dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: Economic groups attached to the field commands, who are responsible for supplying the immediate requirements of the troops stationed within the sphere of activity of the field command and for preparing the economic exploitation of the country in the interests of war economy. To these economic groups were attached experts on manpower, food production and agriculture, industrial economy and general economic questions; the economic section, attached to the army command, with special technical battalions and platoons as well as special intelligence subsections for industrial research, particularly in the field of raw materials and crude oil, and subsections for discovering and securing agricultural produce and machines, including tractors. This same plan also provides for special technical units for crude oil -- battalions and companies -- and also the so-called mining battalions. Thus, under the direct control of the Defendant Goering, a whole army of plunderers of all ranks and branches was provided, prepared, trained, and drilled in advance for the organized pillage and looting of the national property of the U.S.S.R. Your Honors, I will not take up your time by reading the whole text of the Green File; I shall limit myself to enumerating its remaining sections, which bear the following titles -- Page 77 in the document book: "Execution of individual economic tasks; Economic transport; Problems of military protection of economy; Procuring of supplies for the troops out of the resources of the country; Utilization of manpower, particularly of the local population; War booty, paid labor, captured material, prize courts; Economic objectives of war industries; Raw materials and utilization of goods available; Finance and credit; Foreign trade and clearings; Price control." Thus the plunder of all branches of the U.S.S.R.'s national economy was foreseen.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: To conclude I shall read into the record Keitel's order, dated 16 June 1941, 6 days before the attack on the U.S.S.R., in which he instructed all military units of the German Army to be ready to execute all the directives of the Green File. I shall now read this order -- you will find this, Your Honors, at the back of Page 89 of the document book: "By the Fuehrer's order, the Reich Marshal has issued 'Directives for the Guidance of the Economic Administration of the Territories To Be Occupied.' "These directives (Green File) are intended for the guidance of the military command and economic authorities in the economic tasks within the territories to be occupied in the immediate future. They contain directives for supplying the army from the resources of the country and give orders to army units to assist the economic authorities. Army units must comply with these directions and orders. "The immediate and thorough exploitation of the territories to be occupied in the immediate future in the interest of Germany's war economy, especially in the field of fuel and food supply, is of the highest importance for the further conduct of the war." I omit the second part of this order which contains detailed instructions as to how the directives of the Green File should be executed, and I read only the last paragraph of Keitel's order: "The exploitation of the country must be carried out on a wide scale, with the help of field and local headquarters, in the most important agricultural and oil-producing districts. "Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, Keitel." The concluding provision of this document, which says that "the exploitation of the country must be carried out on a wide scale" was strictly observed by units of the German Army; and the occupied regions of the U.S.S.R., from the very first day of the war, were subjected to the most merciless plunder.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: In confirmation of this, I shall later present to the Tribunal a series of original German documents, orders, directives, instructions, decrees, and so forth, issued by German military authorities. Meanwhile, to finish with the Green File, I may state in conclusion that this striking document is definite evidence of the remarkable qualifications for plunder and the vast experience in brigandage of the Hitlerite conspirators. The program for plundering the occupied territories of the Soviet Union, conceived on a wide scale and elaborated in detail by the conspirators, was put into practice by the Hitlerite aggressors from the very first days of their attack on the U.S.S.R. Apart from the organized plunder carried out by the vast apparatus specially formed for this purpose -- an apparatus consisting of all kinds of agricultural leaders, inspectors, specialists in economics, technical and intelligence battalions and companies, economic groups and detachments, military agronomists, and so forth -- the so-called "material interest" of the German soldiers and officers, who had unlimited possibilities of robbing the civilian population and sending their booty to Germany, was widely encouraged by The Hitlerite Government and the High Command of the German Army. The universal plundering of the population of the towns and villages of the occupied territories of the U.S.S.R. and the mass removal to Germany of the personal property of Soviet citizens, the property taken from the collective farms and co-operative unions and the property of the State itself, was carried out according to a prearranged plan wherever the German fascist aggressors appeared. I turn, Your Honors, to the presentation of individual Soviet Government documents on this question. A few months after Hitlerite Germany's treacherous attack on the U.S.S.R., the Soviet Government had already received irrefutable data about the war crimes committed by the Hitlerite armies in the Soviet territories they occupied.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: My colleagues have already presented to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-51 a note of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R., Molotov, dated 6 January 1942. In order to avoid repetition and to save time, I shall read only a few excerpts from this note which have a direct bearing on the subject of my presentation. You will find the quoted extracts, underlined on Page 100 of the document book: "Every step which the German fascist army and its allies took on the occupied Soviet territory of the Ukraine and Moldavia, Bielorussia and Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, the Karelo-Finnish territory and the Russian districts and regions is marked by the ruin or destruction of countless objects of material and cultural value." The last paragraph of this quotation: "In the villages occupied by German authorities, the peaceful peasant population is subjected to unrestrained depredation and robbery. The farmers are robbed of their property, acquired through whole decades of persistent toil, robbed of their houses, cattle, grain, clothing -- of everything, down to their children's last little garments and the last handful of grain. In many cases, the Germans drive the rural population, including old people, women, and children, out of their dwellings as soon as the village is occupied and they are compelled to seek shelter in mud huts, dugouts, forests, or even under the open sky. In broad daylight the invaders strip the clothing and footgear from anyone they meet on the road, including children, savagely ill-treating those who try to protest against, or offer any kind of resistance to, such highway robbery. "In the villages liberated by the Red Army in the Rostov and Voroshilovgrad regions in the Ukraine, the peasants were plundered again and again by the invaders. As successive German army units passed through these areas each of them renewed their searches, lootings, arsons, and executions for failure to deliver up provisions.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: The same thing took place in the Moscow, Kalinin, Tula, Orel, Leningrad, and other regions, from which the remnants of the German troops are now being driven by the Red Army." In order to save time I shall not read the next paragraphs of this note, but shall give an account of them to the Tribunal in my own words. They contain a whole series of concrete facts of the looting of the peaceful population in different regions of the Soviet Union and the names of the victims as well as the list of such things and belongings as were taken from these peaceful citizens. Further, this note reads as follows: "The marauding orgies of the German officers and soldiers have spread to all the Soviet areas they have seized. The German authorities have legitimatized marauding in their armies and encouraged looting and violence. The German Government sees in this practice the realization of their bandit principle that every German combatant must have 'a personal interest in the war.' Thus, in a confidential order of 17 July 1941, addressed to all commanders of propaganda squads in the German Army and discovered by Red Army units when the 68th German Infantry Division was routed, explicit instructions are given to foster in every officer and soldier of the German Army the feeling that he has a material interest in the war. Similar orders inciting the army to mass looting and murder of the civil population are also issued by the armies of the countries fighting on the German side. "On the German-Soviet front, and especially in the vicinity of Moscow, more and more fascist officers and soldiers can be met dressed in pilfered clothes, their pockets crammed with stolen goods and their tanks stuffed with women's and children's wearing apparel torn from their victims' bodies.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: The German Army is becoming more and more an army of ravenous thieves and marauders, who are looting and sacking flourishing towns and villages of the Soviet Union, ravaging and destroying the property and belongings of the laboring population of our villages and towns, the fruit of its honest toil. These are facts testifying to the extreme moral depravity and degeneracy of the Hitlerite Army, whose looting, thievery, and marauding have earned it the contempt and the curses of the entire Soviet nation." Several months later, on 27 April 1942, in connection with the information which continued to come in regarding the crimes committed by the German fascist armies, Molotov, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R., published for the second time a note on the monstrous misdeeds, atrocities, and acts of violence of the German fascist invaders in occupied Soviet territories and on the responsibility of the German Government and the High Command for these crimes. This second note is also submitted to the Tribunal . . .
THE PRESIDENT: General, what do you mean by "published"?
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: What I mean is that this note was first sent to all the governments with whom the U.S.S.R. Government maintained diplomatic relations. The text of the note was also published in the Soviet official press. This document has already been presented by the Soviet Prosecution as Exhibit Number USSR-51 (Document Number USSR-51). I shall read a few brief excerpts from this document which have a direct bearing on the subject of my presentation.
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps we had better adjourn now, and you can read it after the adjournment. [The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours.] Afternoon Session
MARSHAL (Colonel Charles W. Mays): May it please the Court: I desire to announce that the Defendant Streicher will be absent on account of illness.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: I shall read now excerpts from the note of the People's Commissar. . . [The proceedings were interrupted by technical difficulties in the interpreting system.]
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn. [A recess was taken.]
THE PRESIDENT: Owing to the delay the Tribunal will sit until half past 5 tonight without further adjournment. Yes, Colonel.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: I am reading into the record excerpts from the note by the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs dated 27 April 1942, and in order to save time I shall, with your permission, quote only a few of the most necessary excerpts from this note. They are very short. In this note, attention was drawn to the fact that the documents captured by the Soviet authorities and put at the disposal of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs are evidence of the premeditated nature of the plunder carried out by the Hitlerites. I read the following excerpts; last paragraph on Page 44 of my statement, Russian text. "The appendix to Special Order Number 43761/41 of the Operations Department of the General Staff of the German Army, states: " 'It is urgently necessary that articles of clothing be acquired by means of forced levies on the population of the occupied regions enforced by every possible means. It is necessary above all to confiscate woolen and leather gloves, coats, vests, and scarves, padded vests and trousers, leather and felt boots, and puttees.' "In several places liberated in the districts of Kursk and Orel, the following orders have been found: " 'Property such as scales, sacks, grain, salt, kerosene, benzine, lamps, pots and pans, oilcloth, window blinds, curtains, rugs, phonographs, and records must be turned in to the commandant's office. Anyone violating this order will be shot.' "In the town of Istra, in the Moscow region, the invaders confiscated decorations for Christmas trees and toys. In the Shakhovskaya railway station they organized the 'delivery' by the inhabitants of children's underwear, wall clocks, and samovars. In districts still under the rule of the invaders, these searches are still going on; and the population, already reduced to the utmost poverty by the thefts which have been perpetrated continually since the first appearance of the German troops, is still being robbed." I omit the rest of the quotation from Mr.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: Molotov's note and conclude with the last paragraph: "The general character of the campaign of robbery planned by the Hitler Government, on which the German Command tried to base its plans for supplying its Army and the districts in its rear, is indicated by the following facts: In 25 districts of the Tula region alone the invaders robbed Soviet citizens of 14,048 cows, 11,860 hogs, 28,459 sheep, 213,678 chickens, geese, and ducks, and destroyed 25,465 beehives." I omit the remainder of this quotation which gives an inventory of all property, cattle, and fowl confiscated by the invaders from 25 districts of the Tula region. Your Honors, the notes which I have read, mention only a few of the innumerable crimes and cases of plunder committed by the Hitlerites on Soviet soil. With the permission of the Tribunal I shall now present several German documents from which you will see how the German commanders and officials themselves described their soldiers' behavior. Later I shall read candid statements by the German fascist leaders saying that German soldiers and officers must not be hindered in their marauding activities. It is natural that under these conditions the moral disintegration of the German fascist armies should reach its culminating point. Things reached such a point that the Hitlerites begin to plunder each other, thereby proving the truth of the well-known Russian proverb, "A thief stole a cudgel from a thief." May I now quote from the document which I present to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-285. This is an extract from a report of the German District Commissioner of Zhitomir to the Commissioner General of Zhitomir dated 30 November 1943. You will find the document to which I refer on Page 93 in the document book. I read: "Even before the German administration left Zhitomir, troops stationed there were seen to break into the apartments of Reich Germans and to appropriate everything that had any value. Even the personal luggage of Germans still working in their offices was stolen.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: When the town was reoccupied it was established that the houses where the Germans lived were hardly touched by the local population, but that the troops just entering the town had already started to loot the houses and business premises... I read the second excerpt from the same document: "The soldiers are not satisfied with taking the articles they can use, but they destroyed some of the remaining items; valuable furniture was used for fires, although there was plenty of wood." Now I shall read into the record an excerpt from a report of the German District Commissioner of the town of Korostyshev to the Commissioner General of Zhitomir. The members of the Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 94 of the document book. "Unfortunately the German soldiers behaved badly. Unlike the Russians they broke into the storehouses even when the front line was still far away. Enormous quantities of grain were stolen, including large quantities of seed. That might have been tolerated in the case of combat units.... Upon the return of our troops to Popelnaya, the warehouses were again broken into immediately. The 'Gebiets- und Kreislandwirt' nailed up the doors again, but the soldiers broke in once more." I read into the record other excerpts from the same document: "The Kreislandwirt reported to me that the dairy farm was plundered by retreating units; the soldiers carried away with them butter, cheese, et cetera ." And the second excerpt: "The co-operative store was plundered before the eyes of the Ukrainians. Among other things the soldiers took with them all the cash in the store." Then the third excerpt: "On the 9th and 10th of this month the guards of the field gendarmerie were posted at the co-operative store in Korostyshev. These guards could not repel the onslaught of the soldiers...." And the last excerpt: "Pigs and fowls were slaughtered to the most irresponsible degree and taken away by the soldiers....
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: The appearance of the troops themselves can only be described as catastrophic." In these towns, Your Honors, is the conduct of the German soldiers depicted by a German commissioner in his official report. There is no doubt that this description is an objective one, especially since it is supplemented by an official report of the German Ukrainian company for supplying agriculture in the Commissariat General, addressed to the Commissioner General of Zhitomir. This is how the report describes the results of a raid by German soldiers on the company's premises, ". . . The office was in a horrifying and incredible condition." Second excerpt: ". . . A 20-room private house at Hauptstrasse Number 57 had an appalling appearance. Carpets and stair carpets were missing, and all the upholstered armchairs, couches, beds with spring or other mattresses, chairs, and wooden benches." I skip a few lines: "The condition of the living rooms generally is almost indescribable." I omit two more excerpts from the document. Such, Your Honors, is the heartcry of the German brigands of the company for the economic adoption of the Ukraine, who themselves complain of the brigands in the German Army. In order to show that it was not only in Zhitomir and Korostyshev that such things took place, I shall quote yet another report, this time by the Commissioner of the Kazatinsky district, which contains the following statement, ". . . The German soldiers stole food, cattle, and vehicles." This laconic but significant introduction is followed by no less significant details: "Threatening him with a pistol, the corporal demanded the keys of the granary from the District Commissioner....
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: When I said that the key was in my pocket, he yelled, 'Give me the key.' With these words he pulled out his pistol, stuck it against my chest, and shouted, 'I'm going to shoot you -- you are a shirker.' He followed up this remark by a few more specimens of invective, thrust his hand into my pocket and grabbed the key, saying, 'I am the only person who gives orders here.' This occurred in the presence of numerous Germans and Ukrainians." The chief of the main department, Dr. Moisich, relates the same story in a report to the Commissioner General of Zhitomir, dated 4 December 1943. All these documents are being presented in their original form to the Tribunal. I shall now, Your Honors, proceed to read excerpts from the official reports and communiques of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union for the investigation and establishment of crimes committed by the German intruders and their accomplices. In order to save time, I ask the Tribunal to permit me to read only a few excerpts from these documents, and to give you the contents of the rest in my own words. The report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the looting and crimes perpetrated by the Hitlerites in the city and district of Rovno has already been submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-45. The corresponding section of this report reads as follows: "During their stay in Rovno and the district, Hitlerite officers and soldiers unrestrainedly plundered the peaceful Soviet citizens and thoroughly looted the property of cultural and educational institutions." I shall not quote all the data mentioned in this report of the Extraordinary State Commission. The report made by the Extraordinary State Commission on the atrocities committed by the Hitlerites in Kiev, and submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-9, emphasizes the fact that the Hitlerites plundered the peaceful population of Kiev.
MR. COUNSELLOR SHENIN: I quote a brief extract, "The German occupation forces in the city of Kiev looted factory equipment and carried it off to Germany." Following the directives of the criminal German Government and the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces, the satellite states also joined in plundering and other crimes. Romanian troops who temporarily occupied Odessa along with German Armed Forces plundered this flourishing city in accordance with instructions from their German masters. The report of the Extraordinary State Commission concerning the crimes committed by German and Romanian invaders in Odessa reads in part as follows: ". . . The Romanians damaged Odessa considerably from the economic and industrial point of view during.the occupation. "German-Romanian aggressors have confiscated and removed to Romania 1,042,013 centners of grain, 45,227 horses, 87,646 head of came, 31,821 pigs, et cetera , belonging to co-operative farms and co-operative farmers." The report of the Extraordinary State Commission on the damages inflicted by the German fascist invaders on industry, urban economy, and cultural and educational institutions in the Stalino region, already presented to the Tribunal as Document Number USSR-2, also gives a good deal of data on the looting and removal to Germany of the factory equipment of this important industrial region. I have quoted only a few of the reports compiled by the Extraordinary State Commission on certain districts of the Ukraine. This flourishing Soviet republic was subjected to unrestrained looting by the Hitlerites. The Hitlerite conspirators considered the Ukraine a tidbit and plundered her with exceptional voracity. I should like to read several documents in proof of the above. Rosenberg's letter to Reichsleiter Bormann dated 17 October 1944.