14 Dec.
45
The magnitude of the conspirators' confiscation program
in Poland was staggering. I ask Your Honors to turn to the, chart on the
sixth page of Document Number R-92, which was introduced into evidence a
moment ago as Exhibit Number USA-312.
This chart shows that as of 31 May 1943 the staggering total of 693,252
estates, comprising 6,097,525 hectares, had been seized and 9,508
estates, comprising 270,446 hectares, had been confiscated by the Estate
Offices Danzig-West Prussia, Posen, Ciechanów, and Silesia. This,
it will be noted, represented the seizure and confiscation of only four
offices.
That, Your Honors, concludes our discussion on Poland; and I now turn
to Czechoslovakia. At this point of the proceedings we shall introduce
only one document upon Czechoslovakia. This one document, however,
contains a startling revelation of the conspirators' plans to germanize
Bohemia and Moravia. It relates how three plans, each characterized by
its severity, were discussed; and finally how the Führer decided on
plan (c), which involved the assimilation of about one-half of the Czech
population by the Germans and the extermination of the other half.
Moreover, the plan envisaged a large influx into Czechoslovakia of
Germans whose loyalty to the Führer was unquestioned. I offer this
document in evidence. It is Document Number 862-PS, and it is Exhibit
Number USA-313. This is a top-secret report, dated 15 October 1940,
which was written by General Friderici, Deputy General of the Wehrmacht
in Bohemia and Moravia. On the face of the document, it appears that
only four copies were made. The document we offer in evidence is the
original document, which was found among the captured files of the OKW.
This document bears the handwritten letters "K" and "J"
on the first page on the left-hand side, and I am advised that the
handwriting is unquestionably that of Defendants Keitel and Jodl. I
quote the document in its entirety:
"On 9 October of this year the office
of the Reich Protector held an official conference in which State
Secretary SS Gruppenführer K. H. Frank spoke about the following
. . . . "
SS Gruppenführer
K. H. Frank, it may be noted, was Secretary of State under Defendant Von
Neurath, who at the date of this report was the Protector of Bohemia and
Moravia.
THE PRESIDENT: Who did you say Frank was?
CAPT. HARRIS: Frank was an SS Gruppenführer, and Secretary of
State under Defendant Von Neurath. He is not the Defendant Hans Frank.
At the date of this particular report Von Neurath, under whom K. H.
Frank served, was the Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. Continuing the
quotation:
"Since creation of the Protectorate
of Bohemia and Moravia, Party agencies, industrial circles, as well as
agencies of the