“A few days after the seizure of Slovenia, central offices were
organized for resettlement control. The headquarters staff was
established in Maribor (Marburg on the Drava) and Bled (Veldes).
“At the same time, on 22 April 1941, a ‘Decree for the
Strengthening of German Folkdom’ was published. The immediate
aim of this decree was the confiscation of property of all
persons and institutions antagonistically inclined towards the
Reich. Naturally, all those, who in accordance with the
aforesaid plan were to be deported from Slovenia, were included
in this category.
“The Hitlerites proceeded to the practical realization of this
plan. They arrested a large number of persons registered for
deportation to Serbia and Croatia. The treatment of the arrested
persons was extremely cruel. Their entire property was
confiscated in the interest of the Reich. Numerous assembly
points were organized and practically turned into concentration
camps, in Maribor, Zelie, and other localities.”
As regards the treatment of arrested persons in these points, the
statement of the Yugoslav Government reads as follows—the members of
the Tribunal will find this passage on Page 69, Paragraph 4, of the
document book:
“The internees were left without food; in unhygienic conditions;
the personnel of the camp subjected them to bodily and mental
torture. All the camp commanders and personnel belonged to the
SS. Among them were Germans from Carinthia and Styria who hated
anything connected with Slovenia in particular, and Yugoslavia
in general.”
The following sentence is typical:
“The members of the so-called Kulturbund”—Cultural
Union—“particularly distinguished themselves for their
cruelty.”
In corroboration of this Hitlerite crime, I submit to the Tribunal, as
Exhibit Number USSR-139 (Document Number USSR-139), a letter from the
German Command in Smeredov, addressed to the Yugoslav quisling,
Commissioner Stefanovitch, ordering him to report what the possibilities
were for transferring to Serbia a large number of Slovenes. Your Honors
will find this document on Page 119 of the document book.
In the report of the Yugoslav Government, Page 49 of the Russian text,
which corresponds to Page 59, Paragraph 7, of the document book of the
Tribunal, it is stated that the Germans primarily intended to transfer
260,000 Slovenes to Serbia. However, the realization of this plan met
with a number of difficulties. In this connection I should like to quote
a paragraph from the report of the Yugoslav Government:
“But in view of the fact that the transportation to Serbia of
such a very large number of Slovenes has encountered a great
many difficulties, negotiations were opened shortly afterwards
between the German authorities and the quisling Oustachi
administration in Zagreb concerning the transit of the expelled
Slovenes through Croatian territory and the resettling of a
certain number of these Slovenes in Croatia proper, while the
Serbs in Croatia were deported from the country.”
I submit to the Tribunal, as Exhibit Number USSR-195 (Document Number
USSR-195), the minutes of a conference held on 4 June 1941 at the German
Legation in Zagreb and presided over by SA Obergruppenführer Siegfried
Kasche, German Minister in Zagreb. These minutes, in the Serbian
translation, were seized in the archives of the Refugee Commission of
the so-called Government of Milan Neditch. They give the subject matter
of the conference, that is, “The Expulsion of the Slovenes from Germany
to Croatia and Serbia, as well as of the Serbs from Croatia to Serbia.”
The Tribunal will find this document on Page 120 of the document book.
The passage in question literally reads as follows:
“The conference was approved by the Reich Ministry for Foreign
Affairs by Telegram Number 389, dated 31 May. The Führer’s
approval for the deportation was received by Telegram Number
344, dated 25 May.”
We are thus able to prove that the direct responsibility for this crime
against humanity rests on the Defendant Von Ribbentrop.
We gather, at the same time, from the report of the Yugoslav Government,
that the deportation of a considerable number of Slovenes to Germany was
put into effect. I quote a paragraph from the report of the Yugoslav
Government, which Your Honors will find on Page 70, last paragraph of
the document book. I begin the quotation:
“Shortly afterwards the deportation itself began. In the morning
German trucks would arrive in the villages. Soldiers and Gestapo
men, armed with machine guns and rifles, broke into the houses
and ordered the inhabitants to leave, each man being allowed to
take with him only as much as he could carry. The unfortunate
people were given only a few minutes in which to quit and they
were forced to leave all their property behind them. The trucks
drove them to the Roman Catholic Trappist monastery of
Reichenberg. The transports started from the monastery. Each
transport consisted of 600 to 1,200 persons to be taken to
Germany. The district of Bregiza was almost completely
depopulated, the district of Krshko up to 90 percent; 56,000
inhabitants were deported from these two districts. Over and
above this 4,000 were deported from the communities of Zirkovsky
and Ptuya.”