“The greater part of the Rothschild, Kahn, Weil-Picard, and Wildenstein collections had been confiscated and they represented three-quarters of the total booty of Staff Rosenberg.”
As far as the methods which were used to seize these works of art are concerned, I submit to the Tribunal a document which is a letter of the Secretary of French Finance, dated 25 October 1941. I offer it in evidence as Document Number RF-1315; and so as not to waste the Tribunal’s time I shall merely deposit this document since it is quite probable that my colleague will allude to it in his turn. Page 24 of the written report. . . .
THE PRESIDENT: How do you prove that the greater part of the Rothschild, Kahn, Weil-Picard, and Wildenstein collections was confiscated in the middle of November 1940? What is the evidence of it?
M. GERTHOFFER: General information furnished by the Fine Arts Department.
THE PRESIDENT: Have you put in a report of a government committee which states that?
M. GERTHOFFER: No, Mr. President, I have not got the report in my dossier. I did not believe it was necessary to present it in evidence, because I thought that it was admitted that nearly all the Rothschild collections were seized at this time.
THE PRESIDENT: I do not think we can take judicial notice of it in the absence of some government report and simply upon the statement.
M. GERTHOFFER: I think the question is not of great interest.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the Tribunal cannot take any notice of statements which are not supported by evidence; therefore we shall disregard that statement. We must have the evidence first.
M. GERTHOFFER: I consider that the question is not of interest, since the Tribunal will soon see the enormous quantities of works of art which were removed by the Germans and I thought it would be useless to mention the individual owners by name.