The Tribunal, of course, will recall Himmler's position. expropriation of religious property would not be feasible at the time, Heydrich suggested certain specious interim actions with respect to the church properties in question, to be followed progressively by outright confiscation. of your Honors' exhibit -- as U.S. Exhibit 358. R-101, and at the bottom you will notice they are labeled "A", "B", and "C". The first one is R-101A, and I quote the first five paragraphs on page 2 of the English translation:
"Enclosed is a list of church possessions which might be available for the accommodation of Racial Germans. The list, which please return, is supplemented by correspondence and illustrated material pertinent to the subject.
"For political reasons, expropriation without indemnity of the entire property of the churches and religious orders will hardly be possible at this time.
"Expropriation with indemnity or in return for assignment of other lands and grounds will be even less possible.
"It is therefore suggested that the respective authorities of the Orders be instructed that they make available the monasteries concerned for the accommodation of Racial Germans and remove their own members to other less populous monasteries."
"very good."
"The final expropriation of these properties thus placed at our disposal can then be carried out step by step in course of time." letter to the Reich Commissar for the consolidation of Germandom, enclosing a copy of the foregoing letter from Heydrich to Himmler to 21 February, 1940, proposing the confiscation of church properties. The letter of 5 April, 1940 is included in the document R-101A, just introduced in evidence; and I quote from the second sentence of the first paragraph thereof, on page 1 of the English translation of Document R-101A. It is the first paragraph of page 1 of that same document.
I quote:
"The Reich leader SS has agreed to the proposals made in the enclosed letter and has ordered the matter to be dealt with by collaboration between the Chief of the Security Police and Security Service and your office."
If Your Honor please, I believe it is on page 1 of R-101A. It is from the second sentence of the first paragraph on R-101A. It is on the same one as the tab is, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COLONEL STOREY: I now offer in evidence Document R-101C. Exhibit 358. This is a letter dated July 30, 1941, written by an SS Standartenfuehrer, whose signature is illegible, to the Reich Leader of the SS. The letter supplies further evidence of the participation of the Gauleiter in the seizure of church property. I quote from the first three paragraphs of the English translation of document R-101C-101C will be shown at the bottom of the page.
"Further to report of 30 May, 1941, this office considers it its duty to call the Reich Leader's attention to the development which is currently taking place in the incorporated Eastern countries with regard to seizure and confiscation of church property.
"As soon as the Reich laws on expropriation had been introduced, the Reich Governor and Gauleiter in the Wartheland adopted the practice of expropriating real estate belonging to churches for use as dwellings. He grants compensation to the extent of the assessed value and pays the equivalent amount into blocked accounts.
"Moreover, the East German Estate Administration limited reports that in the Warthegau all real estate owned by the churches is being claimed by the local Gau administrations." Number 358, US Exhibit already in evidence. This is a letter from the Chief of Staff of the Main Office to Himmler, dated 30 March, 1942, dealing with the confiscation of church property. The letter evidences the active participation of the party Chancellery in the confiscation of religious property. concerning the policy of the SS in suspending all payment of rent to monasterie and other church institutions whose property had been expropriated. The letter discusses a proposal made by the Reich Minister of the Interior, in which the Party Chancery prominently participated, to the effect that the church institutions should be paid amounts corresponding to current mortgage charges on the premises without realizing any profit. The writer further suggests that such payments should never be made directly to the ecclesiastical institutions, but rather should be made to the creditors of such institutions.
I now quote from the fourth sentence on page 3 of that document:
"Such an arrangement would be in line with the basic idea of the settlement originally worked out between the Party Chancery and the Reich Minister of the Interior."
the Defendant Frick. suppression of religious publications and interfered with free religious education. of the Fuehrer Bormann transmitted to the Defendant Rosenberg a photostatic copy of a letter from Gauleiter Florian, dated 23 September, 1940, which expressed the Gauleiter's intense disapproval, on Nazi ideological grounds, of a religious pamphlet entitled, "The Spirit and Soul of the Soldiers," written by a Major General von Rabenau.
I now offer in evidence Document 064-PS; US Exhibit 359. It is an original letter signed by Rosenberg attaching the copy of that matter. It contains Defendant Bermann's letter to Rosenberg, dated 27 September, 1940, transmitting the Gauleiter's letter of 23 September, 1940 to the Defendant Hess, in which the Gauleiter urges that the religious writings of General von Rabenau be suppressed. In his letter to the Defendant Hess, Gauleiter Florian discusses a conversation he had with General von Rabenau at the close of a lecture delivered by the General to a group of younger Army officers at Aachen. This conversation illumines the hostile attitude of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party towards the Christian churches. I quote from the second sentence of the second paragraph of the second page of the Gauleiter's letter to the Defendant Hess, which appears on page 2 of the English Translation -- the second paragraph -- and I quote:
"After he had affirmed the necessity of the churches, Rabenau said, with emphasized self-assurance, something like the following: 'Dear Gauleiter, the party is making mistake after mistake in the business with the churches. Obtain for me the necessary powers from the Fuehrer and I guarantee that I shall succeed in a few months in establishing peace with the churches for all time.' After this catastrophic ignorance, I gave up the conversation.
"Dear Party Member Hess: The reading of von Rabenau's pamphlet 'Spirit and Soul of the Soldier' has reminded me again of this. In this brochure, Rabenau affirms the necessity of the Church straightforward and clearly, even if it is prudently careful. He writes on page 28: 'There could be more examples; they would suffice to show that a soldier in this world can scarcely get along without thoughts about the next one.' Because von Rabenau is falsely based spiritually, I consider his activities as an educator in spiritual affairs as dangerous, and I am of the opinion that his educational writings are to be dispensed with absolutely and that the publication section of the NSDAP can and must renounce these writings. The churches with their Christianity are this danger against which the struggle must always be carried on." Christian churches is further revealed by the defendant Bormann's instruction to the Defendant Rosenberg, set forth in Bormann's letter of transmittal that Rosenberg "take action" on the Gauleiter's recommendation that the General's writings be suppressed.
I now offer in evidence Document 089-PS, USA Exhibit No. 360, which is a letter from the Defendant Bormann, as Deputy of the Fuehrer, to the Defendant Rosenberg, dated 8 March, 1940, enclosing a copy of Bormann's letter of the same date to Reichsleiter Amann. Amann was a top member of the Leadership Corps by virtue of his position as Reichsleiter for the Press and Leader of the Party Publishing Company. In this letter to Amann, Bormann expresses his dismay and dissatisfaction that only 10 percent of the 3,000 Protestant periodicals in Germany have ceased publication for what are described as "paper saving" reasons. Bormann then advises Reichsleiter Amann that "The distribution of any paper whatsoever for such periodicals was barred."
of Bormann's letter to Amann, which appears on the first page -- the second paragraph -- of the English translation;
"I urge you to see to it, in any redistribution of paper to be considered later, that the confessional writing, which, according to experiences so far gathered, possesses very doubtful value for strengthening the power of resistance of the people toward the external foe, receives still sharper restrictions in favor of literature, politically and ideologically more valuable."
I next offer in evidence Document 101-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit No. 361, which is a letter from the Defendant Bormann, again, to Reichsleiter Rosenberg, dated the 17th of January, 1940, expressing the Party's opposition to the circulation of religious literature to the members of the German Armed Forces. Among the soldiers of the United Nations, the proposition that there are no atheists in the fox-holes received a wide and reverent acceptation. However, in this document, there is a contrary meaning, and I quote from page 1 of the English translation, which reads:
"Nearly all the districts (that is Gaue) report to me regularly that the churches of both confessions are administering spiritually to members of the Armed Forces. This administering finds its expression especially in the fact that soldiers are being sent religious publications by the spiritual leaders of the home congregations. These publications are, in part, very cleverly composed. I have repeated reports that these publications are being read by the troops and thereby exercise a certain influence on the morale.
"I have, in the past, sought by sounding out the General Field Marshal, the High Command of the Armed Forces, and... Reich Director Amann, to restrict considerably the production and shipment of publications of this type. The result of these efforts remains unsatisfactory. As Reichsleiter Amann has repeatedly informed me, the restriction of these pamphlets by means of the... paper rationing has not been achieved because the paper...is being purchased on the open market.
"If the influencing of the soldiers by the church is to be effectively combatted, this will only be accomplished by producing many good publications in the shortest possible time under the supervision of the Party...
"Thus at the last meeting of the Deputy Gauleiters, comments were uttered. on this matter to the effect that a considerable quanity of such publications are not available.
"I maintain that it is necessary that in the near future we transmit to the Party Service Offices down to Ortsgruppenleitern a list of additional publications of this sort which should be sent to our soldiers by the Ortsgruppen..." End of quotation. closing and dissolution of theological schools and other religious institutions. I now offer in evidence document No. 122-PS, USA Exhibit No. 362, which, again, is a letter from the Defendant Bormann to the Defendant Rosenberg, in his capacity as the Fuehrer's Representative for the Supervision of Spiritual and Ideological Schooling and Education of the NSDAP. This letter is dated 17th April, 1939, and transmits to Rosenberg an enclosed photostatic copy of a plan suggested by the Reich Minister for Science, Education and Training for the combining and closing of certain specifically listed theological faculties. In his letter of transmittal the Defendant Bormann requested Reichsleiter Rosenberg, to take "cognizance and prompt action" with respect to proposed suppression of religious institutions. I now quote from the next to last paragraph of page 2 of the English translation, in which the plan to suppress the religious institutions is summarized, and which reads:
"To recapitulate this plan would include the complete closing of the theological faculties at Innsbruck, Salzburg and Munich, the transfer of the faculty of Graz to Vienna, and the vanishing of four Catholic faculties; closing of three Catholic theological faculties or higher schools, and of four evangelical faculties in the Winter semester 1939/1940; closing of one further Catholic and of three further evangelical faculties in the near future."
Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party shares a responsibility for the measures taken to subvert the Christian Churches and persecute the Christian clergy, both in Germany and in German-occupied territories of Europe. The evidence just offered, together with that previously presented by the Prosecution, demonstrates that there was general participation by the Leadership Corps, ranging from the Reichsleiter through the Gauleiter, adhered to by the rank anf file, in the deliberate program undertaken to undermine Christian religion. We stress the significance of the appointment of the Defendant Rosenberg, whose anti-Christian views are open and notorious, as the Fuehrer's 'delegate' or representative for the whole spiritual and philosophical education of the Nazi Party.
It was precisely this position which gave Rosenberg his seat in the Reichsleitung, the Central staff of the Party comprising all the Reichsleiter. But emphasis is placed not merely upon the fact that anti-Christs, such as the Defendants Bormann and Rosenberg, held directive positions within the Leadership Corps, but upon the further fact that their directives and orders were passed down the chain of command of the Leadership Corps, and caused the participation of its membership in acts subversive of the Christian Church.
In Document No. D-75, which I believe has previously been introduced, and I'm just going to quote one line from it, the Defendant Bormann stated:
"Nazism and Christianity are irreconcilable concepts." by his prophesy as to which of the two would first pass away. destruction of the free trade unions, and the imposition of conspiratorial control over the productive labor of the German nation. for the destruction of the independent trade unions has been previously introduced in evidence in the U.S.A. Exhibit G which was the document book containing the evidentiary materials relating to the destruction of the trade unions. The brief evidence, which I shall now present, is offered to prove the responsibility of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party for the smashing of the independent unions and the imposition of conspiratorial control over the productive labor capacity of the German nation. Corps participated in the smashing and dissolution of the independent trade unions of Germany. The Defendant Robert Ley, precisely by virtue of his office as Reich Organization Leader and Reichsleiter in the Leadership Corps, was directed by Hitler in mid-April 1939 to smash the independent unions.
I will pass on over now to Document 392, U.S.A. Exhibit No. 326, and I quote, beginning at the top of page 1 of the English translation:
"On Tuesday, 2 May 1933, the coordination action of the "The essential part of the action is to be directed against "Anything beyond that which is dependent upon the free trade unions is left to the discretion of the Gauleiter's judgement.
"The Gauleiter are responsible for the execution of the coord ination action in the individual areas.
Supporters of the "The Gauleiter is to proceed with his measures on a basis of "In the Reich, the following will be occupied:
The directing offices of the unions" to be taken into protective custody.
The next provision:
"Exceptions are granted only with the permission of the Gau "It is understood that this action is to proceed in a strongly disciplined fashion.
The Gauleiter are responsible in this respect.
They are to hold the direction of the action (signed) Dr. Robert Ley". The defendant Ley's order for the dissolution of the independent trade unions was carried out as planned and directed.
Trade union premises all over Germany were occupied by the SA and the unions dissolved. On the 2nd of May 1933, the official NSDAP Press Service reported that the National Socialist Factory Cells Organization (NSBO) had "eliminated the old leadership of Free Trade Unions" and taken over their leadership.
I now offer in evidence Document 2224-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit No.364, which are pages 1 and 2 of the 2nd of May 1933 issue of the National Socialist Party Press Agency. I quote from paragraph 5 of page 1 of the English translation:
"National Socialism, which today has assumed leadership of the not know a fatherland that is called Germany.
Because of that, the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization (NSBO) has taken over the leadership of the trade unions.
The NSBO has Employees' Federation.
..
(NSBO) took over the leadership of all trade unions; all trade organization."
directed by the Defendant Ley, in his capacity as Reichsleiter in charge of Party Organization, assisted by the Gauleiter and Party Formations, included, the seizure of trade union funds and property. In this connection I offer in evidence Document 1678-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit Nq. 365. This document is a report of a speech by Reichsleiter Ley on the 11th of September 1937, to the 5th annual session of the German Labor Front. In this speech, Ley shamelessly corroborates the confiscation of trade union funds. I quote from paragraph 4 of page 1 of the English translation:
"Once I said to the Fuehrer: 'My Fuehrer, actually I am standing comrades 'Leipart' and 'Imbusch', and should, they some day ask me building things, or otherwise.
But they shall Therefore I would have to be convicted.
' It was very difficult for us all.
Today we laugh about it ....." Unions was advanced by the enactment on 19th May, 1933, of a law which abolished collective bargaining between workers and employers, and replaced it with a regulation of working conditions by Labor Trustees appointed by Hitler.
I refer to document 405-PS, which is the text of the law, 1933 RGBI, I, 285. After providing in Section 1 for the appointment by Hitler of trustees of labor, this law provides, and I quote from Section 2 of the English translation of document 405.
"Until a new revision of the social constitution, the conclusion of labor contracts.
This practice of employers ....." the next step of the Nazi conspirators was to secure the Nazification of the field of industrial relations.
I refer to document No. 1861-PS, which is the text of the law of 20th January, 1934 RGBI, I, 45. This law was entitled the "Law Regulating National Labor," and it imposed the Leadership Principle upon industrial enterprisers and provided in Section I, paragraph 1, that the enterpriser should be the leader of the plant and the workers would "constitute his followers." I now quote from Section 1, paragraph 2 of the first page of document No. 1861-PS.
"The leader of the plant makes the decisions for regulated by this law.
He is responsible for community."
Front, the DAF, an affiliated Party organization. On the very day the 2nd of May, 1933, they publicly proclaimed that a "united front of German workers" would be formed with Hitler as honorary patron at a worker's congress on the 10th of May, 1933.
I quote from the "The National Socialist Party Press Agency is informed that a great workers' congress will Russian House of Lords in Berlin.
The there.
Adolph Hitler will be asked to assume the position of Honorary Patron."
as an instrument forpropagandizing its millions of compulsory members with Nazi ideology. The control of the Leadership Corps over the German Labor Front was assured not only by the designation of Reichsleiter of the Party Organization Ley as head of the DAF, but by the employment of a large number of Politischen Leiter or political leaders, charged with disseminating and imposing Nazi ideology upon the large membership of the DAF. I now cite Document 2271-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit No. 328, which is the Party Organization Book referred to yesterday, pages 185-187, and I quote from the first page of the English translation, the first paragraph:
"The National Socialist Factory Cells Organization, (NSBO), is a union of the political leaders of the NSDAP National Socialistic idea."
fore presented, the Prosecution submits that it is another evidence of crime that the Leadership Corps of the NSDAP was responsible for the plundering of art treasures by the Defendant Reichsleiter Rosenberg's Einsatzstab Rosenberg, and the definition of "Einsatzstab" is a "special staff," and I am told that the word "Einsatz" means "to give action to". In other words, it was a task force, a special staff. connection with the general subject of "Plundering of Art Treasures", and I shall now turn to the document books of the "Plundering of Art Treasures", because the citations now will be in this small book.
I now pass to Your Honors' Document Book "W", and, may I say, diverting from the text, that the trial address, which is very brief, and as I have been told by the Translating Division, has been translated into all four languages, and as I understand, Colonel Dostert mil distributethem to all parties in their respective languages.
reference here to the plundering of art treasures in the occupied portion of Poland, which does not bear directly upon this subject, but does on the general conspiracy; and I thought, in the interest of time, that we might follow the presentation, because it is very brief. which are to be proved at this point, are those dealing with the plunder of public and private property, under Count One, The Common Plan or Conspiracy. It is not my purpose to explore all phases of the ordinary plunder in which the Germans engaged. However, I would bring to the attention of the Tribunal and of the world, the defendants' vast organized systematic program for the cultural impoverishment of virtually every community in Europe, and for the errichment of Germany thereby. Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, and the responsibility of the Leadership Corps in this regard is a responsibility that is shared by the Defendants Rosenberg, Goering, and Keitel, and by the defendant organizations, the General Staff, High Command, Gestapo, the Security Service and the SS. the Einsatzstab Rosenberg, I wish to reveal briefly the independent plundering operations, conducted in the General Government of occupied Poland by authority of the Defendant Goering, and under the supervision of Defendant Frank, the Governor General. Polish art treasures.
Dr. Muehlmann himself gives evidence of this order in Document No. 3042, found in the Document Book last introduced, as US Exhibit 375.
THE PRESIDENT: Are the documents in Book W?
COL. STOREY: Book W; yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: I was asking whether the documents in Book W are placed in order of number in PS?
COL. STOREY: They are; yes, sir; and the first one is found on the first page. I beg your pardon; 3042 would be a numerical order toward the end, your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: I have it. I was merely asking for general information.
COL. STOREY: These are consecutive. I would like to offer this affidavit and to read it in full. In short, it was obtained in Austria.
"Kajetan Muehlmann states under oath:
"I have been a member of the NSDAP since 1 April 1938. I was a Brigadier General (Oberfuehrer) in the SS.
"I was never an illegal Nazi.
"I was the special deputy of the Governor General of Poland, Hans Frank, for the safeguarding of art treasures in the General Government, October 1939 to September 1943.
"Goering, in his function as chairman of the Reich Defense Council, had commissioned me with this duty. Hans Frank, to take into custody all important art treasures which belonged to Polish public institutions, private collections and the Church. I confirm that the art treasures mentioned were actually confiscated, and it is clear to me that they would not have remained in Poland in case of a German victory, but they would have been used to complement German artistic property." Signed and sworn to by Dr. Muehlmann. published officially in the Law of the General Government, and I ask the Court to take judicial knowledge. It's page E.800, art. 1, sec. 1. It's not in the document book. It is just a short quotation, of which we ask the Court to take judicial knowledge.
Quoting:
"All movable and stationary property of the former Polish State will be sequestered for the purpose of securing all manner of public valuables."
In a further decree of 16 December 1939, appearing at page E.810 of the same publication, Frank provided that all art objects in public possession in the General Government were to be seized for the fulfillment of public tasks of common interest, insofar as they had not already been zeized under the decree of 13 November. The decree provided that, in addition to art collections and art objects belonging to the Polish State, there will be considered as owned by the public those private collections which have not already been taken under protection by the Special Commissioner, as well as all ecclesiastical art property. seized on the basis of the decree of 15 November 1939 wall be transferred to the ownership of the General Government, and this decree is also found at page E.810 of the same publication. picture of the vastness of the program for the cultural impoverishment of Poland, carried out pursuant to the directives, as I cannot read into the record the 500-odd masterpieces catalogued in Document 1233-PS, or the many hundreds of additional items catalogued in Document 1709. Now, Document 1233, which I hold in my hand, is a finely bound, beautifully printed catalogue, in which Defendant Frank proudly lists and describes the major works of art which he had plundered for the benefit of the Reich. This volume was captured by the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Division of the Third United States Army, and was found in Frank's home near Munich. The introductory page describes the thoroughness with which the General Government stripped Poland of its cultural possessions. That is quoted in Document 1233-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you hand that up?
COL. STOREY: I am quoting now from the introductory page, the English translation, the first paragraph. I might say by way of explanation that that lists all of the valuable art treasures.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Colonel Storey?
COL. STOREY: I just started to say this book lists the valuable art treasures by titles. I now quote from the introductory page:
"By reason of the decree of 16 December 1939 by the Governor General of the Occupied Polish Territories, the Special Commissioner for securing objects of art and culture was able to seize within six months almost all of the art objects of the country, with one exception: a series of Flemish Gobelins of the Castle of Cracow. According to the latest information, these are now in France, so that subsequent seizure will be possible." references to paintings by German, Italian, Dutch, French and Spanish masters, rare illustrated books, Indian and Persian miniatures, woodcuts, the famous Veit-Stoss hand-carved altar (created here in Nurnberg and purchased for use in Poland), handicraft articles of gold and silver, antique articles of crystal, glass and porcelain, tapestries, antique weapons, rare coins and medals.
These articles were seized, as indicated in the catalog, from public and private sources, including the National Museums in Cracow and Warsaw, the cathedrals of Warsaw and Lublin, a number of churches and monasteries, university libraries, and a great many private collections of Polish nobility. 1233-PS. It is the one just introduced in evidence, and the Document bearing our number 1709-PS. This latter report, in addition to listing the 521 major items described in the catalog, lists many other items, though generally no less important from an artistic standpoint, and were considered by the Germans to be of secondary importance from the standpoint of view of the Reich. attempted to conceal his real purpose in seizing these works of art. The cover of the catalog itself states that the objects listed were secured and safeguarded. Strangely enough, it was found necessary to safeguard some of the objects by transporting them to Berlin and depositing them in the depot of the Special Deputy or in the safe of the Deutschebank, as is indicated on page 80 of Document 1709--PS, U.S. Exhibit 378. The items referred to as having been transported to Berlin are listed in the catalog of objects safeguarded as being numbers 4, 17, 27, 35, and so on. Thirtyone extremely valuable and world-renowned sketches of Albrecht Durer, taken from the collection of Lubomierski in Lemberg, were likewise safeguarded. At page 68 of this report, Dr. Muehlmann states that he personally handed these sketches to Goering, who took them to the Fuehrer at his headquarters. as well as other dinnerware, were also safeguarded by Frank, who had the Special Deputy deliver these objects to an architect for the purpose of furnishing the castle at Cracow and the Schloss Kressendorf, which were the residences of the Governor General. It was apparently Frank's belief that these items would be safer in his possession, used to grace his table and dazzle his guests, than they would be in the possession of the rightful owners.
of Poland was seized for the use of Germany, and would never have been returned in the event of German victory. Dr. Muehlmann, a noted German art authority, who directed the seizure program for the period of four years and was endowed by Frank with sufficient authority to promulgate decrees generally applicable throughout the territory, has stated the objectives of the program in no uncertain terms in the affidavit to which I have just referred. Einsatzstab Rosenberg, an organization which planned and directed the looting of the cultural treasures of nearly all Europe. To obtain a full conception of the vastness of this looting program, it will be necessary to envision Europe as a treasure-house in which is stored the major portion of the artistic and literary product of two thousand years of Western Civilization. It will further be necessary to envision the forcing of this treasure-house by a horde of vandals, bent on systematically removing to the Reich these treasures, which are, in a sense, the heritage of all of us, to keep then there for the enjoyment and enlightenment of Germans alone. Unique in history, this art seizure program staggers one's imagination and challenges ones credulity. The documents which I am about to offer in evidence will present undeniable proof of the execution of the policy to strip the occupied countries of the accumulated product of centuries of devotion to art and the pursuit of learning. offer all the documents and all the details, because our Soviet and French colleagues will offer a great many of the detailed documents in support of their case on War Crimes. That is an order of Hitler dated the 29th of January 1940, which set into motion the art seizure program that was to envelop the continent. Here is the original. I call your Horrors' attention to this original, being signed by Adolf Hitler, and I believe it is in the famous Jumbo type.