The court session held on 11 February 1946 became one of the key hearings for the Soviet prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials. Soviet prosecutors questioned German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, the co-author of the plan ‘”Operation Barbarossa,” and other accused parties.
Assistant Soviet Prosecutor Nikolai Zorya presented the Tribunal with a document confirming the preparations for an attack on the USSR back in 1940.
“The preparation for the military attack on the Soviet Union was carried out at a heightened tempo and with customary German pedantry”, Zorya stated. He made this conclusion citing the written statement by Wehrmacht Lieutenant General Vincenz Müller:
“The preparation for the attack on the Soviet Union began as early as July 1940. (…) The staff of Army Group B was transferred to the East (Poser) during July. (…)”
“Directly after the campaign in the West, the OKH gave the order for the demobilization of 20 divisions. This order was cancelled, and the 20 divisions were not demobilized. Instead of this, after their return to Germany they were sent on leave, and thus kept ready for rapid mobilization.
Both measures, the transfer of about five hundred thousand men to the Russian frontier and the cancellation of the order disbanding about three hundred thousand men, show that already in July 1940 plans existed for war operations in the East. (…)
The first plan was to train soldiers and general staff officers. (…)
Towards the end of January 1941, I received telegraphic orders from the Chief of the General Staff Halder to attend the military exercises of Rundstedt's army group at St Germain, near Paris. The object of this military exercise was the attack and advance from Romania and South Poland in the direction of Kiev and southwards. The plan had in mind the intention also of the participation of Romanian troops. In the main, this military exercise anticipated the conditions of the future order concerning the strategic deployment of forces, to which I will refer later. (…)
The exercise demonstrated the necessity for a strong concentration of tank forces.”
On 8 January 1946, General Müller wrote his statement in a Soviet camp for war prisoners. After returning from captivity after WWI, he forged a career in the army of the German Democratic Republic. In 1952, Vincenz Müller was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General of East Germany's National People's Army; he died in 1961.
Source:
Sergei Miroshnichenko, “Transcript of the Nuremberg Trials”, Volume VI
