I have been shouting for help for four months already."
And then he goes on to tell about the activities of the partisans in Byelo-Russia. In connection with this Goering answers:
"My dear Lohse, we have known each other for a long time. I know well enough that you have a very good imagination. It is very good."
And Lohse answered: "I never imagined anything."
In conclusion I shall quote the last three quotations from Goering's speech:
"We must have a purchasing agent from the Ministry of Economics, Funk, in the Ukraine and elsewhere. We must send them to Venice where they can buy all sorts of trifles and the small articles of alabaster decoration, of low character, etc. I don't think that in any other place than Italy can get such junk. And now let's see what Russia can deliver. I think we must succeed in obtaining two million pounds of bread and food grain from the whole Russian area.
"Riecke: That will be obtained.
"Goering: We must therefore obtain three million, apart from the Services.
"Riecke: No, what is there is only for the Services.
"Goering: Then get two million.
"Riecke: No.
"Goering: Then a million and a half.
"Riecke: Yes, all right."
And that is the way the discussion of this question went on. Goering finished his address with the following sentence:
"Gentlemen, I would just like to say one thing further. I have a great deal to do and a great deal of responsibility. I have no time to read letters and memoranda, in which you inform me that you cannot supply what I have requested, but I have only time to ascertain from time to time through short reports from Backe whether the commitments are being kept. If not,then we will have to approach the matter from another angle."
As you heard, besides Goering this conference was attended -- among others -- by the Defendants Rosenberg, Sauckel, Seyss-Inquart, Frank and others. As you heard it, Goering finished his speech with a direct threat against the participants in this conference. "If not", he said, he would "have to approach the matter from another angle."
This threat came true. Now, as they deserved, they were forced"to approach it from another angle" -- from the angle of their responsibility for the crimes they have committed.
Thus the whole weight of the submitted evidence irrefutably establishes:
1. That the criminal Hitlerite Government and the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces simultaneously with the military aggression against Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and the USSR, an aggression which was prepared long in advance of its Commission, worked out ahead of time the plan of mass plunder and despoliation of private, public and State property in the territories of these countries.
2. That having worked out this criminal plan, the conspirators did carry out in advance all the preliminary measures for its execution -in that they trained a body of special officers and officials for the despoliation of territories, the seizure of which was intended, they prepared and issued special instructions, reference books and orders, and also created a special widely ramified organization of different economic inspectorates, detachments, groups, corporations, plenipotentiaries, etc., having called in a large number of different kinds of specialists, military agronomists, agricultural fuehrers, economic scouts etc.
3. That in accordance with this long prepared plan, they did subsequently commit monstrous plunder and despoliation of private, public and State property in the occupied territories, as well as wholesale robbery of the peaceful population of these territories, resorting thereby to atrocities, violence and arbitrary practices of an exceptional character.
4. That in order to make the soldiers and the officers of the German Army "economically interested" in the work, the conspirators did fail to prosecute cases of marauding and robbery committed by German soldiers and officers, but on the contrary did largely encourage these crimes and instigate their wholesale perpetration.
5. That by all these crimes the conspirators did cause enormous economic damage to the peoples of the occupied territories, dooming them to hunger and suffering, and used the results of their criminal activity for the personal gain and enrichment of themselves and their adherents.
6. That having thus planned, prepared and initiated aggressive wars against the freedom-loving nations the conspirators did peruse the aim of the predatory despoliation of these nations and thereafter accomplished these criminal aims by means of equally criminal and predatory methods.
On the strength of the above, the defendants have consciously and with premeditation violated the Laws and the Customs of War, the General Principles of Criminal Law accepted by the Penal Codes of all civilized nations, as well as the national law of those countries in which these crimes were committed.
For these criminal acts, each and all of which are covered by Article 6B of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, all the Defendants must be found guilty, all of them without exception must be held responsible both individually and as members of the conspiracy.
With this specification of the charges I will conclude my presentation.
May it please your Honors, the documents which I have presented to the Tribunal and which I have read into the record are silent witnesses of crimes organized and committed by the Defendants.
But the conscience of the Judges will hear the testimony of these silent witnesses who truthfully relate the story of the arbitrary practices and crimes of the Hitlerite brigands and the boundless sufferings of their innumerable victims.
THE PRESIDENT:The Tribunal will adjourn.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 21 February 1946, at 1000 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 21 February 1946, 1000-1300, Lord Justice Lawrence presiding.
THEMARSHAL; May it please the Court, the defendant Hess will be absent until further notice, on account of illness.
GENERAL RUDENKO:I would like to report, Mr. President, that in accordance with the plan of the Soviet pros ecution, which was presented to the Tribunal, and with the Tribunal's permission, we shall start to present evidence on the section of The Destruction and Plunder of Cultural and Scientific Treasures, Cultural Institutions and Institutions for Public Welfare, Monasteries, Churches, and other Religious Institutions, and also the Destruction of Cities and Villages.
The evidence along this line will be presented by State Secretary of Justice, Second Class, Raginsky.
COLONEL RAGINSKY:May it please Your Honors, among the numerous and grave war crimes committed by the Hitlerite conspirators -- crimes set out at length in the third count of the Indictment -- crimes against culture have a special place.
In these crimes all the abomination and vandalism of German fascism were expressed.
The culture of the intellect and of humanity the Hitlerite conspirators regarded as an obstacle to the fulfilment of their monstrous designs against mankind; and they removed this obstacle with the cruelty typical of them.
In working out their insane plans for world domination, the Hitlerite conspirators, side by side with the initiation and prosecution of predatory wars, prepared a campaign against world culture.
They dreamt of putting Europe back to the time of the domination by the Huns and Teutons.
They tried to turn mankind back.
It is unnecessary to quote the numerous pronouncements of the Fascist ringleaders on this subject.
I shall only permit myself to refer to one pronouncement of Hitler's, quoted in Rauschning's book at page 80, which the Soviet prosecution has already presented to the Tribunal:
"We", said Hitler, "are barbarians, add we wish to be barbarians. That is an honorable title."
On behalf of the Soviet prosecution, I will present to the Tribunal evidence of how the defendants put into practice these orders of Hitler, which found concrete expression in the wrecking of cultural institutions, the looting and destruction of cultural treasures, and the cheking of the national cultural life of the peoples of the territories which were temporarily occupied by the German armies, the territories of the USSR, of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.
I shall present to the Tribunal evidence of how the Hitlerites prepared and planned, in advance, the looting of cultural treasures, of how, long before the treacherous attack on the USSR, the so-called Einsatzstab Rosenberg prepared for pillage, of how the predatory activity of the defendant Rosenberg was coordinated with Goering, Heydrich, and the Supreme Command, and of how this pillage was disguised.
It has nowbecome generally known to what monstrous lies and provocations the Hitlerites had recourse to camouflage their crimes. While exterminating millions of people in the extermination camps they had set up, they spoke, in their orders, of "filtration" and "cleaning out." While destroying and plundering cultural treasures, the fascist vandals hid behind the "collection of materials" and the "study of problems", and shamelessly called themselves the "bearers of culture".
The Hitlerite conspirators tried to turn the peoples of the territories they seized into serfs without any rights, and, for this purpose, destroyed the national culture of these peoples.
The destruction of the national culture of the Slavonic peoples and the Germanization of the peoples followed the German occupation with the same criminal regularity as did pillage, rape, arson, and mass murders.
I omit, Mr. President, part 3 and part 4 of my presentation, and I pass to Section 2, at page 5 of my presentation.
As I have already indicated, the annihilation of the national culture of the peoples of the occupied territories was an organic part of the general plan of the Hitlerite conspirators to set up world domination. It is difficult to determine which dominated in these plans, destruction or plunder.
But there is no doubt of the fact that both the plunder and the destruction were aimed at one goal, which was annihilation; and this annihilation was carried out everywhere, in all the territories occupied by the Germans and on a vast scale.
Article 56 of the Hague Convention laid down:
"The property of municipalities, that of institutions dedicated to religion, charity and education, the arts and sciences, even when it belongs to the State, shall be treated as private property. All seizure of, destruction or wilful damage done to institutions of this character, historic monuments, works of art and science, is forbidden and should be made the subject of legal proceedings."
The Hitlerites systematically and consciously scoffed at the principles and demands laid down in Article 56. All the conspirators are guilty of this, and in the first place the defendant Rosenberg. Rosenberg had an organization with widespread ramifications for the plunder of cultural treasures, numerous staffs and representatives.
The Einsatzstab Rosenberg, and Rosenberg's Chief of Staff, Utikal, were the center where all threads met, a center which coordinated the criminal activity of many predatory organizations, inspired and directed by the Hitlerite Government and the German Supreme Command. Rosenberg was officially put in charge of plundering the cultural treasures in the occupied territories by a decree of Hitler of the 1st of March, 1942.
I have in mind document No. 149-PS, presented to the Tribunal on the 18th of December, 1945, by the American Delegation, and accepted by the Tribunal as USA 369. With your permission, Mr. President, I shall quote only two paragraphs in this document. You will find this document on page 3 of the document book. I quote:
"His--Rosenberg's--Einsatzstab for the occupied territories has the right to explore libraries, archives, and other cultural establishments of all kinds for suitable material, and to confiscate such material for the ideological tasks of the National Socialist Party."
I omit oneparagraph and quote the last paragraph:
"The regulations for the execution of this task, with the cooperation of the armed forces, will be issued by the Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces, in agreement with Reichsleiter Rosenberg.
If necessary, measures for the Eastern Territories under German administration will be taken by Reichsleiter Rosenberg in his capacity as Reich Minister for Occupied Eastern Territories."
This decree of Hitler's was sent out, as is clear from the document quoted, to all departments of the armed forces, the Party, and the Government. But it is not the 1st of March, 1942, which should be considered the beginning of Rosenberg's predatory activities. In confirmation of this, I shall cite several excerpts from a letter of Rosenberg to Reich Minister Bermann. The letter is dated the 23rd of April, 1941. This document was presented to the Tribunal on the 18th of December, 1945, by the American Delegation, and it was accepted by the Tribunal as USA Exhibit No. 371.
This document--which you members of the Tribunalwill find on page 4 in the document file--is interesting for the fact that the plunder, entitled "confiscation" in the letter, was carried out by the defendant Rosenberg in close collaboration and contact, on the basis of a written agreement of Rosenberg's department with Himmler's department.
I cite extracts from page 1 of the Russian translation of this letter; and this is very brief.
"I have", wrote Rosenberg, "transmitted to you a photostatic copy of my agreement with the Security Service, SD, which was reached with the express approval of Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich."
And further--you will find this on page 5 in your document book:
"Art objects have always been treated as a second-line problem.
In the first-line problem, an order of the Chief of the High Command, OKW, on the instigation of the Fuehrer, has gone twice to the occupied territories of the West to place all scientific and archive materials of ideological opponents of the regime at my disposal for research purposes. That has also resulted in close co-operation on the widest scale with the Security Service, SD, and the military commanders."
The importance which the Hitlerite conspirators attached to Rosenberg's predatory staffs is shown by a special circular of Goering's of the 1st of May, 1941, to all party, Government and military institutions, which were ordered to co-operate with Rosenberg's Einsatz staffs. This document was presented to the Tribunal on the 28th of December, 1945, by our American colleagues, and it was accepted by the Court as USA Exhibit 384.
The scale of the pillage was already vast at this time. As Rosenberg indicates in his letter of the 23rd of April, 1941, by that time--that is by April 1941-- 7000 cases of looted works of art had already been sent to Germany.
To conclude with this document, with your permission, I shall quote one more paragraph. You will find this paragraph on page 6 of the document book; it is the paragraph before the last.
"The things," wrote Rosenberg, are thus clarified in a practical fashion and the work has taken its course. What I asked was only a confirmation that the already pronounced decisions for the West should also have validity under the given circumstances for other occupied or to be occupied areas."
This document, in which pillage is called "work," demonstrates that Rosenberg's criminal activity was carried out in close contact with the SD and the German Command of the Armed Forces and, finally, that as early as April 1941 plans for plundering the territories about to be occupied were being elaborated.
After the speech of the Chief Prosecutor for the USSR, General Rudenko, and after the speech of the representative of the United States Prosecution, Mr. Alderman, it is known what "territories about to be occupied" meant at this period in Rosenberg's letter.
This was the period of the practical realization of the criminal ideas of the Hitlerites, planned in the so-called Plan Barbarosa.
This was the period of the swift transfer of the German Fascist hordes to the frontiers of the Soviet Union.
This was the period of the attack on the USSR.
It is necessary to point out, finally, that in April 1941 the Defendant Rosenberg placed Utikal at the head of all operational staffs, "the creation of which may become necessary during the course of this war."
In this connection Rosenberg referred to the "successful work" of his operational staff in the Western occupied territories and the Netherlands, and to the experience gained there.
This fact is confirmed by a certificate issued to Utikal, dated the 1st of April, 1941, and signed by Rosenberg.
The authenticity of this document--which bears the number 143-PS--was confirmed by Rosenberg at his interrogation on the 26th of September, 1945.
I present this document to the Tribunal as USSR-371.
In reporting on the organization of the looting and destruction of cultural treasures, it is necessary to pause at yet one more department which combined diplomacy with pillage.
I have in mind the German Minister for Foreign Affairs.
The Chief Prosecutor for the USSR in his introductory speech showed that the general pillage in the occupied regions of the USSR, carried out on the direct orders of the German Government, was directed not only by the Defendants Goering and Rosenberg and the various staffs subordinated to them.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, headed by the Defendant Ribbentrop, also participated in this via a special formation.
The creation of such an organization or formation--the so-called "Ribbentrop Battalion"--and its practical activity in the plunder of cultural treasures on the territory of the USSR, are testified to in his written testimony of the 10th of November, 1942, by Obersturm fuehrer Dr. Forster, who was taken prisoner by units of the Red Army in the Mozdok region.
That is in Northern Caucasia. In his testimony Forster also indicated the tasks of Rosenberg's staff in the plunder, or, as he expressed it, in the confiscation of museum treasures and antiques.
A certified photostat of this affidavit is presented to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit number 157.
In his affidavit Forster stated:
"In August 1941, during my stay in Berlin, I, with the help of my old acquaintance from Berlin University, Dr. Focke, who was employed in the press section of the Foreign Office, was transferred from the 87th Panzerjaeger Tank Destroyers, to the Special Purpose Battalion, which was attached to the Foreign Office.
This Battalion had been activated on the initiation of the Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ribbentrop, and was under his direction.
"The leader of the Battalion is Major of the Waffen SS von Kuensberg.
"The task of the Special Purpose Battalion was to ship to Germany cultural valuables and objects of great historical value immediately after the fall of large cities, their confiscation and securing, and the selection of valuable books and films.
"The Special Purpose Battalion consists of four companies.
The first company is attached to the German Expeditionary Corps in Africa; the second company is attached to the Army Group North; the third company is attached to the Army Group Center and the fourth company to the Army Group South.
The first company is located at present in Italy, in Naples, where the company is anticipating the possibility of being ferried over to Africa.
"The battalion headquarters are located in Berlin, Hermann Goering Strasse, No. 6."The confiscated material is stored in the offices of the Adler firm, Herdenbergstrasse.
"Prior to our departure for Russia, Major von Kuensberg transmitted to us Ribbentrop's order to comb out painstakingly all scientific establishments, institutions, libraries and all palaces, to search all archives, and to put our hands on everything, or to confiscate everything of important value.
"It has become known to me, from report by my comrades, that the second company of my battalion has confiscated many valuable objects in the palaces in the suburbs of Leningrad.
I myself was not there at the time.
At Zarskoje Selo the company confiscated and secured the contents of the large palace museum of the Empress Katherine.
Chinese silk rugs and gilt were torn from the walls. The foyer, which was supplied with artistic ornaments, was dismantled and they were taken away.
From the Emperor Alexander Palace antique furniture and a large library, containing approximately six to seven thousand volumes in the French language and over 5000 volumes and manuscripts in Russian, were removed."
You will find this in the same document, on page 10 in the document file:
"The fourth company, to which I was attached, confiscated Kiev the exhibit at the laboratory of the medical-scientific research institute.
The entire equipment, scientific material, documents and books, were shipped to Germany.
We reaped a rich harvest in the library of the Ukrainian Academy for Science, where the greatest rare manuscripts in Persian, Abyssinian and Chinese culture, Russian and Ukrainian chronicles, the first editions of books by the first Russian printer, Ivan Fjodorow, and rare editions of volumes by Schewtschenko, Mizkiewitsch and Ivan Franko were kept.
"From the museum at Kiev articles of Ukrainian art, Russian art, Western and Eastern, from the central museums at Schatyenko, were shipped to Berlin.
Among them there were pictures, etchings and portraits, works of art and pictures by Wereschtschagin, Fjedotov, Goe, sculpture of Antokolksi, and other works of Russian and Ukrainian painters and sculptors.
"In Kharkov, in the Korolenko Library, there were seized and shipped to Berlin several thousand expensive books in very handsome editions. The rest of the books were destroyed. From the Kharkov picture gallery several hundred pictures were secured, among them 14 pictures by Aiwasowski, works by von Ruepin, many works by Polienow, Schischkin, and others. Also, all statues and the whole scientific archives of the museum were taken away. Embroidery, carpets, gobelins, and other exhibits were appropriated by the German soldiers."
Again, this is mentioned by Dr. Forster in his affidavit:
"I also knew that the staff of Alfred Roseberg used special commandos for the confiscation of expensive antique museum pieces in the occupied territories of the East, and in the countries of Europe. Expert civilians were in charge of these commandos.
"After the occupation of a big city, leaders of these commandos arrive in the company of experts of every art. They inspect museums, pictures,galleries, exhibits, institutions of culture and art; they inspect their condition and confiscate everything of value."
I thus conclude the quotation; I omit the last paragraph of this affidavit.
With your permission, Your Honors, I shall read two more excerpts from a letter of the Reich Minister for the Occupied Territories dated April 7, 1942, and signed, by order of the Minister, by Laibrandt, the defendant Rosenberg's closest assistant.
This letter is in your document book on bages 12 and 13. The document was presented on the 18th of December of last year by the American prosecution.
This document is very revealing from the point of view of the scale of the pillage planned, and from the point of view of the camouflaging of this pillage, which, in the document, is shamelessly called "the preservation of objects of culture, research material, and scientific institutions in the Eastern Occupied Territories."
This document is also characteristic, owing to the fact that Rosenberg, fearing that he might miss some loot, established his own monopolistic right to plunder and compromised only with the Quartermaster General of the Army, in conduction with whom -- as the letter shows -- Rosenberg's operational staff carried on its work.
I read the first excerpt:
"I have assigned Reichsleiter Rosenberg's Einsatzstab for the Occupied Territories with the seizure and uniform handling of cultural goods, research material and scientific apparatus from libraries, archives, scientific institutions, museums, etc., which are found in public, religious, and private buildings. The Einsatzstab, as once again directed by the Fuehrer's decree of March 1, 1942, begins its work, together with the Quartermaster General of the Army, immediately after occupation of the territories by combat troops, and carries out this activity after the civil government has been organized, in accordance with the corresponding civilian officials.
"I request all authorities of my administration to support, as far as possible, the members of the Einsatzstab in carrying out all measures and in giving all necessary orders, especially in regard to objects which may have already been seized from the occupied Eastern territories and removed from their previous location, and information as to where this material is located at the present time."
As you see, Your Honors, the looting of libraries, archives, scientific research institutes, museums, both public and private, and even church treasure was being planned.
The fact that it is a question not of preserving cultural treasures, but of plunder, can be seen from the following excerpt from the letter mentioned. You will find it on page 12 of your document book, Your Honors. I quote:
"In so far as seizures or transports have already taken place contrary to these provisions, Reichsleiter Rosenberg's Einsatzstab, Berlin, Charlottenburg 2, Bismarckstrasse 1, will be informed without delay."
I shall not trouble your attention by enumerating the numerous addresses to which this letter was distributed. I shall mention some of them: The OKH, the Ministry for Economy, the Plenipotentiary for the Four-Year Plan, the Reich Commissars for the Baltic Regions and the Ukraine, etc.
Thus this document confirms once more that both Goering, Funk and represent tives of the OKW took an active part in the pillage.
The very valuable works of art plundered in the occupied countries were removed to Germany, which was turned by the Hitlerites into a robber's den.
The Extraordinary State Commission established that in January 1942 the Commander of the First Tank Army, Cavalry General Mackensen, in the presence of the head of the Propaganda Department of the First Tank Army, Miller, took from the Rostov Museum of Pictorial and Plastic Art, which had been evacuated to the town of Pyatigorsk and which was then on the premises of the Lermontov Museum, the most caluable canvasses of Riberio, Rubens, Murillo, Jordans, Vereshiagin, Korovia, Kramskey, Polenov, Repin, Lageric, Ayvasovsky and Shishkin, sculptures of Danatello and other exhibits.
This statement of the Extraordinary State Commission has already been presented to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit Number 37. with your permission I should like to read into the record one paragraph on page five of this document.
"The Art Museum of Restov had been plundered and evacuated to Germany by the Commander of the First Tank Army, General Mackensen and by the Chief of the Propaganda Section of the First Tank Army, Miller."
From the affidavit of the Plenipotentiary of the Polish Government, Stefan Kurovsky, it has been established that the defendant Frank, in looting the cultural treasures of the Polish State, was also striving after his personal gain Pictures, porcelain, and other works of art from the plundered museums of Warsaw and Cracow, particularly from the Vavel Castle, were transferred to the Defendant Frank's estate.
The affidavit, to which I am referring, is an appendix to the report of the Polish Government and is presented to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit Number 302. (It appears on pages 19-20 of the document book).
In the document which is identified as 055-PS, which is a letter from the "Head of the Fourth Political Leadership Group of the Reich Ministry for the Eastern Occupied Territories", dated September 14, 1944, are indications as to where the looted treasures were taken and stored.
This letter is addressed to the "Herr Reich Minister; copy to the head of the political leadership staff", and is headed "Objects of Art Evacuated from Ukraine," (It appears in the document book on page 21).
I present this letter as documentary evidence and submit it as USSR Exhibit Number 372 and I quote the text:
"The Reichscommissioner for Ukraine has stared the objects of art and pictures evacuated from Kiev and Kharkov, in the following shelters in East Prussia:
"1. Estate Richau by Wehlau.
"2. Manor-house, Wildenhoff (owner Count Schwerin).
I read further from the text:
"There are sixty-five cases of the contents of which an exact list is enclosed. For about twenty other cases, fifty-seven portfolios and one roll of engravings no inventories exist up to now. Among the pictures there are a great number of very ancient icons, works of famous masters of the German, Italian and Dutch schools in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, as well as the works of the best Russian masters from the 18th and 19th centuries.
"All this property is made up of the most valuable works of art, which were shipped from the public Ukrainian museums, which are worth, even as a rough estimate, the sum of many millions. Besides, this ia a unique collection of such international value now on German territory."
I omit the last paragraph of this letter since it really does not have great meaning to the present subject.
On this subject I quote also an extract from page 2 of a letter from Rosenberg to Bormann. You will find it on page 5 in your document book.
Rosenberg wrote, and I quote:
"In the process of these confiscations we have, of course, found also many other works of art. There are some of great value and, in order to preserve them, the Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces, at my request and in accordance with Fuehrer's directives, ordered me to draw up a catalogue of these works of art and to keep them for the Fuehrer."
You have heard, your Honors, how other property, how works of art in occupied territories, how all this was treated personally by Hitler.
This episode is found in the Czechoslovak Government report, which was presented to the Tribunal and excerpts from this report were read yesterday into the record. Therefore, I consider there is no necessity for reading it into the record once again. However, it is necessary to note that not only Hitler but Goering was an ardent adherent of the policy of acquisitions.
You also heard, your Honors, yesterday how Goering acquired valuable Gobelins in France. Goering did not acquire only Gobelins. He wrote in one of his letters to Rosenberg, -- and I refer to Document Number 1985-PS, which I submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number 373 and this document is in your document book on page 156 and 158 -- Goering wrote that he "owned through purchases and exchange, presents, last will and testaments perhaps the most important private collection, at least in Germany if not in Europe."
The document which is presented is a copy of a typewritten letter and includes a series of corrections and notes done in ink, evidently in Goering's hand. This copy was captured, together with other correspondence of Goering's, by units of the American Army, of which fact the American Prosecution presented a suitable affidavit to the Tribunal.
The document, your Honors, reveals to a remarkable extent the nature of the acquisitions effected by Goering and also confirms Ribbentrop's part in the "preservation" of cultural treasures in the occupied territories.
For this reason, with your permission, I shall read a few extracts from this document. I read the extract from the first page of this letter:
"After great search, I was very much gratified that at last a place was created for collecting the things, although I want to point out that still other places are falling back upon the authority of the Fuehrer; above all the Reichsminister of Foreign Affairs, who, several months age, sent a circular to all departments, in which he, among other things, stated that he had received full authority for the preservation of the cultural objects in occupied territories."
And further on; I read an extract from page 2 of the letter, the last paragraph:
"So that no wrong conception could arise regarding these things which I want to claim myself, and which I have partly acquired by purchase and partly intended to acquire, I want to inform you as follows:
"1. I possess today already through purchase and exchange, presents, last will and testaments, perhaps the most important private collection, at least in Germany if not in Europe."
I omit one paragraph and I read the next one. In paragraph two is listed what Goering would like to acquire.
"2. A very extensive and highly valued collection of Dutchmen from the 17th century.
"3. A comparatively small but very good collection of French artists from the 18th century, and finally, a collection of Italian masters."
You have heard, your Honors, how "the personal material interest of the soldiers in the war" was in practice expressed. All this establishes irrevocably that the Hitlerites engaged in pillage and brigandage, and that everyone plundered, starting from the privates and ending with the criminal leaders of Hitlerite Germany.
The same must be said with regard to the destruction of cultural treasures as well.
Decrees and directives regarding the destruction of cultural treasures came from the leaders of Hitlerite Germany and from the highest ranks of the Command of the Armed Forces.
I shall quote as evidence the order of the Commander of the German Sixth Army, signed by Field Marshal von Reichenau, approved by Hitler and entitled, "Regarding the behavious of the troops in the East."
This decree was presented to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit Number 12 and contains direct instructions, undisguised by anything in the manner customary to the Hitlerites; for the destruction and annihilation of culture in the occupied territories.
With your permission, I shall quote one paragraph of this decree. You will find it on page 16.
"The Army is only interested in the work of extinguishing fires insofar as necessary army billets must be preserved. For the rest, it is part of the battle of annihilation. No regard for history or art matters in the eastern area."
I shall quote another document which establishes that the destruction and pillage of cultural treasures was universally carried out by the Hitlerites in the territories occupied by them and was inspired and directed by the Hitlerite Government. I refer to the diary of the defendant Frank, extracts of which have already been submitted to the Tribunal, as Document USSR Exhibit Number 223. In the first volume of Frank's diary, on page 38 (page 169 in your document book) there appears an entry dated 4 October, 1939, with the following text:
"Berlin. Conference with Fuehrer. The Fuehrer discussed general situation with the Governor-General. He declared himself satisfied with his activity in Poland as regards, in particular, the destruction of the Warsaw Palace and non-restoration of this City, and the evacuation of treasures."
I consider that the documents which have just been submitted and quoted are quite sufficient to enable us to draw the following conclusions:
(a) The pillage and destruction of the cultural treasures of the peoples in the territories occupied by the Germans took place in accordance with previously worked out, carefully prepared plans.