PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-387
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 99
REPORT TO COMMANDING GENERAL IN SERBIA. 20 OCTOBER 1941
CONCERNING SEVERE REPRISAL MEASURES
* * * * * * *
[Handwritten] Supplement 37
Kragujevac, 20 October 1941
Copy
District Headquarters 1/832
Diary—A./41
To the 610th Administration Area Headquarters Pancevo
And simultaneously for information:
To Commander Serbia, Section la, Belgrade
During the period 14-17 October 1941, the 3d Battalion, 749th
Regiment, stationed in this area carried out an operation at
G. Milanovac, where the 6th Company, 920th Regiment, had been
kidnapped. The unit was accompanied by two interpreters, in
German uniform, of the district headquarters who informed me
about details. The unit, marching on the highway, was allegedly
shot at numerous times from the surrounding heights whereby
they sustained losses of 9 dead and 27 wounded (of the latter
one more died later). The interpreter, who knew the country,
called the attention of the battalion's commanding officer numerous
times to the fact that different tactics were necessary in this
terrain in order to be able to combat the bandits, otherwise he
would have unpreventable losses, without being able to do anything
himself. That is what actually happened in the end.
Eighty-seven of the enemy were killed.
The battalion found G. Milanovac rather empty. About 40 male
inhabitants who had concealed themselves, according to information
of the battalion commanding officer and had waited for the
return of the German armed forces, were arrested and brought
back with them as hostages.
G. Milanovac was completely destroyed; likewise the villages
bordering on the highway on the way back.
After the return from there the battalion of the 749th Regiment
received the order to shoot 100 Serbs from Kragujevac for
each soldier killed and 50 [Serbs] for each wounded.
Accordingly, in the late evening hours of 18 October [19] 41,
all male Jews and a number of Communists, altogether about
70 men, were arrested according to lists.
Since this number was not sufficient by far for the 2,300 to be
shot, it was proposed to collect the number lacking through arrests
on the streets, squares, and dwellings in a unified action in the
town of Kragujevac by both the 3d Battalion, 749th Regiment,
and the 1st Battalion, 724th Regiment, stationed in Kragujevac.
Since the planned measure was in contradiction to the orders
of the Plenipotentiary Commanding General—file note 73/41
Secret (Section III) of 9 October 1941 and file note Ill/Chief of
Military Administration/Quartiermeister No. 2842/41 Secret of
10 October 1941, as well as Commander Serbia, Administration
Staff-Diary No. 224/41 of 10 October 1941—1 attempted to
inform the senior garrison officer, Major Koenig, of the execution,
in the sense of the order cited, in that I suggested that the villages
in the vicinity and surroundings of Kragujevac, known to the
district headquarters for a long time as completely strewn with
Communists, be surrounded and the necessary number to be shot
obtained there. He accepted my suggestion voluntarily at once,
and it was proposed that the 1st Battalion of the 724th Regiment
mop up the villages Grosnica and Belosovac on Sunday. On Monday
both battalions were tp mop up, by a joint action, the villages Meckovac, Marzic, Korman, Botunje, and Dl. and Gor
Komarice in the middle of which the ill-famed Parlog mountain
lies, where the bandits allegedly have their forest quarters.
If then the number of those arrested would not have been sufficient,
I suggested the combing through of villages further infested
with Communists according to my information. I emphasize
expressly that in the whole time of the existence of the
district headquarters, not a single member of the German armed
forces or ethnic German was wounded or shot in the city.
The citizens of the city, numbering about 42,000, always showed
themselves loyal and inclined toward cooperation with the German
armed forces, whereby it should not be disregarded that a part of
these citizens were always inclined to the bandits; but nothing
happened.
In the evening of 19 October 1941, I was invited to a renewed
conference with Major Koenig, where I learned to my astonishment
that the whole plan had been thrown over. On 19 October
1941, the villages Grosnica and Milatovac were mopped up by the
1st Battalion, 724th Regiment, and burned down, and Meckovac
and Marzic by the 3d Battalion, 749th Regiment. At the same
time 422 men were immediately shot on the spot in the villages
without any losses on our side, among them a priest of the Russian
church in whose church tower munition had been found
concealed.
In order to obtain the number of 2,300 lacking, a combing of
the town Kragujevac was ordered again for 20 October 1941.
The arrests on the streets, squares, shops, dwellings, stores, etc.,
took place accordingly today without regard for the persons
involved, taking men between 16 and 60 years of age.
According to a statement of Major Koenig, the following were
to be pulled out from those under arrest in German hands:
a. Those who were in possession of a special pass of the district
headquarters or another troop unit stationed here.
6. Members of a vital profession or trade (doctors, druggists,
bakers, butchers, grocers, technicians, workers of the light and
water plants, etc.)
c. Those who could prove themselves members of the Ljotic
movement.
In this case, no consideration was taken in any way for the
points stated under paragraph 2 in the order 2848/41 secret.
Furthermore, the last sentence of the second paragraph in the
order, diary 4224/41 ("in order to prevent the annihilation of completely
innocent people * * *"), was observed in no way.
This order of State Counsellor Turner which I brought expressly
to the attention of Major Koenig, the latter did not even wish
to read saying that he had to act exclusively according to the
order of the regimental commander of the 749th Infantry Regiment,
which set him the task of bringing together the necessary
number of those to be shot from the men of the town of Kragujevac.
By radio, I urgently requested at 0600 hours, 20 October 1941,
an airplane from the Ic section, Commander of Serbia, in order
to attain through personal conference in Belgrade that the orders
issued would be carried out according to their sense. Unfortunately
the airplane was not sent so that an interference of the
superior office is no longer possible because the shootings were
set for 7 o'clock in the morning of 21 October 1941. I should
like to state that the losses of the 3d battalion 749th Regiment
occurred in an operation against the guilty locality G. Milanovac
and not in the city of Kragujevac. If 2,300 bandits and those
sympathizing with them had been captured and shot, the order
issued would have been taken care of to a sufficient extent.
According to my viewpoint, the shooting of people from this
city, some of whom are entirely innocent, can have directly harmfuleffects.
It is to be expected that embittered relatives of those
shot will now practice acts of revenge on members of the German
armed forces.
Sabotage acts on drinking water and on the current temporary
light supply, as well as a large attack of the bandits against the
city, in which the units could suffer more losses than before, are
not out of the realm of possibility. Above all, the psychological
effect will be catastrophic. The residents of Kragujevac have
expected of the German armed forces the elimination of the Communist
danger and the aligning into the new framework of
Europe. With the methods used here, we shall certainly not
manage to win back the favorably inclined elements.
Signed: v. BISCHOFSHAUSEN
Captain and Commandant
Captain v. Bischofshausen reported personally in the above
affair—
On 28 October 1941, to the Chief of Staff, Commander Serbia.
On 29 October 1941, at Plenipotentiary Commanding General
in Serbia (through Major Jais).
Certified true copy:
[Illegible Signature]
V. HOSTAGES, REPRISALS AND COLLECTIVE
MEASURES IN THE BALKANS. MEASURES
AGAINST PARTISANS AND PARTISAN AREAS
Captain
