Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

[Cover Illustration]

TRIAL
OF
THE MAJOR WAR CRIMINALS

BEFORE

THE INTERNATIONAL
MILITARY TRIBUNAL

N U R E M B E R G
14 NOVEMBER 1945-1 OCTOBER 1946

P U B L I S H E D A T N U R E M B E R G , G E R M A N Y
1 9 4 7

This volume is published in accordance with the
direction of the International Military Tribunal by
the Secretariat of the Tribunal, under the jurisdiction
of the Allied Control Authority for Germany.

VOLUME VIII

O F F I C I A L T E X T

I N T H E

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

P R O C E E D I N G S

20 February 1946-7 March 1946

E D I T O R ’ S N O T E

On 1 July 1947 Mr. S. Paul A. Joosten was appointed Deputy
General Secretary of the International Military Tribunal.

On 30 September 1947 Mr. S. Paul A. Joosten was appointed
Editor of the Record in addition to his other duties.

CONTENTS

Sixty-third Day, Wednesday, 20 February 1946,
Morning Session 1
Afternoon Session 31

Sixty-fourth Day, Thursday, 21 February 1946,
Morning Session 53
Afternoon Session 81

Sixty-fifth Day, Friday, 22 February 1946,
Morning Session 105
Afternoon Session 125

Sixty-sixth Day, Saturday, 23 February 1946,
Morning Session 159
Afternoon Session 186

Sixty-seventh Day, Monday, 25 February 1946,
Morning Session 202
Afternoon Session 230

Sixty-eighth Day, Tuesday, 26 February 1946,
Morning Session 251
Afternoon Session 281

Sixty-ninth Day, Wednesday, 27 February 1946,
Morning Session 300
Afternoon Session 324

Seventieth Day, Thursday, 28 February 1946,
Morning Session 353
Afternoon Session 383

Seventy-first Day, Friday, 1 March 1946,
Morning Session 409
Afternoon Session 431

Seventy-second Day, Saturday, 2 March 1946,
Morning Session 468

Seventy-third Day, Monday, 4 March 1946,
Morning Session 489
Afternoon Session 517

Seventy-fourth Day, Tuesday, 5 March 1946,
Morning Session 532

Seventy-fifth Day, Wednesday, 6 March 1946,
Morning Session 554
Afternoon Session 578

Seventy-sixth Day, Thursday, 7 March 1946,
Morning Session 597
Afternoon Session 621

SIXTY-THIRD DAY
Wednesday, 20 February 1946

_Morning Session_

GENERAL R. A. RUDENKO (Chief Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): Mr. President, with the permission of the Tribunal, evidence on the count “Despoliation and Plunder of Private, Public, and National Property” will be presented by the State Counsellor of Justice, Second Class, L. R. Shenin.

STATE COUNSELLOR OF JUSTICE OF THE SECOND CLASS L. R. SHENIN (Assistant Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): May it please Your Honors, my task consists in presenting to the Tribunal evidence of the criminal and predatory motives of Hitlerite aggression and of the monstrous plundering of the peoples of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, and the U.S.S.R.

My colleagues have already proved that the attack on the U.S.S.R., as well as on other European countries, was planned and prepared beforehand by the criminal Hitlerite Government.

I shall submit to the Tribunal a number of the conspirators’ original documents, statements, and speeches, which in the aggregate will prove that the despoliation and plunder of private, public, and national property in the occupied territories was also premeditated, planned, and prepared on a large scale, and that thus, simultaneously with the development of their purely military and strategic plans of attack, the Hitlerites with the cold-blooded deliberateness of professional robbers and murderers also developed and prepared beforehand the plan of organized plunder and marauding, after having minutely and accurately calculated their future profits, their criminal gains, their robbers’ spoils.

The official report of the Czechoslovak Government on the crimes committed by the Hitlerites on the territory of Czechoslovakia, the first victim of German aggression, has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-60 (Document Number USSR-60).

In the third section of this report there is a short extract from an article by Ley, published on 30 January 1940 in the _Angriff_. I quote:

“It is our destiny to belong to a superior race. A lower race
needs less room, less clothing, less food, and less culture,
than a superior race.”

This promise, this program of action, found its concrete expression in the fact that the Hitlerite conspirators subjected all territories occupied by them to unrestrained plunder, highly varied in form and method and entirely shameless in its devastating results. The report of the Czechoslovak Government contains a large number of examples corroborating the corresponding counts of the Indictment.

I shall read this section into the record starting with the first paragraph on Page 72 of the Russian translation. I read:

“The German plan of campaign against Czechoslovakia was aimed
not only against the republic as a political and military unit,
but also against the very existence of the Czechoslovak people,
who were to be robbed not only of all political rights and
cultural life, but of their wealth and their financial and
industrial resources.

“(1) Immediate Plunder.

“(a) After Munich.

“Immediately after Munich the Germans seized all the industrial
and commercial concerns belonging to the Czechs and Jews in the
seized areas of the republic; this was done without any
compensation. Czechs and Jews were robbed of their property and
of their office and plant equipment, usually by violence and
bloodshed.”

The following characteristic fact is mentioned in the report, namely, the way in which Hitler became acquainted with Czechoslovakia, which he had just seized. I shall read into the record Subparagraph B of this section, entitled, “After the Invasion of 15 March 1939.” The Tribunal will find this excerpt on Pages 3 and 4 of the document book. I quote:

“Hitler entered Prague at nightfall on 15 March 1939, and spent
the night there in the famous Hradschin castle. He left on the
following day, taking with him a number of valuable tapestries.
We mention this robbery not because of the value of the stolen
objects, but as an example set by the head of the Party and of
the German State on the very first day of invasion.

“The German troops who invaded Prague brought with them a staff
of German economic experts, that is, experts in economic
looting.

“Everything that could be of some value to Germany was seized,
especially large stocks of raw materials, such as copper, tin,
iron, cotton, wool, great stocks of food, _et cetera_.

“Rolling stock, carriages, engines, and so on were removed to
the Reich. All the rails in the Protectorate which were in good
condition were lifted and sent to Germany; later they were
replaced by old rails brought from Germany. New cars fresh from
the factory which were on order for the Prague municipal
tramways and had just been completed were deflected from their
purpose and sent to the Reich.

“The vessels belonging to the Czechoslovak Danube Steam
Navigation Company (the majority of shares belonged to the
Czechoslovak State) were divided between the Reich and Hungary.

“Valuable objects of art and furniture disappeared from public
buildings, without even an attempt at any legal justification of
such robbery; pictures, statues, tapestries were taken to
Germany. The Czech National Museum, the Modern Art Gallery, and
public and private collections were plundered.

“The German Reich Commissioner of the Czechoslovak National Bank
stopped all payments of currency abroad and seized all the gold
reserve and foreign currency in the Protectorate. Thus the
Germans took 23,000 kilograms of gold of a nominal value of
737,000 million crowns (5,265,000 pounds sterling) and
transferred the gold from the Bank of International Settlement
to the Reichsbank.”

One of the methods of thorough—I should say total—plunder was the so-called economic Germanization. I submit to the Tribunal as evidence of these crimes the following extract from the official Czechoslovak report. This extract the Tribunal will find on Pages 4 and 5 of the document book:

“(2) Economic Germanization.

“A. Rural. Expropriation.

“(aa) After Munich.

“In the areas occupied by the German Army in October 1938
Germany began to settle her nationals on all the farms formerly
belonging to Czechs or Jews who had fled for political or racial
reasons.

“The Czechoslovak Land Reform Act of 1919, insofar as it
benefited Czech nationals, was declared invalid; Czech farmers
were expelled from their land and compelled to relinquish their
cattle, agricultural implements, and furniture.

“On paper the Czechs received compensation; in fact, however,
they were burdened with taxes in order to make good the
so-called ‘deliberate damage’ they were alleged to have caused
by their flight. These taxes far exceeded the compensation.

“The large agricultural and government estates of the
Czechoslovak Republic automatically became Reich property and
came under the jurisdiction of the Reich ministries concerned.

“(bb) After the invasion of 15 March 1939.

“After the invasion, German directors, supervisors, and foremen
replaced Czech nationals in state-owned enterprises of the
Czechoslovak Republic.

“Germanization of private property began, of course, under the
slogan ‘Aryanization.’

“The Germanization of rural Bohemia and Moravia was entrusted to
a special body called ‘Deutsche Siedlungsgesellschaft’ located
in Prague.

“Czech peasants were offered compensation for their food
products but at entirely inadequate prices.

“Rural Germanization, apart from Germanization pure and simple,
aimed at pauperizing as many well-to-do Czech nationals as
possible.

“The Nazis did their utmost to squeeze as much as possible out
of Czech agriculture. Here too their aim was twofold: On the one
hand to obtain as much foodstuffs as possible, and on the other,
to carry the process of Germanization as far as possible.

“Farmers were turned out of their farms to make way for German
settlers—entire agricultural districts were in this way cleared
of Czechs. Agricultural co-operative societies in control of
production were transformed into auxiliary organizations and
were gradually germanized.

“The looting of property and wealth was followed by the
pillaging of products of the soil. Heavy fines and frequently
even the death penalty were imposed on Czech peasants for
intentional failure to comply with orders regarding production,
delivery, and rationing.

“B. Expropriation of banks and their funds.

“In Czechoslovakia industrial undertakings were directly
financed by the banks, which often owned or controlled the
majority of shares. Having obtained control of the banks, the
Nazis thus secured control of industry.

“(a) After Munich.

“After Munich, two important German banks, the Dresdner Bank and
the Deutsche Bank took over the branches of Prague banks,
situated in the ceded territory. Thus among the enterprises
taken over by the Dresdner Bank were 32 branches of the Bohemian
Discount Bank and among those taken over by the Deutsche Bank
were 25 branches of Bohemian Union Bank.

“As soon as these two banks obtained control of the branch banks
in the Sudetenland they also endeavored to gain influence on the
respective head offices of these banks in Prague.

“The Czechoslovak banks were joint stock companies. Every joint
stock company with even one Jewish director was considered to be
Jewish. In this manner the non-Jewish property was also taken
over.

“(b) After the invasion of 15 March 1939.

“After the invasion several Czechoslovak banks in Bohemia, in
consequence of their Aryanization, became the property of the
Dresdner Bank. Among other enterprises, this German bank took
over the Union Bank of Bohemia. In this way all the financial
interests which these banks had in Czech industry, as well as
the entire share capital, fell into German hands.

“From that time on German capital began to infiltrate into the
Czech banks; their expropriation and incorporation into the
German bank system began. The Dresdner Bank (the establishment
which administered the funds of the National Socialist Party)
and the Deutsche Bank were officially entrusted with the task of
expropriating the funds belonging to the Czechoslovak banking
concerns.

“By means of various ‘transactions,’ by gaining influence
through the branch banks in the Sudetenland over their
respective head offices in Prague, by reducing the share
capital, which was later increased with German assistance, by
appropriating industrial holdings and in this way acquiring
influence over the controlling banks which were thus deprived of
their industrial interests, _et cetera_, the two Berlin banks
achieved complete control of the banks of the Protectorate.
Gestapo terror helped them.”

I skip one paragraph of this report and pass on to the next count:

“C. Destruction of National Industry.

“(a) Compulsory organization.

“After the invasion the Germans introduced into the Protectorate
the compulsory organization of Czech industry on the German
model.

“They appointed a committee for every new association and all
the industrial ‘groups’ appointing at least one Nazi as chairman
or vice chairman or, just as an ordinary member. However, all
the Czech members actually were mere puppets.

“(b) Armament factories.

“The Dresdner Bank acquired the most important armament
factories in Czechoslovakia, that is, the Skoda Works in Pilsen
and the Czechoslovak ‘Zborjobka’ in Brünn. The private
share-holders were forced to surrender their shares at prices
far below their actual value; the bank paid for these shares
with coupons which had been withdrawn from circulation, and
confiscated by the Germans in the districts previously ceded in
accordance with the Munich agreement.

“(c) The Hermann Göring Werke.

“The seizure by the Germans of the Czechoslovak banks and thus
of the industry, through the big Berlin banks, was accomplished
with the help of the gigantic Hermann Göring Werke which seized
the greatest Czechoslovak industries, one by one, at the
smallest financial cost, that is to say, under the pretext of
Aryanization, by pressure from the Reich, by financial measures,
and finally by threatening Gestapo measures and concentration
camps.

“Finally, all the large Czechoslovak enterprises, factories, and
armament plants, and the coal and iron industries fell into
German hands. The huge chemical industry was seized by the
German concern, I. G. Farben Industrie.”

I skip the paragraph concerning the same methods adopted in the case of light industry and pass on to the next count of the report, “Financial Spoliation.”

“After the occupation of the territory, ceded apparently in
accordance with the Munich agreement, the Germans refused to
take over part of the Czechoslovak State debt, although they
acquired very valuable State property in the districts taken
away from Czechoslovakia. Government bonds of low denominations
amounting to a total of 1,600 million crowns were in circulation
in the occupied territory.

“The Germans reserved the right to use these obligations in
Czechoslovakia as legal tender.”

Gentlemen, further on in this report we find a detailed account of the Hitlerite campaign of spoliation directed against the financial economy of the Czechoslovak Republic. With a view to saving time I shall refrain from quoting this excerpt and shall merely submit the balance sheet of the Czechoslovak National Bank.

“The balance sheet of the Czech National Bank showed the
following figures for ‘other assets’ in million of crowns: 31
December 1938, 845; 31 December 1939, 3,576; 31 December 1942,
17,366.”

I now quote an excerpt from the section entitled, “Taxes”:

“When war broke out the Nazis fixed the war contribution of the
Protectorate at an annual sum of 2,000 million crowns (14.2
million pounds sterling). The Nazis claimed that they were
entitled to this on the grounds that the Czechs did not have to
fight, because the Germans fought for them.

“Immediately after the occupation the Germans seized the
proceeds of various indirect taxes and diverted them into the
Reich Treasury.”

Gentlemen, the excerpt which I just read from the report of the Czechoslovak Government gives an adequate picture of the manner in which, after having seized Czechoslovakia, the Hitlerites subjected it to wanton plunder in every field of its economic life—agriculture, industry, and finance.

Having seized the entire economic resources of the Czechoslovak Republic, the Hitlerite Government forced this economy to serve their criminal interests, extracting everything possible in order to prepare for further aggression against the peoples of Europe and for new military attacks with the monstrous aim of achieving world domination by the German “master race.”

I shall now pass to the reading of the fourth section of the official report of the Polish Government dealing with crimes committed by the Hitlerites in occupied Poland. This report has already been presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-93 (Document Number USSR-93) and, according to Article 21 of the Charter, constitutes irrefutable evidence. I quote an excerpt from this report which the Tribunal will find on Page 14 of the document book:

“Expropriation and plunder of public and private property.

“a) On 27 September 1939 the German military authorities issued
a decree concerning the sequestration and confiscation of Polish
property in the western provinces. ‘The property of the Polish
State, Polish public institutions, municipalities and unions,
individuals, and corporations can be sequestered and
confiscated,’ stated Paragraph 1 of the said decree.

“b) The right of the military authorities to dispose of Polish
property in the incorporated provinces passed to the
‘Haupttreuhandstelle Ost’ (created by Göring on 1 November 1939)
with headquarters in Berlin and branch offices in Poland. It was
entrusted with the administration of confiscated property of the
Polish State, as well as with the general policy in Poland in
accordance with the plan devised by the Reich Government.

“c) By a decree of 15 January 1940, the entire property of the
Polish State was placed under ‘protection,’ which practically
meant confiscation of all State property in the incorporated
territories. A special decree of 12 February 1940 dealt with
agriculture and forestry in the same way.

“d) The confiscation of private property in the western
provinces was initiated by a decree of 31 January 1940. Special
permission was required for acquisition of property and transfer
of ownership rights in all enterprises in the incorporated
territory. By another decree of 12 June 1940, Göring authorized
the ‘Haupttreuhandstelle Ost’ to seize and administer, not only
State property, but also the property of citizens of the ‘former
Polish State.’

“e) The process of confiscation, however, went further. The
property of Polish citizens became liable to seizure and
confiscation unless the owner acquired German citizenship in
accordance with Hitler’s decree of 8 October 1939.

“Other decrees dealt with the repayment of debts, because the
sequestrators were authorized to repay debts to privileged
creditors only. These were members of the ‘Deutsche Volksliste’
so far as war debts were concerned, as well as citizens of the
Reich or the free city of Danzig, as regards debts incurred
after 1 September 1939.”

I skip two pages of this report enumerating the companies which were specially created for carrying out of this plunder activity and also for plundering the Polish-Jewish population, which as is already known to the Tribunal, was later exterminated. I pass on to the end of the Polish Government report. The Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 17 of the document book.

Mere quotations from these and other decrees may create a wrong impression as to the means used by the defendants in the case of the Jewish property in Poland. But it should be pointed out that steps concerning Jewish property were only preliminaries to infinitely greater crimes in the future. At the end of this section of the report is justly stated—I quote:

“Aside from the crimes which have been proved and described
here, there are thousands of others which fade into
insignificance beside the numberless crimes of mass murder, mass
plunder, and mass destruction.”

It is impossible to enumerate all the crimes committed in Poland under the direct leadership of the Defendant Frank, who was the head of all the administration in the so-called Government General.

Frank’s diaries which were found and became part of the evidence in this case, give a clear and concrete idea of the crimes committed by the Hitlerites in Poland under his direction. In these diaries, Your Honors, are entries which have a direct bearing on the subject of my presentation.

Therefore I should like, with your permission, to quote excerpts from this diary which have not yet been quoted.

I quote from the volume entitled “Conference of Departmental Heads for 1939-1940” (Document Number USSR-223), Pages 11 and 12. In your document book, gentlemen, this excerpt is on Page 21:

“My relationship with the Poles resembles that between an ant
and a plant louse. When I treat the Poles helpfully, tickle them
in a friendly manner, so to speak, I do it in the expectation
that I shall profit by their labor output. This is not a
political, but a purely tactical and technical problem. In cases
where, in spite of all measures, the output does not increase,
or where I have the slightest reason to step in, I would not
hesitate to take even the most Draconian action.”

From the volume entitled “Diary 1942” I quote:

“Dr. Frank: ‘We must remember that notes issued by the Bank of
Poland to the value of 540,000,000 zlotys were taken over in
Occupied Eastern Territory by the Governor General without any
compensation being made by the Reich. This represents a
contribution of more than 500 million exacted from the
Government General by Germany, in addition to other payments.’”

From the same volume, Page 1277—this concerns the Governor’s conference which took place on 7 December 1942, in Kraków—measures for increasing production for the years 1942-43 were discussed. A certain Dr. Fischer stated:

“If the new food scheme is carried out, it would mean that in
Warsaw and its suburbs alone 500,000 people would be deprived of
food.”

From the same volume on Page 1331, Frank speaks:

“I shall endeavor to squeeze out from the reserves of this
province everything that it is still possible to squeeze
out. . . . If you recall that I was able to send to Germany
600,000 tons of grain and that an additional 180,000 tons were
reserved for local troops, as well as many thousands of tons of
seed, fats, vegetables, besides the export to Germany of 300
million eggs, _et cetera_, you will understand how important
work in this region is for Germany.”

This same Frank on Page 1332 states the following—the Tribunal will find this quotation on Page 27 of the document book:

“These consignments to the Reich had, however, one definite
drawback to them, since the quantities we were responsible for
delivering exceeded the actual food supplies required by the
region. We now have to face the following problem. Can we, as
from February, cut 2 million non-German inhabitants of the
region out of the general rationing scheme?”

In the volume entitled “Workers Conferences for 1943,” we find an excerpt concerning the conference of 14 April 1943, which took place in Kraków. On Page 28 of the document book, the Tribunal will find the excerpt which I wish to read into the record.

“President Naumann is speaking, and he quotes the figures
estimated for 1943-44:

“One thousand five hundred tons of sweets for the Germans, 36
million liters of skimmed fresh milk; 15,100,000 liters of full
cream milk for the Germans.”

On Page 24 the same person continues—this total account is on Page 28 of the document book:

“Last year, more than 20 percent of the total amount of live
stock in the Government General was requisitioned. Cattle which
were really required for the production of milk and butter were
slaughtered last year so that the Reich and the armed forces
could be supplied and the meat ration maintained to a certain
extent. If we want 120,000 tons of meat, we must sacrifice 40
percent of the remaining live stock.”

And further:

“In answer to a question by the Governor General, President
Naumann replied that 383,000 tons of grain were requisitioned in
1940, 685,000 tons in 1941, and 1.2 million tons in 1942. It
appears from these figures that requisitions have increased from
year to year and have steadily approached the limits of
possibility. Now they are preparing to increase the requisitions
by another 200,000 tons which will bring them to the extreme
bounds of possibility. The Polish peasant cannot be allowed to
starve beyond the point where he will still be able to cultivate
his fields and carry out any further tasks imposed upon him,
such as carting wood for the forestry authorities.”

However, the quotation which I have read from Naumann’s reply in no way influenced the policy of the merciless plundering of the Polish people, whose fate, to use Frank’s own words, interested him from one angle only.

In the volume entitled “Diary, From 1 January to 28 February 1944” there is the following statement by Frank made at the conference of the leaders of German agriculture on 12 January 1944. The Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 30 of the document book.

“Once we have won the war, the Poles, Ukrainians, and all other
people living around can be made into mincemeat, or anything
else, as far as I am concerned.”

I believe, Your Honors, that after this quotation there is no need for me, as a representative of the Soviet Prosecution, to add anything more to that section of my statement which deals with the crimes committed by the Hitlerite criminals on the territory of the Polish State. Indeed, any one of the sentences quoted is more than sufficient to give us an exact picture of the regime in Poland created by Frank, and of Frank himself, who created this regime.

Turning now to the plunder and pillage of private and public property by the Hitlerites in Yugoslavia, I must, Your Honors, read the appropriate extracts of the official report of the Yugoslav Government, submitted to the International Military Tribunal by the Soviet Prosecution as Exhibit USSR-36 (Document Number USSR-36). This report, in accordance with Article 21 of the Charter, is submitted as irrefutable evidence.

Count 6 of this report, entitled “Plunder of Public and Private Property,” reads as follows—this count is on Page 32 of the document book:

“6. Plunder of public and private property.

“Along with the exploitation of manpower the plundering of
public and private property was systematically carried out in
Yugoslavia. This plunder was carried out in various ways and
within the scope of the different measures taken. In this way,
too, Germany succeeded in completely exhausting the economic and
financial forces in occupied Yugoslavia and in destroying her
almost completely from the economic point of view.

“We shall cite here only a few examples of this systematic
plunder:

“A. Currency and credit measures.

“Just as in other occupied countries, the Germans, immediately
after their entry into Yugoslavia, carried out a series of
currency measures which enabled them to take out of Yugoslavia
in great quantities goods and other valuables at an
insignificant price. As early as 14 April 1941”—that is to say,
even before the occupation of Yugoslavia was actually
completed—“the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, ‘on the basis of
the authority received from the Führer and Supreme Commander of
the German Armed Forces,’ issued the ‘Proclamation Concerning
Occupied Yugoslav Territory.’

“Article 9 of this proclamation fixes an obligatory rate of
exchange of 20 Yugoslav dinars for 1 German mark. Thus the value
of the dinar in relation to the Reichsmark was artificially and
by force lowered. The real rate of exchange before the war was
much more favorable to the Yugoslav currency.

“This proves clearly the violation of the appropriate
regulations of the Hague Convention, as well as the existence of
a plan prepared in advance for the depreciation of Yugoslav
currency.”

I submit to the Tribunal a certified photographic copy of the aforementioned proclamation as Exhibit Number USSR-140 (Document Number USSR-140).

“The second predatory measure in the field of currency policy
was the introduction of German bonds (Reichskreditkassenschein)
as an obligatory means of payment in the occupied territory of
Yugoslavia. This measure was also mentioned in Paragraph IX of
the proclamation submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number
USSR-140. These so-called occupation marks, which were without
any economic foundation and without any value whatsoever in
Germany itself, were printed in Yugoslavia in accordance with
the needs of the German forces of occupation and authorities and
in this way served as a means for enabling them to make
purchases at a very low price.

“On 30 June 1942”—that is to say, more than a year
later—“these Reich bonds were withdrawn. This took place after
the Germans had already bought up almost everything that could
be purchased in Yugoslavia, and the Yugoslav State Bank had been
liquidated and all its properties plundered. In its stead the
Germans created the so-called Serbian National Bank.

“However, so that the Germans would suffer no loss through this
measure, the Serbian National Bank was forced to exchange the
so-called occupation marks for new dinars. The marks thus
exchanged were simply withdrawn from the Serbian National Bank
by the Germans against receipt. In this way one of the most
shameless plunders was carried out, which cost Yugoslavia many
thousands of millions of dinars.”

I submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-194 (Document Number USSR-194), “the German decree of 30 June 1942 concerning the withdrawal of notes issued by the Reichskreditkasse and also a certified copy of the decree concerning the Serbian National Bank, of 29 May 1941,” as Exhibit Number USSR-135 (Document Number USSR-135).

“It can be seen from these documents that the German occupation
authorities carried out by force the illegal liquidation of the
Yugoslav State Bank, under the pretext that Yugoslavia no longer
existed, and that they took advantage of this liquidation in
order to plunder the country on an enormous scale.

“The Germans established the so-called Serbian National Bank
exclusively for the purpose of creating an instrument for their
predatory economic and currency policy in Serbia. The bank was
administered by officials whom they themselves appointed.

“The measures taken with regard to Yugoslav metal coins are also
very characteristic. The Yugoslav coinage, which contained a
certain percent of silver and brass, was withdrawn, and replaced
by coins of very poor metal alloy. Naturally, the Germans
carried to Germany a large quantity of the most valuable
Yugoslav coins.

“B. Requisitions and fines.”

The Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 40 of the document book:

“Reich Minister Speer, head of the Armament and War Production
Ministry, declared that fixed prices were the Magna Carta of the
Armament Program.”

The Defendant Göring, on 26 March 1943, issued a decree demanding a further decrease in the prices of all goods imported from the occupied countries.

“This lowering of prices was attained by means of currency
measures as well as by means of requisitioning, confiscation,
fines, and in particular, through a special price policy.

“By means of requisitioning, a policy of fixed low prices, and
compulsory sales, the Government of the Reich was enabled to
plunder thoroughly the Yugoslav people. This went so far that
even the quisling institutions collaborating with the Germans
frequently had to declare that the quotas of goods demanded by
the Germans could not be filled.

“Thus, a report made by the district chief, for the Moravski
District”—quisling administration of Milan Nedic—“on 12
February 1942, stated:

“1. If they are deprived of so many cattle, the peasants will
not be able to cultivate their fields. On the one hand, they are
ordered to cultivate every inch of ground, on the other hand,
their cattle are ruthlessly confiscated.

“2. The cattle are purchased at such a low price that the
peasants feel that they are hardly compensated at all for the
loss of their cattle.

“Similar examples from other regions or districts of Yugoslavia
are very numerous.

“In order to plunder the country, the Germans often reverted to
the systematic imposition of money fines. For instance the cash
fines imposed by the ‘Feldkommandantur’ in Belgrade during 1943
alone amounted to 48,818,068 dinars. In Nish, during the first
3½ months of 1943, the cash fines amounted to 5,065,000 dinars.

“Finally, we should like to give here a few details regarding
the clearing accounts through which the export of Yugoslav goods
to Germany was carried out. As early as 1 March 1943 the
clearing balance in favor of Serbia amounted to 219 million
Reichsmark, or 4,380 million dinars. By the end of the
occupation Germany owed Serbia 10,000 million dinars.

“The situation was the same in all the other provinces of
Yugoslavia, and only the methods of plundering varied according
to local conditions.

“C. Confiscations.

“Confiscations were one of the most widespread and effective
means of plundering Yugoslavia.

“Before the occupation of Yugoslavia was completed in 1941, a
decree on confiscation was issued by the Germans in the combat
zone. Pursuant to this decree the Germans confiscated enormous
quantities of agricultural products, raw materials,
semi-manufactured, and other goods.”

I submit to the Tribunal a certified copy of the above-mentioned decree as Exhibit Number USSR-206 (Document Number USSR-206).

“Immediately after the occupation of the country, the German
occupation authorities introduced by means of numerous decrees,
the system of confiscation of private and public property.”

In order to save time I skip a part of this section of the document which quotes concrete examples of the confiscation of property belonging to the Yugoslav population, and I pass on to the next count, which is entitled, “Other Methods of Plunder.” The members of the Tribunal will find this section on Page 52:

“Together with the aforesaid methods of plunder, which were
carried out on the basis of various decrees, laws, and
regulations, more primitive methods of looting were practiced
throughout the Yugoslav territory. They were not sporadic
incidents but constituted a part of the German system for
enslavement and exploitation.

“The Germans plundered everything from industrial and economic
undertakings, down to cattle, food, and even simplest objects
for personal use.”

I shall cite a few examples:

“1. Immediately after their entry into Yugoslavia, the Germans
looted all the bigger firms and storehouses. They generally
engaged in this form of looting at night, after the so-called
curfew hours.

“2. The order of Major General Kuebler”—which has already been
submitted to the Tribunal by the Soviet Prosecution as Document
Number USSR-132—“contains the following passage:

“‘Troops must treat these members of the population who maintain
an unfriendly attitude toward the occupation forces in a brutal
and ruthless manner, depriving the enemy of every means of
existence by the destruction of localities which have been
abandoned and by seizing all available stocks.’

“On the basis of this and similar orders, the Germans
ceaselessly looted the country under the pretext of so-called
‘control of existing stocks,’ using the opportunities afforded
by the ‘destruction of localities which had been abandoned.’

“3. Punitive expeditions, which became an everyday event during
the occupation, were, naturally, always accompanied by the
looting of the victims’ property. In the same way they robbed
their prisoners and the bodies of those who had fallen fighting
in the Free National Army, as well as all the internees in the
concentration camps.

“4. Not even churches were spared. Thus, for example, the German
unit ‘Konrad-Einheit,’ which operated in the vicinity of
Sibenik, looted the Church of St. John in Zablad.”

There are numerous examples of the same kind.

“During the 4 years the whole of Yugoslavia was systematically
looted. This was carried out either through numerous so-called
‘legal measures,’ or through mass looting on the part of the
Germans. The Nazi occupation forces showed great inventive
ability and applied to Yugoslavia the experience which they had
gained in other occupied countries.

“These criminal measures damaged the Yugoslav State and its
citizens to such an extent that one can consider it simply as
economic destruction of the country.”

From this Your Honors may see that the plunder of public and private property in Yugoslavia was conducted by the Hitlerites according to a preconceived plan, that it affected every class and every branch of the country’s economy, and caused enormous material loss to the Yugoslav State and to its citizens.

THE PRESIDENT (Lord Justice Sir Geoffrey Lawrence): I believe this would be a convenient time to recess.

[_A recess was taken._]

MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: After the invasion of Greece, the Hitlerite conspirators pursued their policy of merciless despoliation of the occupied countries and immediately began to plunder her national property. The official report of the Greek Government on the crimes committed by the Hitlerites has already been submitted to the Tribunal.

The appropriate section of this report entitled, “Exploitation,” gives the concrete facts of the plunder of public and private property in Greece. I quote the following excerpts from the part, “Exploitation,” from this report of the Greek Government, which will be found on Page 59 of the document book:

“Owing to her geographical position, Greece was used by the
Germans as a base of operations for the war in North Africa.
They also used Greece as a rest center for thousands of their
troops from the North African and Eastern fronts, thus
concentrating in Greece much larger forces than were actually
necessary for purpose of occupation.

“A large part of the local supplies of fruit, vegetables,
potatoes, olive oil, meat, and dairy products were confiscated
to supply these forces. As current production was not sufficient
for these needs, they resorted to the requisitioning of
livestock on a large scale, with the result that the country’s
livestock became seriously depleted.”

In addition to requisitioning supplies for their armies, the Hitlerite conspirators exacted enormous sums of money from Greece to cover the so-called cost of occupation. In the report of the Greek Government the following remark is made on the subject—this is on Page 60 of the document book—I read:

“Between August 1941 and December 1941 the sum of 26,206,085,000
drachmas was paid to the Germans, representing a sum of 60
percent more than the estimated national income during the same
period. In fact, according to the estimates of two Axis experts,
Dr. Barberin, from Germany, and Dr. Bartoni, an Italian, the
national income for that year amounted to only 23,000 million
drachmas. In the following year, as the national income
decreased, this money was taken from national funds.”

Another method of plundering Greece which the Hitlerites applied on a vast scale was the so-called requisitions and confiscations. In order to save time, I shall, with the permission of the Tribunal, merely read into the record a brief excerpt from the Greek report dealing with this question. I quote:

“One of the enemy’s first measures on occupying Greece was to
seize all the existing stocks in the country by requisition or
open confiscation. Among other goods, they requisitioned from
the wholesale and retail trade 71,000 tons of currants and
10,000 tons of olive oil; they confiscated 1,435 tons of coffee,
1,143 tons of sugar, 2,520 tons of rice, and a whole shipload of
wheat valued at 530,000 dollars.”

As the country was divided among three occupying powers, the Hitlerites blockaded that part of Greece which was occupied by their own troops and forbade the export of food supplies from that zone. The Hitlerites began to confiscate all existing stocks of food and other goods, a measure which reduced the population to a state of extreme misery and starvation. This plundering had such catastrophic consequences for the Greek nation that, finally, even the Germans themselves were forced to realize that they had gone too far. The practical result of this was that towards the end of 1942 the German authorities promised the International Commission of the Red Cross that they would return to the population all the local products confiscated and exported by the armies of occupation. The Germans also undertook to replace them by the importation of products of the same caloric value. This pledge was not fulfilled.

As in all the occupied countries, the Germans issued and put into circulation an unlimited amount of currency. It should be noted that this currency represented the so-called occupation marks without any security. I quote an excerpt from this report, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 63 in the document book. I read:

“From the very first they”—the Germans—“put into circulation
10,000 million occupation marks, a sum equal to half the money
in circulation at that date. By April 1944 the monetary
circulation had reached 14,000 million drachmas, that is, it had
increased 700 percent since the start of the occupation.”

The Germans, after causing great inflation in that way, purchased all goods at prices fixed before the occupation. All goods purchased, as well as valuables, articles of gold, furniture, and so forth, were shipped by the Germans to Germany.

Finally, as in every country they occupied, the Hitlerites put into operation in Greece also the so-called “clearing system.” Under this system, all goods earmarked for export were first confiscated or put under embargo by the military authorities. Then they were bought up by German firms at arbitrarily fixed prices. The price of the goods established in this one-sided way was then credited to Greece. The prices for merchandise imported from Germany were fixed at from 200 to 500 percent higher than their normal value. Finally, Greece was also debited with the price of merchandise imported from Germany for the needs of the occupation forces. The Germans called this cynical method of plundering “clearing.”

I quote a short excerpt from the report of the Greek Government which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 64 of the document book. I read:

“In consequence, notwithstanding the fact that Greece exported
the whole of her available resources to Germany, the clearing
account showed a credit balance of 264,157,574.03 marks in favor
of Germany when the Germans left. At the time of their arrival
the credit balance in favor of Greece was 4,353,428.82 marks.”

In this way, Your Honors, the Hitlerites plundered the Greek people.

May it please Your Honors, I pass on to the statement of the facts of the monstrous plunder and pillage to which private, public, and state property was subjected by the Hitlerite usurpers in the temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union. The irrefutable original documents which I shall have the honor to present for your consideration, Your Honors, will prove that long before their attack on the U.S.S.R., the fascist conspirators had conceived and prepared their criminal plans for the plunder and spoliation of its riches and of its national wealth.

Like all other military crimes committed by the Hitlerites in countries occupied by them, the plunder and pillage of these territories was planned and organized beforehand by the major war criminals whom the determination and valor of the Allied nations have brought to justice.

The crimes committed by those who carried out the conspirators’ criminal plans over wide areas of the Soviet land, on the fertile steppes of the Ukraine, in the fields and forests of Bielorussia, in the rich cornfields of the Kuban and the Don, in the blossoming gardens of the Crimea, in the approaches to Leningrad and in the Soviet Baltic States—all these monstrous crimes, all this mass plunder and wholesale pillage of the sacred wealth created by the peaceable and honest work of the Soviet peoples, Russian, Ukrainian, Bielorussian, and others—all these crimes were directly planned, designed, prepared, and organized by the criminal Hitlerite Government and the Supreme Command of Armed Forces—the major war criminals, now occupying the dock.

I shall begin with evidence as to the premeditated nature of the crimes committed on U.S.S.R. territory. I shall prove that the wholesale indiscriminate pillage of private, public, and state property committed by the German fascist usurpers was not an isolated occurrence, not a local phenomenon. It was not the result of the disintegration or the thefts of individual army units but was, on the contrary, an essential and indissoluble part of the general plan of attack on the U.S.S.R. and represented, moreover, the fundamental purpose, the chief motive underlying this criminal aggression.

May I beg the indulgence of the Tribunal if, in stating the facts connected with the preparations for this type of crimes, I am obliged to refer very briefly also to several of the documents already submitted to the Tribunal by my American colleagues. I shall endeavor, however, to avoid repetitions and shall mainly quote such extracts from these documents as have not been previously read into the record.

It is known that simultaneously with the elaboration of “Plan Barbarossa,” which provided for all strategic questions connected with the attack on the U.S.S.R., purely economic problems arising from the plan were elaborated.

In the document known under the title, “Conference of 29 April 1941 with Branches of the Armed Forces,” and presented to the Tribunal by the American prosecution on 10 December as Document Number 1157-PS, we read:

“Purpose of the conference: Explanation of the administrative
organization of the economic section of undertaking
‘Barbarossa-Oldenburg’. . . .”

Further on in this document it is indicated that the Führer, contrary to previous practice in the preparation measures envisaged, ordered that all economic questions were to be worked out by one center and that this center is to be “the special-purpose economic staff Oldenburg under the direction of Lieutenant General Schubert” and that it is to be under the Reich Marshal, that is, Göring. Thus, as early as April 1941, the Defendant Göring was in charge of all preparations for plundering the U.S.S.R.

To finish with this document, I should like to recall that provision is made in it, even at that early date, for the organization of special economic inspectorates and commands at Leningrad, Murmansk, Riga, Minsk, Moscow, Tula, Gorki, Kiev, Baku, Yaroslavl, and many other Soviet industrial towns. The document points out that the tasks of these inspectorates and commands included “the economic utilization of suitable territory” that is, as is explained below, “all questions of food supply and rural economy, industrial economy, including raw materials and manufactured articles; forestry, finance and banking, museums, commerce, trade, and manpower.” As you see, Your Honors, the tasks were extremely wide and extraordinarily concrete.

The Plan Barbarossa-Oldenburg was further developed in the so-called “directives for economic management of the newly occupied eastern territories” which were also elaborated and issued secretly before the attack on the U.S.S.R.

Before passing on to the “Green File” I should like to present to the Tribunal and read but in part another document—the so-called “File of the District Agricultural Leader,” which was submitted to the Tribunal by my colleague Colonel Smirnov as Document Number USSR-89. These very detailed instructions for future district agricultural leaders which were also worked out and published in advance, bore the title of “District Agricultural Leaders File,” and were dated 1 June 1941. Naturally this document, too, is also marked “top secret.”

This instruction begins, “12 Commandments for the Behavior of Germans in the East and Their Attitude towards Russians.” My colleague, Colonel Smirnov, read into the record only one of those commandments: and I, with the Tribunal’s permission, shall read into the record the other commandments. The first commandment states—the members of the Tribunal will find it on Page 69 of the document book. I read:

“Those of you who are sent to work in the East must adopt as
your guiding principle the rule that output alone is decisive. I
must ask you to devote your hardest and most unsparing efforts
to this end.”

What sort of “work” is meant is clearly shown by the following commandments. I quote extracts from this document:

“5th commandment: It is essential that you should always bear in
mind the end to be attained. You must pursue this aim with the
utmost stubbornness; but the methods used may be elastic to a
degree. The methods employed are left to the discretion of the
individual. . . .

“6th commandment: Since the newly incorporated territories must
be secured permanently to Germany and Europe, much will depend
on how you establish yourself there. . . . Lack of character in
individuals will constitute a definite ground for removing them
from their work. Anyone recalled for this reason can never again
occupy a responsible position in the Reich proper.”

In this way the future “agricultural leaders” were not only ordered to be implacable, merciless, and cruel in their plundering activities, but were also warned of what would happen to them if they were not implacable enough or if they showed “lack of character.”

The following commandments develop the same idea:

“7th commandment: Do not ask, ‘How will this benefit the
peasants?’ but ‘How will it benefit Germany?’

“8th commandment: Do not talk—act! You can never talk a Russian
around or persuade him with words. He can talk better than you
can, for he is a born ‘dialectic’. . . .

“Only your will must decide, but this will must be directed to
the execution of great tasks. Only in this case will it be
ethical even in its cruelty. Keep away from the Russians—they
are not Germans, they are Slavs.

“9th commandment: We do not wish to convert the Russians to
National Socialism; we wish only to make them a tool in our
hands. You must win the youth of Russia by assigning their task
to them—by taking them firmly in hand and administering
ruthless punishment to those who practice sabotage or fail to
accomplish the work expected of them.

“The investigation of personal records and pleas takes up time
which is needed for your German task. You are neither
investigating magistrates nor yet the Wailing Wall.

“11th commandment: . . . his (Russian) stomach is elastic,
therefore—no false pity for him!”

Such were these commandments for agricultural leaders, which one should—to be more exact—call “commandments for cannibals.” The file begins with these “commandments,” which are followed by a perfectly clear-cut program for the plundering of U.S.S.R. agriculture. At the beginning of this program we read:

“Fundamental economical directives for the Organization of
Economic Policy in the East, Agricultural Group.

“As regards food policy, the aim of this campaign is:

“1. To guarantee food supplies for many years ahead for the
German Armed Forces and the German civilian population.”

As you see, Your Honors, a perfectly clear and candid formulation of the aims of the attack on the U.S.S.R. is given. Of course, it does not exhaust these aims. This aim was not confined to the stealing of provisions, and provisions were far from being the only thing stolen. This is only an extract from the agricultural leaders’ file, and they were not the only people to be entrusted with tasks of pillage and to perform these tasks.

The file as a whole contains 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 will find this document on Page 67 of the document book:

“1. 12 commandments. 2. General economic directives. 3.
Organization chart. 4. Instructions for the regional
agricultural leader. 5. Instructions for securing personnel. 6.
State farms: Directives on the taking over and management of
State farms. 7. Directives for taking over and managing
collective farms. 8. Agriculture machine depots, directives
regarding administration. 9. Directives for registration. 10.
Furnishing food supplies for the cities. 11. Schedules for
agricultural work. 12. Price lists.”

I am not, Your Honor, going to take up your time by reading the whole of this document, which consists of 98 typewritten pages. I am presenting it to the Tribunal in its entirety, to be included in the files of the Trial.

I shall read from this document, already presented to the Tribunal by my American colleagues on 10 December of last year as Exhibit Number USA-147 (Document 1058-PS), only a few short lines. It is a note of the record of a speech made by Rosenberg at a secret conference on 20 June 1941, dealing with questions of the East. In his speech, Rosenberg stated particularly:

“The problem of feeding German nationals undeniably heads the
German demands on the East just now, and here the southern
regions and the northern Caucasus must help to balance the
German food situation. We certainly do not consider ourselves
obliged to feed the Russian people as well from the produce of
these fertile regions. We know that this is a cruel necessity,
which has nothing to do with any humane feelings. It will
undoubtedly be necessary to carry out evacuation on a large
scale and the Russians are doomed to live through some very hard
years.”

Thus did the leaders of Hitlerite Germany formulate the tasks they set themselves when preparing their attack on the Soviet Union.

Already in August 1942—that is, from 26 to 28 August—Gauleiter Koch, 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 kindly put at our disposal by our American colleagues. It is registered as Document Number 264-PS, but it has not been presented to the Tribunal.

I read into the record an excerpt from this record. The members of the Tribunal will find it on Page 72 in the document book. I read:

“He”—Koch—“explained the political situation and his tasks as
Reich Commissioner”—in the following way—“‘There is no free
Ukraine. We must aim at making the Ukrainians work for Germany,
and not at making the people here happy. The Ukraine will have
to make good the German shortages. This task must be
accomplished without regard for losses. . . .

“‘The Führer has ordered 3 million tons of grain from the
Ukraine for the Reich, and they must be delivered. . . .’”

I shall show later how far this original figure—3 million tons of grain—was exceeded by the Hitlerite plunderers, whose avid appetites grew from month to month.

All these aims of plunder had been planned in advance by the criminal Hitlerite Government, who worked out an organized scheme for carrying out organized plunder and practical methods of pillaging the occupied territories.