Furthermore, we have a document that shows the Nazis know at least a part of what those war plans were.
I now refer again to document number 1538-PS, which has been offered in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-154, the secret telegram from the German Military Attache in Tokyo, dated 24 May, 1941. He talks about the conferences he has had regarding Japan's entry in the war, in the event Germany should become invoked in war with the United States.
In the paragraph numbered "1", this sentence also appears - I quote the last sentence in the paragraph number "1":
"Preparations for attack on Singapore and Manila stand."
May I at this point review the Nazi position with regard to the United States at this time, the Spring of 1941. In view of their press of committments elsewhere, and their aggressive plans against the USSR set for discussion in June of 1941, their temporary strategy was naturally a preference that the United States not be involved in the war at that time. Nevertheless, they had been considering their one preliminary plan against the United States, as seen in the Atlantic Island document which I offered.
They were repeatedly urging the Japanese to aggression against the British Commonwealth, just as they would urge them to attack the USSR soon after the launching of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. They were aware that the course along which they were pushing the Japanese in the Far East would probably lead to involvement of the United States. Indeed, the Japanese Foreign Minister had told Hitler this in so many words, and their own military men had fully realized the implication of the move against Singapore. They also knew that the Japanese Army and Navy were preparting operation plans against the United States. They knew at least part of those plans.
The Nazi conspirators not only knew all those things; they accepted the risk of the aggressive course they were urging on the Japanese, and pushed their Eastern allies still further along that course.
In April, 1941, Hitler told the Japanese Foreign Minister that in the event Japan would have become involved in the war with the United States, Germany would immediately take the consequences and strike without delay.
I refer to our document 1881-PS, the notes of the Hitler-Matsuoka conference in Berlin on 4 April, 1941, which has already been introduced as Exhibit Number USA-33, I refer particularly to the first four paragraphs on page 2 of the English translation. I think that has been read to you at least twice, and I perhaps need not repeat it.
Then, skipping two paragraphs, we see Hitler then encouraging Matsuoka in his decision to strike against the United States, and I invite your attention to the fourth paragraph on page 2, which you have heard several times and which I shall not re-read.
Here in those passages were assurances, encouragement, abetment by the head of the German state, the leading Nazi co-conspirator, in April, 1941. But the Nazi encouragement and promise of support did not end there.
I now offer our document 2898-PS as Exhibit Number USA-163. This is another telegram from the German Ambassador in Tokyo, regarding his conversation with the Japanese Foreign Minister. It is dated the 30th of November, 1941, exactly one week before Pearl Harbor. I will read from the first four paragraphs on page 2 of the German text, which is the first paragraph of the English translation, and this passage, I am sure, has not been read to the Tribunal. No part of this document has been read.
"The progress of the negotiations so far confirms his viewpoint that the difference of opinion between Japan and the U.S. is very great. The Japanese government, since it sent Ambassador Kurusu, has taken a firm stand as he told me.
He is convinced that this position is in our favor, and makes the United States think that her entry into the European war would be risky business.
The new American proposal of 25 November showed great divergences in the viewpoints of the two nations. These differences of opinion concern, for example, the further treatment of the Chinese question. The biggest" -- and then the German text has the legend '1 group missing', indicating that one group of the secret code was garbled on transmission. It would appear from the text that the missing words are 'difference of opinion'. "The biggest (1 group missing) however resulted from the U.S. attempt to make the Three-Power agreement ineffective. U.S. suggested to Japan to conclude treaties of non-aggression with the U.S., the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and other countries in order to prevent Japan's entry into the war on the side of the Axis powers. Japan, however, insisted upon maintaining her treaty obligations, and for this reason American demands are the greatest obstacles for adjusting Japanese-American relations. He avoided discussing concessions promised by the U.S. and merely mentioned that grave decision were at stake.
"The U.S. is seriously preparing for war and is about to operate a considerable part of its fleet from Southern Pacific bases. The Japanese Government is busy working out an answer in order to clarify its viewpoint. But he has no particulars at that moment. He thinks the American proposals, as a whole, unacceptable.
"Japan is not afraid of a breakdown of negotiations, and she hopes that in that case Germany and Italy, according to the ThreePower agreement, would stand at her side. I answered that there could be no doubt about Germany's future position. Japanese Foreign Minister thereupon stated that he understood from my words that Germany in such a case would consider her relationship to Japan as that of a community of fate. I answered, according to my opinion, Germany was certainly ready to have mutual agreement between the two countries over this situation.
"Minister of Foreign Affairs answered that it was possible that be would come back to this point soon.
The conversation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs confirmed the impression that the U.S. Note, in fact, is very unsatisfactory even for the compromise-seeking politicians here. For these circles America's position, especially in the China question, is very disappointing. The emphasis upon the Three-Power Pact as being the main obstacle between successful JapaneseU.S. negotiations seems to point to the fact that the Japanese Government is becoming aware of the necessity of close cooperation with the axis powers."
The time is now fast approaching for that day of infamy. I offer our document 2987-PS as Exhibit USA-166.
This document consists of extracts from the handwritten diary of Count Galeazzo Ciano during the period 3rd December to 8th December, 1941.
It consists of notes he jotted down in the course of his daily business as Foreign Minister of Italy.
The Italian has been translated into both English and German, and copies of both the English and the German are in the document books.
I now quote from the beginning of the entry of 3rd December, Wednesday.
"Sensational move by Japan. The Ambassador asks for an audience with the Duce and reads him a long statement on the progress of the negotiations with America, concluding with the assertion that they have reached a dead end.
Then, invoking the appropriate clause in the Tripartite Pact, he asks that Italy declare war on America immediately after the outbreak of hostilities, and proposes the signature of an agreement not to conclude a separate peace.
The interpreter translating this request was trembling like a leaf.
The Duce gave fullest assurances, reserving the right to confer with Berlin before giving a reply.
The Duce was pleased with the communication and said:
We are now on the brink of the inter-continental war which I predicted as early as September, 1939.
' What does this new event mean? In any case it means that Roosevelt has succeeded in his manoeuvre.
Since he could not enter into the war immediately and directly, he entered it indirectly by letting himself be attacked by Japan.
Furthermore, this event also means that every prospect of peace is becoming further and further removed, and that it is now easy--much too easy--to predict a long war.
Who will be able to hold out longest? It is on this basis that the problem must be considered.
Berlin's answer will be somewhat delayed, because Hitler has gone to the southern front to see General Kleist, whose armies continue to give way under the pressure of an unexpected Soviet offensive."
And then, December 4th, Thursday - that is three days before Pearl Harbor.
"Berlin's reaction to the Japanese move is extremely cautious.
Perhaps they will accept because they cannot get out of it, but the idea of provoking America's intervention pleases the Germans less and less.
Mussolini, on the other hand, is pleased about it."
And December 5th, Friday.
"A night interrupted by Ribbentrop's restlessness.
After delaying two days, now he cannot wait a minute to answer the Japanese, and at three in the morning he sent Mackensen to my house to submit a plan for a triple agreement relative to Japanese intervention and the pledge not to make a separate peace.
He wanted me to awaken the Duce, but I did not do so, and the latter was very glad I hadn't."It appears from the last entry I have read, that of 5th December, that some sort of an agreement was reached.
On Sunday, 7th December, 1941, Japan, without previous warning or declaration of war, commenced an attack against the United States at Pearl Harbor and against the British Commonwealth of Nations in the South West Pacific.
On the morning of 11th December, four days after the Japanese assault in the Pacific, the German Government declared war on the United States, committing the last act of aggression which was to seal its doom.
This declaration of war is contained in Volume IX of the Dokumente der Deutschen Politik, of which I now ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice as Exhibit USA-164.
An English translation is contained in our document book, and for the convenience of the Tribunal is No. 2507-PS.
The same day, December 11, the fourth anniversary of which is tomorrow the Congress of the United States resolved that a state of war between the United States and Government of Germany, which has thus been thrust upon the United States, is her by formally declared.
This declaration is contained as Document 272 in the official publications "Peace and War", of which the Tribunal has already taken judicial notice, as Exhibit USA 122 The declaration itself has been reproduced for the document books as our Document 2945-PS.
It thus appears that, apart from their own aggressive intentions and declaration of war against the United States, the Nazi conspirators, in thei collaboration with Japan, incited and kept in motion a force reason ably calculated to result in an attack on the United States.
While main taining thei preference that the United States not be involved in war at the time, they nevertheless foresaw a distinct possibility, even proba bility, of such involvement as a result of the action they were encouraging They were aware that the Japanese had prepared plans for attack against the United States, and they accepted the consequences by insuring the Japanese that they would declare war on the United States should a United States-Japanese conflict result.
In dealing with captured documents of the enemy, the completeness of the plan is necessarily obscured, but those documents which have been dis covered and offered in evidence before this Tribunal show that the Japanese attack was the "proximate and foreseeable consequence of their collaboration policy, and that their exhortations and encouragement of the Japanese as surely let to Pearl Harbor as though Pearl Harbor itself had been mentioned I should like to rend the Ciano diary entry for 8 December, the day after Pearl Harbor:
"A night telephone call from Ribbentrop. He is overjoyed about the Japanese attack on America.
He is so happy about it that I am happy with him, though I am not too sure about the final advantages of what has happened.
One thing is now certain: that America will enter the conflict, and that the conflict will be so long that she will be able to realize all her potential force.
This morning I told this to the King, who had been pleased about the event.
He ended by admitting that in the long run I may be right.
Mussolini was happy too. For a long time he has favored a definite clarification of relations between America and the Axis."
The final document consists of the Top Secret notes of a conference between Hitler and Japanese Ambassador Oshima on 14 December 1941, from 1300 to 1400 hours, in the presence of the Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop It is our Document 2932-PS, which I now offer as Exhibit No. USA 165.
The immediate subject matter is the Pearl Harbor attack, but the expressions therein typify Nazi technique.
I quote from the second paragraph of the English translation, which has not been previously read:
"First the Fuehrer presents Ambassador Oshima with the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the German Eagle in gold.
With cordial words he acknowledges his services in the achievement of German-Japanese cooperation, which has now obtained its culmination in a close brotherhood of arms.
"General Oshima expresses his thanks for the great honor and em phasizes how glad he is that htis brotherhood of arms has now come about between Germany and Japan.
"The Fuehrer continues: 'You gave the right declaration of war.'
This method is the only proper one. Japan pursued it formerly and it corresponds with his own system, that is, to negotiate as long as possible, But if one sees that the other is interested only in putting one off, in shaming and humiliating one, and is not willing to come to an agreement, then one should strike as hard as possible, indeed, and not waste time declaring war.
It was heartwarming to him to hear of the first operations of the Japanese.
He himself negotiated with infinite patience at times, for example, with Poland and also with Russia.
When he then realized that the other did not want to come to an agreement, he struck suddenly and without formality.
He would continue to go this way in the future."
If the Tribunal please, that ends my presentation of the various phases of aggressive warfare charged as crimes against peace in Court I of the Indictment.
As I conclude this phase, I hope the Tribunal will allow me to express my deep sense of obligation to Commander Sidney
J.Kaplan, Section Chief, and to the members of his staff who did the yeoman work necessary to assemble and prepare these materials that I have presented.
Those members in the staff, in the order in which the materials were presented, are Major Joseph Dainow, Lt. Commander Harold Leventhal, Lt. John M. Woolsey, Lt. James A. Gorrell, Lt. Roy H. Steyer.
Commander Kaplan and his staff have fully measured up to the famous motto of his branch of the armed services, the United States Coast Guard, "Semper Paratus", always prepared.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now adjourn.
(Whereupon at 1700 hours the hearing of the Tribunal adjourned to reconvene at 1000 hours, 11 December 1945.)
Official transcript of the Inter-
national 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, Def endants, sitting at Nurnberg, Germany, on 11 December 1945, 1000-1030, Lord Justice Lawrence presiding.
COL. STOREY :If the Tribunal please, the United States next offers in evidence some captured moving pictures through Commander Donovan, who had charge of taking them.
COMMANDER DONOVAN:May it place the Tribunal, the United States now offers in evidence Document No. 3054-PS, United States Exhibit No. 167, the motion picture entitled "The Nazi Plan." This document contains several affidavits with exhibits, copies of which have been furnished to Defense Counsel. I ask the Tribunal whether it believes it to be necessary for us formally to read the affidavits at this time. Since the motion pictures themselves will be presented to the Tribunal, and therefore will be a permanent record, I respectfully submit that the reading be waived.
In the past three weeks the Prosecution has presented to this Tribunal a vast amount of evidence concerning the nature of the Nazi conspiracy and what we contend to be its deliberate planning, launching, and waging of wars of aggression. That evidence has consisted of documentary and some oral proof, but the Nazi conspirators did more than leave behind such normal kinds of evidence. German proficiency in photography has been traditional. Its use as a propaganda instrument was especially well known to these defendants, and as a result the United States in 1945 captured an almost complete chronicle of the rise and fall of National Socialism as documented in films made by the Nazis themselves. It is from excerpts of this chronicle that we have compiled the motion picture now to be presented, entitled "The Nazi Plan," which, in broad outline, sums up the case thus far presented under Counts 1 and 2 of the Indictment.
The motion picture has been divided into four parts. This morning we first offer to the Tribunal Parts 1 and 2, which are especially entitled "Rise of the NSDAP, 1921 to 1933," and "Acquiring Totalitarian Control of Germany, 1933 to 1935."
This will be concluded by 11:20, at which time we assume the Tribunal will order its customary morning adjournment. At 11:30 we shall present Part 3, entitled "Preparation for Wars of Aggression, 1935 to 1939." This will be concluded shortly before one o'clock. At 2 p.m. we will offer Part 4, entitled "Wars of Aggression, 1939 to 1944," and this will be concluded by 3 p.m.
Parts 1 and 2, now to be presented, enable us to relive those years in which the Nazis fought for and obtained the power to rule all life in Germany. We see the early days of terrorism and propaganda, bearing final fruit in Hitler's accession to the Chancellory in 1933, then the consolidation of power within Germany, climaxed by the Parteitag in 1934, in which the Nazis proclaimed to the nation their plans for totalitarian control. It is in simple and dramatic form the story of how a nation forsook its liberty.
I wish again to emphasize that all film now presented to the Tribunal, including, for example, pictures of early Nazi newspapers, is original German film, to which we have added only the title in English. And now, if it please the Tribunal, we shall present Parts 1 and 2 of "The Nazi Plan."
THE PRESIDENT:It may be convenient for the United States Prosecutor to know that the Tribunal proposes to rise this afternoon at 4 o'clock instead of 5.
(Whereupon the film "The Nazi Plan" was shown until 1125 hours, when a recess was taken.)
COMMANDER DONOVAN:May it please the Tribunal, in the films which have just been shown to the Tribunal we have watched the Nazi rise to power. In Part III of our documentary motion picture now to be presented, we see the use they made of that power and how the German Nation was led by militaristic regimentation to preparation for aggressive war as an instrument of national policy.
(Showing of mition picture.)
(Whereupon at 1305 hours the hearing of the Tribunal adjourned.)
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 December 1945, 1400-1600, Lord Justic Lawrence presiding.
COMMANDS DONOVAN:This morning we presented photographic evidence of the history of National Socialism from 1921 to September 1939. We saw the dignity of the individual in Germany destroyed by men dedicated to perverted nationalism, men who set forth certain objectives and then preached to a regimented people the accomplishment of those objectives by any means, including aggressive war.
In September, 1939, the Nazis launched the first of a series of catastrophic wars, terminated only by the military collapse of Germany. It is the final chapter in the history of National Socialism that the prosecution now presents.
May I again remind the Tribunal that all film presented and all German narration heard is in the original form as filmed by the Nazis.
(WHEREUPON the aforementioned motion picture film was presented in the courtroom).
COMMANDER DONOVAN:The prosecution has concluded its presentation of the photographic summation entitled "The Nazi Plan." We shall deliver for the permanent records of the Tribunal, as soon as possible, the original films projected today.
May it please the Tribunal:
COLONEL STOREY:If the Tribunal please, just a brief announcement about the presentation that shall follow. The rest of the week will be consumed in the presentation of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, starting with exploitation of forced labor, concentration camps, persecution of the Jews, and Germanization and spoliation in occupied countries. We should like to call the Tribunal's attention to the fact that many of these crimes will be crimes attributed to the criminal organizations, which will follow. The program following will be the criminal organizations, beginning with the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, the Reich Cabinet, the SA, the SS, one finally, the SD and Gestapo.
Mr. Dodd will now present exploitation of forced labor.
Mr. Dodd.
MR.DODD: be propose to submit during the next several days, evidence as Colonel Storey has said a moment ago, evidence concerning the conspirators' criminal deportation and enslavement of foreign labor, their illegal use of prisoners of war, their infamous concentration camps and their relentless persecution of the Jews. We will present evidence regarding the general aspects of these programs, and our French and Soviet colleagues will present evidence of the specific application of these programs in the West and the Fast, respectively.
These crimes were committed both before and after Nazi Germany had launched its series ox aggressions. They were committed within Germany and in foreign countries as well. Although separated in time and space, those crimes had, of course, an inter-relationship which resulted from their having a common source in Nazi ideology; for within Germany the conspirators had made hatred and destruction of the Jew an official philiosophy and a public duty; that they had preached the concept of the master race with is corollary of slavery for others, that they had denied and destroyed the dignity and the rights of the individual human being. They had organized force, brutality and terror into instruments of political power and had made them commonplaces of daily existence. We propose to prove that they had placed the concentration camp and a vast apparatus of force behind their racial and political myths, their laws and their policies. As every German Cabinet Canister or high official know, behind the laws and decrees in the Reichsgesetzblatt, was not the agreement of the people or their representatives, but the terror of the concentration camp and the police state. The conspirators had preached that war was a noble activity and that force was the appropriate means of resolving international differences and, having mobilized all aspects of German life for war, they plunged Germany and the world into war.
We say this system of hatred, savagery, and denial of individual rights, which the conspirators erected into a philosophy of Government within Germany, into what we may call the Nazi constitution, followed the Nazi armies as they swept over Europe.
For the Jews of the occupied countries suffered the same fate as the Jews of Germany, and foreign laborers became the serfs of the master race, they were deported and enslaved by the millions. Many of deported and enslaved laborers joined the victims of the concentration camps where they were literally worked to death in the course of the Nazi program of extermination through work. We propose to show that this Nazi combination of the assembly line, the torture chamber and the executioner's rack in a single institution has a horrible repugnance to the Twentieth Century mind.
We say that it is plain that the program of the concentration camp, the anti-Jewish program, the forced labor program, are all parts of a larger pattern, and this will become even more plain as we examine the evidence regarding those programs and then test their legality by applying the relevant principles of international law.
The evidence relating to the Nazi Slave Labor program has been assembled in a document book bearing the letter "R", and in addition, there is an appendix to the document book consisting of certain photographs contained in a manilla folder. Your Honors will observe that on some of the books, we have placed some tabs, so that it will be more easy for the Tribunal to locate the documents. Unfortunately, we did not have a sufficient number of tabs to do the work completely, and that will account for tabs which are missing on some of the document books.
It may illuminate the specific items of evidence which will be offered later if we first describe in rather general terms the elements of the Nazi foreign labor policy. It was a policy of mass deportation and mass enslavement, as I said a moment ago, and it was also carried out by force, by fraud, by terror, by arson, by means unrestrained by the laws of war, and laws of humanity, or the considerations of mercy.
This labor policy was a policy as well of underfeeding and overworking foreign laborers, of subjecting them to every form of degradation, brutality and inhumanity. It was a policy which compelled foreign workers and prisoners of war to manufacture armaments and to engage in other operations of war directed against their own countries. It was a policy, as we propose to establish, which constituted a flagrant violation of the laws of war and the laws of humanity.
We shall show that Defendants Sauckel and Speer are principally responsible for the formulation of the policy and for its execution, that Defendant Sauckel, the Nazis Plenipotentiary General for Manpower, directed the recruitment, deportation and allocation of foreign civilian labor, that he sanctioned and directed the use of force as the instrument of recruitment, and that he was responsible for the care and treatment of the enslaved millions; that the Defendant Speer, as Reichsminister for Armaments and Munitions, Director of the Organization Todt and member of the Central Planning Board, bears responsibility for the determination of the numbers of foreign slaves required by the German war machine responsible for the decision to recruit by force, and for the use under brutal, inhumane and degrading conditions of foreign civilians and prisoners of war in the manufacture of armaments and munitions, the construction of fortifications and in active military operations.
We shall also show in this presentation that the Defendant Goering as Plenipotentiary General for the Four Year Plan, is responsible for all of the crimes involved in the Nazi Slave Labor Program. Finally we propose to show that the Defendant Rosenberg as Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories and the Defendant Frank as Governor General of the Government General of Poland, and the Defendant Seyss-Inquart, as Reichskommissar for the Occupied Netherlands and the Defendant Keitel, as chief of the OKW share responsibility for the recruitment by force and terror and for the deportation to Germany of the citizens of the areas overrun or subjugated by the Wehrmacht.
The use of vast numbers of foreign workers was planned before Germany went to war and was an integral part of the conspiracy for waging aggressive war. On May 23, 1939, a meeting was held in Hitler's study at the Reichs Chancellory. Present were the Defendants Goering, Raeder and Keitel.
I now refer to document L-79 which has already been entered in evidence as USA Exhibit No. 27. The document presents the minutes of this meeting, at which Hitler stated, as Your Honors will recall, that he intended to attack Poland at the first suitable opportunity; but I wish to quote from page 2 of the English text starting with the thirteenth paragraph, as follows. In the German text the passage, by the way, appears at page 4, paragraphs 6 and 7, and quoting directly from the English text:
"If fate brings us into conflict with the West, the possession of extensive areas in the East will be advantageous.
We shall be able to rely upon record harvests, even less in time of war than in peace.
The population of non-German areas will perform no military service, and will be available as a source of labor".We say the slave labor program of the Nazi conspirators was designed to achieve two purposes, both of which were criminal.
The primary purpose, of course, was to satisfy the labor requirements of the Nazi war machine by compelling these foreign workers, in effect, to make war against their own countries and their allies. The secondary purpose was to destroy or weaken peoples deemed inferior by the Nazi racialists, or deemed potentially hostile by the Nazi planners of world supremacy.
These purposes were expressed by the conspirators themselves.
I wish to refer at this point and to offer in evidence document 016-PS which is USA Exhibit No. 168.
This document was sent by the Defendant Sauckel to the Defendant Rosenberg on the 20 April, 1942, and it describes Sauckel's labor mobilization program. I wish to quote now from page 2 of the English text, starting with the sixth paragraph, and in the German text, again, it appears at page 2 of the second paragraph. Quoting from the text directly:
"The aim of this new, gigantic labor mobilization is to use all the rich and tremendous sources, conquered and secured for us by our fighting Armed Forces under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, for the armament of the Armed Forces and also for the nutrition of the Homeland.
The raw materials as well as the fertility of the conquered territories and their human labor power are to be used completely and conscientiously to the profit of Germany and their allies."
The theory of the master race underlay the conspirators' labor policy in the East.
I now refer to Document No. 1130-PS, which is marked USA Exhibit No. 169. This document consists of a statement made by one Erich Koch Reichskommissar for the Ukraine on the fifth day of March, 1943, at a meeting of the National Socialist Party in Kiev. I quote from the first page of the English text, starting with the first paragraph, and in the German text it appears at page 2, paragraph 1. Quoting directly again from the English text, Koch said:
"We are the master race and must govern hard but just . . . .
I will draw the very last out of this country. I did not come to spread bliss.
I have come to help the Fuehrer.
The population must work, work, and work again . . . .
for some people are getting excited, that the population may not get enough to eat.
The population cannot demand that, one has only to remember what our heroes were deprived of in Stalingrad ... We definitely did not come here to give out manna.
We have come here to create the basis for victory."
We are a master race, which must remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more valuable than the population here".At this point I should like to offer in evidence Document No.1919-PS, which is USA Exhibit No. 170.
This is a document which contains a speech delivered by Himmler, the Reichsfuehrer SS, to a group of SS Generals on the fourth day of October, 1943, at Posen, and I am referring to the first page of the English text, starting with the third paragraph. For the benefit of the interpreters, in the German text it appears at page 23 in the first paragraph. Quoting direct from this document, starting with the third paragraph:
"....What happens to a Russian, to a Czech, does not interest me in the slightest.
What the nations can offer in the way of good blood of our type, we will take, if necessary by kidnapping their children and raising them here with us.
Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death interests me only in so far as we need them as slaves for our Kultur:
otherwise, it is of no interest to me.
Whether 10,000 Russian females fall down from exhaustion while digging an anti-tank ditch interests me only in so far as the anti-tank ditch for Germany is finished ..." THE PRESIDENT:
Who is the author of that document?
MR. DODD:The author of that quotation was the Reichsfuehrer SS, Heinrich Himmler.
The next document to which I make reference is No.031-PS which is USA Exhibit No. 171. This document is a top secret memorandum prepared for the Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territory on the 12th of June, 1944, and approved by the Defendant Rosenberg; and from it I wish to quote from the English text, starting with the first paragraph, and in the German text the passage appears at page 2 in the first paragraph. Quoting directly:
"The Army Group "Center" has the intention to apprehend 40-50,000 youths at the ages of 10 to 14 who are in the Army territory and to transport them to the Reich ..." I wish to pass now to line 21 of paragraph 1, and quoting directly I read as follows:
"It is intended to allot these juveniles primarily to the German trades as apprentices to be used as skilled workers after 2 years' training.
This is to be arranged through the Organization Todt which is especially equipped for such a task through its technical and other set-ups.
This action is being greatly welcomed by the German trade since it represents a decisive measure for the alleviation of the shortage of apprentices."
Passing a little further on in that document, I wish to call to the attention of the Tribunal paragraph 1 on page 2, and to quote it directly:
"This action is not only aimed at preventing a direct reinforcement of the enemy's military strength, but also at a reduction of his biological potentialities as viewed from the perspective of the future.
These ideas have been voiced not only by the Reichsfuehrer of the SS but also by the Fuehrer.
Coressponding orders were given during last year's withdrawals in the southern sector ..." I call Your Honor's attention particularly that the approval of the Defendant Rosenberg is noted on page 3 of the document.
It is a note in ink in the original, and I quote it:
"regarding the above-Obergruppenfuehrer BERGER received the memorandum on June 14.
Consequently the Reichsminister has approved the Action.
THE PRESIDENT:Mr. Dodd, did you mean to leave out the sentence at the bottom of page 1?
MR. DODD:No, Your Honor, I did not, but I did not want to refer to it this time. I will refer to it a little later on.
THE PRESIDENT:Isn't it really a part of what follows at the top of page 2, the words "Following are the arguments..."
MR. DODD:Yes. "Following are the arguments against this decision of the ministe ." I did omit that. I thought you were referring to the sentence above. I'm sorry. "Following are the arguments against this decision of the minister"'; and then quoting: "This action is not only aimed at preventing direct reinforcement of any military ....."
THE PRESIDENT:Yes, and you were telling us how the Defendant Rosenberg was implicated.
MR. DODD:Yes. On the last page of that document, the original bears a note in ink, and in the mimeographed copy it is typewritten: "regarding the above - Obergruppenfuehrer BERGER received the memorandum on June 14. Consequently the Reichsminister has approved the Action."
One page back on that same document, from the first paragraph, four sentences down, the sentence begins: "The minister has approved the execution of the high action in the army territories, under the conditions and provisions arrived at in talks with Army Group Center."
The purposes of the Slave Labor Program which we have just been describing, namely the strengthening of the Nazi war machine and the destruction or weakening of peoples deemed inferior by the Nazi conspirators, were achieved, we repeat, by the impressment and deportation of millions of persons into Germany for forced labor. It involved the separation of husbands from their wives, and children from their parents and the imposition of conditions unfit for human existence, with the result that countless numbers were killed.