17 Dec. 45
"1. We must use the Eastern areas for
overcoming the food shortages during and after the war. This means
that we must not be afraid of drawing upon the capital substance of
the East. Such an intervention is much more acceptable from the
European standpoint than drawing upon the capital substance of
Europe's agriculture."
Finally, I quote from the remainder of Page 9 to the end of the
penultimate paragraph of the English text. The German text appears at
lines 24 to 31 of Page 19:
"2. For the future New Order, the
food-producing areas in the East must be turned into a permanent and
substantial complementary source of food for Europe, through
intensified cultivation and resulting higher yields.
"The first-named task must be accomplished at any price, even
through the most ruthless cutting down of Russian domestic
consumption, which will require discrimination between the consuming
and producing zones."
It is
submitted, Your Honors, that this document discloses, on its face, a
studied plan to murder millions of innocent people through starvation.
It reveals a program of premeditated murder of millions of innocent
people through starvation. It reveals a program of premeditated murder
on a scale so vast as to stagger the human imagination. Major Elwyn
Jones, of the British Delegation, will subsequently show that this plan
was, in effect, the logical culmination of general objectives clearly
announced by Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf. Each defendant in the
box was fully aware of these general objectives when he committed the
acts with which he is charged.
I next introduce in evidence a document no less damaging than the one I
have just quoted. This document is Number L-221, which is Exhibit Number
USA-317. This is a top-secret memorandum, dated 16 July 1941, of a
conference at the Führer's headquarters, concerning the war in the
East. It seems to have been prepared by Defendant Bormann because his
initials appear at the top of Page 1. It was captured by the United
States Counter-Intelligence branch. The text of the memorandum indicates
that the conference was attended by Hitler, Lammers, and Defendants Göring
Keitel, Rosenberg, and Bormann.
The exhibit is particularly important for the light it throws upon the
conspirators' plans to germanize conquered areas of the Soviet Union. It
is important also for its disclosure of the utterly fraudulent character
of the whole Nazi propaganda program. It shows how the conspirators
sought to deceive the entire world; how they pretended to pursue one
course of action when their aims and purposes were to follow precisely
the opposite course.