DR. THOMA: Mr. President, may I draw your attention to an explicit error here? This “R” is in connection with a “K.” That apparently means “Reichskommissar.”
MR. DODD: I am not discussing the “R” on the top of the letter; I am discussing the one of the handwritten letter.
ROSENBERG: Well, it can be seen from this “R” now quite unequivocally that this concerns the man who received the letter. “Received on 22 December—R.” And it is addressed from the Ministry to the “Ostland.” That note, therefore, was written by a person living in Riga, and that is the same “R” which can be found also on the other document.
MR. DODD: Who is your Reich Commissioner in the East for Riga?
ROSENBERG: Lohse.
MR. DODD: His name didn’t begin with “R,” did it?
ROSENBERG: Yes, but it is clear that this letter obviously was initialled in his department.
DR. THOMA: May I also help the Tribunal in this matter? In the handwritten thing with the German “L” you will find on the left margin “WV 1/12/41,” which means to be presented again (Wiedervorlage). And then you find “presented (vorgelegt) 1/12/41 R.” That appears to have taken place in the office of the Reich Commissioner and it is a first draft and therefore it was marked only with the first letter of his name.
MR. DODD: We do not accept that as being any statement with which we can prove this at this Trial. I think the matter as to whose initial it is will be presented later for determination.
THE PRESIDENT: What do the words at the top mean, “The Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories”?