I would like to return to the same conference which has already been mentioned. You remember the document submitted by the Soviet Prosecution, concerning the conference of the 6th of August 1942, Exhibit Number USSR-170, Document Number USSR-170? On 6 August 1942, there was a conference of commissioners of the occupied regions and of the representatives of the military command. This conference took place under your direction. You spoke at this conference—and I would like to remind you of some of the things you said.
GÖRING: May I have a look at these minutes?
GEN. RUDENKO: You want to see the minutes of the meeting? Certainly. It is quite a long document. I do not intend to read the whole thing, but only the relevant passages. I will ask you to look only at Page 111 of this stenographic record—the place is marked with pencil—especially the citations which I am going to quote here. On Page 111, it states:
“Gentlemen: The Führer has given me general powers on a scale such as he has never given hitherto under the Four Year Plan. He has also empowered me . . .”
GÖRING: Just one moment. Are you not omitting “under the Four Year Plan”?
GEN. RUDENKO: Evidently the translation has not reached you. I mentioned the Four Year Plan.
“He has given me additional powers under the Four Year Plan reaching into every branch of our economic structure, whether within the State, the Party, or the Armed Forces.”
Is it correct you were given such exclusive rights and prerogatives as mentioned in the citation?
GÖRING: When the Four Year Plan was formulated I received extraordinary general powers. For the first time unlimited powers were given in the economic sphere, I received authority to issue directives and instructions to the highest Reich departments, to the higher offices of the Armed Forces and the Party. During the war these powers were extended to the economic structure of the occupied countries.
GEN. RUDENKO: In that case I have stated and interpreted, correctly, what you stated at the conference.