740.0011 European War 1939/32118: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 1—4:30 p.m.]
2086. On November 26 the American press correspondents returned from a trip to Kiev arranged for the foreign press correspondents by the Press Section of the Foreign Office. The following report is intended to supplement the accounts of their trip that presumably have been carried in the American press.
So far as the correspondents could ascertain, the Germans do not appear to have made any serious efforts to win over the population. On the contrary, they seem to have endeavored to destroy Ukrainian culture and traditions and to Germanize the population. Ukrainian cultural objects and libraries were destroyed or removed. Two newspapers were published, one in Ukrainian and one in German. The special shops that were open were restricted to Germans and many discriminatory measures were taken which showed a complete disregard for the feelings of the people. The local population was allowed to attend the opera only on certain designated nights and was excluded from certain areas of the city. The Germans issued and compelled the use of script. The bread ration during the German occupation was 200 grams per day for workers and 100 grams for dependents.
[Page 606]The correspondents gained the impression that greater efforts were made to win over the peasants and as a result of this, and in some cases through fear of the partisans, many rural areas were virtully unmolested by the Germans during the whole period of the occupation.
The Soviet censor has not allowed the correspondents to report the public hanging of two German soldiers that took place while they were in Kiev.36 The authorities seemed anxious, however, to impress upon them atrocities committed by the Germans and they were shown a ravine where 60,000 Kiev Jews were said to have been shot. Before leaving the city the Germans forced the Russians to exhume and burn these bodies and the correspondents talked to three men who said they had been obliged to assist in this gruesome task.
[Here follows a description of the damaged condition of Kiev, and of the early attempts to reestablish normal life in that city.]