14 Dec.
45
the farm houses of these border directly
on the concentration camp. A local inspection held on the 21st of this
month revealed the following: "There is no room for doubt that
agricultural enterprises bordering on the concentration camp must be
confiscated at once. In addition, the camp commandant requests that
further plots of farm land be placed at his disposal, so that he can
keep the prisoners busy. This, too, can be done without difficulty
since enough land can be made available for the purpose. The owners of
the plots are all Poles."
I
next quote from Page 2, lines 22 to 31, of the English text of this same
exhibit. The German text is at Page 12, Paragraph 2, continuing through
to line 22 from the top of the page. I quote:
"I had the following discussion with
the chief of the labor office in Bielsko:
"The lack of agricultural laborers still exists in the Old
Reich. The transfer of the previous owners of the confiscated
agricultural enterprises to the Reich as farm workers, together with
their entire families, is possible without any difficulty. It is only
necessary for the labor office to receive the lists of the persons in
time, in order to enable it to take the necessary steps (collection of
transportation; distribution over the various regions in need of such
labor)."
Finally, I quote
from Page 3 of this same exhibit, lines 6 to 13 of the English text. The
German text appears at Page 13, the last three lines, continuing through
to Page 14, line 9:
"The confiscation of these Polish
enterprises in Alzen will also be carried out within the next few
days. The commandant of the concentration '.camp will furnish SS men
and a truck for the execution of the action. Should it not yet be
possible to take the Poles from Alzen to Auschwitz" — and
Auschwitz, Your Honors will recall, is where the concentration camp
was — "they should be transferred to the empty castle at
Zator. The liberated Polish property is to be given to the needy
racial German farmers for their use."
In
order to regularize the program of confiscation, Defendant Göring
issued a decree on September 17, 1940. This decree appears in the Reichsgesetzblatt,
1940, Part I, Page 1270; and I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice
of it. Under Section 2 of this decree sequestration of movable and
immovable property, stores, and other intangible property, interests of
Jews and "persons who have fled or are not merely temporarily
absent", was made mandatory. In addition, sequestration was
authorized under Section 2, Subsection 2, if the property was required "for
the public welfare, particularly in the interests of Reich defense or
the strengthening of German