In the Latvian Republic destruction of the agriculture by the looting of all stock, machinery and produce.

Carrying away by Rosenberg's Headquarters of 100,000 valuable volumes and seventy cases of ancient periodicals and precious monographs; wanton destruction of libraries and other cultural buildings; destruction of the agriculture of the Latvian Republic by the looting of all stock, machinery and produce.

The result of this policy of plunder and destruction was to lay waste the land and cause utter desolation.

The overall value of the material loss which the U.S.S.R. has borne, is computed to be 679,000,000,000 roubles, in State prices of 1941.

Following the German occupation of Czechoslovakia on 15th March, I939, the defendants seized and stole large stocks of raw materials, copper, tin, iron, cotton, and food; caused to be taken to Germany large amounts of railway rolling stock, and many engines, carriages, steam vessels and trolley buses; robbed libraries, laboratories, and art museums of books, pictures, objects of art, scientific apparatus and furniture; stole all gold reserves and foreign exchange of Czechoslovakia, including 23,000 kilograms of gold, of a nominal value of 5,265,000 pounds; fraudulently acquired control and thereafter looted the Czech banks and many Czech industrial enterprises; and otherwise stole, looted and misappropriated Czechoslovak public and private property. The total sum of defendants' economic spoliation of Czechoslovakia from 1938 to 1945 is estimated at 200,000,000,000 Czechoslovak crowns.

(G) WANTON DESTRUCTION OF CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES, AND DEVASTATION NOT JUSTIFIED BY MILITARY NECESSITY

The defendants wantonly destroyed cities...

THE PRESIDENT : Will you go to paragraph 2 of (G) ? The French read the first paragraph. Do you want to go to paragraph 2 of (G)?

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL OZOL: I have begun

THE PRESIDENT: I thought we had read paragraph 1. We might take up at paragraph 2, beginning "In the Eastern Countries the defendants pursued...

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2. Eastern Countries :

In the Eastern Countries the defendants pursued a policy of wanton destruction and devastation: some particulars of this (without prejudice to the production of evidence of other cases) are set out above under the heading "Plunder of Public and Private Property."

In Greece in 1941, the villages of Amelofito, Kliston, Kizonia, Messovunos, Selli, Ano-Kerzilion and Kato-Kerzilion were utterly destroyed.

In Yugoslavia on 15th August, 1941, the German military command officially announced that the village of Skela was burned to the ground and the inhabitants killed on the order of the command.

On the order of the Field Commander Hoersterberg a punitive expedition from the SS troops and the field police destroyed the villages of Machkovats, and Kriva Reka in Serbia and all the inhabitants were killed.

General Fritz Neidbold (369 Infantry Division) on 11th September, 1944, gave an order to destroy the villages of Zagnlezde and Udora, hanging all the men and driving away all the women and children.

In Czechoslovakia the Nazi conspirators also practised the senseless destruction of populated places. Lezaky and Lidice were burned to the ground and the inhabitants killed.

(H) CONSCRIPTION OF CIVILIAN LABOUR

Throughout the occupied territories the defendants conscripted and forced the inhabitants to labour and requisitioned their services -

THE PRESIDENT: I think paragraph (H) has been read, the first paragraph of it. There only remains for you to read paragraph 2 of (H).

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL OZOL:

2. Eastern Countries :

Of the large number of citizens of the Soviet Union and of Czechoslovakia referred to under Count Three Vlll (B) 2 above many were so conscripted for forced labour.

IX. Individual, Group and Organisation Responsibility for the Offence stated in Count Three

Reference is hereby made to Appendix A of this Indictment for a statement of the responsibility of the individual defendants for the offence set forth in this Count Three of the Indictment. Reference is hereby made to Appendix B of this Indictment for a statement of the responsibility of the groups and organisations named herein as criminal groups and organisations for the offence set forth in this Count Three of the Indictment.

COUNT FOUR-CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY (Charter, Article 6, especially 6 (c))

X. Statement of the Offence

All the defendants committed Crimes against Humanity during a period of years preceding 8th May, 1945, in Germany and in all those countries and territories occupied by the German armed forces since 1st September, 1939, and in Austria and Czechoslovakia and in Italy and on the High Seas.

All the defendants, acting in concert with others, formulated and executed a Common Plan or Conspiracy to commit Crimes against Humanity as defined in Article 6 (c) of the Charter. This plan involved, among other things, the murder and persecution of all who were, or who were suspected of being, hostile to the Nazi Party and all who were, or who were suspected of being, opposed to the common plan alleged in Count One.

The said Crimes against humanity were committed by the defendants, and by other persons for whose acts the defendants are responsible (under Article 6 of the

[Page 29]

These methods and crimes constituted violations of international conventions, of internal penal laws, of the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal law of all civilised nations and were involved in and part of a systematic course of conduct. The said acts were contrary to Article 6 of the Charter.

The prosecution will rely upon the facts pleaded under Count Three as also constituting Crimes against Humanity.

(A) MURDER, EXTERMINATION, ENSLAVEMENT, DEPORTATION AND OTHER INHUMANE ACTS COMMITTED AGAINST CIVILIAN POPULATIONS BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR

For the purposes set out above, the defendants adopted a policy of persecution, repression, and extermination of all civilians in Germany who were, or who were believed to be, or who were believed likely to become, hostile to the Nazi Government and the Common Plan or Conspiracy described in Count One. They imprisoned such persons without judicial process, holding them in "protective custody" and concentration camps, and subjected them to persecution, degradation, despoilment, enslavement, torture and murder.

Special courts were established to carry out the will of the conspirators; favoured branches or agencies of the State and Party were permitted to operate outside the range even of Nazified law and to crush all tendencies and elements which were considered "undesirable." The various concentration camps included Buchenwald, which was established in 1933 and Dachau, which was established in 1934. At these and other camps the civilians were put to slave labour and murdered and ill-treated by divers means, including those set out in Count Three above, and these acts and policies were continued and extended to the occupied countries after the 1st September, 1939, and until 8th May, 1945.

(B) PERSECUTION ON POLITICAL, RACIAL AND RELIGIOUS GROUNDS IN EXECUTION OF AND IN CONNECTION WITH THE COMMON PLAN MENTIONED IN COUNT ONE

As above stated, in execution of and in connection with the common plan mentioned in Count One, opponents of the German Government were exterminated and persecuted. These persecutions were directed against Jews. They were also directed against persons whose political belief or spiritual aspirations were deemed to be in conflict with the aims of the Nazis.

Jews were systematically persecuted since 1933; they were deprived of liberty, thrown into concentration camps where they were murdered and ill-treated. Their property was confiscated. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were so treated before the 1st September, 1939.

Since the 1st September, 1939, the persecution of the Jews was redoubled; millions of Jews from Germany and from the occupied Western Countries were sent to the Eastern Countries for extermination.

Particulars by way of example and without prejudice to the production of evidence of other cases are as follows:

The Nazis murdered amongst others Chancellor Dollfuss, the Social Democrat Breitscheid and the Communist Thaelmann. They imprisoned in concentration camps numerous political and religious personages, for example, Chancellor Schuschnigg and Pastor Nieimoller.

In November, 1938, by orders of the Chief of the Gestapo, anti-Jewish demonstrations all over Germany took place. Jewish property was destroyed, 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps and their property confiscated.

Under paragraph VIII (A), above, millions of the persons there mentioned as having been murdered and ill-treated were Jews.

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Among other mass murders of Jews were the following:

At Kislovdosk all Jews were made to give up their property; 2,000 were shot in an anti-tank ditch at Mineralniye Vodi; 4,300 other Jews were shot in the same ditch.

60,000 Jews were shot on an island on the Dvina near Riga.

20,000 Jews were shot at Lutsk.

32,000 Jews were shot at Sarny.

60,000 Jews were shot at Kiev and Dniepropetrovsk.

Thousands of Jews were gassed weekly by means of gas-wagons which broke down from overwork.

As the Germans retreated before the Soviet Army they exterminated Jews rather than allow them to be liberated. Many concentration camps and ghettos were set up in which Jews were incarcerated and tortured, starved, subjected to merciless atrocities and finally exterminated.

About 70 000 Jews were exterminated in Yugoslavia.

Reference is hereby made to Appendix A of this Indictment for a statement of the responsibility of the individual defendants for the offence set forth in this Count Four of the Indictment. Reference is hereby made to Appendix B of this Indictment for a statement of the responsibility of the groups and organisations named herein as criminal groups and organisations for the offence set forth in the Count Four of the Indictment.

Wherefore, this Indictment is lodged with the Tribunal in English, French and Russian, each text having equal authenticity, and the charges herein made against the above- named defendants are hereby presented to the Tribunal.

MR. ALDERMAN: May it please the Tribunal, I shall read Appendix A and Appendix B, and the British delegation will read Appendix C. One word of explanation as to Appendix A. The Court will have observed that the defendants are seated in the dock in the same order in which they are named in the Indictment. By a mechanical slip-up they are not named in Appendix A in exactly the same order. I think it would be too much difficulty for the interpreters or for me to arrange them in the same order, and if the Court will permit I will read Appendix A as it is printed -

APPENDIX A

STATEMENT OF INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR CRIMES SET OUT IN COUNTS ONE, TWO, THREE AND FOUR

The statements hereinafter set forth following the name of each individual

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The defendant Goering between 1932-1945 was: a member of the Nazi Party, Supreme Leader of the S.A., General in the S.S., a member and President of the Reichstag, Minister of the Interior of Prussia, Chief of the Prussian Police and Prussian Secret State Police, Chief of the Prussian State Council, Trustee of the Four- Year Plan, Reich Minister for Air, Commander in Chief of the Air Force, President of the Council of Ministers for the Defence of the Reich, member of the Secret Cabinet Council, head of the Hermann Goering Industrial Combine, and Successor Designate to Hitler. The defendant Goering used the foregoing positions, his personal influence, and his intimate connection with the Fuehrer in such a manner that: he promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators and the consolidation of their control over Germany set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he promoted the military and economic preparation for war set forth in Count One of the Indictment; he participated in the planning and preparation of the Nazi conspirators for Wars of Aggression and Wars in Violation of International Treaties, Agreements and Assurances set forth in Counts One and Two of the Indictment; and he authorised, directed and participated in the War Crimes set forth in Count Three of the Indictment, and the Crimes against Humanity set forth in Count Four of the Indictment, including a wide variety of crimes against persons and property.

The defendant Ribbentrop between 1932-1945 was: a member of the Nazi Party, a member of the Nazi Reichstag, Adviser to the Fuehrer on matters of foreign policy, representative of the Nazi Party for matters of foreign policy, special German delegate for disarmament questions, Ambassador Extraordinary, Ambassador in London, organiser and director of Dienststelle Ribbentrop, Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs, member of the Secret Cabinet Council, member of the Fuehrer's political staff at general headquarters, and General in the S.S. The defendant Ribbentrop used the foregoing positions, his personal influence, and his intimate connection with the Fuehrer in such a manner that: he promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators as set forth in Count One of the Indictment he promoted the preparations for war set forth in Count One of the Indictment he participated in the political planning and preparation of the Nazi conspirators for Wars of Aggression and Wars in Violation of International Treaties, Agreements and Assurances as set forth in Counts One and Two of the Indictment in accordance with the Fuehrer Principle he executed and assumed responsibility for the execution of the foreign policy plans of the Nazi conspirators set forth in Count One of the Indictment; and he authorised, directed and participated in the War Crimes set forth in Count Three of the indictment and the Crimes against Humanity set forth in Count Four of the Indictment, including more particularly the crimes against persons and property in occupied territories.

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