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which we can make use are to be withdrawn from commerce.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. . . .”