18 Dec. 45
COL. STOREY: These are consecutive. I would like to
offer this affidavit and to read it in full. In short, it was obtained
in Austria. Kajetan Mühlmann states under oath:
"I have been a member of the NSDAP
since 1 April 1938. I was Brigadier General" — Oberführer
— " in the SS.
"I was never an illegal Nazi.
"I was the special deputy of the Governor General of Poland,
Hans Frank, for the safeguarding of art treasures in the Government
General, October 1939 to September 1943.
"Göring, in his function as chairman of the Reich Defense
Committee, had commissioned me with this duty.
"I confirm that it was the official policy of the Governor
General, Hans Frank, to take into custody all important art treasures
which belonged to Polish public institutions, private collections, and
the Church. I confirm that the art treasures mentioned were actually
confiscated; and it is clear to me that they would not have remained
in Poland in case of a German victory, but they would have been used
to complement German artistic property." — Signed and sworn
to by Dr. Mühlmann.
On the
15th of November 1939 Frank issued a decree, which is published
officially in The Law of the Government General, (1773-PS,
Exhibit USA-376). It is E 800, Article 1, Section 1. It is not in the
document book. It is just a short quotation of which we ask the Tribunal
to take judicial knowledge. Quoting:
"All movable and stationary property
of the former Polish State ... will be sequestered for the purpose of
securing all manner of public valuables."
In a further decree of 16 December 1939, appearing as E 845 of the same
publication, Frank provided that all art objects in public possession in
the Government General were to be seized for the fulfillment of public
tasks of common interest, insofar as they had not already been seized
under the decree of 15 November. The decree provided that, in addition
to art collections and art objects belonging to the Polish State, there
would be considered as owned by the public, those private collections
which have not already been taken under protection by the Special
Commissioner, as well as all ecclesiastical art property.
On the 24th of September 1940 Frank decreed that all property seized on
the basis of the decree of 15 November 1939 would be transferred to the
ownership of the Government General; and this decree is found as E 810
of the same publication.
It is impossible for me to furnish this Tribunal a complete picture of
the vastness of the program for the cultural impoverishment of Poland
carried out pursuant to the directives, as I cannot