1. The guaranteeing of food for many years ahead to the German Armed Forces and to the German civilian population."
the aims of the attack on the USSR is given. Of course, it does not exhaust these aims. This aim did not consist of the pillage of provisions alone and this pillage was far from being limited to provisions alone. But this is only an extract from the "file of the agricultural fuehrer", and it was not they alone who received and carried out tasks of pillage.
Altogether, the "file" contins the following sections of a carefully thought out and extremely concrete program for the plunder of the Soviet Union's agriculture. I read the table of contents. Your Honors wall find this document on page 68 of the document book.
"1. 12 Commandments 2. Main Agricultural directives.
3. Organization chart.
4. Instructions for the regional agricultural leader 5. Instructions on securing personnel.
6. State Farms: Directives on taking over and managing of "7. Directives for taking over and managing collective farms.
"8. Agricultural machine depots, directives about the administration.
"9. Directives for bookkeeping.
"10. Furnishing food supplies for the cities.
"11. Schedules of agricultural work.
"12. Price lists." document, consisting of 98 typewritten pages. It has been already presented in full to the Tribunal to be included in the record of the trial. document, consisting of 98 typewritten pages. I present it to the Tribunal in its entirety, for adding to the materials of the trial, as one of numerous proofs of the despoliation and plunder of private, public and state property, prepared and organized by the major War Criminals on the territory of the USSR. colleagues on the 10th December of last year as USA 147, I shall read only a few short lines. This document is a note of the record of a speech by Rosenberg at a secret conference on the 20th June 1941, dealing with "Questions of the East."
In his speech, Rosenberg stated particularly:
"... In these years the German national feeding problem undeniably situation.
We certainly do not consider ourselves obliged, in these fertile regions, to feed the Russian people as well.
We know that this is a cruel necessity, far beyond all humane feelings.
It will the Russians are fated to live through some very hard years."
set themselves when preparing the attack on the Soviet Union. who had just arrived from Hitler's headquarters spoke at the conference in Rovno. The record of this conference was found in Rosenberg's archives. This document was given to us by our American colleagues. It isregistered as 264-PS, but it has not been presented to the Tribunal, and I present it as USSR Exhibit No. 284.
I read into the record an excerpt from this record. The members of the Tribunal will find it on page 74 in the document book. I read:
"He (Koch) explained the political situation and his tasks as Reichskommissar" by the following:
A free Ukraine does not exist.
It must be our goal to have the Ukrainians work for Germany, and not to make the people here happy.
The Ukraine will have to deliver what Germany is lacking.
This task will "...The Fuehrer has ordered 3 million tens of grain from the Ukraine for the Reich, and they have to be delivered.
.." of grain - was exceeded by the Hitlerite plunderers, whose avid appetites grew from month to month. the criminal Hitlerite government, theorganisational plan of the special machinery for carrying out organised plunder being worked cut, and concrete methods for pillaging the occupied territories being planned.
(Green File)
With the Tribunal's permission, I shall read extracts from a secret document, from Reichsmarshall Goering, which was captured by units of the Red Army. This document bears the title: "Directives for the direction of economy" ("Green file") and parts of it have already been mentioned by my American colleagues. This document is presented by the Strict Prosecution as USSR-10.
On the title page of this document it says, Page 76 of the document book:
Documents (Documents of State Importance) until X-day; after X-day they Part I. Economic tasks and organization.
Berlin, June 1941.
Printed by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces."
As is clear from the text of the document, these "directives" were given out directly before Germany's attack on the USSR and were intended "for the orientation of the military command and the war-economy authorities in the sphere of economic tasks in the Eastern territories about to be occupied."
In setting forth the "main economic tasks", the "directives" state in their first paragraphs:
"1. According to the Fuehrer's order, it is essential to adopt the interests of Germany, of the Occupied Territories.
Any measure "2. The exploitation of the occupied regions should, primararily, provisions.
To obtain the greatest possible quantity of food and crude technically possible, in order to safeguard trade in these regions."
the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 78:
"The idea that order should be restored in the Occupied Territories and their economic life re-established as soon as possible is entirely out of place. On the contrary, our attitude towards different parts of the country should vary very greatly. Order should only be restored in such regions where we can obtain considerable reserves of agricultural products or of crude oil."
Soviet Union provided in detail for the removal from the USSR to Germany of all raw materials all stocks and stores of goods found, and also for the general plundering of the civilian population. I cite for this contention excerpts from this document, so that I shall not have to read the whole document in full. The members of the Tribunal will find the excerpts on page 83 of the document book.
"All raw material essential to us, all semi-manufactured and finished products should be with drawn from commerce by means of orders, requisitions and confiscations."
Page 88:
"The immediate collection and transportation to Germany of platinum, magnesium and rubber. From the section 'Raw Material and the Exploitation of Commercial Resources'.)
Page 87, reverse side:
"Food products Discovered in the combat and rear zones, as well as the products for personal use and clothing are of the utmost importance in the administration of the military and economic department."
Page 83 reverse side:
In the section of the Directives entitled "The Organization of Economy" we find a specially formed apparatus with wide ramifications which was to carry out this organized plunder of the USSR. I shall read a series of excerpts from this section. The members of the Tribunal will find it on page 79 of the document book.
"A. General questions. activities, as well as in the administrative areas which shall be established, the Reichsmarshal has organized:
"An Eastern Staff for Economic Leadership; subordinated directly to him, and headed by a Representative of Reichsmarshal State-Secretary Koerner...".
Second excerpt:
"The orders of the Reichsmarshal concern all economic spheres, including food supply and rural economy."
it definitively established that the defendant Goering was not only personally at the head of the preparations for the plunder of private, public and state property, but later on directly led the vast apparatus specially formed for these criminal purposes. by the following extracts from the "Green File". I reads "Organization of Economic Administration:
"B. Theater of Military Activities.
1. The military and economic establishments of the Eastern Economic Staff, in so far as their activities cover the theater of military activities are incorporated in the Army Staffs...
a/ In the rear of the Army Groups:
b/ In the rear of the Army:
One Economic Section apiece (or one signal Service liaison officer from the Administrative Department in charge of Economy and Armaments).of the Region; in addition as and when necessary, Economic Commands concerned, to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army."
Further on, in paragraph 4 of this some section, under the title "Structure of the Individual Economic Institutions", the whole plan of construction of the Eastern Economic Staff is cited as follows. I shall cite it in my own words in order to save time. The members of the Tribunal will find the document to which I refer on Page 79 reverse side, in the document book: Chief of the economic staff with the leadership group; group La, in charge of industrial supplies and agriculture, running "the whole of agricultural production and also the supply of provisions for the army.";
banking economy, property and trade;
Group in charge of armaments industry economy and, transport economy;
"Economic inspectorates" attached to army groups, directing the "economic exploitation of the rear area";
"Economic commands", organized "in the zone of each security division", consistent of special officers and some specialists in the different fields of the work and also with special subdivisions" for the maintenance of the means of production "and for the "conservation of raw materials".
"Economic groups attached to the field commands", among whose duties is "The supply of the current needs of the troops stationed within the sphere of activity of the field command and also the preparation of the economic exploitation of the country in the interests of war economy". To these economic groups were attached specialists in the exploitation of labour, in food production and agriculture, industrial economy and general economic questions;
"Economic detachments", attached to the Supreme Commando of the Army, with special technical battalions and platoons, and also special "intelligence subdivisions for industrial economy, particularly for raw materials and mineral oil, and subdivision for discovering and guarding agricultural produce and machiner, including tractors". divisions for mineral oil - battalions and platoons - and also so-called companies for mining industry. plunderers of all ranks and specialities was provided for, prepared, trained and drilled in advance for the organized pillage and looting of the USSR's national property. "Green File". I shall limit myself to enumerating its remaining sections, which hear the following titles: Page 77 in the document book:
"Carrying out of individual economic tasks."
"Economic transport."
"Problems of military protection of economy."
"Procurement of supplies for the troops out of the resources of "Utilization of man power, particularly of the local population."
"Trophies of war, paid labor; captured material; prize courts."
"Economic objectives of war industries."
"Raw materials and utilization of goods available."
"Finance and credit."
"Foreign trade end clearings."
"Price control."
Thus the plunder of absolutely every branch of the USSR's national economy was provided for.
To conclude, I will read into the record Keitel's order, dated the 16 June 1941, in which, six days before the attack on the USSR, he ordered all military units of the German army to be ready to execute all the directives of the "Green File."
I will now read this order: You will find this, Your Honors, on page 89, the reverse side.
"By direction of the Fuehrer the Reichsmarshal has issued the "Directives" for the Administration of Economy" for the territories to be occupied.
"These directives were intended for the guidance of the military command and economic agencies concerning the economic tasks within the Eastern territories to be occupied. They contain direction on how the resources of the country should be exploited for the supply of the Army, and order Army units to assist the economic agencies. Army units will comply with these directions and orders.
"The immediate and full exploitation of the occupied territories in the interest of Germany's war economy, especially in the field of food and fuel supply, is of extreme importance for the further conduct of the war."
For this purpose it is require:
1. That the discovered supplies of food, raw materials and fuel be used by the Army only in case it is required by the military situation and the execution of military tasks. Truck tractors must not be taken away from the tractor-stations and the supplies of oil, discovered there, must not be used.
2. That the supplies not used by the Army, be protected from theft and purposeless disposition prior to their removal.
3. That the economic agencies, created by the Economy and Armaments Administration in the zone of operations have effective aid from all Army units and military establishments. Provided the military situation permits the demands of the economic agencies should be met as far as possible with respect to:
a) the supplying of guards for large warehouses and industries (oil and ethers).
b) the procurement of labor, horse-drawn vehicles and trucks, and, if need be, also fuel for the transportation of grain to large elevators.
c) the provision of available transportation facilities for the shipment to Germany of all goods in short supply.
how the directives of the "Green File" should be executed, and I read only the last paragraph of the order:
"With the help of the field and local headquarters, set up in the most important agricultural and oil bearing districts, the exploitation of the country must be carried out on a wide scale.
Keitel."
The final sentence of this document, which says that "the exploitation of the country must be carried out on a wide scale", was taken up by units pf the German army for carrying it out, and the occupied regions of the USSR were, from the very first days of the war, subjected to the moat merciless plunder.
of original German documents, orders, directives, instructions, decrees, and so forth, coming from military chiefs of various ranks and titles.
Meanwhile, to finish with the "Green File," I may in conclusion state that this striking document is conclusive evidence of the remarkable qualifications for plunder and vast experience in brigandage of the Hitlerite conspirators. conceived on a wide scale and elaborated in detail by the conspirators, began to be put into practice literally from the very first days of the attack on the USSR. formed for this purpose, an apparatus consisting of all kinds of "agricultrual leaders," "inspectors," "specialists in economies," "technical and intelligence batallions and companies," "economic groups and detachments," "military agronomists," and so forth, the so-called "material interest" of the German soldiers and officers, who received unlimited possibilities for robbing the civilian population and sending their booty to Germany, was all widely encourage by the Hitlerite government and the Supreme Command of the German Army. villages of the occupied territories of the USSR and the mass removal to Germany of the personal property of Soviet citizens, and also property collected from cooperative and state farms, and property of the State, was carried out wherever the German Fascist aggressors appeared, according to a plan thought out well in advance. ment documents on this question.
Notes of the Peoples Commissar for Foreign Affairs:
A few months after Hitlerite Germany's treacherous attack on the USSR, the Soviet Government had already received the series of incontrovertible data about the war crimes committed by the Hitlerite armies in the Soviet territories occupied by them.
a note of the Peoples Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Molotov, dated the 6th of January 1942. a few excerpts from this note which have a direct bearing on the subject of my presentation. You will find the paragraphs underlined on page 99 of the reverse side:
"Every step of the German Fascist army and its allies on the occupied Soviet territory of the Ukraine and Moldavia, Byelo-Russia and Lithuania, Latvia and Esthonia, the Karelo-Finnish territory and the Russian Districts and regions is marked by the ruin or destruction of countless material and cultural values."
The last paragraph of this quotation:
"In the villages occupied by German authorities the peaceful farming population is subjected to unrestrained depredation and robbery. The farmers are deprived of their property, acquired by whole decades of persistent toil, deprived of their houses, cattle, grain, clothing -- of everything, down to the last little shirt of their children and the last hadful of grain. In many instances the rural population, including old people, women and children, are driven out of their dwellings by the Germans as soon as they occupy the village, and are compelled to seek shelter in mud huts, dugouts, the forest, or even under the open sky. In broad daylight the invaders strip the clothing and footgear from anyone they meet on the rood, including children, savagely illtreating those who try to protest or offer any kind of resistance to such highway robbery.
"In the villages of the Rostov and Voroshilovgrad Regions in the Ukraine now freed by the Red Army, the farmers were plundered time and time again by the invaders as successive German army units passed through the given locality and each unit renewed the searches, lootings, and executions for failure to deliver up provisions. The same thing took place in the Moscow, Kalinin, Tula, Orel, Leningrad, and other regions, from which the remnants of the German troops are now being driven by the Red Army."
note, and only in my own words shall report to the Tribunal. A whole series of concrete established facts of the looting of the peaceful population of different regions in the Soviet Union are being quoted in this note, and the names of the victims of these lootings are directly quoted in this. Since all these cases are very similar one to another, I will limit my presentation only by a short quotation from this note of Commissar Molotov. book.
"The marauding proclivities of the German officers and soldiers have spread to all the Soviet areas they have seized. The German authorities have legitimatized marauding in their armies and encourage looting and violence. The German Government sees in this practice the realization of their bandit principle that every German combatant must feel "a personal interest in the war." Thus, in a confidential order of July 1, 1941, addressed to all commanders of propaganda squads in the German army and discovered by Red Army troops when they routed the 68th German Infantry Division, explicit instructions are given to 'foster in every officer and soldier of the German army the feeling that he has a material interest at stake in the war.' Orders of the same kind instigating the army to mass looting and murder of the civil population are issued by the armies of the countries fighting on the side of Germany as well.
"On the German-Soviet front, and especially at the approaches to Moscow, more and more Fascist officers and soldiers are appearing dressed in pilfered clothes, their pockets crammed with stolen goods and their tanks stuffed with women's and children's wearing apparel that they have tom from the bodies of their victims. The German army is becoming more and more an army of ravenous thieves and marauders, who are looting and sacking flourishing towns and villages of the Soviet Union, ravaging and destroying the property and belongings of the laboring population of our villages and towns, the fruit of its honest toil. These are facts testifying to the extreme moral depravity and degeneracy of the Hitlerite army, whose looting, thievery and marauding have earned it the contempt and wrathful execrations of the whole Soviet people."
the information which continued to come in regarding the crimes committed by the German Fascist armies, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Molotov, published for the second time a note on the monstrous crimes, atrocities and acts of violence of the German Fascist invaders in the occupied Soviet areas, and the responsibility of the German Government and military command for these crimes.
THE PRESIDENT: General, what do you mean by "published?"
MR. SHEYNIN: What I mean is that this note was first sent to all the governments with whom the USSR Government maintained diplomatic relations, and, furthermore, the text of this note was published in the Soviet official press. as USSR Exhibit 51. I also, in very brief form, shall read a few excerpts from this document which have a direct bearing on the subject of my presentation.
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps we had better adjourn now, and you can read it after the adjournment.
(A recess was taken until 1400 hours).
THE MARSHAL: May it please the Court: I desire to announce the defendant Streicher will be absent on account of illness.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn.
(A recess was taken)
THE PRESIDENT: Owing to the delay the Tribunal will sit until half past five tonight without further adjournment.
COLONEL SHEYNIN: I had been reading into the record excerpts from a note, and in order to save time in presenting this information I shall try to quote only the few most essential excerpts from this note.
I read the following excerpts. The last paragraph on page forty-four of my presentation in Russian.
The appendix to Special Order No. 43761/41 of the Operative Department of the General Staff of the German army states:
"It is imperative to acquire clothing through compulsory imposition on the population of the occupied regions, resorting to any means for this purpose. It is most essential to appropriate wollen and leather gloves, coats, vests, and scarves, padded vests and trousers, leather and felt boots, and puttees." instructions of the Command.
"Property such as scales, sacks, grain, salt, kerosene, benzine, lamps, pots and pans, oilcloths, window blinds, curtains, rugs, phonographs, and records must be turned into the Commandant's office. Persons guilty of violating the present order will be shot."
In the town of Istra, Moscow Region, the invaders "confiscated" New Year's tree ornaments and toys. In the Shakhovskaya railway station they organized the "delivery" by the inhabitants of children's underwear, wall clocks and samovars. In the districts as yet under the rule of the invaders, the searching and plundering of the population, already reduced to pauperism by the acts of banditry which have not ceased from the very first hour of the appearance of the German troops, are still continuing."
last paragraph.
"The universal nature of the brigandage planned by the Hitler government, on which the German Command is endeavouring to base the supply of its army and rear, is characterized by the following facts: In only 25 districts of the Tula Region the invaders appropriated from Soviet citizens 14,048 cows, 11,860 hogs, 28,459 sheep, 213,678 chickens, geese and ducks, and destroyed 25,465 beehives." from twenty-five districts of the Tula Region, Your Honors. crimes and cases of plunder committed by the Hitlerites on Soviet soil. documents from which you will see how the German Commanders and officials themselves characterized their soldiers' behaviour. the effect that German soldiers and officers should not be hindered in their marauding activities. It is natural that under these conditions the moral disintegration of the German-Fascist armies should reach its culminating point. Things reached such a point that the Hitlerites began to plunder each other in accordance with the well-known Russian proverb "A thief stole a cudgel from a thief." as USSR-285? Here is an extract from a report of the German District Commissar of Zhitomir to the Commissar-General of Zhitomir dated the 30th of November 1943. You will find the document to which I refer on page ninetythree in the document book, and I read:
"...already before the German administration left Zhitomir, it could be observed that the troops stationed there broke into the apartments of Reich Germans and appropriated everything that was of any value. Even the personal belongings of these Germans still working in their offices was stolen. When the town was recaptured it was established that the German lodgings were hardly touched by the local population, but that the troops which had just begun to enter the town had already started to pillage the billets and factories ..."
I read the second excerpt from the same document:
"The soldiers are not satisfied with taking all useful equipment, but they partly destroyed the remaining items; used valuable furniture for fires; although there was sufficient cut wood...." German District Commissar of the town of Korostyshcv to the Commissar-General of Zhitomir. The members of the Tribunal may refer to the excerpt on page 94 in the document file.
"...the behavior of German soldiers, unfortunately, was bad. Unlike the Russians they broke into the storehouses even when the front line was still far away. Grain, including the stocks of seed, was stolen in enormous quantities. That might have been tolerated with regard to combat units....Upon the return of our troops to Popelnaya, the storehouses were broken into immediately. 'Gebitz' and 'Kreislandwirt' nailed up the doors again, but the soldiers, however, broke in once more."
I read into the record other excerpts from the same document:
"...The 'Kreislandwirt' reported to me that the dairy farm was plundered by retreating units."
And the second excerpt:
"Thus the cooperative store was plundered in the presence of Ukrainians, and soldiers, among other things, took with them also all the cash in the store...."
Then the third excerpt:
"...On the 9th and 10th of this month the guards of the field-gendarmer:
were posted at the cooperative store. These guards could not resist the onslaught of the soldiers...."
And the last excerpt:
"...Pigs and fowls were slaughtered in the most irresponsible manner and taken away by the soldiers. The troops themselves presented a disastrous appearance." characterized by a German Commissar himself in his official report. so as it is very colourfully supplemented by an official report of the German "Ukrainian Company for Procuring Supplies for Agriculture," addressed to the Commissar-General of Zhitomir. Here is how this report describes the results of a raid by German soldiers on the company's premises:
"...The Office was in an incredible and devastated condition."
Second excerpt: "...A private house on the Hauptstrasse No.57 (20 rooms) bore a terrifying appearance. Carpets and mats were missing, and there were no more upholstered armchairs and couches or beds with spring mattresses, chairs, or wooden armchairs."
I skip a few lines. The condition of all those residential buildings is hard to describe, and I omit two more excerpts from the document and continue.
Such, your Honors, is the "cry of the heart" of the German brigands of the "Company for the Economic Mastery of the Ukraine", who in their turn complain about the brigands in the German Army. Korostyshov that such occurrences took place, I shall quote yet another report, this time by the Commissar of the Kazatinsky district, which literally states the following, and I quote:
"...The German soldiers stole food, cattle, and conveyances." no less significant details.
"Threatening him with a pistol, the Lance Corporal demanded the keys of the barn from the District Commissar. In reply to my statement that the "keys were in my pocket, he yelled 'Give me the key', dragged out the pistol, stuck it against my chest, and shouted:
'I shall shoot you -- you are a saboteur', and added a few more swearwords to his remark. He forcibly searched my pocket and seized the key, saying 'I alone give orders. You Sonderfuehrer, or whatever else you call yourself, are only allowed to send eggs and things to the Fatherland.' This occurred in the presence of numerous Germans and Ukrainians."
In another report of the Chief of the Head Department, Dr. Moisich, to the Commissar General of Zhitomir, dated the 4th of December 1943 -- for the sake of saving time I shall not read it into the record. All these documents are being presented in their original form to the Tribunal by our American colleagues, under number 288-PS. They have not been submitted to the Tribunal before. Soviet Prosecution's possession, because what I have already read suffices to characterise the conduct of the German soldiers. property of the Soviet inhabitants and to that of the Soviet public and state institutions. reports of the Extraordinary State Commission in reference to crimes of German usurpers and their adherents. the briefest excerpts from this report, so that I can render it in my own words. State Commission dealing with the destruction, looting and atrocities perpetrated by the Hitlerites in the city of Rovno and in the region of Rovno, submitted to the Tribunal as No. USSR-45. The part which deals with these acts is stated as follows, and I quote:
"During the entire period of their stay in Rovno and the Rovno region, Hitlerite officers, men and civil servants unrestrainedly plundered the peaceful Soviet citizens and looted the property of cultural Educational Institutions.
mentioned in a report of the Extraordinary State Commission, regarding the atrocities committed by the Hitlerites in Kiev, submitted to the Tribunal as No. USSR-9. This particularly emphasizes the following, that the Hitlerites in Kiev plundered the peaceful population. I quote brief extracts:
"...The German occupational forces in the city of Kiev plundered and carried off into Germany the equipment of industrial undertakings; the buildings themselves were blown up and burned."