ARCHIVE
EXTRACTION FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC PROSECUTOR
THE
ESTONIAN SSR
Report on
examination of Kloog Concentration Camp in Khariu uyezd, Keyl volostÒ, made by
Office of Public Prosecutor of the Estonian SSR dated September 29, 1944.
Examination was
held by:
Eguy, Prosecutor
of Investigating Department of the Public ProsecutorÒs Office of the Estonian
SSR, 2nd class jurist, in the presence Vasiliev, Prosecutor of the
Public ProsecutorÒs Office of the Estonian SSR.
Witnesses:
Tirus and Raus
Kloog Concentration
Camp is situated along the southern side of the ÓTallinn Ö PaldiskeÔ railway. The area is surrounded with a barbed wire
paling, 2.4 meter high. There are living barracks, workshops and a saw-mill on
the territory.
In the living space of the ground floor of the building, in
front of the door as well as in the first and the second gangways between the plank
beds there are corpses of men and women. The corpses are lying face-down in two
or three rows along the gangway. Heads of the upper corpses are in the centers
of the lower ones, their feet to the doors.
200 meters from
the Camp north from the railway nearby the ditch there is a basement of a burnt
building. The date Ó21.07.1944Ô is carved out on the corner of the basement.
The basement is 45 cm high. On the fire site in the ash there are plenty of
burnt skulls, vertebras, bones and other remains of the corpses. Part of the
corpses is burned down entirely so that it is impossible to define the exact
number of bodies. Only 133 burnt corpses can be singled out, i.e. 13-15% of the
total number.
On the southern side of the building,
outside the basement, there are bodies of two women. One is lying with her
burnt head another her burnt legs directed to the basement.
700 m from the
Camp and 27 m from the forest road, on the meadow there are 4 fires situated at
a 4-meters distance from each other. The first is ready to be fired while the
others are already burned. The fires occupy 6 x 6,5 m area. On the lower layer
of the firewood there are corpses with their lower parts burned. The corpses
are lying with their faces down; some of them have their arms hanging down too.
Two of the bodies close their faces with their hands, their palms clasped
tightly to their faces and their fingers closing the eyes. The remains show
that there were 17 of the bodies in a row, 5 rows in a fire. Moreover, the
heads of the corpses lying in second and the following rows are situated on the
feet of the previous ones.
A layer of
corpses is lying first, and then comes a layer of firewood that is covered with
a second layer of corpses. Two layers of corpses are seen in the second and the
fourth fires while there are three such layers in the third one. The center and
the eastern parts of the fires are burned out. A number of 254 burnt bodies can
be singled out from the parts remained in the fires, i.e. 20-25% of the total
number kept in the fire.
On the north and
north-eastern sides at the distance of 5 to 200 meters on the meadow there are
18 corpses of men with gunshot wounds in the area of nape, back and legs. On
the meadow from the south-west at the distance of 15 meters from the first fire
there are a lot of overclothes and mess kits. Nearby the stacked clothes at the
edge of the forest an empty ferric barrel with oil smell is situated.
Overestimating
shamelessly the number of ÓSoviet occupationÔ victims the Estonian historians
are meanwhile understating the number of the Nazi occupation victims.à They
have gone on to fix the number of the killed by the Nazi and their accomplices
at the rate of 10 000 people on the territory of Estonia while the State
Soviet Extraordinary Commission counted 125 000 of the wiped out after
liberation of Estonia (half of them are innocent civilians while another half
are prisoners of war). At the time of the Nazi occupation Estonia was covered with a network of
concentration camps where the prisoners from other union republics were brought
to. The camps were naturally guarded by the Estonian policemen who then
together with the German SS Soldiers took part in liquidation of the
concentration camps before the Soviet Army incoming.
And now a few
words about those who were killing. The majority of the Estonians took the
German Army incoming as a liberation and supported the occupational authorities
with enthusiasm. A fascist Omakaitse (Self-Defense) organization was formed to
which 30 000 up to 40 000 Estonians joined the first months of the war.
According to the Omakaitse reports 946 Soviet activists were killed and 426
state establishments were attacked in summer of 1941 only.
By November 1941
they have held 5033 raids, arrested 41135 people, 7357 of whom were put to
death on site because of the Óshowed resistanceÔ. The same organization
actively assisted the 1A Einsatz Command lead by the SS Standarten Fuhrer Sandberger,
that destroyed all the Jewish remained on the territory of Estonia. Later
on the basis of the Omakaitse a large number of military units and police
battalions were formed. They participated in partisans fighting and punitive
operations on the territory of Russia, Byelorussia, Poland and Ukraine. By the spring of 1944 at the call
of Juri Uluots, the prime-minister of the Estonian Republic of that
time, 7 so called boundary regiments and the 20th grenadier SS
division (15000 people) were formed. 3000 young people of 16-17 y.o. were
mobilized to serve in auxiliary forces of Luftwaffe. 38000 people in total were
mobilized in 1944 to serve in German Forces.
à
So, shall it be a surprise that now the grey-headed,
safe, fine-looking and perfectly European killers have worn again the SS
uniform and marching along the streets of Estonian cities?
Sources:
3) Kopla Yoktona ÓHistory of the Jewish in EstoniaÔ
4) Short Jewish Encyclopedia, vol.10
5) Jewish Estonian Community site sources:
Hashahhar.livejornal.com , -in particular, ÓGaps of HolocaustÔ
article.
