In his tesitmony, Foerster stated:
"In August 1941, while I was in Berlin, through the help of my old acquaintance at the University of Berlin, Dr. Focke, who was working in the Press Division of the Ministre for Foreign Affairs, I was detached from the 87th Antitank Battalion and assigned to the Special Purposes Battalion of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. This battalion was formed on the initiative of Ribbentrop, the Foreign Minister, and acted under his direction. The task of the Special Purpose Battalion consisted of seizing immediately, after the fall of large cities, cultural and historical treasures and the libraries of institutions of learning, and in selecting valuable editions of books and films and then sending all these to Germany. And further:
"We obtained righ trophies in the library of the Ukranian Acedemy of Science, where very rare manuscripts of Persian, Abyssinian, and Chinese literature, Russian and Ukrainian chronicles; and the first copies of books printed by the first Russian printer, Ivan Fedorov; and rare editions of works by Shevtchenko, Mitzkevitch, and Ivan Franko were kept." towns, and national cultural monuments, the Hitlerites also mocked at the religious feelings of the believers amont the Soviet population. Greek-Orthodox churches, 237 Romen Catholic churches, sixty-nine chapels, 532 synagogues, and 258 other buildings belonging to religious institutions. Monastery, built in 1073, and with it eight monastery buildings. Borisoglebski Cathedral, built at the beginning of the 12th Centruy; the Cathedral of the Efrosiniev Manastery of Polotzk, built in 1160, and the Church of Paraskeva-Piatnize-in-the-Market, a very valuable monument of 12th Century Russian achitecture.
ancient monasteries, the famous church of Spas-Nereditza, and a series of other churches were destroyed by the Hitlerites.
The German soldiers *ooffed at the religious feelings of the people. They dressed up in church vestments, kept horses and dogs in the churches, and made bunks out of the ikons. clother corpses of tortured Red Army prisoners of war stacked up in piles. predatory activities of German army units is extremely great. the criminal Hitlerite Government and of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, destroyed and looted Soviet towns and villages; industrial establishments and collective farms taken by them; destroyed works of art; demolished, stole, and removed to Germany machinery, stocks of raw and other materials and finished goods, art and historic treasures; and carried out the general plundering of the urban and rural population. In the territories of the Soviet Union, which suffered occupation, 88,000,000 persons lived before the war; gross industrial production amounted to forty-six billion roubles at the fixed Government prices of 1926-27; there were 109,000,000 head of livestock, including 31,000,000 head of cattle and 12,000,000 horses, 71,000,000 hectares of cultivated land, and 132,000 kilometres of railway lines. 1,710 towns and more than 70,000 villages and hamlets; burnt or destroyed over 6,000,000 buildings; and rendered some 25,000,000 persons homeless. Among the damaged towns which suffered most were the biggest industrial and cultural centers of Stalingrad, Sebastopol, Leningrad, Keiv, Minsk, Odessa, Smolensk, Novgorod, Pskov, Oral, Kharkov, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, and many others. employing some 4,000,000 workers; they destroyed or removed from the country 239,000 electric motors and 175,000 metal-cutting machines.
stations, 36,000 post and telegraph offices, telephone exchanges, and other communication installations. institutions, 84,000 technical and other schools, universitites and research institutes, and 43,000 public libraries. farms, and 2,890 machine and tractor stations, they slaughtered, took, or drove into Germany 7,000,000 horses, 17,000,000 head of cattle, 20,000,000 pigs, 27,000,000 sheep and goats, and 110,000,000 head of poultry. Hitlerite armies has been placed at a figure of 679 billion roubles at the Government prices of 1941.
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY by the Hitlerites upon all who did not share the "ideology" of the "We deny the protection of law to the enemies of the people.
heartedness and false humaneness. We do not recognize tricky lawyers sophistry and cunning juridical subtilities," wrote Goering as "Thus," spoke Goering, "arose the concentration camps in which and Social-Democratic Party machines."
by Hitler on 2 October, 1940. This document refers to occupied Poland.
It will be submitted to the Tribunal. At the moment I shall as Governor General could be considered very successful:
the Jews "Very soon Cracow will be entirely cleared of Jews.
There must be no Polish landlords," the document went on to state.
"Wherever "All representatives of the Polish intelligentsia must be exterminated.
This sounds brutal, but such is the law of life.
we want. If we find a priest acting otherwise we will make short work of him.
The task of the priest consists in keeping the Poles quiet, stupid and dull-witted.
This is entirely in our interests.
stand above any Pole economically."
Hitler said to Rauschning:
"After all these centuries of whining about the protection of strong against the inferior.
It will be one of the chief tasks of power the further increase of the Slav races.
Natural instincts destroy them.
In former days it was the victor's prerogative to destroy entire tribes, entire peoples."
the witness Erich von den Bach-Zelewsky about Himmler's aims, as Prosecution, the witness declared, "In Himmler's speech it was by 30 million."
In Appendix 2 to Operational Order No. 8 of the Chief of the stated, "It is above all essential to ascertain the identity of all and regional committees, all people's commissars and their deputies, intelligentsia and all Jews."
documents and facts in this connection. The Fascist conspirators My American colleague has already quoted Hitler's statement of the 24th of February, 1942, that "the Jews will be annihilated."
In a speech by the Defendant Frank, published in the "Cracow Gazette" on the 18th of August, 1942, it is stated:
"Anyone who passes through Cracow, Lvov , Warsaw, Radom, or now hardly sees any Jews."
the Ukraine, in Byelorussia, and in the Baltic States. In the town of Riga some 80,000 Jews lived before the German occupation.
At the crimes committed by the Defendants against humanity.
The Soviet an instrument of extermination of peaceful citizens; an instrument themselves to be the representatives of the "Master Race," a thing spread, an arbitrary regime of tyranny; a regime founded on the we have no right to forget the victims who have suffered.
We have bill which must be paid.
This is a bill on behalf of all mankind,
THE PRESIDENT: General Rudenko, your Delegation will be prepared to go on after the adjournment, will you not?
GENERAL RUDENKO: I would prefer that there should now be an
THE PRESIDENT: Do you mean an adjournment altogether for the or fifteen minutes, then continue until five o'clock.
Would that not be convenient to you?
GENERAL RUDENKO: All right: yes, sir.
(A recess was taken.)
GENERAL RUDENKO: If it please your Honors, Colonel Kareyev
COLONEL S. D. KAREYEV: The Soviet Prosecution begins its American, British and French colleagues.
On its part the Soviet Peace, we will submit the following types of documents:
administrative as other documents.
These documents were found by units of the Red This Commission was set up by the decree of the Praesidium of the Supreme Soviet ox the USSR, dated 2 November 1942.
For field work there were set up Republican, Regional. District Municipal Commissions to assist the work of the Extraordinary Government Commission for the Dertimination and Investigation of the Crimes Committed by the German FascistInvaders. Both the central office, as well as the field offices of the Extraordinary State Commission, were composed of prominent statesmen and representatives of different public, research, and cultural organizations, as well as religious denominations. whose assistance representatives of local groups and local state authorities were called in, had collected and checked data and drew up protocols on the atrocities of the German invaders and the damage caused to the Soviet Union and its citizens. peacful citizens, 54,784 protocols were drawn up. In accordance with Article 21 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, these protocols unquestionably represent admissible evidence. Of all these protocols of the Extraordinary State Commission, only a small number will at present be submitted to the Tribunal by the Soviet Prosecution. showing the atrocities and destruction committed by the German invaders in the territorities of the USSR they had temporarily occupied. Part of these photographs will be submitted to the Tribunal. Several documentary films will be offered to the Tribunal in evidence by the Soviet Prosecution. conspirators, the Soviet Prosecution mil also use several German documents photographs and films which were captured from the Germans. The Soviet Prosecution will also submit evidence relative to crimes committed by the defendants and their accomplices against Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia, Among this evidence special mention must be made of the official report be the Czechoslovakian Government entitled "German Crimes against Czechoslovakia." This report was prepared on the direction of the Czechoslovakian Government by the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Dr. Boguslav Echer, the representative of Czechoslovakia in the United Nations Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes.
crimes against Czechoslovakia. Among these documents there are laws, decrees and orders issued and officially published by the German fascist authorities; documents from the archives of the Czechoslovak Government; and affidavits by persons who held prominent positions in Czechoslovakia during the occupation.
It was, in its time, prepared by official German agencies. The film was found by officials of the Czechoslovak!an Ministry of the Interior. as the documents appended thereto, on the strength of Article 21 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, represent unquestionably admissable evidence and will be presented to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit No. 60. crimes perpetrated by the conspirators in Poland. The basic document to be presented on this subject by the Soviet Prosecution will be the report of the Polish Government dated January 22, 1946. The official documents of the Polish Government were the primary source of the report of the Polish Government on the German crimes committed in Poland. Both the official report of the Polish Government and the documents appended thereto, on the strength of Article 21 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, unquestionably represent admissable evidence. concerning the crimes of German aggressors committed on Yugoslav territory. the German Occupation authorities in Yugoslavia was carried out by the Yugoslav State Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Committed by German occupants. The Commission was created on November 29, 1943, by a decision of the Yugoslav Anti-fascist Council for People's Liberation. This Commission, which, from the beginning, has always been presided over by Dr. Douchan Nedelkovitch, professor of the Belgrade University, started its work when half of Yugoslavia was still under the domination of the German, Italian, Hungarian, and other occupants. besides the Yugoslav State Commission, was also carried out by the special eight Federal Commissions.
Exhibit USSR 36. sented by our honorable American, British and French colleague's will, to some extent, be used by the representatives of the Soviet Prosecution. Tribunal the order in which the prosecutors from the USSR will present their case.
The Count dealing with "The Crimes Against Peace (aggression against Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia)", will be presented by the Deputy USSR Chief of Counsel, Colonel Pokrovsky.
The Count dealing with "The Aggression Against the USSR" will be presented by the State Councillor of Justice, Third Class, Zorya. committed in violation of the laws and customs of war relating to the treatment of prisoners of war.
TheCount "The Crimes Against the Peaceful Population of the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia" will be presented by the Senior Councillor of Justice Smirnov.
Report on the subject of the "Plunder of Private, Public, and State Property" will be made by Mr. Sheinin, State Councillor of Justice of the Second Class.
Report on the "Plunder and Destruction of Cultural Treasures" and "Wanton Destruction and Annihilation of Towns and Villages" will be presented by Mr. Raginsky, State Councillor of Justice of the Second Class.
Mr. Zoria, State Councillor of Justice of the Third Class, will speak on the subject of "Forced Labor and Deportation into German Slavery."
Finally, the Senior Councillor of Justice, Mr. Smirnoff, will present the report on the last subject, "Crimes Against Humanity."
COLONEL Y. V. POKROVSKY: May it please Your Honors, the opening statements of the Chief Prosecutors have enlightened us as to how fascist Germany pursued the ideological preparation of aggressive war. peace was revealed in the statement of the USSR Chief of Counsel also. There fore, may I be allowed, to quote just one short extract from Horst von Metsch's book entitled "Krieg als Saat"--"War as Seed"--which was published in Breslau in 1934?
"It is impossible to conceive National Socialism without war. German martial glory is its father; army's finest musketeer is its leader; and war's hardy spirit is its soul."
That is not just a phrase dropped by a garrulous fascist penman; that is a program which is blurted out. War, and only war, was considered by the Hitlerite conspirators as the most effective means of attaining the objectives of their foreign policy. It is, therefore, only natural that Germany was turned into an armed camp and became a constant threat to her neighbors after the fascist had seized power in the country.
In his book "Mein Kampf", which is already at the disposal of the Tribunal, Hitler wrote, as early as 1930; "The movement eastwards is continuing, notwithstanding everything." cite are marked by red pencil. I am quoting:
"The movement eastwards is continuing, notwithstanding everything. Russia must be erased from the list of European powers." (Page 732, 1930 edition). assurances of her intention to live with them in peace, Hitlerite Germany only strove to conceal her real and always aggressive intentions. aggression, etc. They did it, not because they were really striving for peace, next treacherous blow and of lulling the nations of the world into a sense of false security.
Having committed one of their scheduled aggressive acts, they strove, with still greater energy, to convince everybody that from now on they had no longer any aggressive plans.
A combination of hypocrisy and fraud, of treason and aggression, ruled the entire system of German foreign policy. their international obligations or international agreements, including those which directly prohibited the application of war as a solution of international disputes. None of the wars provoked by the Hitlerites can be classified under the conception of "defensive wars." In every case the German fascists acted as aggressors. They admitted, themselves, that they did not hesitate to resort to provocation in order to have an excuse for attacking their next victim at the most propitious moment. were provoked, prepared, initiated and waged by the fascist conspirators. paradise for the fascist aggressors; a paradise built on the bones and blood of the millions of people who inhabited these lands. would submit some new evidence regarding the criminal conspiracy against peace, and also suggested that certain repetitions could not be avoided. Whilst striving to reduce these repetitions to a minimum, I wish to draw the attention of the Tribunal to some of the documents relating to the criminal aggression of the fascist conspirators.
As documentary evidence I submit to the Tribunal USSR Exhibit No. 60, an official Czechoslovak report. It begins with the following significant phrase-- and this sentence will be found on page O of the book of documents, Volume I, page 21.
"Czechoslovakia in obstacle to the German Drang nach Osten-- drive to the east-- and to their domination of Europe." of the aggression against Czechoslovakia.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Pokrovsky, when you want to put in a document in evidence you will produce the original document, will you not, and hand it to the Secretary of the Tribunal?
COLONEL POKROVSKY: Yes, the reporter of the Court.
This is followed by an analysis of the strategic and political aspects of the aggression against Czechoslovakia. I quote, beginning with the second sentence of subparagraph(a), which is marked with a red pencil. I quote: "Czechoslovakia was, indeed, of the greatest strategic importance as a natural obstacle and a fortified barrier against a military drive towards the Danube basin, and from there Eastwards, across the Eastern Carpathians and along the valley of the Danube, towards the Balkans.
The gist of sub-paragraph b. is that Czechoslovakia was a democratic country, and finally sub-paragraph c. gives an analysis of Czechoslovakia from the national point of view.
I shall quote this sub-paragraph as it is formulated in the report.
You will find "c. From the national point of view, Czechoslovakia, as far country, intensely conscious of the unity of all Slavs."
the same pattern. In all cases lightning speed and suddenness of military attack were considered indispensable.
They endeavored to Mr. Aldermann began his presentation of documents by giving several examples of this kind.
He told the Tribunal in detail, and bought with German money.
The same also applies to the Deputy e.g., immediately prior to the day planned for the final entry of Reichs Commissar for consolidation of Germanism (Reichskommissar fuer die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums). As such, he was Foreign Organization of the NSDAP (Auslandsorganisation der NSDAP), abbreviated to AO.
It played an important part in creating the living outside Germany.
Apart from the wide propaganda of Fascism, AO was engaged in political and other kinds of espionage.
Germans guidance of German diplomatic missions.
For this purpose the leader Report.
One of them is registered under number 3061-PS. It deputy of the Reich Protector.
I submit this document to the page of the Russian text, at page 135 of Vol.
1, number 3061-PS from Germany from 1936 onwards.
In 1938 funds were coming in from German Ambassador in Prague.
Frank confirmed that, together with who handed him and Henlein money for the Party.
Frank admits that Czechoslovak citizen.
Frank further admitted that he visited the Vol.
1, part 1, page 184:
"All negotiations in the summer of 1938 between Henlein and authorities."
On page 4 you will find another translation of the document. Frank stated that he was aware of "the treason committed by the Party and putting into effect measures inimical to the State."
This excerpt Tandorf Castle near Reuch.
Henlein himself was the head of the According to Frank the Free Corps was established by Hitler's order.
chiefly Sudeten Germans. This information we find on page 3 of the Russian translation of document number 3061-PS in your book.
It is page 185 of Vol.
1, part 1.