“(b) Armament factories.
“The Dresdner Bank acquired the most important armament factories in Czechoslovakia, that is, the Skoda Works in Pilsen and the Czechoslovak ‘Zborjobka’ in Brünn. The private share-holders were forced to surrender their shares at prices far below their actual value; the bank paid for these shares with coupons which had been withdrawn from circulation, and confiscated by the Germans in the districts previously ceded in accordance with the Munich agreement.
“(c) The Hermann Göring Werke.
“The seizure by the Germans of the Czechoslovak banks and thus of the industry, through the big Berlin banks, was accomplished with the help of the gigantic Hermann Göring Werke which seized the greatest Czechoslovak industries, one by one, at the smallest financial cost, that is to say, under the pretext of Aryanization, by pressure from the Reich, by financial measures, and finally by threatening Gestapo measures and concentration camps.
“Finally, all the large Czechoslovak enterprises, factories, and armament plants, and the coal and iron industries fell into German hands. The huge chemical industry was seized by the German concern, I. G. Farben Industrie.”
I skip the paragraph concerning the same methods adopted in the case of light industry and pass on to the next count of the report, “Financial Spoliation.”
“After the occupation of the territory, ceded apparently in accordance with the Munich agreement, the Germans refused to take over part of the Czechoslovak State debt, although they acquired very valuable State property in the districts taken away from Czechoslovakia. Government bonds of low denominations amounting to a total of 1,600 million crowns were in circulation in the occupied territory.
“The Germans reserved the right to use these obligations in Czechoslovakia as legal tender.”
Gentlemen, further on in this report we find a detailed account of the Hitlerite campaign of spoliation directed against the financial economy of the Czechoslovak Republic. With a view to saving time I shall refrain from quoting this excerpt and shall merely submit the balance sheet of the Czechoslovak National Bank.
“The balance sheet of the Czech National Bank showed the following figures for ‘other assets’ in million of crowns: 31 December 1938, 845; 31 December 1939, 3,576; 31 December 1942, 17,366.”