Careful provision was made for channeling to Rosenberg complete and accurate information as to the situation throughout the territory governed by him:
“The Reich and General Commissars will determine the periods at which the subordinate agencies are to report regularly about the general situation without prejudice to the duty to provide individual reports and special delivery reports (at first, at short intervals which can be later lengthened). At first the Reich Commissars will give the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories a comprehensive report on the situation in brief form twice a month, on the first and fifteenth of each month. The Reich Minister is to be given a report by the Reich Commissar immediately about incidents of an especially important nature. The General Commissars and Regional Commissars must report directly to the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories by the quickest means particularly important incidents, as, for example, widespread unrest, more important acts of sabotage and strikes, great natural catastrophes and the like, and at the same time report them to the next superior agency.” (1056-PS)
The Second Section of this organizational treatise, entitled “Working directives for the Civil Administration,” contains this statement:
“* * * the Hague Rules of Land Warfare which deal with the administration of a country occupied by a foreign armed power are not valid.” (1056-PS; EC-347)
The document continues as follows:
“The handling of cases of sabotage is the concern of the Senior SS- and Police Leader, of the SS- and Police Leader and/or the police leaders of the lower echelon. Insofar, however, as collective measures against the population of a definite region appear appropriate, the decision about them rests with the competent Commissar on the proposal of the Police Leader. The calling of the population for the tasks of guarding can be ordered by the Regional Commissar.
“The assessment of fines of money or goods, as well as the ordering of the seizure of hostages and the shooting of inhabitants of the territory in which the acts of sabotage have taken place, can only be by the General Commissar, insofar as the Reich Commissar himself does not intervene.”
* * * * * *
“The District Commissar is responsible for the supervision of all prisons, insofar as the Reich Commissar does not decree otherwise.” (1056-PS; EC-347)
(b) Rosenberg’s Use of His Authority and Power for Criminal Purposes. The manner in which Rosenberg’s authority and power were wielded is illustrated in other sections of this volume, which show that in the Eastern Territories millions of Jews were exterminated; that millions of slave laborers were pressed into service under indescribable conditions; that the populace was degraded, starved, beaten, and murdered; and that the country was stripped of its resources. However, in order to illustrate the manner in which Rosenberg participated in the criminal activities conducted within his jurisdiction, four examples may be mentioned.