THE PRESIDENT: Would that be a convenient time to break off for 10 minutes?
GEN. RUDENKO: May it please the Tribunal, I will now describe the crimes committed by the Hitlerite aggressors against my own country, against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. On 22 June 1941 the U.S.S.R. was perfidiously attacked by Hitlerite Germany. However, it is not this date that should be considered as the actual beginning of the execution of Hitlerite Germany’s plan of aggression against the Soviet Union. What took place on 22 June 1941 was conceived, prepared, and planned long before that.
The Hitlerite conspirators pursued these preparations continuously. All Germany’s aggressive actions against a number of European states, during the period between 1938 and 1941, were actually only preliminary measures for the main blow in the East. For fascist Germany had conceived the criminal design of seizing the territory of the Soviet Union in order to plunder and to exploit the peoples of the U.S.S.R.
We need not seek confirmation thereof in Hitler’s _Mein Kampf_ or in the writings of the Hitlerite ringleaders, which, as is known, contained, together with a direct menace to the U.S.S.R., indications that the aggression of German imperialism must be directed toward the East in order to conquer the so-called “living space.” This tendency of predatory German imperialism is expressed in the well-known formula “Drang nach Osten.”
I revert for evidence to the official documents of the Hitlerite Government, which fully disclose the defendants’ guilt in committing the criminal actions with which they are charged under the present Indictment.
I beg to be allowed to refer, in the first case, to the document entitled, “Report Concerning the Conference of 23 May 1939.” As can be seen from this document, this conference took place in Hitler’s study at the new Reich Chancellery, and the minutes were taken down by Lieutenant Colonel Schmundt of the German General Staff. There were present at this conference: Hitler, Göring, Raeder, Brauchitsch, Keitel, General Milch, General of the Artillery Halder, and other representatives of the German High Command. The report states that the subject of the conference was, “Instructions concerning the present situation and the objects of our policy.” Speaking at this conference, Hitler frequently broached the subject of the seizure of territory in the East. He declared: