“The library of the Polytechnical Institute in the basement of
the left wing, as well as a great number of laboratories, were
devastated beyond hope and left in complete disorder.”
The report concludes with the following sentence, which I quote:
“The purpose of this report”—wrote the German private—“can be
achieved only if submitted to the Supreme Command and when the
command will issue the necessary orders plainly forbidding the
German soldier from behaving like a barbarian.”
But such orders never followed and never could follow, since fascism and
barbarism are inseparable; fascism, in fact, means barbarism.
THE PRESIDENT: What were you proposing to do after the adjournment this
afternoon?
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: After the recess I shall present several
written documents pertaining to the destruction of cultural valuables in
the Lithuanian, Estonian, and Latvian Republics and later, with the
permission of the Tribunal, I should like to present a documentary film,
so that at the close of the session all presentation of evidence would
be completed and my report finished.
THE PRESIDENT: How long will the film take?
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: The presentation of the documentary film will
take about 30 to 35 minutes.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you not think that after the vast amount of damage and
spoliation to which you have drawn our attention in some detail it would
be sufficient if you were to summarize by telling us the countries in
which similar spoliation had taken place? It is difficult to assimilate
all this vast amount of detail.
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: I have in mind, Mr. President, to present to
the Tribunal a document which will serve as a summary and in which all
the general totals will be given.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. We will adjourn now for 10 minutes.
[_A recess was taken._]
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: I wish to draw the attention of the Tribunal
for a few minutes to the fact that before presenting the conclusion of
this document I should like to read into the record a German document
referring to the subject.
Having occupied the Lithuanian, Estonian, and Latvian Soviet Republics,
the German fascist invaders attempted to reduce the Soviet Baltic
provinces to the status of a German colony and to enslave the people of
these republics. This criminal design of the Hitlerite Government found
its full expression in universal plunder, general ruin, violence,
degradation, and in the mass murder of old men, women, and children.
In order to germanize the people of the Lithuanian, Estonian, and
Latvian Soviet Socialist Republics, the Hitlerites destroyed, by all
possible means, the culture of the peoples of these republics. I skip
the remainder of Pages 76, 77, and 78, and from Page 79 I quote one
paragraph only:
“The capital of Soviet Latvia, Riga, was declared by the
occupational authorities as the capital of ‘Ostland’ (Eastern
Territory) and the seat of Staff Rosenberg.”
In the documents presented to the Tribunal by the Soviet Prosecution as
Document Number USSR-7, Document Number USSR-39, and Document Number
USSR-41, there are a number of facts which do not and cannot exhaust the
crimes perpetrated by the German fascist invaders in the Soviet Baltic
provinces. Among the monstrous crimes against the peoples of the Baltic
provinces, the Defendant Rosenberg, the former Reich Minister, played a
major part.
I read from Page 81. Even at the time when it was quite evident that the
downfall of fascist Germany was fast approaching, when the hour of just
and stern retribution was facing the Hitler criminals, the Defendant
Rosenberg still continued in his plundering. As late as the end of
August 1944, Rosenberg organized and executed the plundering of cultural
resources in Riga and Reval, in Dorpat, and in a number of towns in the
Estonian Republic.
I draw the attention of the Tribunal to Document Number 161-PS, dated 23
August 1944, entitled “Assignment” and signed by Rosenberg’s Chief of
Staff, Utikal. This document is submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit
Number USSR-376 (Document Number USSR-376), which Your Honors will find
on Page 400 of the document book. I quote:
“Order. On 21 August 1944, Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg
requested Haupteinsatzführer Friedrich Schueller from the
Einsatzstab RR to report on the possibilities still existing for
the evacuation of cultural treasures from the eastern
territories. On the basis of this report the Reichsleiter has
ruled that the most precious cultural riches of the Ostland
could still be removed by his staff, insofar as this can be done
without interfering with the interests of the fighting forces.
The Reichsleiter specified the following cultural objects as
having particular value:
“From Riga—the city archives, the state archives (the major
part of these were in Edwahlen);
“From Reval—the city archives, the Estonian Literary Society,
and small collections from Schwarzhäupterhaus, the town hall,
Evangelical Lutheran consistory, and Nicolas’ Church.
“From Dorpat—the university library; collections evacuated to
Estonian estates—Jerlep, Wodja, Weissenstein, and Lachmes.
“Haupteinsatzführer Schueller, in his capacity as acting
director of the main working group of the Einsatzstab RR, is
commissioned with the carrying out of the removal and shipment.
“He is advised to maintain special contact with Army Group North
in order to co-ordinate the execution of this mission of the
Reichsleiter, with the transportation requirements of the field
forces.
“Utikal, chief of Einsatzstab”
I should like to draw the attention of the Tribunal to another peculiar
circumstance. In this case, too, the looting was carried out by
Rosenberg together with the High Command, and as late as the fall of
1944, “future chiefs” of Staff Rosenberg were selected.
An analysis of all these circumstances permits us categorically to
reassert that the destruction and looting of cultural valuables was
inspired, directed, and executed by a central organization, and that
this central organization was the criminal Hitler Government and the
High Command, the representatives of which, in the persons of all the
defendants in this Trial, should suffer punishment in accordance with
Article 6 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal.
May it please Your Honors, when we deal with a system of wholesale
destruction and plunder, it is impossible, and scarcely necessary, to
enumerate all the facts, even if these facts are, _per se_, of great
importance. In the occupied territories of the Soviet Union the
Hitlerites carried out precisely such a system of wholesale and manifold
destruction and plunder of cultural treasures of the peoples of the
U.S.S.R. At this moment it is not yet possible to draw up an exhaustive
balance of the defendants’ crimes.
But I shall, with the permission of the Tribunal, submit a document
containing data which, although only of a preliminary nature, are
absolutely accurate and bear witness to the tremendous damage inflicted
by the Hitlerites.
I have in view the report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the
Soviet Union, submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-35
(Document Number USSR-35). This document is on Pages 404 and 405 of your
document book. From this I shall only quote individual excerpts
concerning the subject which I am presenting and which have not yet been
read into the record:
“Destruction of Cultural-Social Institutions, Public
Organizations, and Co-operatives.
“The German plunderers destroyed various establishments, clubs,
stadia, rest homes, and sanatoria belonging to consumer and
industrial co-operatives, trade unions, and other public
organizations . . . in the occupied territory of the U.S.S.R.
They destroyed over 87,000 industrial buildings belonging to
co-operatives, trade unions, and other social organizations;
10,000 residential buildings and 1,839 cultural and social
institutions. They carried off to Germany about 8,000,000
books. . . .
“Of the property of the trade unions the German invaders
completely destroyed 120 sanatoria and 150 rest homes in which
over 3 million workers, engineers, technicians, and other
employees spent their annual rest leave. Of this total figure
they destroyed, in the Crimea 59 sanatoria and rest homes. . .
in the spas of the Caucasus 32 sanatoria and rest homes; in the
Leningrad area 33 sanatoria and rest homes; in the Ukraine 88
sanatoria and rest homes.
“The German fascist invaders destroyed the buildings of 46
pioneer camps and children’s convalescent institutions belonging
to the trade unions. They destroyed 189 clubs and palaces of
culture.”