Documents which are to be presented to the Tribunal will show quite clearly the complicity of Hungary in the conspiracy to violate peace and in the preparation of an aggressive war against the Soviet Union. Hungary was assigned the definite role of attacking the rear of the Red Army through the Carpathian Mountains at the very moment when the German and the Romanian Armies were to open military operations against the Soviet Union. Thus the criminal block of aggressors against the peace-loving nations was set up with fascist Germany in the van.
Reverting to the so-called Case Barbarossa, I wish to dwell on the more important points of this document. Case Barbarossa consists of three parts. The first sets forth its general aims; the second indicates allies of Germany in the war against the Soviet Union. The third part is devoted to the execution of military operations on land, in the air, and on sea. This document has the highly pertinent feature of having been issued, in view of its top-secret contents, in nine copies only, to comply fully with the demand for absolute secrecy on Germany’s preparations for the attack on the Soviet Union.
The first part of the plan reads as follows:
“Troops of the Russian Army massed in the western part of Russia must be destroyed, and the retreat into the vast expanses of Russian territory of combat units must be prevented. Then, by rapid pursuit, a line must be reached from which the Russian air force will not be able to carry out attacks against German territory.”
The document further states that the ultimate objective of this plan was to consolidate the line Archangel-Volga, paralyze the last remaining industrial area in the Urals by air operations, put the Baltic fleet out of commission, and prevent the possibility of active interference on the part of the Russian air force. In the third part of the document we find the directive to seize Leningrad and Kronstadt and to continue offensive operations with the objective of taking the most important center of communications and war-production, Moscow. “The seizure of this city”—according to the plan—“will mean a decisive success both politically and economically.”
Such was the plan to invade the U.S.S.R.—conceived, worked out, and prepared long in advance by Hitlerite Germany.
While undertaking strategic and diplomatic measures to prepare for its treacherous attack against the U.S.S.R., the Hitlerite Government conceived and planned beforehand to commit war crimes on the territory of the U.S.S.R. The so-called Case Barbarossa was a strategic plan. But this plan was supplemented by a number of instructions and orders designed to embrace all the measures relative to the problems connected with the invasion of the Soviet Union. Among these measures we must mention in the very first place the directive issued on 13 March 1941 by the headquarters of the German High Command.
This directive deals with a series of organizational problems of a civilian nature and in particular with the problems relative to the organization of administrative authorities. It is of importance to note that this instruction placed German troops stationed in East Prussia and the so-called Government General (that is to say, Poland) under the laws and regulations destined for the zone of operations at least 4 weeks prior to the opening of the campaign. By this directive the High Command of the German Armed Forces was authorized to assume executive power and to delegate it to the commanding generals of the army groups and armies.
One also cannot overlook in this directive Subparagraph B, which characterizes the tasks and objectives pursued by the conspirators. In this subparagraph it states:
“In the theater of army operations, the Reichsführer SS, by order of the Führer, is given some special tasks for the preparation of political administration, arising from the decisive struggle between two opposing political systems. Within the limits of these tasks the Reichsführer of the SS acts independently, upon his own responsibility.”