dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MR. ALBRECHT: One subdivision of this staff, the agricultural section, was charged with the following functions: "Nutrition and agriculture, the economy of all agricultural products, provision of supplies for the Army in co-operation with the army groups concerned." Excerpts from the Green Portfolio have already been admitted as Exhibit Number USA-315, but I will offer at this time without reading some additional excerpts in support of the facts that have just been related. I would like to offer, as Exhibit Number USA-587, our Document 1743-PS. This is another copy of the Green Portfolio, and I want to offer this portfolio to show to the Tribunal that these directives were originally published in June 1941. Document EC-472, which is already in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-315, was a revised edition published in July 1941. In other words, the economic plan for the invasion was ready when the Wehrmacht actually marched into the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. As appears from the foregoing directives, it was a subdivision of the economic organization set up by the Defendant Goering, the agricultural section of the Economic Staff East, which rendered a report on 23 May 1941, containing a set of policy directives for the exploitation of Soviet agriculture. It will be recalled that these directives contemplated abandonment of all industry in the food deficit regions, with certain exceptions, and the diversion of food from the food surplus regions to German needs, even though millions of people would inevitably die of starvation as a result. Those directives have already been read into evidence at Page 1558 ( Volume IV, Page 5 ). Minutes of a meeting at Hitler's headquarters on 16 July 1941, kept by the Defendant Bormann, have also been read in part in evidence.
MR. ALBRECHT: It was at this meeting that Hitler stated that the Nazis never intended to leave the countries then being occupied by their armies, that although the rest of the world was to be deceived on this point, nevertheless, "this need not prevent us from taking all necessary measure shooting, desettling, et cetera-and we shall take them." That quotation, may it please the Tribunal, was taken from our Exhibit USA-317, our Document L-221. Then Hitler discussed making the Crimea and other parts of the Soviet Union into German colonies. The Defendant Goering was present and participated in this conference. As a final illustration it appears from a memorandum dated 16 September 1941, which is our Exhibit Number USA-318, that Goering presided over a meeting of German military officials concerned with the better exploitation of the occupied territories for the German food economy. In discussing this topic, the Defendant Goering said: "In the occupied territories on principle only those people are to be supplied with an adequate amount of food who work for us. Even if one wanted to feed all the other inhabitants, one could not do it in the newly occupied Eastern areas. It is, therefore, wrong to funnel off food supplies for this purpose if it is done at the expense of the Army and necessitates increased supplies from home." From the foregoing documents participation of the Defendant Goering in the Nazi plans for committing wholesale War Crimes in occupied territories is, we submit, clear. I turn now to Goering's planning and his participation in inhumane acts committed against civilian populations before and during the war. It has been shown that shortly after becoming Prime Minister of Prussia in 1933, Goering created the Gestapo in Prussia, which became a model for that instrument of terror as it was extended to the rest of Germany. Concentration camps were established in Prussia in the spring of 1933 under his administration, and these camps were then placed in the charge of the Gestapo, of which he was chief.
MR. ALBRECHT: The extent to which Goering and the other Nazi conspirators employed these institutions as agencies for the commission of their crimes already appears from the evidence. In 1936 Himmler became chief of the German Police. Thereafter Goering was able to devote his attention chiefly to the task of creating the German Air Force and to the task of preparing the nation economically for aggressive war. However, he continued to be concerned with these institutions of his creation. An example of this is shown in our Document 1584(I)-PS, already introduced as Exhibit Number USA-221, which is a teletype sent by Goering to Himmler in which he requested the latter to place at his disposal as great a number of concentration camp inmates as possible, as the situation of air warfare made the subterranean transfer of industry necessary. In his reply Himmler advised Goering by teletype that a survey on the employment of prisoners in the aviation industry showed that 36,000 were being employed for the purposes of the Air Forces and that an increase to a total of 90,000 prisoners was being contemplated. Evidence has been introduced as to medical experiments performed on human beings at the concentration camp at Dachau and the part played by Field Marshal Milch, State Secretary and deputy to the Defendant Goering as Air Minister, for whose acts the latter must bear full responsibility. It is abundantly clear from letters written by Milch to General Wolff on 20 May 1942 and to Himmler in August 1942, both of which have been read in evidence at Page 1850 of the record (Volume IV, Page 204 , 205 ), our Document 343-PS. Finally, I turn to Goering's participation in and planning for elimination of all members of the Jewish race from the economic life of Germany and in the planned extermination of all Jews from the continent of Europe. In 1935 the Defendant Goering, as President of the Reichstag, made a speech urging that body to pass the infamous Nuremberg race laws.
MR. ALBRECHT: I offer, as Exhibit Number USA-588, our Document 3458-PS, which is an excerpt from Ruble, Das Dritte Reich, Page 257. Goering said: "God has created the races. He did not want equality and therefore we energetically reject any attempt to falsify the concept of race purity by making it equivalent with racial equality. We have experienced what it means when a people has to live in accordance with the laws of an equality that is alien to its kind and contrary to nature. For this equality does not exist. We have never acknowledged such an idea and therefore must reject it also, as a matter of principle, in our laws, and we must acknowledge that purity of race which nature and providence have destined." Again, to show his official attitude, as revealed on 26 March 1938 in a speech in Vienna, I offer, as Exhibit Number USA-437, our Document 3460-PS, starting with Page 348. Goering said: "I must address myself with a serious word to the city of Vienna. The city of Vienna can no longer rightfully be called a German city. So many Jews live in this city. Where there are 300,000 Jews, you cannot speak of a German city. "Vienna must once more become a German city, because it must perform important tasks for Germany in Germany's Ostmark. These tasks lie in the sphere of culture as well as in the sphere of economics. In neither of them can we, in the long run, put up with the Jew. "This, however, should not be attempted by inappropriate interference and stupid measures but must be done systematically and carefully. As Delegate for the Four Year Plan, I commission the Reichsstatthalter in Austria jointly with the Plenipotentiary of the Reich to consider and take any steps necessary for the redirection of Jewish commerce, i.e., for the Aryanization of business and economic life, and to execute this process in accordance with our laws, legally but inexorably." Acting within the framework of economic preparation for aggressive war, the Nazi conspirators then began the complete elimination of Jews from economic life preparatory to their physical annihilation.
MR. ALBRECHT: The Defendant Goering, as head of the Four Year Plan, was in active charge off this phase of the persecution. The first step in his campaign was the decree of 26 April 1938, requiring registration of all Jewish-owned property. Both Goering and the Defendant Frick signed that law. It is already in evidence. I beg the Tribunal's pardon. I would like the Tribunal to take judicial notice of that decree, which is our Document 1406-PS and cited as 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt , Part I, Page 414. Now, armed with the information thus secured, the Nazi conspirators were fully prepared to take the next step. The killing of Vom Rath, a German Legation secretary in Paris on 9 November 1938, was made the pretext for widespread "spontaneous" riots, which included the looting and burning of many Jewish synagogues, homes, and shops, all carefully organized and supervised by the Nazi conspirators. The Defendant Goering was fully informed of the measures taken. The teletype orders of 10 November 1938 given by Heydrich are already in evidence and were read at Page 1405 of the record ( Volume III, Page 500 ). A letter which Heydrich wrote to Goering on the following day has also been read. It is our Document 3058-PS, Exhibit Number USA-508. In it Himmler summarizes the so-called "spontaneous" riots that had taken place. He reported the day after the riot that insofar as the official reports from the district police were concerned he was able to state that 815 shops were destroyed, 171 dwelling houses set on fire or destroyed, and that all this indicates only a fraction of the actual damage caused, as far as arson is concerned. He also said that: "Due to the urgency of the reporting, the reports received to date are entirely limited to general statements, such as 'numerous' or 'most shops destroyed'. Therefore"-says Heydrich-"the figures given will be considerably augmented. "One hundred and ninety-one synagogues were set on fire and another 76 completely destroyed. In addition 11 parish halls, cemetery chapels, and similar buildings were set on fire....
MR. ALBRECHT: "Twenty thousand Jews were arrested.... "Thirty-six deaths were reported and those seriously injured were also numbered at 36." Immediately after these so-called "spontaneous" riots of 9 November, Goering acted as chairman of a meeting at the Reich Ministry of Air devoted to the Jewish question, which also was attended by the Defendant Funk and other conspirators. The stenographic report on that meeting is an extraordinary document, and it does not make pretty reading. It is our Document 1816-PS, which has already been offered as Exhibit Number USA-261. I should like to read certain passages that have not as yet been read into the record. I read from the top of first page, the first two paragraphs of Page 1 of the German original; Goering speaks: "Gentlemen, today's meeting is of a decisive nature. I have received a letter written on the Fuehrer's order by the Stabsleiter of the Fuehrer's deputy, Bormann, requesting that the Jewish question be now uniformly comprehended and solved one way or another. And yesterday once again the Fuehrer requested me by phone to take co-ordinated action in the matter. "Since the problem is mainly an economic one, it is from the economic angle that it will have to be tackled. Naturally a number of legal measures will have to be taken which fall into the sphere of the Minister for Justice and into that of the Minister of the Interior; then certain resulting propaganda measures shall be taken care of by the office of the Minister for Propaganda. The Minister of Finance and the Minister for Economic Affairs shall take care of problems falling into their respective departments." Specific measures to effect the Aryanization of Jewish business were then discussed. A representative of German insurance companies was called in to assist in the solving of the difficulties created by the fact that most of the Jewish stores and other property destroyed in the rioting were, in fact, insured, in some cases, ultimately by foreign insurance companies.
MR. ALBRECHT: All present were agreed that it would be unfortunate to pass a law which would have the effect of allowing foreign insurance companies to escape liability. The Defendant Goering then suggested a characteristic solution, and I pass to Page 10. In German it is the third full paragraph on Page 3/11. Goering said: "No, I don't even dream of refunding the insurance companies the money. The companies are liable. No, the money belongs to the State. That's quite clear. That would indeed be a present for the insurance companies. You made a wonderful Petitum there. You'll fulfill your obligations; you may count on that." It is superfluous to quote further from the extensive discussion of all phases of persecution of the Jews that took place at this meeting. It is sufficient to point out that on the same day the Defendant Goering, over his own signature, promulgated three decrees putting into effect the most important matters decided at this meeting. In the first of these decrees a collective fine of 1 billion Reichsmarks was placed on all German Jews. I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of that decree, which is our Document 1412-PS and appears in 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt , Part I, Page 1579. The second decree entitled, "A Decree on Elimination of Jews from German Economic Life" barred Jews from trades and crafts. I ask the Tribunal to notice judicially that decree, which is our Document 2875-PS, cited in 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 1580. The third decree entitled, "Decree for the Restoration of the Appearance of the Streets of Jewish Economic Enterprises" took care of the insurance question raised in the morning's meeting by providing that insurance due to the Jews for various losses sustained by them was to be collected by the State. I ask the Court to notice judicially that decree also. It is our Document 2694-PS and appears in 1938 Reichspesetzblatt, Part I, Page 1581.
THE PRESIDENT: Shall we break off for 10 minutes there?
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Albrecht, the Tribunal thinks that these methods, which are really methods which we have already had under consideration, might be presented in a more summary way than you have been dealing with them, and if you can possibly shorten the matters with which you are dealing now by summarizing more than you are, it will be more useful to the Tribunal and will save time.
MR. ALBRECHT: My Lord, I think I am practically through with this point. At any event I think I shall not have to take more than 5 or 10 minutes.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, but I may say that the same observation will apply to those who follow.
MR. ALBRECHT: May it please the Tribunal, the material I alluded to before the recess, we feel, is merely illustrative of the energetic manner in which the Defendant Goering took part in driving the Jews from economic life at this period. Two other documents would seem to be pertinent on this point. I would like to offer our Document 069-PS as Exhibit Number USA-589, which is a circular letter dated 17 January 1939 signed by the Defendant Bormann, distributing a directive of the Defendant G5ring with respect to certain discriminations to be applied in the housing of the Jews. I will be content with that summarization, if the Court please, and I do not intend to read further from that document. The second document I desire to offer is our Document 1208-PS, which I offer as Exhibit Number USA-590. That is an order of the Defendant Goering as Commissioner for the Four Year Plan, dated to December 1938, prescribing the manner in which exploitation of Jewish property is to be undertaken and warning that any profit resulting from the elimination of Jews from economic activity is to go to the Reich. There is no need, I believe, to read excerpts from the document, except that I do wish to call the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that Goering's letter is addressed to all the chief agencies of the Reich, to all the political leaders and leaders of the affiliated organizations of the Party, to all Gauleiter, to all Reichsstatthalter (or governors), and to the various local heads of the German Lander and subdivisions thereof. As the German armies moved into other countries, the anti-Jewish laws were extended, often in a more stringent form, to the occupied territories. Many of the decrees were not signed by the Defendant Goering himself, but were issued on the basis of decrees signed by him.
MR. ALBRECHT: Nevertheless, in his capacity as Commissioner for the Four Year Plan or as Chairman of the Ministerial Council for National Defense, the Defendant Goering himself signed a number of anti-Jewish decrees for occupied territories, including the decrees enumerated on Pages 47 and 48 of our brief, of which I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice. During the later years of the war the program of the Nazi conspirators for the complete physical annihilation of all Jews in Europe achieved its full fury. While the execution of this anti-Jewish program was for the most part handled by the SS and the Security Police, the Defendant Goering remains implicated to the last in the final efforts to achieve a Nazi "solution" of the Jewish problem. On 31 July 1941 he wrote a letter to the conspirator Heydrich, which is the final document to which I wish to draw the Tribunal's attention. It is a fitting climax to our presentation on this defendant. The reason why it was addressed to the notorious Heydrich, the predecessor of the Defendant Kaltenbrunner, need not strain our imagination. This document is our Document Number 710-PS, which has already been admitted as Exhibit Number USA-509, in connection with the case on the Gestapo. While it has already been read into evidence, with permission of the Court, I would like to close my presentation with the reading of that letter. Goering writes to Heydrich: "Complementing the task that was assigned to you on 24 January 1939, which dealt with arriving at thorough furtherance of emigration and evacuation solution of the Jewish problem, as advantageous as possible, I hereby charge you to make all necessary organizational and practical preparations for bringing about a complete solution of the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence in Europe. "Wherever other governmental agencies are involved, these are to co-operate with you.
MR. ALBRECHT: "I charge you furthermore to send me, before long, an over-all plan concerning the organizational, factual, and material measures necessary for the accomplishment of the desired final solution of the Jewish question." The presentation made to the Tribunal on the individual responsibility of the Defendant Goering has been intended to be merely illustrative of the mass of documentary evidence which reveals the leading part played by this conspirator in every phase of the Nazi conspiracy. Thus, we submit that the responsibility of Goering for the crimes with which he has been charged under Count One and Count Two of the Indictment has been established. May it please the Tribunal, this completes the presentation on the individual responsibility of the Defendant Goering. We will now proceed with the arrangement made with the British Delegation on the presentation showing the individual responsibility of the Defendant Von Ribbentrop by Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: May it please the Tribunal, if the Tribunal would be good enough to look at Appendix A of the Indictment on Page 28 of the English text (Volume I, Page 69) they will find the particulars relating to this defendant, and they will find that the allegations regarding him fall into three divisions. After reciting the offices which he held, the appendix of the Indictment goes on to say that the Defendant Ribbentrop used the foregoing positions, his personal influence, and his intimate connection with the Fuehrer in such a manner that he promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators as set forth in Count One of the Indictment and permitted the preparation for war set forth in Count One of the Indictment. In the second section he participated in the political planning and preparation of the Nazi conspirators for wars of aggression and wars in violation of international treaties, agreements, and assurances as set forth in Counts One and Two of the Indictment. In accordance with the Fuehrer Principle, he executed and assumed responsibility for the execution of the foreign policy plans of the Nazi conspirators, as set forth in Count One of the Indictment. Then the third section: He authorized, directed, and participated in War Crimes, as set forth in Count Three of the Indictment, and the Crimes against Humanity, set forth in Count Four of the Indictment, including, more particularly crimes against persons and property in occupied territories. I hope that it might be useful to the Tribunal if I follow the order of these allegations in the Indictment as we collected the evidence for each of these in turn; I therefore proceed to deal first with the allegation that this defendant promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators. The Tribunal knows already that the defendant held various offices and these are usefully collected in his own certified statement, which has already been put in as Exhibit Number USA-5, Document 2829-PS.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: And I think it would be convenient if I very briefly explained the different activities and offices of the defendant which are dealt with in that list. It will be seen from that list that he became a member of the Nazi Party in 1932, but, according to the semi-official statement in Das Archiv, he had begun to work for the Party before that time. That semi-official statement goes on to say that he succeeded in extending his business connections to political circles, having joined in 1930 the service of the Party. At the time of the final struggle for power in the Reich, Ribbentrop played an important, if not strikingly obvious part in the bringing about of the decisive meetings between the representatives of the President of the Reich and the heads of the Party, who had prepared the entry of the Nazis into power on 30 January 1933. Those meetings, as well as those between Hitler and Von Papen, took place in Ribbentrop's house in Berlin-Dahlem. This defendant was therefore present and active at the inception of the Nazi securing of power. After that, for a short period, he was adviser to the Party on questions of foreign affairs. His title was first "Adviser to the Fuehrer on matters of foreign policy" and he later became representative in matters of foreign policy on the staff of the deputy. This was followed by membership in the Reichstag in November 1933 and in the Party organizations he became an Oberfuehrer in the SS and was subsequently promoted to Gruppenfuehrer and to Obergruppenfuehrer. Thereafter he attained official government positions. On the 24th of April 1934 he was appointed delegate of the Reich Government on matters of disarmament. That was after Germany had left the disarmament conference. In this capacity he visited foreign capitals. He was then given a more important and certainly a more resounding tine: the German Minister Plenipotentiary at Large; and it was in that capacity that he negotiated the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935.