I shall now pass to the reading of the fourth section of the official report of the Polish Government dealing with crimes committed by the Hitlerites in occupied Poland. This report has already been presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-93 (Document Number USSR-93) and, according to Article 21 of the Charter, constitutes irrefutable evidence. I quote an excerpt from this report which the Tribunal will find on Page 14 of the document book:
“Expropriation and plunder of public and private property.
“a) On 27 September 1939 the German military authorities issued a decree concerning the sequestration and confiscation of Polish property in the western provinces. ‘The property of the Polish State, Polish public institutions, municipalities and unions, individuals, and corporations can be sequestered and confiscated,’ stated Paragraph 1 of the said decree.
“b) The right of the military authorities to dispose of Polish property in the incorporated provinces passed to the ‘Haupttreuhandstelle Ost’ (created by Göring on 1 November 1939) with headquarters in Berlin and branch offices in Poland. It was entrusted with the administration of confiscated property of the Polish State, as well as with the general policy in Poland in accordance with the plan devised by the Reich Government.
“c) By a decree of 15 January 1940, the entire property of the Polish State was placed under ‘protection,’ which practically meant confiscation of all State property in the incorporated territories. A special decree of 12 February 1940 dealt with agriculture and forestry in the same way.
“d) The confiscation of private property in the western provinces was initiated by a decree of 31 January 1940. Special permission was required for acquisition of property and transfer of ownership rights in all enterprises in the incorporated territory. By another decree of 12 June 1940, Göring authorized the ‘Haupttreuhandstelle Ost’ to seize and administer, not only State property, but also the property of citizens of the ‘former Polish State.’
“e) The process of confiscation, however, went further. The property of Polish citizens became liable to seizure and confiscation unless the owner acquired German citizenship in accordance with Hitler’s decree of 8 October 1939.
“Other decrees dealt with the repayment of debts, because the sequestrators were authorized to repay debts to privileged creditors only. These were members of the ‘Deutsche Volksliste’ so far as war debts were concerned, as well as citizens of the Reich or the free city of Danzig, as regards debts incurred after 1 September 1939.”
I skip two pages of this report enumerating the companies which were specially created for carrying out of this plunder activity and also for plundering the Polish-Jewish population, which as is already known to the Tribunal, was later exterminated. I pass on to the end of the Polish Government report. The Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 17 of the document book.
Mere quotations from these and other decrees may create a wrong impression as to the means used by the defendants in the case of the Jewish property in Poland. But it should be pointed out that steps concerning Jewish property were only preliminaries to infinitely greater crimes in the future. At the end of this section of the report is justly stated—I quote:
“Aside from the crimes which have been proved and described here, there are thousands of others which fade into insignificance beside the numberless crimes of mass murder, mass plunder, and mass destruction.”
It is impossible to enumerate all the crimes committed in Poland under the direct leadership of the Defendant Frank, who was the head of all the administration in the so-called Government General.
Frank’s diaries which were found and became part of the evidence in this case, give a clear and concrete idea of the crimes committed by the Hitlerites in Poland under his direction. In these diaries, Your Honors, are entries which have a direct bearing on the subject of my presentation.
Therefore I should like, with your permission, to quote excerpts from this diary which have not yet been quoted.
I quote from the volume entitled “Conference of Departmental Heads for 1939-1940” (Document Number USSR-223), Pages 11 and 12. In your document book, gentlemen, this excerpt is on Page 21:
“My relationship with the Poles resembles that between an ant and a plant louse. When I treat the Poles helpfully, tickle them in a friendly manner, so to speak, I do it in the expectation that I shall profit by their labor output. This is not a political, but a purely tactical and technical problem. In cases where, in spite of all measures, the output does not increase, or where I have the slightest reason to step in, I would not hesitate to take even the most Draconian action.”
From the volume entitled “Diary 1942” I quote:
“Dr. Frank: ‘We must remember that notes issued by the Bank of Poland to the value of 540,000,000 zlotys were taken over in Occupied Eastern Territory by the Governor General without any compensation being made by the Reich. This represents a contribution of more than 500 million exacted from the Government General by Germany, in addition to other payments.’ ”
From the same volume, Page 1277—this concerns the Governor’s conference which took place on 7 December 1942, in Kraków—measures for increasing production for the years 1942-43 were discussed. A certain Dr. Fischer stated:
“If the new food scheme is carried out, it would mean that in Warsaw and its suburbs alone 500,000 people would be deprived of food.”
From the same volume on Page 1331, Frank speaks:
“I shall endeavor to squeeze out from the reserves of this province everything that it is still possible to squeeze out. . . . If you recall that I was able to send to Germany 600,000 tons of grain and that an additional 180,000 tons were reserved for local troops, as well as many thousands of tons of seed, fats, vegetables, besides the export to Germany of 300 million eggs, et cetera, you will understand how important work in this region is for Germany.”
This same Frank on Page 1332 states the following—the Tribunal will find this quotation on Page 27 of the document book:
“These consignments to the Reich had, however, one definite drawback to them, since the quantities we were responsible for delivering exceeded the actual food supplies required by the region. We now have to face the following problem. Can we, as from February, cut 2 million non-German inhabitants of the region out of the general rationing scheme?”
In the volume entitled “Workers Conferences for 1943,” we find an excerpt concerning the conference of 14 April 1943, which took place in Kraków. On Page 28 of the document book, the Tribunal will find the excerpt which I wish to read into the record.
“President Naumann is speaking, and he quotes the figures estimated for 1943-44:
“One thousand five hundred tons of sweets for the Germans, 36 million liters of skimmed fresh milk; 15,100,000 liters of full cream milk for the Germans.”
On Page 24 the same person continues—this total account is on Page 28 of the document book:
“Last year, more than 20 percent of the total amount of live stock in the Government General was requisitioned. Cattle which were really required for the production of milk and butter were slaughtered last year so that the Reich and the armed forces could be supplied and the meat ration maintained to a certain extent. If we want 120,000 tons of meat, we must sacrifice 40 percent of the remaining live stock.”
And further:
“In answer to a question by the Governor General, President Naumann replied that 383,000 tons of grain were requisitioned in 1940, 685,000 tons in 1941, and 1.2 million tons in 1942. It appears from these figures that requisitions have increased from year to year and have steadily approached the limits of possibility. Now they are preparing to increase the requisitions by another 200,000 tons which will bring them to the extreme bounds of possibility. The Polish peasant cannot be allowed to starve beyond the point where he will still be able to cultivate his fields and carry out any further tasks imposed upon him, such as carting wood