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categories, namely, (1) captured goods referred to as “Booty
Goods”, and (2) purchased goods (those secured through the black market by
German official agencies).
Under a special Goering decree, the Office of Plenipotentiary for
Special Tasks was created which supervised and directed the procuring of goods
in occupied countries through the black market. These goods and booty goods
obtained in occupied countries by the German Army Command were turned over to
ROGES. These goods as a rule were gathered together in depots from which they
were distributed to German firms under directions from the Central Planning
Commission. Both the booty and the black market goods consisted of wares of all
kinds, such as household goods, raw materials, textiles, machines, tools,
shoes, scrap metal, and other materials and were obtained in all the countries
occupied by Germany. There were many machines and machine tools included in the
booty goods.
The booty
goods were not paid for and cost ROGES only the cost of transportation from the
occupied territories to Germany. These as a rule were confiscated by the German
military agencies and turned over to the branch offices of ROGES for shipment
to Germany. The black market goods were procured by buyers acting under orders
of the German Economic Ministry and the Armaments Ministry. All purchases had
to be approved by the competent military commander in the occupied area. Prices
were fixed by the buyers and the owners were paid by ROGES in currency of the
particular occupied country, which foreign currency was furnished by the Reich,
which came out of occupation costs.
These goods were then distributed from the ROGES depots to the
various firms as requested by the Reich agencies and the economic groups. A
great portion of these booty and black market goods was distributed at the
request of the Reich Association Iron (RVE), of which defendant Alfried Krupp
was vice chairman, to its member firms. In many instances the goods were
shipped by ROGES direct from the occupied country to the firms in Germany when
those firms had placed their order for certain goods in advance. In other cases
the booty goods were sent by ROGES to a special booty center where they were
then allocated by the Reich agencies and sent to the respective business firms.
As a rule the prices paid for these items were the prevailing domestic prices
and lower than ROGES paid for the black market goods. As ROGES paid nothing for
the booty goods, the surplus resulting was credited to the supreme command of
the armed forces.
During
the war, campaigns for the collection of scrap metal were conducted and Major
Schuh carried on these drives in the |
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