“A few days after the seizure of Slovenia, central offices were organized for resettlement control. The headquarters staff was established in Maribor (Marburg on the Drava) and Bled (Veldes).
“At the same time, on 22 April 1941, a ‘Decree for the Strengthening of German Folkdom’ was published. The immediate aim of this decree was the confiscation of property of all persons and institutions antagonistically inclined towards the Reich. Naturally, all those, who in accordance with the aforesaid plan were to be deported from Slovenia, were included in this category.
“The Hitlerites proceeded to the practical realization of this plan. They arrested a large number of persons registered for deportation to Serbia and Croatia. The treatment of the arrested persons was extremely cruel. Their entire property was confiscated in the interest of the Reich. Numerous assembly points were organized and practically turned into concentration camps, in Maribor, Zelie, and other localities.”
As regards the treatment of arrested persons in these points, the statement of the Yugoslav Government reads as follows—the members of the Tribunal will find this passage on Page 69, Paragraph 4, of the document book:
“The internees were left without food; in unhygienic conditions; the personnel of the camp subjected them to bodily and mental torture. All the camp commanders and personnel belonged to the SS. Among them were Germans from Carinthia and Styria who hated anything connected with Slovenia in particular, and Yugoslavia in general.”
The following sentence is typical:
“The members of the so-called Kulturbund”—Cultural Union—“particularly distinguished themselves for their cruelty.”
In corroboration of this Hitlerite crime, I submit to the Tribunal, as Exhibit Number USSR-139 (Document Number USSR-139), a letter from the German Command in Smeredov, addressed to the Yugoslav quisling, Commissioner Stefanovitch, ordering him to report what the possibilities were for transferring to Serbia a large number of Slovenes. Your Honors will find this document on Page 119 of the document book.
In the report of the Yugoslav Government, Page 49 of the Russian text, which corresponds to Page 59, Paragraph 7, of the document book of the Tribunal, it is stated that the Germans primarily intended to transfer 260,000 Slovenes to Serbia. However, the realization of this plan met with a number of difficulties. In this connection I should like to quote a paragraph from the report of the Yugoslav Government:
“But in view of the fact that the transportation to Serbia of such a very large number of Slovenes has encountered a great many difficulties, negotiations were opened shortly afterwards between the German authorities and the quisling Oustachi administration in Zagreb concerning the transit of the expelled Slovenes through Croatian territory and the resettling of a certain number of these Slovenes in Croatia proper, while the Serbs in Croatia were deported from the country.”