And Kube recommended to Rosenberg—I quote:
“I hope that experts will be appointed beforehand to prevent such happenings in Leningrad and Moscow, as well as in some of the ancient Ukrainian cultural centers.”
That was the ultimate goal of their ideas. It is now universally known what meaning the Hitlerites attached to the word “measures” when applied to the occupied territories. It meant a regime of bloody terror and violence, of unrestricted plunder, and arbitrariness.
On breaking into Minsk, capital of the Bielorussian Republic, the German fascist invaders attempted to destroy the culture of the Bielorussian people and to turn the Bielorussians into obedient German slaves. As has been established by a special investigation, the Hitlerite military authorities, acting on direct orders from the German Government, ruthlessly destroyed scientific research institutes and schools, theaters and clubs, hospitals and polyclinics, kindergartens and day nurseries.
I am reading into the record an excerpt from the document which was presented by the Soviet Prosecution as Exhibit Number USSR-38 (Document Number USSR-38).
“For 3 years the German fascist invaders in Minsk set out to destroy, systematically, the scientific research institutes, institutions of higher education, libraries, museums, institutions of the academy of science, theaters, and clubs.
“The Lenin library in Minsk was a foundation more than 20 years old. In 1932 the work was completed by the construction of a special new building with a large and well-equipped depository for storing books. From this library the Germans carried off to Berlin and Königsberg 1½ million extremely valuable books on the history of Bielorussia. . . .”
I omit the end of Page 73 of my report.
“In their attempt to eradicate the culture of the Bielorussian people, the German fascist invaders destroyed every cultural and educational institution in Minsk. . . . The libraries of the Academy of Science, containing 30,000 volumes, of the State University, of the Polytechnical Institute, and the medico-scientific library and the public library of the city, A. S. Pushkin, were carried away to Germany.
“The Hitlerites destroyed the Bielorussian State University together with the Zoological, the Geological, and Mineralogical, the Historical, and Archaeological Museums as well as the Medical Institute with all its clinics. They also demolished the Academy of Sciences with its nine institutes.”