26 Nov. 45
full awareness of the Nazi conspirators of the Crimes against
Humanity which would result from their attack. The document is a
memorandum of 2 May 1941, concerning the result of a discussion on
that day with the state secretaries concerning the Case Barbarossa.
The document is initialled by a Major Von Gusovius, a member of the
staff of General Thomas set up to handle the economic exploitations
of the territory occupied by the Germans during the course of the
aggression against Russia The document is numbered 2718-PS in our
numbered series of documents. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit
USA-32.
I shall simply read the first two paragraphs of this document,
including the introductory matter:
"Matter for Chief; 2 copies;
first copy to files la. Second copy to General Schubert, May 2,
1941."
"Memorandum about the result of today's discussion with the
state secretaries about Barbarossa.
"1. The War can only be continued if all Armed Forces are
fed by Russia in the third year of war.
"2. There is no doubt that as a result many millions of
people will be starved to death if we take out of the country the
things necessary for us."
That document has already been commented on and
quoted from in Mr. Justice Jackson's opening statement. The
staggering implications of that document are hard to realize. In the
words of the document, the motive for the attack was that the war
which the Nazi conspirators had launched in September 1939 "can
only be continued if all Armed Forces are fed by Russia in the third
year of the war. Perhaps there never was a more sinister sentence
written than the sentence in this document which reads:
"There is no doubt that as a
result many millions of people will be starved to death if we take
out of the country the things necessary for us."
The result is known to all of us. I turn now to the Nazi
collaboration with Italy and Japan and the resulting attack on the
United States on 7 December 1941. With the unleashing of the German
aggressive war against the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Nazi
conspirators, and in particular, the Defendant Ribbentrop, called
upon the eastern co-architect of the New Order, Japan, to attack in
the rear. Our evidence will show that they incited and kept in motion
a force reasonably calculated to result m an attack on the United
States. For a time, they maintained their preference that the United
States not be involved in