In conclusion I find myself obliged to point out that the police battalion has looted in an unheard of manner during the action, and that not only in Jewish houses but just the same in those of the White Ruthenians. Anything of use such as boots, leather, cloth, gold and other valuables, has been taken away. On the basis of statements of members of the armed forces, watches were torn off the arms of Jews in public, on the street, and rings were pulled off the fingers in the most brutal manner. A major of the finance department reported that a Jewish girl was asked by the police to obtain immediately 5,000 rubles to have her father released. This girl is said to have actually gone everywhere in order to obtain the money.
Also within the ghetto, the different barracks which had been nailed up by the civil administration and were furnished with Jewish furniture, have been broken open and robbed. Even from the barracks in which the unit was quartered, window frames and doors have been forcibly removed and used for campfires. Although I had a discussion with the adjutant of the commander on Tuesday morning concerning the looting and he promised in the course of the discussion that none of the policemen would enter the town any more, yet I was forced several hours later to arrest two fully armed Lithuanian partisans because they were apprehended looting. During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday the battalion left the town in the direction of Baranowitschi. Evidently, the people were only too glad when this report circulated in the town.
So far the report. I shall come to Minsk in the immediate future, in order to discuss the affair personally once again. At the present time, I am not in a position to continue with the action against the Jews. First, order has to be established again. I hope that I shall be able to restore order as soon as possible and also to revive the economic life despite the difficulties. Only, I beg you to grant me one request: "In the future, keep this police battalion away from me by all means."
signed: CARL
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1107-PS
SECRET
The Leader of Directorate Group, Cultural Missions
P / 551a/44g
Expert: Goepel
Berlin, 17 May 1944.
To the Chief of Operational Staff Politic [Fuehrungestabes Politik] Inter-office Memorandum.
Subject: Bringing of Museum Objects and Works of Art from the Occupied Eastern Territories into the Reich.
Information received concerning the bringing back of museum objects and other works of art now public property in the occupied Eastern Territories into the Reich has shown that the interests of the ministry of the East, i.e., of the Reich in this matter are not being presented with sufficient stress. There is no reason for leaving these museum stocks, some of which are extremely valuable, in the hands of various offices and authorities without establishing unmistakably the claim of possession, i.e., the right of disposal of the Reich. The atrocity propaganda of the enemy side has taken up this question at large and has retained with it evident success in the incitement against Germany in this and foreign countries.
Besides the department of archives in the Reich Ministry, the following have brought back works of art from the occupied Eastern Districts (place of deposit Troppau):