“At the same time removal commandos were detailed to the heads of the various provincial branch offices under the representative of the Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production in the Netherlands.
“In agreement with the forementioned services and the competent civil offices, these commandos carried through the removal of important raw materials and products, as well as machinery. Through the unswerving and commendable zeal of officers, officials, Sonderführer, and enlisted men it was possible, during the month of September, to remove to the Reich considerable stocks of raw materials and products and to supply the troops with useful material. This action was initiated and directed in the western and southern districts of the Netherlands by the officer in charge of volunteers in the Netherlands.”
Then the writer ends, by saying:
“For the task of evacuation and for the preparation of the ARLZ measures within the area of 15th Army Command, a squad under the command of Captain Rieder was detached by Volunteer Commando 7 which also had to act as liaison with the quartermaster staff of the 15th Army Command. In this case, too, in close co-operation with the civil officers and Department IVa of 15th Army Command, good work was done by the removal of raw materials and scarce goods as well as machinery. These actions commenced only at the end of the month covered by this report.”
Requisition of raw materials.
Together with the removal of machinery the Government of The Netherlands gives us exact figures on the stocks of raw materials and manufactured articles. Apart from the stocks located in the factories, the Germans acquired considerable quantities of raw materials and manufactured articles amounting to not less than 1,000 million guilders. This evaluation does not include the destruction resulting from military operations, which ranges around 300 million guilders.
Agriculture.
The Germans proceeded to make requisitions and wholesale purchases of agricultural produce and livestock. A final estimate of these requisitions, amounting to a minimum of 300 million guilders, is as yet impossible. To give an idea of their magnitude we point out that at the end of the year of 1943 the Germans had seized 600,000 hogs, 275,000 cows, and 30,000 tons of preserved meats, as is given in the testimony of the representative of the Netherlands Government, which I submit as Document Number RF-133.
In passing, we point out—although this question will be taken up again by my colleague in his presentation of war crimes against persons—that on 17 April 1944, without any apparent strategic reason, 20 hectares of cultivated lands were flooded at Wieringermeer.