river the SS men tortured and massacred many other Czechs. At Sedlec, district Sedlcany, the SS troops executed 11 men after having shot in the neighborhood many innocent people. They also burned down the school and plundered several houses. At Trest in Moravia the members of the SS troops together with local Germans murdered 34 Czechs in the prison courtyard and in the streets they shot 10 other persons. Prague, July 9th, 1945. TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT D-960 24 March 1943 Waffen SS Natzweiler Concentration Camp Commandant's office 3.43/Kr/Jg. 8000151, VIII/ 64 C 16 Concentration Camp Natzweiler Bill To the Security Police and SD, Strassburg. For the 20 prisoners executed and cremated in this concentration camp, costs amounting to RM 127,05 arose. The commandant's office of the Natzweiler concentration camp requests the early despatch of the above mentioned sum. [Initialled] SS Hauptsturmfuehrer and Commandant. TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT D-964 Affidavit of Szloma Gol I, SZLOMA GOL, declare as follows: 1. I am a Jew and lived in Vilna, Lithuania. During the German occupation I was in Vilna ghetto. 2. The administration of Vilna ghetto was managed by the SA. The Town Commissioner of Vilna (Stadtkommissar) was an SA officer called Hinkst. The Landkommissar for Vilna was an SA officer called Wolf. The Advisor on Jewish questions was an SA officer called Muerer. 3. In December 1943, 80 Jews from the ghetto including 4 women and myself and my friend Josef Belic were ordered by an SA Sturmfuehrer, whose name I forget, to live in a large pit some distance from the town. This pit had originally been dug for an underground petrol tank. It was circular, 60 meters in diameter and 4 meters deep. When we lived in it the top was partially covered with boarding, and there were two wooden rooms partitioned off, also a kitchen and lavatory. We lived there 6 months altogether before we escaped. The pit was guarded by SA guards about whom I give details below. 4. One morning the Sturmfuehrer standing on the edge of the pit accompanied by 14 or 15 SA men said to us "Your brothers and sisters and friends are all near here. Treat them properly and if you complete your work we will send you to Germany, where each man can practice his own vocation". We did not know what this meant. 5. Thereupon the SA men threw chains into the pit, and the Sturmfuehrer ordered the Jewish foreman (for we were a working party) to fasten the chains on us. The chains were fastened round both ankles and round the waist. They weighed 2 kilos each, and we could only take small steps when wearing them. We wore them permanently for 6 months. The SA said that if any man removed the chains he would be hanged. The 4 women (who worked in the kitchen) were not chained. 6. After that we were taken out to work. We walked in chains 5 to 6 meters. 7. Our work consisted in digging up mass graves and piling the bodies onto funeral pyres and burning them. I was engaged in digging up the bodies. My friend Belic was engaged in sawing up and arranging the wood. 8. We dug up altogether 68,000 graves. I know this because two of the Jews in the pit with us were ordered by the Germans to keep count of the bodies-that was their sole job. The bodies were mixed, Jews, Polish priests, Russian Prisoners of War. Among those that I dug up I found my own brother. I found his identification papers on him. He had been dead two years when I dug him up, because I know that he was in a batch of 10,000 Jews from Vilna ghetto who were shot in September, 1941. 9. The procedure for burning the bodies was absolutely methodical. Parallel ditches 7 meters long were dug. Over these a square platform of boards was laid. A layer of bodies was put on top, the bodies had oil poured on them and then branches were put on top and over the branches logs of wood. Altogether 14 such layers of bodies and fuel were put on each pyre. Each pyre was shaped like a pyramid with a wooden funnel sticking up through the top. Petrol and oil were poured down the funnel, and incendiary bombs put round the edge of the pyre. All this work was done by us Jews. When the pyre was ready the Sturmfuehrer himself or his assistant Legel (also in the SA) personally lit the pyre with a burning rag on the end of a pole. 10. The work of digging up the graves and building the pyres was supervised and guarded by about 80 guards. Of these over 50 were SA men, in brown uniform, armed with pistols and daggers and automatic guns (the guns being always cocked and pointed at us). The other 30 guards consisted partly of Lithuanians and partly of SD and SS. In the course of the work the Lithuanian guards themselves were shot presumably so that they should not say what had been done. The Commander of the whole place was the SA officer Muerer (the expert on Jewish questions) but he only inspected the work from time to time. The SA officer Legel actually commanded on the spot. At night our pit was guarded by 10 or 12 of these guards. 11. The guards (principally the SA guards) hit us and stabbed us. I still have scars on both legs and on my neck. I was once knocked senseless onto the pile of bodies, and could not get up, but my companions took me off the pile. Then I went sick. We were allowed to go sick for 2 days, the third day we were taken out of the pit "to hospital"—this meant to be shot. 12. Of 76 men in the pit 11 were shot at work. Forty-three of us eventually dug a tunnel from the pit with our bare hands, and broke our chains and escaped into the woods. We had been warned by a Czech SS man who said "they are going to shoot you soon, and they are going to shoot me too, and put us all on the pile. Get out if you can, but not while I am on guard". I declare the above to be correct. 9 August 1946. [signed] Szloma Gol TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT D-968 AFFIDAVIT OF KHAIM KAGAN I, KHAIM KAGAN, declare as follows: 1. I am a Jew and lived in the Ghetto of Kaunas (Lithuania) during the German occupation. I was on the Jewish Council of the Ghetto dealing with statistics and supplies. As representative of the Jews for rations, etc., I had to deal directly with the Town Governor's Office (Hauptsturmfuehrer SA Jordan's section). The Town Governor's Office was exclusively staffed by SA: even the girls in the office wore brown SA uniform. 2. The German Town Governor (Stadtkommissar) was called KRAMER, and he was a Brigadefuehrer SA. Jordan was the Advisor on Jewish Affairs to Kramer. I know their ranks and that they were in the SA, because they signed the orders which were posted in the Ghetto. 3. About 10 to 15 September 1941 a plundering operation was conducted throughout the Ghetto. It was done exclusively by SA men, Jordan was with them. They all wore brown uniform. They took gold, silver, valuables, furniture, etc. In order to scare people and to induce them to give up their property more easily they shot people indiscriminately in different parts of the Ghetto: they shot twenty-seven in all. 4. After the plundering was over Jews were employed to sort the plunder and pack it into parcels to send to private addresses in Germany. 5. On the 13th September 1941 Jordan and Sturmfuehrer SA KEPEN (with Brigadefuehrer LENZEN, who was Commissioner for the Rural District (Landkommissar) of Kaunas, standing by) shot three men in my presence. One of these men they first pulled out of bed. 6. On the 21st or 22nd September 1941 I was in a labor detachment. I saw about thirty SA men in uniform conducting a group of some 300 Russian prisoners of war. The Russians were quite exhausted, they could barely walk. Two collapsed and the SA shot them. The SA were beating them all the time. My labor detachment had to bury these Russians. 7. In October 1941 300 Jews including myself were taken by the SA from the Ghetto and forced to carry two chairs each, on their shoulders, for a distance of 5 kilometres and then back again, for no object whatsoever. Those who could not carry on were shot. Jordan was following the procession in his car. There were about 100 SA men guarding us: they were armed with automatic pistols. 8. On the 28th October 1941 there was a big "action" on in which 10,500 people from the Ghetto were shot. The Ghetto population was first divided into two groups, those for execution and those who were allowed to stay. The sorting was supervised in the morning by a man called RAUKA (who was I think in the Gestapo or the SD) and later in the day three prominent SA men, Jordan, Kepen and Poeschl came to help him. All these SA men were in uniform. I know the number of those who were shot because my job on the Jewish Council included the rationing for which we had taken a census of the Jews. A new census was taken after these executions. 9. On the 15th August 1941 the SA shut the Ghetto gates. A number of people had gone out of the Ghetto on the 11th August to try to get food. On the 15th after the gates had been shut Jordan came to me and said: "Go and get 20 bodies which I have just shot as a warning to you all not to have dealings with the outside population." 10. On the same day (15th August) Jordan announced that he wanted 530 intellectuals to work on archives. He was told there were not that number available. Thereupon the SA (assisted by others in German uniform which I cannot identify for certain but I think it was SD) seized 530 people at random. The SA personnel present included Jordan, Poeschl and Lenzen. I declare the above to be correct: [signed]: KHAIM KAGAN 10 August, 1946. TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT D-969 AFFIDAVIT OF LEIB KIBART I, LEIB KIBART, declare as follows: 1. I am a Jew and lived during the German occupation in the Ghetto of Schaulen, about 130 kilometres of Riga. I am a leather worker by trade. 2. I was arrested in the street and forced to work for the Germans for three years making mostly women's handbags. I lived in the Ghetto but I was taken daily by SA men to the Courtyard of the District Commissioner where I and other Jews worked on various jobs. 3. While at work we were often cursed and beaten by the SA. Sturmfuehrer SA Bub one day ordered a lady's handbag from me, to be ready by the same evening. I said that was impossible, so he gave me many strokes with a whip. In the evening he thrashed me again because the bag was not ready. 4. The SA came to Schaulen soon after the occupation by the Germans in the summer of 1941 and they took over the administration of the Ghetto. The first SA Chief was SCHROEPFER, a Sturmfuehrer SA. He was either from Bromberg or Bamberg but I cannot remember which. I know it was one or the other because Jews were employed to make trunks for SA officers and I remember his name and address being painted on one. His successor was Sturmfuehrer Bub. 5. It is hard to judge, but I estimate that there must have been 700 to 800 SA men there at the beginning, but they decreased in numbers later. I knew them as SA because they wore brown uni |