"At a distance of 450 meters from the former hamlet of Petrashkevechi eight graves have been discovered. Their size is 21 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 5 meters deep. Before every ditch or grave there are enormous piles of ashes remaining from the burning of the corpses." concerning the Crimes of the German Fascist Usurpers in the Lvov region. This document has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Soviet Exhibit 6. I quote a very short excerpt from this document. The part which I will quote will be found by the Tribunal on page 60, second column, fourth paragraph of the document. I begin my quotation:
"Upon the order of the Reich Minister Himmler and of Major General of the SS Police Katzmann, in the month of June 1943, special measures, in view of the exhumation and burning of the corpses of murdered peaceful citizens, were carried out. In Lvov the Germans created a special Sonderkommando No. 1005. The chief of this kommando was Hauptsturmbannfuehrer Scherlack. His assistant was Hauptsturmbannfuehrer Rauch. The duty of this Sonderkommando was to exhume the corpses of the shot civilians and prisoners of war and the burning of these corpses." number, Sonderkommando No. 1005. This kommando was the prototype of similar sonderkommandos created by the Germans. Later, the sonderkommandos created in view of this objective received the numbers of 1005A, 1005B, etc. experts, page 340 of the Russian text:
"Thus the Hitlerite murderers on the territory of the Lvov District adopted the same methods of concealing their crimes which they began earlier upon murdering the Polish officers in the Katyn Wood." of the graves which were in the Lisenitzki Forest and of those of the Polish officers at Katyn. corpses, the Germans created in Lvov, in the Yanov Camp, a special school for the preparation of so-called qualified murderers. The commandants of the camps of Lublin, Cracow and other towns, underwent a short course instruction in these camps.
The chief of the Sonderkommando No.1005, Scherlack, taught the commandants on the spot how to organize the exhumation of the corpses from the graves, how to pile them on stacks, how to burn them, how to spray the ashes, how to squash the bones, how to camouflage the graves, and how to grow green foliage on these graves. Tribunal, USSR Exhibit 61, which is the act of the examination after the crushing of bones in the town of Lvov. This act will be found by the Tribunal on page 473 of the document book. As I have very little time left at my disposal, I will only quote very short excerpts. I quote:
"The machine for the crushing of calcinated bones was fitted together upon a special order. The machine is easily transported to any point without there being a need to take it to pieces, with the aid of a car or some other transport means." I skip the next paragraph.
"The machine can work in any chosen spot and need not be specially prepared to that effect. The transportation is carried out by car or by tractors. The machine of these dimensions can produce 3 cubic meters of calcinated bone powder." I skip the next four pages of the document, and submit to the Tribunal as evidence the original protocol of the examination which was carried out by American Army Lieutenant Patrick McMahon.
The examined witness was Gerhart Adamitz. I dwell on this document, which has been put at our disposal by our American colleagues. The statement of Adamitz constitutes corroborating evidence with regard to our documents and evidence. This statement is very lengthy, and I will only make a few short quotations.
Gerhart Adamitz was a member of Sonderkommando 1005 A. I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that the first sonderkommando was simply 1005, and this one is kommando 1005A. The name is Adamitz. The excerpt which I shall quote will be found by the Tribunal on page 480 of the document book, beginning with the second paragraph. Gerhart Adamitz said that, together with four other members of the Schutzpolizei, he left today for Petrovsk and was sent to Kiev. I remind the Tribunal of the name of Bashiar, which the Tribunal has already heard.
I quote the statements of Adamitz, page 347 of the Russian text:
"Our Lieutenant, Vinitzi, told about our column to Oberleutnant Hanisch, who was the troop fuehrer of the Schutzpolizei of the group 1005A. This place smelled of corpses. We felt faint and closed our noses and tried not to breathe. Oberleutnant Hanisch made a speech."
I read excerpts of this speech:
"'You have come to this place where you will have to serve and support your comrades. You already smell this odor, which originates from the kitchen, which is behind us. you must all be used to this, and you must fulfil your duties. We will have to guard internees and do so very strictly. Everything that takes place here is the secret affair of the empire of the Reich. Everyone of us answers with is head if ever an internee succeeds in escaping, and, besides t is, this man will be submitted to a special regime. The same fate awaits anyone who blurts out anything or who is not careful enough as to what he says.'" I skip a few paragraphs and continue:
"After this speech of Lieutenant Hanisch, we were led out so as to acquaint ourselves with the place where we were to serve. We left the cemetery and were brought to a neighboring field. The road which crossed this field was guarded on both sides by policemen, who chased away all those who sought to approach it. In the field we saw about 100 internees resting from work. The legs of each internee were chained with chains about 3 1/2 meters long. The internees were dressed in civilian clothes."
I skip the third paragraph of the report and continue:
"The work of the internees consisted, as we found out later, in exhuming corpses which were buried here in two common graves, to transport them, and to pile them up in enormous piles and burn them. It is difficult to ascertain; however, I believe that in this spot were buried from forty to fifty thousand persons. In one anti-tank ditch they had dug out a grave which was partially filled with corpses. This ditch was 100 meters long, 10 meters wide, and 4 to 5 meters deep." I interrupt my quotation, and continue with the last paragraph of the Russian text:
"On the day that we arrived, that is to say, on the 10th of September 1943, there were three or four small piles of corpses on the field." It is interesting to see what this fascist expert understood by the words 'small piles'.
"Every such pile consisted of about 700 corpses. It was about 7 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 2 meters high." I interrupt my quotation and continue on the next page of the Russian text:
"Here and in other places I observed the following methods of burning the corpses which were adopted:
"With the aid of iron hooks, the corpses were dragged to certain spots and then piled on a wooden platform. Then the pile of corpses was surrounded with logs. One poured benzene on it and then they were burnt.
"The policemen of our detachment were then led back from the cemetery to the kitchen. However, not one of us could sit down and eat because of the terrible smell and because of all we had seen." quotation and continue it on page 351, second paragraph of the Russian text. I quote this excerpt, as in the report of the Kiev Extraordinary Commission I already had the honor to report to the Tribunal about the statements of internees who had fled from these kommandos. internees' statements. I only bring a short quotation:
"About the 29th of October, 1943, at 4.45 a.m., during dense fog, 13 internees escaped. They tore off their foot chains, rushed out of their barracks with shouts, and ran away in different directions. Six of them were shot; the others succeeded in escaping, thanks to the fog." I interrupt my quotation. work was concluded the internees were murdered. as confirmation of this I note another excerpt from Adamitz statement, page 352 of the Russian text:
"In other places where I serve" as guard the internees, after work had been concluded, were murdered after they had been brought under the escort of the SD to a determined spot in groups or alone. Then the policemen sent back to bring along further internees. After this the members of the SD compelled the internees to lie, face down, on a wooden platform, and were shot in the nape of the neck. The internees in doubtful cases obeyed this order without resistance, lying down next to their comrades who had already been shot." sondercommando, 1005-B. You will find a confirmation of this in the same statement. This sondercommandant served in Karoylov, in Nickoliav, at Breznikenz, an in Riga; That is to say, she followed the route from the Black Sea to the Baltic countries: that is to say, a distance of 7,000 kilometers. Everywhere she carried out the same duties and carried out the same work. In confirmation of this I will quote only a short excerpt regarding the last stage of the commander's work in Riga. Page. 357 of the statement.
"We members of commando 1005-B received an order to go to several newly built barracks which were situated about 250 meters from six or seven mass graves." I quote precisely this part, as the Tribunal will see this scene in the documentary film. The latter were situated about four kilometers from the suburbs of Riga. The publication mentioned the Bikernest Forest where there was about ten to twelve thousand corpses. A fresh group of fifty or sixty internees was brought there, and in the beginning of June 1944 work began; the exhumation and burning of corpses in the same way as I described at the beginning of my statement, and this work was concluded at the end of July 1944. I believe the at that period the front was only about 300 kilometers away. These ten to twelve thousand corpses were those of men, women, and children of all ages, and were buried about two years ago. Commission, which I quoted, mentioned, the date of the shooting as the beginning of 1942, and this proves that this evidence is corroborating evidence "We policemen in general thought that these people had been shot by the SS.
However, it was only a supposition, for a fresh group of fifty to sixty internees were murdered at the end of July 1944." which is the conclusion of Gerhard Adamitz's statement. Page 159 of the Russian text.
"We thought subsequently that in reality the Nazis were afraid that the discovery of the mass graves discovered by the victorious Russians, -that these mass killing would become known to the civilized world. I believe that about 100,000 corpses from mass graves were exhumed by the liberators from the SD, sonderkommando 1005-A and B. I believe that also other similar commandos fulfilled the same work, but they do not know how many. If I had thought or known that I would ever be compelled to carry out this dirty and humiliating work I would have probably immigrated somewhere." "Gerhard Adamitz" the Tribunal to allow me a few introductory words. The murder of several million people was carried out by the German-Fascists out of motives which were dictated by their mankind-hating theories of Naziism and of the right of domination over and the extermination of peoples. All these killings were carefully thought out. All the precedents were carried out at determined dates. Moreover as I showed many times before, for the mass killings and for the concealing of the traces of their crimes there was created a special technique. But except that, in many crimes carried out by the GermanFascists there is one common trait which makes them even more hateful. In many cases the Germans, after having exterminated their victims, did not cease the crimes thereupon; but pursued them, making the corpses objects of their criminal jeering and mockery. Mockery of the corpses of their victims was a characteristic trait. calcinated were sold by the German-Fascists to the firm Stremm. The hair of the murdered women was cut off, packed into sacks, and sent to Germany.
Among these crimes we find those which I will now submit as evidence. concealing the traces of their crimes was the burning of the corpses. Then the fiendish SS technical minds which created the gas wagons and wagons of death began working upon the creation of such methods of complete extermination of human bodies according to which the concealing of traces of the crimes would coincide with the production of certain products. In the Danzig laboratories were already carried out semi-industrial skin experiments in view of the production of soap made out of human bodies and the utilization of human skin for industrial purposes. immediate eye-witness of the fabrication of soap from human fat; an assistant of the Danzig laboratory, Sigmund Mausel. It is a rather long excerpt, but I think I will have time to read it before the end.
"Q Tell us how soap was cooked out of human fat at the Anatomical Institute of the town of Danzig.
"A Near the Anatomical Institute, in the courtyard, during the summer of 1943, a one-story stone building of three rooms was built. This building was built for the utilization of human bodies and for the boiling of bones. This was officially proclaimed by Professor Spanner. This laboratory was called a laboratory for the fabrication of skeletons and for the burning of meat and unnecessary bones. But already during the winter of 1943-44 Professor Spanner ordered us to collect human fats and not to throw it away. This order was given to Reichert Borgmann. The month of February 1943 Professor Spanner gave me the recipe for the preparation of soap from human fat. This recipe ordered the collection of five kilos of human fat which was mixed with ten litres of water and 500 or 1,000 grams of caustic soda. All this was to be boiled two or three hours and then cooled. The soap floats to the surface and the water remains in the bottom of the pail. To this mixture was added a pinch of salt and soda. Then fresh water was added, and the mixture was again boiled two or three hours. After having cooled off the soap was poured into shape."
for this soap. I submit to the Tribunal this mold as USSR Exhibit 193. I continue the quotation.
"The soap had a disagreeable odor. In order to destroy this disagreeable odor, Bilzo was added. The preparation of this soap from human fat began in the month of January 1944."
"The bodies were brought from Koenigsberg Prison; from the psychiatric hospital. I do not remember the number of persons. Besides, there was a large stock of bodies in the Anatomical Institute; about four hundred of them. The greater part of these bodies were decapitated. The beheaded bodies originated from the prison where they had been guillotined." brought. This is of no importance. I continue the quotation on page 1063 of the Russian text.
"The fat was collected from the human bodies and brought to me and Reichert I boiled the soap out of the bodies of women and men. When this was cooking -it took about three to seven days. Out of two processes in which I took a personal part, more than twenty-five kilograms of soap were fabricated. And moreover, from these processes we had collected seventy to eighty kilograms of human fat from about forty bodies. The soap then went to processer Spanner, who kept it personally. The work for the production of soap from human bodies has, as far as I know, commenced for the Hitlerite Government in the Anatomical Institute. The Anatomical Institute was visited by the Minister of Education, the Minister of Health, Doctor Conti, the gauleiter of Danzig, Albert Forster, as well as professors from other medical institutes. For my personal needs, for toilet and for laundering, I used this human soap. I took personally four kilograms of this soap."
I skip the paragraph and continue. "Reichert, Borgmann, Conran Stein, and our chief professor, Spanner, also personally used this soap."
And I end this quotation on page 365 of the Russian text. I quote you one paragraph which concerns the industrial exploitation of this process." In the same way as they treated human far, Professor Spanner ordered us to collect human skin, which after having been cleaned of fat was submitted to the effect of certain chemical products. The production of human skin was carried out under the direction of the chief assistant, von Baden, and Professor Spanner himself. This skin was packed in a box and was used for experimentation which I do not know." the production of human fat for soap. I will not dwell on this recipe which is identical to that which has already been described, in Mausel's testimony. But the proof that this testimony was exact the Tribunal will find in Mausel's statement, which has already been submitted to the Tribunal, and which is USSR 197.
I will not mention it.
"I now submit to the Tribunal two documents which have only been given to us by the British prosecution; two statements given under oath; statements of two British soldiers; one a soldier of the Essex Regiment, John Picken. This is Soviet Exhibit Nos. 263 and 264. The Tribunal will find this in the document book on page 395. I quote a very short excerpt from this article as time allows me.
"The corpses were brought to us, seven to eight every day. All of them were decapitated and stripped. Sometimes they were brought to us in Red Cross cars, in wooden cases, which contained five to six corpses. Sometimes three to four corpses. They were brought to us in small trucks." into the cellar, which was entered from a side door to the main entrance hall of the institute."
"Then they were put into large metal containers where they were then left for approximately four months.
"Owing to the preservative mixture in which they were stored, the tissue come away from the bones very easily. This tissue was then put into a boiler about the size of a small kitchen table. After boiling the liquid it was put into white trays about twice the size of a sheet of foolscap and about three centimeters deep. Like these which I have shown the Tribunal, usually three to four trayfulls were obtained per day from the machine." This witness did not see himself the utilization of the soap, but I am submitting to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit 722 the written statement of the British Government, a corporal of the Royal Signals, William Anderson Nealey. The Tribunal will find this excerpt on page 498 of the document book.
"The corpses arrived at the rate of two or three per day. All of them were naked and most of them had been beheaded." I submit this quotation and skip two two paragraphs and continue the quotation.
"The construction of the machine for the preparation of soap was completed some time in March or April 1944. The building of the building where this machine was supposed to be was completed in June of 1942. The machine itself was installed by a civilian firm in Danzig by the name of Arrd, which was not connected with war production. As far as I remember, it consisted of an electrically heated tank in which the bones of the corpses were mixed with some acid and melted down. This process of melting took about twenty-four hours. The fat portions of the corpses and particularly those of females was put into a crude enamel tank, heated by a couple of Belsen burners. Some acid was also used for this purpose. I believe that this was caustic soda. When boiling had been completed, the mixture was allowed to cool and then was cut into blocks and used for ammunition. I can not estimate exactly the quantity produced, but I say it used by Danzigers in cleaning tables in the dissecting room. The people who used this soap assured me that this was the best soap for this object."
I submit semi-manufactured soap and completely manufactured soap. This is a small piece of ready soap. When this remains in your possession a few months it reminds you of quite ordinary household soap. already completely achieved. As that concerns skin, the skin completely manufactured is the one on the left side of the tablet. One can consider that as far as the industrial fabrication of soap is concerned, experiments in the Danzig laboratory as to the fabrication of skin being carried out, and the extraordinary advance of the Red Army put an end to this crime of the Nazis. war crimes against inhabitants of citizens of the USSR. Besides, certain witnesses will arrive here from the Soviet Union concerning the counts which I have treated. I will beg the permission of the Tribunal to examine these witnesses when further statements will be made by our prosecution. Before submitting a last proof, I beg the Tribunal to allow me to make a few-conclusive remarks which will take only a few minutes. occupied territories of the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Greece cannot be exhausted in one vast statement.
One can only choose a few very typical cases of cruel, base, and systematic methods adopted by the main criminals who had conceived these crimes, as well as those who carried out these crimes. Those who are now on the Defendants' bench freed the chimera which they called conscience of hundreds and thousands and millions of criminals. They educated these criminals and created for them an atmosphere of impunity, and drove their bloodthirsty hounds against peaceful citizens. These mocked the conscience and dignity of man. who were torn to shreds, those whose bodies were burned in the ovens of crematoriums and whose ashes were blown to the winds, appeal to the conscience of the world. We cannot now name, only number, the places where millions were vilely murdered, but on the damp walls of the gas chambers, in the shooting places, in the throes of death, in the stone grounds of the prisons we can now still read the short notes of the condemned people who called for retribution, and feel deep sorrow. And let the live ones remember these voices of the victims of German-Fascist terror, who inscribed on the walls, who appealed before their death for justice and for retribution. As a last proof I submit to the Tribunal the commentary and the sworn affidavit of the documentary film. I beg the Tribunal to accept this documentary film as proof of evidence. I also beg the Tribunal to allow, if possible, a short recess; about ten minutes.
(A recess was taken.)
COLONEL SMIRNOV: May I have your permission to now present documentary evidence?
(The film entitled, "The Atrocities by the German Fascist Aggressors," presented by the Soviet Union, was shown.)
THE PRESIDENT: Have you finished your address?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: I have finished the presentation of my evidence.
THE PRESIDENT: Can you inform the Tribunal how much longer the Soviet Delegation is likely to be?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: The Soviet Prosecution as a whole?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: I am afraid I cannot give you the exact information on it. I will ask my colleague, General Rudenko.
GENERAL RUDENKO: Tomorrow we shall begin the presentation of evidence on spoliation and pillage of communal and prvate property, and we think that the Prosecutor presenting this part of the question will finish or conclude it tomorrow. destruction of cities, villages, monuments of natural culture, and art. That will take approximately a day and a half. In other words I mean a full session, a full day of the session on Thursday and a half of a day on the next day. During the presentation of this evidence we will have to present also the documentary film. This section will take approximately three to four hours. The final section will be Crimes against Humanity, and during the presentation of the evidence in all the sections, with the permission of the Tribunal, we shall call several witnesses. because it has connected with it difficulties of bringing the witnesses here in Nurnberg. This list will be formulated tomorrow towards the end of the session. Altogether, as a resume, I consider that the entire presentation will conclude either Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 20 February, 1946, at 10.
00 hours.)
GENERAL RUDENKO: Mr. President, with the permission of the Tribunal, proofs regarding the count "Despoliation and Plunder of Private, Public and National Property" will be presented by the State Councillor of Justice, Second Class, L. R. Sheynin.
R. L. R. SHEYNIN: May it please your Honors: predatory motives of the Hitlerite aggression and of the monstrous plunder of the peoples of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece and the USSR. on other European countries, was planned and prepared beforehand by the criminal Hitlerite Government.
I will submit to the Tribunal a number of the conspirators' original documents and their own statements and speeches, which, in the aggregate, will prove that the despoliation and plunder of private, public and national property in the occupied territories was also premeditated, planned and prepared on a large scale, and that, thus, simultaneously with the development in advance of purely military and strategic plans of attack, the Hitlerites, in cold blood, with the deliverateness of professional robbers and murderers, also developed and prepared beforehand the plan of organized plunder and marauding, having minutely and accurately calculated their future profits, their criminal gains, their thugs' spoils. committed by the Hitlerites on the territory of the Czechoslovakian Republic, the first victim of German aggression, has already been submitted to the Tribunal as exhibit USSR-60.
an article by Ley, published on 30 January 1940 in the "Angriff". I quote;
"It is our destiny to belong to a race of high standing.
food and less culture than a race of high standing." the fact that the Hitlerite conspirators subjected all territories occupied by them to unrestrained plunder, which was varied in form and method and yet identical in its devastating results.
The Czechoslovakian Government's report contains a large number of examples concerning respective counts of the Indictment. Russian translation, first paragraph:
"The German plan of campaign against Czechoslovakia was aimed not only against the Republic as a political and military unit, but against the very existence of the Czechoslovak people, who were to be robbed not only of all political rights and cultured life, but of their wealth and their financial and industrial resources.
"Immediate Plunder.
"After Munich.
"Immediately after Munich the Germans seized all the industrial and commercial concerns belonging to the Czechs and Jews in the ceded areas of the Republic, all without compensation. Czechs and Jews were robbed of all house property, all business and factory premises, usually by violence and often with bloodshed." he had just seized. I shall read into the record sub-paragraph "b" of this section entitled:
"After the Invasion of March 15th, 1939". The Tribunal will find this excerpt on page 3 and 4 of the document book. I quote:
"HITLER entered Prague at nightfall on March 15, 1939, and spent the night there in the famous castle of Hradcany. Early next day he left, but he took with him a number of valuable tapestries.
We mention this robbery not owing to the value of those gobelins, but as an example set by the head of the Party and the German State on the very first day of invasion.
"The German troops who invaded Prague brought with them a German staff of economic experts, i.e., of experts in economic looting.
"Everything that could be of some value to Germany was taken, especially considerable stocks of raw materials, vast stocks of cooper, tin, iron, cotton, wool, great stocks of food, etc.
"Rolling stock, carriages, trucks, engines and so on were taken by the Reich. All the rails in the Protectorate which were in good condition were taken up and sent to Germany, and they were afterwards replaced by old rails brought from Germany. New trolley-busses which were on order for the Prague Municipal Tramways and had just been completed were deflected from their purpose and sent to the Reich.
"The vessels belonging to the Czechoslovak Danube Steam Navigation Company (the majority of shares belong to the Czechoslovak State) were divided between the Reich and Hungary.
"Valuable objects of art and furniture disappeared from public buildings, without even an attempt at a legal justification of this robbery; pictures, statues, tapestries were taken to Germany. The Czech National Museum, the Modern Art Gallery, and public and private collections were plundered.
"The Reich German Commissar of the Czechoslovak National Bank stopped all payments of currency abroad and seized all the gold stock and foreign bills in the Protectorate. Thus the Germans took 23,000 kilogrammes of gold of a nominal value of 737,000 million crowns (15,265,000) by transferring the gold deposited in the Bank of International Settlement to the Reichsbank." called economic Germanisation. I submit to the Tribunal, as proof of these crimes, the following excerpts from the official Czechoslovakian report. This excerpt will be found on page 4 and 5 of the document book.
"Economic Germanization. "A. Rural Expropriation. After Munich "In the areas occupied by the German army at the beginning of October 1938 Germany began to settle her nationals on all farms whose Czech or Jewish occupant had fled for political or racial reasons.
"The Czechoslovak Land Reform Act of 1919, in so far as it benefited Czech nationals, was declared invalid; Czech settlers were expelled from their estates and compelled to relinquish their cattle, agricultural implements, and furniture On paper the Czech settlers were compensated; in fact they were charged taxes and sums to cover the so-called deliberate damage they were waid to have caused by escaping.
These taxes and sums more than balanced the compensation. public became automatically Reich property and come under the jurisdiction of the Reich Ministries concerned." representatives of the Czechoslovak Republic in state-owned plants. "Aryanisation". body called "Deutsche Siedlungagesellschaft" (German Settlement Society), located in Prague. prices. pauperising as many well-to-do Czechs as possible. Here too, their aim was twofold: to get hold of on one side, as much food-stuff as they could and to Germanize as much as possible. whole agricultural districts were cleared of Czechs in this way. The agricultural co-operatives charged with the control of production were transformed into compulsory organizations and were progressively Germanized. ducts of the soil. Heavy fines and often even the death penalty were imposed on Czech peasants for intentionally disregarding the orders about production, delivery and rationing.
B. Expropriation of Banks and Holdings. banks, which often own or control the majority of shares. By getting control of the banks, the Nazis got control of industry. Bank took over the branches of Prague banks, situated in the ceded territory. Thus the Dresdner Bank took over, among others, 32 branches of the Bohemian Discount Bank; and the Deutsche Bank, among others, 25 branches of the Bohemian Union Bank. Branch Banks they endeavoured to gain influence also upon the Prague Headquarters of these respective banks.
The Czechoslovak banks were joint stock companies. Every Joint Stock Company even with only one Jewish director was considered to be Jewish. Thus non-Jewish property was taken over as well. of Aryanisation, the property of the Bank of Dresden; the German bank took over, among others, the Union Bank of Bohemia. In this way all financial interests which these banks had in Czech industry, as well as their entire share-capital, fell into German hands.
the Czech banks, their expropriation and incorporation into the German bank system. The "Dresdner Bank" (being the actual establishment for handling the funds of the National Socialist Party) and the "Deutsche Bank" were officially entrusted with the task of expropriating the funds belonging to the Czechoslovak Banking concerns.
By diverse so-called "transactions," by gaining influence through the Sudeten Branch Banks upon the Prague Headquarters of the respective banks, by reducing the share capital and then increasing it with German help, by acquisition of industrial holdings and thus gaining influence upon the controlling banks, by depriving banks of their industrial interest, etc., the two Berlin banks gained complete control over the banks of the Protectorate. Gestapo terror helped them, count entitled, "Destruction of National Industry." compulsory organization of the Czech industry of the Protectorate. manufacturing groups, putting at least one Nazi on each of them, either as chairman or vice-chairman or quite innocently as an ordinary member. However, practically all the Czech members remained mere lay figures. Armament Factories: The Dresdner Bank acquired the most important armament factories of Czechoslovakia, i.e., the Skoda Works in Pilsen and the Czechoslovak Zbrojovka in Brno. The private share-holders were forced to surrender their shares far below their actual value: the bank paid for these shares with bank notes which had been withdrawn from circulation, or which the Germans had confiscated in the districts ceded by the Munich agreement. The Hermann Goering Concern. over industry, through the big Berlin banks, was accomplished through the gigantic Hermann Goering concern which, one by one, seized the greatest Czechoslovak industries at the smallest financial cost, that is to say, by the chief pretext of Aryanization, by pressure from the Reich, by financial measure, and by the threat of Gestapo and concentration camps.
coal and iron industry fell into German hands. The great chemical industry was absorbed by the German concern, I. G. Farben Industrie. the light industry and pass on to the next count entitled "Financial Spoliation." accordance with the Munich agreement, the Germans refused to take over part of the Czechoslovak State Debt, although they acquired very valuable State property in the districts taken away from Czechoslovakia. One thousand, six hundred million crowns worth of State obligations of low denominations have been in circulation in the ceded territory. The Germans enforced the right for themselves to use these obligations in Czechoslovakia as legal tender. the many measures of spoliation regarding the financial husbandry of the Czechoslovak Republic. I will not quote excerpts from this count, and will only quote a few results stated by the Czechoslovak National Bank. I wish to state that the Czechoslovak National Bank wrote down to its credit all those sums which the Germans had to return in payment of all goods bought. figures for "other assets" in millions of crowns.
I now quote an excerpt from the count entitled, "Taxes."