Read Ebook: Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal Nuremburg 14 November 1945-1 October 1946 Volume 08 by Various

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"B. Expropriation of banks and their funds.

"In Czechoslovakia industrial undertakings were directly financed by the banks, which often owned or controlled the majority of shares. Having obtained control of the banks, the Nazis thus secured control of industry.

" After Munich.

"After Munich, two important German banks, the Dresdner Bank and the Deutsche Bank took over the branches of Prague banks, situated in the ceded territory. Thus among the enterprises taken over by the Dresdner Bank were 32 branches of the Bohemian Discount Bank and among those taken over by the Deutsche Bank were 25 branches of Bohemian Union Bank.

"As soon as these two banks obtained control of the branch banks in the Sudetenland they also endeavored to gain influence on the respective head offices of these banks in Prague.

"The Czechoslovak banks were joint stock companies. Every joint stock company with even one Jewish director was considered to be Jewish. In this manner the non-Jewish property was also taken over.

" After the invasion of 15 March 1939.

"After the invasion several Czechoslovak banks in Bohemia, in consequence of their Aryanization, became the property of the Dresdner Bank. Among other enterprises, this German bank took over the Union Bank of Bohemia. In this way all the financial interests which these banks had in Czech industry, as well as the entire share capital, fell into German hands.

"From that time on German capital began to infiltrate into the Czech banks; their expropriation and incorporation into the German bank system began. The Dresdner Bank and the Deutsche Bank were officially entrusted with the task of expropriating the funds belonging to the Czechoslovak banking concerns.

I skip one paragraph of this report and pass on to the next count:

"C. Destruction of National Industry.

" Compulsory organization.

"After the invasion the Germans introduced into the Protectorate the compulsory organization of Czech industry on the German model.

"They appointed a committee for every new association and all the industrial 'groups' appointing at least one Nazi as chairman or vice chairman or, just as an ordinary member. However, all the Czech members actually were mere puppets.

" Armament factories.

"The Dresdner Bank acquired the most important armament factories in Czechoslovakia, that is, the Skoda Works in Pilsen and the Czechoslovak 'Zborjobka' in Br?nn. The private share-holders were forced to surrender their shares at prices far below their actual value; the bank paid for these shares with coupons which had been withdrawn from circulation, and confiscated by the Germans in the districts previously ceded in accordance with the Munich agreement.

" The Hermann G?ring Werke.

I skip the paragraph concerning the same methods adopted in the case of light industry and pass on to the next count of the report, "Financial Spoliation."

"After the occupation of the territory, ceded apparently in accordance with the Munich agreement, the Germans refused to take over part of the Czechoslovak State debt, although they acquired very valuable State property in the districts taken away from Czechoslovakia. Government bonds of low denominations amounting to a total of 1,600 million crowns were in circulation in the occupied territory.

"The Germans reserved the right to use these obligations in Czechoslovakia as legal tender."

Gentlemen, further on in this report we find a detailed account of the Hitlerite campaign of spoliation directed against the financial economy of the Czechoslovak Republic. With a view to saving time I shall refrain from quoting this excerpt and shall merely submit the balance sheet of the Czechoslovak National Bank.

"The balance sheet of the Czech National Bank showed the following figures for 'other assets' in million of crowns: 31 December 1938, 845; 31 December 1939, 3,576; 31 December 1942, 17,366."

I now quote an excerpt from the section entitled, "Taxes":

"When war broke out the Nazis fixed the war contribution of the Protectorate at an annual sum of 2,000 million crowns . The Nazis claimed that they were entitled to this on the grounds that the Czechs did not have to fight, because the Germans fought for them.

"Immediately after the occupation the Germans seized the proceeds of various indirect taxes and diverted them into the Reich Treasury."

Gentlemen, the excerpt which I just read from the report of the Czechoslovak Government gives an adequate picture of the manner in which, after having seized Czechoslovakia, the Hitlerites subjected it to wanton plunder in every field of its economic life--agriculture, industry, and finance.

Having seized the entire economic resources of the Czechoslovak Republic, the Hitlerite Government forced this economy to serve their criminal interests, extracting everything possible in order to prepare for further aggression against the peoples of Europe and for new military attacks with the monstrous aim of achieving world domination by the German "master race."

I shall now pass to the reading of the fourth section of the official report of the Polish Government dealing with crimes committed by the Hitlerites in occupied Poland. This report has already been presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-93 and, according to Article 21 of the Charter, constitutes irrefutable evidence. I quote an excerpt from this report which the Tribunal will find on Page 14 of the document book:

"Expropriation and plunder of public and private property.

"a) On 27 September 1939 the German military authorities issued a decree concerning the sequestration and confiscation of Polish property in the western provinces. 'The property of the Polish State, Polish public institutions, municipalities and unions, individuals, and corporations can be sequestered and confiscated,' stated Paragraph 1 of the said decree.

"b) The right of the military authorities to dispose of Polish property in the incorporated provinces passed to the 'Haupttreuhandstelle Ost' with headquarters in Berlin and branch offices in Poland. It was entrusted with the administration of confiscated property of the Polish State, as well as with the general policy in Poland in accordance with the plan devised by the Reich Government.

"e) The process of confiscation, however, went further. The property of Polish citizens became liable to seizure and confiscation unless the owner acquired German citizenship in accordance with Hitler's decree of 8 October 1939.

"Other decrees dealt with the repayment of debts, because the sequestrators were authorized to repay debts to privileged creditors only. These were members of the 'Deutsche Volksliste' so far as war debts were concerned, as well as citizens of the Reich or the free city of Danzig, as regards debts incurred after 1 September 1939."

I skip two pages of this report enumerating the companies which were specially created for carrying out of this plunder activity and also for plundering the Polish-Jewish population, which as is already known to the Tribunal, was later exterminated. I pass on to the end of the Polish Government report. The Tribunal will find this excerpt on Page 17 of the document book.

Mere quotations from these and other decrees may create a wrong impression as to the means used by the defendants in the case of the Jewish property in Poland. But it should be pointed out that steps concerning Jewish property were only preliminaries to infinitely greater crimes in the future. At the end of this section of the report is justly stated--I quote:

"Aside from the crimes which have been proved and described here, there are thousands of others which fade into insignificance beside the numberless crimes of mass murder, mass plunder, and mass destruction."

It is impossible to enumerate all the crimes committed in Poland under the direct leadership of the Defendant Frank, who was the head of all the administration in the so-called Government General.

Frank's diaries which were found and became part of the evidence in this case, give a clear and concrete idea of the crimes committed by the Hitlerites in Poland under his direction. In these diaries, Your Honors, are entries which have a direct bearing on the subject of my presentation.

Therefore I should like, with your permission, to quote excerpts from this diary which have not yet been quoted.

I quote from the volume entitled "Conference of Departmental Heads for 1939-1940" , Pages 11 and 12. In your document book, gentlemen, this excerpt is on Page 21:

"My relationship with the Poles resembles that between an ant and a plant louse. When I treat the Poles helpfully, tickle them in a friendly manner, so to speak, I do it in the expectation that I shall profit by their labor output. This is not a political, but a purely tactical and technical problem. In cases where, in spite of all measures, the output does not increase, or where I have the slightest reason to step in, I would not hesitate to take even the most Draconian action."

From the volume entitled "Diary 1942" I quote:

"Dr. Frank: 'We must remember that notes issued by the Bank of Poland to the value of 540,000,000 zlotys were taken over in Occupied Eastern Territory by the Governor General without any compensation being made by the Reich. This represents a contribution of more than 500 million exacted from the Government General by Germany, in addition to other payments.'"

From the same volume, Page 1277--this concerns the Governor's conference which took place on 7 December 1942, in Krak?w--measures for increasing production for the years 1942-43 were discussed. A certain Dr. Fischer stated:

"If the new food scheme is carried out, it would mean that in Warsaw and its suburbs alone 500,000 people would be deprived of food."

From the same volume on Page 1331, Frank speaks:

This same Frank on Page 1332 states the following--the Tribunal will find this quotation on Page 27 of the document book:

"These consignments to the Reich had, however, one definite drawback to them, since the quantities we were responsible for delivering exceeded the actual food supplies required by the region. We now have to face the following problem. Can we, as from February, cut 2 million non-German inhabitants of the region out of the general rationing scheme?"

In the volume entitled "Workers Conferences for 1943," we find an excerpt concerning the conference of 14 April 1943, which took place in Krak?w. On Page 28 of the document book, the Tribunal will find the excerpt which I wish to read into the record.

"President Naumann is speaking, and he quotes the figures estimated for 1943-44:

"One thousand five hundred tons of sweets for the Germans, 36 million liters of skimmed fresh milk; 15,100,000 liters of full cream milk for the Germans."

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