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exploitation of Norway. Two weeks after Norway was occupied, Hitler told him that he
had based his decision to attack Norway "on the continuous warnings of Quisling
reported to him by Reichsleiter Rosenberg."
Rosenberg bears a major responsibility for the formulation and execution of
occupation policies in the occupied Eastern territories. He was informed by Hitler on
2nd April, 1941, of the coming attack against the Soviet Union, and he agreed to help
in the capacity of a "Political Adviser." On 20th April, 1941, he was appointed
Commissioner for the Central Control of Questions Connected with the East-
European Region. In preparing the plans for the occupation, he had numerous
conferences with Keitel, Raeder, Göring, Funk, Ribbentrop, and other high Reich
authorities. In April and May, 1941, he prepared several drafts of instructions
concerning the setting up of the administration in the occupied Eastern territories. On
20th June, 1941, two days before the attack on the U.S.S.R., he made a speech to
his assistants about the problems and policies of occupation. Rosenberg attended
Hitler's conference of 16th July, 1941, in the course of which policies of
administration and occupation were discussed. On 17th July, 1941, Hitler appointed
Rosenberg Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories and publicly charged
him with responsibility for civil administration.
WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
Rosenberg is responsible for a system of organized plunder of both public and
private property throughout the invaded countries of Europe. Acting under Hitler's
orders of January, 1940, to set up the "Hohe Schule," he organized and directed the
"Einsatzstab Rosenberg," which plundered museums and libraries, confiscated art
treasures and collections, and pillaged private houses. His own reports show the
extent of the confiscations. In "Action-M" (Moebel), instituted in December, 1941, at
Rosenberg's suggestion, 69,619 Jewish homes were plundered in the West, 38,000
of them in Paris alone, and it took 26,984 railroad cars to transport the confiscated
furnishings to Germany. By 14th July, 1944, more than 21,903 art treasures,
including famous paintings and museum pieces, had been seized by the Einsatzstab
in the West.
With his appointment as Reich Minister for Occupied Eastern Territories on 17th July,
1941, Rosenberg became the supreme authority for those areas. He helped to
formulate the policies of Germanization, exploitation, forced labour, extermination of
Jews and opponents of Nazi rule, and he set up the administration which carried
them out. He took part in the conference of 16th July, 1941, in which Hitler stated that
they were faced with the task of "cutting up the giant cake according to our needs in
order to be able: first, to dominate it, second, to administer it, and third, to exploit it,"
and indicated that ruthless action was contemplated. Rosenberg accepted his
appointment on the following day.
Rosenberg had knowledge of the brutal treatment and terror to which the Eastern
people were subjected. He directed that the Hague Rules of Land Warfare were not
applicable in the occupied Eastern territories. He had knowledge of and took an
active part in stripping the Eastern territories of raw materials and foodstuffs, which
were all sent to Germany. He stated that feeding the German people was first on the
list of claims on the East, and that the Soviet people would suffer thereby. His
directives provided for the segregation of Jews, ultimately in ghettoes. His