“On 15 September 1939, I was entrusted with the administration of the conquered eastern territories, and received a special order pitilessly to devastate this district regarding it as a combat zone and a prize of war, and to reduce its economic, social, cultural, and political structure to a heap of ruins.”
To this statement of Frank’s, we need only add that the Defendant Frank zealously performed this task in Poland and that the Reich, Gau, and other leaders acted with equal zeal in the occupied territories of the U.S.S.R., Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.
I am now going to present, Your Honors, proof of crimes committed by the defendants against the culture of the peoples of the Soviet Union.
We have heard in this court what brutality was used and on how vast a scale the Hitlerites conducted the destruction and spoliation of the cultural wealth of the peoples of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia. The crimes perpetrated by the Hitlerite conspirators in the occupied territories of the U.S.S.R. were graver still. The criminal organization, known as the Hitler Government, aimed not only at plundering the people of the Soviet Union, at destroying their towns and villages, and at extirpating the culture of the peoples of the U.S.S.R., but also at enslaving the people of the Soviet Union and of transforming our native country into a fascist colony of serfs.
In the second part of my statement I have proved how the destruction of the cultural monuments of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. was planned and perpetrated.
In the note of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs V. M. Molotov, dated 27 April 1942, which was presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-51(3) (Document Number USSR-51(3)), documents and facts are quoted which establish beyond dispute that the destruction of historic and cultural monuments and the vile mockery of national feelings, beliefs, and convictions constituted a part of the monstrous plan evolved and put into practice by the Hitlerite Government, which strove to liquidate the national culture of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. Later I shall refer again to this document, but at present I wish, with your permission, to read into the record the following excerpt which is on Page 321 of your document book. I omit the first and quote the second paragraph:
“The desecration and destruction of historical and cultural memorials in occupied Soviet territories, as well as the devastation of the numerous cultural establishments set up by the Soviet authorities, are a part of the monstrously senseless plan conceived and pursued by the Hitlerite Government which strives to liquidate Russian national culture and the national cultures of the peoples of the Soviet Union, forcibly to germanize the Russian, Ukrainian, Bielorussian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian and other peoples of the U.S.S.R.
“In Order Number 0973/41, General Hodt, commander of the German 17th Army, demands that his subordinates thoroughly assimilate that misanthropic notion so typical of the thick-skulled fascists, that the ‘sound feeling of vengeance and repulsion towards everything Russian should not be suppressed among the men but, on the contrary, encouraged in every way.’ ”
True to their custom of destroying universally recognized cultural valuables, the Hitlerites everywhere on the Soviet territory occupied by them, devastated and mostly burned libraries, from the small club and school libraries up to and including the most valuable collections of manuscripts and books, containing unique bibliographical valuables.
I omit a paragraph and continue the quotation:
“The Hitlerites looted and then set on fire the famous Borodino Museum, the historical exhibits of which related to the struggle against the armies of Napoleon in 1812, particularly dear to the Russian people. The invaders looted and set fire to the Pushkin House Museum in the hamlet of Polotnyany Zavod.
“In Kaluga the Hitlerites assiduously destroyed the exhibits in the house-museum in which the eminent Russian scientist K. E. Tsiolkovsky, whose services in the field of aeronautics enjoy world-wide fame, lived and worked.
“The fascist vandals used Tsiolkovsky’s portrait as a target for revolver practice. Extremely valuable models of dirigibles, together with plans and instruments, were trampled underfoot. One of the museum rooms was turned into a hen coop and the furniture burned. One of the oldest agricultural institutions in the U.S.S.R., the Shatilov selection station in the Orel district, was destroyed by the invaders, who blew up and consigned to the flames 55 buildings of this station, including the agrochemical and other laboratories, the museum, the library containing 40,000 volumes, the school, and other buildings. Even greater frenzy was shown by the Hitlerites when looting the cultural institutions and historical monuments of the Ukraine and of Bielorussia.”
I omit two paragraphs and pass on to the last paragraph of this quotation:
“There was no limit to the desecration by the Hitlerite vandals of the monuments and homes representing Ukrainian history, culture, and art. Suffice to mention, as an example of the constant attempts to humiliate the national dignity of the Ukrainian people, that after plundering the Korolenko Library in Kharkov, the occupiers used the books as paving stones for the muddy street in order to facilitate the passage of German motor vehicles.”
The German vandals treated with particular hatred these cultural monuments which were most dear to the Soviet people. I shall quote several instances:
The Hitlerites plundered Yasnaya Polyana, where one of the greatest writers, Leo Tolstoy, was born, lived, and worked.
They plundered and despoiled the house where the great Russian composer, Tschaikovsky, lived and worked. In this house Tschaikovsky created the world-famous operas Eugen Onegin and The Queen of Spades.
In Taganrog they destroyed the house where the great Russian writer Chekhov lived; in Tikhvin they destroyed the residence of the Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov.
As evidence, Your Honors, I shall read into the record an excerpt from the note of Foreign Commissar Molotov, dated 6 January 1942. This document has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number 51(2). This excerpt is on Page 317 of the document book. I quote:
“For a period of 6 weeks, the Germans occupied the world-famous property of Yasnaya Polyana where Leo Tolstoy, one of the greatest geniuses of mankind, was born, lived, and created. This glorious memorial to Russian culture was wrecked, profaned, and finally set on fire by the Nazi vandals. The grave of the great writer was desecrated by the invaders. Irreplaceable relics relating to the life and work of Leo Tolstoy, including rare manuscripts, books, and paintings, were either plundered by the German soldiers or thrown away and destroyed. A German officer named Schwartz, in reply to a request of one of the museum’s staff collaborators to stop using the personal furniture and books of the great writer for firewood and to use wood available for this purpose, answered, ‘We don’t need firewood; we shall burn everything connected with the name of your Tolstoy.’
“When the town of Klin was liberated by the Soviet troops on 15 December, it was ascertained that the house in which P. I. Tschaikovsky, the great Russian composer, had lived and worked and which the Soviet State had turned into a museum, had been wrecked and plundered by fascist officers and soldiers. In the museum building proper, the Germans set up a garage for motorcycles, heating this garage with manuscripts, books, furniture, and other museum exhibits, part of which had in any case been stolen by the German invaders. In doing this, the Nazi officers knew perfectly well that they were defiling one of the finest monuments of Russian culture.
“During the occupation of the town of Istra, the German troops established an ammunition dump in the famous ancient Russian monastery known as the New Jerusalem Monastery, founded as far back as 1654. The New Jerusalem Monastery was an outstanding historical and religious monument of the Russian people and was known as one of the most beautiful specimens of religious architecture. This did not, however, prevent the German fascist vandals from blowing