C. Confiscations: plundering Yugoslavia. confiscation was announced by the Germans on the front line. Pursuant to this decree the Germans confiscated enormous quantities of agricultural products, raw materials, semi-manufactured and other goods. as USSR, Exhibit 206. authorities introduced, through other decrees, the system of confiscation of private and public property, a system which applied to all parts of the country without distinction. examples of confiscation of property of the Yugoslav population, and pass on to the next count, which is entitled "Other Methods of Plunder." forms through various decrees and laws, the most varied forms of ruthless looting took place on the Yugoslav State territory. They were not sporadic incidents, but constituted a part of the German system for the enslavement and exploitation of the occupied territories. and complete economic undertakings, down to cattle, food, and the simplest things of a personal character I will cite a few examples:
1. Immediately after their entry into Yugoslavia, the Germans looted, systematically, all of the bigger firms and storehouses. They used to engage in this from of looting particularly at night, after the so-called curfew hours.
2. The order of Major General Kuebler, which has already been submitted to the Tribunal as USSR Document 132, contains the following passage:
"The troops should treat the population which maintains an unfriendly attitude toward the forces of occupation in a ruthless and brutally stern manner, depriving the enemy of every possibility to maintain life by destroying abandoned localities and by seizing all stocks." the country under the pretext of so-called control over existing stocks, as well as of the destruction of so-called abandoned territories.
3. Punitive expeditions, which became an everyday event during the whole period of occupation, mercilessly looted the property of the victims. In this same way they plundered the prisoners and killed soldiers of the National Army, as well as the hundreds of thousands of internees of the concentration camps.
4. Not even churches were spared. Thus, for example, the German unit "Konrad Einheit", which operated in the vicinity of Sibenik, looted the Church of St. Ivan in Zablac.
Similar examples are numerous. Throughout the four years of occupation, all Yugoslav regions were systematically looted. This was carried out either through numerous so-called legal measures, or through mass looting on the part of the Germans. The Nazi occupation forces gave proof of great imagination and utilized the experience which they had gained in other occupied countries to apply it to Yugoslavia. one can consider it simply an economic destruction of the country. private property in Yugoslavia was also conducted by the Hitlerites according to a plan conceived beforehand, that it affected all classes of the population and all branches of the country's economy, and caused enormous material losses to the Yugoslav State and to its citizens.
THE PRESIDENT: I believe this would be a convenient time to recess.
(A recess was taken).
MR. SHEYNIN: The plunder of Greece. After the invasion of Greece, the Hitlerite conspirators, following their policy of merciless despoliation of the occupied countries, began to plunder her national property. The official report of the Greek Government on the crimes committed by the Hitlerites has already been submitted to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit 258.
In the part of this report entitled "Exploitation", complete facts are quoted. I quote the following excerpts from the part "Exploitation" taken from the report of the Greek Government, which will be found on page 59 of the document book.
"Owing to her geographical position, Greece was used by the Germans as a base of operations for the war in North Africa. They also used Greece as a place of rest for thousands of their troops from the North African and Eastern fronts. Thus, they concentrated in Greece much larger forces than were actually required for purposes of occupation. Large amounts of local supplies of fruit, vegetables, potatoes, olive oil, meat and dairy products were taken for the needs of these forces. As current production was not sufficient for these needs, requisitioning of livestock was extensively resorted to, with the result that the country's livestock was seriously depleted in numbers," Hitlerite conspirators exacted enormous sums of money from Greece to cover the so-called cost of occupation. In the report of the Greek Government, the following remark is made on the subject:
This is on page 69 in the document book. I read:
"Between August 1941 and December 1941 the Germans were paid the sum of 26, 206, 085, 000 drachmas, that is, 60 per cent over and above the estimated national income during the same period. In fact, according to the estimates of two Axis experts, Dr. Barberine form Germany and Dr. Bertoni, an Italian, the national income of that year amounted to only 23,000,000,000 drachmas. In the following year, as the national income decreased, they extracted sums at the expense of the national capital."
were the so-called requisitions and confiscations. In order to save time, I shall, with the permission of the Tribunal, merely read into the record a brief excerpt from the Greek report dealing with this question. I quotes:
"One of the enemy's first measures on occupying Greece was to lay hands on all the stocks existing in the country by requisition or direct confiscation. Among other things, then requisitioned from the whole scale and retail trade 71,000 tons of currants and 10,000 tons of olive oil; they confiscated 1,435 tons of coffee, 1,143 tons of sugar, 2,520 tons of rice, and a whole shipload of wheat at the Piraeus of the value of $530,000."
The country was divided among three occupying powers. The Hitlerites blockaded the part of Greece which was occupied by their own troops, forbidding the export of supplies from that zone. The Hitlerites began to confiscate all supplies of food and other goods, a measure which resulted in severe depopulation and starvation of the population. The result of this plunder was so destructive for the Greeks that in the final analysis even the Germans themselves were forced to recognize that they had gone too far.
This was concretely expressed by the fact that towards the end of the year 1942 the German authorities promised the International Commission of the Red Gross that they would return to the population all the local produces confiscated by the armies of occupation and exported by them. The Germans also undertook to import products of the same calorific value. However, the pledge was not fulfilled. and put in circulation an unlimited amount of currency. It should be noted that this currency represented the so-called occupation marks without any security to back it at all. I quote an excerpt from this report, which the members of the Tribunal will find on page 63 in the document book. I read.
"The Germans, from the beginning, put into circulation 10 billion occupation marks, a sum equal to half the money in circulation at that date. By April 1944 the monetary circulation had reached 14,000,000 drachmas, that is it had increased 700 times since the start of the occupation." bought up all goods at prices fixed before the occupation. All goods, as well as valuables, articles of gold, furniture, and sc forth, were shipped by the Germans to Germany. into operation in Greece also the so-called system of clearing. under this system, all goods earmarked for export were first confiscated or put under embargo by the military authorities, Then they were "bought up" by German firms at arbitrarily fixed prices. The price of the goods established in such a one-sided way was then credited to Greece. The prices for merchandise imported from Germany were fixed at from 200 to 500 per cent higher than their normal value. Finally, Greece was also debited with the price of merchandize imported from Germany for the needs of the occupation forces.
The Germans called this plundering, "clearing." which the members of the Tribunal will find on page 64 of the document book. I read.
"In consequence notwithstanding the fact that Greece exported the whole of her available resources to Germany, the clearing account showed a credit balance in favor of Germany of 264,157,574,030 marks when the Germans left, while the credit balance in favor of Greece at the moment of their arrival stood at 4,353,428,000 marks." Hitlerites plundered the Greek people. Plunder and Pillage of Private, Public and State Property in the USSR.
May it please your Honors. I pass on to the statement of the facts of the monstrous plunder and pillage to where the private, public and State property was subjected by the Hitlerite usurpers in the temporally occupied territories of the Soviet Union. The indisputable original documents which I shall have the honor to present for your consideration, your Honors, will prove that the Fascist conspirators, long before their attack a the USSR, had conceived and prepared their criminal plans for the plunder and spoliation of the riches and of its national wealth. occupied by them, the plunder and pillage of these territories were planned and organized beforehand by the major war criminals whom the will and the valor of the Allied Nations have placed in the dock. carried out the conspirators' criminal plans over wide areas of the Soviet land, on the fertile sleppes of the Ukraine, in the fields and forests of Byelorussia, in the rich cornfields of the Kuban and the Don, in the snowy expanses of the North, in the blossoming gardens of the Crimea, in the approaches to Leningrad and to the Soviet Baltic States, all these monstrous crimes, all this mass plunder, general and wholesale pillage of the sacred wealth created by the peaceful and noble labor of the Soviet peoples, Russian, Ukranian, Byelorussian and others, all these crimes, unprecedented for their scale and for the heavy consequences, were directly planned, designed, prepared and organized by the criminal Hitlerite Government and the Supreme Command of the German Army--the major war criminals, now occupying the dock.
crimes competed on the USSR territory. I shall prove that the mass and wholesale plunder and pillage of private, public and State property by the German Fascist usurpers were not a chance instance, not a local occurrences that they did not happen as the result of the disintegration and *rauding of individual army units or groups, but, on the contrary formed an essential and indissoluble part of the general plan of *---* on the USSR, and, moreover, The fundamental purpose, the *---* motive power of this criminal plan, of this criminal aggression. connected with the preparations for this category of crimes, I am obliged to refer also to several of the documents already submitted to the Tribunal by my American colleagues. I shall endeavour, however, to avoid repetitions and will mainly quote such extracts from these documents as have not been previously rend, into the record.
"Barbarossa", which provided for e sum total of strategic questions connected with the attack on the USSR, purely economic problems arising from this plan were also elaborated.
In the document known under the title "Conference of 29 April 1941 with Branches of the Armed Forces" and presented to the Tribunal by the American prosecution on the 10th December as Document USA-141, we read:
"The purpose of this conference was to discuss the administrative structure of the Oldenburg economic sector of the case Barbarossa".Further on in this document, it is indicated that the "Fuehrer, contrary to previous practice in the preparation of a given measure, ordered that all economic questions were to be worked out by one center and that such a center is to be "The Special Purpose Economic Staff "Oldenburg" under the direction of Lt-General Schubert', and that this staff is to be subordinated to the Reich Marshal, i.e. to Goering."
of all the activity in preparation for plundering the USSR. is already made in it for the organization of special economic inspectorates and commands at Leningrad, Murmansk, Riga, Minsk, Moscow, Tula, Gorki, Kiev, Baku, Yaroslavl and many other Soviet industrial towns. as is pointed out in the document; "the economic utilization of a given territory" i.e., as is explained below, "all questions of food supply and rural economy, industrial economy, including raw materials and manufacturing equipment, as well as the questions of forest economy, finance and banking, trophies, commerce and trade and man power." rily concrete.
The plan "Barbarossa-Oldenbu. received its further development in the so-called "Deceives for management of economy in the newly occupied Eastern territories" (The Gruen File), when were also elaborated and secretly issued before the attack on the USSR. But before passing on to the "Gruen File", I would like to present to the Tribunal and read out in part another document - the so-called "File of the District Agricultural Leader", which was submitted to the Tribunal by my colleague Colonel Smirnov as USSR Exhibit 89.
This very detailed instruction for future "district agricultural leaders" which was also worked out and published in advance, was called, "File of the district agricultural leader" and was dated 1st June 1941. Naturally this file too is marked "top secret - secred command matter."
This instruction begins "The 12 Commandments for the Behavior of Germans in the East and Their Attitude Towards Russians". My colleague, Colonel Smirnov, road into the record only one of those commandments, and I, with the Tribunal's permission, will read into the record the other commandments. The first "commandment" states:
"For you workers who are sent to the East, it is imperative to understand that the work must be the deciding factor.
Therefore, I demand of you constant and diligent work."
What sort of "work" is meant is clearly shown by the following "commandments". I quote extracts from this document:
"The more tenacious you will be, the more ingenious will be your methods for achieving this purpose.
The choice of methods will be left to the discretion of everyone of us (5th Commandment) "In view of the fact that the newly incorporated territories must will depend on how you will establish yourself there.
You must demanded of you by the State.
Lack of character in individuals is a definite reason far removing then from their work.
He, who responsible position in the limits of the Reich proper.
(6th Commandment). In this way, the future "agricultural fuehrers" were not only given instructions as to the necessity for being cruel and merciless in the plundering activities they had to carry out, but were also warned directly of what would happen to them if they were not cruel enough, or if they showed "lack of character".The following "commandments" develop the same idea:
"Do not ask: what use I can derive from this peasantry, only ask;
how useful can this be for Germany?" (7th Commandment) "Do not talk - act:
You can never talk a Russian round or per suade him with words.
He can talk better than you do. For he is a born 'speaker'!" (8th Commandment) "Only your will must decide, but this will must be directed to the execution of great tasks.
Only in this case will it be moral even in its cruelty.
Keep away from the Russians - they are not Germans, they are Slavs."
(8th Commandment) "We do not wish to turn the Russians to the path of National Social ism; we only wish to make them a tool in our hands.
You must con quer the youth of Russia by pointing out their task to them.
You should they sabotage."
"The selection of applications will merely consume your time, which is essentially needed for the execution of your German tasks.
You are neither investigating magistrates nor yet the Wailing Wall."
(9th Commandment)
"...His (Russian) stomach is extensible therefore - no false pity for him!" (11th Commandment) Such were these commandments for "agricultural fuehrers", which one should - to be more exact - call "commandments for cannibals."
The "file" begins with these "commandments", which are followed by an already completely concrete program for the plundering of USSR agriculture, worked out in detail.
At the beginning of this program we read:
"Fundamental economic and political directives for the organisa tion of economy in the Fast" (Agricultural Economic Group) "The feeding and political purpose of this campaign is:
1. The guaranteeing of food for many years ahead to the German Armed Forces and to the German civilian population."
the aims of the attack on the USSR is given. Of course, it does not exhaust these aims. This aim did not consist of the pillage of provisions alone and this pillage was far from being limited to provisions alone. But this is only an extract from the "file of the agricultural fuehrer", and it was not they alone who received and carried out tasks of pillage.
Altogether, the "file" contins the following sections of a carefully thought out and extremely concrete program for the plunder of the Soviet Union's agriculture. I read the table of contents. Your Honors wall find this document on page 68 of the document book.
"1. 12 Commandments 2. Main Agricultural directives.
3. Organization chart.
4. Instructions for the regional agricultural leader 5. Instructions on securing personnel.
6. State Farms: Directives on taking over and managing of "7. Directives for taking over and managing collective farms.
"8. Agricultural machine depots, directives about the administration.
"9. Directives for bookkeeping.
"10. Furnishing food supplies for the cities.
"11. Schedules of agricultural work.
"12. Price lists." document, consisting of 98 typewritten pages. It has been already presented in full to the Tribunal to be included in the record of the trial. document, consisting of 98 typewritten pages. I present it to the Tribunal in its entirety, for adding to the materials of the trial, as one of numerous proofs of the despoliation and plunder of private, public and state property, prepared and organized by the major War Criminals on the territory of the USSR. colleagues on the 10th December of last year as USA 147, I shall read only a few short lines. This document is a note of the record of a speech by Rosenberg at a secret conference on the 20th June 1941, dealing with "Questions of the East."
In his speech, Rosenberg stated particularly:
"... In these years the German national feeding problem undeniably situation.
We certainly do not consider ourselves obliged, in these fertile regions, to feed the Russian people as well.
We know that this is a cruel necessity, far beyond all humane feelings.
It will the Russians are fated to live through some very hard years."
set themselves when preparing the attack on the Soviet Union. who had just arrived from Hitler's headquarters spoke at the conference in Rovno. The record of this conference was found in Rosenberg's archives. This document was given to us by our American colleagues. It isregistered as 264-PS, but it has not been presented to the Tribunal, and I present it as USSR Exhibit No. 284.
I read into the record an excerpt from this record. The members of the Tribunal will find it on page 74 in the document book. I read:
"He (Koch) explained the political situation and his tasks as Reichskommissar" by the following:
A free Ukraine does not exist.
It must be our goal to have the Ukrainians work for Germany, and not to make the people here happy.
The Ukraine will have to deliver what Germany is lacking.
This task will "...The Fuehrer has ordered 3 million tens of grain from the Ukraine for the Reich, and they have to be delivered.
.." of grain - was exceeded by the Hitlerite plunderers, whose avid appetites grew from month to month. the criminal Hitlerite government, theorganisational plan of the special machinery for carrying out organised plunder being worked cut, and concrete methods for pillaging the occupied territories being planned.
(Green File)
With the Tribunal's permission, I shall read extracts from a secret document, from Reichsmarshall Goering, which was captured by units of the Red Army. This document bears the title: "Directives for the direction of economy" ("Green file") and parts of it have already been mentioned by my American colleagues. This document is presented by the Strict Prosecution as USSR-10.
On the title page of this document it says, Page 76 of the document book:
Documents (Documents of State Importance) until X-day; after X-day they Part I. Economic tasks and organization.
Berlin, June 1941.
Printed by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces."
As is clear from the text of the document, these "directives" were given out directly before Germany's attack on the USSR and were intended "for the orientation of the military command and the war-economy authorities in the sphere of economic tasks in the Eastern territories about to be occupied."
In setting forth the "main economic tasks", the "directives" state in their first paragraphs:
"1. According to the Fuehrer's order, it is essential to adopt the interests of Germany, of the Occupied Territories.
Any measure "2. The exploitation of the occupied regions should, primararily, provisions.
To obtain the greatest possible quantity of food and crude technically possible, in order to safeguard trade in these regions."
the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 78:
"The idea that order should be restored in the Occupied Territories and their economic life re-established as soon as possible is entirely out of place. On the contrary, our attitude towards different parts of the country should vary very greatly. Order should only be restored in such regions where we can obtain considerable reserves of agricultural products or of crude oil."
Soviet Union provided in detail for the removal from the USSR to Germany of all raw materials all stocks and stores of goods found, and also for the general plundering of the civilian population. I cite for this contention excerpts from this document, so that I shall not have to read the whole document in full. The members of the Tribunal will find the excerpts on page 83 of the document book.
"All raw material essential to us, all semi-manufactured and finished products should be with drawn from commerce by means of orders, requisitions and confiscations."
Page 88:
"The immediate collection and transportation to Germany of platinum, magnesium and rubber. From the section 'Raw Material and the Exploitation of Commercial Resources'.)
Page 87, reverse side:
"Food products Discovered in the combat and rear zones, as well as the products for personal use and clothing are of the utmost importance in the administration of the military and economic department."
Page 83 reverse side:
In the section of the Directives entitled "The Organization of Economy" we find a specially formed apparatus with wide ramifications which was to carry out this organized plunder of the USSR. I shall read a series of excerpts from this section. The members of the Tribunal will find it on page 79 of the document book.
"A. General questions. activities, as well as in the administrative areas which shall be established, the Reichsmarshal has organized:
"An Eastern Staff for Economic Leadership; subordinated directly to him, and headed by a Representative of Reichsmarshal State-Secretary Koerner...".
Second excerpt:
"The orders of the Reichsmarshal concern all economic spheres, including food supply and rural economy."
it definitively established that the defendant Goering was not only personally at the head of the preparations for the plunder of private, public and state property, but later on directly led the vast apparatus specially formed for these criminal purposes. by the following extracts from the "Green File". I reads "Organization of Economic Administration:
"B. Theater of Military Activities.
1. The military and economic establishments of the Eastern Economic Staff, in so far as their activities cover the theater of military activities are incorporated in the Army Staffs...
a/ In the rear of the Army Groups:
b/ In the rear of the Army:
One Economic Section apiece (or one signal Service liaison officer from the Administrative Department in charge of Economy and Armaments).of the Region; in addition as and when necessary, Economic Commands concerned, to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army."
Further on, in paragraph 4 of this some section, under the title "Structure of the Individual Economic Institutions", the whole plan of construction of the Eastern Economic Staff is cited as follows. I shall cite it in my own words in order to save time. The members of the Tribunal will find the document to which I refer on Page 79 reverse side, in the document book: Chief of the economic staff with the leadership group; group La, in charge of industrial supplies and agriculture, running "the whole of agricultural production and also the supply of provisions for the army.";
banking economy, property and trade;
Group in charge of armaments industry economy and, transport economy;
"Economic inspectorates" attached to army groups, directing the "economic exploitation of the rear area";
"Economic commands", organized "in the zone of each security division", consistent of special officers and some specialists in the different fields of the work and also with special subdivisions" for the maintenance of the means of production "and for the "conservation of raw materials".
"Economic groups attached to the field commands", among whose duties is "The supply of the current needs of the troops stationed within the sphere of activity of the field command and also the preparation of the economic exploitation of the country in the interests of war economy". To these economic groups were attached specialists in the exploitation of labour, in food production and agriculture, industrial economy and general economic questions;
"Economic detachments", attached to the Supreme Commando of the Army, with special technical battalions and platoons, and also special "intelligence subdivisions for industrial economy, particularly for raw materials and mineral oil, and subdivision for discovering and guarding agricultural produce and machiner, including tractors". divisions for mineral oil - battalions and platoons - and also so-called companies for mining industry. plunderers of all ranks and specialities was provided for, prepared, trained and drilled in advance for the organized pillage and looting of the USSR's national property. "Green File". I shall limit myself to enumerating its remaining sections, which hear the following titles: Page 77 in the document book:
"Carrying out of individual economic tasks."
"Economic transport."
"Problems of military protection of economy."
"Procurement of supplies for the troops out of the resources of "Utilization of man power, particularly of the local population."
"Trophies of war, paid labor; captured material; prize courts."
"Economic objectives of war industries."
"Raw materials and utilization of goods available."
"Finance and credit."
"Foreign trade end clearings."
"Price control."
Thus the plunder of absolutely every branch of the USSR's national economy was provided for.
To conclude, I will read into the record Keitel's order, dated the 16 June 1941, in which, six days before the attack on the USSR, he ordered all military units of the German army to be ready to execute all the directives of the "Green File."
I will now read this order: You will find this, Your Honors, on page 89, the reverse side.
"By direction of the Fuehrer the Reichsmarshal has issued the "Directives" for the Administration of Economy" for the territories to be occupied.
"These directives were intended for the guidance of the military command and economic agencies concerning the economic tasks within the Eastern territories to be occupied. They contain direction on how the resources of the country should be exploited for the supply of the Army, and order Army units to assist the economic agencies. Army units will comply with these directions and orders.
"The immediate and full exploitation of the occupied territories in the interest of Germany's war economy, especially in the field of food and fuel supply, is of extreme importance for the further conduct of the war."
For this purpose it is require:
1. That the discovered supplies of food, raw materials and fuel be used by the Army only in case it is required by the military situation and the execution of military tasks. Truck tractors must not be taken away from the tractor-stations and the supplies of oil, discovered there, must not be used.
2. That the supplies not used by the Army, be protected from theft and purposeless disposition prior to their removal.
3. That the economic agencies, created by the Economy and Armaments Administration in the zone of operations have effective aid from all Army units and military establishments. Provided the military situation permits the demands of the economic agencies should be met as far as possible with respect to:
a) the supplying of guards for large warehouses and industries (oil and ethers).
b) the procurement of labor, horse-drawn vehicles and trucks, and, if need be, also fuel for the transportation of grain to large elevators.
c) the provision of available transportation facilities for the shipment to Germany of all goods in short supply.
how the directives of the "Green File" should be executed, and I read only the last paragraph of the order:
"With the help of the field and local headquarters, set up in the most important agricultural and oil bearing districts, the exploitation of the country must be carried out on a wide scale.
Keitel."
The final sentence of this document, which says that "the exploitation of the country must be carried out on a wide scale", was taken up by units pf the German army for carrying it out, and the occupied regions of the USSR were, from the very first days of the war, subjected to the moat merciless plunder.