(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:
"Without any military need, the Germans destroyed maliciously and burned a great number of public buildings and cultural institutions, such as the new university, the People's University "Koloraz", the first gymnasium for boys, the second gymnasium for girls, the ancient royal palace, the broadcasting station, the Russian Home of Culture, the sanatorium of Dr. Jivkovich, and so on. In the university building valuable objects and a very valuable collection of scientific research matter were destroyed." which is USSR Document 364, page 313a of the document book, the Hitlerites razed to the ground the national library, and burned hundreds of thousands of books and manuscripts, the basic stock of Serbian culture. They completely destroyed 71 and partially destroyed 41 scientific institutes and laboratories of the Belgrade University. They razed to the ground the State Academy of Art, and they burned and looted thousands of schools. Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav proples experienced great sufferings and sorrow. The Germans looted the country's economy, causing great material damage. But the damage caused by them to the culture of the peoples of Yugoslavia is even vaster still. gentlemen, to quote yet another excerpt from the diary of the defendant Frank. I have in mind the calico-bound volume of the diary entitled "Conferences of the Leaders of Departments of 1939-1940", which contains an entry regarding the conference of the leaders of departments on 19 January 1940 in Cracow. This excerpt is on page 169 of the document book;
"On the 15th of September 1939, I was entrusted with the administration of the occupied Eastern territories, and received a special order to devastate this district pitilessly as a combat zone and a prize of war, and to reduce its economic, social, and political structure to a heap of ruins."
To this statement of Frank's, one need only add that the defendant Frank performed this task in Poland with all zeal, and the other Reich Gauleiters and other leiters acted similarly in the occupied territories of the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
by the defendants against the culture of the peoples of the Soviet Union.
the Hitlerites conducted the destruction and spoliation of the cultural wealth of the peoples of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia. The crimes perpetrated by the Hitlerite conspirators in the occupied territories of the USSR were still more grave. thepeople of the Soviet Union, to destroy towns and villages created by them, and to extirpate the culture of the peoples of the USSR, but also to enslave the Soviet peoples and to transform our mother country into a colony enslaved by the Fascists. and perpetrate the destruction of the cultural monuments of the peoples of the USSR. In the-note of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs V.M. Molotov, dated the 27th of April 1942, which was presented to the Tribunal as Document USSR Exhibit 51/3 documents and facts are quoted which establish beyond dispute that the destruction of historic and cultural monuments and the vile mockery of national feelings, beliefs, and convictions, constituted a part of the monstrous plan thought out and put into practice by the Hitlerite Government, which strove to liquidate the national culture of the peoples of the USSR. read into the record the following excerpt which is on page 321 of the document book. I skip the first paragraph and quote the second paragraph:
"The destruction of historical and cultural memorials in occupied Soviet territories, and the devastation of the numerous cultural establishments set up by the Soviet authorities are a part of the monstrously senseless plan conceived and pursued by the Hitlerite Government which strives to wipe out Russian national culture and the national cultures of the peoples of the Soviet Union, to forcibly germanize the Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Esthonian, and other peoples of the USSR.
"In order No. 0973/41, General Hodt, commander of the 17th German Army, demands that his subordinates thoroughly assimilate the misanthropic notion, so typical of the thick-skulled Fascists, that the sound feelings of vengeance and revulsion towards allthat is Russian must not be suppressed among the men, but, on the contrary, encouraged in every way.
"True to their custom of destroying universally acknowledged cultural values, the Hitlerites everywhere on the Soviet territory occupied by them devastated and largely burned down book depositories, from small club and school libraries to the most valuable collections of manuscripts and books, containing unique bibliographical treasures."
I skip a paragraph and continue the quotation:
"The Hitlerites looted and then set on fire the famous Borodino Museum, the historical exhibits of which related to the struggle against the Napoleonic Army in 1812, and which were particularly dear to the Russian people. The invaders looted and set fire to the Pushkin House and Museum in the hamlet of Polotnyany Zavod. In Kaluga, the Hitlerites assiduously destroyed the exhibits in the museum and house in which lived and worked the famous Russian scientist Tsiolkovsky, whose services in the field of aeronautics enjoy world-wide fame. The Fascist vandals used Tsiolkovsky's portrait as a target for revolver practice. Extremely valuable models of dirigibles, as well as drafts and instruments, were trampled underfoot. One of the museum rooms was turned into a hen roost and the furniture burned.
"One of the oldest agricultural institutions in the USSR, the Shatilov Selection Station in the Orel District, was destroyed by the invaders who blew up and consigned to the flames 55 buildings of the station, including the agro-chemical and other laboratories, the museum, the library containing 40, 000 volumes, the school, and other buildings.
"Even greater frenzy was shown by the Hitlerites in the looting of the cultural institutions and the historical monuments of the Ukraine and Byelorussia."
I skip two paragraphs and pass on to the last paragraph:
"There was no limit to the desecration by the Hitlerite vandals of the monuments and homes representing Ukrainian history, culture, and art. It will suffice to mention one of the constant attempts to humiliate the national dignity of the Ukrainian people: Having plundered the Korolenko Library in Kharkov, the occupants used the books as paving bricks for the muddy street, to facilitate the passage of German motor vehicles."
monuments which were most dear to the Soviet people. I will quote several facts: Leo Tolstoy, was born, lived, and worked. Peter Tchaikowsky lived and worked. In this house Tchaikowsky created the world famous operas Eugen Onegin and Queen of Spades. Chekhov; in Tikhvin they destroyed the house of the great Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov. Note of Foreign Commissar Molotov, dated the 6th of January 1942. This document has already been submitted to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit 51/2. This excerpt is on page 317 of the document book.
"For a period of six weeks, the Germans occupied the world-famous property of Yasnaya Polyana where Leo Tolstoy, one of the greatest geniuses of mankind, was born, where he lived, and worked. This glorious memorial to Russian culture was wrecked, profaned, and finally set on fire by the Nazi vandals. The grave of the great writer was desecrated by the invaders. Irreplaceable relics relating to the life and work of Leo Tolstoy, including rare manuscripts, books, and paintings, were either stolen by the German soldiers or thrown away and destroyed.
"A German officer named Schwartz declared, in reply to a request of one of the museum staff to stop using the personal furniture and books of the great writer for firewood and to use wood available for this purpose, We don't need firewood; we shall burn everything connected with the name of your Tolstoy.'
"When the town of Klin was liberated by the Soviet troops on December 15, 1941, it was ascertained that the house in which Tchaikovsky, the great Russian composer, had lived and worked, and which the Soviet State had turned into a museum, had been wrecked and plundered by Nazi officers and soldiers. In the museum building itself, the invaders set up a garage for motorcycles, heating this garage with manuscripts, books, furniture, and other museum exhibits, part of which had been stolen by the German invaders. In doing this, the Nazi officers knew perfectly well that they were defiling one of the finest monuments of Russian culture.
"During the occupation of the town of Istra, the. German troops established an ammunition dump in the celebrated ancient Russian monastery known under the name of the New Jerusalem Monastery, founded as early as 1654. The New Jerusalem Monastery was an outstanding historical and religious landmark of the Russian people, and it was known as one of the largest and most beautiful edifices of religious architecture. However, this did not prevent the German Fascist vandals from blowing up their ammunition dump in the New Jerusalem shrine on their retreat from Istra, thereby reducing this irreplaceable monument of Russian church history to a heap of ruins." destroyed and annihilated the cultural-historic monuments of the Russian people connected with the life and works of the great Russian poet Alexander Sergeivitch Pushkin. is new submitted to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit 40, reads as follows:
"To preserve the cultural and historical memorials of the Russian people connected with the life and works of the great Russian poet and genius Alexander Sergeivitch Pushkin, the Soviet Government on 17 March 1922 declared the poet's estate at Michailovskoye, as well as his tomb at the monastery of Soyatogorsky, and the neighboring villages of Trigorskoye, Gorodischtsche and Woronitsch, a state reservation.
"The Pushkin Reservation, and especially the poet's estate at Michailoskoye, was very dear to the Russian people. Here Pushkin finished the third and wrote the fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters of Eugen Onegin. This is where he finished his poem The Gypsies, and wrote the drama Boris Godunov, as well as a large number of epic and lyrical poems.
"In July 1941, the Nazis forced their way into the Pushkin Reservation. For three years they lived there, ruined everything, and destroyed the Pushkin memorials."
"The plundering of the museum began in August 1941."
"In the autumn of 1943 the military commander of Kushkinyovy proposed to order an evacuation of all treasures of the museum. The latter were packed into cases and loaded onto trucks and sent to Germany."
"At the end of February 1944 Mikhailovskoye was turned by the Germans into a military strong point. The park was trenched and shelters were built.
"The cottage of Pushkin's nurse was demolished and the Germans constructed next to it and partly on its site a huge shelter which was covered with five layers of timber. A similar dugout was erected near the former museum.
"Prior to their retreat from Mikhailovskoye, the Germans completed their work of destruction and the desecration of the Pushkin estate. The museum which had been erected upon the foundation of the former dwelling house of Pushkin was burned down, and nothing but a pile of rabble remained. The marble plate of the Pushkin monument was destroyed and thrown on the pile of ashes. Of the other two houses in the Pushkin reservation, located at the entrance to the Mikhailovskoye estate, one was burned down by the Germans and the other severely damaged. The German vandals put three bullet holes into Pushkin's portrait, which hung in an archway at the entrance to the Mikhailovskoye Park, and then destroyed the archway.
"After their retreat, the Nazis fired on the village with mortars and artillery. The staircases leading to the River Sorot were destroyed by German mines. The old linden trees on the circular road leading to the house were damaged. One elm tree standing in front of the house was damaged by grenades and grenade splinters." beginning of the page. to Pushkin's time and in which Pushkin had a requiem sung on the 7th The churchyard where Hannibal, one of Pushkin's relatives, and criss-crossed by trenches and devastated.
The graves of members of people can be justly ascertained in the desecration of Pushkin's tomb.
abandoned the state and retreated to Vovorzhev. Nevertheless, on The poet's grave was found completely covered with refuse.
Both steps leading down to the grave were destroyed. The area shape and crumpled and damaged by shrapnel.
The monument itself is patriots.
Approximately 3000 mines were discovered on the ground of two centuries.
They commemorate a whole series of the most outstanding events in the Russian history.
Celebrated Russian and foreign 1944.
The excerpts are on page 332 of the document book.
(pictures, artistic masterpieces and sculptures), as well as 11,700 very valuable books from the palace libraries. In the ground floor rooms of the Ekaterininsky and Alexandrovsky palaces in the town of Pushkin there were concentrated the furniture of Russian and French workmanship of the middle of the Eighteenth Century, 600 items of artistic china of the late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, as well as a large number of marble busts, small objects of sculpture, and up to 35,000 volumes from the palace libraries. of eye witnesses, the evidence of German prisoners of war, and as a result of careful investigation, it has been ascertained that: usurpers immediately proceeded to loot the treasures of the palaces and museums, removing the contents of the palaces during several months. looted and removed to Germany some 34,000 museum exhibits, among them 4,950 items of unique furniture of Italian, English, French, and Russian workmanship of the time of Cathrine the Great, Alexander I and Nicholas I, as well as many rare sets of porcelain of foreign and Russian manufacturers of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. The German barbarians stripped off the silk, tapestries and other decorative material which ornated the walls of the palace rooms. which was the work of the sculptor Kozlovoky, and sent it to Germany. big palace which was the work of a noted architect genius Bartholomeo Rastrelli. Marly Palace with the aid fo delayed action mines. The palace contained the most delicate stucco mouldings and carvings.
The Germans wrecked the great Peter the Great dwelling. They destroyed all the wooden parts of the pavilions and galleries, the interior decoration of the study, the bedrooms and the Chinese rooms. During the occupation, they turned the central part of the palace, which is the most valuable from the historical and artistic point of view, into a D.O.T. In the western pavilion of the palace they established a stable and a latrine.