Source: http://winstonsmithministryoftruth.blogspot.de/2014/07/alfred-rosenberg-didnt-believe-in-gas.html
On November 5, 1945, just over a fortnight before the
International Military Tribunal commenced, Alfred Rosenberg was interrogated at
Nuremberg by the Soviet Major General Alexandrov. They had the following
exchange:
ALEXANDROV: How about the
mass extermination of thousands of innocent people, for instance, Jews in the
Ghettoes of Warsaw and other cities. Did you hear about such things; did you hear about the gas vans?
ROSENBERG: I have heard
about them but I don't believe it.
ALEXANDROV: But it is a
fact. We have documents which prove that all this was done. We also have people
that are still alive who witnessed these atrocities. There is no question but
that these things are true. How do you feel about them?
ROSENBERG: I would assume
that in such a gigantic struggle there would be many victims but I still don't
believe this part where you allege to prove that deliberate mass extermination
was practiced in this manner. I did, of course, know that in connection with
our struggle there were many executions. I did not know anything about mass
extermination to the extent and in the manner as you say.
ALEXANDROV: We could prove
all this to you.
ROSENBERG: When we
marched into Riga I was told that there had been a torture chamber of your MKVD.
ALEXANDROV: That is not
true, but we have at our disposal documents of the German Police which show
that the most bestial measures were applied against the people in the
East.
ROSENBERG: Did you,
General, ever see a report on Winnitza? It deals with a great number of
executions. This matter was investigated by experts from neutral countries;
thousands of dead Ukranians [sic] were found and many of those were identified
by their relatives.
ALEXANDROV: Who killed
them?
ROSENBERG: The Soviet
Police.
ALEXANDROV: The
German authorities always tried to make the German crimes appear as though they
were Soviet crimes. I have here another order in which the Fuehrer gave the
following instructions. In this directive the Fuehrer approves of the most cruel
methods, including the killing of children if used to cover the partisans. In
such cases German officers and non—commissioned officers should be permitted to
open fire against such women and children and should not have to be afraid of
subsequent punishment. Such instructions were issued by the Fuehrer. I am going
to tell you now what Jodl's reply was in that conference. "There is no
question that our troops may do whatever they wish; if necessary, they may hang
people by their feet or cut them in four." What do you think of these
things?
ROSENBERG: I must say
that setting afire houses with women and children in them--that was what
partisans did many times in their fight against us--it is nothing
extraordinary.
ALEXANDROV: We are not
talking about partisans; the partisans were active in the German rear--but here
you were in control--the German Government was controlling these
territorities?
ROSENBERG: Where we were
in control no such incidents happened, but such things did happen where the
partisans were active.
In an earlier
interrogation, on September 22, 1945, future Nuremberg prosecutor Colonel John
Amen had asked Rosenberg whether Germans who had worked in the concentration
camps were justified in claiming they were merely following orders when
carrying-out Hitler's inhumane orders, when they had known his orders were
unlawful. Rosenberg replied:
I think that
such orders for inhuman conduct in concentration camps could not ever have been
given, [...] My personal opinion is that such inhuman things ought not and
could not have been ordered.
Later the same
day, Rosenberg claimed that he'd heard that "some Jews" had been shot
by the German police in the occupied territories; that he knew nothing nor had
put no effort into discovering what went on in Himmler's concentration camps,
and had the following exchange with American Colonel Thomas S. Hinkel:
HINKEL: You knew it
was Himmler's policy to exterminate the Jews, didn't you?
ROSENBERG: In this shape
or manner, I did not believe it until the end.
HINKEL: You had been
informed of that, had you not?
ROSENBERG: No; I was
not.
HINKEL: Everybody else
seems to have known it. Why didn't you know about it?
ROSENBERG: I learned
about it the first time by the radio which mentioned and cited speeches of Jews
abroad.
HINKEL: Didn't you
receive the Hitler order, wherein Himmler was appointed the person in charge of
Jewish affairs?
ROSENBERG: No; I haven't
seen it, but I have been told of it.
HINKEL: And when were
you told about it?
ROSENBERG: In the
'30s.
HINKEL: You knew what
Himmler's policy was towards the Jews?
ROSENBERG: Well, those
things must hove become rather acute during the war because before the war such
things didn't happen. Himmler only mentioned once that he had to drive away the
Jews from Dusseldorf, and that they were in a camp where in about a fortnight
they set up a cabaret.
Rosenberg
denied he'd had knowledge of the alleged plan to kill all of Europe's Jews
throughout the Nuremberg trial:
DR. HAENSEL: Do you know that the SS, as far as the Jews were
concerned, followed secret aims and objectives, others than those that were
published officially?
ROSENBERG: That I learned here.
DR. HAENSEL: You do not know that from your own knowledge?
ROSENBERG: No.
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