Your Honors, that which Goebbels, the Defendants Ribbentrop and Rosenberg said about exploiting the space captured by the soldiers took on, at the O.K.W., the shape of plans for further aggression.

In this respect the following document, 57-C -- which I now submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit USSR 336 -- is of interest and I ask you to accept it as evidence. This document is a letter from the German Naval War Staff to the commanding generals of Groups West, North and South. This document was discovered in German archives by the Allied troops.

The letter which you will find on Page 210 in the document book, is entitled, "Objectives for the Further Conduct of War upon the termination of the Campaign in the East." It is numbered 1385, and is dated 8th August, 1941.

In those days the Fascist conspirators considered that victory over the Soviet Union was really only a question of time, and they therefore planned for further aggression.

This letter which I am about to quote begins with the following words:

"The Naval War Command has just received the draft of the Fuehrer's directives concerning further intentions on termination of the campaign in the East.

The following declarations describe these intentions in broad lines and are only intended for the personal information of the commanding generals and the Chiefs of Staff."

I omit, Your Honors, the first two sub-paragraphs dealing with he tasks of the so-called "pacification" of the Occupied Eastern Territories and with the assignment to other fronts of troops which had become available.

Sub-paragraph 3 details the intentions of the Fascist conspirators in North Africa. I quote:

"Strengthening of the Armed Forces in North Africa with a view to rendering possible the capture of Tobruk. In order to permit the passage of necessary transports according to plan, attacks by the German Air Force on Malta should be resumed.

Provided that weather conditions cause no delay and the service of transports is assured as planned, it can be assumed that the campaign against Tobruk will begin in mid-September."

Sub-paragraph 4 of Part 2 of the letter just submitted to you envisaged that:

"Plan `Felix,' i.e., the seizure of Gibraltar with the active participation of Spain, must be executed in 1941."

"If, once the termination of the campaign in the East has been made known, we succeed in bringing Turkey to our side, an attack on Syria and Palestine in the direction of Egypt is foreseen after a minimum period of 85 days for the preparation of the necessary forces, and a preliminary

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securing of the Chersonese passes and an improvement of Anatolian transportation routes through Turkey, with German help."

"If, even after the defeat of Soviet Russia, it would still prove impossible to bring Turkey over to our side, a southward thrust through Anatolia would have to be carried out against her will."

"An attack on Egypt from Cyrenaica, after the fall of Tobruk could probably not be carried out before the end of 1941 or the beginning of 1942."

"If the collapse of Soviet Russia creates the necessary conditions, an advance by a motorized expeditionary force through Trans-Caucasia, in the direction of the Persian Gulf, and in the direction of Iran, Syria and Egypt is envisaged.

Because of weather conditions, this attack will only become possible at the beginning of 1942."

The Fascist aggressors hoped to destroy the Soviet Union in a lightning war, to seize her wealth, to subjugate the Soviet people and, by these means, to open for themselves the road to world domination.

Now, Your Honors, I have come to the end of my presentation. In concluding the presentation of documentary evidence regarding the aggression of the Fascist conspirators against the Soviet Union, may I ask the Tribunal's permission to sum up briefly as follows:

(1) The criminal intent of attacking the U.S.S.R. for the purpose of plundering the Soviet Union and exploiting its riches for purposes of further German aggression was conceived by the Fascist conspirators long before the actual launching of the attack.

(2) The military preparations for the attack on the Soviet Union were conducted by the Fascist criminals for at least a year and embraced not only Germany, but also satellite countries, particularly Roumania, Finland and Hungary.

(3) The execution of the criminal designs of the Fascist aggression, consisting of the extermination of the peaceful population, the plunder of the Soviet Union and the wresting of its territories, was planned long before the attack on the Soviet Union.

Fortunately for all freedom-loving nations in the world, the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, the Soviet people, and their Red Army completely overthrew all the fiendish plans of the Fascist aggressors. The Red Army not only withstood and stopped the Fascist aggression; but, together with the armies of its allies, brought Nazi Germany to complete catastrophe and the Fascist war criminals to the dock.

I thus end my presentation, Your Honors.

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