

"Q. The economy wasn't helped by shooting off further labor supply, was it?

"A. No.

"Q. Did you report this in your reports?

"A. I may say the following.

"Q. Did you make this statement in your reports, that, because Jews were being killed and thereby the labor market being affected adversely, that the economy was made worse? Did you report that?

"A. As far as I remember I reported about the fact that the Jews in the Ukraine constituted an essential part of trade.

"Q. And did you report that Jews were being decimated?

"A. No.

"Q. You didn't put in any report that Jews were, being killed and this affected the economy of the Ukraine?

"A. No. In this shape I did not report about it. I only reported about the fact that the Jews were an important economic potential, but I did not report to the effect as you mention it.

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