103 C-50, USA 554. Note also that the commanders-in-chief were directed to confirm only those court sentences "which are in accordance with the political intentions of the High Command". 1041039-PS, USA 146. 105 Transcript, p. 15405. It is difficult to credit the testimony of Rundstedt that Hitler explained the commissar order to the commanders-in-chief (Transcript, pp. 15516-17; Commissioner's Report, p. 164), but that the Jewish extermination policy was unknown to them because "Hitler would never have expressed such intentions to officers", Transcript, p. 15517. Certainly Hitler's Jewish policies were by that time no secret to anyone. 1003714-PS, USA 560; 3716-PS, USA 563; 3717-PS, USA 564. 107 USSR 218; Defense Document Book, p. 136. 108 R-135, USA 289; Transcript, p. 2225. 109D-421, GB-567. The pencil notes show that this episode was reported to Halder, Chief of the General Staff of the Army, and presumably to von Kuechler, Commander-in-Chief of the Third Army in Poland. 110Transcript, p. 2241. Brauchitsch made this quite clear in his testimony before the Commission. Commission Transcript, p. 3250. 112D-411, USA 556; UK 81. "The soldier in the eastern territories is not merely a fighter according to the rules of the art of war but also a bearer of ruthless national ideology and the avenger of bestialities which have been inflicted upon German and racially related nations. "Therefore the soldier must have full understanding for the necessity of a severe but just revenge on sub-human Jewry. The Army has to aim at another purpose i.e. the annihilation of revolts in the hinterland which, as experience proves, have always been caused by Jews." 1134064-PS, USA 927. "Since 22.6 the German people is engaged in a life and death struggle against the Bolshevist system. "This struggle is not being carried on against the Soviet Armed Forces alone in the established form laid down by European rules of warfare. * "Jewry constitutes the middle man between the enemy in the rear and the still fighting remainder of the Red Armed Forces and the Red leadership. More strongly than in Europe, it holds all the key positions in the political leadership and administration, controls trades and guilds and further forms the nucleus for all unrest and possible uprisings. "The Jewish-Bolshevist system must be exterminated once and for all. Never again must it encroach upon our European living space. "The soldier must appreciate the necessity for harsh punishment of Jewry, the spiritual bearer of the Bolshevist terror. This is also necessary in order to nip in the bud all uprisings which are mostly attributable to Jews." Transcript, pp. 15475-84. 115 Transcript, p. 15453. 110For instance, defense affidavits, Nos. 501 and 1630. 117Transcript, pp. 15512, 15515, 15516-17, 15523; Commission Transcript, pp. 1334, 1336, 1337, 1338, 1343, 1346, 1348, 1351, 1354, 1366, 1374, 1377, 1490, 1517, 1528, and 1534. 118 Commission Transcript, p. 3632. Commission Transcript, p. 3632. 120 For abundant proof one need only read Jodl's diary and the Naval War Diary. 1780-PS, USA 72; 1809-PS, GB 88; C-170, USA 136. See footnote 71, above. The occasion was the 125th anniverGeneral Beck later became Chief of pointed to by Brauchitsch and others 1 Defense Document Book, pp. 1-11. sary of the founding of the Academy. the General Staff of the Army, and is as a man who opposed Hitler's warlike intentions in 1938. Transcript, pp. 15387-89. 128 Extract from the text of the report of the conference in the Crimea made public at the White House February 12, 1945. See also the following quotation from the report on the Tri-Partite Conference in Berlin, held from July 17 to August 2, 1945: "All German land, naval and air forces, the S.S., S.A., S.D., and Gestapo, with all their organizations, staffs and institutions, including the general staff, the officers' corps, reserve corps, military schools, war veterans' organizations and all other military and quasi-military organizations, together with all clubs and associations which serve to keep alive the military tradition in Germany, shall be completely and finally abolished in such manner as permanently to prevent the revival or reorganization of German militarism and Nazism." 127 "Commission Transcript, pp. 2672–73: "He (Hitler) lost the war in the long run, because he had tried to take it up with the whole world, but he would never have lost it the way he did if he had let the generals run it themselves. * * * "I had not wanted his (Hitler's) removal at all. I only wanted to be certain that Hitler would secure for himself a sensible chief of the General Staff and that he would have one who would be listened to over his own commands as Fuehrer, but this was no longer possible." 1283716-PS, USA 563. Commission Transcript, p. 1366. 130 Compare Walter Lippmann, Behind the Curtains, May 30, 1946: "The Allies have disarmed the old German Army. They have dislocated and destroyed the old German war plant. They have demobilized the old German Army. But if they have not deprived the military caste of the hope and expectation of a military career, they have not demilitarized Germany." 744400-47-23 Copies to: (1) Dr. Lammers (2) Gauleiter The Reich Minister for Occupied Eastern Territory Personal 2 April 1943 -Nr. 847/43 g R/H To the Reichsfuehrer of the SS and Chief of the German Police HIMMLER Berlin SW11 Prince-Albrecht Street 8 Dear Party Comrade Himmler! By and large you have been informed by SS Gruppenfuehrer [U. S. Army equivalent, Major-General] Berger about my conflict with Reich Commissar for Ukraine Koch. Once in Posen I told you my opinion of his so-called policy. I am transmitting to you attachments on the Zuman case about which you have perhaps already heard. Likewise, I am adding the detailed account of this affair from my head Forestry and Wood Section. I request you by return post to give an official pronouncement in this case and what thereby is a concern of higher SS and Police leaders in the case of the Reich Commissar for the Ukraine. Heil Hitler! [Signed] A. Rosenberg Attachments Copy to Dr. Lammers Berlin, 2 April 1943 In re: Reich Commissar Koch and the Zuman wooded area. How little the Reich Commissar of the Ukraine Koch felt himself conscientiously bound to his mission was demonstrated at the beginning of his activity in office. From the time of his installation in September 1941 until the beginning or the middle of February 1942, he visited the Reich Commissariat only a few times. These visits lasted only a very short time whereupon he would go out to hunt. During this whole time the General Commissar, the District Commissar and the Agricultural leader were obliged to perform their duties uninterruptedly in hard winter and under the most difficult circumstances. Soon there were rumors, that the Reich Commissar of the Ukraine wished to ap |