Translation of document 3718-PS

                       STATEMENT

At the beginning of the Russian campaign I was the First
General Staff officer of the 17th Panzer Division which had
the mission of driving across the Bug north of Brest-
Litovsk. Shortly before the beginning of the attack my
division received through channels from the OKW a written
order of the Fuehrer. This order directed that Russian
commissars be shot upon capture, without judicial process,
immediately and ruthlessly. This order extended to all units
of the Eastern Army. Although the order was supposed to be
relayed to companies the Commanding General of the XXXXVII
Panzer Corps (General of Panzer Troops Lemelsen)
forbade its being passed on to the troops because it
appeared unacceptable to him from military and moral points
of view.

                                  [signed] BOGISLAV v. BONIN
                                                     Colonel
                                             1 December 1945

OBERURSEL: SS

Before me, Paul A. Neuland, Major, QMC, ASN O-385720, all
officer duly qualified to take oaths, appeared Colonel v.
Bonin to me known, who in my presence signed the foregoing
"Erklaerung" (statement) consisting of one page in the
German language, and swore that the same was true on the 1st
day of December 1945.

                                    [signed] Paul A. Neuland
                                             PAUL A. NEULAND
                                                  Major, QMC
                                                   O-385720.