Hermann Graebe and The Final Solution

A Testimony
in the Nuremberg trials

Much like Oscar Schindler, Hermann Graebe, manager of a German construction firm in the Ukraine, ultimately came to defend the lives of dozens of his workers in a startling and perilous tranformation from one-time Nazi to rescuer of Jews. As an eyewitness to brutal SS executions Graebe later provided vital testimony in the Nuremberg trials, invoking bitter persecution from many of his countrymen. To escape the hostility, Graebe moved his family to San Francisco where he lived until his death in 1986. Hermann Graebe was honored as a 'Righteous Among the Nations'.

Hermann Graebe

On October 5, 1942, by accident, Hermann Graebe and his foreman came upon an Einsatz execution squad killing Jews from the small town of Dubno in the Ukraine. Mass shooting, the commonest means of slaughter, was described with classic simplicity by Herman Graebe before the International Military Tribunal. This is his statement:

'I walked around the mound, and found myself confronted by a tremendous grave. People were closely wedged together and lying on top of each other so that their heads were visible. Nearly all had blood running over their shoulders from their heads. Some of the people shot were still moving. Some were lifting their arms and turning their heads to show that they were still alive. The pit was already 2/3 full. I estimated. that it contained about 1,000 people.

I looked for the man who did the shooting. He was an SS man, who sat at the edge of the narrow end of the pit, his feet dangling into the pit. He had a tommy gun on his knees and was smoking a cigarette. The people, completely naked, went down some steps which were cut in the clay wall of the pit and clambered over the heads of the people lying there, to the place to which the SS man directed them. They lay down in front of the dead or injured people; some caressed those who were still alive and spoke to them in a low voice. Then I heard a series of shots. I looked into the pit and saw that the bodies were twitching or the heads lying already motionless on top of the bodies that lay before them. Blood was running from their necks.

I was surprised that I was not ordered away, but I saw that there were two or three postmen in uniform nearby. The next batch was approaching already. They went down into the pit, lined themselves up against the previous victims and were shot. When I walked back around the mound, I noticed another truckload of people which had just arrived. This time it included sick and infirm persons. An old, very thin woman with terribly thin legs was undressed by others who were already naked, while two people held her up. The woman appeared to be paralyzed. The naked people carried the woman around the mound. I left with Moennikes and drove in my car back to Dubno.

On the morning of the next day, when I again visited the site, I saw about 30 naked people lying near the pit-about 30 to 50 meters away from it. Some of them were still alive; they looked straight in front of them with a fixed stare and seemed to notice neither the chilliness of the morning nor the workers of my firm who stood around. A girl of about 20 spoke to me and asked me to give her clothes, and help her escape. At that moment we heard a fast car approach and I noticed that it was an SS detail. I moved away to my site. Ten minutes later we heard shots from the vicinity of the pit. The Jews still alive had been ordered to throw the corpses into the pit; then they had themselves to lie down in this to be shot in the neck ...'

These photographs document the brutal history of the Einsatzgruppen units. The Einsatzgruppen consisted of four paramilitary units, Einsatzgruppen A, B, C, and D. They were mobile killing units of the Security Police and SS Security Service, established for the purpose of murdering Jews - but not only Jews. Communists, Gypsies, political leaders, and the intelligentsia were also killed. They followed German armies into the Soviet Union in June 1941 and executed over a million.

Sources:
Dr. Stuart D. Stein
Web Genocide Documentation Centre
Faculty of Economics and Social Science
University of the West of England
www.auschwitz.dk www.oskarschindler.com www.shoah.dk