Nuremberg Day 28: Telford Taylor direct examination of Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski

On Jan. 7, 1946, U.S. prosecutor Colonel Telford Taylor conducts direct examination before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg of former SS Obergruppenfuehrer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski. Both speak slowly and distinctly to aid interpreters who simultaneously are repeating the questions and answers in English, German, Russian and French. Bach-Zelewski testifies that at the beginning of World War II he was a Higher SS and Police Leader in the central section of the campaign against the Soviet Union. “My principal task was fighting partisians.“ He states that “the principal task of the Einsatzgruppen was the annihilation of the Jews, Gypsies and political commissars.“ At the end of 1942, he became the Chief of Anti-Partisan Combat Units for the entire Eastern Front. Highest authorities issued an order that German soldiers committing offenses against civilians were not to be punished in the military courts. For further information, see