The documentary evidence submitted to the' Tribunal has fully proved that the military group of criminals is guilty of the heaviest crimes and that they have actively participated in the planning and execution of the common criminal conspiracy.
The fact that these crimes were committed by men in uniform not only does not serve to mitigate their responsibility, but, on the contrary, only heightens it.
How can they try to acquit themselves by referring to "a soldier's duty", "an officer's honor", and the "obligation of fulfilling orders". Since when has "soldier's duty" and "officer's honor" become compatible with shooting without trial and branding as prisoners, extermination of women, children and aged people.
The only true and correct explanation of the amazing fact that these generals and admirals were committing what in substance were capital crimes, lies in the fact that they were generals and admirals of Hitler's making. These are men of special metal. They are fascists in uniform, bound body and soul to the Nazi regime.
This is the only reason why Hitler gathered those men about him and collaborated with them for so long a period of time. This is the only way to explain why they collaborated with Hitler in committing such crimes unprecedented in history. They fitted and understood one another to perfection.
KEITEL It is only natural that in speaking of the military group I would naturally begin with defendant Keitel.
Keitel held the leading post Speech Dr. Nelte in Hitler's military machine from the very first years of its concep p. 58 tion.
Keitel's counsel adults that : -the decree (of February 4th 1938) gave Keitel the wonder title for his position - Chief of the OKW". Further he goes on to say :"....the factual significance of Keitel's activities was immense.
It was a monstruous extremely ungrateful job and its miserly remu neration was a brilliant position in the immediate proximity to the head of the state."
In the light subsequent events it may be taken for granted that Speech Dr. Nelte the primary stage of all the future wars of aggression included p. 100 everything connected, with the secret rearmament of Germany after the Versailles treaty.
It is difficult to minimize the significance of all that was done at the time by Colonel Keitel in the Committee of Experts which painstakingly and consecutively sought and found means of circum venting or violating the treaty.
It was none other than Colonel Keitel in particular who gave instruc tions to the effect that in Geneva it was possible to say what one pleased but care must be taken not to leave anything behind on paper.
This Cynical statement fully tallies with the role played by Keitel in the subsequent preparation and execution of agrresive wars.
During the negotiations between Hitler and Schuschnigg the living C-102 reminder of Germany's preparadeness to resort to arms was the USA-74 person of Keitel.
Keitel issued orders for troops to cross ever into Czechoslovakia at the time when president Hacha was so treacherously called to Berlin :"for continuing negotiations."
It was the OKW and no other organization which was fully prepared the 388-PS through /ABWEHR'S department to provoke an incident with Czechoslo USA 26 Jodl's vakia in order to justify the invasion by the German hordes, ready notes to "Fall to fall upon Czechoslovakia.
Green" In his strictly confidential memorandum Keitel demanded that Hess and Himmler advise the OKW in advance of all measures taken by party organizations or police which were not included in the case Green "Fall Green".The declarations alleging that after the seizure of Czechoslovakia Germany had no more territorial aspirations in Europe were downright lies.
This was but a link in the chain of aggressive wars.
I wish to emphasize the leading role of the OKW in the preparation and carrying out of aggression.
The directive regarding the waging of war and invasion of Poland is known to us as Keitel's and Hitler's directive of 10 May 1939.
It was forwarded to the command of the Air Forces, Navy and Land Forces.
How is it possible after this to maintain that the OKW was not the driving power behind the armed forces of the fascist Reich ?If we once more peruse the documents pertaining to German aggression against Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia and Greece we again come across the name of Keitel.
He appears as a participant of the most important events as author if secret orders 443-PS GB-118 addressed to Raeder, Goering and the General Staff.
We find the initials of Keitel and Jodl entered In their own hand on the secret directive signed by Hitler regarding the "Operation Mariza".Much has been said here of the "Plan Barbarossa" and its authors.
At present it is important to stress that this document took shape in the depths of the OKW at its own initiative and that the planned methods of a treacherous attack on the USSR were also the work of the OKW.
The significance of a military specialists visa on a document is clear to everybody.
Some of the defendants attempted to portray the attack on the USSR as preventive war.
This contention is to such a degree unconvincing and contradictory to the irrefutable evidence presented in court (German documents) that I see no need for occupying the Tribunal's time.
Keitel's defense counsel stated that the defense of this defendant is based on the point of view that Keitel -"is fighting not for his head but to save his face."
P. 23 I wish to aid the Tribunal in seeing the true face of Keitel. For Final Speech this I shall have to remind you of a number of Keitel's directives Counsel Dr. Nelte which may well lay claim to being among the foremost of all the infamous documents pointing to the barbarity of the German military clique, its baseness and extreme scorn for all conceptions of rules and customs of warfare.
Let us consider the documents dealing with the shooting of Political Officers.
Keitel, the soldier, as he likes to call himself, ignoring his oath, shamelessly lied to the representatives of the American Prosecution at his preliminary investigation by avowing that to begin with this order was in the nature of a counter reprisal and that the political officers were separated from the other prisoners of war at the request of the prisoners themselves.
At the trial he was unmasked.
Exhibit No. RF (v) -351 884-PS proved that this directive had been issued before the war had broken out.
We also submitted a document under Exhibit No. USSR-62 (the text of a letter of German Prisoners of War.)
This document makes it clear that even before the attack on the USSR the army in the field had been instruc ted to absolutely exterminate Soviet women in military service as well as political officers.
And what can he said of the following statement dreadful in its unlimited cynicism : RF-271 " Human life in these countries concerned us absolutely of no account R-98 PS-389 ... a terrifying influence can be achieved, only through unheard of brutality."
C-50 And what can be said of the directive of 13 May 1945 introducing cour USA-554 martial in the Barbarossa region ? And of the order of 16 September 1941 calling for the execution of 80-100 communists for each German killed ? L-90 What could Keitel say about the document known as "Nacht and Nebel"? USA-503 These are sanguinary documents.
No one can compute how many thou-
sands of prisoners of war -soldiers and officers of the Red Army had USSR-52 been killed and tortured in the camps of fascist Germany.
You re member how on 21 January 1946 at the evening session witness Lamp testified that for the amusement of Himmler the shooting of 50 Soviet officers was organized in the Mauthausen camp.
You remember witness Blacha testifying that in the spring of 1944, 94 Soviet senior mili tary officers were tortured and then killed for refusing to give military information.
transcript I wish to mention the testimony of SS man Paul Waldman regarding the 11 January 1946 afternoon slaughter of 840 Russian prisoners of war. You remember the testimopp. 22-23 ny of witness Kivelsh regarding the endless chain of torture and suffering to which Russians, taken prisoner by the German, were subjected to : transcript 2 February It is impossible to pass by Keitel's directive calling for the 1946, morning p. 22-23 branding of Soviet prisoners of war.
afternoon One cannot forget the Keitel directive of the 16 December 1942. It p. 2-4 USSR-16 is entitled "measure to be taken against bands". Under the word transcript 14-2-1946 "bands" defendant Keitel understood any resistance movement and dep. 13 USSR-343 manded that his troops revert to harsh methods, stopping at nothing even in regards to woemn and children.
The Soviet Prosecution submitted the testimony Lecurt under transcript 15 Feb. 1946. Exhibit No. USSR-162. Lecurt states that he shot and burnt Soviet morning p. 1-2 citizens, razing their houses, He alone had shot over 1,200 persons and for this achievement he was promoted to the rank of Obergefreiter and awarded the medal for service in the East.
He acted in accor dance with the directives of Keitel.
Keitel's directive instituting court martials in the "Barbarossa" C-50 USA-554 region freed such persons of all responsibility. Keitel's hands are stained with the blood of the victims of Lecourt and his like.
It was in carrying out Keitel's directive stating that life in the Eastern regions was of no value, that the soldiers and officers of Hitlerite Germany committed their atrocities Exhibit number USSR-51 submitted by the prosecution shows how, on the 28 August 1941, attacking German troops drove a group of women, children and old men before their formations.
In the vil lage of Kolpino the fascists shot the peasants who had been forced into digging:
trenches and bridges for them. USSR-261 In Yugoslavia mass shootings of hostages became a daily feature USSR-391 USSR-392 with the military command and military administration.
In a secret report dated 15.II.1940 submitted to Goering the OKW justifies the practice of taking hostages.
1585-PS I wish to conclude with document USSR-336 (EC-338), which your RF-278 honors, of course, remember.
In this document Admiral Canaris informs Keitel of the unbridled cruelty in the prisoner-of-war camps, of the hunger, and mass shootings of Soviet prisoners of war.
Even the out and out fascist spy Canaris, fearing eventual responsibility could not ignore such unbridled curelty an flagrant violation of accepted laws and customs of warfare.
You will remember Keitel's notation on this report :
"I approve of and back these measures".
On April 7, 1946, during the cross examination, I put the following question to Keitel :"You, Defendant Keitel, known as fieldmarshal, repeatedly referred to yourself as a soldier before this Tribunal, and you, by your sanguinary notation, approved of and sanctioned the murder in cold blood of thousands of soldiers who had fallen prisoner.
Do you confirm this ?"
Keitel was forced to admit this fact.
This one resolution alone unveils the true and real face of Field Marshal Keitel.
The highly involved arguments of the defense can not absolve Keitel of his responsibility for the bloodshed and innumerable human lives torn short by the hand of the fascist mili tary machine in carrying out orders and directives signed by his han The defendant Alfred Jodl bears equal responsibility together with defendant Keitel as his assistant and as closest military adviser of Hitler's All that is connected with preparation and execution of the aggressive plans of Hitlerite Germany is inseparably linked with the name of Jodl as well as with that of Keitel.
There is no need to repeat anew all those aggressive acts of Hitler's Germany which are already facts of common knowledge, each of which had been planned and executed with the direct participation of defendant Jodl. As the representative of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, I should like to emphasize once more that the criminal plan of the perfidious attack on the Soviet Union, ceded by the Hitler's gang under the name of the illfated conqueror Fredireck Barbaross, is signed not only by Hitler and Keitel but by Jodl as well. But this is more than a mere signature.
As early as the summer of 1940 in Reichenhall, Jodl held the first conference of his staff-officers, at which the question of the possibility of an attack by Hitler Germany on Soviet Russia was discussed. It was no one else but defendant Jodl who even before the attack against the USSR actually was carried out issued his well-known "Instructions on the use propaganda in the region of 'Barbarossa". In these instructions it is unequivocally stated that "asyet propaganda aimed at the partition of the Soviet Union should not be carried on." Thus, defendant Jodl knew beforehand of the actual aims of Germany's attack on the USSR, knew of the piratical and predatory nature of the war which called for the dismembering of the Soviet Union.
It was Jodl who took part in the preparation and organization of the provocative incident on the Czech Slovak border with the aim of justifying this aggressive act of Hitler Germany against this peace loving nation. It was Jodl who signed the order of the 23 September 1938 regarding the use of the so-called Hiemlein Corps in case the "Case Green" was realized. How full of mockery sound the defendant Jodl's words of "soldiers honor" after reading his order on the destruction of Leningrad Moscow and other cities. of the Soviet Union. It was this very same Jodl who with inimitable cynicism declared at a confe rence with Hitler on the 1 December 1941 that German troops could with impu-nity "hang, hang by the feet and quarter" Soviet patriots.
As the closest military adviser of Hitler's, having personally participated in the preparation and execution of all the sanguinary aggressive plans of Hitlerites Germany -defendant Jodl has been justly included in the ranks of the major German War Criminals. My British colleague has proved the guilt of defendants Carl Doenitz and Erich Raeder so convincingly and thoroughly that I see no need to dwell especially on these Grossadmirals of Hitlerite Germany, who have disgraced thei admirals' uniforms with such infamous crimes.
In the course of his cross-examination Doenitz told the Soviet Prosecutor that he as unaware of the reasons for which Hitler nominated him as his successor. I don't think that Doenitz was quite sincere in making this statement. One has but to refer to the transcripts of the sessions beginning with the 8th May, in order to understand without his acknowledging it, why he became Hitler's successor, when the Hitlerite Reich went to the bottom. The important point is not the fact that an Admiral was needed at a moment like this, but the fact that only the nazi Grossadmiral Doenitz, in the opinion of Hitler who was about to fade from the picture, could do anything to save the sinking ship.
Under Hitler, Doenitz commanded the submarine weapon of the German Reich We know the role which the German U-boats played in this war. In this connection it is worthy of emphasis what Doenitz was proud of being the author of the so-called "wolf-pack tactics". Soviet people have not forgotten new Doenitz's submarines sunk in the Baltic and Black Seas hospital ships and steamers evacuating peaceful citizens -women and children. The last head of the Hitlerite government should be one of the first to pay for all these crimes which led to the trial of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal.
The name of Raeder is linked with the sacrilegious directive for the destruction of Leningrad.
At the trial Raeder tried to play the part of an "honest soldier". But the mere fact that it was he, together with Hitler and Keitel, who conspired to "wipe Leningrad off the face of the earth" and to exterminate more than three million population of that great city, whose very name is indissolubly connected with the development of the culture and history of mankind, makes Raeder one of the major war criminals.
Raeder took part in working out all the most important plans of aggression of German fascism. This participant in the criminal fascist conspiracy must therefore bear punishment together with his associates. The defendant Ernst Kaltenbrunner was considered by Himmler to be the most deserving successor to that henchman, Heidrich, executed by Czech patriots. On 30 January 1943, he was appointed Head of the Reich Main Security Office and Chief of the SD. Numerous documents, and especially orders signed by Kaltenbrunner, for the mass deportation of people into concentration camps, the testimonies of his subordinates, including the depositions of Walter Schellenberg, the former Chief of the Interior, Security Service, fully convict Kaltenbrunner of heinous crimes. At the session of 12 April 1946 in the course of Kaltenbrunner's examination the testimonies of Johann Kandutor, ex-prisoner of Mauthausen, were read into the record. In his depositions, Kandutor describes as follows Kaltenbrunner's pass-time during one of his visits to the camp:
"Laughing, Kaltenbrunner entered the gaz chambers; then the prisoners were led from the barracks to the execution and all the three methods of execution were demonstrated -hanging, shooting into the nape and asphyxiation by gas." I shall not dwell upon the numerous proofs which are available, as they have been sufficiently clarified before the Tribunal. There is only one point of the accusation against Kaltenbrunner, on which I deem it necessary to dwell. Together with other RSHA organizations, Kaltenbrunner took over from Heidrich five "Einsatzgruppen". The citizens of the Soviet Union remember well these criminal organizations of the German fascism, headed by Kaltenbrunner.
The "Einsatzgruppe A" reacted the approaches to Leningrad. It created the "Fort of Death #9" near Kaunas, the secret points for mass extermination of human beings in Panarai; it carried out the executions by shooting in the woods of Salaspinsk and Bikerneksk near Riga; it erected gallows in the pares of one of Leningrad's suburbs -the Pushkino.
The "einsatzgruppe B" settled down in the vicinity of Smolensk. It burnt alive the peasants of Byelorussia; it shot down the victims of the awful Pinsk "action"; it drowned thousands of Byelorussian women and children in the Mosyr marshes; it operated with murder vans in Minsk; it liquidated the ghetto in the Upper Gardens district of Smolensk.
USSR-14 The "Einsatzgruppe C" - was quartered in Kiev. This group carried out USSR-9 the mass "action" in Baby Yar near Kiev, an execution unmatched for it cruelty, when 100,000 Soviet citizens perished on a single day.
USSR-14 The "Einsatzgruppe D" operated in the southern regions of the USSR-1 USSR-42 temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union. This group was the first to experiment with the murder vans on the Soviet citizens in the district of Stavropol and in Krasnodar.
And when Kaltenbrunner's fate will be decided, all these human beings, asphyxiated in the "murder vans" near Stavropol, buried alive in the graves near Kiev and Riga, burnt alive in the Byelorussian villages, can not be forgotten.
All these innocent victims are on his dirty conscience.
The successor of a hangman, Kaltenbrunner was a hangman himself, and he had the charge of the most horrible aspect in the common criminal plan of the Hitlerite gang.
I shall now summarize the evidence pertaining to the guilt and the responsibility of the defendant Rosenberg.
In spite of Rosenberg's efforts to minimize his role and importance, in spite of his efforts to juggle with historical facts and events - he cannot deny that he was the ideologist of the Nazi party, that already a quarter of a century ago, he laid the "theoretical" foundations of the fascist Hitlerite State, and that during this whole period he corrupted morally millions of Germans, preparing them "ideologically" for the monstrous crimes committed by the Hitlerites crimes unprecedented in history, and which are the subject of this trial.
Trans. When, at the trial, Rosenberg was asked: "were you not one of Hitler's evn.sess. 17-4-46 closest collaborators"?, he did not even speak - he shouted in reply: PP 31-34 "that is not true, I never was". But however hard Rosenberg tried USA-600 PS-3559 to renounce his "Fuehrer", he has not succeeded in washing away the stigma of "one of the oldest and the most faithful of Hitler's comrades-in-arms". For twenty-five years, Rosenberg, acting first as Hitler's collaborator and afterwards under his direction, worked out and assisted in the realization of the fantastic plans for world supremacy, having chosen for the justification of these criminal plans, the misanthropic theory of racism.
The fact that Rosenberg utilized for his purposes the refuse of science and borrowed some of his theories from Karl Luger and Paul Lagarde, Count Gobino and Liapouch, Oswald Spengler and Arthur Meller, cannot influence the solution of the question on Rosenberg's responsibility and guilt.
The important fact is that Rosenberg, having assembled all these execrements of science, raised the racial theories to a degree of racial fanaticism, and educated in this spirit the members of the nazi party and the German youth.
And when the representatives of the "master race" elaborated and committed acts of aggression, when the German oppressors enslaved and exterminated nations and peoples, when the factories of death were created at Majdanek and Auschwitz, Rosenberg's share in all these crimes was great.
All this was the outcome of the fascist racial ideology, the essence of which consists in the idea that the "aryan", "north-germanic" race is a "master race", and that all other races and nations belong to "lower strata".Rosenberg's counsel said:
"the Tribunal must judge crimes and not theories". In Rosenberg's case such an argument is clearly unconvincing.
For Rosenberg, not only confessed the fascist racial theory, but he knowingly propagated it and instilled it into the conscience of the German people, this theory which became a direct menace to the existence of the democratic European states.
The person who carries microbes must be isolated, but the person who willingly disseminates microbes, must be tried.
Rosenberg's criminal activity was not limited to the ideological preparation for aggression and to the propagation of misanthropic theories.
His activity had many facets.
The criminal activity of the foreign-policy department of the NSDAP has already been sufficiently clarified at this process, this department which for many years was subordinated to the defendant Rosenberg, was in charge of the half-legal nazi agencies abroad.
The participation of this organization in the foreign policy measures undertaken by the Hitlerite Germany and in the initiation of aggressive wars, is very great.
Doc. One of the documents submitted by Neurath's Counsel and accepted by the Counsel Neurath Tribunal, reads as fellows: v.I,p 67 "..... at one time there existed in Berlin three sorts of ministries for foreign affairs; Rosenberg's ministry, Ribbentrop's ministry, and the official ministry on the Wilhelmstrasse."
USSR-117 And finally, Rosenberg's letter to Hitler of 6.2.38 stressed his real influence on the foreign policy of Hitlerite Germany and his "merits" in this field, when he applied for a membership in the Secret Cabinet Council.
I see no necessity to give an analysis of the entire criminal activity of Rosenberg, and I only intend to dwell very shortly on his activity as "Fuehrer's plenipotentiary" and, later, as the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories.
In these capacities, Rosenberg exercised his talents most actively, as a participant in criminal conspiracy.
Rosenberg declares that he was against war with the USSR and that he learned from Hitler about the preparations for an attack against the USSR, only when all the orders to military channels had already been given, and that he never really had any influence on the foreign policy of the Hitlerite Germany.
I affirm, Your Honors, that all these declarations of Rosenberg are false.
It is a commonly known fact that the plan for a German crusade against Soviet Russia is indeed the starting point of the national-socialists foreign policy, as set out in the 1921 New-Year publication of the newspaper "Voelkischer Beobachter".and that the author of this policy is Alfred Rosenberg.
It was Rosenberg, who inspired by Ludendorf and Rechberg, propagated -together with Hitler - a foreign policy directed towards the creation of an antisemitic, antibolshevik and antibritish continental Europe.
Rosenberg's speeches, setting out plans for the "exchange of the Polish corridor against the Ukraine, his "diplomatic" journeys into certain countries after the s eizure of power by the fascists, his clumsy efforts to realize the foreign policy programme of the nazis were disclosed in detail in the press.
The submitted documents give a clear picture of Rosenberg's feverish activity in April 1941 - during the period immediately proceeding the attack of Germany on the USSR - when he was nominated "Fuehrer's PS-865 plenipotentiary for the supreme control of the questions connected USA-143 with the Eastern-European territories". Transcr.
On 7 April 1941, two weeks prior to his nomination, Rosenberg sent to morn. sess. Hitler his proposals for the division of the Soviet Union into 17.4.46 1019-PS Reichskomnissariats and for the nomination of fascist governors for PS-1039 USA-146 the occupied territories. Byelorussia and the Ukraine, Minsk end Kiev, Rostov and Tbilisi, Leningrad and Moscow, were all enumerated in Rosenberg's proposals.
For the post of the Reichskommissar of Moscow, Rosenberg recommended the notorious Erich Koch.
We have heard about Rosenberg's meetings with Brauchitsch and Reader and of his conferences with Funk, General Thomas, state secretary Backs and others, on the questions of economical exploitation of the eastern territories, and about his negotiations with Ribbentrop, the SS Chief of Staff, the Chief of the German intelligence service, Admiral Canari Already six weeks prior to the attack on the USSR, he worked out directives for all the Reichskommissars of the occupied eastern USA-144 territories, in which he provided for a "Rcichskommissariat Russia" and the "Reichskommissariat Caucasus", whilst the Byelorussian republic was to form a prt of the "Reichskommissariat Ostland". PS-1030 Rosenberg's attempts to affirm that he did not share in the aggressive, predatory aims of the war against the USSR, and that, in his capacity of Minister for the occupied Eastern territories, he all but loaded with benefits the population of these territories.
And this he dares to affirm, when the directive to the Reichskommissar of the Baltic countries and Byelorussia, described his aims as follows:
"..... the creation of a German protectorate for the purpose of subsequent inclusion of these regions in the Greater German Reich, by means of the germanization of elements - suitable from the racial point of view, of the colonization by the representatives of the German race and of the extermination of the undesired elements."
And this is said in addition to the following recommendations made in another of Rosenberg's directives on the subject of the civil administration in the occupied Eastern territories:
"Our main task ..... is the furthering of the Reich's interests.
The regulations of the Hague Convention regarding land-warfare EC-347 are not valid, as we can consider that the USSR has been USA-320 destroyed ..... For this reason, all measures which the German administration deem necessary and convenient are admissible."
Rosenberg was too hasty in his assertion that the USSR was destroyed, let the cat out of the bag, and gave away his secret plans.
But this document is also an irrefutable proof, invalidating all the attempts of the defendant to throw off his shoulders the burden of responsibility for the monstrous crime perpetrated by the German fascist aggressors throughout the occupied territories of the USSR, to the shoulders of individual officials and policemen, of Koch and Himmler.
It was Rosenberg, who permitted the repudiation of the Hague Convention and the utilization of all measures which might seem "convenient".When Koch, for his "convenience" exterminated the population of the entire Zuman district, he was acting in the spirit of this directive of Rosenberg.
Rosenberg described here his dissentions with Koch; he alleged that he has followed humanitarian policy and even imported agricultural machinery.
Even if Rosenberg did indeed, from time to time, object to Koch's actions, it was only because he was afraid of premature publicity, because he was afraid that Koch's unparalleled ill-treatment of the Ukrainian people would only strengthen the resistance movement.
Rosenberg was influenced by fear and not by any humanitarian considerations.
Rosenberg's true policy is set out in numerous documents which have now became known to the world's public opinion and which are in the files of the Tribunal.
PS-045 In an "official note for the Fuehrer" dated 16.3.1942, Rosenberg set out the aims of the German policy in the occupied territories of the USSR and, first of all, in the Ukraine.
.... "the utilization of minerals, the creation of a German colony in certain regions, no artificial intellectual development of the population, but its preservation as a source of manpower."
In his report on the reorganization of the Caucasus, Rosenberg wrote that:
USSR-58 The problem of the East consists in the transplanting of the Baltic nations to the soil of German culture and in the preparation for the large-scale expansion of the German frontiers.
The task of the Ukraine is to secure the necessary food supplies for Germany and Europe, and the raw materials for the continent.
The problem of the Caucasus is primarily a political problem and it will USSR-58 lead to the expansion of continental Europe, headed by Germany, from the Caucasus isthmus to the near East."
And finally I would like to point out that it was Rosenberg who made the following statement, at a conference of the German Labor Front, on the policy of the occupied USSR territories:
USSR-170 "It is obvious, that if we are to subjugate these peoples, arbitrary justice and tyranny will be the most suitable form of government."
The defense affirms that Rosenberg and his "Einsatzstab" were not concerned with the plunder of cultural treasures, but with their preservation.
This statement is also quite false. Numerous documents read into the record at this trial, have proved that as early as April 1941, i.e. more than two months prior to the attack on the USSR, Rosenberg was organizing special units and staffs and was elaborating plans for the removal of the cultural treasures of the Soviet Union.
USSR-375 On 16 October 1941 Rosenberg wrote to Hitler as follows: US-076 "I have now given an order to a similar operative staff of my organization to carry out in the occupied Eastern territories the work already accomplished in the West.
..... Having before cur eyes the whole picture, we can satisfy all the just wishes and demands of the Greater German Reich.
On this basis I would also be willing to take upon myself to guarantee that all the treasures of art from the Lintz and other museums which can be utilized for your personal plans, are really used for this purpose.
327-PS On 17 October 1944, Rosenberg wrote to Lammers that for the transport USA-338 of goods "listed" by his organization, it was necessary to use 1,418,000 railroad cars, whilst 427,000 further tons were transported by water.
In this same letter, Rosenberg mentioned that amongst the confiscated goods removed to Germany there was 9,000 cars with agricultural and other machinery.
And after this, he dares to speak about some machines which he has allegedly imported into the Ukraine!And finally, I shall speak about the ridiculous theory of the so called Rosenberg's "noble antisemitism". It is absurd to argue with Rosenberg's counsel, who affirms that there exists such a thing as as "noble antisemitism", and all the more absurd it is to argue with Rosenberg.
In statement to the Tribunal, I threw light upon the fascist propaganda contained in the defense speeches.
Now, I would like to recall to the Tribunal the text of two of Rosenberg's documents:
In his directive of 29 April 1941, he wrote: USA-278 "The general solution of the Jewish problem must at the present moment PS-1024 be carried out by methods of a temporary character.
Slave labor for Jews, the creation of Ghettos, etc.
, must be the solution of this problem."
Even more cynical and frank is the statement made by Rosenberg in November 1942, when he, in his capacity of Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, addressed a conference of the German labor front:
USSR-170 "We must not be satisfied - said Rosenberg - with the deportation of Jews to another country and with the creation here or there of a large Jewish ghetto; no, our object must always remain the same.
The Jewish problem in Europe and in Germany will be solved only when there are no more Jews left on the European continent."
USA-289 And the operations "Kotbus", the extermination of Jews in the Baltic P-135 towns, in the Ukraine and Byelorussia - all these were carried out in conformity with Rosenberg's theories and with his agreement.
In 1937 Rosenberg received the German national prize. Commenting on this event, the fascist press wrote as follows:
USA-600 "Alfred Rosenberg has brilliantly succeeded with his books in PS-3559 building up the scientific and the spiritual foundations of, and in consolidating and strengthening the philosophy of the national-socialism.
Only future generations will be able to appreciate fully the profound influence of this man on the philosophical foundations of the national-socialist state."
But the future - became the present. And I am sure that the Tribunal will be able to appreciate duly not only the influence exercised by Rosenberg on the "philosophical foundations of the national-socialist state", but also his active participation in all the crimes against peace and humanity perpetrated by the Hitlerites.
A lawyer by training the defendant Hans Frank was 29 July A LJG 20-1 one of those who liked to speak about reviewing the "ancient German" law for Germans about "Principles of Justice", for the "select" about the "right of the chosen people" to annihilate nations and countries.
In 1939, he was the very man, who had been corrupting the German legal conception for a long time, to whom Hitler entrusted the fate of subjugated Poland.
Frank arrived in Poland to realize practically the programme of enslavement and extermination of the people on the territory of a country possessing a history which had lasted for ages and original high culture.
I should like to remind the Tribunal of some of Frank's views expressed during the first months of his stay in Poland, taken from his so called "diary". It is hardly worth while to discuss with the defense counsel the probative value of this document.
Frank himself declared to the magistrate that " this document was of historical importance" and to the question "whether all his statements contained in the diary were true", he replied:
" they fully correspond to what I know."
On 19th January 1940, Frank declared with cynical frankness at the conference of the department-leaders.
USSR-223 "On 15th September 1939, I was entrusted with the task page 4 2233-PS of governing the conquered eastern territories and received the special order to ruin this territory ruthlessly as a war territory and a war trophy and to turn it into a heap of rubble from a point of view of the social, economic, cultural and political structure."
On 31 October 1939, in the presence of Goebbels at a conference uniting the leading officials of the Govern ment-General, he declared:
"A perfectly accurate differenciation must be made between the German people - the master-race,- and the Poles."
He then remembered the Polish culture which Frank's 29 July A LJG 20-2 defense counsel Dr. Seild said here, took so great care of.
He stated: USSR-223 "The Poles can be allowed only those possibilities Page 3 for educating themselves which would prove the hopelessness of the destiny of their nation.
Alone bad films or films demonstrating the might and greatness of the Germans can be taken into consideration for the purpose."
USSR-335 One of Frank's first instructions was the order to shoot hostages.
Later on similar orders were to be counted by the hundred and the thousand until they finally culminated in the edition of regulation dated 2 October 1943.
USSR-335 On 10 November 1939 Frank was informed that the day USSR-223 of Polish independence was approaching and that posters page 3 were being hung up on certain houses to remind the Poles USSR-223 of their national holiday. The following entry then appeared in Frank's "Diary":"The Governor-General decrees that one inhabitant of the male sex is to be taken from every house on which a poster of this kind is hung up and is to be shot.
The Pole must feel that we do not intend building a lawful state for him."
The short extract we are quoting from the speech Frank made at the conference of the department-chiefs of the Government-General characterizes this Hitlerite "lawyer" far better than lengthy excerpts taken from his parade speeches which we were obliged to listen to here.
...
The criminal activity of Frank in Poland is so very manifold, that there is no possibility, in a short speech, to reconstruct to the Tribunal the innumerable proofs of Frank's guilt which have been submitted in this court-room and which are evidently still fresh in the memory of Your Honors.
But from Frank's criminal activities in Poland we must segregate the predominant trait which is Frank's activity 29 July A LJG 20-3 as the murderer of millions of people.