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In concluding the presentation of documents concerning the setting up of an aggressive bloc against the Soviet Union by the Fascist war criminals, I consider it necessary to make a few comments of a general nature as derived from these documents.

The Fascist conspirators began to adopt immediate measures for securing the participation of Roumania, Finland, and Hungary in the preparation for the predatory attack on the Soviet Union at least as early as September, 1940, when a military mission was sent to Roumania.

The negotiations concerning the military preparations for aggression against the Soviet Union, in each of these countries, were mainly concluded during the period September-December, 1940. The negotiations were conducted by the General Staffs of the German and the satellite armies. The subject of the negotiations in each case was of a purely military character, such as the retraining of the troops, the transportation of military units, the co-ordination of strategic plans, the deciding on the number of divisions needed to attack the Soviet Union, etc.

The character of these negotiations testifies to the fact that there existed between the Fascist Government of Germany and the Governments of Roumania, Finland, and Hungary, a preliminary agreement with regard to aggression against the Soviet Union even before the negotiations began.

And, finally, the documents submitted reveal that to each of these countries, one way or the other, the Fascist conspirators had promised some territory belonging to the Soviet Union.

I should like to point out one more fact.

In order to realize fully the consequences of the predatory Fascist attack on the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, it is not enough to confine ourselves to Plan "Barbarossa". This is a strategic plan, a plan for military attack, a plan for initiating aggression.

But close on the heels of the attack followed the so-called "assimilation" and "organisation" of the occupied territories. The plans for the "assimilation" and "organisation," which were plans for the extermination of the civilian population and the plundering of the occupied territories of the Soviet Union, were also prepared in advance, in the same way as Case "Barbarossa".

The Soviet prosecution declares that the documents at the disposal of the Tribunal, and especially such documents as the directive of 13th March, 1941 (Document 447-PS), signed by the defendant Keitel; the order for the application of martial law, dated 15th May, 1941 (Document 50-C), also signed by Keitel; the propaganda directive for Case "Barbarossa" (Document 26-C); and others, testify to the destruction not only of legal but of all moral standards of behavior by the hordes of the Fascist usurper in the temporarily occupied Soviet territories, this destruction having been premeditated and planned long before the attack on the Soviet Union.

Even before the attack on the Soviet Union, the Hitlerites had decided upon, and outlined in appropriate paragraphs of these instructions, directives, and orders, the methods for dealing with the civilian population, and the measures and means for plundering the land of the Soviet Union and reducing it to a colon of the Third Reich. And when war did break out and the whole secret was laid bare, the Fascists did not hesitate to publish all these plans in their press.

I submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit USSR 59 an article, published on 20th August, 1942, in "Das Schwarze Korps," (an S.S. paper and organ of the

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Reichsfuehrer S.S.) This article, entitled, "Should We Germanize?" (Page 180 of the document book) states openly:

"The Reichsfuehrer of the S.S. chose the following theme for one of the editions of the newspaper "Deutsche Arbeit," devoted to the problems of resettlement in the East:

Our duty in the East is not Germanisation in the former sense of the term -- that is, imposing the German language and the German laws upon the population -- but to ensure that only people of pure German blood should inhabit the East."

The rejection of the idea of Germanising the population of the occupied territories, and the assertion that "the East should be inhabited only by people of pure German blood," meant, in practice, the mass extermination of Soviet citizens, their spoliation and their deportation to slave labour, the annihilation of centuries Russian culture, and the destruction of our cities and villages. I shall confine myself to what I have just said, as the same theme, or rather themes, have already been elaborated and will b presented to the Tribunal by my colleagues.

On 22nd June, 1941, after prolonged preparations, the German Fascist hordes hurled themselves on the Soviet Union. One hundred and seventy divisions, concentrated on the borders of the Soviet Union from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea, started the invasion.

The military problems connected with the attack were formulated in Case "Barbarossa."

"The German Armed Forces should be ready, even prior to the end of the war with England, to defeat Soviet Russia by operating with lightning speed.

To this end the Army will have to utilise all units at its disposal, with the sole reservation that the territories occupied must be adequately protected against all unexpected eventualities."

As an ultimate aim, Case "Barbarossa" provided for the strengthening of the Astrakhan-Archangelsk line; the destruction by bombardment of the Ural industries, the seizure of Leningrad and Kronstadt, and finally, the capture of Moscow.

THE PRESIDENT: Would that be a good time to break off?

(The Tribunal adjourned until 13th February, 1946, at 1000 hours.).

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