21 Nov. 45
powers of France never equal led
those of the German Reich and that the vanquished France could not
draw on foreign economic and financial resources in the same degree
as Germany after the last World War."
The Defendant Funk was the Reich Minister of
Economics and President of the Reichsbank; the Defendant Ribbentrop
was Foreign Minister; the Defendant Göring was Plenipotentiary
of the Four Year Plan; and all of them participated in the exchange
of views of which this captured document is a part. (2149-PS)
Notwithstanding this analysis by the Reichsbank, they proceeded to
increase the imposition on France from 15 million Reichsmarks daily
to 25 million per day.
It is small wonder that the bottom has been knocked out of French
economy. The plan and purpose of the thing appears in a fetter from
General Stülpnagel, head of the German Armistice Commission, to
the Defendant Jodl as early as 14 September 1940 when he wrote,
"The slogan 'Systematic weakening of France' has already been
surpassed by far in reality" (1756-PS).
Not only was there a purpose to debilitate and demoralize the
economy of Germany's neighbors for the purpose of destroying their
competitive position, but there was looting and pilfering on an
unprecedented scale. We need not be hypocritical about this business
of looting. I recognize that no army moves through occupied territory
without some pilfering as it goes. Usually the amount of pilfering
increases as discipline wanes. If the evidence in this case showed no
looting except of that sort, I certainly would ask no conviction of
these defendants for it.
But we will show you that looting was not due to the lack of
discipline or to the ordinary weaknesses of human nature. The German
organized plundering, planned it, disciplined it, and made it
official just as he organized everything else, and then he compiled
the most meticulous records to show that he had done the best job of
looting that was possible under the circumstances. And we have those
records.
The Defendant Rosenberg was put in charge of a systematic
plundering of the art objects of Europe by direct order of Hitler
dated 29 January 1940 (136-PS). On the 16th of April 1943 Rosenberg
reported that up to the 7th of April, 92 railway cars with 2,775
cases containing art objects had been sent to Germany; and that 53
pieces of art had been shipped to Hitler direct, and 594 to the
Defendant Göring The report mentioned something like 20,000
pieces of seized art and the main locations where they were stored.
(015-PS)
Moreover this looting was glorified by Rosenberg. Here we have 39
leather-bound tabulated volumes of his inventory, which in due