The Mazal Library

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NUERNBERG MILITARY TRIBUNAL
Volume V · Page 977

France, Belgium, and Holland, were systematically looted of their treasures. This thievery was ordered, as the decree of Himmler put it, "for the strengthening of Germanism." The connection between the avowed purpose and the crime is not entirely clear. The experience of Prince Max Lobkowicz of Bohemia is typical. In his affidavit (NO-4942, Pros. Ex. 733) he states:

"I am the owner of landed property, situated in several districts of Bohemia. * * * Over two-thirds of this property came under German rule in October 1938 as a result of the occupation by the Germans after Munich.

"The rest of my property, including my chief residence at Rondnice and my house at Prague, came under German rule in March 1939, just after I had escaped with my family (wife and three sons) to London.

"I remained in the Czechoslovak diplomatic service, which I had entered in 1920 in London and during the war was appointed first Minister and later Ambassador to the Court of St. James. In February 1947, I was transferred from London to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Prague, to which I am attached now.

"The whole of my property was confiscated by the Germans.

"This confiscation included farm land, forests, vineyards, etc., as well as natural mineral spring, breweries, saw mills and several large houses, with old family collections (over 1,000 pictures, furniture, a library of over 100,000 volumes, historical archives, etc.)."

ACTION REINHARDT

The extermination and deportation of the Jews in the East produced a vast amount of valuable property, both real and personal, which the Reich was quick to recognize and seize. To marshal these resources, the Action Reinhardt was instituted, named approximately enough, for Reinhard Heydrich, formerly chief of the Security Police and SD, who met his death — and this, too, appropriately enough — in Czechoslovakia in 1942. The purpose of the action was to gather into the Reich all the Jewish manpower and wealth which could be reached. It was an ambitious and profitable undertaking for Germany. The Jews themselves were herded into concentration camps as slaves and their entire worldly possessions confiscated. The real property, where possible, was put to German use (largely through the WVHA agency of OSTI) and the movable property was shipped to WVHA, where it was inventoried, appraised, and distributed through prescribed

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