I next refer to the stacks of leather-bound volumes in front of me, to which the Justice referred in his opening statement.
These 39 volumes which are before me contain photographs of works of art secured by the Einsatzstab and are volumes which were prepared by members of the Rosenberg staff. All of these volumes bear our Number 2522-PS, and I offer them in evidence as Exhibit USA-388.
I am passing to Your Honors eight of these volumes, so that each one of you—they are all different—might see a sample of the inventory. I call Your Honors’ attention to the inside cover page. Most of them have an inventory, in German, of the contents of the book; and then follow true photographs of each one of these priceless objects of art, separated by fine tissue paper.
There are 39 of these volumes that were captured by our forces when they overran a part of southern occupied German areas.
THE PRESIDENT: Is there anything known about the articles photographed here?
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir; I will describe them later. I believe each one of them is identified in addition to the inventory.
THE PRESIDENT: I meant whether the articles—the furniture or pictures themselves, have been found.
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir, most of them were found in an underground cavern, I believe in the southern part of Bavaria; and these books were found by our staff in connection with the group of U.S. Army people who have assembled these objects of art and are now in the process of returning them to the rightful owners. That is where we got these books.
I should like to refer, while Your Honors are looking at these, just to the aggregate totals of the different paintings. Here are the totals as shown by Document 1015(b)-PS, which is in the document book. As they are totalled, I don’t think Your Honors need to follow the document; you can continue looking at the books if you like.
“Up to 15 July 1944 the following had been scientifically inventoried: