dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: After boiling the liquid it was put into white trays about twice the size of a sheet of foolscap and about 3 centimeters deep."-These were the basins which I have already shown the Tribunal-"Approximately 3 to 4 trayfuls per day were obtained from the machine." This witness himself did not witness the application of the soap. but I am submitting to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-272 (Document Number USSR-272), the written testimony of a British citizen, William Anderson Neely, a corporal of the Royal Signals. The members of the Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 498 of the document book, Volume 2. I begin the quotation: "The corpses arrived at an average rate of 2 to 3 per day. All of them were naked and most of them had been beheaded." I interrupt the quotation-I omit two paragraphs and continue the quotation: "A machine for the manufacture of soap was completed some time in March or April 1944. The British prisoners of war had constructed the building in which it was housed in June 1942. The machine itself was installed by a civilian firm from Danzig by the name of AJRD. It consisted, as far as I remember, of an electrically heated tank in which bones of the corpses were mixed with some acid and melted down. "This process of melting down took about 24 hours. The fatty portions of the corpses and particularly those of females were put into a crude enamel tank, heated by a couple of bunsen burners. Some acid was also used in this process. "I think it was caustic soda. When boiling had been completed, the mixture was allowed to cool and then cut into blocks for microscopic examination." I continue the quotation from the following paragraph: "I cannot estimate the quantity produced, but I saw it used by Danzigers in cleaning tables in the dissecting rooms. They all told me it was excellent soap for this purpose." I submit half-finished and some finished soap. (Exhibit USSR-393) Here you shall see a small piece of finished soap, which from the exterior, after lying about a few months, reminds you of ordinary household soap.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I give it over to the Tribunal. Beside this I now submit to the Tribunal the samples of semi-tanned human skin (Exhibit I]SSR-394). The samples which I now submit prove that the process of manufacturing soap was already completely worked out by the Institute of Danzig; as to the skin it still looks like a semi-finished product. The skin which resembles most the leather used in manufacture is the one you see on top at the left. So one can consider that the experiments on the industrial fabrication of soap from human fats were quite completed in the Danzig Institute. Experiments on tanning of human skin were still incomplete and only the victorious advance of the Red Army put an end to this new crime of the Nazis. Gentlemen, I have now to submit to you only one more piece of evidence, which is the last among the proofs concerning war crimes against the peaceful population presented by the U.S.S.R. Prosecution. Besides, certain witnesses may arrive here from the Soviet Union who may testify concerning the points which I have submitted. I will beg the permission of the Tribunal to examine these witnesses after the presentation of further evidence is finished. Before submitting my last proof, I beg the Tribunal to allow me to make a few conclusive remarks. The lengthy list of crimes against the peaceful inhabitants of the temporarily occupied areas of the U.S.S.R., Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Greece cannot be exhausted even in the most detailed statement. One can only point out a few very typical cases of cruelties, of base and systematic methods adopted by the major criminals who had conceived these crimes, as well as those who executed these crimes. Those who are now in the dock have freed from "the chimera of so-called conscience" hundreds of thousands and millions of criminals. They educated these criminals and created for them an atmosphere of impunity and drove their blood-thirsty hounds against peaceful citizens. They mocked at human conscience and self-respect.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: But those who were poisoned in murder vans and gas chambers, those who were torn to shreds, those whose bodies were burned in the ovens of crematoria and whose ashes were strewn to the winds, appeal to the conscience of the world. Now we cannot yet name, or even number, many of the burial places where millions of innocent people were vilely murdered. But on the damp walls of the gas chambers, in the places of the shootings, in the forts of death, on the stones and casemates of the prisons, we can still read brief messages of the doomed, full of agony, caning for retribution. Let the living ones remember these voices of the victims of German fascist terror, who before dying appealed to the conscience of the world for justice and for retribution. As a last proof I submit to the Tribunal the script and the sworn affidavit of the persons who assembled and made this documentary film. I beg the Tribunal to accept as evidence this documentary film (Document Number USSR-81). I also beg the Tribunal to allow, if possible, a short recess-about 10 minutes-for the technical preparation of the demonstration of these documents. [A recess was taken.]
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Your Honor, may I have permission to present now the documentary evidence? [The documentary film entitled, "The Atrocities by the German Fascist Invaders in the U.S.S.R.," was then shown.]
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, have you finished your address?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I have finished the presentation of my evidence, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Can you inform the Tribunal how much longer the Soviet Delegation is likely to be?
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I find it difficult to give you an answer to this question. I will ask the Chief Prosecutor to do this.
GEN. RUDENKO: Tomorrow we shall begin the presentation of evidence on spoliation and pillage of communal and private property, and we think that the speaker on this question will conclude the presentation of the materials tomorrow. Then there will be presented to the Tribunal the evidence as to destruction of cities, villages, monuments of national culture and art. That will take approximately a day and a half. In other words, I mean half of Thursday's or Friday's session, and a half of the following day's session, taking into account that on this question we shall also have to present a documentary film. Then there will be presented evidence concerning deportation of slave labor. This will take approximately 3 to 4 hours. The final presentation deals with evidence of Crimes against Humanity. During the presentation of the evidence in all the sections we shall call several witnesses, with the permission of the Tribunal. I could not present to the Tribunal today a list of the witnesses, because there are difficulties in bringing them here to Nuremberg. This list will be formulated tomorrow toward the end of the session. To sum up, I think that altogether the Soviet Prosecution will conclude the presentation of evidence either Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. We will adjourn now.
GENERAL R. A. RUDENKO (Chief Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): Mr. President, with the permission of the Tribunal, evidence on the count "Despoliation and Plunder of Private, Public, and National Property" will be presented by the State Counsellor of Justice, Second Class, L. R. Shenin.
STATE COUNSELLOR OF JUSTICE OF THE SECOND CLASS L. R. SHENIN (Assistant Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): May it please Your Honors, my task consists in presenting to the Tribunal evidence of the criminal and predatory motives of Hitlerite aggression and of the monstrous plundering of the peoples of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, and the U.S.S.R. My colleagues have already proved that the attack on the U.S.S.R., as well as on other European countries, was planned and prepared beforehand by the criminal Hitlerite Government. I shall submit to the Tribunal a number of the conspirators' original documents, statements, and speeches, which in the aggregate will prove that the despoliation and plunder of private, public, and national property in the occupied territories was also premeditated, planned, and prepared on a large scale, and that thus, simultaneously with the development of their purely military and strategic plans of attack, the Hitlerites with the cold-blooded deliberateness of professional robbers and murderers also developed and prepared beforehand the plan of organized plunder and marauding, after having minutely and accurately calculated their future profits, their criminal gains, their robbers' spoils. The official report of the Czechoslovak Government on the crimes committed by the Hitlerites on the territory of Czechoslovakia, the first victim of German aggression, has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-60 (Document Number USSR-60). In the third section of this report there is a short extract from an article by Ley, published on 30 January 1940 in the Angriff . I quote: "It is our destiny to belong to a superior race. A lower race needs less room, less clothing, less food, and less culture than a superior race." This promise, this program of action, found its concrete expression in the fact that the Hitlerite conspirators subjected all territories occupied by them to unrestrained plunder, highly varied in form and method and entirely shameless in its devastating results.
STATE COUNSELLOR OF JUSTICE OF THE SECOND CLASS L. R. SHENIN (Assistant Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): The report of the Czechoslovak Government contains a large number of examples corroborating the corresponding counts of the Indictment. I shall read this section into the record starting with the first paragraph on Page 72 of the Russian translation. I read: "The German plan of campaign against Czechoslovakia was aimed not only against the republic as a political and military unit, but also against the very existence of the Czechoslovak people, who were to be robbed not only of all political rights and cultural life, but of their wealth and their financial and industrial resources. The following characteristic fact is mentioned in the report, namely, the way in which Hitler became acquainted with Czechoslovakia, which he had just seized. I shall read into the record Subparagraph B of this section, entitled, "After the Invasion of 15 March 1939." The Tribunal will find this excerpt on Pages 3 and 4 of the document book. I quote: "Hitler entered Prague at nightfall on 15 March 1939, and spent the night there in the famous Hradschin castle. He left on the following day, taking with him a number of valuable tapestries. We mention this robbery not because of the value of the stolen objects, but as an example set by the head of the Party and of the German State on the very first day of invasion. "The German troops who invaded Prague brought with them a staff of German economic experts, that is, experts in economic looting. "Everything that could be of some value to Germany was seized, especially large stocks of raw materials, such as copper, tin, iron, cotton, wool, great stocks of food, et cetera . "Rolling stock, carriages, engines, and so on were removed to the Reich. All the rails in the Protectorate which were in good condition were lifted and sent to Germany; later they were replaced by old rails brought from Germany. New cars fresh from the factory which were on order for the Prague municipal tramways and had just been completed were deflected from their purpose and sent to the Reich.
STATE COUNSELLOR OF JUSTICE OF THE SECOND CLASS L. R. SHENIN (Assistant Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): "The vessels belonging to the Czechoslovak Danube Steam Navigation Company (the majority of shares belonged to the Czechoslovak State) were divided between the Reich and Hungary. "Valuable objects of art and furniture disappeared from public buildings, without even an attempt at any legal justification of such robbery; pictures, statues, tapestries were taken to Germany. The Czech National Museum, the Modern Art Gallery, and public and private collections were plundered. "The German Reich Commissioner of the Czechoslovak National Bank stopped all payments of currency abroad and seized all the gold reserve and foreign currency in the Protectorate. Thus the Germans took 23,000 kilograms of gold of a nominal value of 737,000 million crowns (5,265,000 pounds sterling) and transferred the gold from the Bank of International Settlement to the Reichsbank." One of the methods of thorough -- I should say total -- plunder was the so-called economic Germanization. I submit to the Tribunal as evidence of these crimes the following extract from the official Czechoslovak report. This extract the Tribunal will find on Pages 4 and 5 of the document book: "The Czechoslovak Land Reform Act of 1919, insofar as it benefited Czech nationals, was declared invalid; Czech farmers were expelled from their land and compelled to relinquish their cattle, agricultural implements, and furniture. "On paper the Czechs received compensation; in fact, however, they were burdened with taxes in order to make good the so-called 'deliberate damage' they were alleged to have caused by their flight. These taxes far exceeded the compensation. "The large agricultural and government estates or the Czechoslovak Republic automatically became Reich property and came under the jurisdiction of the Reich ministries concerned. "Germanization of private property began, of course, under the slogan 'Aryanization.' "The Germanization of rural Bohemia and Moravia was entrusted to a special body called 'Deutsche Siedlungsgesellschaft' located in Prague.
STATE COUNSELLOR OF JUSTICE OF THE SECOND CLASS L. R. SHENIN (Assistant Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): "Czech peasants were offered compensation for their food products but at entirely inadequate prices. "Rural Germanization, apart from Germanization pure and simple, aimed at pauperizing as many well-to-do Czech nationals as possible. "The Nazis did their utmost to squeeze as much as possible out of Czech agriculture. Here too their aim was twofold: On the one hand to obtain as much foodstuffs as possible, and on the other, to carry the process of Germanization as far as possible. "Farmers were turned out of their farms to make way for German settlers -- entire agricultural districts were in this way cleared of Czechs. Agricultural co-operative societies in control of production were transformed into auxiliary organizations and were gradually germanized. "The looting of property and wealth was followed by the pillaging of products of the soil. Heavy fines and frequently even the death penalty were imposed on Czech peasants for intentional failure to comply with orders regarding production, delivery, and rationing. "B. Expropriation of banks and their funds. "In Czechoslovakia industrial undertakings' were directly financed by the banks, which often owned or controlled the majority of shares. Having obtained control of the banks, the Nazis thus secured control of industry. "(a) After Munich. "After Munich, two important German banks, the Dresdner Bank and the Deutsche Bank took over the branches of Prague banks, situated in the ceded territory. Thus among the enterprises taken over by the Dresdner Bank were 32 branches of the Bohemian Discount Bank and among those taken over by the Deutsche Bank were 25 branches of Bohemian Union Bank. "The Czechoslovak banks were joint stock companies. Every joint stock company with even one Jewish director was considered to be Jewish. In this manner the non-Jewish property was also taken over. "(b) After the invasion of 15 March 1939. "After the invasion several Czechoslovak banks in Bohemia, in consequence of their Aryanization, became the property of the Dresdner Bank.
STATE COUNSELLOR OF JUSTICE OF THE SECOND CLASS L. R. SHENIN (Assistant Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): Among other enterprises, this German bank took over the Union Bank of Bohemia. In this way all the financial interests which these banks had in Czech industry, as well as the entire share capital, fell into German hands. "By means of various 'transactions,' by gaining influence through the branch banks in the Sudetenland over their respective head offices in Prague, by reducing the share capital, which was later increased with German assistance, by appropriating industrial holdings and in this way acquiring influence over the controlling banks which were thus deprived of their industrial interests, et cetera , the two Berlin banks achieved complete control of the banks of the Protectorate. Gestapo terror helped them." I skip one paragraph of this report and pass on to the next count: "C. Destruction of National Industry. "(a) Compulsory organization. "They appointed a committee for every new association and all the industrial 'groups' appointing at least one Nazi as chairman or vice chairman or just as an ordinary member. However, all the Czech members actually were mere puppets. " "(b) Armament factories. "The Dresdner Bank acquired the most important armament factories in Czechoslovakia, that is, the Skoda Works in Pilsen and the Czechoslovak 'Zborjobka' in Brunn. The private share-holders were forced to surrender their shares at prices far below their actual value; the bank paid for these shares with coupons which had been withdrawn from circulation, and confiscated by the Germans in the districts previously ceded in accordance with the Munich agreement. "(c) The Hermann Goering Werke. "The seizure by the Germans of the Czechoslovak banks and thus of the industry, through the big Berlin banks, was accomplished with the help of the gigantic Hermann Goering Werke which seized the greatest Czechoslovak industries, one by one, at the smallest financial cost, that is to say, under the pretext of Aryanization, by pressure from the Reich, by financial measures, and finally by threatening Gestapo measures and concentration camps.
STATE COUNSELLOR OF JUSTICE OF THE SECOND CLASS L. R. SHENIN (Assistant Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): "Finally, all the large Czechoslovak enterprises, factories, and armament plants, and the coal and iron industries fell into German hands. The huge chemical industry was seized by the German concern, I. G. Farben Industrie." I skip the paragraph concerning the same methods adopted in the case of light industry and pass on to the next count of the report, "Financial Spoliation." "After the occupation of the territory, ceded apparently in accordance with the Munich agreement, the Germans refused to take over part of the Czechoslovak State debt, although they acquired very valuable State property in the districts taken away from Czechoslovakia. Government bonds of low denominations amounting to a total of 1,600 million crowns were in circulation in the occupied territory. "The Germans reserved the right to use these obligations in Czechoslovakia as legal tender." Gentlemen, further on in this report we find a detailed account of the Hitlerite campaign of spoliation directed against the financial economy of the Czechoslovak Republic. With a view to saving time I shall refrain from quoting this excerpt and shall merely submit the balance sheet of the Czechoslovak National Bank. "The balance sheet of the Czech National Bank showed the following figures for 'other assets' in million of crowns: 31 December 1938, 845; 31 December 1939, 3,576; 31 December 1942, 17,366." I now quote an excerpt from the section entitled, "Taxes": "When war broke out the Nazis fixed the war contribution of the Protectorate at an annual sum of 2,000 million crowns (14.2 million pounds sterling). The Nazis claimed that they were entitled to this on the grounds that the Czechs did not have to fight, because the Germans fought for them.
STATE COUNSELLOR OF JUSTICE OF THE SECOND CLASS L. R. SHENIN (Assistant Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): "Immediately after the occupation the Germans seized the proceeds of various indirect taxes and diverted them into the Reich Treasury." Gentlemen, the excerpt which I just read from the report of the Czechoslovak Government gives an adequate picture of the manner in which, after having seized Czechoslovakia, the Hitlerites subjected it to wanton plunder in every field of its economic life -- agriculture, industry, and finance. Having seized the entire economic resources of the Czechoslovak Republic, the Hitlerite Government forced this economy to serve their criminal interests, extracting everything possible in order to prepare for further aggression against the peoples of Europe and for new military attacks with the monstrous aim of achieving world domination by the German "master race." 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 0st' (created by Goering on 1 November 1939) with headquarters in Berlin and branch offices in Poland.
STATE COUNSELLOR OF JUSTICE OF THE SECOND CLASS L. R. SHENIN (Assistant Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): 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, Goering authorized the 'Haupttreuhandstelle fist' 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.