4
Dec. 45
It is
not to be supposed that the U.S.S.R. would have
taken part in any conversations at that time if
it had been realized that on the very day orders
were being given for preparations to be made for
the invasion of Russia, and that the order for
the operation, which was called "Plan
Barbarossa", was in active preparation. On
the 18th of December the order was issued, and I
quote:
"The
German Armed Forces have to be ready to
defeat Soviet Russia in a swift campaign
before the end of the war against Great
Britain."
And later, in the same instruction — and I
quote again:
"All
orders which shall be issued by the High
Commanders in accordance with this
instruction have to be clothed in such
terms that they may be taken as measures
of precaution in case Russia should
change her present attitude towards
ourselves."
Germany kept up the pretense of friendliness
and, on the 10th of January 1941, well after the
Plan Barbarossa for the invasion of Russia had
been decided upon, Germany signed the
German-Russian Frontier Treaty. Less than a
month later, on the 3rd of February of 1941,
Hitler held a conference, attended by the
Defendants Keitel and Jodl, at which it was
provided that the whole operation against Russia
was to be camouflaged as if it was part of the
preparation for the "Plan Seelöwe",
as the plan for the invasion of England was
described.
By March of 1941 plans were
sufficiently advanced to include provision for
dividing the Russian territory into nine
separate states to be administered under Reich
Commissars, under the general control of the
Defendant Rosenberg; and at the same time
detailed plans for the economic exploitation of
the country were made under the supervision of
the Defendant Göring, to whom the
responsibility in this matter — and it is a
serious one — had been delegated by Hitler.
You will hear something of the details
of these plans. I remind you of one document
which has already been referred to in this
connection.
It is significant that on
the 2d of May of 1941 a conference of State
Secretaries took place in regard to the Plan
Barbarossa, and in the course of that it was
noted:
"1.
The war can be continued only if all
Armed Forces are fed out of Russia in
the third year of the 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." But
that apparently caused no concern. The "Plan
Oldenbourg", as the scheme for the
economic organization and exploitation
of