Office of the Historian

740.00116 European War 1939/493: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, April 28, 1942—1 p.m.
[Received April 29—9:01 p.m.]

134. The Embassy has received a further circular note73 from the Commissar for Foreign Affairs dated April 27, re the alleged crimes and atrocities perpetrated by the German Army in German occupied Russia. This note was published in full in the press today.

Standley
  1. A previous note on German atrocities in occupied Soviet territories had been received on January 6; see footnote 4, p. 406. The note here reported was sent to the Ambassadors and envoys of all countries with which the Soviet Union had diplomatic relations. The Embassy transmitted to the Department a translation entitled “Regarding the Monstrous Atrocities, Bestialities, and Acts of Violence Perpetrated by the German Fascist Invaders in the Occupied Soviet Districts, and the Responsibility of the German Government and Its High Command for These Crimes” (740.0011 European War 1939/21637). It was widely distributed as Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, We Shall Not Forgive! The Horrors of the German Invasion in Documents and Photographs (Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1942).↩