“C. Destruction of National Industry.
“(a) Compulsory organization.
“After the invasion the Germans introduced into the Protectorate
the compulsory organization of Czech industry on the German
model.
“They appointed a committee for every new association and all
the industrial ‘groups’ appointing at least one Nazi as chairman
or vice chairman or, just as an ordinary member. However, all
the Czech members actually were mere puppets.
“(b) Armament factories.
“The Dresdner Bank acquired the most important armament
factories in Czechoslovakia, that is, the Skoda Works in Pilsen
and the Czechoslovak ‘Zborjobka’ in Brünn. The private
share-holders were forced to surrender their shares at prices
far below their actual value; the bank paid for these shares
with coupons which had been withdrawn from circulation, and
confiscated by the Germans in the districts previously ceded in
accordance with the Munich agreement.
“(c) The Hermann Göring Werke.
“The seizure by the Germans of the Czechoslovak banks and thus
of the industry, through the big Berlin banks, was accomplished
with the help of the gigantic Hermann Göring Werke which seized
the greatest Czechoslovak industries, one by one, at the
smallest financial cost, that is to say, under the pretext of
Aryanization, by pressure from the Reich, by financial measures,
and finally by threatening Gestapo measures and concentration
camps.
“Finally, all the large Czechoslovak enterprises, factories, and
armament plants, and the coal and iron industries fell into
German hands. The huge chemical industry was seized by the
German concern, I. G. Farben Industrie.”
I skip the paragraph concerning the same methods adopted in the case of
light industry and pass on to the next count of the report, “Financial
Spoliation.”
“After the occupation of the territory, ceded apparently in
accordance with the Munich agreement, the Germans refused to
take over part of the Czechoslovak State debt, although they
acquired very valuable State property in the districts taken
away from Czechoslovakia. Government bonds of low denominations
amounting to a total of 1,600 million crowns were in circulation
in the occupied territory.
“The Germans reserved the right to use these obligations in
Czechoslovakia as legal tender.”
Gentlemen, further on in this report we find a detailed account of the
Hitlerite campaign of spoliation directed against the financial economy
of the Czechoslovak Republic. With a view to saving time I shall refrain
from quoting this excerpt and shall merely submit the balance sheet of
the Czechoslovak National Bank.
“The balance sheet of the Czech National Bank showed the
following figures for ‘other assets’ in million of crowns: 31
December 1938, 845; 31 December 1939, 3,576; 31 December 1942,
17,366.”