The Nuremberg Trials (Vol.5). International Military Tribunal

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СКАЧАТЬ desired peace. The far-flung activities of the APA are indicated at Page 14 of the translation of this document and are stated as follows:

      “1. The APA is divided into three main offices:

      “A. Office for Foreign Areas with its main sections: a) England and Far East; b) Near East; c) southeast; d) north; e) old Orient; f) controls, personnel questions, et cetera.

      “B. Office of the German Academic Exchange Service. . . .

      “C. Office of Foreign Commerce.

      “2. Moreover, there is in the APA a main office for the press service and an educational office.”

      The press activities of the APA were designed to influence world opinion in such a manner as to conceal the conspirators’ true purposes and thus facilitate the preparation for waging aggressive war. The activities were carried on, on an ambitious scale. I offer into evidence Document 003-PS, which is entitled A Short Report on the Activities of the APA of the NSDAP. It is Exhibit Number USA-603. The last paragraph on Page 5 of the translation describes the press activities as follows:

      “The Press Division of the APA is staffed by persons conversant with all languages to be considered. They examine approximately 300 newspapers daily and deliver to the Führer, the Führer’s deputy, and all other interested offices the condensations of the important trends of the entire world press. . . . The Press Division furthermore maintains an exact record on the prestige of the most important papers and journalists of the world. Many embarrassments during conferences in Germany could have been avoided had one consulted these archives. . . . Further, the Press Division was able to arrange a host of interviews with me as well as conducting a great number of unobjectionable foreign journalists to the various official representatives of Germany.”

      And then:

      “Hearst then personally asked me to write often about the position of German foreign policy in his papers. This year five detailed articles have appeared under my name in Hearst papers all over the world. Since these articles, as Hearst personally let me know, presented well-founded arguments, he asked me to write further articles for his paper.”

      Thus, Rosenberg used his foreign policy office to influence world opinion on behalf of National Socialism.

      It is interesting to note in passing that Rosenberg states, at Page 4 of this document, that the Romanian anti-Semitic leader, Cuza, followed his suggestions as—in Rosenberg’s words—“he had recognized in me an unyielding anti-Semite.” We will hear more of this affair shortly.

      The nature and extent of the activities of the APA are amply disclosed in a single document. This is the principal document to which I will refer in this phase of the case against Rosenberg. This document bears our Number 007-PS and is entitled, “Report on the Activities of the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Party from 1933 to 1943.” It is signed by Rosenberg. Portions of Annex 1, attached to the report, have already been read into evidence as Exhibit GB-84. The body of the report and Annex 2 have not been referred to heretofore. As will be seen the document contains a recital of widespread activities in foreign countries. These activities range from the promotion of economic penetration to fomentation of anti-Semitism; from cultural and political infiltration to the instigation of treason. Activities were carried on throughout the world and extended to such widely separated points as the Middle East and Brazil.

      Many of the APA’s achievements were brought about through the subtle exploitation of personal relationships. Reading from the middle of the first paragraph on Page 2 of the translation, which refers to activities in Hungary, we learn that:

      “The first foreign state visit after the seizure of power took place through the mediation of the foreign policy office. Julius Gömbös, who in former years had himself pursued anti-Semitic and racial tendencies and with whom the office maintained a personal connection, had reached the Hungarian Premier’s chair. . . .”

      The APA endeavored to strengthen the war economy by shifting the source of food imports to the Balkans, as stated in Paragraph 3 on Page 2 of the translation:

      “Motivated by reasons of war economy, the office advocated the transfer of raw material purchases from overseas to the areas accessible by overland traffic routes.”

      Then he goes on to point out that they had successfully shifted the source of food imports, particularly fruit and vegetable imports, to the Balkans as a result of the activities of the offices.

      Activities in Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg were confined, according to the report, to “observation of existing conditions”—a phrase which may have broad connotations—and “to the establishment of relations, especially of a commercial nature.”

      In Iran the APA achieved a high degree of economic penetration, in addition to promoting cultural relations. I quote from the middle of the third paragraph on Page 3:

      “The office’s initiative in developing, with the help of commercial circles, entirely new methods for the economic penetration of Iran found expression, in an extraordinarily favorable way, in reciprocal trade relations. Naturally, in Germany, too, this initiative encountered a completely negative attitude and resistance on the part of the competent State authorities, an attitude that at first had to be overcome. In the course of a few years, the volume of trade with Iran was multiplied five-fold and in 1939 Iran’s trade turnover with Germany had attained first place.”

      In the last sentence on Page 3. . .

      THE PRESIDENT: Well, now, Mr. Brudno, will you kindly explain to the Tribunal how the paragraph that you just read bears upon the guilt of Rosenberg in this Trial?

      MR. BRUDNO: If Your Honor pleases, we submit that the conspirators used, as one of the tools of conspiracy, the economic penetration of those countries which they deemed strategically necessary to have within the Axis orbit. The activities of Rosenberg in the field of foreign trade contributed materially, we submit, to the advancement of the conspiracy, as charged in the Indictment.

      THE PRESIDENT: Are you suggesting that it is a crime to try and stimulate trade in foreign countries?

      MR. BRUDNO: If Your Honor pleases, the expression of ideological opinions or the advancement of foreign trade do not, in themselves, constitute a crime, we agree.

      THE PRESIDENT: There is nothing here about ideological considerations. It is simply a question of trade.

      MR. BRUDNO: Further on, Your Honor, he mentions the cultural activities.

      THE PRESIDENT: I was confining myself, in order to try to get on, to the particular paragraph that you had just cited.

      MR. BRUDNO: I see, Your Honor; we are merely trying to show, Sir, that the Germans used the foreign trade weapon as a material part of the conspiratorial program.

      THE PRESIDENT: As I have said before, it is not possible for me or for any member of this Tribunal to conduct the case of the Prosecution for them. We can only tell them when we think they are being irrelevant and cumulative and ask them to try to cut down their presentation. It is for you to cut it down.

      MR. BRUDNO: Rosenberg goes on to state, if Your Honor please, at Page 3 of the translation, that “Afghanistan’s neutral position today is largely due to the office’s activity.”

      In connection with Arabia, he says:

      “The Arab question, too, became part of the work of the office. In spite of England’s tutelage of Iraq, СКАЧАТЬ