The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

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Last-Modified: 2000/09/11

DR. SAUTER: This order is known to us, of course, Mr.
President, but we just wanted to be clear on this point,
that this order will still remain in force, even if the
presentation of evidence here is concluded.

THE PRESIDENT: Certainly.

Do the prosecution wish to make any application to the
Tribunal?

COLONEL PHILLIMORE: I have eight documents to put in. My
Lord, they are documents which it is intended to refer to in
the final speech and accordingly I would not propose to do
more than just to indicate their nature to the Tribunal and
put them in very quickly. I have a list of them which I will
hand up first. It may be convenient to see their nature.

THE PRESIDENT: Are they documents which have not yet been
offered in evidence?

COLONEL PHILLIMORE: Yes, my Lord; I am offering them in
rebuttal.

THE PRESIDENT: You have a list here?

COLONEL PHILLIMORE: Yes, my Lord; my Lord, the first
document.

THE PRESIDENT: Have they been communicated to the
defendants' counsel?

COLONEL PHILLIMORE: No, my Lord; I have copies here.

The first document, 1519-PS, contains orders for the
treatment of Soviet prisoners of war. My Lord, that is not
strictly offered in rebuttal, but the Tribunal has had
before it a document, EC-338, which was put in as Exhibit
USSR 356. That document consisted of a commentary by Admiral
Canaris on these orders, and your Lordship may remember the
document. Defendant Keitel had made certain notes on it on
which he was cross-examined, the reference in the shorthand
notes being pages 7219 to 7223. My Lord, it seems
appropriate that the actual orders should be before the
Tribunal and not merely the commentary.

My Lord, that will be Exhibit GB 525, and the Tribunal will
see, it consists of a covering letter from the defendant
Bormann to Gauleiters and Kreisleiters, covering the OKW
letter signed by General Reinicke, the head of the Prisoners
of War Department, and then there follow the actual
regulations.

THE PRESIDENT: Has not this been in before?

COLONEL PHILLIMORE: My Lord, I am told not. What was put in
was the commentary on this document which was by Admiral
Canaris. It was included - this document was included in the
Keitel Document Book, but it was not formally put in.

THE PRESIDENT: I see. You mean it will be GB

                                                   [Page 64]

COLONEL PHILLIMORE: 525, my Lord.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

COLONEL PHILLIMORE: My Lord, the second document, D-912,
will be Exhibit GB 526. This is a series of broadcasts from
German stations between 6th September and 22nd October,
1939, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation and
dealing with the Athenia.

My Lord, I offer that document in view of the defendant
Raeder's evidence. The Tribunal will remember that,
according to him, the article on the 23rd October in the
Volkischer Beobachter came as a complete surprise. The
reference in the shorthand notes is 9832, Page 9832.

My Lord, it also arises out of the questions, I think, put
to the Tribunal - put by the Tribunal to the defendant
Fritzsche, and it confirms his evidence that broadcasts
blaming Mr. Winston Churchill for being responsible for the
sinking of the Athenia started at the early part of
September and went right on through the month. Actually,
these broadcasts, the Tribunal will see - the first on 6th
September. I might read perhaps one sentence in the second
line:

  "The German Press refutes the accusations of the British
  Press that a German submarine had sunk the Athenia.
  Churchill, as one of his first actions, ordered the
  Athenia to be sunk in order to stir up anti-German
  feeling in the USA."

Well, then there are similar broadcasts from other stations
on that day, again on the 7th, the 11th, the 25th. I have
not got the one on the 27th put in by General Rudenko, but
there is one by the defendant Fritzsche on 1st October, and
so on, culminating with a broadcast by Goebbels on the 22nd,
the day before the article appeared. My Lord, that will be
Exhibit GB 526.

The next document, 3881-PS, is an extract from the
proceedings before the People's Court on 7th and 8th August,
1944, when seven defendants were tried for the attempt on
Hitler's life. My Lord, I am only putting in a translated
extract, but the photostat copy is in fact a complete record
- I should have said that what is before the Tribunal is
only a translation of certain extracts, but the exhibit
contains the complete record of the proceedings. My Lord, I
-

THE PRESIDENT: Unless we have it translated, we shall not be
able to have it in evidence.

COLONEL PHILLIMORE: My Lord, we do not intend to refer to
more than the translated extracts.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

COLONEL PHILLIMORE: I Only said that for the benefit of
defence counsel, who may wig to look elsewhere.

My Lord, I put that in in view of the defendant Jodl's
evidence that it was only because British generals obeyed
orders that the German generals were now being tried. And
the passages - the sense of the passages is that the
President of the People's Court is refusing to accept the
defence of superior orders put forward by the defendants. My
Lord, that will be Exhibit GB 527.

My Lord, the next document, D-181, which I offer as Exhibit
GB 528, is a letter by a Gauleiter to Gaumtsleiters,
Gauinspektors, and Kreisleiters on the subject of the law of
hereditary health, and sterilisation on the ground of
imbecility. It is an important document m connection with
the defendant Frick, and I put it in in view of the
statements made on his behalf by his counsel, to the effect
that Frick had no control over the political police and that
Himmler's subordination to him was purely nominal.

My Lord, there are a number of references in the letter to
the fact that the decree - and indeed its administration -
was the responsibility of the defendant Frick.

My Lord, the next document is of a similar nature, it is M-
151, and I offer it as Exhibit GB 529. It consists of three
letters on the subject of the murder of mental

                                                   [Page 65]

patients in institutions. The first is dated the 6th
September and addressed by the supervisor of a sanatorium at
Stettin to the Reich Minister of Justice. It sets out the
feeling of insecurity in the neighbourhood of the sanatorium
administered by its inspector, in view of the number of
deaths which are occurring.

The second, dated the 10th, is a letter from the Minister of
Justice acknowledging the complaint and saying that it has
been passed to the defendant Frick.

And the third, of the same date, is the Minister's letter to
his colleague passing the complaint to him.

My Lord, the next document is again on the same subject. It
is M-152, and I offer it as Exhibit GB 530. It consists of
four letters.

The first, dated 19th July, 1940, is addressed to the
defendant Frick as Reich Minister of the Interior, by Bishop
Wurm, the Provincial Bishop of the Wurttemberg Evangelical
Provincial Church. My Lord, it again sets out the mass of
complaints he is receiving, and then goes on to deal with
the wickedness of the practice which is apparently going on.

The second letter, dated 23rd August, is a letter to the
Minister of Justice referring to the letter sent to the
defendant Frick.

The third, of 5th September, is a letter to the defendant
Frick reminding him of the previous letter of 19th July to
which no reply had been received.

And the next letter of 6th September is a parallel
communication again to the Minister of Justice.

Finally, on the 11th of September, the last page of the
document, there is a minute on the Minister of Justice's
file indicating that an official of the Ministry had
informed the Bishop's Dean, presumably Dean Kemka, that the
matter was entirely one for the defendant Frick.

My Lord, the next document, D-455, which I offer as Exhibit
GB 531, is a pamphlet - the next document, my Lord, is a
pamphlet prepared by the German Military Government
authorities in Belgium. It comes from the files of the
German War Office, the OKH, and it is entitled, "Belgium's
Contributions to Germany's War Economy" and is dated 1st
March, 1942.

My Lord, I offer it in view of the general evidence that
German occupation was benevolent, and that - the Tribunal
has heard, again and again, the suggestion that they did a
great deal of good to the countries they occupied. This
document is a very graphic illustration of the falsity of
that evidence and suggestion.

My Lord, if I might take the Tribunal very quickly through
it, at Page 3 is a chart of the population figures in terms
of employees, and it shows that more than half the working
population was working for Germany. Of the 1,800,000 workers
and employees m Belgium, 901,280 were employed with the
German armed forces and in the German interests.

My Lord, at Page 4 is a comparison between Belgium, Holland
and France in terms of percentage of workers employed as
slave labour.

My Lord, at Page 5 is a statement of the production figures
of the Belgian contribution to Germany, in, I think it is
the 7th line, it is summed up: Output to the value of 1.2
milliard Reichsmark.

Page 6, there is a comparison between the coal taken from
Belgium and the same amount produced in the year in the
Ruhr.

At Page 8 there is a similar comparison of iron, with the
total amount of iron used in the West Wall.

Page 9, cement; Page 10, textiles; Page 11, metals.

There is a statement there which contains a sentence about
the summing up of what had been taken out

                                                   [Page 66]

  "It was possible to achieve these results only by
  exhausting the last reserve of the country."

At Page 12 there is a chart of how the metal collection has
affected individuals. It is a comparison between Belgium,
Holland, and France.

At Page 13 there is a statement about the contribution to
transport, and a chart on Page 14.

At Page 15, it is shown that the contributions in money
exceeded the total earned income of the Belgian workers for
the last year.

At Page 16, there are figures with regard to the quantity of
gold taken for safe keeping in the Reichsbank.

Page 18 deals with shares, a comparison with the total share
capital of I.G. Farben, the comparison being seven hundred
million Reichsmark as against the share capital of I.G.
Farben of eight hundred million.

Then there is a statement with regard to rations, showing
that Germany ha imported food into Belgium, but that,
despite that, the rationing was the lowest of all Western
countries.

And finally, on the last page, there is an indication of the
change in the Belgian rations by comparison between those of
1938 and under the benevolent rule of the German Military
Government of 1941. My Lord, it speaks for itself.

My Lord, the last Document, D-524, is a similar pamphlet
referring to France. It comes from the same source, and I
offer it as Exhibit GB 532.

My Lord, owing to a breakdown in electric power, I have not
been able to finish photostating the English copies, but I
will hand them in, if I may, subsequently and for the moment
I hand up German photostats.

My Lord, I offer it in view of the defendant Sauckel's
evidence, to the effect that the total slave labour figure
was not more than five million. My Lord, at Pages 8 and 9 of
this document, the Tribunal will see the slave labour
position of Germany at the end of 1943, so that to this must
be added slave labour drawn in during 1944. My Lord, it
amounts to just under seven million, of which 1,462,00 were
prisoners of war, so that the figure of slave labour at the
date was slightly over five million; that is, slave labour
excluding prisoners of war was slightly over five million,
and to that, as I say, one must add the increase during
1944.

My Lord, on Page 8 are the figures and comparisons:

Men, civilians, 3,631,000;

Prisoners of war, 1,462,000;

Women, 1,714,000.

And then the figures are given according to countries of
origin.

And on Page 9 is merely an illustration, in colour.

My Lord, the rest of the pamphlet merely gives figures
illustrative of what was taken from France, very similar to
those in the case of Belgium. And I do no propose to take
the Tribunal through it unless it is desired that I should
do so.

My Lord; I think I gave that an exhibit number, GB 532.

My Lord, those are all the documents that I have to offer. I
understand my friend, Mr. Dodd, has some.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: May it please the Tribunal, at the time
of the cross examination of the defendant Hermann Goering,
we confronted him with a document numbered 378-PS. It was
recorded as Exhibit USA 782. It was the report o the second
meeting of the Reich Defence Council. Goering acknowledged
the authenticity of the minutes as presented to him in the
German text. But the document at that time had not been
translated, and consequently it was not possible

                                                   [Page 67]

to read into the record the many parts of that document
which we considered important as bearing upon his
credibility and testimony, and as bearing upon the denials
of many other of the defendants that they knew of the
planning of the war and that they participated in it.

I would now like to read from the record that part which we
consider extremely important as rebuttal of testimony
received from several of the defendants.

On the face of it it is a circular letter, dated 10th July,
1939, from the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, on the
subject, "Second Meeting of the Reich Defence Council".

One hundred copies were prepared, and our copy is the 84th.
It is labelled "Most Secret", and merely transmitted in the
name of the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed
Forces, the enclosed document to the following parties,
among others. I shall name only the ones to which we have
attached some importance:

The Fuehrer's Deputy, the Chief of the Reich Chancellery,
Ministerprasident Field-Marshal Goering, the Reich Ministry
and Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, the Foreign Office,
the General Plenipotentiary for Reich Administration (nine
copies including copies for the Ministry of the Interior,
the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Education, the
Ministry for Church Affairs, and the Reich Office for
Planning). Also copies were sent to the General
Plenipotentiary for Economy, including copies for the
Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture,
the Ministry of Labour, the Chief Forester, and the
Commissioner for Price Control; to the Ministry of Finance,
the Ministry of Transport, Motor Transport and Roads, and
the Ministry of Railways, the Post Ministry, the Ministry of
Enlightenment and Propaganda, the Reichsbank Directorate,
The General Inspector of German Roads, the armed forces,
including nine copies for the OKH, five copies for the OKM,
the Reich Minister for Air and the Supreme Command of the
Armed Forces, a number of other copies being enclosed.

The enclosure is a report of the second meeting of the Reich
Defence Council held on a date to which we attach
importance, the 23rd day of June, 1939.

  "Place: Large Conference Room of the Reich Air Ministry.
  
  Commencement: 1110.
  
  Termination: 1355.
  
  President: Ministerprasident General Field-Marshal
  Goering.
  
  Persons present: - "

I shall name only those to which we attach some importance,
because the list is very long:


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