14 Dec.
45
source of food. I offer Document 1138-PS in evidence,
Exhibit USA-284. I refer the Court to Page 4 of the translation, marked
with the Roman numeral V, Paragraphs a and b. The document is entitled "Provisional
Directive on the Treatment of Jews . . . " and it was issued by the
Reich Commissioner for the Ostland. I read:
"Jews must be cleaned out from the
countryside. The Jews are to be removed from all trades, especially
from trade with agricultural products and other foodstuffs." Jews
were excluded from the purchase of basic food, such as wheat products,
meat, eggs, and milk.
I offer in evidence Document 1347-PS, Exhibit USA-285, and I quote from
Paragraph 2 on the first page of the translation before the Court. This
is an original decree, dated 18 September 1942, from the Ministry of
Agriculture. I quote
"Jews will no longer receive the
following foods, beginning with the 42d distribution period (19
October 1942): meat, meat products, eggs, wheat products (cake, white
bread, wheat rolls, wheat flour, et cetera), whole milk, fresh skimmed
milk, as well as such food distributed not on food ration cards issued
uniformly throughout the Reich but on local supply certificates or by
special announcement of the nutrition office on extra coupons of the
food cards. Jewish children and young people over 10 years of age will
receive the bread ration of the normal consumer."
The sick, the old, and the pregnant mothers were excluded from the
special food concessions allotted to non-Jews. Seizure by the State
Police of food shipments to Jews from abroad was authorized, and the
Jewish ration cards were distinctly marked with "Jew," in
color, across the face of the cards, so that the storekeepers could
readily identify and discriminate against Jewish purchasers.
The Czechoslovakian Government published in 1943 an official document
entitled "Czechoslovakia Fights Back." I offer this book in
evidence, Document 1689-PS, Exhibit USA-286. To summarize the contents
of Page 110, it states that the Jewish food purchases were confined to
certain areas and to certain days and hours. As might be expected, the
period permitted for the purchases was during the time when food stocks
were likely to be exhausted.
By Special Order Number 44 for the Eastern Occupied Territories, dated
4 November 1941, the Jews were limited to rations as low as only
one-half of the lowest basic category of other people; and the Ministry
of Agriculture was empowered to exclude Jews entirely or partially from
obtaining food, thus exposing the Jewish community to death by
starvation.
I now offer in evidence Document L-165.