"Danzig enthusiastically extends to you, my Fuehrer, the feeling of endless gratitude and eternal devotion.
"Heil to my Fuehrer Albert FORSTER, Gauleiter."
And now that the documents which establish the actual line of conduct of the fascist conspirators with regard to Poland, have been submitted to the Tribunal, it seems to me opportune to refer be it only summarily, to excerpts from the plan "Weiss" as well as from the speeches, and pronouncements by Hitler and Ribbentrop typical of their ideas, after which I will offer in evidence a new document, which is Exhibit USSR 172. This document represents the secret notes by Bormann concerning a conversation on Poland, which took place in Hitler's apartment on 2 October 1940.
On 30 January, 1943, Hitler in his capacity of Chancellor of the Reich made a speech. It concerned a number of problems, including the relations with Poland.
There is no need to quote it in detail. At present, only two or three sentences can be of interest to us. I quote excerpts from Exhibit TC - 70;
"....It seems to me, that one must show by a concrete example that disagreements, however indisputable, need not prevent the finding of a 'Modus vivendi' which would serve usefully both the cause of peace and the welfare of both nations."
I will now skip several paragraphs and will quote one of the final sentences:
THE PRESIDENT:Colonel Pokrovsky, it is pointed out to me, and I intervene for the purpose of getting the record correct, that the document is not the 30th of January, 1943 or 1933, but is the 30th of January, 1934. Is that what you agree with?
COLONEL POKROVSKY:In my report I see the date 30th of January 1934.
THE PRESIDENT:That is right, yes.
COLONEL POKROVSKY:I will continue my quotation.
"The German Government is resolved and prepared to develop its political and economic relations with Poland in accordance with the present agreement, in such a way as to ensure that a period of useful cooperation may follow one of fruitless reticence.
"The Chancellor has expressed here his particular satisfaction with the clarification of relationsbetween Danzig and Poland."
On the 26th of September, 1938, Hitler again spoke of Poland in one of his usual speeches. I consider it necessary to quote a short excerpt from this speech (TC-29):
"The German-Polish relations presented that complicated problem which I had to encounter. There was a danger that the idea of mutual implacable hostility would completely dominate the imagination of our own as well as of the Polish people. I wanted to avert it."
I do not consider it necessary to read the whole document, and I will, therefore omit a few sentences.
"Precisely a year later it was possible to come to an agreement which, in the first place, definitely eliminated the danger of a conflict for a period of ten years.
"We are all convinced, that the agreement will lead to a lasting peace, We realize, that the matter concerns two peoples, which have to exist side by side, and of which neither can eliminate the other.
"A state with a thirty-three million population will always strive for an exit to the sea.
"Because of that, a way to a mutual understanding had to be found. Now it is found, and will be more and more consolidated."
In absolute conformity with this official, and from beginning to end deceitful speech of Hitler's, the defendant Ribbentrop, speaking in Warsaw on 25 January 1939, stated: (This quotation is Number 2530-PS) "It is an essential part of German Foreign Policy that the friendly relations between Germany and Poland, on the basis of the existing treaty, be progressively strengthened and deepened in accordance with the firm will of the Fuehrer."
Omitting one paragraph of this document, which has already been read in Court, and submitted to the Tribunal, as the documentary evidence No. 2530-PS, I wish to repeat only one sentence of it:
"Thus Poland and Germany can look forward to the future with complete reliance upon the solid basis of their mutual relations."
Need I remind the Tribunal, that in the already presented document L-79, which is a record of the conference on the 23 May 1939, at Hitler's new Reichs Chancery, among the many other openly aggressive declarations and statements of policy by Hitler, this man uttered the following sentence:
"Thus, there isno question of sparing Poland, and the decision remains to attack Poland at the first opportunity.
It is impossible to expect a repetition of the operation against Czechoslovakia.
This time it will mean war."
In all fairness it must be stated that this war was a surprise for Poland only. The Fascist conspirators had for a long time carefully prepared for it. I now turn to Document C-120, a considerable part of which has already been read into the record. I would like to submit several excerpts from this document concerning the conspiracy of Hitlerites directed against Poland, excerpts which have not yet been read into the record. I would like to draw your attention to certain sentences, which naturally did not attract the attention of the counsel who offered this document in evidence. These sentences are neither decisive nor of primary importance, but they are highly characteristic and necessary for a correct evaluation of the material I am about to present.
In the document stamped No. 120-C, for Commanding Officers only, top secret. Matter concerning Chief of Staff. Through an officer only. General Headquarters of the Armed Forces WFA 37/39 Chefsache (L-a), just preceding the text of the document, its subject is indicated, as follows:
"Subject: Instructions for the Armed Forces for the years 1939 1940."
Directive concerning the uniform preparation of the Armed Forces for the years 1939-1940 is hereby restated."
This sentence definitely indicates that already previously, that is, before 3 April 1939, there existed directives on this very question.
In paragraph 3 of the cited document the following is said:
"Any suggestion by the three branches of the Armed Forces as well as the date for the calendar schedule will be submitted to the OKW on 1 May 1939."
Already by the 1 May 1937 Germany had a revised, modernized and detailed plan for an aggression against Poland. And Hitler while playing the part of one wronged by Poland, waited oily for an opportune moment to de-clare that he had no choice but to destroy the Polish State.
In one of the appendixes to the quoted document - it is also listed as #120-C, but was not read into the record - there is one feature of great importance. The document is signed by Hitler and bears the date 11 April 1939. It was prepared in five originals. I offer in evidence a copy of the second original.
"Directive concerning the uniform preparation of the Armed Forces for the years 1939 - 1940.
I will expound at a later date the future objectives of the Armed forces as well as the preparations for war which follow therefrom.
Until this directive becomes effective, the Armed Forces must be ready to accomplish the following tasks:
(1) Securing the boundaries of the German Reich and pro tection from a sudden air offensive (2) Operation "Weiss" (3) Occupation of Danzig.
Appendix 4 will regulate the question of authority in East Prussia, in case military operations should develop.
Hitler."
I will now read into the record, the first paragraph of Appendix 3, entitled, "The Occupation of Danzig."
"In the event of a favorable political situation, the question of a surprise occupation of the Free City of Danzig may arise independently of plan 'Weiss'".I think that we can dispense with the reading of the rest of the document.
If it please the Tribunal, it is worthy of note that, accoding to German plans the occupation of Danzig was regarded either as an integral part of the aggression against Poland, or, in case of a different political situation, as an independent operation, but, in both cases, it was planned well in advance.
This set of documents listed as number C-120 includes a top secret directive intended exclusively for commanding officers, and which was to be transmitted through officers only.
It is important to note that the subject of this document, which has already been presented to the Tribunal, is indicated as follows.
"Instructions concerning the uniform preparation for war of the Armed Forces for the years 1939-1940."
Just as the previous ones, this document was not intended for a wide circle of readers.
It was typed only in seven originals.
The Fascist conspirators were not very anxious to popularize their planned preparation for war.
And again in the appendix to directive OKW 37/39, which I have already submitted to the Tribunal, and which is entitled, "Special Orders for Operation Weiss," there is a very significant sentence.
I will read into the record the last but one sub-paragraph of paragraph 2."In case of a public announcement of the general mobilization (Mobplan), the mobilization will automatically extend to all civilian life, including war production.
However, a public announcement of mobilization should not be counted on, should events be confined to 'Plan Weiss'". It seems highly significant to me that the Fascist conspirators, though fully conscious of the fact that war was to be initiated, had planned the execution of their criminal intent without announcing a mobilization.
And finally, I would like to point out that in Keitel's order to the Armed Forces, #37/39, of 3 April 1939, issued in connection with "Operation Weiss," the following directives by Hitler are stated for information.
"I. The operational plans must be worked out with the view that their execution will be possible at any time beginning 1 September 1939."
We know that the invasion of Poland was, in fact started on 1 September, 1939, in short on the very first day on which the German Armed Forces had to be fully ready for action.
The Operational Order #1, under #25039, of 21 August, 1939, issued to the command of Naval Group, "Ost," on board the battleship, "Schleswig Holstein," stated as follows.
This document has already been submitted to the Tribunal as a German photostatic copy "1. Situation
a) Political: the Armed Forces must be defeated by means of a lightning thrust, to enable the creation in the East of a situation favorable for the defense of the country.
The Free City of Danzig will be declared a Reich City."
It is worth while to keep this sentence in mind when one speaks about the "free expression of will by the Danzig population," which allegedly aspired to become part of the Reich.
It must not be forgotten that this free expression of will had been anticipated by the above operational order No. 1, to the very day.
To conclude, I consider it essential to read, almost in full, a rqther long but exceptionally important document.
I have in mind a note by the Defendant Bormann of 2/10/1940, referring to a conversation about Poland.
This conversation was held after a dinner which took place in Hitler's apartment.
"Secret. Berlin, 2/10 - 1940. Note."
You will find this note on page 311, second part, first volume of the document files.
2.10.1940. After a dinner, at the Fuehrer's apartment there developed a conversation on the nature of the Government General, the treatment of the Poles and the incorporation, already approved by the Fuehrer, of the districts of Piotrokow and Tomshev into the Warta province.
The conversation began when the Reichsminister, Dr. Frank, informed the Fuehrer that the activities in the Government-General could be termed very successful.
The Jews in Warsaw and other cities had been locked up in the ghetto; Cracow would very shortly be cleared of them."
I now skip a few paragraphs.
"The Fuehrer further emphasized that the Poles, in direct contrast to our German workmen, are born for hard labour; we must all give all possibilities of advancement to our German workers; as to the Poles - there can be no question of improvement for them.
On the contrary, it is necessary to keep the standard of life low in Poland and it must not be permitted to rise."
"The Government General must under no conditions, be an isolated and a uniform economic region; the Government General must not produce independently, even in part, any manufactured goods necessary for its subsistence; the Government General should be used by us as a source of unskilled labour (in industries such as brick manufacturing, road construction, etc.
etc.) One cannot change the nature of a Slav, the Fuehrer has emphasized.
Whilst, as a rule, our German workers are by nature assiduous and diligent, 'the Poles are lazy and it is necessary to use compulsion to make them work.
"However, there are no reasons to expect that the Government General will become an independent economic region, as there are no mineral resources and, even should such be available, the Poles are not capable of utilizing them, "The Fuehrer has explained that the Reich needs large estates to provide food for our large cities; these large estates, as well as other establishments of rural economy, are in need of labor, and cheap labor to boot, for the cultivation of the soil and for harvesting.
..
As soon as the harvest time is over, the laborers can go back to Poland, because, should they be employed in rural economy the whole year round, they themselves would use up an important part of the produce.
The best solution would thus be to import from Poland temporary laborers, for the duration of the sowing and harvesting times.
"Our industrial districts are over-populated, while at the same time there is a lack of manpower in rural economy.
That is where we can make use of the Polish laborers.
For this reason, it would be quite right to have a surplus of manpower in the Government General, so that every year the laborers needed by the Reich could be procured from there.
It is indispensable to keep in mind that the Polish landlords must cease to exist; however cruel this may sound, wherever they are, they must be exterminated.
"There must of course be no sexual intercourse with Poles. It would consequently be a right procedure if Polish harvesters, both men and women, came together to the Reich.
Whatever their mutual relation ships were in their camps, would not be a matter of cur concern - no zealous Protestant should poke his nose into these affairs, "The Fuehrer stressed once more that there should be one master only for the Poles - the German:
two masters, side by side, cannot and must not exist; therefore, all representatives of the Polish intelligentsia are to be exterminated.
This sounds cruel, but such is the law of life.
"The Government General represents a Polish reserve of man-power a large Polish labor camp.
The Poles will also benefit from this, as we look after their health and see to it that they do not starve, etc.
, but they must never be raised to a higher level, for they will then become anarchists and communists.
It will therefore be proper, if the Poles remain Catholics; Polish priests will receive food from us and will, for that reason, direct their little sheep along the path we favour.
The priests will be paid by us and will in return preach what we wish them to preach.
If any priest acts differently, we will make short work of him.
The task of the priest is to keep the Poles quiet, stupid and dull-witted.
This is entirely in our interests. Should the Poles rise to a higher level of development, they will cease to be that man-power of which we are in need.
In other respects, it will suffice for a Pole to possess a small holding in the Government General a large farm is not at all necessary; he will have to earn his living in Germany.
It is just this cheap labor we need; every German and every German worker will benefit by this cheap labor.
A strict German administration must exist in the Government General to keep order among the Poles.
These reserves mean for us the maintenance of agriculture, particularly of our large estates, and they are, besides, a source of supply of labor."
I see no need to read the record of the exchange of views between those present, although it is mentioned in the document, and I will go on directly to Hitler's final statements.
To sum up the Fuehrer stated once more :
"1. The lowest German workman and the lowest German peasant must always stand economically 10% above any Pole."
I omit the second paragraph and pass to the third. It is of great interest.
"3. I do not wish" the Fuehrer stressed "that a German workman should, as a rule, work more than 8 hours, when we have normal conditions again; if a Pole, however, works 14 hours, he is still, in spite of that, to earn less than a German workman.
"4. The ideal picture is this: a Pole must possess a small holding in the Government General which will, to a certain extent, provide him and his family with food.
The money required by him for clothes, supplementary foods, etc.
, he must earn in Germany. The Government General must become a center for supplying seasonal unskilled labor, particularly agricultural laborers.
The subsistence of these workmen will be fully guaranteed, because they will always be made use of for cheap labor."
This document deals with the question of Hitler's attitude towards Poland and the Polish people with such exhaustive clarity that it requires no comment.
I wish only to draw your Honors' attention to three points.
Firstly, Hitler definitely states and develops in detail the idea that, in the "new" Fascist order in Europe, the Polish people and Polish State must be only a Polish labor camp for Hitlerite Germany.
Secondly, Hitler believes that the Poles will benefit from such a state of affairs, because the Fascist conspirators intend to care for the health and adequate nourishment of the Poles turned into slaves.
I beg your Honors to consider the fact that by "adequate nourish ment," Hitler understands a state of affairs according to which, every Pole should be maintained at an economic level, which would be considerably below that of the most wretched German.
By "care" he means, that the standard of living in Poland should be low, and that it should not improve, so that no Polo be engaged other wise than in heavy unskilled labor 14 hours a day.
Finally, Hitler sets the task of the extermination of the entire intelligentsia, stating impudently that there should exist only one master for the Poles - the Germans.
In the course of further presentation of documents to the Tribunal, we will prove that Hitler and his followers, in the persons of the participants of the Fascist conspiracy, strove to exterminate the Polish people and to reduce the standard of living of the Poles to the most pitiable and beggarly level.
In their opinion their very existence depended solely on the fact that it assured cheap man-power for the Fascist "masters."
THE PRESIDENT: Would that be a convenient time to break off?
(The Tribunal adjourned until 11 February, 1946, at 10.
00 hours.)
Official transcript of the International Military-
Tribunal in the matter of The United States of America, the French Republic, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics against Hermann Wilhelm Goering et al, Defendants, sitting at Nurnberg, Germany, on 11 February, 1946, 1000-1245, Lord Justice Lawrence, presiding.
COL. POKROVSKY:The Tribunal has at its disposal diaries by defendant Frank.
In the volume marked "Diary 1943, V, on pages 1070 - 1072 we find an important entry; in the Russian translation it is to be found on p. 5 of the additions to the "Excerpts from Frank's Diaries," and is marked in pencil and on page 321 of the Document Book.
"Cracow 23 October 1943.
"The Governor-General delivered an address at the Administrative Academy on the principle of leadership in government. From the point of view of State law and of the law of nations, the Government-General, as an appendage to Greater Germany, constitutes a part of the territory over which the power of Greater Germany in Europe extends. The Sovereignty over this territory belongs to the Fuehrer of Greater Germany and on his behalf it is exercised by the Governor-General who, as the deputy of the Fuehrer, possesses all his powers."
I would like to call the attention of Your Honors to two more documents of a strictly official nature.
In the Reichsgesetzblatt for 1939, page 2077, in your Book of Document it is page 333, USSR 296, is published the "Fuehrer's and Reich Chancellor's decree on the administration of the occupied Polish territory", dated October 12, 1939.
I shall read paragraph 2 of this decree:
"Paragraph 2 "1. I appoint Reich Minister Dr. Frank as Governor-General of the occupied Polish territories.
"2. I appoint Reich Minister Dr. Seyss-Inquart as deputy GovernorGeneral."
In the same Reichsgesetzblatt but for 1940, Part I, page 399, there is published a "Decree regarding the power to grant pardons in the occupied Polish territories". It is registered on page 336 in the Document Book.
It reads:
"In the occupied Polish Territories I delegate to the Governor-General of Occupied Polish Territories the power to confirm death sentences as well as pardons or to reject applications for pardons, with the right to further delegate his powers."
In Poland occupied by the Hitlerites the power over life and death, the perogative of a sovereign was given to the defendant Frank.
It is not superfluous to call to mind that it was the very same Hitler who had said that he would show, by the concrete example of the relationship between the Polish and the German peoples, that a form of intercourse had been found "which would serve usefully both the cause of peace and the wellfare of both nations."
I have shown above the kind of "example" which was intended and what the "well-being" was which was referred to.
The 6th of April 1941 was marked by a new crime planned and carefully prepared beforehand on the part of the Fascist conspirators.
Without any warning or declaration of war, they attacked Yugoslavia.
The attack on Yugoslavia was a flagrant breach of Article 3 of the Hague Convention of 18 October 1907 and of the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 27 August 1928.
The Delegations of Great Britain and of the U.S.A. have already submitted to the Tribunal a considerable number of documents referring to the subject of the treacherous attack on Yugoslavia. I have only to submit a few new proofs and to establish a correlation between these new documents and those already presented to the court.
The Official German documents enable us to reconstitute events with exceptional vividness. Here German pedantry turns against the authors of the criminal plan.
On 27 March 1941, Adolf Hitler held a special conference regarding the situation in Yugoslavia. On the same day he signed a top secret directive 025, "for higher commanders only." Both documents, filed under No. 1746-PS, are amongst the evidence already accepted by the Tribunal.
The Chief Prosecutor for the USSR, has already quoted in full paragraph 2 of Directive 025.
The first paragraph of this document was also read on 7 December 1945. I wish to add a few more lines.
I quote from paragraph 3. This quotation is on page 337 of the Document Book. It states as follows:
" a) as soon as the concentration of sufficient forces is concluded and meteorological conditions permit, all Yugoslav surface installations and Belgrade must be annihilated by continuous day and night air attacks."
" b) If possible, simultaneously, but under no circumstances prior to the operation "Marita" must be started, with the limited objective at first, to seize the harbor of Salonica and the Dios mountains."
I believe that three points should be stressed here:
1) The desire to carry out the total destruction of the capital of a state.
2) The correlation between the aggression against Yugoslavia and the aggression against another country - Greece; the aggression against Greece being known under the code-name, operation "Marita".
3) The necessity to complete the concentration of German forces as well as meteorological conditions were the factors that determined the timelimits for the attack.
As in all previous cases of criminal Fascist aggression, the same features recur in this case too; namely the criminal intentions of a predatory invader, treachery, and cold calculation.
Preparations for the criminal act that was just one item in a long list, were made a long time in advance and followed the usual Hitler routine, which has already been disclosed by the prosecutors: fifth column activities, clever manipulation with slogans playing up the defense of the German minority, deceitful practice of declaring his love for peace, combined with unceasing preparations for invasion.
On 27 March 1941, on the very day when Directive No. 025 was signed by Hitler, the latter conducted personally, in Berlin, a conference on the situation in Yugoslavia. The minutes of this conference were presented by the American Prosecution on 4 December 1945 as document 1746-PS.
Other documents relating to this conference also have been registered under the same number. At this conference, the objectives were determined with absolute precision and a plan of action was presented. You will find the quote referred to page 349. Hitler declared:
"Not to take into consideration any possible declarations of its loyalty by the new Government, but to carry but all preparations for destruction of Yugoslav armed forces and of Yugoslavia itself as a national unit. It is especially important from the political point of view that the blow against Yugoslavia should be carried out with utmost violence and that its military destruction should be effected with lightning speed." And a little further:
"No diplomatic inquiries will be made and no ultimatum presented.... The attack will start as soon as necessary supplies and formations (means and troops) are ready."
Thus Hitler was not at all interested in the actual attitude of one or another Yugoslav Government towards Germany, but in the practical destruction of Yugoslavia as a state, and he strove to make this destruction cruel and quick as lightning.
The operational staff of the OKW meticulously followed Hitler's directive, regarding the cruel and lightning-like destruction of Yugoslavia and speedily worked out a detailed plan for coordinated operations of German and Italian armies. It was issued as an official operational order dated 28 March 1941. I believe it necessary to read once again three lines of this document which has already been submitted to the Tribunal, under the same No. 1746-PS. You will find it on page 352 of the Document Book.
I quote paragraph I of this document:
"The task of the Germans will consist in attacking Yugoslavia with the greatest possible concentration of forces smashing its army and destroying it as a state."
I cannot but remind the Tribunal of the terminology used by Hitler and the other Fascist conspirators. Said he:
"There can be no question of sparing Poland."
He demanded that:
"Yugoslavia be virtually eliminated as a state ruthlessly and with lightning speed."
Mercilessness, ruthlessness, extermination of peoples and states, such was the style and the import of the actions of the Fascist conspirators.
The aggression against Czechoslovakia, the attack on Poland, the desire to destroy Yugoslavia, all these were links in the same chain. But the chain does not end with these links.
If it please the Tribunal, the task of the next representative of the USSR Prosecution will be to show that the basic aim of these criminals, the main link which was in the center of all of Hitler's thoughts was the attack on the USSR.
The documents exposing the crimes against Yugoslavia will prove that, in attacking that country, the fascist conspirators were strictly following their customary methods. Even in detail they repeated their earlier crimes perpetrated against Poland, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Even in case we did not knew who actually organized the attack on Yugoslavia, the very character of the facts, the sequence of events, the manner in which the crimes were committed, would unmistakably point to the culprits.
I turn to document USSR-36, under which number I offer in evidence the Official Report of the Yugoslav Government.
The first section, entitled "The planned preparation of the conspiracy for the enslavement and the destruction of Yugoslavia", contains a collection of valuable information. I will quote paragraph 1 on page 3 of the Russian text (the 3rd paragraph from the top), the following quotation:
"The Government of the Third Reich and the Hitlerite party secretly organized the German minority.
The Germans who had been settled in Yugoslavia by the Austrian emperors over a century ago, enjoyed full rights, as brothers, and a cultural autonomy.
They had their own schools, as well as representatives in parliaments and in the local Government.
They numbered million (i.e. represented about 3% of the population)."From 1920 onwards they had their mass organization - the Swabian-German cultural union (called the "cultural Union" for short).Out of this very organization and through it, as well as out of all the Germans in Yugoslavia, the Fascist party created a political and military organ for the destruction of the country."
I shall skip several lines and quote further:
"In Yugoslavia, Fascist 'Gaue' were secretly formed and 'Gauleiters' had been appointed. Under the guise of various physical training and sport associations, were organized Hitlerite units half a million strong. Numerous 'toursists', 'commercial travellers' and 'relatives' came from the Reich-in reality Fascist instructors and organizers."
I skip a number of details which can be disregarded, and pass to the second paragraph of the same section on page 4, that is page 336 in the Document Book, where the manner is described in which the Fifth Column was further strengthened. I now will read into the record beginning with the second sub-paragraph of paragraph 2:
"...The Hitlerites drew into their orbit all the separatist and chauvinistic elements, as, for instance, Pavelich's "Ustashi", the "Sbor", a movement headed by Lyotich, the VMRO (the Macedonian Fascist movement), hea ded by Vancha Mikhailovich, and terrorist organizations with headquarters in Berlin.
On the other hand, acting through their agents, Prince Paul, Stoyadinovitch, Cvetcovich and Cincar-Marcovich, they attracted the pan-Serbian centralists and turned them into a terrorist group which, from the vantage points of governmental auth ority, was 'peacefully' to deliver Yugoslavia into slavery by adhering to the Tripartite pact."
Further, the report emphasizes the fact that, while organizing numerous branches of the Fifth Column, the Hitlerites continually gave new perfidious assurances about their ostensibly friendly intentions with regard to Yugoslavia. This is discussed in paragraph 3 on page 5 of the Russian text; in your Document Book it is on page 357:
"3. While both the Hitlerite government and the party were so thoroughly and with such versatility carrying out their conspiracy, Hitler used every opportunity to declare to the 'whole world, on behalf of the government, the party, and the whole of Germany, that Yugoslavia could count on them as devoted friends."
On 17 January 1935, i.e. some weeks before the occupation of Austria, Hitler had a conference with the then Prime Minister of Yugoslavia. The defendants Goering and von Neurath were present at that conference. The original document from which I will quote certain excerpts was submitted to the Tribunal as TC-92. The extract which I will quote you will find on page 411 of the Document Book.
THE PRESIDENT:Colonel Pokrovsky, for the sake of accuracy, I think you read, and it certainly came through to us as, "On 17 January 1935, that is, some weeks before the occupation of Austria, Hitler had a conference with the then Prime minister of Yugoslavia."
Whould that not be 1938 Possibly you may have said 1938 but it came through to us as 1935.
COLONEL POKROVSKY:I beg your pardon, it is evidently a mistake in the translation because on my text it is 1938.
On 4 December 1945, a printed collection of German documents concerning the conflict with Yugoslavia and Greece was offered in evidence. In the listing of documents it is referred to as TC-92.
On page 68, and you will find it on page 411 in your Document Book as document No. 28 of that collection, we have a transcript of the conversations which took place during the conference of 17 January 1938.
There is no need to read into the record the entire document. I will limit myself to the following three utterances made by Hitler on that occasion:
"As regards Yugoslavia, Germany is interested in the existence of a strong Yugoslavia."
And somewhat later in the course of the same conversation:
"Whatever may happen there, Yugoslavia's present boundary will remain as inviolable as the Brenner Pass is today."
Still further Hitler professed to know:
"that the German population of Yugoslavia was loyal to the Yugoslav Government."
On 30th January 1939 - some weeks before the occupation of the Czechoslovak Republic, Hitler made the following declaration about Yugoslavia in his speech before the Reichstag: (This quotation is to be found on page 412 in your Document Book) "A state which since the Great War has more and more attracted the attention of our people is Yugoslavia.
"The deep respect which the German soldier once felt for that courageous people has since become ever stronger and developed into sincere friendship".
The Fascist conspirators considered it useful to include this speech as document No. 32 on page 71 of the collection from which I just have quoted, TC-92.
On the 1st of June 1939, i.e., before the fascist attack on Poland, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, whom the official report of the Yugoslav Government calls a Hitlerite agent, paid a visit to Hitler. On this occasion, Hitler stated in Berlin: (You will find this on page 413 in your Document Book).
"Germany's friendship with the Yugoslav nation is not spontaneous.
It was deepened and strengthened in the tragic confusion of the World War."
Then after having made a few more statements, which are of no interest to the Tribunal, he continued:
"I am all the more confident that now when, as a result of the historic events, we have become neighbors with common frontiers established forever, the friendly relations between Germany and Yugoslavia, trustful and steadfast, will not only secure lasting peace between both our peoples, but, moreover, will serve as a pacifying element for our nervous continent."
I quoted from this book No. TC 92, GB 114.
In his next regular speech after the defeat of Poland, before the Reichstag, on 6 October Hitler again assured Yugoslavia of his love of peace and of his friendly attitude in following words:
"After the annexation had taken place, I assured Yugoslavia in the same manner that the frontier with this country shall be regarded as inviolable by Germany from this moment on, and that we want to live in peace and friendship with her."
I am now going to read a few paragraphs from the 2nd article of the first section of the report of the Yugoslav State Commission for the investigation of the crimes perpetrated by the aggressors.
The excerpts that I shall read begin with paragraph 3 on page 6 of the Russian text and are marked for your convenience with a red line:
"Thus Hitler regularly gave assurances about friendly relations with Yugoslavia and about the inviolability of her boundaries, while at the same time his band of conspirators and enslavers were already tightening the ring of war around Yugoslavia.
When Yugoslavia was completely sur rounded by Hitler's armored divisions, and when the government of the Centralis 5th Column of Prince Paul, Cvetcovich and Machek was ready to joint the Tripartite Pact on the 25th March 1941, i.e. 10 days before the attack on Yugoslavia, the defendant Ribbentrop stated as follows:"
(On page 413 of your Document Book you will find Document PS 2450).
"Germany herself - and I solemnly state this - has neither terri torial nor political interests in that region.
..."
I shall hand to the Tribunal a certified extract from document No. 72 of the above mentioned German book.