Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

With the Tribunal’s permission I shall read extracts from a secret document by Reich Marshal Göring which was captured by units of the Red Army. This document bears the title, “Directives for Economic Management in the Newly Occupied Areas in the East (Green File),” and extracts of it have already been mentioned by my colleagues. This document is presented by the Soviet Prosecution as Exhibit Number USSR-10 (Document Number USSR-10).

The title page of the document reads—Page 76 of the document book:

“Eastern Staff for Economic Leadership; top secret.

“Note: The present directives are to be considered as top-secret
documents (documents of State importance) until X-Day; after
X-Day they will no longer be secret and will be treated as open
documents for official use only.

“Directives on the subject of economic management in the newly
occupied areas in the East (Green File).

“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 published immediately before Germany’s attack on the U.S.S.R. “for the information of military and economic authorities regarding economic tasks in the eastern territories to be occupied.”

In setting forth the “main economic tasks” the directives state in the first paragraph:

“I. According to the Führer’s order, it is essential in the
interests of Germany that every possible measure for the
immediate and complete exploitation of the occupied territories
be adopted. Any measure liable to hinder the achievement of this
purpose should be waived or cancelled.

“II. The exploitation of the regions to be occupied immediately
should be carried out primarily in the economic field
controlling food supplies and crude oil. The main economic
purpose of the campaign is to obtain the greatest possible
quantity of food and crude oil for Germany. In addition, other
raw materials from the occupied territories must be supplied to
the German war economy as far as is technically possible and as
far as the claims of the industries to be maintained outside the
Reich permit.”

I omit the next part of the excerpt, and I pass on to the following excerpt, which 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 mistaken. On the contrary, the treatment of
the different parts of the country must be a very different one.
Order should only be restored and industry promoted in regions
where we can obtain considerable reserves of agricultural
products or crude oil.”

I omit the rest of this quotation in order to save time.

Further, the plan devised in advance for the organized plunder of the Soviet Union provided in detail for the removal from the U.S.S.R. to Germany of all raw materials, supplies, and stocks of goods available. In confirmation of this I cite excerpts from this document so that I shall not have to read it in full. The members of the Tribunal will find these excerpts on Page 83, 87, and 88 of the document book:

“All raw materials, semi-manufactured, or finished products of
which we can make use are to be withdrawn from commerce. This
will be done by IV Wi and by the economic authorities by means
of appeals and orders, by ordering confiscation or by military
supervision, or both.”

Page 88—from the section “Raw Material and the Exploitation of Commercial Resources”:

“Platinum, magnesium, and rubber are to be secured at once and
transported to Germany as soon as possible.”

Back of Page 87:

“Food products, articles for personal use, and clothing
discovered in combat and rear zones are to be placed at the
disposal of IV A for immediate military requirements.”

Back of Page 83—in the section of the directives entitled “Economic Organization” we find a project of an apparatus with wide ramifications which was to carry out this organized plunder of the U.S.S.R. I shall read a series of excerpts from this section, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 79 of the document book:

“A. General questions.

“To guarantee undivided economic leadership in the theater of
military activities, as well as in the administrative areas to
be established at a later date, the Reich Marshal has organized
the ‘Staff for Economic Leadership East’ directly under himself
and headed by his representative, State Secretary Körner.”

Second excerpt:

“The orders of the Reich Marshal apply to all economic spheres,
including food supply and rural economy.”

In directing your attention to these two excerpts, Your Honors, I consider it definitively proved that the Defendant Göring not only had personal charge of the preparations for the plunder of private, public, and state property, but later on directed personally the vast apparatus specially set up for these criminal purposes. You can judge of the projected organization of this apparatus, by the following extracts from the Green File. I read:

“Organization of Economic Administration in the operational
area.

“1. The economic establishments, subordinated to the Economic
Staff East, insofar as their activities cover the theater of
military activities, are incorporated in the army staffs and are
subordinate to them in military matters, namely:

“A. In the rear area: One economic inspectorate at each of the
chief commands of the rear area; one or several mobile units of
the economic section with the security divisions; one IV Wi
group at each of the field command headquarters.

“B. In the army administration district: One IV Wi group
(liaison officer Wi Rü Amt) with the army commander. One IV Wi
group for each of the field commands attached to the army of the
region; in addition, as and when necessary, economic units are
sent forward to the armies in the field. These units are
subordinate in military matters to the army command.”

Further on, in Paragraph 4 of this same section, under the title “Structure of the Individual Economic Institutions” the whole plan of construction of the Economic Staff East is described. 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 at the back of Page 79 in the document book.

Chief of the Economic Staff with the leadership group (field of activity, leadership questions, also manpower); Group IA, in charge of food and agriculture, running the entire agricultural production and also the assembling of supplies for the army; Group W, in charge of industry, raw materials, forestry, finance, banking property, and trade; Group M, in charge of troop requirements, armaments, and transport; economic inspectorates attached to army groups, in charge of the economic exploitation of the rear area. Economic task forces organized in the zone of each security division and consisting of one officer as commander, and several specialists in different branches of the work. Economic groups attached to the field commands, who are responsible for supplying the immediate requirements of the troops stationed within the sphere of activity of the field command and for preparing the economic exploitation of the country in the interests of war economy.

To these economic groups were attached experts on manpower, food production and agriculture, industrial economy and general economic questions; the economic section, attached to the army command, with special technical battalions and platoons as well as special intelligence subsections for industrial research, particularly in the field of raw materials and crude oil, and subsections for discovering and securing agricultural produce and machines, including tractors.

This same plan also provides for special technical units for crude oil—battalions and companies—and also the so-called mining battalions.

Thus, under the direct control of the Defendant Göring, a whole army of plunderers of all ranks and branches was provided, prepared, trained, and drilled in advance for the organized pillage and looting of the national property of the U.S.S.R.

Your Honors, I will not take up your time by reading the whole text of the Green File; I shall limit myself to enumerating its remaining sections, which bear the following titles—Page 77 in the document book:

“Execution of individual economic tasks; Economic transport;
Problems of military protection of economy; Procuring of
supplies for the troops out of the resources of the country;
Utilization of manpower, particularly of the local population;
War booty, paid labor, captured material, prize courts; Economic
objectives of war industries; Raw materials and utilization of
goods available; Finance and credit; Foreign trade and
clearings; Price control.”

Thus the plunder of all branches of the U.S.S.R.’s national economy was foreseen.

To conclude I shall read into the record Keitel’s order, dated 16 June 1941, 6 days before the attack on the U.S.S.R., in which he instructed all military units of the German Army to be ready to execute all the directives of the Green File. I shall now read this order—you will find this, Your Honors, at the back of Page 89 of the document book:

“By the Führer’s order, the Reich Marshal has issued ‘Directives
for the Guidance of the Economic Administration of the
Territories To Be Occupied.’

“These directives (Green File) are intended for the guidance of
the military command and economic authorities in the economic
tasks within the territories to be occupied in the immediate
future. They contain directives for supplying the army from the
resources of the country and give orders to army units to assist
the economic authorities. Army units must comply with these
directions and orders.

“The immediate and thorough exploitation of the territories to
be occupied in the immediate future in the interest of Germany’s
war economy, especially in the field of fuel and food supply, is
of the highest importance for the further conduct of the war.”

I omit the second part of this order which contains detailed instructions as to how the directives of the Green File should be executed, and I read only the last paragraph of Keitel’s order:

“The exploitation of the country must be carried out on a wide
scale, with the help of field and local headquarters, in the
most important agricultural and oil-producing districts.

“Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, Keitel.”

The concluding provision of this document, which says that “the exploitation of the country must be carried out on a wide scale” was strictly observed by units of the German Army; and the occupied regions of the U.S.S.R., from the very first day of the war, were subjected to the most merciless plunder. In confirmation of this, I shall later present to the Tribunal a series of original German documents, orders, directives, instructions, decrees, and so forth, issued by German military authorities.

Meanwhile, to finish with the Green File, I may state in conclusion that this striking document is definite evidence of the remarkable qualifications for plunder and the vast experience in brigandage of the Hitlerite conspirators.

The program for plundering the occupied territories of the Soviet Union, conceived on a wide scale and elaborated in detail by the conspirators, was put into practice by the Hitlerite aggressors from the very first days of their attack on the U.S.S.R.

Apart from the organized plunder carried out by the vast apparatus specially formed for this purpose—an apparatus consisting of all kinds of agricultural leaders, inspectors, specialists in economics, technical and intelligence battalions and companies, economic groups and detachments, military agronomists, and so forth—the so-called “material interest” of the German soldiers and officers, who had unlimited possibilities of robbing the civilian population and sending their booty to Germany, was widely encouraged by the Hitlerite Government and the High Command of the German Army.

The universal plundering of the population of the towns and villages of the occupied territories of the U.S.S.R. and the mass removal to Germany of the personal property of Soviet citizens, the property taken from the collective farms and co-operative unions and the property of the State itself, was carried out according to a prearranged plan wherever the German fascist aggressors appeared.

I turn, Your Honors, to the presentation of individual Soviet Government documents on this question. A few months after Hitlerite Germany’s treacherous attack on the U.S.S.R., the Soviet Government had already received irrefutable data about the war crimes committed by the Hitlerite armies in the Soviet territories they occupied.

My colleagues have already presented to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-51 a note of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R., Molotov, dated 6 January 1942.

In order to avoid repetition and to save time, I shall read only a few excerpts from this note which have a direct bearing on the subject of my presentation. You will find the quoted extracts, underlined on Page 100 of the document book:

“Every step which the German fascist army and its allies took on
the occupied Soviet territory of the Ukraine and Moldavia,
Bielorussia and Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, the
Karelo-Finnish territory and the Russian districts and regions
is marked by the ruin or destruction of countless objects of
material and cultural value.”

The last paragraph of this quotation:

“In the villages occupied by German authorities, the peaceful
peasant population is subjected to unrestrained depredation and
robbery. The farmers are robbed of their property, acquired
through whole decades of persistent toil, robbed of their
houses, cattle, grain, clothing—of everything, down to their
children’s last little garments and the last handful of grain.
In many cases, the Germans drive the rural population, including
old people, women, and children, out of their dwellings as soon
as the village is occupied and they are compelled to seek
shelter in mud huts, dugouts, forests, or even under the open
sky. In broad daylight the invaders strip the clothing and
footgear from anyone they meet on the road, including children,
savagely ill-treating those who try to protest against, or offer
any kind of resistance to, such highway robbery.

“In the villages liberated by the Red Army in the Rostov and
Voroshilovgrad regions in the Ukraine, the peasants were
plundered again and again by the invaders. As successive German
army units passed through these areas each of them renewed their
searches, lootings, arsons, 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.”

In order to save time I shall not read the next paragraphs of this note, but shall give an account of them to the Tribunal in my own words. They contain a whole series of concrete facts of the looting of the peaceful population in different regions of the Soviet Union and the names of the victims as well as the list of such things and belongings as were taken from these peaceful citizens. Further, this note reads as follows:

“The marauding orgies 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
encouraged looting and violence. The German Government sees in
this practice the realization of their bandit principle that
every German combatant must have ‘a personal interest in the
war.’ Thus, in a confidential order of 17 July 1941, addressed
to all commanders of propaganda squads in the German Army and
discovered by Red Army units when the 68th German Infantry
Division was routed, explicit instructions are given to foster
in every officer and soldier of the German Army the feeling that
he has a material interest in the war. Similar orders inciting
the army to mass looting and murder of the civil population are
also issued by the armies of the countries fighting on the
German side.

“On the German-Soviet front, and especially in the vicinity of
Moscow, more and more fascist officers and soldiers can be met
dressed in pilfered clothes, their pockets crammed with stolen
goods and their tanks stuffed with women’s and children’s
wearing apparel torn from their victims’ bodies. 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 the curses of the entire Soviet
nation.”

Several months later, on 27 April 1942, in connection with the information which continued to come in regarding the crimes committed by the German fascist armies, Molotov, People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R., published for the second time a note on the monstrous misdeeds, atrocities, and acts of violence of the German fascist invaders in occupied Soviet territories and on the responsibility of the German Government and the High Command for these crimes. This second note is also submitted to the Tribunal. . .

THE PRESIDENT: General, what do you mean by “published”?

MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: What I mean is that this note was first sent to all the governments with whom the U.S.S.R. Government maintained diplomatic relations. The text of the note was also published in the Soviet official press.

This document has already been presented by the Soviet Prosecution as Exhibit Number USSR-51 (Document Number USSR-51). I shall read a few brief 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.

[_The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours._]

_Afternoon Session_

MARSHAL (Colonel Charles W. Mays): May it please the Court: I desire to announce that the Defendant Streicher will be absent on account of illness.

MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: I shall read now excerpts from the note of the People’s Commissar. . .

[_The proceedings were interrupted by technical difficulties in the interpreting system._]

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn.

[_A recess was taken._]

THE PRESIDENT: Owing to the delay the Tribunal will sit until half past 5 tonight without further adjournment.

Yes, Colonel.

MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: I am reading into the record excerpts from the note by the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs dated 27 April 1942, and in order to save time I shall, with your permission, quote only a few of the most necessary excerpts from this note. They are very short. In this note, attention was drawn to the fact that the documents captured by the Soviet authorities and put at the disposal of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs are evidence of the premeditated nature of the plunder carried out by the Hitlerites.

I read the following excerpts; last paragraph on Page 44 of my statement, Russian text.

“The appendix to Special Order Number 43761/41 of the Operations
Department of the General Staff of the German Army, states:

“‘It is urgently necessary that articles of clothing be acquired
by means of forced levies on the population of the occupied
regions enforced by every possible means. It is necessary above
all to confiscate woolen and leather gloves, coats, vests, and
scarves, padded vests and trousers, leather and felt boots, and
puttees.’

“In several places liberated in the districts of Kursk and Orel,
the following orders have been found:

“‘Property such as scales, sacks, grain, salt, kerosene,
benzine, lamps, pots and pans, oilcloth, window blinds,
curtains, rugs, phonographs, and records must be turned in to
the commandant’s office. Anyone violating this order will be
shot.’

“In the town of Istra, in the Moscow region, the invaders
confiscated decorations for Christmas trees and toys. In the
Shakhovskaya railway station they organized the ‘delivery’ by
the inhabitants of children’s underwear, wall clocks, and
samovars. In districts still under the rule of the invaders,
these searches are still going on; and the population, already
reduced to the utmost poverty by the thefts which have been
perpetrated continually since the first appearance of the German
troops, is still being robbed.”

I omit the rest of the quotation from Mr. Molotov’s note and conclude with the last paragraph:

“The general character of the campaign of robbery planned by the
Hitler Government, on which the German Command tried to base its
plans for supplying its Army and the districts in its rear, is
indicated by the following facts: In 25 districts of the Tula
region alone the invaders robbed Soviet citizens of 14,048 cows,
11,860 hogs, 28,459 sheep, 213,678 chickens, geese, and ducks,
and destroyed 25,465 beehives.”

I omit the remainder of this quotation which gives an inventory of all property, cattle, and fowl confiscated by the invaders from 25 districts of the Tula region.

Your Honors, the notes which I have read, mention only a few of the innumerable crimes and cases of plunder committed by the Hitlerites on Soviet soil.

With the permission of the Tribunal I shall now present several German documents from which you will see how the German commanders and officials themselves described their soldiers’ behavior. Later I shall read candid statements by the German fascist leaders saying that German soldiers and officers must 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 begin to plunder each other, thereby proving the truth of the well-known Russian proverb, “A thief stole a cudgel from a thief.”

May I now quote from the document which I present to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-285. This is an extract from a report of the German District Commissioner of Zhitomir to the Commissioner General of Zhitomir dated 30 November 1943. You will find the document to which I refer on Page 93 in the document book. I read:

“Even before the German administration left Zhitomir, troops
stationed there were seen to break into the apartments of Reich
Germans and to appropriate everything that had any value. Even
the personal luggage of Germans still working in their offices
was stolen. When the town was reoccupied it was established that
the houses where the Germans lived were hardly touched by the
local population, but that the troops just entering the town had
already started to loot the houses and business premises. . . .”

I read the second excerpt from the same document:

“The soldiers are not satisfied with taking the articles they
can use, but they destroyed some of the remaining items;
valuable furniture was used for fires, although there was plenty
of wood.”

Now I shall read into the record an excerpt from a report of the German District Commissioner of the town of Korostyshev to the Commissioner General of Zhitomir. The members of the Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 94 of the document book.

“Unfortunately the German soldiers behaved badly. Unlike the
Russians they broke into the storehouses even when the front
line was still far away. Enormous quantities of grain were
stolen, including large quantities of seed. That might have been
tolerated in the case of combat units. . . . Upon the return of
our troops to Popelnaya, the warehouses were again broken into
immediately. The ‘Gebiets- und Kreislandwirt’ nailed up the
doors again, but the soldiers 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; the soldiers carried away with
them butter, cheese, _et cetera_.”

And the second excerpt:

“The co-operative store was plundered before the eyes of the
Ukrainians. Among other things the soldiers took with them all
the cash in the store.”

Then the third excerpt:

“On the 9th and 10th of this month the guards of the field
gendarmerie were posted at the co-operative store in
Korostyshev. These guards could not repel the onslaught of the
soldiers. . . .”

And the last excerpt:

“Pigs and fowls were slaughtered to the most irresponsible
degree and taken away by the soldiers. . . . The appearance of
the troops themselves can only be described as catastrophic.”

In these towns; Your Honors, is the conduct of the German soldiers depicted by a German commissioner in his official report.

There is no doubt that this description is an objective one, especially since it is supplemented by an official report of the German Ukrainian company for supplying agriculture in the Commissariat General, addressed to the Commissioner General of Zhitomir. This is how the report describes the results of a raid by German soldiers on the company’s premises, “. . . The office was in a horrifying and incredible condition.” Second excerpt:

“. . . A 20-room private house at Hauptstrasse Number 57 had an
appalling appearance. Carpets and stair carpets were missing,
and all the upholstered armchairs, couches, beds with spring or
other mattresses, chairs, and wooden benches.”

I skip a few lines:

“The condition of the living rooms generally is almost
indescribable.”

I omit two more excerpts from the document.

Such, Your Honors, is the heartcry of the German brigands of the company for the economic adoption of the Ukraine, who themselves complain of the brigands in the German Army.

In order to show that it was not only in Zhitomir and Korostyshev that such things took place, I shall quote yet another report, this time by the Commissioner of the Kazatinsky district, which contains the following statement, “. . . The German soldiers stole food, cattle, and vehicles.” This laconic but significant introduction is followed by no less significant details:

“Threatening him with a pistol, the corporal demanded the keys
of the granary from the District Commissioner. . . . When I said
that the key was in my pocket, he yelled, ‘Give me the key.’
With these words he pulled out his pistol, stuck it against my
chest, and shouted, ‘I’m going to shoot you—you are a shirker.’
He followed up this remark by a few more specimens of invective,
thrust his hand into my pocket and grabbed the key, saying, ‘I
am the only person who gives orders here.’ This occurred in the
presence of numerous Germans and Ukrainians.”

The chief of the main department, Dr. Moisich, relates the same story in a report to the Commissioner General of Zhitomir, dated 4 December 1943. All these documents are being presented in their original form to the Tribunal.

I shall now, Your Honors, proceed to read excerpts from the official reports and communiques of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union for the investigation and establishment of crimes committed by the German intruders and their accomplices. In order to save time, I ask the Tribunal to permit me to read only a few excerpts from these documents, and to give you the contents of the rest in my own words.

The report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the looting and crimes perpetrated by the Hitlerites in the city and district of Rovno has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-45. The corresponding section of this report reads as follows:

“During their stay in Rovno and the district, Hitlerite officers
and soldiers unrestrainedly plundered the peaceful Soviet
citizens and thoroughly looted the property of cultural and
educational institutions.”

I shall not quote all the data mentioned in this report of the Extraordinary State Commission. The report made by the Extraordinary State Commission on the atrocities committed by the Hitlerites in Kiev, and submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-9, emphasizes the fact that the Hitlerites plundered the peaceful population of Kiev. I quote a brief extract, “The German occupation forces in the city of Kiev looted factory equipment and carried it off to Germany.”

Following the directives of the criminal German Government and the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces, the satellite states also joined in plundering and other crimes. Romanian troops who temporarily occupied Odessa along with German Armed Forces plundered this flourishing city in accordance with instructions from their German masters. The report of the Extraordinary State Commission concerning the crimes committed by German and Romanian invaders in Odessa reads in part as follows:

“. . . The Romanians damaged Odessa considerably from the
economic and industrial point of view during the occupation.

“German-Romanian aggressors have confiscated and removed to
Romania 1,042,013 centners of grain, 45,227 horses, 87,646 head
of cattle, 31,821 pigs, _et cetera_, belonging to co-operative
farms and co-operative farmers.”

The report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the damages inflicted by the German fascist invaders on industry, urban economy, and cultural and educational institutions in the Stalino region, already presented to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-2, also gives a good deal of data on the looting and removal to Germany of the factory equipment of this important industrial region.

I have quoted only a few of the reports compiled by the Extraordinary State Commission on certain districts of the Ukraine. This flourishing Soviet republic was subjected to unrestrained looting by the Hitlerites. The Hitlerite conspirators considered the Ukraine a tidbit and plundered her with exceptional voracity. I should like to read several documents in proof of the above.

Rosenberg’s letter to Reichsleiter Bormann dated 17 October 1944. This document which has already been submitted on 17 December by the United States Prosecution under Exhibit Number USA-338 (Document Number 327-PS) states that the Central Trading Company for the East for marketing of agricultural produce sent the following goods to Germany in the period between 1943 and 31 March 1944 only:

“Cereals, 9,200,000 tons; meat and meat products, 622,000 tons;
oil seed, 950,000 tons; butter, 208,000 tons; sugar, 400,000
tons; fodder, 2,500,000 tons; potatoes, 3,200,000 tons, and so
forth.”

The Defendant Rosenberg reported his “agricultural achievements” to Hitler’s closest assistant in these terms.

It should be noted that during the first year of the war the voracity shown by the Hitlerites in plundering the Ukraine was so great, that it awakened certain misgivings even in themselves.

I shall read an excerpt from a letter addressed by the Inspector of Armaments in the Ukraine to the Infantry General Thomas, Chief of the Economic Armament Office of the OKW. The letter is dated 2 December 1941. This document was submitted to the Tribunal by the United States Prosecution on 14 December as Document Number 3257-PS. I read a short excerpt:

“The export of agricultural surpluses from the Ukraine for the
purpose of feeding the Reich is only possible if the internal
trade in the Ukraine is reduced to a minimum. This can be
attained by the following measures:

“1. Elimination of unwanted consumers (Jews; the populations of
the large Ukrainian towns, which, like Kiev, receive no food
allocation whatsoever).

“2. Reduction as far as possible of food rations allocated to
the Ukrainians in other towns.

“3. Reduction of food consumption by the peasant population.”

Having outlined this program, the author explains further:

“If the Ukrainian is to be made to work, we must look after his
physical existence, not for sentimental motives, but for purely
business reasons.”

I omit the next paragraphs of this quotation.

However, the Reich Commissioner for the Ukraine, Koch, went steadily on with his policy of ruthlessly plundering the Ukraine. In due course I shall submit to you numerous further documents, also in the original, in confirmation of the above. Koch’s policy met with the approbation of the Hitlerite Government.

It is worthy of note that at the beginning of the war the plundering of the occupied territories of the U.S.S.R. was organized in accordance with the directives contained in the Green File, already mentioned. I submit to the Tribunal, as Exhibit Number USSR-13 (Document Number USSR-13), a letter by Göring dated 6 September 1941 on the subject of inspection for the seizure and utilization of raw materials, in which, among other things, the following passage occurs—the Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 131 of the document book:

“The war emergency demands that the supplies of raw materials
found in the recently captured eastern territories be put at the
disposal of the German war economy as quickly as possible. The
Directives for the Economic Management of the Occupied Eastern
Territories (Green File) are to be taken as authoritative.”

I omit the last part of the quotation.

Later however, when the Germans set up their so-called civil administration and organized a number of special economic bodies in various occupied territories including the Ukraine, in particular, disputes arose among the numerous German military and civil bodies and organizations, all of whom were engaged in plundering the occupied territories. Rosenberg, as Reich Minister for the Eastern Occupied Territories, began to insist that all military and economic organizations in the Ukraine were to be liquidated and their functions transferred to German civil administrations.

I submit to the Tribunal a draft report for State Secretary Körner on this subject, dated 3 December 1943, as Exhibit Number USSR-180 (Document Number USSR-180). I read from it:

“Subject, 1. Economic administration in the Occupied Eastern
Territories; 2. General economic staff for the occupied
territories.

“In a letter to the Reich Marshal, dated 20 November 1943,
copies of which were sent to the Chief of Staff of the OKW, and
the Leader of the Party Chancellery, Minister Rosenberg made the
following demands:

“1. For the Ukraine,

“a. Military economic establishment still in existence to be
dissolved.

“b. The office of Chief of the Army Group Economic Departments
to be abolished and the military functions of the latter to be
taken over again by the Chief Quartermaster.

“c. In case of the retention of the office of the Chief of the
Army Group Economic Departments the practice of the same
specialists working both in the Reich Commissariat and under the
Chief of the Army Group Economic Departments to be
discontinued.”

I omit the rest. In the same draft are detailed objections made by General Stapf and submitted by him to Keitel. He criticizes Rosenberg’s suggestion and advises the retention of the Economic Staff East.

And now, with the permission of the Tribunal, I present as Exhibit Number USSR-174 (Document Number USSR-174), another original document which is a covering letter from the Permanent Deputy of the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories to State Secretary Körner on the same subject.

Written suggestions by Rosenberg were appended to this letter in which Rosenberg insists that the entire economic activities be placed under the control of his ministry once more. As this is a rather long document and I am presenting it in the original, I ask your permission not to read it since it is mainly concerned with Rosenberg’s proposal, which I have already described to the Tribunal. For the information of the interpreters—I omit two pages of my presentation and pass to Page 62.

Evidently Rosenberg did not receive the answer he wanted, so on 24 January 1944 he again wrote to Göring on the same subject. I submit this letter as Exhibit Number USSR-179 (Document Number USSR-179). In this letter Rosenberg suggests—I shall read into the record a short quotation, which the Tribunal will find on Page 151 of the document book:

“. . . in the interest of smooth working and economy of staff, I
would request that the Economic Staff East and its subordinate
agencies be abolished and that the economic administration in
the Occupied Eastern Territories and even in those districts
where fighting is still going on, be transferred to my sphere of
authority.”

Göring replied to this in a letter dated 14 February, which I offer in evidence as part of the same Exhibit Number USSR-179. I quote:

“Dear Party Member Rosenberg:

“I received your letter of 24 January 1944 regarding economic
administration in the Occupied Eastern Territories. Since the
Reich Commissariat Ukraine is now almost entirely army
administrative territory”—this is a reference to the Red Army
offensive—“I consider it advisable to postpone our conference
on the future organization of the economic administration until
the military situation is completely clarified.”

Thus, Your Honors, Rosenberg’s claims met with resistance on the part of other German authorities who stubbornly refused to give up such a choice “economic activity.”

Rosenberg in his turn refused to yield and continued to press his demands. I now offer in evidence the following document, Exhibit Number USSR-173 (Document Number USSR-173)—this is a letter from Rosenberg to Göring dated 6 March 1944. In this letter, Rosenberg refers to his experience in Bielorussia and again urges his proposals. It is a long document and I shall not read it, as it is presented to the Tribunal _in toto_. But Göring still had his doubts and decided against Rosenberg.

On 6 April 1944, a month after the above-mentioned letter was sent off, Rosenberg again wrote to Göring. This document I submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-176 (Document Number USSR-176). May I omit reading it into the record, since in substance it is like the last; and the arguments advanced in it are not such as to interest us greatly now. I omit Page 65 and pass on to Page 66.

Thus, Your Honors, even when the Red Army was delivering its last crippling blows against the German fascist hordes, the Hitlerite brigands went on quarreling about the spoils. I think there is no need to prove that while this haggling continued, the occupied territories were looted in feverish haste by the German authorities, both military and civil.

Now, Your Honors, I shall read some brief excerpts from the report made by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union on the crimes committed by the Hitlerite invaders in the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian Soviet Socialist Republics, which were also mercilessly plundered by the German fascist aggressors.

All these reports have been already presented to the Tribunal by the Soviet Prosecution. The report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes of the Hitlerites in the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic contains the following statement:

“As the result of the way in which the Hitlerite invaders
managed affairs, even according to incomplete data, the number
of livestock and poultry in all the 14 districts of the
Lithuanian S.S.R. decreases in comparison with the year 1940-41
by 136,140 horses, 565,995 cattle, 463,340 pigs. . . .”

I shall now quote excerpts from the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the crimes committed by the German invaders in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. For the information of the interpreters—this quotation is on Page 68, second paragraph:

“The Germans plundered the depots of tractors and agricultural
machinery throughout Latvia; and according to figures which are
far from complete, they sent to Germany 700 tractors, 180 motor
vehicles, 4,057 ploughs, 2,815 cultivators, 3,532 harrows.”

Second quotation:

“In consequence of the despoliation of Latvian rural economy by
the German invaders, the livestock in Latvia was decreased by
127,300 horses, 443,700 head of cattle, 318,200 pigs, and
593,800 sheep.”

Further, I shall read a short excerpt from the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the Estonian S.S.R.: I quote:

“The German invaders plundered the rural population of Estonia
without restraint. This plunder took the form of forcing the
peasants to hand over various kinds of farm produce.

“The quantities of farm produce to be delivered as ordered by
the Germans were very high.”

I omit part of the quotation and I read the second paragraph on the next page:

“The Germans confiscated and drove to Germany 107,000 horses,
31,000 cows, 214,000 pigs, 790,000 head of poultry. They
plundered about 50,000 beehives.”

I omit one more paragraph and I read the last quotation from this report:

“The Hitlerites took away 1,000 threshing machines, 600
threshing machine motors, 700 motors for driving belts, 350
tractors, and 24,781 other agricultural machines which were the
personal property of individual peasants.”

Your Honors, a similar policy of plundering private, public, and national property was also carried out by the German fascist invaders in the occupied territories of Bielorussia, Moldavia, the Karelo-Finnish S.S.R. and the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic.

Various military units and organizations in different districts of the U.S.S.R. employed the same methods of plunder at all stages of the war in accordance with the same criminal plan and in pursuit of the same criminal aims. This plan was worked out, these aims were determined, these crimes were organized by the major war criminals who are now in the dock.

The U.S.S.R. Prosecution has at its disposal tens of thousands of documents on this subject. The presentation of all these numerous documents to the Tribunal would require such a long time that it would only complicate the Trial. For this reason, with the Tribunal’s permission, I shall not quote any further documents or reports of the Extraordinary State Commission on separate regions and republics, but I shall read into the record the statistical report of the Extraordinary State Commission relative to the material damage done by the German fascists to state enterprises and establishments, collective farms, public organizations, and individual citizens of the U.S.S.R.

This document is being presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-35 (Document Number USSR-35). I shall read into the record only those extracts from the report which have a direct bearing on the subject of my presentation. They are stated as follows—Page 71 of the statement:

“The German fascist aggressors destroyed and pillaged 98,000
collective farms, 1,876 State farms, and 2,890 machine and
tractor stations. Seven million horses, 17 million head of
cattle, 20 million pigs, 27 million sheep and goats, and 110
million poultry were slaughtered or shipped to Germany.”

The Extraordinary State Commission calculates the damage done to the national economy of the Soviet Union and to individual villagers and townspeople at 679,000 millions of rubles reckoned at the official prices current in 1941 as follows:

“1. State concerns and institutions, 287,000 million rubles; 2.
collective farms, 181,000 million rubles; 3. villagers and
townspeople, 192,000 million rubles; 4. co-operatives, trade
unions, and other public organizations, 19,000 million rubles.”

I omit the following sections of this report, which describe how this damage is divided among separate Soviet Republics, and I pass on to the fourth paragraph, which describes the destruction of collective farms, State farms, and machine tractor stations. In order to save time, I shall confine myself to a few separate excerpts:

“While burning the villages and hamlets, the German fascists
plundered completely the inhabitants of these villages. Those of
the peasants who offered resistance were brutally murdered.”

Further, some concrete data are given on the plundering in the Kamenetz-Podolsk and the Kursk region, the collective farm “For Peace and Work” in the region of Krasnodar, the collective farms “For the Times” in the Stalino region, as well as collective farms in Mogilev and Zhitomir districts and others. The German fascist invaders inflicted great damage on the State farms of the U.S.S.R. They shipped out of collective farms all stocks of agricultural products and destroyed farm and other buildings belonging to the state farms.

Another excerpt:

“Horse Farm Number 62 in the Poltava district lost its stock of
Russo-American trotting brood mares through the German
occupation. Up to the war, this stud farm had 670 brood mares.
The Germans acted in the same way in regard to other breeding
farms.”

I omit the remaining excerpt of this section; and I pass on to Paragraph 6, which deals with the mass looting of Soviet citizens’ property by the Germans:

“In all the republics, districts, and territories of the Soviet
Union which were occupied, the fascist German invaders looted
the property of the rural and urban population, stealing
valuables, property, clothing, and household articles, and
imposing fines, taxes, and contributions on the peaceful
population.”

The same section contains a whole series of concrete facts of the plunder of Soviet citizens in Smolensk, Orel and Leningrad Provinces; the Dniepropetrovsk and Sumsky Provinces, _et cetera_. With the Tribunal’s permission, I omit two pages of my presentation, and I read the following paragraph at the bottom of Page 76:

“The plundering of the Soviet population was being carried out
by the German aggressors throughout the whole of the occupied
Soviet territory.

“The Extraordinary State Commission has undertaken the task of
estimating the damage done to the Soviet citizens by the
occupation authorities and has established that the German
fascist invaders burned down and destroyed approximately four
million dwelling houses which were the personal property of
collective farmers, workers, and employees; confiscated 1½
million horses, 9 million head of cattle, 12 million pigs, 13
million sheep and goats; and took away an enormous quantity of
household goods and chattel of all kinds.”

The above documents and reports of the Extraordinary State Commission depict the crimes committed by the Hitlerites in the occupied territories of the U.S.S.R. These crimes had been organized by the defendants.

The fact that Göring, in his capacity as Reich Marshal and Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan of the Hitlerite Government, was directly in charge of all the operations of the German military and civil authorities for the preparation and execution of despoliation of the occupied territories, is clearly shown by the documents which I have already presented. Nevertheless, I beg the indulgence of the Tribunal to read the final document on this matter, that is, the decree issued by Hitler on 29 June 1941.

A copy of this decree was kindly put at our disposal by the American Prosecution, and it has not yet been presented. I, therefore, present it to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-287 (Document Number USSR-287). This decree reads as follows:

“1. Reich Marshal Hermann Göring, as Plenipotentiary for the
Four Year Plan, will employ, within the scope of the power
allotted to him for the purpose, all means necessary for
exploiting to the fullest extent supplies and economic resources
discovered in the newly occupied eastern territories and for
developing all their economic possibilities for the benefit of
the German war economy.

“2. For this purpose he is also authorized to give direct orders
to military authorities in the newly occupied eastern
territories.

“3. This decree will become effective as from today. It must
first be made public by special order.”

However, Your Honors, the granting of extraordinary powers to Göring does not, in any way, mean that the other defendants took only a passive interest in organizing the looting of the occupied territories. All of them, jointly and separately, worked feverishly in this direction. Frank robbed the Poles; Rosenberg managed affairs in the Ukraine and in the other occupied territories of the U.S.S.R.; Sauckel and Seyss-Inquart were busy here and there; Speer and Funk made schemes for and carried out predatory measures within the scope of the Ministry of Economics and the Ministry for Armament and War Production, while Keitel acted in the field of the Armed Forces.

In this connection I should like to submit to the Tribunal two more documents relating to Keitel’s economic activities. These documents, Your Honors, are presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-175 (Document Number USSR-175). On 29 August 1942 Keitel, in his capacity of Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, issued the following order under “Number 002865/42-g.Kdos. regarding securing of supplies for the Armed Forces.” I shall read only two short excerpts from this order. Your Honors will find them on Page 181 of the document book. I read:

“The food situation of the German people is such that it is
necessary for the Armed Forces to contribute as far as possible
towards alleviating it. All the necessary means of doing so
exist in the combat zones and in the occupied territories both
in the East and in the West.

“It is essential, above all, that much greater quantities of
supplies and forage . . . should be secured in the occupied
territories of the East than has been the case up to now.”

The second excerpt:

“All establishments should consider it their pride as well as
their duty to attain this goal at all costs so that in this
field, too, they may play a decisive part in achieving victory.”

In a memorandum by section chiefs Klare and Dr. Bergmann, dated, “19 November 1942, most secret, subject: Procurement of Supplies for the Armed Forces”—I submit this memorandum in the original to the Tribunal under the same number, Document Number USSR-175—we find the following estimate of the results achieved by the above-mentioned order from Keitel. I now read into the record only the first paragraph of this memorandum.

“By order of the Führer, the Chief of the OKW has decreed in the
attached order of 29 August 1942 that the Armed Forces must, as
far as possible, contribute towards the task of ensuring food
supplies for the German people and that they must themselves
make every effort, not only to obtain sufficient food supplies
locally to cover the needs of the armies, but also to ensure
that the quantities required by the Reich are secured in
addition.

“As the result of this order co-operation between the Army and
the economic authorities has fortunately grown closer.”

Now with Your Honor’s permission, I shall read into the record one more document, namely, a telegram sent by Keitel on 8 September 1944. This document was kindly put at our disposal by the American Prosecution and registered as Document Number 743-PS. It was not presented to the Tribunal before; I therefore submit it now as Exhibit Number USSR-286, and I quote:

“1. To General Staff of the Army: Attention General
Quartermaster, Office of Chief of Staff, (Anna).

“2. To General Staff of the Army: Attention General
Quartermaster, Army Administration Office, (Anna-Bu).

“3. To Commanding General, Army Group North.

“4. To Commanding General, Army Group Center.

“5. To Economic Staff East.

“6. To Military District H.Q.I.”

I read this text as follows:

“1. The Führer has entrusted Gauleiter Koch with the utilization
of local resources in the parts of Reichskommissariat Ostland
occupied by troops of Army Group Center. Furthermore, the Führer
has ordered that all German and local administrative authorities
be subordinated to Gauleiter Koch. In securing economic
resources, Gauleiter Koch is to maintain contact with competent
Supreme Reich agencies.

“2. All authorities of the Armed Forces will give Gauleiter Koch
every assistance in their power in executing this order.”

Thus, Your Honors, even at the end of 1944, when under the blows of the Red Army and its allies Hitlerite Germany was precipitated towards its final defeat and only a few months before its final military and political collapse, Hitler, Keitel, Koch, and many others were still stretching out their already stiffening fingers to grab the property and wealth of others.

This is the evidence I have to show regarding the looting and marauding perpetrated by the Hitlerite hordes in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union. But they plundered not only the living, they also plundered the dead. My colleague, Colonel Smirnov, has already presented comprehensive evidence on this question. I do not wish to quote it again, but I refer to it only to show how closely interlocked and all-embracing was the circle of their crimes. As Rauschning testifies in his book, which has already been presented by the Soviet Prosecution to the Tribunal, Hitler once said:

“I need people with strong fists whose principles will not
prevent them from taking human life if necessary; and if on
occasion they swipe a watch or a jewel, I don’t care a tinker’s
damn.”

And Hitler actually found these men in the persons of the defendants and their numerous accomplices.

As the documents which I have just presented show, the Defendant Göring, on account of his position in Hitler’s Government as Reich Marshal and Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan and as head of the whole criminal system for the plundering of the occupied territories, was guilty of these crimes.

For this reason the stenographic record of a secret conference of German administrative leaders (Reich Commissioners) for the occupied countries, which took place on 6 August 1942, is of particular interest. Göring presided over the meeting. This document, like many other original documents which I had the honor of presenting today to the Tribunal, was found by Soviet military authorities in September 1945 in one of the municipal buildings of the town of Jena, in Thuringia.

This extraordinary document contains a long speech by Göring and the replies of the Hitlerite rulers of the occupied countries. And, Your Honors, many of the people who are sitting in the dock now took part in this conference. The contents of this document are such that any comment on my part is unnecessary. Therefore, if it pleases the Tribunal, I shall proceed to read from this document.

“Stenographic notes; Thursday, 6 August 1942, 4 p. m., in the
Hermann Göring Hall in the Air Ministry.

“Reich Marshal Göring: ‘The Gauleiter stated their views here
yesterday. Although they may have differed in tone and manner,
it was evident that they all feel that the German people have
too little to eat. Gentlemen, the Führer has given me general
powers exceeding any hitherto granted within the Four Year Plan.