government and people, that the responsibility for the bloody butchery perpetrated on Soviet prisoners of war in violation of all the universally accepted rules and customs of war rests with the criminal Hitlerite government and German Supreme Command, the representatives of which are now sitting on the Defendants' benches. Fascist invaders in the, forced deportation to Germany of peaceful citizens, men, women and children, for slave and serf labor. the German Supreme Command carried out the deportation of Soviet citizens into German slavery by deceit, threats and force. Soviet citizens were sold into slavery by the fascist invaders to concerns and private individuals in Germany. These slaves were doomed to starvation, brutal treatment and, in the end, to an agonizing death. I shall dwell later on the inhuman and barbarous directives, edicts and orders of the Hitlerite government and the Supreme Command, which were issued for the purpose of effecting the deportation of Soviet persons to German slavery, and for which the defendants now being prosecuted are responsible, particularly Goering, Keitel, Rosenberg, Sauckel and others. Documents at the disposal of the Soviet Delegation, captured by the Red Army from the staffs of the smashed German Fascist armies, expose the defendants as perpetrators of these crimes. Rosenberg presented facts and figures confirming the vast scale of the deportation of Soviet citizens to slave and serf labor in Germany which were organized by Sauckel. which Goering gave directives to his officials concerning the utilization of Soviet citizens for forced labour. Circular No. 42006/41 of the Economic Staff of the German Command in the East, dated the 4th of December, 1941. This is how these directives run:
1. "Russians must be used chiefly for road and railway construction, clean-up operations, de-mining and airfield construction.
German construction battalions must be disbanded (e.g. those of the air force). Skilled German workers must work in war production; they must not dig and break stones - there is theRussian for that."
2. "It is essential to utilize the Russian primarily for the following types of work: mining, construction, war production (tanks, guns, aircraft equipment), agriculture, building, in large workshops (shoe making) and in special detachments for urgent unforeseen jobs."
3. "In taking measures to keep order, the decisive considerations are speed and severity. Only the following types of punishment, without any intermediate punitive sanctions, will be imposed: deprivation of food or death by sentence of court-martial." the Employment of Labor by Hitler's order of the 21st of March, 1942. tary organs his "Program of the General-Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Later" (top secret), which isno less foul than the circular referred to above. This is what is said in the "Program":
"It is extremely necessary to utilize fully the human reserves available in occupied Soviet territories. If attempts to attract the necessary labor voluntarily do not succeed, it will be necessary to resort immediately to mobilization or to the compulsory signing of individual contracts.
"Besides the prisoners of war we already have, and who are located for the most part in the occupied territories, there is need for the mobilization of skilled male and female civilian workers over 15 years of age from the Soviet Provinces for utilization for labor in Germany.
"In order that the burden on the overworked German peasant women should be noticeable lightened, the Fuehrer has ordered me to bring 400,000 to 500,000 selected, healthy and strong girls to Germany from the Eastern territories."
workers from the Eastern territories for domestic labor in Germany has been presented to the Tribunal by the prosecution.
This document is composed of excerpts from the report on a meeting held by Sauckel on the 3rd September 1942.
I quote some of these excerpts:
1. "The Fuehrer has ordered that between 400,000 and 500,000 labor".2. "The Fuehrer has expressed categorically his desire that a large number of these girls should be Germanised."
3. "It is the Fuehrer's will that, in 100 years' time, 250 million German-speaking people should live in Europe."
4. "Consider these women workers from the Ukraine as workers from the East, and put the sign 'Ost' (East) on them."
5. "Gauleiter Sauckel declared that, apart from the introduction additional million workers from the East."
6. "References to the difficulty of bringing stocks of grain to Germany from other countries did not worry him, Sauckel, at all.
He conveyors to get all the necessary equipment to the Ukraine."
a secret directive of the 31st of March, 1942, No. FA 578028/729: "The pulsory labor."
terror to carry out the plans of recruitment. They starved the Soviet Germany.
But even these coercive methods did not help. The recruitment was not successful.
Then Sauckel and his agents had recourse to a quota system.
This is testified to by an order of a German commandant, captured by Red Army forces when the occupied part of the province of Leningrad was liberated. It runs as follows:
"To the mayors of village communities ..... Since a very small number of people have so far presented themselves for labor in Germany, every mayor of a village community must, in concert with the elders of the villages, provide 15 or more persons from each village community for later in Germany. Healthy people aged between lit and 50 must be provided." Kharkov stated in his report on the situation in the town of Kharkov covering the period from 24 July to 9 September 1942: "The recruitment of labor is worrying the competent agencies, since an extremely antagonistic attitude to deportation for work in Germany is to be observed among the population. At present the situation is such that everyone tries by every available means to escape recruitment (they pretend to be ill, escape into the forests, bribe officials, etc.). For a long time now it has not been possible even to speak of anyone going to Germany voluntarily." brutal treatment is shown by a vast quantity of complaints and statements collected by the Extraordinary Government Commission for ascertaining and investigating the crimes of the German-Fascist invaders. suffered the same fate. systematically destroyed towns and villages, annihilated treasures created by the labors of many generations, and plundered the peaceful population. and Roumania, - the Hitlerites developed their plans for the destruction of the largest cities of theSoviet Union. 1941, and entitled "The Future of Petersburg", contains the following statemeat:
"The Fuehrer has decided to wipe the city of Petersburg from the face of the earth.
Finland has also declared that she is net interested in the further existence of the city in the immediate vicinity of her new boundary." the special object of which was to coordinate their plans for seizing and destroying the city of Odessa. signed by the defendant Jodl, prescribed that Leningrad and Moscow should be wiped from the face of the eart. "In the case of all other towns, too", states the order, "The rule should hold that, prior to their occupation, they should be reduced to ruins by artillery fire and by air raids. It is inadmissible that a German soldier's life would be risked in order that Russian towns should be saved from fire." by military commanders of all ranks. Thus an order to the 512 th German Infantry Regiment, signed by Colonel Schietzrig, prescribes that the regions and districts seized by the Hitlerites be turned into a desert area. In order that this crime should lead to the most destructive results, the order gives a detailed plan for the annihilation of inhabited localities.
"Preparations for the destruction of inhabited localities", the order states, "Should be made in such a manner that (a) no suspicion be aroused among the civilian population, prior to announcement; (b) it should be possible to start the destructions, at one blow, by means of a simple operation at an appointed time. On the designated day particularly strict watch should be kept in inhabited localities so as not to allow any civilians to leave them, &specially from the moment the announcement regarding the destruction is made." 24 December 1941, is even entitled? "Program of destructions." This order gives concrete directions regarding the destruction of a number of inhabited localities and suggests that:
"Available stocks of hay, straw, food supplies, etc., are to be burnt.
All stoves in homes should be put out of action by hand grenades so that their further use be made impossible.
On no account is this order to fall into the hands of the enemy." fire to the treasures created by the labor of generations. "Directives for the Control of Economy in the Newly Occupied Eastern Territories." (The "green file"). Goering is the author of these directives. This secret document is dated - "Berlin, June 1941." I will quote only a few excerpts from it. The first quotation is:
"Pursuant to the Fuehrer's (Hitler's) orders, it isnecessary to take all measures for the immediateand full exploitation of the occupied territories for Germany's benefit. To obtain for Germany the largest possible amount of food supplies and crude-oil - such is the main economic objective of the campaign. At the same time, German industry must also be supplied with other kinds of raw materials from the occupied territories. The first task is to supply the German armies with the utmost speed entirely from the resources of the occupied territories.
Second quotation : "The opinion that the occupied territories should be restored to order as soon as possible, and their economy re-established is ill-conveived. The restoration of order must take place only in areas from which we can obtain considerable supplies of agricultural products and crude-oils; in others, economic activity must be limited to the exploitation of such stocks as are discovered."
Third quotation : "All raw materials, semi-manufactured and finished goods must be withdrawn from the markets by means of orders, requisitions, and confiscations. Platinum, magnesium, and rubber should be collected immediately and removed to Germany. Foodstuffs, as well as articles of domestic and personal use, and dothing discovered in the combat zone and in the rear areas, are to be placed, in the first instance, at the disposal of the boards to satisfy the needs of the armies. What is rejected by them will be passed on to thenext highest war-economy agency." German aggression against the Soviet Union was to plunder the Soviet country in order to obtain the economic resources which were necessary for Hitlerite Germany and without which she could not carry out her imperialistic plans of aggression.
Goering's "Green File" represented the wide program, developed beforehand by the Fascist conspirators, for the organized plunder of the Soviet Union.
This program laid down in advance concrete plans for plunder: the forcible confiscation of valuables, the organization of slave labor in our cities and villages, the abolition of wages inindustrial establishments, the uncontrolled issue of fully insecure currency, etc. In order to carry out this program of plunder, the creation of special machinery was provided for with its own economic command, economic staffs, its own intelligence, inspectorate, army units, detachments for collecting means of production, detachments for collecting raw materials, military agronomists, agricultural officers, etc. ments of the economic departments of the army whose task was to detemine the available supplies of grain and cattle, fuel, and other property. These detachments were subordinated to a special economic inspectorate which had its seat in the rear area.
Soon after the attack on the USSR, Hitler's decree of the 29th of June 1941 placed the whole direction of the plunder of occupied territories in the hands of the defendant Goering. By this decree Goering was given the right to take "all measures necessary for the maximum utilization of all stocks discovered and of the country's economic capacity in the interests of German was economy. The defendant Goering directed the predatory activities of the German armies and conomic detachments with the greatest zeal. and representatives of the military command, Goering demanded that the plunder of occupied territories be intensified. "You are sent there," Goering pointed out, "not to work for the benefit of the peoples entrusted to you, but in order to pump out of them all that is possible."
And further on: "I intend to plunder and to do effectively." of Goering were carried out by the Reich ministers and representatives of German firms, under whose control there were various kinds of economic groups, technical battalions, economic staffs, and economic inspectorates. Particularly active in the plunder of property of the Soviet Union were the German firms Friedrich Krupp & Co., Herman Goering, Siemens Schuckert, the Mining and Metallurgical Company, Ost, the corporation Word, Heinrich Lana, Landmaschinebauindustrie, I.G. Farben Industrie, and many others. lerite invaders doomed to starvation and death the population of the districts they thus plundered. Field Marshal Reichenau's order of the 10th of October 1941, which was distributed as a model among all German units, together with a note saying that Hitler considered it an excellent order, contained the following incitement to plunder and exterminate the population: "To supply local inhabitants and prisoners of war with food is an unnecessary act of humanity." August 1942, which were discovered in defendant Rosenberg's files, state: "The object of our work is to make the Ukrainians work for Germany; - we are not here to make these people happy. The Ukraine can give us what is lacking in Germany.
This object must be achieved irrespective of losses." plundered the population of the occupied territories mercilessly and to the fullest. An order discovered at a number of places in the Kurst and Orel districts by units of the Red Army contains a list of property to be handed over to the military authorities. Things like scales, sacks, salt, lamps, saucepans, oilcloth, blinds, and gramaphones with records are mentioned in the order. "All this property," the order states, "must be delivered to the Kommandatur. These guilty of infringing this order will be shot." DESTRUCTION AND PLUNDER OF CULTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC TREASURES, MONASTERIES, CHURCHES, AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS FOR RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES. usurpers destroyed scientific and artistic institutions, historical and cultural monuments, schools and hospitals, clubs and theaters.
"No historic or artistic treasures in the East", Field Marshal Reichenau decreed in his order, "are of any importance". the Hitlerites assumed vast proportaions. Thus, in a letter of 20 September 1941, from the Plenipotentiary General for Byelorussia to Rosenberg it is stated:
"According to the report of the major of the 707th Division, who today handed over to me the remaining treasures, the SS men left the rest of the pictures and works of art to be plundered by the armed forces, these included extremely valuable pictures and furniture dating from the 18th and 19th Centuries, vases, marble sculptures, etc.
The History Museum was also completely destroyed. From the geographical section, valuable, precious, and semi-precious stones were looted. In the university scientific instruments to a total value of hundreds of thousands of marks were senselessly smashed or stolen. temporarily occupied by the Fascists, the occupants destroyed and looted 112 libraries, four museums and fifty-four theatres and cinemas. The Hitlerites looted and burnt the Famous museum at Borodino, whose historical relics pertaining to the Patriotic War of 1812 are particularly dear to the Russian people.
In the village of Polotnyanny Zavod the occupants looted and burnt Pushkin's house, which had been turned into a museum. The Germand destroyed manuscripts, books, and pictures which had belonged to Leo Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyona. The German barbarians desecrated the grave of the great author. extremely rare collections of historic documents and books which were kept ther, and destroyed hundreds of schools, clubs, and theatres in Byelorussia. furniture, made by the most outstanding craftsmen of the 18th Century, was removed to Germany. From the Peterhof Palaces the Germans removed all the sculptured and carved ornamentations, carpets, pictures, and statues. The Great Palace of Peterhof, dating back to the reign of Peter I, was barbarously burnt after it had been looted. taining over 2,000,000 volumes.
At Tchernigov a famous collection of Ukranian antiquities was looted. At the Kievo-Petersk Monastery the Germans seized documents from the archives of the Metropolitans of Keiv and books from the private library of Peter Mogilla, who had collected very valuable works of world literature. They looted the very valuable colloections of the museums of Lvov and Odessa, and removed to Germany or partially destroyed the treasures of the libraries of Vinnitza and Poltava, where extremely rare copies of mediaeval literary manuscripts, the first printed editions of the 16th and the 12th centuries and ancient church books, were kept. the barbaric orders of the German Government, was not only directed by the defendants Goering and Rosenberg and by the various staffs and detachments subordinated to them, but the Ministry for Foreign Affairs with the Defendant Ribbentrop at its head, also took part in this through a special organization.
The statement by Obersturmfuehrer Dr. Norman Foerster of the 4th company of the Special Purposes Battalion of the Waffen SS, published by the press at the time, bears witness to this.
In his tesitmony, Foerster stated:
"In August 1941, while I was in Berlin, through the help of my old acquaintance at the University of Berlin, Dr. Focke, who was working in the Press Division of the Ministre for Foreign Affairs, I was detached from the 87th Antitank Battalion and assigned to the Special Purposes Battalion of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. This battalion was formed on the initiative of Ribbentrop, the Foreign Minister, and acted under his direction. The task of the Special Purpose Battalion consisted of seizing immediately, after the fall of large cities, cultural and historical treasures and the libraries of institutions of learning, and in selecting valuable editions of books and films and then sending all these to Germany. And further:
"We obtained righ trophies in the library of the Ukranian Acedemy of Science, where very rare manuscripts of Persian, Abyssinian, and Chinese literature, Russian and Ukrainian chronicles; and the first copies of books printed by the first Russian printer, Ivan Fedorov; and rare editions of works by Shevtchenko, Mitzkevitch, and Ivan Franko were kept." towns, and national cultural monuments, the Hitlerites also mocked at the religious feelings of the believers amont the Soviet population. Greek-Orthodox churches, 237 Romen Catholic churches, sixty-nine chapels, 532 synagogues, and 258 other buildings belonging to religious institutions. Monastery, built in 1073, and with it eight monastery buildings. Borisoglebski Cathedral, built at the beginning of the 12th Centruy; the Cathedral of the Efrosiniev Manastery of Polotzk, built in 1160, and the Church of Paraskeva-Piatnize-in-the-Market, a very valuable monument of 12th Century Russian achitecture.
ancient monasteries, the famous church of Spas-Nereditza, and a series of other churches were destroyed by the Hitlerites.
The German soldiers *ooffed at the religious feelings of the people. They dressed up in church vestments, kept horses and dogs in the churches, and made bunks out of the ikons. clother corpses of tortured Red Army prisoners of war stacked up in piles. predatory activities of German army units is extremely great. the criminal Hitlerite Government and of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, destroyed and looted Soviet towns and villages; industrial establishments and collective farms taken by them; destroyed works of art; demolished, stole, and removed to Germany machinery, stocks of raw and other materials and finished goods, art and historic treasures; and carried out the general plundering of the urban and rural population. In the territories of the Soviet Union, which suffered occupation, 88,000,000 persons lived before the war; gross industrial production amounted to forty-six billion roubles at the fixed Government prices of 1926-27; there were 109,000,000 head of livestock, including 31,000,000 head of cattle and 12,000,000 horses, 71,000,000 hectares of cultivated land, and 132,000 kilometres of railway lines. 1,710 towns and more than 70,000 villages and hamlets; burnt or destroyed over 6,000,000 buildings; and rendered some 25,000,000 persons homeless. Among the damaged towns which suffered most were the biggest industrial and cultural centers of Stalingrad, Sebastopol, Leningrad, Keiv, Minsk, Odessa, Smolensk, Novgorod, Pskov, Oral, Kharkov, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, and many others. employing some 4,000,000 workers; they destroyed or removed from the country 239,000 electric motors and 175,000 metal-cutting machines.
stations, 36,000 post and telegraph offices, telephone exchanges, and other communication installations. institutions, 84,000 technical and other schools, universitites and research institutes, and 43,000 public libraries. farms, and 2,890 machine and tractor stations, they slaughtered, took, or drove into Germany 7,000,000 horses, 17,000,000 head of cattle, 20,000,000 pigs, 27,000,000 sheep and goats, and 110,000,000 head of poultry. Hitlerite armies has been placed at a figure of 679 billion roubles at the Government prices of 1941.
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY by the Hitlerites upon all who did not share the "ideology" of the "We deny the protection of law to the enemies of the people.
heartedness and false humaneness. We do not recognize tricky lawyers sophistry and cunning juridical subtilities," wrote Goering as "Thus," spoke Goering, "arose the concentration camps in which and Social-Democratic Party machines."
by Hitler on 2 October, 1940. This document refers to occupied Poland.
It will be submitted to the Tribunal. At the moment I shall as Governor General could be considered very successful:
the Jews "Very soon Cracow will be entirely cleared of Jews.
There must be no Polish landlords," the document went on to state.
"Wherever "All representatives of the Polish intelligentsia must be exterminated.
This sounds brutal, but such is the law of life.
we want. If we find a priest acting otherwise we will make short work of him.
The task of the priest consists in keeping the Poles quiet, stupid and dull-witted.
This is entirely in our interests.
stand above any Pole economically."
Hitler said to Rauschning:
"After all these centuries of whining about the protection of strong against the inferior.
It will be one of the chief tasks of power the further increase of the Slav races.
Natural instincts destroy them.
In former days it was the victor's prerogative to destroy entire tribes, entire peoples."
the witness Erich von den Bach-Zelewsky about Himmler's aims, as Prosecution, the witness declared, "In Himmler's speech it was by 30 million."
In Appendix 2 to Operational Order No. 8 of the Chief of the stated, "It is above all essential to ascertain the identity of all and regional committees, all people's commissars and their deputies, intelligentsia and all Jews."
documents and facts in this connection. The Fascist conspirators My American colleague has already quoted Hitler's statement of the 24th of February, 1942, that "the Jews will be annihilated."
In a speech by the Defendant Frank, published in the "Cracow Gazette" on the 18th of August, 1942, it is stated:
"Anyone who passes through Cracow, Lvov , Warsaw, Radom, or now hardly sees any Jews."
the Ukraine, in Byelorussia, and in the Baltic States. In the town of Riga some 80,000 Jews lived before the German occupation.
At the crimes committed by the Defendants against humanity.
The Soviet an instrument of extermination of peaceful citizens; an instrument themselves to be the representatives of the "Master Race," a thing spread, an arbitrary regime of tyranny; a regime founded on the we have no right to forget the victims who have suffered.
We have bill which must be paid.
This is a bill on behalf of all mankind,
THE PRESIDENT: General Rudenko, your Delegation will be prepared to go on after the adjournment, will you not?
GENERAL RUDENKO: I would prefer that there should now be an
THE PRESIDENT: Do you mean an adjournment altogether for the or fifteen minutes, then continue until five o'clock.
Would that not be convenient to you?
GENERAL RUDENKO: All right: yes, sir.
(A recess was taken.)
GENERAL RUDENKO: If it please your Honors, Colonel Kareyev
COLONEL S. D. KAREYEV: The Soviet Prosecution begins its American, British and French colleagues.
On its part the Soviet Peace, we will submit the following types of documents:
administrative as other documents.
These documents were found by units of the Red This Commission was set up by the decree of the Praesidium of the Supreme Soviet ox the USSR, dated 2 November 1942.
For field work there were set up Republican, Regional. District Municipal Commissions to assist the work of the Extraordinary Government Commission for the Dertimination and Investigation of the Crimes Committed by the German FascistInvaders. Both the central office, as well as the field offices of the Extraordinary State Commission, were composed of prominent statesmen and representatives of different public, research, and cultural organizations, as well as religious denominations. whose assistance representatives of local groups and local state authorities were called in, had collected and checked data and drew up protocols on the atrocities of the German invaders and the damage caused to the Soviet Union and its citizens. peacful citizens, 54,784 protocols were drawn up. In accordance with Article 21 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, these protocols unquestionably represent admissible evidence. Of all these protocols of the Extraordinary State Commission, only a small number will at present be submitted to the Tribunal by the Soviet Prosecution. showing the atrocities and destruction committed by the German invaders in the territorities of the USSR they had temporarily occupied. Part of these photographs will be submitted to the Tribunal. Several documentary films will be offered to the Tribunal in evidence by the Soviet Prosecution. conspirators, the Soviet Prosecution mil also use several German documents photographs and films which were captured from the Germans. The Soviet Prosecution will also submit evidence relative to crimes committed by the defendants and their accomplices against Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia, Among this evidence special mention must be made of the official report be the Czechoslovakian Government entitled "German Crimes against Czechoslovakia." This report was prepared on the direction of the Czechoslovakian Government by the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Dr. Boguslav Echer, the representative of Czechoslovakia in the United Nations Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes.