War Crimes Trials - Vol. II The Belsen Trial. 'The Trial of Josef Kramer and Forty Four Others'

(75) DEPOSITION OF NIKOLAJ SCHEKLAKOW (U.S.S.R., aged 27)

1. I am 27 years of age and a Medical Officer of the Russian Army. I was taken prisoner by the Germans in the Smolensk area on 31st July, 1942. From 1st August, 1942, until May, 1943, I was a prisoner in a P.O.W. camp at Jelnia, working as doctor amongst other Russian prisoners of war. From 31st May, 1943, until 16th June, 1943, I was in a P.O.W. camp at Smolensk, when I was transferred to an officers’ P.O.W. camp at Kalvaria, near Kowno, Lithuania. I was kept there until 13th November, 1943, when I was transferred to Stalag 3B, which was at Furstenberg an der Oder, Germany. I was kept there until 13th November, 1943, when I was transferred to Stalag 3B. On 5th January, 1944, I was moved to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, near Berlin, and on 7th February, 1945, I came to Belsen.

7. When I first arrived at Sachsenhausen there were eight or nine British soldiers there who told me that they had been captured at Narvik in Norway. One of them I knew by the name of Major. These British soldiers were made to run round the camp all day, and every day, testing the wearing qualities of German boots. Six or seven of them were among those killed when the 96 prisoners were marched from the camp. The other two British soldiers, including Major, came to Belsen with me. Included in the 96 prisoners that were shot that night were the following Russian prisoners, all of whom I know: - Major-General Semyon Tkatschenko, Doctor Boris Tokartschuk and Lieutenant Nikolay Nasarow.

8. After we arrived at Belsen one of the British soldiers was sent to Stettin. Major, who was ill with typhus, remained in the camp. I remember one morning, shortly before the British troops arrived in the camp, seeing Doctor Horstmann, who had come from Sachsenhausen to Belsen, examine Major. I have previously described Dr. Horstmann. He took Major’s temperature and made a brief examination. He then wrote down Major’s particulars. That same evening Major was taken out of the camp hospital. Major was in the next hospital block to me in the hospital in which I worked, and when he was moved I heard the voice of S.S. man Emmerich. After that I never saw Major again. Many prisoners in the camp told that he had been shot by Emmerich. Until that day I have never seen Doctor Horstmann examine any patient in the camp, and in view of what happened to Major in the evening, I consider that Horstmann was, in some way, connected with his death.