Chapter 2, clandestine purchases, black market.

As in all the other occupied territories, the Germans organized a black market in Belgium as early as October 1941.

According to a secret report on the black market, called “Final Report of the Control Office of the Military Commander in Belgium and in the North of France, Concerning the Legalized Emptying of the Black Market in Belgium and in the North of France,” a report covering the period from 13 March 1942 to 31 May 1943—Exhibit Number RF-159 (Document Number ECH-7) in the document book—the reasons given by the Germans for this organization of the black market are three in number:

1) To check competition on the black market between various German buyers; 2) to make the best use of the Belgian resources for the purposes of German war economy; 3) to do away with the pressure exercised on the general standard of prices and by this to avoid all danger of inflation which would result in endangering German currency itself.

This same report tells us, Pages 3 and following, that an actual administrative organization was set up by the Germans for carrying out this policy. The bookkeeping was done by the Clearing Institute of the Wehrmacht, which combined all the operations in its books. The direction of purchases was regulated by a central organization, the name of which changed as the years went by and which had a certain number of organizations subordinate to it, particularly a whole series of purchasing offices.

The central organization was set up in accordance with the decree of the military commander in Belgium, dated 20 February 1942. It was formed on the 13th of the following March; and as soon as it was created it received special directives from the delegate of the Reich Marshal, Defendant Göring. This delegate was Lieutenant Colonel Veltjens, of whom we spoke this morning.

This organization was only established to co-ordinate the legalization and direction of the black market, as had been determined upon, and planned following conferences between the Commissioner General and the Military Commander of Belgium with the Chief of the Armament Inspection. According to the terms of that agreement, which reinforced a declaration of 16 February 1942 emanating from the Reich Minister for Economics, the aim was to drain the black market and in accordance with directives, in a legal form, with the main idea of safeguarding the supply requirements of the German Reich.

This organization had its offices in Brussels. The purchases themselves were regulated by a certain number of specialized offices, the list of which is given on Page 5 of the forementioned report. These organisms received their orders from the Rohstoffhandelsgesellschaft, which has already been mentioned at the beginning of the statement on the economic exploitation of Western Europe.

The role of Roges was very important in the organization of the black market. In effect it was four-fold:

1) The purchasing directives, once the authorization had been given by the central office in Brussels, were transmitted by Roges to the proper purchasing office.

2) The delivery of goods bought and marked for the Reich were made through Roges which took charge of their distribution in Germany. Pg578

3) Roges financed the operations.

4) It was Roges which was entrusted with paying the difference between the rate of purchase—generally very high because of the black market rate—and the fixed official rate of sale on the German domestic market. The difference was covered by an equalizing fund, supplied from the occupation costs account, to which the Reich Minister of Finance put sums at the disposal of Roges through the channel of the Ministry of Armament.

The forementioned report furnishes a complete series of interesting particulars on the functioning of the central organization itself. It is interesting to note that the central office in Brussels was instructed by order of the Military Commander in Belgium, dated 3 November 1942, to have a branch at Lille set up for the north of France. At the same time, the Brussels office was authorized to instruct its branch office at Lille. In the document book, under Document Number RF-160, a final report of the Lille office is mentioned. This report, drawn up on 20 May 1943, gives a whole series of interesting particulars on the functioning of this organization.

THE PRESIDENT: It is 5 o’clock now. M. Delpech, I think it would be the wish of the Tribunal, if it were possible, for you to omit any parts of this document which are on precisely the same principles with those which have already been submitted to us in connection with the other countries. If you could, I think that would be convenient for the Tribunal. Of course, if there are any essential differences in the treatment of Belgium then, no doubt, you would draw our attention to them.

M. DELPECH: Certainly, Your Honor.

[_The Tribunal adjourned until 22 January 1946 at 1000 hours._]

TRANSCRIBER NOTES

Punctuation and spelling have been maintained except where obvious printer errors have occurred such as missing periods or commas for periods. English and American spellings occur throughout the document; however, American spellings are the rule, hence, ‘Defense’ versus ‘Defence’. Unlike prior Blue Series volumes I and II, all French, German and eastern European names and terms include accents and umlauts: hence Führer and Göring, etc. throughout.

Although some sentences may appear to have incorrect spellings or verb tenses, the original text has been maintained as it represents what the tribunal read into the record and reflects the actual translations between the German, English, Russian and French documents presented in the trial.

An attempt has been made to produce this eBook in a format as close as possible to the original document's presentation and layout.

[The end of _Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal: Nuremberg 14 November 1945-1 October 1946 (Vol. 5)_, by Various.]