This is connected with all the operations of economic pillaging about which the Economic Section of the French Prosecution have already informed the Court. With regard to this, the Court will not fail to realize that the Defendant Göring shares jointly with the Defendants Rosenberg, Ribbentrop, and Seyss-Inquart—for the Netherlands—the responsibility for this spoliation.
With regard to the pillaging of works of art, Gentlemen, we have documents which permit us to draw our conclusions with regard to this matter which is obviously an unpleasant one for a man who has occupied the position of the Defendant Göring, namely, that a part of the works of art and objects of value which were pillaged from the western countries were reserved for him without any kind of compensation. I shall not discuss the exact meaning of this act in municipal law; I leave it to the Tribunal to apply the proper legal terms for this matter, when it delivers its judgment. But what I should like to say today is that the appropriation of works of art by the Defendant Hermann Göring for his private purposes is proved in documents which cannot be contested and which have already been submitted to the Tribunal. I refer particularly to Exhibit Number USA-368 (Document Number 141-PS) submitted on 18 December 1945. This document was submitted by the Economic Section of the French Prosecution under the Exhibit Number RF-1309.
I may rapidly recall that this document prescribes that works of art brought to the Louvre are to be classified in a certain way:
“Firstly, those works of art of which the Führer reserved the right to dispose of himself. Secondly, those works of art destined to complete the collection of the Reich Marshal”—et cetera.
I won’t read the rest of the document.
What followed these levies or these privative appropriations? Did the Defendant Göring pay anything for these? The opposite seems to be the case; for in the interrogation of the Defendant Rosenberg, which was given under the Exhibit Number RF-1332 and to which I referred in the course of the hearing, it is pointed out that the Defendant Göring made his selection from the works of art assembled by Rosenberg’s staff and made no corresponding payment to the Reich treasury.
Not to abuse the patience of the Tribunal, I respectfully beg it to go back to Page 10 of the transcript previously cited, where it will see the part played by the Defendant Göring in the appropriation of works of art, and the fact that no money was paid in compensation.
I simply emphasize, in passing, that at the top of Page 11 you will find this statement, in reply to a question asked by Colonel Hinkel. Colonel Hinkel said this to him.
THE PRESIDENT: You are referring to Page 10 and Page 11 of which document?
M. MOUNIER: Page 11, Mr. President, of Document Number ECH-25, which was submitted yesterday under the Exhibit Number RF-1331, by my colleague M. Gerthoffer. It is not there, for reasons which I have already pointed out to the Tribunal.