8 Jan. 46

Meanwhile, as proof before the Tribunal shows, he was deceiving the representatives of the puppet Slovakian Government to the same end.

In the following year, with the rape of Czechoslovakia complete, Göring frankly stated what Germany's purpose had been throughout the whole affair. He explained that the incorporation of Bohemia and Moravia into the German economy had taken place, among other reasons, in order to increase the German war potential by exploitation of the industry there.

Göring was also a moving force in the later crimes against the peace. As the successor designate to Hitler, chief of the air forces and economic czar of Greater Germany, he was a party to all the planning for military operations of the Nazi forces in the East and in the West.

In the Polish affair, for example, it was Göring who, on the 31st of January 1935, gave assurances to the Polish Government through Count Czembek, as revealed in the Polish White Book, of which I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice, that "there should be not the slightest fear in Poland that on the German side it" — meaning the German-Polish alliance — " would not be continued in the future." Yet, 4 years later, Göring helped to formulate plans for the ruthless invasion of Polish territory.

In respect to the attack upon the Soviet Union, the documents already introduced prove that plans for the ruthless exploitation of Soviet territory were made months in advance of the opening of hostilities. Göring was placed in charge of this army of spoliation, whose mission was that of "seizing raw materials and taking over all important concerns."

But these specific instances cited are merely illustrative of Göring's activities in the field of aggressive war. On Pages 20, 21, and 22 of our brief there appears a list of documents — by no means exhaustive — previously offered by the Prosecution, which demonstrate Göring's knowledge of and continued participation in the Nazi war program.

We turn now to Göring's responsibility for planning and his participation in the procurement of forced labor, the deportation and enslavement of residents of occupied territories, the employment of prisoners of war in war industry, the looting of works of art, and the Germanization and spoliation of countries overrun by the Nazis.

Evidence previously introduced has detailed the slave labor program of the Nazi conspirators and has shown its two purposes, both of them criminal. The first was to satisfy the labor requirements of the Nazi war machine by forcing residents of occupied countries to work in Germany. The second purpose was to destroy