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Volume V · Page 1249
| [peo…] ples. He did, however, take over
properties that were seized from innocent proprietors. Naturally he did not do
this alone; he did it under the authority of his government, but his government
was engaged in an obviously illegal enterprise. His government was taking
property from Poles and Jews for reasons of plunder and spoliation alone. Even
though it may be argued that the Poles were to be regarded as enemies since
their country was at war with Germany, it cannot be said with any semblance of
reasoning that the Jews were making war on Germany. The taking of their
property was nothing less than organized theft. The seizure of their property
was part of a program of oppression and extermination, of which Bobermin could
not be ignorant. Max Winkler, chief of Main Trustee Department East, and who
testified for Bobermin, stated on the witness stand that towards "the end of
1944, 1 heard what happened to the Jews." He was asked whether these Jews would
get their property back and he replies: "Well, not if they were dead."
Defense counsel says that Bobermin could not have known about this since he went to Hungary in 1944, but it is difficult to assume that, charged as he was with the administration of these seized plants, he would not make some inquiry as to what had happened to the owners of the plants. It is true, as defense counsel points out in his further brief, that Bobermin apparently had nothing to do directly with the administration and supplying of concentration camps as such, but it cannot be assumed that merely because he was 250 kilometers away from Berlin he could be entirely ignorant of the nature of the main office of which his own office was a component part. Bobermin cannot be absolved from responsibility because the actual act of seizure of the brick works had been achieved prior to the time he took them over, provided he was aware of the illegal nature of the seizure. Dr. Gawlick makes a point between "expropriation and seizure" but the important thing to consider is the intention of the Reich in taking over the properties. Document NO-1008, which enumerated the classes of persons or organizations which may apply for the properties after the war, described one category as: |
"those who are considered worthy by the Reich Commissioner for Strengthening the German race [for commitment] in the East [Reichskommissar fuer die Festigung deutschen Volkstums fuer den Osteinsatz]." |
| This naturally would exclude the former Jewish owners and this naturally would make the seizing of their property pure plundering and spoliation. |
