reading

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.”

“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.”

“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.

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.”

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.”

“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.

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).

“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.”

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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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. . .

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.

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

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. . . .”

“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.”

“The Kreislandwirt reported to me that the dairy farm was plundered by retreating units; the soldiers carried away with them butter, cheese, et cetera.”

“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.”

“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. . . .”

“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.”

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

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.