That is in Northern Caucasia. In his testimony Forster also indicated the tasks of Rosenberg's staff in the plunder, In his affidavit Forster stated:
"In August 1941, during my stay in Berlin, I, with the help of my old acquaintance from Berlin University, Dr. Focke, who was Battalion, which was attached to the Foreign Office.
This Battalion "The leader of the Battalion is Major of the Waffen SS "The task of the Special Purpose Battalion was to ship to "The Special Purpose Battalion consists of four companies.
Africa; the second company is attached to the Army Group North; the company to the Army Group South.
The first company is located at "The battalion headquarters are located in Berlin, Hermann Goering Strasse, No. 6."The confiscated material is stored in the offices of the Adler "Prior to our departure for Russia, Major von Kuensberg transmitted to us Ribbentrop's order to comb out painstakingly all "It has become known to me, from report by my comrades, that the in the palaces in the suburbs of Leningrad.
I myself was not there at the time.
At Zarskoje Selo the company confiscated and secured Chinese silk rugs and gilt were torn from the walls.
The foyer, were taken away.
From the Emperor Alexander Palace antique furniture in Russian, were removed."
document file:
"The fourth company, to which I was attached, confiscated institute.
The entire equipment, scientific material, documents and books, were shipped to Germany.
We reaped a rich harvest in the "From the museum at Kiev articles of Ukrainian art, Russian art, shipped to Berlin.
Among them there were pictures, etchings and portraits, works of art and pictures by Wereschtschagin, Fjedotov, Goe, sculpture of Antokolksi, and other works of Russian and Ukrainian painters and sculptors.
"In Kharkov, in the Korolenko Library, there were seized and shipped to Berlin several thousand expensive books in very handsome editions. The rest of the books were destroyed. From the Kharkov picture gallery several hundred pictures were secured, among them 14 pictures by Aiwasowski, works by von Ruepin, many works by Polienow, Schischkin, and others. Also, all statues and the whole scientific archives of the museum were taken away. Embroidery, carpets, gobelins, and other exhibits were appropriated by the German soldiers."
Again, this is mentioned by Dr. Forster in his affidavit:
"I also knew that the staff of Alfred Roseberg used special commandos for the confiscation of expensive antique museum pieces in the occupied territories of the East, and in the countries of Europe. Expert civilians were in charge of these commandos.
"After the occupation of a big city, leaders of these commandos arrive in the company of experts of every art. They inspect museums, pictures,galleries, exhibits, institutions of culture and art; they inspect their condition and confiscate everything of value."
I thus conclude the quotation; I omit the last paragraph of this affidavit. letter of the Reich Minister for the Occupied Territories dated April 7, 1942, and signed, by order of the Minister, by Laibrandt, the defendant Rosenberg's closest assistant.
This letter is in your document book on bages 12 and 13. The document was presented on the 18th of December of last year by the American prosecution. pillage planned, and from the point of view of the camouflaging of this pillage, which, in the document, is shamelessly called "the preservation of objects of culture, research material, and scientific institutions in the Eastern Occupied Territories." fearing that he might miss some loot, established his own monopolistic right to plunder and compromised only with the Quartermaster General of the Army, in conduction with whom -- as the letter shows -- Rosenberg's operational staff carried on its work.
I read the first excerpt:
"I have assigned Reichsleiter Rosenberg's Einsatzstab for the Occupied Territories with the seizure and uniform handling of cultural goods, research material and scientific apparatus from libraries, archives, scientific institutions, museums, etc., which are found in public, religious, and private buildings. The Einsatzstab, as once again directed by the Fuehrer's decree of March 1, 1942, begins its work, together with the Quartermaster General of the Army, immediately after occupation of the territories by combat troops, and carries out this activity after the civil government has been organized, in accordance with the corresponding civilian officials.
"I request all authorities of my administration to support, as far as possible, the members of the Einsatzstab in carrying out all measures and in giving all necessary orders, especially in regard to objects which may have already been seized from the occupied Eastern territories and removed from their previous location, and information as to where this material is located at the present time." research institutes, museums, both public and private, and even church treasure was being planned. of plunder, can be seen from the following excerpt from the letter mentioned. You will find it on page 12 of your document book, Your Honors. I quote:
"In so far as seizures or transports have already taken place contrary to these provisions, Reichsleiter Rosenberg's Einsatzstab, Berlin, Charlottenburg 2, Bismarckstrasse 1, will be informed without delay." which this letter was distributed. I shall mention some of them: The OKH, the Ministry for Economy, the Plenipotentiary for the Four-Year Plan, the Reich Commissars for the Baltic Regions and the Ukraine, etc. tives of the OKW took an active part in the pillage.
removed to Germany, which was turned by the Hitlerites into a robber's den. Commander of the First Tank Army, Cavalry General Mackensen, in the presence of the head of the Propaganda Department of the First Tank Army, Miller, took from the Rostov Museum of Pictorial and Plastic Art, which had been evacuated to the town of Pyatigorsk and which was then on the premises of the Lermontov Museum, the most caluable canvasses of Riberio, Rubens, Murillo, Jordans, Vereshiagin, Korovia, Kramskey, Polenov, Repin, Lageric, Ayvasovsky and Shishkin, sculptures of Danatello and other exhibits. sented to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit Number 37. with your permission I should like to read into the record one paragraph on page five of this document.
"The Art Museum of Restov had been plundered and evacuated to Germany by the Commander of the First Tank Army, General Mackensen and by the Chief of the Propaganda Section of the First Tank Army, Miller." Kurovsky, it has been established that the defendant Frank, in looting the cultural treasures of the Polish State, was also striving after his personal gain Warsaw and Cracow, particularly from the Vavel Castle, were transferred to the Defendant Frank's estate. Polish Government and is presented to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit Number 302. (It appears on pages 19-20 of the document book). "Head of the Fourth Political Leadership Group of the Reich Ministry for the Eastern Occupied Territories", dated September 14, 1944, are indications as to where the looted treasures were taken and stored.
This letter is addressed to the "Herr Reich Minister; copy to the head of the political leadership staff", and is headed "Objects of Art Evacuated from Ukraine," (It appears in the document book on page 21).
I present this letter as documentary evidence and submit it as USSR Exhibit Number 372 and I quote the text:
"The Reichscommissioner for Ukraine has stared the objects of art and pictures evacuated from Kiev and Kharkov, in the following shelters in East Prussia:
"1. Estate Richau by Wehlau.
"2. Manor-house, Wildenhoff (owner Count Schwerin).
I read further from the text:
"There are sixty-five cases of the contents of which an exact list is enclosed. For about twenty other cases, fifty-seven portfolios and one roll of engravings no inventories exist up to now. Among the pictures there are a great number of very ancient icons, works of famous masters of the German, Italian and Dutch schools in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, as well as the works of the best Russian masters from the 18th and 19th centuries.
"All this property is made up of the most valuable works of art, which were shipped from the public Ukrainian museums, which are worth, even as a rough estimate, the sum of many millions. Besides, this ia a unique collection of such international value now on German territory." meaning to the present subject. Rosenberg to Bormann. You will find it on page 5 in your document book.
Rosenberg wrote, and I quote:
"In the process of these confiscations we have, of course, found also many other works of art. There are some of great value and, in order to preserve them, the Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces, at my request and in accordance with Fuehrer's directives, ordered me to draw up a catalogue of these works of art and to keep them for the Fuehrer." occupied territories, how all this was treated personally by Hitler. presented to the Tribunal and excerpts from this report were read yesterday into the record. Therefore, I consider there is no necessity for reading it into the record once again. However, it is necessary to note that not only Hitler but Goering was an ardent adherent of the policy of acquisitions. in France. Goering did not acquire only Gobelins. He wrote in one of his letters to Rosenberg, -- and I refer to Document Number 1985-PS, which I submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number 373 and this document is in your document book on page 156 and 158 -- Goering wrote that he "owned through purchases and exchange, presents, last will and testaments perhaps the most important private collection, at least in Germany if not in Europe."
includes a series of corrections and notes done in ink, evidently in Goering's hand. This copy was captured, together with other correspondence of Goering's, by units of the American Army, of which fact the American Prosecution presented a suitable affidavit to the Tribunal. acquisitions effected by Goering and also confirms Ribbentrop's part in the "preservation" of cultural treasures in the occupied territories. document. I read the extract from the first page of this letter:
"After great search, I was very much gratified that at last a place was created for collecting the things, although I want to point out that still other places are falling back upon the authority of the Fuehrer; above all the Reichsminister of Foreign Affairs, who, several months age, sent a circular to all departments, in which he, among other things, stated that he had received full authority for the preservation of the cultural objects in occupied territories."
And further on; I read an extract from page 2 of the letter, the last paragraph:
"So that no wrong conception could arise regarding these things which I want to claim myself, and which I have partly acquired by purchase and partly intended to acquire, I want to inform you as follows:
"1. I possess today already through purchase and exchange, presents, last will and testaments, perhaps the most important private collection, at least in Germany if not in Europe."
I omit one paragraph and I read the next one. In paragraph two is listed what Goering would like to acquire.
"2. A very extensive and highly valued collection of Dutchmen from the 17th century.
"3. A comparatively small but very good collection of French artists from the 18th century, and finally, a collection of Italian masters."
You have heard, your Honors, how "the personal material interest of the soldiers in the war" was in practice expressed. All this establishes irrevocably that the Hitlerites engaged in pillage and brigandage, and that everyone plundered, starting from the privates and ending with the criminal leaders of Hitlerite Germany.
as well. from the leaders of Hitlerite Germany and from the highest ranks of the Command of the Armed Forces. Army, signed by Field Marshal von Reichenau, approved by Hitler and entitled, "Regarding the behavious of the troops in the East." contains direct instructions, undisguised by anything in the manner customary to the Hitlerites; for the destruction and annihilation of culture in the occupied territories.
With your permission, I shall quote one paragraph of this decree. You will find it on page 16.
"The Army is only interested in the work of extinguishing fires insofar as necessary army billets must be preserved. For the rest, it is part of the battle of annihilation. No regard for history or art matters in the eastern area." pillage of cultural treasures was universally carried out by the Hitlerites in the territories occupied by them and was inspired and directed by the Hitlerite Government. I refer to the diary of the defendant Frank, extracts of which have already been submitted to the Tribunal, as Document USSR Exhibit Number 223. In the first volume of Frank's diary, on page 38 (page 169 in your document book) there appears an entry dated 4 October, 1939, with the following text:
"Berlin. Conference with Fuehrer. The Fuehrer discussed general situation with the Governor-General. He declared himself satisfied with his activity in Poland as regards, in particular, the destruction of the Warsaw Palace and non-restoration of this City, and the evacuation of treasures." quite sufficient to enable us to draw the following conclusions:
(a) The pillage and destruction of the cultural treasures of the peoples in the territories occupied by the Germans took place in accordance with previously worked out, carefully prepared plans.
(b) The pillage and destruction of cultural treasures was directed by the Fascist Government and German High Command.
(c) The most active part in the organization of the pillage and destruction of cultural treasures was taken by the participants in the conspiracy, the defendants Rosenberg, Ribbentrop, Frank and Goering.
I pass on to the next section of my presentation, entitled:
"Destruction and Pillage of Cultural Treasures in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia."
conspirators for strangling national cultural life in the countries occupied by them.
(I omit the end of page 19 of my presentation) putting their criminal plans concretely into practice in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia. reports of the Governments of Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia, already submitted to the Tribunal by the Soviet Prosecution. reports which directly concern the theme expounded by me and which have not been quoted by my colleagues.
I begin to quote extracts from the Czechoslovak Government reports. These excerpts are to be found in your book of documents on pages 81 to 88. I quote from page 81:
"DESTRUCTION OF CZECH CULTURAL LIFE.
"Extermination of the Czech Intelligentsia.
"K.H. FRANK, who was appointed Secretary of State and deputy to the Reich Protector NEURATH in March 1939 and in August 1943 became Staatsminister and the Head of the German Executive in the Protectorate, said: The Czechs are only fit to be used as workers and peasants.
"K.H. FRANK replied to a Czech delegation which requested in 1942 the Czech universities and colleges be re-opened: If the war will be won by England, you will open your schools yourselves; if Germany wins an elementary school with five grades will be enough for you!
"The Germans occupied all colleges and scientific institutions." I pass on to page 83 of the document book:
"They immediately seized the valuable apparatus, instruments and scientific equipment in many of the occupied institutions. The scientific libraries were systematically and methodically spoliated. Scientific books and films were torn up or taken away, the archives of the Academic Senate (the Highest University Authority) were torn up or burned, the card-indexes destroyed or scattered.
"Suppression of Czech Schools.
"K.H. FRANK, in November 1939, personally ordered the closing for a period of three years, of all Czech establishments of higher education.
"The University students, who were still at liberty, were forbidden to exercise an intellectual profession and were invited to find manual occupation within 48 hours, failing which they would be sent to labor camps to Germany.
"The closing of the universities was aggravated by the closing of the great scientific libraries and of all institutions capable of offering intellectual sustenance to the students who had been expelled from the universities. The library of the University of Prague was henceforth accessible only to Germans.
"Suppression of Scientific Life.
"The closing down of Czech universities and colleges was merely the first step towards the complete suppression of the whole Czedh scientific life. Czech university professors were either pensioned or transferred to functions which made scientific work impossible; the buildings of scientific institutions were handed over either to German universities and colleges or to German military and civil authorities. The Germans removed all scientific instruments and books and even complete laboratories to Germany, saying that the Czechs would no longer need them. The numbers of works of art, pictures, statues and rare manuscripts stolen from Prague University Library and from private collections cannot be calculated, nor their value estimated. Scientific collections were also given to German schools provided they were not stolen piecemeal."
"Hundreds of Czech elementary and secondary schools were closed in 1939, and so rapid was the systematic closing of Czech schools during the first year of the war that by the end of 1940 6,000 of the 20,000 Czech teachers were unemployed. In September 1942 about 60 percent of the Czech elementary schools were shut down by the Germans.
"All Czech books published during the Republican regime have been confiscated, and glorification of Greater Germany and its Fuehrer became the basis of all teaching at Czech elementary schools.
"In 1939 the number of pupils permitted to enter Czech secondary schools had diminished by 60 per cent compared with 1936. About 70 per cent of the Czech secondary schools had been closed up to the end of 1942. Girls have been entirely excluded from the secondary schools.
"Nursery schools for children between 3 and 6 were completely Germanised and employed only German teachers.
"Other Cultural Crimes.
"Monuments.
"In many towns the "Masary Houses", which for the most part contain libraries, halls for the showing of educational films, for the performance of plays and concerts have been confiscated and transformed into barracks or offices for the Gestapo.
The statues they contained, sometimes of great artistic value, were defiled and broken and in most cases completely demolished, especially those of Masaryk or those recalling the exploits of the Czechoslov volunteers during the Great War. A number of monuments in Prague, among them Bilek's "Moses" and Maratka's "Memorial to the Fallen Lesionaries" have been melted down.
"A decree of the Autumn of 1942 ordered all university libraries to hand over all early printed Czech works and first editions to the Germans. The collections in the National Museum were pillaged and the Modern Art Gallery, containing a unique collection of Czech art of the 19th and 20th centuries with some precious specimens of foreign (mainly French) art, was closed, "The crown jewels of the ancient Czech Kings had to be handed over to HEYDRICH.
"Translation of works of English, French and Russian authors, classic and modern, were withdrawn from circulation. The severest censorship was applied to the works of living Czech authors. The Germans liquidated many progressive publishing firms.
"All political literature of the Free Republic, as well, as the works of the Czech participants in the Czech Renaissance of the 18th and 19th centuries were withdrawn. THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn.
(A short recess was taken) "All political literature of the Republic, as well as the works of the Czech participants in the Renaissance of the 18th and 19th centuries, were withdrawn.
All Jewish literature was also prohibited, as well as that by writers who were politically unreliable. The Germans withdrew the Czech classics, as well as the works of John Huss, the 15th century reformer Alois Krassek, the author of historical novels, the poet Victor Dieck, and others." of the peoples of Czechoslovakia, plundered and pillaged works of art, literature and science. usurpers carried out the large-scale liquidation of national culture with exceptional cruelty. The Hitlerite conspirators destroyed the Polish intelligentsia, closed educational establishments, prohibited the publication of Polish books, looted works of art and blew up and burnt national monuments. report, which was submitted to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit 93. These excerpts are on page 197 of the document book:
"The Annihilation of the Polish Intelligentsia.
"In the incorporated regions, the intelligentsia were deprived of all means of living. Many of them -- professors, teachers, lawyers and judges -- were interned in concentration camps or murdered.
"In the Government General about 80 percent of the intelligentsia were deprived of all means of existence. Journalists and writers were unable to earn a living, owing to the liquidation of the press. The publication of new bocks was prohibited.
"Four universities and twelve schools of the university type ceased to exist. Their average attendance before September 1939 reached 45,000 students.
"Secondary schools: In the territory occupied by the Germans, there were about 950 secondary schools. Their closing was ordered in the incorporated territories. They were closed completely. In the Government General they were allowed to continue their activity, but in November 1939 an order was issued to cease teaching. The only schools which were allowed to continue work were commercial or industrial schools.
Educated Poles were not needed; the Poles were to become artisans and workmen. Such was the official line of German policy.
"Elementary schools: In the incorporated territories, Polish schools were completely abolished. They were replaced by German schools. Polish children were educated in the German tongue and German spirit." Poland, among them 170 newspapers. By order of the Germans the press was practically entirely eradicated. as early as October 1939. On the 5th of November, 1940, the German "Verordnungsblatt" published the following decrees "Until this order is countermanded, the publication of all books, pamphlets, periodicals, journals, callers and music, without exception, is prohibited, with the exception of those published by the authorities of the Government General."
Theatres, Music and Radios: The principles of German policy in Poland were outlined in a circular of a special branch of National Education and Propaganda in the German Government General. It read as follows:
"It is understood that not a single German official will assist in the development of Polish cultural life in any way whatsoever." was to satisfy the elementary demands for entertainment and amusement, all the more so as this was a question of diverting the attention of the intellectual circles from political dissension and debates which encouraged the development of anti-German feeling. Looting, Spoliation and Designation of Works of Art, Libraries and Collections: The extracts are on page 207 and 208 of the document book.
that all public and private libraries and collections in the occupied territories were to be registered. Upon completion of registration, libraries and book collections were confiscated and transported to the "Buchsammelstelle." There "special experts" carried out a selection. The final destination was either Berlin or the newly constituted State Library (Staatsbibiothek) in Poznan, Books which were considered unsuitable were sold, destroyed or thrown away as waste paper. organized looting in the Government General. Among them were the university libraries in Cracow and Warsaw. One of the best, though not one of the largest, was the library of the Polish Parliament. It consisted of about 38,000 volumes and 3,500 periodical publications. On the 15th and 16th of November, 1939, the main part of this library was transported to Berlin and Breslau. Ancient documents, such as, for instance, a collection of parchments which were the property of the Central Archives, were also seized. documents, were burnt in the furnaces of a sugar refinery. Altar of Wit Stosz from the Cracow Cathedral. On the 16th of December, 1939, the Defendant Frank issued a decree concerning the confiscation of works of art. of the document book. Czartoryski in Soniava. Frank seized and kept them until the 17th of January 1945, and then transferred them to Silesia, and thence as his personal property to Bavaria.
"National Monuments: In the process of destroying everything that was connected with Polish history and culture, many monuments and works of art were destroyed and demolished. was first wound round with ropes and chains with a view to throwing it off its pedestal. After an unsuccessful attempt acetylene was used. The head was cut off and the pedestal broken to pieces.
the poet Slovacki, the composer Moniuszko, the Polish national her Koscinsko and President Mission, of the greatest of Polish poets, Mickiewiez, and many others. The report of the Polish Government contains an appendix, a list of public libraries and other collections which fell victim to plunder and spoliation. These materials are available on page 254 and 255 of the document book. In the first list we find the names of thirty libraries; and, in the second, 21 museums and collections of works of art which were plundered and destroyed. I will not read these lists in full, but will mention only some of the museums and collections which were the subject of national pride and constituted the treasure of the Polish State.
The following objects fell victim to the German vandals:
The treasure house of Vavelsky cathedral in Cracow; the Pototzky Collection in Yablonnia; the Tchartoryssky Museum in Cracow; the National Museum in Cracow; the museum of religious art in Warsaw; the collections of Zamoysky in Warsaw (parchments, books and manuscripts); the State numcismatic collections in Warsaw; the Palace of King Stanislav-August in the Lazenkovsky Park; the Palace of King Jan Sobiesky in Vilianovo; the collection of Count Tarnovsky in Sukhaya; the Uligians Museum in Poznan; and many others. cathedrals. to page 223 of the document book, there are included the notes of the Polish Primate, the Cardinal Glend. They concern a written communication from Cardinal Glond to Pope Pius XII. I shall read only two paragraphs of these concluding notes into the record:
"Monasteries and convents have been methodically suppressed, as well as their flourishing works of education, publicity, social welfare, charity and care of the sick. Their houses and their institutions have been seized by the army of the Nazi Party.
"The invaders have confiscated or sequestrated the patrimony of the Church, considering themselves as its masters. The cathedrals, the bishops' palaces, the seminaries, the canons' residences, the revenues and endowments of bishoprics and chapters, the funds of the curias and seminaries, all have been pillaged by the invaders."
was carried out by the Hitlerites by various means and methods. I shall not, gentlemen, enumerate them in full. These methods are already known. Poland and Czechoslovakia. We need only stress that in the destruction of the culture of the peoples of Yugoslavia the German Fascist occupants showed great ingenuity and utilized their vast experiences acquired in other countries occupied by them. Yugoslavia starts with attack and pillage and ends with mass murders, camps and crematoria ovens. as USSR Exhibit 36, there are quoted a large number of facts and documents which establish, without the possibility of contention, the criminal deeds of the defendants. But even these numerous facts which are quoted in the report do not exhaust all the crimes committed by the Hitlerites. The report of the Yugoslav Government quotes only typical cases as examples. I will quote some excerpts from the report of the Yugoslav Government. These excerpts are on page 303 of the document book.
"Immediately after the invasion of Slovenia, the Germans started to fulfil their plans, which had been thought out long beforehand, with a view to germanizing the occupied territories."
Further, on page 307 of the document book:
"The occupants shut all the schools in Slovenia, exiled all Slovene teachers, destroyed all Slovene libraries and books, and forbade the use of the Slovene language, the use of which was considered an act of sabotage." libraries; they also destroyed universities and broadcasting stations, palaces of culture and sanatoria. On page 23 of the report, which corresponds to page 278 of the document book, there are, by way of example, a few facts concerning Belgrade: