Chapter XXXV: Part I: , Page 1579, date 12 November 1938, signed by the Defendant (4)

“The Reichsführer SS”—Himmler—“developed additional trains of
ideas to the effect that, in the first 5-year plan for
resettlement after the war, the new German Eastern territories
should first be filled; it is intended afterwards to provide the
Crimea and the Baltic countries with a German upper class at
least. Into the Government General, perhaps, further German
island settlements should be newly transplanted from European
nations. An exact decision in this respect, however, has not
been issued. In any case, it is wished that at first a heavy
colonization along the San and the Bug be achieved so that the
parts of Poland with alien populations are encircled. Hitherto,
it has been always proved that this kind of encircling leads
most quickly to the desired nationalization.”

In this same connection, I offer in evidence Document Number 2233(h)-PS. This is Defendant Frank’s diary, 1941, Volume II, Page 317. This is Exhibit Number USA-311. I quote from the last sentence at the bottom of our Page 3 of the English text of this exhibit. In the German text this passage appears on Page 317, lines 25 to 28. Defendant Frank stated in this diary, and I quote:

“Thanks to the heroic courage of our soldiers this territory has
become German; and the time will come when the valley of the
Vistula, from its source to its mouth at the sea, will be as
German as the valley of the Rhine.”

I now turn to another phase of the program that I mentioned earlier, that is the conspirators’ plan to confiscate the property of Poles, Jews, and dissident elements. As I previously mentioned, the evidence will show that these plans were designed to accomplish a number of objectives. Insofar as the Jews were concerned, they were part and parcel of the conspirators’ overall program of extermination. Confiscation was also a means of providing property for German settlers and of rewarding those who had rendered faithful service to the Nazi State. This phase of their program likewise made available dispossessed Polish farmers for slave labor in Germany and operated to further the conspirators’ objective of preventing the growth of another generation of Poles.

Proof of the fact that the conspirators confiscated the property of Poles in furtherance of their Germanization and slave labor program is contained in Document Number 1352-PS, previously introduced by Mr. Dodd as Exhibit Number USA-176. This exhibit contains a number of reports by one Kusche, who appears to have been one of Himmler’s chief deputies in Poland. Mr. Dodd quoted from one of Kusche’s confidential reports, dated 22 May 1940, at our Page 4, Paragraph 5 of the English text. In the German text it is at Page 9, lines 16 to 18. In this statement Kusche pointed out that it was possible, without difficulty, to confiscate small farms and that—and I now quote:

“The former owners of Polish farms together with their families
will be transferred to the Old Reich by the labor offices for
employment as farm workers.”

I now desire to quote from another report by Kusche contained in the same exhibit and bearing the same date, 22 May 1940. I think the upper right-hand corner numbers might simplify it. The report from which I now quote is marked “secret” and is entitled, “. . . Details of the Confiscation in the Bielsko Region.” Initially, I should like to quote from the last paragraph at the bottom of Page 1 of this exhibit. This exhibit, you will recall, is 1352-PS, last paragraph at the bottom of Page 1. The German text is at Page 11, Paragraphs 1 and 2. Kusche stated, and I quote:

“Some days ago the commandant of the concentration camp being
built at Auschwitz called on Staff Leader Müller and requested
support for the carrying out of his assignments. He said that it
was absolutely necessary to confiscate the agricultural
enterprises within a certain area around the concentration camp,
since not only the fields but also in some cases the farm houses
of these border directly on the concentration camp. A local
inspection held on the 21st of this month revealed the
following:

“There is no room for doubt that agricultural enterprises
bordering on the concentration camp must be confiscated at once.
In addition, the camp commandant requests that further plots of
farm land be placed at his disposal, so that he can keep the
prisoners busy. This, too, can be done without difficulty since
enough land can be made available for the purpose. The owners of
the plots are all Poles.”

I next quote from Page 2, lines 22 to 31, of the English text of this same exhibit. The German text is at Page 12, Paragraph 2, continuing through to line 22 from the top of the page. I quote:

“I had the following discussion with the chief of the labor
office in Bielsko:

“The lack of agricultural laborers still exists in the Old
Reich. The transfer of the previous owners of the confiscated
agricultural enterprises to the Reich as farm workers, together
with their entire families, is possible without any difficulty.
It is only necessary for the labor office to receive the lists
of the persons in time, in order to enable it to take the
necessary steps (collection of transportation; distribution over
the various regions in need of such labor).”

Finally, I quote from Page 3 of this same exhibit, lines 6 to 13 of the English text. The German text appears at Page 13, the last three lines, continuing through to Page 14, line 9:

“The confiscation of these Polish enterprises in Alzen will also
be carried out within the next few days. The commandant of the
concentration camp will furnish SS men and a truck for the
execution of the action. Should it not yet be possible to take
the Poles from Alzen to Auschwitz”—and Auschwitz, Your Honors
will recall, is where the concentration camp was—“they should
be transferred to the empty castle at Zator. The liberated
Polish property is to be given to the needy racial German
farmers for their use.”

In order to regularize the program of confiscation, Defendant Göring issued a decree on September 17, 1940. This decree appears in the _Reichsgesetzblatt_, 1940, Part I, Page 1270; and I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of it. Under Section 2 of this decree sequestration of movable and immovable property, stores, and other intangible property, interests of Jews and “persons who have fled or are not merely temporarily absent”, was made mandatory. In addition, sequestration was authorized under Section 2, Subsection 2, if the property was required “for the public welfare, particularly in the interests of Reich defense or the strengthening of German folkdom.” By Section 9 of this decree, issued by Defendant Göring, confiscation of sequestrated property was authorized “if the public welfare, particularly the defense of the Reich, or the strengthening of German folkdom, so requires.” However,