On Page 6 it says:
“From this it follows that Germany’s aim is the freedom of the Ukrainian people. This must without fail be made a point in our political program. In what form and to what extent a Ukrainian State can be formed later is of no purport just now.... One must proceed cautiously in this direction. Literature dealing with the Ukrainian struggles must be promoted so that the Ukrainian people’s historical consciousness can be revived. A university would have to be founded in Kiev, technical colleges established, the Ukrainian language cultivated, et cetera.”
I have quoted this as documentary evidence of the fact that it was not my intention to destroy the culture of the peoples of the East.
In the next paragraph I pointed out that it was important to win, in the course of time, the voluntary co-operation of the 40 million people in the Ukraine. On Page 7 reference is made to the possible occupation of the Caucasian territories as follows:
“Here the aim will not be to establish a Caucasian National State but to find a solution on Federal lines which, with German help, might go so far as to influence these people to ask Germany to protect their cultural and national existence.”
Here, too, there is no question of a desire to exterminate.
Now comes a matter which has been described by the American Prosecution as a particularly serious, incriminating factor. It deals with the so-called colonization and the property of German peoples in the East. This paragraph is worded as follows:
“Quite apart from all these problems, there is a question which is of an equally general nature, and which we must all think about—namely, the question of German property. German people have worked in this immense territory for centuries. The result of that work, among other things, was the acquisition of vast lands. The land confiscated in the Baltic countries can be compared in size with East Prussia; the entire real estate in the Black Sea was as great as Württemberg, Baden, and Alsace put together. In the Black Sea area more land was cultivated than is arable in England. These comparisons of size must make it clear to us that the Germans there did not idly exploit or plunder the people, but that they did constructive work. And the result of this work is German national property; irrespective of earlier individual owners. Just how that may one day be compensated cannot yet be considered. But a ... legal basis can be established.”
I wished to quote this so that I can refer to it later on when we deal with the agrarian problem, particularly in respect to the Reich Commission East, where in spite of these reflections the 700-year-old German property was not restored but handed to the Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians by law, as has been proved.
In a later paragraph it states: