2. For this purpose he is also authorised to give direct orders to military authorities in the nearly occupied eastern territories. 3. The present decree will become effective as from today. It will be made public by special order as on 29 June 1941." in any way, mean that the other Defendants took part only passively in the organization of the plunder of the occupied territories. All of then, jointly and severally, feverishly worked to attain these aims. Frank robbed the Polish people; Rosenberg managed things in the Ukraine and in the other occupied territories of the USSR, Sauckel and Seyss-Inquart were busy here and there; Speer and Funk made schemes for and carried out the predatory measures within the fields of the Ministries of Economics, and Keitel within the field of the armed forces. more documents relating to Keitel's economic activity. These documents, your Honor in the original are being presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit USSR-175.
On 29 August 1942, Keitel, in his capacity of Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, issued the following order under No. 002865/42-CC regarding procurement of supplies for the armed forces: I shall read only two short excerpts from this order. Your Honor will find that on page 181 in the document book. I read:
"The supply situation of the German people requires that the Armed Forces do everything possible in order to alleviate it.
The "As a first requirement, it must be stated that far more up to now."
The second excerpt:
"The attainment of this aim at whatever the cost, i.e., that also honorable duty of all the administrative departments."
In the memorandum of the section chiefs (Referenten) Klare and Dr. Dr. Bergmann, dated 19 November 1942, under the heading "Most Secret Subject; Procurement of Supplies for the Armed Forces", I submit this memorandum in the original to the Tribunal under the same number, USSR-175, and we come across the following examination of the results achieved by the above-mentioned order by Keitel. I now read into the record only the first paragraph of this memorandum. You will find, Your Honor, the document on page 186:
"By order of the Fuehrer, the Chief of Staff of the Armed of such supplies for the Reich.
As the result of this order the tunately become closer."
Now with Your Honor's permission, I will read into the record one more document, namely, the telegram by Keitel on 8 September 1944. I offer this document in evidence, produced by the American Prosecution as Exhibit PS-743. It was not presented to the Tribunal before, therefore I offer it as USSR No. 286, and I quote:
"1. To General Staff of the Army (attention Chief of Supply and Administration), Office of Chief of Staff.
"2. To General Staff of the Army (attention Chief of Supply and Administration), Army Administration Office.
"3. To Commanding General, Army Group North.
"4. To Commanding General, Army Group Center.
"5. To Economic Staff 'Ost.'
"6. To First Service Command."
I read this text as follows:
"1. The Fuehrer entrusted Gauleiter Koch with utilization of local resources in the parts of Reichkommissariat 'Ostland' occupied by troops of Army Group Center.
Furthermore, the Fuehrer has be subordinated to Gauleiter Koch.
In confiscating economic "2. All authorities of the Armed Forces will in every way possible assist Gauleiter Koch in executing this order."
the Red Army and its Allies Hitlerite Germany precipantly rushed forward to its final defeat and there remained only a few months before it entirely collapsed, both militarily and politically Hitler, Keitel, Koch, and many others continued to stretch out their rapidly stiffening fingers to grab other peoples property and riches. petrated by the Hitlerite hordes in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union. But they plundered not only the living, they also plundered the dead. My colleague, Colonel Smirnov, has already presented comprehensive evidence on this question. I do not wish to quote it again. I quote only to show how closely interlocked and all-embracing was the circle of their crimes.
the Soviet original to the Tribunal -- Hitler once said:
"I need people with strong fists who will not stop to think sion they swipe a watch or a jewel, I don't care a tinker's dam."
numerous accomplices. Among them, as proved by the documents I have presented, is the defendant Goering, because of the position he occupied in Hitler's government as Reichsmarshal and Plenipotentiary for the Four-Year Plan, and as head of the whole criminal system for the plundering of the occupied territories. of German administration (Reichskommissars) in occupied countries and districts, which took place 6 August 1942. Goering was presiding. This document, as many other original documents which I had already presented to the Tribunal, was found by Soviet Military authorities in the archives of Goering in September 1945, in the City of Vienna, which was hidden in one of the municipal buildings.
The contents of this extraordinary document, Goering's speech in detail, and the remarks of the Hitlerite masters of occupied countries, and among the members of the conference there were many of the people, who are sitting in the dock now, the contents are such that any commentary on my part is unnecessary. Therefore, if it please the Tribunal, I should proceed to read from this document:
"The conference took place on Thursday, 6 August, 1942, at 4 p.m. in the Hermann Goering Hall in the Air Ministry.
"Reichsmarshal Goering: Yesterday the Gauleiters expressed opinions hers. Although theremay have been variations in emphasis and demeanor, it was evident that they all feel that the German people have too little to eat. Gentlemen, the Fuehrer has given me general powers exceeding any hitherto granted within the Four-Year Plan."
(Second excerpt)
"Germany at present commands the richest granaries that ever existed in the European area, from the Atlantic ocean to the Volga and the Cauacasus, lands more highly developed and fruitful than ever before, even if there are certain countries included which cannot be regarded as graneries.
I need only refer to the fabulous fertility of the Netherlands, the unique paradise that is France; Belgium too f extraordinarily fruitful, an is also the province of Posen. Then, above all, what is to a large extent the storehouse of tye and other grains for Europe, the Government General, to which are attached such tremendously fruitful regions as Lemberg and Galacia, where the harvest is exceptionally good.
Then there comes Russia, the black earth of the Ukraine on either side of the Dnieper, the area of the Don, with its remarkably fertile and only slightly damaged districts. Our troops have now already occupied or are in the process of occupying the excessively fertile districts between the Don and the Caucasus.
"God knows, you are not sent out there to work for the welfare of the people in your charge, but to get the utmost out of them, so that the German people can live. That is what I expect of your exertions. This everlasting concern about foreign peoples must cease now, once and for all.
"I have here before me reports on what you are expected to deliver. It is nothing at all when I consider your territories. It makes no difference to me in this connection if you say that your people will starve.
"One thing I shall certainly do: I will make you come across with the deliveries with which you are entrusted and if you will not be able to meet my demands, then I will wake up some agencies that will get it out of you whether it suits you or not."
(Third excerpt)
"Before the gates of the Ruhr district lies the wealth of Holland. It could send many more vegetables into this stricken area now than it has. What the Dutchman think about it is all the same to me.
"In general in the occupied regions I am interested only in those people who work to provide armaments and food supplies. They must receive just enough to enable them to continue working. It is all one to me whether Dutchmen are Germanic or not. If they are, they are only all the greater blockheads, and it has already been demonstrated in the past by greater persons, how Germanic numskulls often have to be treated. Even if you are abused from every quarter, you will have acted rightly for it is the Reich alone that counts."
And now I come to the next excerpt:
"I am still discussing the western territories. Belgium has taken care of herself extraordinarily. That was very sensible of Belgium. But there, too, gentlemen rage incarnate could seize me. When every piece of ground in Belgium is planted with vegetables then they must surely have vegetable seed.
When last year we wanted to start a big campaign for utilizing barren land, we did not have nearly as much seed as was needed. It was delivered neither from Holland nor from Belgium nor from France, although I myself was able to count 170 sacks of vegetable seed on a single street in Paris. It is all very well that the French should plant vegetables for themselves, they are accustomed to doing this. But gentlemen, these people are all our enemies and by your humane measures you will win over none of them. The people are now polite toward us because they have to be polite. But let the English force their way in there and then you will see the real face of the Frenchman. The same Frenchmen who dines with you and in turn invites you to dine with him will quickly bring home to you that the Frenchman is a German-hater. That is the situation and we do not want to see it any other way except as it is.
"It is also a matter of indifference to me if the table of the Belgium king is set with so many courses every day. The king is a prisoner of war and if he is not treated according to the rules for prisoners of war, I will see to it that he is brought to a place where this is made clear to him. I am really fed up with the matter...
"I have forgotten one country because there is nothing to be obtained there except fish; that is Norway.
"I assert with regard to France, that it is still not cultivated to the utmost. France can be cultivated far differently if the peasants there are forced to work in a different manner. Secondly, right in France itself the population is gorging in such a way that it is a dirty shame.
"Besides, God have mercy if a German car stands outside a French tavern in Paris, it is reported. But that a whole row of French gasoline driven vehicles stands there doesn't bother anyone.
"I would say nothing at all, onthe contrary, I would think ill of you if we didn't have a fabulous restaurant in Paris where we can provide ourselves properly with the best food. But I do not want the French to be able to saunter into it. Maxim must have the best food for us."
Mr. President, I see one of the German Defense Counsel wishes the floor.
DR. THOMA (Counsel for Defendant Rosenberg): I only have a short question.
document book and what number it has. He only said on which page the Court can find that document.
COLONEL SHEYNIN: This document was presented to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit 170. The photostatic copy was turned over to Defense Counsel.
May I continue, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT: It comes from the archives of the defendant Geering, does it not? You have so stated.
COLONEL SHEYNIN: Yes.
"For German officers and men and not for French at all, there should be three or four first class restaurants. The French do not need this kind of food....
"Furthermore, you should be like bloodhounds on the track of anything that German people can still use; that stuff should be brought here out of the warehouses with lightning speed. Whenever I have issued a decree, I stated repeatedly soldiers may buy as much as they want to, whatever they want, whatever they can carry...
"Now you tell me -- Lavel's foreign policy. Herr Lavel calms down Herr Abbetz and for all I care Herr Lavel may enter Maxims, although it is off limits.
But the French soon will understand. They show an impudence of which you can have no idea.
"When our friends hear a German is interested they charge fantastic prices. They charge three times the normal price and if they hear that the Reichsmarshal is in the market, they charge five times the normal value. I wanted to buy a tapestry. Two million francs was asked forit. The woman was told that the buyer wanted to see the tapestry. She said she did not wish to let it out of her hands. Well, then she would have to travel there. She was told that she was going to see the Reichsmarshal. When she arrived the tapestry was priced at three million francs. I reported it to French courts. Do you think anything happened? I submitted the case to the French court and they taught the grand lady that such profiteering is not appropriate when dealing with me.....
"I am especially interested as to what we can squeeze out of the territory now under our control with the utmost application and by straining every effort, and how much of that can be channeled into Germany. I don't give a damn about import and export statistics of former years.
"Now, as for shipments to the Reich, last year France shipped 550,000 tons of grain, and now I demand 1,200,000 tons. Two weeks from now a plan will be submitted as to how it can be handled. There will be no more discussion about it. What happens to the Frenchmen does not make any difference to me. One million two hundred thousand tons will be delivered. Fodder last year was 550,000, now 1,000,000. Meat last year was 135,000, now 350,000. Fats last year were 23,000, this year 600,000." And so forth. in different countries, like the Netherlands and Belgium and the Government General. I omit one page and I go on to the next:
"Goering: How about fats?
"Neuhausen: I have supplied the Wehrmacht up to now. It has received 250,000 kilograms in the past year. I also supply Greece, and I have to supply the German troops in Croatia, too.
"Goering: What can you give to the German people, in spite of that? Fifteen thousand?
"Neuhausen: I shall get them out. As far as oil is concerned, I again give 25,000 to 30,000 tons of oil fruit to the Reich.
"Goering: In general, that takes care of the West. There will be special order issued concerning the purchasers who buy clothes, shoes, etc., everything there is.
"Now comes the question of the East. Here I agree with the Wehrmacht. The Wehrmacht renounces the requirements it ordered from the home country. What was it for hay?
"Backs: 1,500,000 tons, straw over onemillion, oats more than one and a half million tons. We can't deliver that.
"Goering: Now, gentlemen, only one thing has to be added to this discussion of supplying the Wehrmacht: until further notice, I do not want to hear anything from you, no requests. After all, the country here -- with its sour cream, apples and white bread -- will feed us richly. The Don District (Don-Bogen) will take care of the rest."
Skipping to the next remark:
"Berger: It is a matter of course that the Wehrmacht in France will be supplied with food by France. That is a matter of course, and I did not even mention it before.
"But now Russia: About her fertility there is no doubt. There the stand is inconceivably good."
In the next excerpt:
"I heard with pleasure that the Reich Commissioner in the East (Ostland) is enjoying just such a fat livelihood, and the people are just as rounded and fat of figure and suffer a slight asthma when they perform their work. Nevertheless, I shall see to it, in spite of the careful treatment which certain groups are to experience, that something can still be turned in from the inexhaustible fertility of this area."
After this Lohse addressed the conference:
"May I express briefly my opinion? I would like to give more but the necessary conditions must be created. The harvest was excellent indeed, but on the other hand in most of Byelo-Russia, where sowing had been done, I doubt if the crops could be harvested, unless the rampage of bandits and partisans is finally suppressed.
I have been shouting for help for four months already." Byelo-Russia. In connection with this Goering answers:
"My dear Lohse, we have known each other for a long time. I know well enough that you have a very good imagination. It is very good."
And Lohse answered: "I never imagined anything."
In conclusion I shall quote the last three quotations from Goering's speech:
"We must have a purchasing agent from the Ministry of Economics, Funk, in the Ukraine and elsewhere. We must send them to Venice where they can buy all sorts of trifles and the small articles of alabaster decoration, of low character, etc. I don't think that in any other place than Italy can get such junk. And now let's see what Russia can deliver. I think we must succeed in obtaining two million pounds of bread and food grain from the whole Russian area.
"Riecke: That will be obtained.
"Goering: We must therefore obtain three million, apart from the Services.
"Riecke: No, what is there is only for the Services.
"Goering: Then get two million.
"Riecke: No.
"Goering: Then a million and a half.
"Riecke: Yes, all right."
And that is the way the discussion of this question went on. Goering finished his address with the following sentence:
"Gentlemen, I would just like to say one thing further. I have a great deal to do and a great deal of responsibility. I have no time to read letters and memoranda, in which you inform me that you cannot supply what I have requested, but I have only time to ascertain from time to time through short reports from Backe whether the commitments are being kept. If not,then we will have to approach the matter from another angle." others -- by the Defendants Rosenberg, Sauckel, Seyss-Inquart, Frank and others. As you heard it, Goering finished his speech with a direct threat against the participants in this conference. "If not", he said, he would "have to approach the matter from another angle."
This threat came true. Now, as they deserved, they were forced"to approach it from another angle" -- from the angle of their responsibility for the crimes they have committed. establishes:
1. That the criminal Hitlerite Government and the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces simultaneously with the military aggression against Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and the USSR, an aggression which was prepared long in advance of its Commission, worked out ahead of time the plan of mass plunder and despoliation of private, public and State property in the territories of these countries.
2. That having worked out this criminal plan, the conspirators did carry out in advance all the preliminary measures for its execution -in that they trained a body of special officers and officials for the despoliation of territories, the seizure of which was intended, they prepared and issued special instructions, reference books and orders, and also created a special widely ramified organization of different economic inspectorates, detachments, groups, corporations, plenipotentiaries, etc., having called in a large number of different kinds of specialists, military agronomists, agricultural fuehrers, economic scouts etc.
3. That in accordance with this long prepared plan, they did subsequently commit monstrous plunder and despoliation of private, public and State property in the occupied territories, as well as wholesale robbery of the peaceful population of these territories, resorting thereby to atrocities, violence and arbitrary practices of an exceptional character.
4. That in order to make the soldiers and the officers of the German Army "economically interested" in the work, the conspirators did fail to prosecute cases of marauding and robbery committed by German soldiers and officers, but on the contrary did largely encourage these crimes and instigate their wholesale perpetration.
5. That by all these crimes the conspirators did cause enormous economic damage to the peoples of the occupied territories, dooming them to hunger and suffering, and used the results of their criminal activity for the personal gain and enrichment of themselves and their adherents.
6. That having thus planned, prepared and initiated aggressive wars against the freedom-loving nations the conspirators did peruse the aim of the predatory despoliation of these nations and thereafter accomplished these criminal aims by means of equally criminal and predatory methods. premeditation violated the Laws and the Customs of War, the General Principles of Criminal Law accepted by the Penal Codes of all civilized nations, as well as the national law of those countries in which these crimes were committed. 6B of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, all the Defendants must be found guilty, all of them without exception must be held responsible both individually and as members of the conspiracy. Tribunal and which I have read into the record are silent witnesses of crimes organized and committed by the Defendants.
silent witnesses who truthfully relate the story of the arbitrary practices and crimes of the Hitlerite brigands and the boundless sufferings of their innumerable victims.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 21 February 1946, at 1000 hours).
THE MARSHAL; May it please the Court, the defendant Hess will be
GENERAL RUDENKO: I would like to report, Mr. President, that in the Tribunal, and with the Tribunal's permission, we shall start to present
COLONEL RAGINSKY: May it please Your Honors, among the numerous and a special place.
In these crimes all the abomination and vandalism of mankind; and they removed this obstacle with the cruelty typical of them.
wars, prepared a campaign against world culture. They dreamt of putting Europe back to the time of the domination by the Huns and Teutons.
They ringleaders on this subject.
I shall only permit myself to refer to one pronouncement of Hitler's, quoted in Rauschning's book at page 80, which the Soviet prosecution has already presented to the Tribunal:
"We", said Hitler, "are barbarians, add we wish to be barbarians. That is an honorable title." evidence of how the defendants put into practice these orders of Hitler, which found concrete expression in the wrecking of cultural institutions, the looting and destruction of cultural treasures, and the cheking of the national cultural life of the peoples of the territories which were temporarily occupied by the German armies, the territories of the USSR, of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. and planned, in advance, the looting of cultural treasures, of how, long before the treacherous attack on the USSR, the so-called Einsatzstab Rosenberg prepared for pillage, of how the predatory activity of the defendant Rosenberg was coordinated with Goering, Heydrich, and the Supreme Command, and of how this pillage was disguised. the Hitlerites had recourse to camouflage their crimes. While exterminating millions of people in the extermination camps they had set up, they spoke, in their orders, of "filtration" and "cleaning out." While destroying and plundering cultural treasures, the fascist vandals hid behind the "collection of materials" and the "study of problems", and shamelessly called themselves the "bearers of culture". they seized into serfs without any rights, and, for this purpose, destroyed the national culture of these peoples. Germanization of the peoples followed the German occupation with the same criminal regularity as did pillage, rape, arson, and mass murders.
I omit, Mr. President, part 3 and part 4 of my presentation, and I pass to Section 2, at page 5 of my presentation. of the peoples of the occupied territories was an organic part of the general plan of the Hitlerite conspirators to set up world domination. It is difficult to determine which dominated in these plans, destruction or plunder.
But there is no doubt of the fact that both the plunder and the destruction were aimed at one goal, which was annihilation; and this annihilation was carried out everywhere, in all the territories occupied by the Germans and on a vast scale.
Article 56 of the Hague Convention laid down:
"The property of municipalities, that of institutions dedicated to religion, charity and education, the arts and sciences, even when it belongs to the State, shall be treated as private property. All seizure of, destruction or wilful damage done to institutions of this character, historic monuments, works of art and science, is forbidden and should be made the subject of legal proceedings." and demands laid down in Article 56. All the conspirators are guilty of this, and in the first place the defendant Rosenberg. Rosenberg had an organization with widespread ramifications for the plunder of cultural treasures, numerous staffs and representatives.
The Einsatzstab Rosenberg, and Rosenberg's Chief of Staff, Utikal, were the center where all threads met, a center which coordinated the criminal activity of many predatory organizations, inspired and directed by the Hitlerite Government and the German Supreme Command. Rosenberg was officially put in charge of plundering the cultural treasures in the occupied territories by a decree of Hitler of the 1st of March, 1942.
I have in mind document No. 149-PS, presented to the Tribunal on the 18th of December, 1945, by the American Delegation, and accepted by the Tribunal as USA 369. With your permission, Mr. President, I shall quote only two paragraphs in this document. You will find this document on page 3 of the document book. I quote:
"His--Rosenberg's--Einsatzstab for the occupied territories has the right to explore libraries, archives, and other cultural establishments of all kinds for suitable material, and to confiscate such material for the ideological tasks of the National Socialist Party."
I omit oneparagraph and quote the last paragraph:
"The regulations for the execution of this task, with the cooperation of the armed forces, will be issued by the Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces, in agreement with Reichsleiter Rosenberg. If necessary, measures for the Eastern Territories under German administration will be taken by Reichsleiter Rosenberg in his capacity as Reich Minister for Occupied Eastern Territories."
This decree of Hitler's was sent out, as is clear from the document quoted, to all departments of the armed forces, the Party, and the Government. But it is not the 1st of March, 1942, which should be considered the beginning of Rosenberg's predatory activities. In confirmation of this, I shall cite several excerpts from a letter of Rosenberg to Reich Minister Bermann. The letter is dated the 23rd of April, 1941. This document was presented to the Tribunal on the 18th of December, 1945, by the American Delegation, and it was accepted by the Tribunal as USA Exhibit No. 371. the document file--is interesting for the fact that the plunder, entitled "confiscation" in the letter, was carried out by the defendant Rosenberg in close collaboration and contact, on the basis of a written agreement of Rosenberg's department with Himmler's department.
I cite extracts from page 1 of the Russian translation of this letter; and this is very brief.
"I have", wrote Rosenberg, "transmitted to you a photostatic copy of my agreement with the Security Service, SD, which was reached with the express approval of Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich."
And further--you will find this on page 5 in your document book:
"Art objects have always been treated as a second-line problem. In the first-line problem, an order of the Chief of the High Command, OKW, on the instigation of the Fuehrer, has gone twice to the occupied territories of the West to place all scientific and archive materials of ideological opponents of the regime at my disposal for research purposes. That has also resulted in close co-operation on the widest scale with the Security Service, SD, and the military commanders." Rosenberg's predatory staffs is shown by a special circular of Goering's of the 1st of May, 1941, to all party, Government and military institutions, which were ordered to co-operate with Rosenberg's Einsatz staffs. This document was presented to the Tribunal on the 28th of December, 1945, by our American colleagues, and it was accepted by the Court as USA Exhibit 384. As Rosenberg indicates in his letter of the 23rd of April, 1941, by that time--that is by April 1941-- 7000 cases of looted works of art had already been sent to Germany. quote one more paragraph. You will find this paragraph on page 6 of the document book; it is the paragraph before the last.
"The things," wrote Rosenberg, are thus clarified in a practical fashion and the work has taken its course. What I asked was only a confirmation that the already pronounced decisions for the West should also have validity under the given circumstances for other occupied or to be occupied areas."
This document, in which pillage is called "work," demonstrates that Rosenberg's criminal activity was carried out in close contact with the SD and the German Command of the Armed Forces and, finally, that as early as April 1941 plans for plundering the territories about to be occupied were being elaborated.
States Prosecution, Mr. Alderman, it is known what "territories about to be occupied" meant at this period in Rosenberg's letter.
This was Hitlerites, planned in the so-called Plan Barbarosa.
This was the frontiers of the Soviet Union.
This was the period of the attack on staffs, "the creation of which may become necessary during the course of this war."
In this connection Rosenberg referred to the "successful work" of his operational staff in the Western occupied territories and the Netherlands, and to the experience gained there.
This fact of September, 1945.
I present this document to the Tribunal as department which combined diplomacy with pillage.
I have in mind various staffs subordinated to them.
The Ministry for Foreign "Ribbentrop Battalion"--and its practical activity in the plunder of fuehrer Dr. Forster, who was taken prisoner by units of the Red Army in the Mozdok region.