“The library of the Polytechnical Institute in the basement of the left wing, as well as a great number of laboratories, were devastated beyond hope and left in complete disorder.”
The report concludes with the following sentence, which I quote:
“The purpose of this report”—wrote the German private—“can be achieved only if submitted to the Supreme Command and when the command will issue the necessary orders plainly forbidding the German soldier from behaving like a barbarian.”
But such orders never followed and never could follow, since fascism and barbarism are inseparable; fascism, in fact, means barbarism.
THE PRESIDENT: What were you proposing to do after the adjournment this afternoon?
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: After the recess I shall present several written documents pertaining to the destruction of cultural valuables in the Lithuanian, Estonian, and Latvian Republics and later, with the permission of the Tribunal, I should like to present a documentary film, so that at the close of the session all presentation of evidence would be completed and my report finished.
THE PRESIDENT: How long will the film take?
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: The presentation of the documentary film will take about 30 to 35 minutes.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you not think that after the vast amount of damage and spoliation to which you have drawn our attention in some detail it would be sufficient if you were to summarize by telling us the countries in which similar spoliation had taken place? It is difficult to assimilate all this vast amount of detail.
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: I have in mind, Mr. President, to present to the Tribunal a document which will serve as a summary and in which all the general totals will be given.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. We will adjourn now for 10 minutes.
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: I wish to draw the attention of the Tribunal for a few minutes to the fact that before presenting the conclusion of this document I should like to read into the record a German document referring to the subject.
Having occupied the Lithuanian, Estonian, and Latvian Soviet Republics, the German fascist invaders attempted to reduce the Soviet Baltic provinces to the status of a German colony and to enslave the people of these republics. This criminal design of the Hitlerite Government found its full expression in universal plunder, general ruin, violence, degradation, and in the mass murder of old men, women, and children.