dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: In the following year, as the national income decreased, this money was taken from national funds." Another method of plundering Greece which the Hitlerites applied on a vast scale was the so-called requisitions and confiscations. In order to save time, I shall, with the permission of the Tribunal, merely read into the record a brief excerpt from the Greek report dealing with this question. I quote: "One of the enemy's first measures on occupying Greece was to seize all the existing stocks in the country by requisition or open confiscation. Among other goods, they requisitioned from the wholesale and retail trade 71,000 tons of currants and 10,000 tons of olive oil; they confiscated 1,435 tons of coffee, 1,143 tons of sugar, 2,520 tons of rice, and a whole shipload of wheat valued at 530,000 dollars." As the country was divided among three occupying powers, the Hitlerites blockaded that part of Greece which was occupied by their own troops and forbade the export of food supplies from that zone. The Hitlerites began to confiscate all existing stocks of food and other goods, a measure which reduced the population to a state of extreme misery and starvation. This plundering had such catastrophic consequences for the Greek nation that, finally, even the Germans themselves were forced to realize that they had gone too far. The practical result of this was that towards the end of 1942 the German authorities promised the International Commission of the Red Cross that they would return to the population all the local products confiscated and exported by the armies of occupation. The Germans also undertook to replace them by the importation of products of the same caloric value. This pledge was not fulfilled. As in all the occupied countries, the Germans issued and put into circulation an unlimited amount of currency. It should be noted that this currency represented the so-called occupation marks without any security. I quote an excerpt from this report, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 63 in the document book.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: I read: "From the very first they" -- the Germans -- "put into circulation 10,000 million occupation marks, a sum equal to half the money in circulation at that date. By April 1944 the monetary circulation had reached 14,000 million drachmas, that is, it had increased 700 percent since the start of the occupation." The Germans, after causing great inflation in that way, purchased all goods at prices fixed before the occupation. All goods purchased, as well as valuables, articles of gold, furniture, and so forth, were shipped by the Germans to Germany. Finally, as in every country they occupied, the Hitlerites put into operation in Greece also the so-called "clearing system." Under this system, all goods earmarked for export were first confiscated or put under embargo by the military authorities. Then they were bought up by German firms at arbitrarily fixed prices. The price of the goods established in this one-sided way was then credited to Greece. The prices for merchandise imported from Germany were fixed at from 200 to 500 percent higher than their normal value. Finally, Greece was also debited with the price of merchandise imported from Germany for the needs of the occupation forces. The Germans called this cynical method of plundering "clearing." I quote a short excerpt from the report of the Greek Government which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 64 of the document book. I read: "In consequence, notwithstanding the fact that Greece exported the whole of her available resources to Germany, the clearing account showed a credit balance of 264,157,574.03 marks in favor of Germany when the Germans left. At the time of their arrival the credit balance in favor of Greece was 4,353,428.82 marks." In this way, Your Honors, the Hitlerites plundered the Greek people. May it please Your Honors, I pass on to the statement of the facts of the monstrous plunder and pillage to which private, public, and state property was subjected by the Hitlerite usurpers in the temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: The irrefutable original documents which I shall have the honor to present for your consideration, Your Honors, will prove that long before their attack on the U.S.S.R., the fascist conspirators had conceived and prepared their criminal plans for the plunder and spoliation of its riches and of its national wealth. Like all other military crimes committed by the Hitlerites in countries occupied by them, the plunder and pillage of these territories was planned and organized beforehand by the major war criminals whom the determination and valor of the Allied nations have brought to justice. The crimes committed by those who carried out the conspirators' criminal plans over wide areas of the Soviet land, on the fertile steppes of the Ukraine, in the fields and forests of Bielorussia, in the rich cornfields of the Kuban and the Don, in the blossoming gardens of the Crimea, in the approaches to Leningrad and in the Soviet Baltic States -- all these monstrous crimes, all this mass plunder and wholesale pillage of the sacred wealth created by the peaceable and honest work of the Soviet peoples, Russian, Ukrainian, Bielorussian, and others -- all these crimes were directly planned, designed, prepared, and organized by the criminal Hitlerite Government and the Supreme Command of Armed Forces -- the major war criminals, now occupying the dock. I shall begin with evidence as to the premeditated nature of the crimes committed on U.S.S.R. territory. I shall prove that the wholesale indiscriminate pillage of private, public, and state property committed by the German fascist usurpers was not an isolated occurrence, not a local phenomenon. It was not the result of the disintegration or the thefts of individual army units but was, on the contrary, an essential and indissoluble part of the general plan of attack on the U.S.S.R. and represented, moreover, the fundamental purpose, the chief motive underlying this criminal aggression.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: May I beg the indulgence of the Tribunal if, in stating the facts connected with the preparations for this type of crimes, I am obliged to refer very briefly also to several of the documents already submitted to the Tribunal by my American colleagues. I shall endeavor, however, to avoid repetitions and shall mainly quote such extracts from these documents as have not been previously read into the record. It is known that simultaneously with the elaboration of "Plan Barbarossa," which provided for all strategic questions connected with the attack on the U.S.S.R., purely economic problems arising from the plan were elaborated. In the document known under the title, "Conference of 29 April 1941 with Branches of the Armed Forces," and presented to the Tribunal by the American prosecution on 10 December as Document Number 1157-PS, we read: "Purpose of the conference: Explanation of the administrative organization of the economic section of undertaking 'Barbarossa-Oldenburg'.... " Further on in this document it is indicated that the Fuehrer, contrary to previous practice in the preparation measures envisaged, ordered that all economic questions were to be worked out by one center and that this center is to be "the special-purpose economic staff Oldenburg under the direction of Lieutenant General Schubert" and that it is to be under the Reich Marshal, that is, Goering. Thus, as early as April 1941, the Defendant Goering was in charge of all preparations for plundering the U.S.S.R. To finish with this document, I should like to recall that provision is made in it, even at that early date, for the organization of special economic inspectorates and commands at Leningrad, Murmansk, Riga, Minsk, Moscow, Tula, Gorki, Kiev, Baku, Yaroslavl, and many other Soviet industrial towns.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: The document points out that the tasks of these inspectorates and commands included "the economic utilization of suitable territory" that is, as is explained below, "all questions of food supply and rural economy, industrial economy, including raw materials and manufactured articles; forestry, finance and banking, museums, commerce, trade, and manpower." As you see, Your Honors, the tasks were extremely wide and extraordinarily concrete. The Plan Barbarossa-Oldenburg was further developed in the so-called "directives for economic management of the newly occupied eastern territories" which were also elaborated and issued secretly before the attack on the U.S.S.R. Before passing on to the "Green File" I should like to present to the Tribunal and read out in part another document -- the so-called "File of the District Agricultural Leader," which was submitted to the Tribunal by my colleague Colonel Smirnov as Document Number USSR-89. These very detailed instructions for future district agricultural leaders which were also worked out and published in advance, bore the title of "District Agricultural Leaders File," and were dated 1 June 1941. Naturally this document, too, is also marked "top secret." This instruction begins, "12 Commandments for the Behavior of Germans in the East and Their Attitude towards Russians." My colleague, Colonel Smirnov, read into the record only one of those commandments, and I, with the Tribunal's permission, shall read into the record the other commandments. The first commandment states -- the members of the Tribunal will find it on Page 69 of the document book. I read: "Those of you who are sent to work in the East must adopt as your guiding principle the rule that output alone is decisive. I must ask you to devote your hardest and most unsparing efforts to this end." What sort of "work" is meant is clearly shown by the following commandments. I quote extracts from this document: "5th commandment: It is essential that you should always bear in mind the end to be attained.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: You must pursue this aim with the utmost stubbornness; but the methods used may be elastic to a degree. The methods employed are left to the discretion of the individual.... "6th commandment: Since the newly incorporated territories must be secured permanently to Germany and Europe, much will depend on how you establish yourself there.... Lack of character in individuals will constitute a definite ground for removing them from their work. Anyone recalled for this reason can never again occupy a responsible position in the Reich proper." In this way the future "agricultural leaders" were not only ordered to be implacable, merciless, and cruel in their plundering activities, but were also warned of what would happen to them if they were not implacable enough or if they showed "lack of character." The following commandments develop the same idea: "7th commandment: Do not ask, 'How will this benefit the peasants?' but 'How will it benefit Germany?' "8th commandment: Do not talk -- act! You can never talk a Russian around or persuade him with words. He can talk better than you can, for he is a born 'dialectic'.... "Only your will must decide, but this will must be directed to the execution of great tasks. Only in this case will it be ethical even in its cruelty. Keep away from the Russians -- they are not Germans, they are Slavs. "9th commandment: We do not wish to convert the Russians to National Socialism; we wish only to make them a tool in our hands. You must win the youth of Russia by assigning their task to them -- by taking them firmly in hand and administering ruthless punishment to those who practice sabotage or fail to accomplish the work expected of them. "The investigation of personal records and pleas takes up time which is needed for your German task. You are neither investigating magistrates nor yet the Wailing Wall. "11th commandment: . . .
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: his (Russian) stomach is elastic, therefore -- no false pity for him!" Such were these commandments for agricultural leaders, which one should -- to be more exact -- call "commandments for cannibals." The file begins with these "commandments," which are followed by a perfectly clear-cut program for the plundering of U.S.S.R. agriculture. At the beginning of this program we read: "Fundamental economical directives for the Organization of Economic Policy in the East, Agricultural Group. "As regards food policy, the aim of this campaign is: "1. To guarantee food supplies for many years ahead for the German Armed Forces and the German civilian population." As you see, Your Honors, a perfectly clear and candid formulation of the aims of the attack on the U.S.S.R. is given. Of course, it does not exhaust these aims. This aim was not confined to the stealing of provisions, and provisions were far from being the only thing stolen. This is only an extract from the agricultural leaders' file, and they were not the only people to be entrusted with tasks of pillage and to perform these tasks. The file as a whole contains the following sections of a carefully thought out and extremely concrete program for the plunder of the Soviet Union's agriculture. I read the table of contents. Your Honors will find this document on Page 67 of the document book: "1. 12 commandments. 2. General economic directives. 3. Organization chart. 4. Instructions for the regional agricultural leader. 5. Instructions for securing personnel. 6. State farms: Directives on the taking over and management of State farms. 7. Directives for taking over and managing collective farms. 8. Agriculture machine depots, directives regarding administration. 9. Directives for registration. 10. Furnishing food supplies for the cities. 11 Schedules for agricultural work. 12. Price lists." I am not, Your Honor, going to take up your time by reading the whole of this document, which consists of 98 typewritten pages. I am presenting it to the Tribunal in its entirety, to be included in the files of the Trial.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: I shall read from this document, already presented to the Tribunal by my American colleagues on 10 December of last year as Exhibit Number USA-147 (Document 1058-PS), only a few short lines. It is a note of the record of a speech made by Rosenberg at a secret conference on 20 June 1941, dealing with questions of the East. In his speech, Rosenberg stated particularly: "The problem of feeding German nationals undeniably heads the German demands on the East just now, and here the southern regions and the northern Caucasus must help to balance the German food situation. We certainly do not consider ourselves obliged to feed the Russian people as well from the produce of these fertile regions. We know that this is a cruel necessity, which has nothing to do with any humane feelings. It will undoubtedly be necessary to carry out evacuation on a large scale and the Russians are doomed to live through some very hard years." Thus did the leaders of Hitlerite Germany formulate the tasks they set themselves when preparing their attack on the Soviet Union. Already in August 1942 -- that is, from 26 to 28 August -- Gauleiter Koch, who had just arrived from Hitler's headquarters, spoke at the conference in Rovno. The record of this conference was found in Rosenberg's archives. This document was kindly put at our disposal by our American colleagues. It is registered as Document Number 264-PS, but it has not been presented to the Tribunal. I read into the record an excerpt from this record. The members of the Tribunal will find it on Page 72 in the document book. I read: "He" -- Koch -- "explained the political situation and his tasks as Reich Commissioner" -- in the following way -- " 'There is no free Ukraine. We must aim at making the Ukrainians work for Germany, and not at making the people here happy. The Ukraine will have to make good the German shortages. This task must be accomplished without regard for losses.... " 'The Fuehrer has ordered 3 million tons of grain from the Ukraine for the Reich, and they must be delivered....
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: ' " I shall show later how far this original figure -- 3 million tons of grain -- was exceeded by the Hitlerite plunderers, whose avid appetites grew from month to month. All these aims of plunder had been planned in advance by the criminal Hitlerite Government, who worked out an organized scheme for carrying out organized plunder and practical methods of pillaging the occupied territories. With the Tribunal's permission I shall read extracts from a secret document by Reich Marshal Goering which was captured by units of the Red Army. This document bears the title, "Directives for Economic Management in the Newly Occupied Areas in the East (Green File)," and extracts of it have already been mentioned by my colleagues. This document is presented by the Soviet Prosecution as Exhibit Number USSR-10 (Document Number USSR-10). The title page of the document reads -- Page 76 of the document book: "Eastern Staff for Economic Leadership; top secret. "Note: The present directives are to be considered as top-secret documents (documents of State importance) until X-Day; after X-Day they will no longer be secret and will be treated as open documents for official use only. "Directives on the subject of economic management in the newly occupied areas in the East (Green File). "Part I. Economic tasks and organization, Berlin, June 1941; printed by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces." As is clear from the text of the document, these directives were published immediately before Germany's attack on the U.S.S.R. "for the information of military and economic authorities regarding economic tasks in the eastern territories to be occupied." In setting forth the "main economic tasks" the directives state in the first paragraph: "I. According to the Fuehrer's order, it is essential in the interests of Germany that every possible measure for the immediate and complete exploitation of the occupied territories be adopted. Any measure liable to hinder the achievement of this purpose should be waived or cancelled. "II.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: The exploitation of the regions to be occupied immediately should be carried out primarily in the economic field controlling food supplies and crude oil. The main economic purpose of the campaign is to obtain the greatest possible quantity of food and crude oil for Germany. In addition, other raw materials from the occupied territories must be supplied to the German war economy as far as is technically possible and as far as the claims of the industries to be maintained outside the Reich permit." I omit the next part of the excerpt, and I pass on to the following excerpt, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 78: "The idea that order should be restored in the occupied territories and their economic life re-established as soon as possible is entirely mistaken. On the contrary, the treatment of the different parts of the country must be a very different one. Order should only be restored and industry promoted in regions where we can obtain considerable reserves of agricultural products or crude oil." I omit the rest of this quotation in order to save time. Further, the plan devised in advance for the organized plunder of the Soviet Union provided in detail for the removal from the U.S.S.R. to Germany of all raw materials, supplies, and stocks of goods available. In confirmation of this I cite excerpts from this document so that I shall not have to read it in full. The members of the Tribunal will find these excerpts on Page 83, 87, and 88 of the document book: "All raw materials, semimanufactured, or finished products of which we can make use are to be withdrawn from commerce.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: This will be done by IV Wi and by the economic authorities by means of appeals and orders, by ordering confiscation or by military supervision, or both." Page 88 -- from the section "Raw Material and the Exploitation of Commercial Resources": "Platinum, magnesium, and rubber are to be secured at once and transported to Germany as soon as possible." Back of Page 87: "Food products, articles for personal use, and clothing discovered in combat and rear zones are to be placed at the disposal of IV A for immediate military requirements." Back of Page 83 -- in the section of the directives entitled "Economic Organization" we find a project of an apparatus with wide ramifications which was to carry out this organized plunder of the U.S.S.R. I shall read a series of excerpts from this section, which the members of the Tribunal will find on Page 79 of the document book: "A. General questions. "To guarantee undivided economic leadership in the theater of military activities, as well as in the administrative areas to be established at a later date, the Reich Marshal has organized the 'Staff for Economic Leadership East' directly under himself and headed by his representative, State Secretary Korner." Second excerpt: "The orders of the Reich Marshal apply to all economic spheres, including food supply and rural economy." In directing your attention to these two excerpts, Your Honors, I consider it definitively proved that the Defendant Goering not only had personal charge of the preparations for the plunder of private, public, and state property, but later on directed personally the vast apparatus specially set up for these criminal purposes. You can judge of the projected organization of this apparatus, by the following extracts from the Green File. I read: "Organization of Economic Administration in the operational area. "1.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: The economic establishments, subordinated to the Economic Staff East, insofar as their activities cover the theater of military activities, are incorporated in the army staffs and are subordinate to them in military matters, namely: "A. In the rear area: One economic inspectorate at each of the chief commands of the rear area; one or several mobile units of the economic section with the security divisions; one IV Wi group at each of the field command headquarters. "B. In the army administration district: One IV Wi group (liaison officer Wi Ru Amt) with the army commander. One IV Wi group for each of the field commands attached to the army of the region; in addition, as and when necessary, economic units are sent forward to the armies in the field. These units are subordinate in military matters to the army command." Further on, in Paragraph 4 of this same section, under the title "Structure of the Individual Economic Institutions" the whole plan of construction of the Economic Staff East is described. I shall cite it in my own words in order to save time. The members of the Tribunal will find the document to which I refer at the back of Page 79 in the document book. Chief of the Economic Staff with the leadership group (field of activity, leadership questions, also manpower); Group IA, in charge of food and agriculture, running the entire agricultural production and also the assembling of supplies for the army; Group W, in charge of industry, raw materials, forestry, finance, banking property, and trade; Group M, in charge of troop requirements, armaments, and transport; economic inspectorates attached to army groups, in charge of the economic exploitation of the rear area. Economic task forces organized in the zone of each security division and consisting of one officer as commander, and several specialists in different branches of the work.