Another excerpt:
“Horse Farm Number 62 in the Poltava district lost its stock of Russo-American trotting brood mares through the German occupation. Up to the war, this stud farm had 670 brood mares. The Germans acted in the same way in regard to other breeding farms.”
I omit the remaining excerpt of this section; and I pass on to Paragraph 6, which deals with the mass looting of Soviet citizens’ property by the Germans:
“In all the republics, districts, and territories of the Soviet Union which were occupied, the fascist German invaders looted the property of the rural and urban population, stealing valuables, property, clothing, and household articles, and imposing fines, taxes, and contributions on the peaceful population.”
The same section contains a whole series of concrete facts of the plunder of Soviet citizens in Smolensk, Orel and Leningrad Provinces; the Dniepropetrovsk and Sumsky Provinces, et cetera. With the Tribunal’s permission, I omit two pages of my presentation, and I read the following paragraph at the bottom of Page 76:
“The plundering of the Soviet population was being carried out by the German aggressors throughout the whole of the occupied Soviet territory.
“The Extraordinary State Commission has undertaken the task of estimating the damage done to the Soviet citizens by the occupation authorities and has established that the German fascist invaders burned down and destroyed approximately four million dwelling houses which were the personal property of collective farmers, workers, and employees; confiscated 1½ million horses, 9 million head of cattle, 12 million pigs, 13 million sheep and goats; and took away an enormous quantity of household goods and chattel of all kinds.”
The above documents and reports of the Extraordinary State Commission depict the crimes committed by the Hitlerites in the occupied territories of the U.S.S.R. These crimes had been organized by the defendants.
The fact that Göring, in his capacity as Reich Marshal and Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan of the Hitlerite Government, was directly in charge of all the operations of the German military and civil authorities for the preparation and execution of despoliation of the occupied territories, is clearly shown by the documents which I have already presented. Nevertheless, I beg the indulgence of the Tribunal to read the final document on this matter, that is, the decree issued by Hitler on 29 June 1941.
A copy of this decree was kindly put at our disposal by the American Prosecution, and it has not yet been presented. I, therefore, present it to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-287 (Document Number USSR-287). This decree reads as follows:
“1. Reich Marshal Hermann Göring, as Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan, will employ, within the scope of the power allotted to him for the purpose, all means necessary for exploiting to the fullest extent supplies and economic resources discovered in the newly occupied eastern territories and for developing all their economic possibilities for the benefit of the German war economy.
“2. For this purpose he is also authorized to give direct orders to military authorities in the newly occupied eastern territories.
“3. This decree will become effective as from today. It must first be made public by special order.”
However, Your Honors, the granting of extraordinary powers to Göring does not, in any way, mean that the other defendants took only a passive interest in organizing the looting of the occupied territories. All of them, jointly and separately, worked feverishly in this direction. Frank robbed the Poles; Rosenberg managed affairs in the Ukraine and in the other occupied territories of the U.S.S.R.; Sauckel and Seyss-Inquart were busy here and there; Speer and Funk made schemes for and carried out predatory measures within the scope of the Ministry of Economics and the Ministry for Armament and War Production, while Keitel acted in the field of the Armed Forces.
In this connection I should like to submit to the Tribunal two more documents relating to Keitel’s economic activities. These documents, Your Honors, are presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-175 (Document Number USSR-175). On 29 August 1942 Keitel, in his capacity of Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, issued the following order under “Number 002865/42-g.Kdos. regarding securing of supplies for the Armed Forces.” I shall read only two short excerpts from this order. Your Honors will find them on Page 181 of the document book. I read:
“The food situation of the German people is such that it is necessary for the Armed Forces to contribute as far as possible towards alleviating it. All the necessary means of doing so exist in the combat zones and in the occupied territories both in the East and in the West.
“It is essential, above all, that much greater quantities of supplies and forage . . . should be secured in the occupied territories of the East than has been the case up to now.”
The second excerpt:
“All establishments should consider it their pride as well as their duty to attain this goal at all costs so that in this field, too, they may play a decisive part in achieving victory.”
In a memorandum by section chiefs Klare and Dr. Bergmann, dated, “19 November 1942, most secret, subject: Procurement of Supplies for the Armed Forces”—I submit this memorandum in the original to the Tribunal under the same number, Document Number USSR-175—we find the following estimate of the results achieved by the above-mentioned order from Keitel. I now read into the record only the first paragraph of this memorandum.
“By order of the Führer, the Chief of the OKW has decreed in the attached order of 29 August 1942 that the Armed Forces must, as far as possible, contribute towards the task of ensuring food supplies for the German people and that they must themselves make every effort, not only to obtain sufficient food supplies locally to cover the needs of the armies, but also to ensure that the quantities required by the Reich are secured in addition.
“As the result of this order co-operation between the Army and the economic authorities has fortunately grown closer.”
Now with Your Honor’s permission, I shall read into the record one more document, namely, a telegram sent by Keitel on 8 September 1944. This document was kindly put at our disposal by the American Prosecution and registered as Document Number 743-PS. It was not presented to the Tribunal before; I therefore submit it now as Exhibit Number USSR-286, and I quote:
“1. To General Staff of the Army: Attention General Quartermaster, Office of Chief of Staff, (Anna).
“2. To General Staff of the Army: Attention General Quartermaster, Army Administration Office, (Anna-Bu).
“3. To Commanding General, Army Group North.
“4. To Commanding General, Army Group Center.
“5. To Economic Staff East.
“6. To Military District H.Q.I.”
I read this text as follows:
“1. The Führer has entrusted Gauleiter Koch with the utilization of local resources in the parts of Reichskommissariat Ostland occupied by troops of Army Group Center. Furthermore, the Führer has ordered that all German and local administrative authorities be subordinated to Gauleiter Koch. In securing economic resources, Gauleiter Koch is to maintain contact with competent Supreme Reich agencies.
“2. All authorities of the Armed Forces will give Gauleiter Koch every assistance in their power in executing this order.”
Thus, Your Honors, even at the end of 1944, when under the blows of the Red Army and its allies Hitlerite Germany was precipitated towards its final defeat and only a few months before its final military and political collapse, Hitler, Keitel, Koch, and many others were still stretching out their already stiffening fingers to grab the property and wealth of others.
This is the evidence I have to show regarding the looting and marauding perpetrated by the Hitlerite hordes in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union. But they plundered not only the living, they also plundered