The Defendant Göring, on 26 March 1943, issued a decree demanding a further decrease in the prices of all goods imported from the occupied countries.
“This lowering of prices was attained by means of currency measures as well as by means of requisitioning, confiscation, fines, and in particular, through a special price policy.
“By means of requisitioning, a policy of fixed low prices, and compulsory sales, the Government of the Reich was enabled to plunder thoroughly the Yugoslav people. This went so far that even the quisling institutions collaborating with the Germans frequently had to declare that the quotas of goods demanded by the Germans could not be filled.
“Thus, a report made by the district chief, for the Moravski District”—quisling administration of Milan Nedic—“on 12 February 1942, stated:
“1. If they are deprived of so many cattle, the peasants will not be able to cultivate their fields. On the one hand, they are ordered to cultivate every inch of ground, on the other hand, their cattle are ruthlessly confiscated.
“2. The cattle are purchased at such a low price that the peasants feel that they are hardly compensated at all for the loss of their cattle.
“Similar examples from other regions or districts of Yugoslavia are very numerous.
“In order to plunder the country, the Germans often reverted to the systematic imposition of money fines. For instance the cash fines imposed by the ‘Feldkommandantur’ in Belgrade during 1943 alone amounted to 48,818,068 dinars. In Nish, during the first 3½ months of 1943, the cash fines amounted to 5,065,000 dinars.
“Finally, we should like to give here a few details regarding the clearing accounts through which the export of Yugoslav goods to Germany was carried out. As early as 1 March 1943 the clearing balance in favor of Serbia amounted to 219 million Reichsmark, or 4,380 million dinars. By the end of the occupation Germany owed Serbia 10,000 million dinars.
“The situation was the same in all the other provinces of Yugoslavia, and only the methods of plundering varied according to local conditions.