The Nuremberg Trials (Vol.4). International Military Tribunal

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Rosenberg has suggested to the Führer that:

      “1. The state libraries and archives be searched for documents valuable to Germany.

      “2. The Chancelleries of the high Church authorities and the lodges be searched for political maneuvers directed against us and that the material in question be seized.

      “The Führer has ordered that this suggestion be followed and that the Gestapo, supported by the archivists of Reichsleiter Rosenberg, be put in charge of the searches. The Chief of Security Police, SS-Gruppenführer Heydrich, has been informed. He will communicate with the competent military commanders in order to execute this order.

      “These measures will be executed in all regions of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France occupied by us.

      “It is requested that subordinate services be informed.

      “Chief of High Command of the Armed Forces,”—signed—“Keitel.”

      From the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France the Einsatzstab’s activities ultimately were expanded still further to Norway and Denmark. I now offer in evidence Document 159-PS, Exhibit USA-380, which is the copy of an order signed by Utikal, Chief of the Einsatzstab, dated the 6th of June 1944, from which it is seen that a special mission of the Einsatzstab was sent to Norway and Denmark.

      As the German Army penetrated to the East, the fingers of the Einsatzstab reached out to seize the cultural riches thus made available to them; and their activities were extended to the Occupied Eastern Territories, including the Baltic States and the Ukraine, as well as to Hungary and Greece. I now offer in evidence Document 153-PS, Exhibit USA-381, being a certified copy of a letter from Rosenberg to the Reich Commissioner for the East and Reich Commissioner for the Ukraine, dated 27 April 1942. The subject of the letter is stated to be as follows: “Formation of a Central Unit for the Seizure and Securing of Objects of Cultural Value in the Occupied Eastern Territories.” In the last paragraph of that document, I quote:

      “With the Commissioners of the Reich a special department within Department II (political) will be set up for a limited time for the seizure and securing of objects of cultural value. This department is under the direction of the appropriate head of the main group of the ‘Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the Occupied Territories.’ ”

      THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps this would be a good time to break off for 10 minutes.

      [A recess was taken.]

      COL. STOREY: Activities were initiated in Hungary as indicated by Document Number 158-PS, Exhibit USA-382, which I now offer in evidence. This was a copy of a message initialed by Utikal, Rosenberg’s Chief of Staff. The first paragraph of this document states:

      “The Einsatzstab of Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the Occupied Territories has dispatched a Sonderkommando under the direction of Einsatzstabsführer Dr. Zeiss, who is identified by means of his Service Book Number 187, for the accomplishment of the missions of the Einsatzstab in Hungary outlined in the Führer’s Decree of 1 March 1942.”

      I now offer into evidence Document Number 171-PS, Exhibit USA-383, which is an undated report on the “Library for Exploration of the Jewish Question.” The fifth paragraph states:

      “The most significant book collections today belonging to the Library for Research on the Jewish Question are the following. . . .”

      The ninth item of the list which follows refers to “Book collections from Jewish Communities in Greece (about 10,000 volumes).”

      It was only natural that an operation conducted on so vast a scale, extending as it did to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, the Occupied Eastern Territories, the Baltic States, the Ukraine, Hungary, and Greece, should call upon a multitude of other agencies for assistance. Among the other agencies co-operating in the plunder program were several of those which stand indicted here as criminal organizations. The co-operation of the Wehrmacht High Command was demanded by the Hitler order of 1 March 1942, which I now offer in evidence as our Document 149-PS, Exhibit USA-369, which is signed personally by Adolf Hitler and is also in the Jumbo type. The order decrees the ideological fight against the enemies of National Socialism to be a military necessity and reaffirms the authority of the Einsatzstab Rosenberg to conduct searches and seizures of suitable material for the Hohe Schule. The fifth paragraph states:

      “The directives concerning co-operation with the Wehrmacht were given to the Chief of the OKW with the approval of Reichsleiter Rosenberg.”

      While I am on that document, which is referred to later, I should like to read the other portions. I call attention of Your Honors to the distribution. It is distributed to all duty stations of the Armed Forces, the Party, and the State. It says:

      “Jews, Freemasons, and related ideological enemies of National Socialism are responsible for the war which is now being waged against the Reich. The co-ordinated ideological fight against those powers is a military necessity. I have therefore charged Reichsleiter Rosenberg to carry out this task in co-operation with the chief of the OKW. His Einsatzstab in the Occupied Territories is authorized to search libraries, record offices, lodges, and other ideological and cultural institutions of all kinds for suitable material, and to confiscate the said material for the ideological task of the NSDAP and the later scientific research work of the Hohe Schule. The same regulation applies to cultural assets which are in possession of or the property of Jews, or ownerless, or not clearly of unobjectionable origin.”

      The final passage is:

      “The necessary measures within the Eastern territories under the German Administration are determined by Reichsleiter Rosenberg in his capacity as Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories.”—Signed—“Adolf Hitler.”

      THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, I think the Tribunal would find it convenient, and it would save time, if the documents, when they are referred to, were read in full insofar as you want to read them, rather than returning to read one passage and then returning to a document later on.

      COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir. May I explain why that was, Sir? I was trying to fit in this presentation with the Leadership Corps. It was quoted in two places and I didn’t notice it until I started.

      THE PRESIDENT: What I am saying is that I think it is much easier to follow the documents if all the parts of the document which you wish to read are read at one time, rather than to read one sentence, then come back to another sentence, and then possibly come back to a document for a third sentence. I don’t know whether that will be possible for you to do.

      COL. STOREY: We will try to work it out that way, Sir.

      THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

      COL. STOREY: Co-operation of the SS and the SD is indicated in a letter from Rosenberg to Bormann dated 23rd of April 1941, Document Number 071-PS, Exhibit USA-371, which I now offer in evidence. This letter states in the fifth sentence of the first numbered paragraph:

      “It is self-evident that the confiscations are not executed by the Gauleitung, but that they are conducted by the Security Service as well as by the police.”

      Farther down in the same paragraph it is stated:

      “It has been communicated to me in writing by a Gauleiter that the Reich Security Main Office of the SS has requested the following from the library of a confiscated monastery: The Catholic Handbook, Albertus СКАЧАТЬ