ROSENBERG: I would like only to rectify somewhat an error in the translation. I did not say, “Yes, it is true; I remember that this measure was taken;” but I said, “I thought it,” that is to say, I had thought it earlier, not at the moment when I was asked. I saw this only when I received the translation, which I had not seen prior to that time.
As far as Document 1015-PS is concerned, in order not to delay the Court too long, I would like to point to just a few items—namely, that in the work report of 1940-44, on Page 2, it was stated that the origin was determined beyond question, and on Page 3 we see that the taking of inventories was done in a conscientious manner on the basis of a scientific catalog, that a workshop for the restoration was set up in order to ensure their arriving at their destination in good condition.
Finally, I would like to add a few words because they seem important to me in view of the charges of the Soviet Prosecution relative to the treatment of cultural treasures by the Einsatzstab in the former Occupied Eastern Territories. At the end of the work report, there is stated under the title, “Work in the Eastern regions”—I quote:
“The activity of Special Einsatzstab ‘Plastic Art’ was limited in the Occupied Eastern Territories to scientific and photographic recording of public collections, their safeguarding and care in collaboration with military and civilian offices. In the course of evacuation of the area, several hundred of the most valuable Russian icons, several hundred Russian paintings of the 18th and 19th centuries, individual pieces of furniture and household articles ... were recovered and brought to the Reich for safekeeping.”
I only wanted to point out by this that the Einsatzstab in the East did not transport any Soviet cultural and art treasures to the Reich, but only brought them to safety—as may be seen from later documents, when the territories directly menaced by operations were evacuated—first into the rear areas, then further back and partly into the Reich.
From the same document I would like to point to a letter of 5 July 1942 from the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery. I refer to the charge of the Polish Government that the entire removal of works of art and museum pieces was concentrated in the Einsatzstab or in the Rosenberg office in Berlin. I will return again to this Polish accusation. I just want to point to the paragraph in Dr. Lammers’ letter which says that the Führer had decreed that various libraries of the Eastern region were to be confiscated; and then there is stated expressly, “The Government General is not included.”
Furthermore, I refer to the directive of the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories of 20 August 1941 to Reich Commissioner Ostler.
DR. THOMA: What page?
ROSENBERG: Page 2 of this document. At the end it says...
THE PRESIDENT: What document are you talking about now? What document number?