The title: “The Warsaw Ghetto is no more.”
“For the Führer and their country the following fell in the
battle for the destruction of Jews and bandits in the former
Jewish residential area of Warsaw.”—Fifteen names are
thereafter listed.
“Furthermore, the Polish Police Sergeant Julian Zielenski, born
13 November 1891, 8th Commissariat, fell on 19 April 1943 while
fulfilling his duty. They gave their utmost, their life. We
shall never forget them.
“The following were wounded. . . .”
Then follow the names of 60 Waffen-SS personnel, 11 watchmen from
training camps (probably Lithuanians), 12 Security Police officers in SS
units, 5 men of the Polish Police, and 2 soldiers of the Wehrmacht
Engineers.
Permit me to read some brief excerpts of the daily teletype reports.
Page 13 of the translation, from the teletype message of 22 April 1943,
I read:
“Our setting the block on fire achieved the result in the course
of the night that those Jews whom we had not been able to find
despite all our search operations left their hideouts under the
roofs, in the cellars, and elsewhere and appeared on the outside
of the building, trying to escape the flames anyhow. Masses of
them—entire families—were already aflame and jumped from the
windows or endeavored to let themselves down by means of sheets
tied together or the like. Steps had been taken so that these
Jews as well as the remaining ones were liquidated at once.”
And from Page 28 of the translation, the last part of the first
paragraph, I read:
“When the blocks of buildings mentioned above were destroyed,
120 Jews were caught and numerous Jews were destroyed when they
jumped from the attics to the inner courtyards, trying to escape
the flames. Many more Jews perished in the flames or were
destroyed when the dugouts and sewer entrances were blown up.”
And on Page 30, second half of the second paragraph, I read:
“Not until the blocks of buildings were well aflame and were
about to collapse did a considerable number of Jews emerge,
forced to do so by the flames and the smoke. Time and again the
Jews tried to escape even through burning buildings. Innumerable
Jews whom we saw on the roofs during the conflagration perished
in the flames. Others emerged from the upper stories in the last
possible moment and were only able to escape death from the
flames by jumping down. Today we caught a total of 2,283 Jews of
whom 204 were shot; and innumerable Jews were destroyed in
dugouts and in the flames.”
And from Page 34, the second paragraph, I read, beginning the second
line:
“The Jews testify that they emerge at night to get fresh air,
since it is unbearable to stay permanently within the dugouts
owing to the long duration of the operation. On the average the
raiding parties shoot 30 to 50 Jews each night. From these
statements it was to be inferred that a considerable number of
Jews are still underground in the ghetto. Today we blew up a
concrete building which we had not been able to destroy by fire.
In this operation we learned that the blowing up of a building
is a very lengthy process and takes an enormous amount of
explosives. The best and only method for destroying the Jews
therefore still remains the setting of fires.”
And from Page 35, the last part of the second paragraph, I read:
“Some depositions speak of three to four thousand Jews still
remaining in underground holes, sewers, and dugouts. The
undersigned is resolved not to terminate the large-scale
operation until the last Jew has been destroyed.”
And from the teletype message of 15 May 1943 on Page 44, we gather that
the operation is in its last stage. I read the end of the first
paragraph on Page 44:
“A special unit once more searched the last block of buildings,
which was still intact, in the ghetto and subsequently destroyed
it. In the evening the chapel, mortuary, and all other buildings
in the Jewish cemetery were blown up or destroyed by fire.”
On 24 May 1943 the final figures have been compiled by Major General
Stroop. He reports on Page 45, last paragraph:
“Of the total of 56,065 caught, about 7,000 were destroyed in
the former Jewish residential area during large-scale
operations; 6,929 Jews were destroyed by transporting them to T.
II”—which we believe to be Treblinka, Camp Number 2, which will
later be referred to—“the sum total of Jews destroyed is
therefore 13,929. Beyond the number of 56,065 an estimated
number of 5,000 to 6,000 Jews were destroyed by being blown up
or by perishing in the flames.”
The Court has noted within the report 1061-PS a number of photographs;
and with the Court’s permission I should like to show a few of these
photographs, still pictures, on the screen, unless the Court believes
that reference to the original text will be sufficient for the Court’s
purpose.
THE PRESIDENT: No; if you want to put them on the screen, you may do so.
Perhaps it would be convenient to adjourn now and you can put them on
the screen afterwards.
[_A recess was taken._]
[_Still pictures were projected on the screen in the courtroom._]
MAJOR WALSH: This first picture [_pointing to a picture on the screen_]
is shown on Page 27 of the photographs in Document 1061-PS. It is
entitled “The Destruction of a Block of Buildings.” The Court will
recall those portions of the teletype messages that referred to the
setting of fires for the purpose of driving out the Jews. This picture,
taken from the record, portrays such a scene.
This picture [_pointing to a picture on the screen_] is from Page 21 of
the photographs contained in the exhibit, and the caption is “Smoking
out of the Jews and Bandits.” Excerpts from the teletype messages read
in the record relate to the use of smoke as a means of forcing Jews out
of the hiding places.
This picture [_pointing to a picture on the screen_] is from Page 36 of
the photographs in the exhibit and it is called “Fighting a Nest of
Resistance.” It is obviously a picture of an explosive blast being used
to destroy one of the buildings, and the Court may recall the message of
7 May 1943 that related to the blowing up of buildings as a lengthy
process requiring an enormous amount of explosive. The same message
reported that the best method for destroying the Jews was the setting of
fires.
This picture [_pointing to a picture on the screen_] is taken from Page
36 of the photographs. The Court’s attention is invited to the figure of
a man in mid-air who appears in the picture about halfway between the
center and the upper right-hand corner. He has jumped from one of the
upper floors of the burning building. A close examination of this
picture by the Court in the original photograph will disclose other
figures, in the upper floor windows, who apparently are about to follow
him. The teletype message of 22 April reported that entire families
jumped from burning buildings and were liquidated at once.
This picture [_pointing to a picture on the screen_] is from Page 39 of
the photographs. It is entitled “The Leader of the Large-scale Action.”
The Nazi-appointed commander of this action was SS Major General Stroop,
who probably is the central figure in this picture. I cannot refrain
from commenting at this point on the smiling faces of the group shown
there, in the midst of the violence and destruction.
THE PRESIDENT: Are you passing from that document now?
MAJOR WALSH: Yes, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you tell the Tribunal where the document was found?
MAJOR WALSH: It is a captured document, Sir. I do not have the history,
but I shall be very pleased to submit the background and history to the
Court at the beginning of the afternoon session.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal, I think, would like to know where it was
found and to whom it was submitted.
MAJOR WALSH: I have that. I believe that is contained in the document.
The teletype messages, Sir, that are contained in this exhibit were all
addressed to the Higher SS and Police Führer, SS Obergruppenführer and
General of the Police Krüger or his deputy.
It was not always necessary, or perhaps desirable, first to place the
Jews within the ghettos to effect the elimination. In the Baltic States
a more direct course of action was followed. I refer to Document L-180,
now in evidence, which is Exhibit USA-276. This is a report by SS
Brigade Führer Stahlecker to Himmler, dated 15 October 1941, entitled
“Action Group A,” found in Himmler’s private files. He reported that
135,567 persons, nearly all Jews, were murdered in accordance with basic
orders directing the complete annihilation of the Jews. This voluminous
document provides me with the following statement by the same SS Brigade
Führer, and from the translation at the bottom of Page 6, the second
sentence of the last paragraph, I read:
“To our surprise it was not easy, at first, to set in motion an
extensive pogrom against the Jews. Klimatis, the leader of the
partisan unit mentioned above, who was used for this purpose
primarily, succeeded in starting a pogrom on the basis of advice
given to him by a small advanced detachment acting in Kovno and
in such a way that no German order or German instigation was
noticed from the outside. During the first pogrom in the night
from 25 to 26 June the Lithuanian partisans did away with more
than 1,500 Jews, setting fire to several synagogues or
destroying them by other means and burning down a Jewish
dwelling district consisting of about 60 houses. During the
following nights 2,300 Jews were eliminated in a similar way.”
From the last part of Paragraph 3, Page 7, I read:
“It was possible, though, through similar influences on the
Latvian auxiliary to set in motion a pogrom against the Jews
also in Riga. During this pogrom all synagogues were destroyed
and about 400 Jews were killed.”
Nazi ingenuity reached a new high mark with the construction and
operation of the gas van as a means of mass annihilation of the Jews. A
description of these vehicles of horror and death and the operation of
them is fully set forth in a captured top-secret document, dated 16 May
1942, addressed to SS Obersturmbannführer Rauff, 8
Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, Berlin, from Dr. Becker, SS Untersturmführer. I
offer this document, 501-PS, Exhibit USA-288. I quote:
“The overhauling of vans by groups D and C is finished. While
the vans in the first series can also be put into action if the
weather is not too bad, the vans of the second series (Saurer)
stop completely in rainy weather. If it has rained for instance
for only one-half hour, the van cannot be used because it simply
skids away. It can only be used in absolutely dry weather. It is
a question now of whether the van can be used only when it
stands at the place of execution. First the van has to be
brought to that place, which is possible only in good weather.
The place of execution is usually 10 to 15 kilometers away from
the highway and is difficult of access because of its location;
in damp or wet weather it is not accessible at all. If the
persons to be executed are driven or led to that place, then
they realize immediately what is going on and get restless,
which is to be avoided as far as possible. There is only one way
left: to load them at the collecting point and to drive them to
the spot.
“I ordered the vans of group D to be camouflaged as
house-trailers by putting one set of window shutters on each
side of the small van and two on each side of the larger vans,
such as one often sees on farm houses in the country. The vans
became so well-known that not only the authorities but also the
civilian population called the van ‘death van’ as soon as one of
the vehicles appeared. It is my opinion the van cannot be kept
secret for any length of time, not even camouflaged.”
And then I read the fourth paragraph on this page:
“Because of the rough terrain and the indescribable road and
highway conditions the caulkings and rivets loosen in the course
of time. I was asked if in such cases the vans should not be
brought to Berlin for repairs. Transportation to Berlin would be
much too expensive and would demand too much fuel. In order to
save these expenses I ordered them to have smaller leaks
soldered and, if that should no longer be possible, to notify
Berlin immediately by radio, that License Number . . . is out of
order. Besides that I ordered that during application of gas all
the men were to be kept as far away from the vans as possible,
so that they should not suffer damage to their health by the gas
which eventually would escape. I should like to take this
opportunity to bring the following to your attention: Several
commands have had the unloading, after the application of gas,
done by their own men. I brought to the attention of the
commanders of these special detachments concerned the immense
psychological injury and damage to their health which that work
can have for those men, even if not immediately, at least later
on. The men complained to me about headaches which appeared
after each unloading. Nevertheless they don’t want to change the
orders, because they are afraid prisoners called for that work
could use an opportune moment to flee. To protect the men from
such damage, I request orders be issued accordingly. The
application of gas usually is not undertaken correctly. In order
to come to an end as fast as possible, the driver presses the
accelerator to the fullest extent. By doing that the persons to
be executed suffer death from suffocation and not death by
dozing off as was planned. My directions now have proved that by
correct adjustment of the levers death comes faster and the
prisoners fall asleep peacefully. Distorted faces and
excretions, such as could be seen before, are no longer noticed.
“Today I shall continue my journey to group B, where I can be
reached with further news. Signed, Doctor Becker, SS
Untersturmführer.”
On Page 3 in Document 501-PS we find a letter signed by Hauptsturmführer
Trühess on the subject of S-Vans, addressed to the Reich Security Main
Office, Room II-D-3-A, Berlin, marked “top secret.” This letter
establishes that the vans were used for the annihilation of the Jews. I
read this top-secret message; subject, “S-Vans”:
“A transport of Jews, which has to be treated in a special way,
arrives weekly at the office of the commandant of the Security
Police and the Security Service of White Ruthenia.
“The three S-vans which are there are not sufficient for that
purpose. I request assignment of another S-van (5 tons). At the
same time I request the shipment of 20 gas hoses for the three
S-vans on hand (two Diamond, one Saurer), since the ones on hand
are leaky already.”—Signed—“the Commandant of the Security
Police and the Security Service, Ostland.”
It would appear from the documentary evidence that a certain amount of
discord existed between the officials of the German Government as to the
proper means and methods used in connection with the program of
extermination. A secret report dated 18 June 1943, addressed to
Defendant Rosenberg, complained that 5,000 Jews killed by the police and
SS might have been used for forced labor and chided them for failing to
bury the bodies of those liquidated. I offer in evidence this file,
Document Number R-135, Exhibit USA-289.
THE PRESIDENT: Is it in these volumes, Major Walsh?
MAJOR WALSH: I think, Sir, that will be found in the assembly of the
document book in our case; that has been placed in front of R-124. I
quote from the letter referred to, addressed to the Reich Minister for
the Occupied Eastern Territories, the first paragraph of the
translation:
“The fact that Jews receive special treatment requires no
further discussion. However, it appears hardly believable that
this was done in the way described in the report of the General
Commissioner of 1 June 1943. What is Katyn against that? Imagine
only that these occurrences might become known to the other side
and be exploited by them! Most likely such propaganda would have
no effect, only because people who hear and read about it simply
would not be ready to believe it.”
The last part of Paragraph 3 on this page reads:
“To lock men, women, and children into barns and to set fire to
them does not appear to be a suitable method for combatting
bands, even if it is desired to exterminate the population. This
method is not worthy of the German cause and hurts our
reputation severely.”
Günther, the prison warden at Minsk, in a letter dated 31 May 1943,
addressed to the General Commissioner for White Ruthenia, subject:
“Action against Jews,” was critical by implication. With the Court’s
permission I would like to read this entire letter, part of Document
R-135, Page 5, subject: “Action Against Jews”:
“On 13 April 1943 the former German dentist Ernst Israel
Tichauer and his wife, Elisa Sara Tichauer, née Rosenthal, were
committed to the court prison by the Security Service . . . .
Since that time all German and Russian Jews who were turned over
to us had their gold bridgework, crowns, and fillings pulled or
broken out. This happens always 1 to 2 hours before the
respective action.
“Since 13 April 1943, 516 German and Russian Jews have been
finished off. On the basis of a definite investigation gold was
taken only in two actions—on 14 April 1943, from 172, and on 27
April 1943, from 164 Jews. About 50 percent of the Jews had gold
teeth, bridgework, or fillings. Hauptscharführer Rübe of the
Security Service was always personally present, and he took the
gold along, too.
“Before 13 April 1943 this was not done. Signed, Günther, Prison
Warden.”
This letter was forwarded to the Defendant Rosenberg as Reich Minister
for the Occupied Eastern Territories on 1 June 1943. I will read the
covering letter, part of Document R-135, Page 4, to the Reich Minister
of the Occupied Eastern Territories, Berlin, through the Reich
Commissioner for the Ostland, Riga; Subject, “Actions against Jews in
the Prison of Minsk”:
“The enclosed official report from the warden of the prison in
Minsk is submitted to the Reich Minister and the Reich
Commissioner for Information.”—Signed—“the General
Commissioner in Minsk.”
THE PRESIDENT: Does “respective action,” as indicated in the letter
dated the 31st of May 1943, mean execution?
MAJOR WALSH: Yes, Sir; we so interpret it. The Court will recall that
the ridding of the Jews via gas vans ties in very closely with the
second letter of the transport of Jews arriving for that purpose.
THE PRESIDENT: Was this document found in Rosenberg’s file?
MAJOR WALSH: I am so informed, Sir. A further complaint is contained in
a secret letter addressed to General of the Infantry Thomas, chief of
the industrial armament department, dated 2 December 1941. It might be
noted with interest that the apprehensive writer of this letter stated
that he did not forward the communication through official channels. I
offer in evidence captured Document 3257-PS; and I quote from the first
paragraph. This is Exhibit USA-290:
“For the personal information of the chief of the industrial
armament department, I am forwarding a total account of the
present situation in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine in which the
difficulties and tensions encountered so far and the problems
which give rise to serious anxiety are stated with unmistakable
clarity.
“Intentionally I have desisted from submitting such a report
through official channels or from making it known to other
departments interested in it because I do not expect any results
that way, but on the contrary am apprehensive that the
difficulties and tensions and also the divergent opinions might
only be increased due to the peculiarity of the situation.”
“Jewish problem”—Paragraph c, Page 1:
“Regulation of the Jewish question in the Ukraine was a
difficult problem because the Jews constituted a large part of
the urban population. We therefore have to deal—just as in the
Government General—with a mass problem of policy concerning the
population. Many cities had a percentage of Jews exceeding 50
percent. Only the rich Jews had fled from the German troops. The
majority of Jews remained under German administration. The
latter found the problem more complicated through the fact that
these Jews represented almost entire trade and even a part of
the manpower in small and medium industries, besides business,
which had in part become superfluous as a direct or indirect
result of the war. The elimination therefore necessarily had
far-reaching economic consequences and even direct consequences
for the armament industry (production for supplying the
troops).”
Paragraph 1 on Page 2:
“The attitude of the Jewish population was anxious—obliging
from the beginning. They tried to avoid everything that might
displease the German administration. That they hated the German
administration and army inwardly goes without saying and cannot
be surprising. However, there is no proof that Jewry as a whole
or even to a greater part was implicated in acts of sabotage
. . . . Surely there were some terrorists or saboteurs among
them, just as among the Ukrainians. But it cannot be said that
the Jews as such represented a danger to the German Armed
Forces. The output produced by Jews who, of course, were
prompted by nothing but the feeling of fear, was satisfactory to
the troops and the German administration.
“The Jewish population remained temporarily unmolested shortly
after the fighting. Only weeks, sometimes months later,
specially detached formations of police executed a planned
shooting of Jews. This action as a rule proceeded from east to
west. It was done entirely in public with the use of the
Ukrainian militia; and unfortunately, in many instances also
with members of the Armed Forces taking part voluntarily. The
way these actions, which included men and old men, women, and
children of all ages, were carried out was horrible. The great
masses executed make this action more gigantic than any similar
measure taken so far in the Soviet Union. So far about 150,000
to 200,000 Jews may have been executed in the part of the
Ukraine belonging to the Reichskommissariat; no consideration
was given to the interests of economy.
“Summarizing, it can be said that the kind of solution of the
Jewish problem applied to the Ukraine, which obviously was based
on the ideological theories as a matter of principle, had the
following results:
“(a) Elimination of a part of partly superfluous eaters in the
cities;
“(b) Elimination of a part of the population which undoubtedly
hated us;
“(c) Elimination of badly needed tradesmen who were in many
instances indispensable even in the interests of the Armed
Forces;
“(d) Consequences as to foreign policy propaganda which are
obvious;
“(e) Bad effects on the troops which in any case get indirect
contact with the execution;
“(f) Brutalizing effect on the formations which carry out the
execution—regular police.”
Lest the Court be persuaded to the belief that these conditions related,
existed only in the East, I invite attention to the official Netherlands
Government report by the Commissioner for Repatriation as indicative of
the treatment of the Jews in the West.
This document is a recital of the German measures taken in the
Netherlands against the Dutch Jews. The decrees, the anti-Semitic
demonstrations, the burning of synagogues, the purging of Jews from the
economic life of their country, the food restrictions against them,
forced labor, concentration camp confinement, deportation, and
death—all follow the same pattern that was effected throughout
Nazi-occupied Europe.
I how refer to Document 1726-PS, Exhibit USA-195, already in evidence.
It is not intended to read this document in evidence, but it is deemed
important to invite the Court’s attention to that portion of the report
relating to the deportation of Dutch Jews shown on Page 5 of the
translation. There the Court will note that full Jews being liable to
deportation number 140,000. The Court will also note that the total
number of deportees was 117,000, representing more than 83 percent of
all the Jews in the Netherlands. Of these 115,000 were deported to
Poland for slave labor, according to the Netherlands report, and after
departure all trace of them was lost. Regardless of victory or defeat to
Germany, the Jew was doomed. It was the expressed intent of the Nazi
State that, whatever the German fate might be, the Jew would not
survive.
I offer in evidence Document L-53, stamped “top secret,” Exhibit
USA-291. This message is from the Commandant of the Sipo and SD for the
Radom District, addressed to SS Hauptsturmführer Thiel on the subject,
“Clearance of Prisons.” I read the body of this message:
“I again stress the fact that the number of inmates of the Sipo
and SD prisons must be kept as low as possible. In the present
situation, particularly, those suspects handed over by the civil
police need only be subjected to a short formal interrogation
provided there are no serious grounds for suspicion. They are
then to be sent by the quickest route to a concentration camp
should no court-martial proceeding be necessary or should there
be no question of discharge. Please keep the number of
discharges very low. Should the situation at the front
necessitate it, early preparations are to be made for the total
clearance of prisons. Should the situation develop suddenly in
such a way that it is impossible to evacuate the prisoners, the
prison inmates are to be eliminated and their bodies disposed of
as far as possible (burning, blowing up the building, _et
cetera_). If necessary, Jews still employed in the armament
industry or on other work are to be dealt with in the same way.
“The liberation of prisoners or Jews by the enemy—be it the WB
or the Red Army—must be avoided under all circumstances, nor
may they fall into their hands alive.”
THE PRESIDENT: What is the WB?
MAJOR WALSH: I have inquired about the WB, Your Honor, from several
sources and have not found an understanding or a statement of it.
Perhaps before the afternoon session I may be able to enlighten the
Court. I have not yet been able to find out.
THE PRESIDENT: Where was the document found?
MAJOR WALSH: It is a captured document, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Does it relate to prisoners of war, did you say?
MAJOR WALSH: No, Sir; including therein, of course, prisoners of war as
well as all Jews. The history of the document, Sir, I will try to gather
for the Court’s information.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Did you tell us what the Sipo were?
MAJOR WALSH: Yes, Sir; I furnished the Court with that; that is the
Security Police, Sir.
This presentation, if the Court please, would be incomplete without
incorporating herein reference to the concentration camps insofar as
they relate to the hundreds of thousands—millions—of Jews who died by
mass shooting, gas, poison, starvation, and other means. The subject of
concentration camps and all its horrors was shown to this Tribunal not
only in the motion picture film but by the most able presentation of Mr.
Dodd yesterday; and it is not intended, at this time, to refer to the
camps—only insofar as they relate to the part they played in the
annihilation of the Jewish people. For example, in the camp at Auschwitz
during July 1944 Jews were killed at the rate of 12,000 daily. This
information is contained in Document L-161, Exhibit USA-292. The
Document L-161 is an official Polish report on Auschwitz Concentration
Camp. It is dated 31 May 1945. I have taken a short excerpt from this
report on the original marked . . .
THE PRESIDENT: I think you made a mistake, did you not? It is not a
Polish report; it is a British report.
MAJOR WALSH: I understand, Sir, it was compiled originally by the Polish
Government and perhaps distributed from London.
THE PRESIDENT: I see. Very well.
MAJOR WALSH: I quote:
“During July 1944 Hungarian Jews were being liquidated at the
rate of 12,000 daily; and as the crematoria could not deal with
such numbers, many bodies were thrown into large pits and
covered with quicklime.”
I offer in evidence Document 3311-PS, Exhibit USA-293. This is an
official Polish Government Commission report on the investigation of
German crimes in Poland. The document describes the concentration camp
at Treblinka; and from Page 1, Paragraph 3 and 4, I read as follows:
“In March 1942 the Germans began to erect another camp,
Treblinka B, in the neighborhood of Treblinka A, intended to
become a place of torment for Jews.
“The erection of this camp was closely connected with the German
plans aimed at a complete destruction of the Jewish population
in Poland, which necessitated the creation of a machinery by
means of which the Polish Jews could be killed in large numbers.
Late in April 1942 erection was completed of the first chambers
in which these general massacres were to be performed by means
of steam. Somewhat later the erection of the real death
building, which contains 10 death chambers, was finished. It was
opened for wholesale murders early in autumn 1942.”
And on Page 3 of this report, beginning with the second paragraph, the
Polish Commission describes graphically the procedure for the
extermination within the camp:
“The average number of Jews dealt with at the camp in the summer
of 1942 was about two railway transports daily, but there were
days of much higher efficiency. From autumn 1942 this number was
falling.
“After unloading in the siding, all victims were assembled in
one place, where men were separated from women and children. In
the first days of the existence of the camp the victims were
made to believe that after a short stay in the camp, necessary
for bathing and disinfection, they would be sent farther east
for work. Explanations of this sort were given by SS men who
assisted at the unloading of the transports, and further
explanations could be read in notices stuck up on the walls of
the barracks. But later, when more transports had to be dealt
with, the Germans dropped all pretenses and only tried to
accelerate the procedure.
“All victims had to strip off their clothes and shoes, which
were collected afterwards, whereupon all victims, women and
children first, were driven into the death chambers. Those too
slow or too weak to move quickly were driven in by rifle butts,
by whipping and kicking, often by Sauer himself. Many slipped
and fell; the next victims pressed forward and stumbled over
them. Small children were simply thrown inside. After being
filled up to capacity, the chambers were hermetically closed and
steam was let in. In a few minutes all was over. The Jewish
menial workers had to remove the bodies from the platform and to
bury them in mass graves. By and by, as new transports arrived,
the cemetery grew, extending in an easterly direction.
“From reports received it may be assumed that several hundred
thousands of Jews have been exterminated in Treblinka.”
I now offer in evidence the document identified by Number L-22, Exhibit
USA-294. This is an official United States Government report issued by
the Executive Office of the President of the United States, War Refugee
Board, on the German camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau, dated 1944. On
Page 33 of this report is set forth the number of Jews gassed in
Birkenau in the 2-year period between April 1942 and April 1944. I have
been assured that the figure printed in this report is not a
typographical error. The number shown is 1,765,000.
I would now like to turn to the German bookkeeping and statistics for
enlightenment on the extermination of Jews in Poland. Referring again to
the diary of Hans Frank already in evidence, Document 2233-PS, Exhibit
USA-281, I read briefly from the beginning of the fourth paragraph on
Page 1:
“For us the Jews also represent extraordinarily malignant
gluttons.
“We have now approximately 2,500,000 of them in the Government
General . . .”
THE PRESIDENT: Major Walsh, you have read this already yourself.
MAJOR WALSH: Yes, Sir, that is true. I just want to make reference to it
again, Sir, for comparison with other figures.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
MAJOR WALSH: “. . . perhaps with the Jewish mixtures, and
everything that goes with it, 3,500,000 Jews.”
Now this figure, if the Court please, was as of 16 December 1941. I now
wish to turn to 25 January 1944, 3 years and 1 month later, and make
reference to another excerpt from Frank’s diary, 2233-PS, loose-leaf
volume Exhibit USA-295. This volume covers the period from 1 January
1944 to 28 February 1944, and Page 5 of the original reads:
“At the present time we still have in the Government General
perhaps 100,000 Jews.”
In this period of 3 years, according to the records of the then Governor
General of Occupied Poland, between 2,400,000 and 3,400,000 Jews had
been eliminated.
The Prosecution could offer this Tribunal a wealth of evidence on the
total number of Jews who died by Nazi hands, but it is believed that
cumulative evidence would not vary the guilt of these defendants.
I do wish, however, to offer one document, a statement, to establish the
deaths of 4 million Jews in camps and deaths of 2 million Jews by the
State Police in the East, making a total of 6 million—Document 2738-PS,
Exhibit USA-296. This is a statement—of Adolf Eichmann, Chief of the
Jewish Section of the Gestapo, and the source of the figures
quoted—made by Dr. Wilhelm Hoettl, Deputy Group Leader of the foreign
section of the Security Service, Amt VI of the RSHA. Dr. Wilhelm Hoettl,
in affidavit form, made the following statement; and I quote from Page
2:
“Approximately 4 million Jews had been killed in the various
concentration camps, while an additional 2 million met death in
other ways, the major part of which were shot by operational
squads of the Security Police during the campaign against
Russia.”
May I, in conclusion, emphasize that the captured documents in evidence
are, almost without exception, from the official sources of the Nazi
Party.
THE PRESIDENT: You only read that one statement, but where does the
person who made the affidavit get his information from?
MAJOR WALSH: I shall be pleased to read that in there, Sir. I made a
statement that Eichmann has been the source of the information given to
Dr. Wilhelm Hoettl, one of his assistants, and on Page 1 it says:
“According to my knowledge Eichmann was at that time a section
leader in the Amt IV (Gestapo) of RSHA; and in addition he had
been ordered by Himmler to get hold of the Jews in all the
European countries and to transport them to Germany. Eichmann
was then very much impressed with the fact that Romania had
withdrawn from the war in those days. Therefore, he had come to
me to get information about the military situation, which I
received daily from the Hungarian . . . Ministry of War and from
the Commander of the Waffen-SS in Hungary. He expressed his
conviction that Germany had lost the war and that he personally
had no further chance. He knew that he would be considered one
of the main war criminals by the United Nations, since he had
millions of Jewish lives on his conscience. I asked him how many
that was, to which he answered that although the number was a
great Reich secret, he would tell me since I, as a historian
too, would be interested and that probably he would not return
anyhow from his command in Romania. He had, shortly before that,
made a report to Himmler, as the latter wanted to know the exact
number of Jews who had been killed.”
It was on that basis of this information, Sir, that I read the following
quotation.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn now.
[_A recess was taken until 1400 hours._]
_Afternoon Session_
THE PRESIDENT: The motion that was made this morning on behalf of the
Defendant Kaltenbrunner is denied, and the affidavit is admitted and
will not be stricken from the record. But the Tribunal wished me to say
that it is open to the Defendants’ Counsel, in accordance with the
Charter and the Rules, to make a motion, in writing, if they wish to do
so, for the attendance of Pfaffenberger for cross-examination and to
state in that motion the reasons therefor.
DR. KAUFFMANN: May I now bring up a question similar, though in some
respects different, from that of Pfaffenberger? I request that the
evidence of Dr. Hoettl, which was read into the record this morning be
stricken out again for the following two reasons. As far as I know, Dr.
Hoettl is here in Nuremberg . . .
THE PRESIDENT: One minute. Do you understand that the Tribunal has just
denied the motion that you made this morning?
DR. KAUFFMANN: Yes, I understood that perfectly.
THE PRESIDENT: What is your motion now?
DR. KAUFFMANN: I should like to ask that the evidence of Dr. Hoettl be
stricken from the record. My reasons for this request are rather
different from those given this morning in the Pfaffenberger case.
As can be seen from the affidavit, Dr. Hoettl was interrogated on the
26th of November hardly 3 weeks ago. Moreover I gather that Dr. Hoettl
is kept in custody here in Nuremberg. No delay would therefore be
involved if this witness were called to the stand.
This man held a significant position in the SS and for that reason I
have already applied in writing that he be called as a witness. I am
convinced that there is a large amount of important evidence which he
can reveal to the Court. Dr. Hoettl’s deposition is infinitely
important. The death of millions of people is involved here. His
affidavit is based largely on inferences, on hearsay; I believe that the
facts are very different, and I would not like to apply later, after
weeks or months, for the witness to be brought into Court.
MAJOR WALSH: If the Court please, excerpts from the affidavit of Dr.
Wilhelm Hoettl were read into the record this morning for the purpose
. . .
THE PRESIDENT: Wait—what was the number?
MAJOR WALSH: Document 2738-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, go on.
MAJOR WALSH: Dr. Hoettl’s affidavit 2738 was in part read into the
record this morning for the sole purpose of showing the approximate
number of Jews, according to his estimates, that had met death at the
hands of the German State. No other portion of his testimony was
referred to and the evidence offered was only for the sole purpose of
establishing his estimate of the number. His position in the Party and
in the state, as well as the position of Adolf Eichmann, the source of
his information, was also stated into the record.
I believe that Dr. Hoettl, if he is desired for any other purpose by the
Defense, may be called by the Defense, but the Prosecution had no other
purpose in utilizing his evidence.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you wish to add anything more?
MAJOR WALSH: That is all, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal makes the same ruling in this case as in the
case of Pfaffenberger, namely, that the affidavit is admitted in
evidence but that it is open to Defendants’ Counsel to make a motion, in
writing, for the attendance of the witness for cross-examination and to
state in that motion the reasons for it.
MAJOR WALSH: During the morning session the Court requested certain
information concerning documents that had been offered and accepted in
evidence. I refer to Document 1061-PS, the report “The Warsaw Ghetto Is
No More.” This report, I am told, was prepared for presentation at a
meeting of the SS Police leaders to be held on 18 May 1943. That is
indicated on Page 45 of the translation before the Court.
This document was captured by the 7th United States Army and delivered
by them to the G-2 of the United States Forces in the European Theater.
In turn they were delivered to Colonel Storey of the United States
prosecutors’ staff, some months ago. The Court also ignored . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Major Walsh, I think the Tribunal also wished to know
whether you could tell us to whom the report had been made?
MAJOR WALSH: The report, Sir, according to the teletypes—the daily
teletypes, Sir—was addressed to the Higher SS and Police Leader East,
SS Obergruppenführer and General of the Police Krüger, or his deputy.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
MAJOR WALSH: The Court further inquired about Document L-53 and I have
obtained some information concerning this document. This document was
captured by T-Force of the Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment Number
220, found among the German records at Weimar, Germany, sometime prior
to 10 May 1945.
The Court further inquired, concerning this document, the meaning of the
letters “WB.” I regret that I have been unable to obtain definite
information as to the meaning of “WB” but it has been suggested to me
that it might mean Westbund or Western Ally because it is used in
connection with the capture—the destruction of all prisoners before
capture by either the WB or the Red Armies, and I presume that it may
mean Westbund.
The slaughter of the Jews in Europe cannot be expressed in figures
alone, for the impact of this slaughter is even more tragic to the
future of the Jewish people and mankind. Ancient Jewish communities with
their own rich spiritual, cultural, and economic life, bound up for
centuries with the life of the nations in which they flourished, have
been completely obliterated. The contribution of the Jewish people to
civilization, the arts, the sciences, industry, and culture, need not, I
am sure, be elaborated upon before this Tribunal. Their destruction,
carried out continuously, deliberately, intentionally, and methodically
by the Nazis, represents a loss to civilization of special qualities and
abilities that cannot possibly be recouped.
I have not attempted to recount the multitudinous and diabolical crimes
committed against the Jewish people by the state which these defendants
ruled, because, with sober regard for contemporary and historical truth,
a detailed description of some of these crimes would transcend the
utmost reaches of the human faculty of expression. The mind already
recoils and shrinks from the acceptance of the incredible facts already
related. Rather, it is my purpose to elucidate the pattern, the
successful and successive stages, the sequence and concurrence of the
crimes committed, the pre-determined means to a pre-ordained end.
Yet, these cold, stark, brutal facts and figures, drawn largely from the
defendants’ own sources and submitted in evidence before this Tribunal,
defy rebuttal.
From conception to execution, from the Party program of 1920 to the
gloating declarations of Himmler and the Defendant Frank in 1943 and
1944, the annihilation of the Jewish people in Europe was man-made—made
by the very men, sitting in the defendants’ box, brought to judgment
before this Tribunal.
Before closing may I acknowledge with appreciation the untiring services
of the group of the staff of the United States’ Prosecution, through
whose painstaking search, analysis, and study, this presentation of
evidence was made possible: Captain Seymour Krieger, Lieutenant Brady
Bryson, Lieutenant Frederick Felton, Sergeant Isaac Stone, and Mr. Hans
Nathan.
COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, the next presentation, concerning
Germanization and spoliation in occupied countries, will be presented by
Captain Sam Harris.
CAPTAIN SAMUEL HARRIS (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States):
May the Tribunal please, documents relating to the Nazi program of
Germanization and spoliation have been assembled in a document book
bearing the letter “U.” These document books are now being distributed
for the use of the members of the Tribunal. I ask Your Honors to note
that the tabs on the side of the document book are numbered 1 to 30. The
index sheet at the front of the book keys these numbers to the EC, PS,
and R numbers of our exhibits.
For Your Honors’ convenience we have also numbered the pages of each
exhibit in pencil at the upper right-hand corner of each exhibit.
The documents which we shall introduce were collected by Lieutenant
Kenyon, who sits at my right, and by Doctors Derenberg and Jacoby.
Without their untiring efforts, this presentation would not have been
possible.
Evidence has already been introduced by Mr. Alderman to prove that the
defendants conspired to wage aggressive war. It has also been proved
that the desire for Lebensraum was one of the chief forces motivating
the conspirators to plan, launch, and wage their wars of aggression. We
propose at this time to present evidence disclosing what the
conspirators intended to do with conquered territories, called by them
Lebensraum, after they had succeeded in overpowering the victims of
their aggressions.
We have broadly divided this subject into two categories: Germanization
and spoliation. When we speak of plans to germanize, we mean plans to
assimilate conquered territories politically, culturally, socially, and
economically into the German Reich. Germanization, we shall demonstrate,
meant the obliteration of the former national character of the conquered
territories and the extermination of all elements which could not be
reconciled with the Nazi ideology. By spoliation, we mean the plunder of
public and private property and, in general, the exploitation of the
people and the natural resources of occupied countries.
We propose, with the permission of Your Honors, to introduce at this
time 30 documents in all. These documents lay bare some of the secret
plans of the conspirators to germanize, to plunder, to despoil, and to
destroy. They do not, of course, tell the whole story of all the
conspirators’ plans in this field. In some instances proof of the plan
is derived from the acts committed by the conspirators. But these few
documents are particularly illuminating with respect to the
conspirators’ plans for Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Russia; and they
indicate the outlines of carefully conceived plans for the rest of
Europe. Others who follow will fill in this outline by showing a series
of outrages committed on so vast a scale that no doubts will exist that
they were committed according to plan.
Poland was, in a sense, the testing ground for the conspirators’
theories upon Lebensraum; and I turn to that country first.
The four western provinces of Poland were purportedly incorporated into
Germany by an order of 8 October 1939. This order, which was signed by
Hitler, Lammers, and Defendants Göring, Frick, and Hess, is set forth in
_Reichsgesetzblatt_, 1939, Part I, Page 2042; and we ask the Tribunal to
take judicial notice thereof. These areas of Poland are frequently
referred to in correspondence among the conspirators as “incorporated
Eastern Territories.” The remainder of Poland, which was seized by the
Nazi invaders, was established as the Government General of Poland by an
order of Hitler dated 12 October 1939. By that same order Defendant Hans
Frank was named Governor General of the newly created Government
General; and Defendant Seyss-Inquart was named Deputy Governor General.
This order is set forth in _Reichsgesetzblatt_, 1939, Part I, Page 2077;
and we ask the Tribunal also to take judicial notice of it.
The plans with respect to Poland were rather complicated; and I believe
that the significance of specific items of proof may be more readily
apparent if, in advance of the introduction of the documents, I am
permitted briefly to indicate the broad pattern of these plans.
We submit that the documents we are about to introduce on Poland show
the following:
First: The conspirators specifically planned to exploit the people and
material resources of the Government General of Poland in order to
strengthen the Nazi war machine, to impoverish the Government General,
and to reduce it to a vassal state. At a later stage plans were
formulated for creating islands of German settlements in the more
fertile regions of the Government General in order to engulf the native
Polish population and accelerate the process of Germanization.
Second: The incorporated area of Poland, which was deemed to be a part
of the German Reich, was to be ruthlessly germanized. To that end, the
conspirators planned:
(a) To permit the retention of the productive facilities in the
incorporated area, all of which, of course, would be dedicated to the
Nazi war machine.
(b) They planned to deport to the Government General many hundreds of
thousands of Jews, members of the Polish intelligentsia, and other
non-compliant elements. We shall show that the Jews who were deported to
the Government General were doomed to speedy annihilation. Moreover,
since the conspirators felt that members of the Polish intelligentsia
could not be germanized and might serve as a center of resistance
against their New Order, they too were to be eliminated.
(c) They planned to deport all able-bodied Polish workers to Germany for
work in the Nazi war machine. This served the twofold purpose of helping
to satisfy the labor requirements of the Nazi war machine and preventing
the propagation of a new generation of Poles. Mr. Dodd has already
produced abundant proof on this topic, and I shall do no more than refer
to it.
(d) They planned to mould all persons in the incorporated area who were
deemed to possess German blood into German subjects who would
religiously adhere to the principles of National Socialism. To that end
the conspirators set up an elaborate racial register. Those who resisted
or refused to co-operate in this program were sent to concentration
camps.
(e) They planned to bring thousands of German subjects into the
incorporated area for purposes of settlement.
(f) And finally, they planned to confiscate the property—particularly
the farms—of the Poles, the Jews, and all dissident elements. The
confiscation of the property of Jews was part of the conspirators’
larger program of extermination of the Jews. Confiscation likewise
served three additional purposes: (1) It provided land for the new
German settlers and enabled the conspirators to reward their adherents;
(2) dispossessed Polish property owners could be shipped to Germany for
work in the production of implements of war; and (3) the separation of
Polish farmers from their wives furthered the plan to prevent the growth
of a new generation of Poles.
We turn now to the specific items of proof.
I first offer in evidence Document Number EC-344 (16), which is Exhibit
Number USA-297. This document is a report of an interview with Defendant
Frank on 3 October 1939 and was found among the files of the OKW, which
were assembled in bulk at the Fechenheim document center. This
particular document was included in a large report prepared in the OKW
by one Captain Varain at the direction of General Thomas, then chief of
the military economic staff of the OKW. I quote from the first 19 lines
of Page 3 of the English text. The German text appears on Page 29, lines
25-36, and Page 30, lines 1-6. The report states, and I quote:
“In the first interview which the chief of the Central Division
and the liaison officer between the Armament Department Upper
East and the Chief Administrative Officer (subsequently Governor
General) had with Reich Minister Frank on 3 October 1939 in
Posen, Frank explained the instruction which had been entrusted
to him by the Führer and the economic political directives
according to which he intended to administer Poland. According
to these directives, Poland could be administered only by
utilizing the country by means of ruthless exploitation; removal
of all supplies—raw materials, machines, factory installations,
_et cetera_—which are important for the German war economy;
availability of all workers for work within Germany; reduction
of the entire Polish economy to the absolute minimum necessary
for the bare existence of the population; closing of all
institutions, especially technical schools and colleges in order
to prevent the growth of a new Polish intelligentsia.
Poland”—Defendant Frank stated—and this is an exact
quotation—“Poland shall be treated as a colony; the Poles shall
be the slaves of the Greater German World Empire.”
I should like also to quote from the last six lines of the English text
of this Exhibit. In the German text it is lines 18 to 23 of Page 30.
Defendant Frank further stated, and I quote:
“By destroying Polish industry its subsequent reconstruction
after the war would become more difficult, if not impossible, so
that Poland would be reduced to its proper position as an
agrarian country which would have to depend upon Germany for
importation of industrial products.”
As further proof of the defendant’s plan to plunder and despoil the
Government General of Poland, I next offer in evidence Document Number
EC-410, which is Exhibit Number USA-298. In addition to the proof of the
defendant’s plans to plunder and despoil the Government General, this
document demonstrates the difference in treatment which the conspirators
planned for the incorporated area of Poland and the Government General.
It is a copy of a directive issued and signed by Defendant Göring on 19
October 1939 and was likewise found among the captured OKW files. I
quote from lines 1 to 19 on Page 1 of the English text. In the German
text it is all of Page 1 and the first line of Page 2. Defendant
Göring’s directive states, and I quote:
“In the meeting of October 13th I have given detailed
instructions for the economical administration of the occupied
territories. I will repeat them here in short:
“1. The task for the economic treatment of the various
administrative regions is different, depending on whether a
country which will be incorporated politically into the German
Reich is involved or whether we deal with the Government
General, which in all probability, will not be made a part of
Germany,
“In the first-mentioned territories the reconstruction and
expansion of the economy, the safeguarding of all their
production facilities and supplies must be aimed at, as well as
a complete incorporation into the Greater German economic system
at the earliest possible time. On the other hand, there must be
removed from the territories of the Government General all raw
materials, scrap materials, machines, _et cetera_ which are of
use for the German war economy. Enterprises which are not
absolutely necessary for the meager maintenance of the naked
existence of the population must be transferred to Germany,
unless such transfer would require an unreasonably long period
of time and would make it more practical to exploit those
enterprises by giving them German orders to be executed at their
present location.”
Once the Government General had been stripped of its industrial
potential, the defendants planned to leave the country desolate. Not
even the war damage was to be repaired. This is the clear import of the
documents previously introduced and is likewise made clear by Document
Number EC-411, which is Exhibit Number USA-299. I offer this document in
evidence. This document is a copy of an order dated 20 November 1939, by
Defendant Hess, in his capacity as Deputy Führer. This document was also
found in the captured OKW files. I quote the English and German texts in
their entirety. Defendant Hess stated, and I quote:
“I hear from Party members who came from the Government General
that various agencies, as for instance, the Military Economic
Staff, the Reich Ministry for Labor, _et cetera_, intend to
reconstruct certain industrial enterprises in Warsaw. However,
in accordance with a decision by Minister Dr. Frank approved by
the Führer, Warsaw shall not be rebuilt nor is it the intention
of the Führer to rebuild or reconstruct any industry in the
Government General.”
Turning from the defendants’ program of economic spoliation in the
Government General to their program of deportation and resettlement, I
next offer in evidence Document Number 661-PS, which is Exhibit Number
USA-300. This is a secret report, prepared by the Academy of German Law
in January 1940, upon plans for the mass migration of Poles and Jews
from incorporated areas of Poland to the Government General and for the
forcible deportation of able-bodied Poles to Germany. This document was
obtained from the ministerial collecting center at Kassel, Germany. The
date does not appear in the English translation, but it is clearly set
forth on the cover page of the original document as January 1940. Before
quoting from this document, I ask first that the Tribunal take judicial
notice of the decree of 11 July 1934, embodied in the
_Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 605, 11 July 1934, which provided that
the Academy of German Law would be a public corporation of the Reich
under the supervision of the Reich Ministers of Justice and the
Interior, and that its task would be:
“To promote the reconstruction of German legal life and to
realize, in constant close collaboration with the competent
legislative organizations, the National Socialist program in the
entire sphere of the law.”
Second, before quoting from the afore-mentioned report of the Academy of
German Law, I should like to offer in evidence Document Number 2749-PS,
which is Exhibit Number USA-301. This is the title page of the
publication of the Academy of German Law for 1940. It is offered for the
purpose of showing that defendant Frank was the President of the Academy
of German Law during the period that the above-mentioned secret report
of the Academy was made. The document specifically states, and I quote:
“Reich Minister Dr. Hans Frank, President of the Academy for
German Law, 7th year 1940.”
Now, if I may ask Your Honors to turn to Document Number 661-PS, I
should first like to quote Page 1, lines 6 to 24, of the English text.
In the German text these extracts appear at Page 6, lines 6 to 10; and
line 22, Page 6, to line 4, Page 7. I quote:
“In the carrying out of costly and long-term measures for the
increase of agricultural production, the Government General can,
at the most, absorb 1 to 1.5 million resettlers, as it is
already over-populated in many cases. . . . By further
absorption of 1.6 million resettlers the 1925 Reich census
figure of 133 inhabitants per square kilometer would be reached,
which practically, because of already existing rural
over-population and lack of industry, would result in a double
over-pressure.
“This figure of 1.6 million will barely suffice for deportations
from the Reich:
“The Jews from the liberated East (over 600,000); groups of the
remaining Jews, preferably the younger age groups from Germany
proper, Austria, Sudetengau and the Protectorate (altogether
over 1 million).”
Continuing the quotation, the report goes on with respect to transfers
from the Reich, and I continue to quote:
“The Polish intelligentsia, who have been branded as
politicians, and potential political leaders; the leading
economic personalities, comprising owners of large estates,
industrialists and businessmen, _et cetera_; the peasant
population, so far as it has to be removed in order to carry
out, by strips of German settlements, the encirclement of Polish
territories in the East.”
Next I quote the last paragraph on Page 1 of the English text. The
German text is at Page 8, lines 3-10:
“In order to relieve the living space of the Poles in the
Government General as well as in the liberated East, one should
temporarily remove cheap labor by the hundreds of thousands,
employ them for a few years in the Old Reich, and thereby hamper
their native biological propagation. (Their assimilation into
the Old Reich must be prevented.)”
Finally, I quote from the last paragraph of Page 2 of the English text.
In the German text it is the last 5 lines on Page 40:
“Strictest care is to be taken that secret documents, memoranda,
and official correspondence which contain instructions
detrimental to the Poles are kept steadily under lock and key,
so that they will not some day fill the White Books printed in
Paris or the U.S.A.”
Your Honors will recall, from your own experiences, the vicious
propaganda campaigns conducted by Nazi Germany to discredit the Polish
books when they made their appearance in countries friendly to Poland.
The last paragraph of this document which I have just read gives the lie
to that whole Nazi propaganda campaign.
The plans for the deportation of thousands of innocent people, which are
set forth in the document from which I have just quoted, were not mere
theories spun by lawyers. They represented, as the next three documents
to be offered in evidence will show, a program which was, in fact,
ruthlessly executed.
I next offer in evidence Document Number 2233(g)-PS, the Frank diaries,
1939, from 25 October to 15 December, which is Exhibit Number USA-302.
This document was obtained from the 7th Army document center at
Heidelberg. I quote from the last paragraph of Page 1, carrying over to
the first two lines of Page 2 of the English text. In the German text
the statements appear at Page 19, lines 19 to 28. Defendant Frank
stated, and I quote:
“The Reichsführer SS”—meaning Himmler—“wishes that all Jews be
evacuated from the newly gained Reich territories. Up to
February approximately 1 million people are to be brought in
this way into the Government General. The families of good
racial extraction present in the occupied Polish territory
(approximately 4 million people) should be transferred into the
Reich and individually housed, thereby being uprooted as a
people.”
I next offer in evidence Document Number EC-305, which is Exhibit Number
USA-303. This exhibit is the top-secret minutes of a meeting held on 12
February 1940, under the chairmanship of Defendant Göring, on “Questions
Concerning the East.” The document was found in the captured OKW files.
Himmler and Defendant Frank likewise were present at this meeting.
I initially quote from Page 1, lines 15 to 17, of the English text.
These extracts are found in the front page, lines 1 to 8, of the German
text. The minutes state, and I quote:
“By way of introduction the General Field Marshal”—meaning
Defendant Göring—“explained that the strengthening of the war
potential of the Reich must be the chief aim of all measures to
be taken in the East.”
I next quote the first two lines of the last paragraph on Page 1 of the
English text. The German text appears at Page 2, lines 2 to 4.
“Agriculture: The task consists of obtaining the greatest
possible agricultural production from the new eastern Gaue,
disregarding questions of ownership.”
I next quote from the second paragraph of Page 2 of the English text.
This is at Page 3, lines 22-24, of the German text:
“Special questions concerning the Government General. . . . The
Government General will have to receive the Jews who are ordered
to emigrate from Germany and the new eastern Gaue.”
Finally, I quote the paragraph numbered 2 under Roman numeral II of Page
2 of the English text. These statements appear in the German text at
Page 4, lines 3-19:
“The following reported on the situation in the Eastern
territories. . . .
“2. Reichsstatthalter Gauleiter Forster”—who said—“‘The
population of the Danzig-West Prussia Gau (newly acquired
territories) is 1.5 million, of whom 240,000 are Germans,
850,000 well-established Poles, and 300,000 immigrant Poles,
Jews, and asocials (1,800 Jews). There have been evacuated
87,000 persons, 40,000 of these from Gdynia. From there also the
numerous shirkers, who are now looked after by welfare, will
have to be deported to the Government General. Therefore an
evacuation of 20,000 additional persons can be counted on for
the current year.’”
Comparable reports were made by other Gauleiter at the meeting. The
figures that were quoted, it may be noted, were only as of February
1940. The forcible deportations, which are reported in the exhibits from
which I have just read, did not involve merely ordering the unfortunate
victims to leave their homes and to take up new residences elsewhere.
These deportations were accomplished according to plan in an utterly
brutal and inhuman manner. Document Number 1918-PS, which is Exhibit
Number USA-304, affords striking proof of this fact; and I offer it in
evidence. This is a speech delivered by Himmler to officers of the SS on
a day commemorating the presentation of the Nazi flag. It is contained
in a compilation of speeches delivered by Himmler, and was captured by
the Counter-Intelligence branch of the United States Army. The exact
date of the speech does not appear in the exhibit, but its contents
plainly show that it was delivered sometime after Poland had been
overrun. I quote from the second to the eighth lines of Page 1 of the
English text. In the German text this quotation appears on Page 52,
lines 2 to 10. In this speech Himmler said, and I quote:
“Very frequently the member of the Waffen-SS thinks about the
deportation of these people here. These thoughts came to me
today when watching the very difficult work out there performed
by the Security Police, supported by your men, who help them a
great deal. Exactly the same thing happened in Poland in weather
40 degrees below zero, where we had to haul away thousands, ten
thousands, a hundred thousand; where we had to have the
toughness—you should hear this but also forget it again—to
shoot thousands of leading Poles.”
I repeat the latter statement:
“Where we had to have the toughness . . . to shoot thousands of
leading Poles.”
Such Poles from the incorporated area as managed to survive the journey
to the Government General could look forward, at best, to extreme
hardship and exposure to every form of degradation and brutality. Your
Honors will recall Defendant Frank’s statement contained in Document
Number EC-344(16), now Exhibit Number USA-297, which was introduced a
short while ago, that the Polish economy would be reduced to the
absolute minimum necessary for the bare existence of the population.
Your Honors Will also recall Defendant Göring’s directive in Document
Number EC-410, now Exhibit Number USA-298, also introduced a few moments
ago, that all industrial enterprises in the Government General not
absolutely necessary for the maintenance of the naked existence of the
Polish population must be removed to Germany. A bare and naked
existence, by the precepts of the conspirators, meant virtual
starvation.
For the Jews who were forcibly deported to the Government General there
was, of course, absolutely no hope. They were, in effect, deported to
their graves. The Defendant Frank, by his own admissions, had dedicated
himself to their complete annihilation. I refer Your Honors to the Frank
diaries, conference volume, 1941, October to December, which is Document
Number 2233(d)-PS, which was introduced by Major Walsh earlier as
Exhibit Number USA-281. The particular statement that I want to quote
appears on Page 4, Your Honor, of Document Number 2233-PS. I believe it
appears at Page 77, lines 9 and 10 of the German text. I quote—this is
what Defendant Frank stated, “We must annihilate the Jews, wherever we
find them, and wherever it is possible. . . .”
I turn next to that aspect of the conspirators’ program which involved
the forcible Germanization of persons in the incorporated area who were
deemed to possess German blood. I refer you now, Your Honors, to the
incorporated area, to persons who were deemed to possess German blood.
Such persons, the evidence will show, were given the choice of the
concentration camp or submission to Germanization. Himmler was the chief
executioner of this program; and initially I should like to introduce a
few documents which disclose the powers bestowed upon him and his
conception of his task.
First, I offer in evidence Document Number 686-PS. This is Exhibit
Number USA-305. This is a copy of a secret decree signed by Hitler and
Defendants Göring and Keitel, dated 7 October 1939, entrusting Himmler
with the task of executing the conspirators’ Germanization program. This
particular document came from the ministerial collection center at
Kassel, Germany. I quote from Page 1, lines 9 to 21 of the English text.
In the German text these extracts appear at Page 1, lines 13 to 25:
“The Reichsführer SS”—that was Himmler—“has the obligation in
accordance, with my directives:
“1. To bring back for final return into the Reich all German
nationals and racial Germans in the foreign countries.
“2. To eliminate the harmful influence of such alien parts of
the population which represent a danger to the Reich and the
German folk community.
“3. The forming of new German settlements by resettling and, in
particular, by settling the returning German citizens and racial
Germans from abroad.
“The Reichsführer SS is authorized to take all necessary general
and administrative measures for the execution of his
obligation.”
Himmler’s conception of his task under this decree is plainly stated in
the foreword which he wrote for the _Deutsche Arbeit_ issue of June-July
1942. The foreword is contained in Document Number 2915-PS, now Exhibit
Number USA-306. I quote from the first four lines of the English text.
The German text appears at Page 157:
“It is our task”—Himmler wrote—“to germanize the East, not in
the old sense—that is, to teach the people there the German
language and German law—but to see to it that only people of
purely German, Germanic blood live in the East. Signed,
Himmler.”
I next offer in evidence Document Number 2916-PS, which is Exhibit
Number USA-307. This document contains various materials taken out of
_Der Menscheneinsatz_ of 1940, a confidential publication issued by
Himmler’s office for the consolidation of German nationhood. I quote
initially from Page 1, lines 7 to 11. In the German text these extracts
appear at Page 51, first four lines under the letter “D.” I quote:
“The removal of foreign races from the incorporated Eastern
Territories is one of the most essential goals to be
accomplished in the German East. This is the chief national
political task, which has to be executed in the incorporated
Eastern Territories by the Reichsführer SS, Reich Commissioner
for the Preservation of German Nationality.”
I next quote from lines 33 to 39 of Page 1 of the English text. In the
German text these extracts appear on Page 52, lines 14 to 20. I quote:
“There are the following two primary reasons which make the
regaining of this lost German blood an urgent necessity:
“1. Prevention of a further increase of the Polish
intelligentsia through families of German descent, even if they
are Polonized.
“2. Increase of the population by racial elements desirable for
the German nation and the acquisition of ethno-biologically
unobjectionable forces for the German reconstruction of
agriculture and industry.”
Further light is thrown upon the goals which the conspirators had set
for their Germanization program in conquered Eastern areas by a speech
delivered by Himmler on 14 October 1943. This speech was published by
the National Socialist leadership staff of the OKW. The document came to
us through the Document Section, 3rd U.S. Infantry Division. Excerpts
from this speech are set forth in L-70, which is Exhibit Number USA-308.
I quote all of the English text; and in the German text these excerpts
appear at Page 23, lines 6 to 11, 12 to 15, 20 to 23, and Page 30, lines
7 to 16. Himmler said, and I quote:
“Therefore, I consider that in dealing with members of a foreign
country, especially some Slav nationality, we must not start
from German points of view, we must not endow these people with
decent German thoughts and logical conclusions of which they are
not capable, but we must take them as they really are.
“Obviously in such a mixture of peoples there will always be
some racially good types. Therefore I think that it is our duty
to take their children with us, to remove them from their
environment, if necessary, by robbing or stealing them. Either
we win over the good blood that we can use for ourselves and
give it a place in our people or . . . we destroy that blood.”
Continuing the German text on Page 30, lines 7 to 16, which is a
continuation of the English text, I believe, Your Honor—Himmler stated
and I quote:
“For us the end of this war will mean an open road to the East,
the creation of the Germanic Reich in this way or that . . . the
fetching home of 30 million human beings of our blood, so that
still during our lifetime we shall be a people of 120 million
Germanic souls. That means that we shall be the sole and
decisive power in Europe. That means that we shall then be able
to tackle the peace, during which we shall be willing for the
first 20 years to rebuild and spread out our villages and towns,
and that we shall push the borders of our German race 500
kilometers farther to the East.”
In furtherance of the unlawful plans disclosed by the last four
exhibits, which have been offered in evidence, the conspirators
contrived a racial register in the incorporated area of Poland. The
racial register was, in effect, an elaborate classification of persons
deemed to be of German blood, and contained provisions setting forth
some of the rights, privileges, and duties of the persons in each
classification. Persons were classified into four groups:
(1) Germans who had actively promoted the Nazi cause;
(2) Germans who had been more or less passive in the Nazi struggle, but
had retained their German nationality;
(3) Persons of German extraction who, although previously connected with
the Polish nation, were willing to submit to Germanization;
(4) Persons of German descent, who had been “politically absorbed by the
Polish nation,” and who would be resistant to Germanization.
The racial register was inaugurated under a decree of 12 September 1940
issued by Himmler as Reich Commissioner for the consolidation of German
nationhood, and this is contained in Document Number 2916-PS, previously
introduced in evidence. That is Exhibit Number USA-307. I quote from
Page 4 of the English text, lines 14 to 46. In the German text these
extracts appear at Page 92, lines 29 to the end of the page, and lines 1
to 9 of Page 93. I quote:
“For inter-office use the list of racial Germans will be divided
into four groups:
“1. Racial Germans who fought actively in the ethnic struggle.
Besides the membership of a German organization, every other
deliberated activity in favor of the Germans against a foreign
nationality will be considered an active manifestation.
“2. Racial Germans who did not actively intervene in favor of
the German nationality but had preserved their traceable German
nationality.
“3. Persons of German descent who became connected with the
Polish nation in the course of the years but have, on account of
their attitude, the pre-requisites to become full-fledged
members of the German national community. To this group belong
also persons of non-German descent who live in a people’s mixed
marriage with an ethnic German in which the German spouse has
prevailed. Persons of Masurian, Kushubian, Slonzak, or Upper
Silesian descent, who are to be recognized as racial Germans
usually belong to this group 3.
“4. Persons of German descent politically absorbed by the Polish
nation (renegades). Persons not included on the list of radial
Germans are Poles or other foreign nationals. Their treatment is
regulated by B II. . . .
“Members of groups 3 and 4 have to be educated as full Germans,
that is, they have to be re-germanized in the course of time
through an intensive educational training in Old Germany.
“The establishment of members of group 4 has to be based on the
doctrine that German blood must not be utilized in the interest
of a foreign nation. Against those who refuse re-Germanization,
Security Police measures are to be taken. . . .”
The basic idea of creating a racial register for persons of German
extraction was later incorporated in a decree of 4 March 1941 signed by
Himmler and the Defendants Frick and Hess. This decree is dated 4 March
1941; and is set forth in the _Reichsgesetzblatt_, 1941, Part 1, Page
118. We ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice thereof.
The entire apparatus of the SS was thrown behind the vigorous execution
of these decrees. Proof of this fact is contained in Document Number
R-112, which is Exhibit Number USA-309, and I now offer it in evidence.
This exhibit contains directives issued by Himmler as the Reich
Commissioner for the consolidation of German nationhood. I quote first
from the last two paragraphs of the English text of the directives, 16
February 1942, which is on Page 3 of this exhibit. In the German text
this provision appears on Page 1 of the first decree, dated 16 February
1942, Paragraph 1 and 2. The directive provided, and I now quote:
“I. Where racial Germans have not applied for entry in the
German ethnical list you will instruct the subordinate agencies
to turn over their names to the local State Police (superior)
Office. Subsequently, you will report to me.
“II. The local State Police (superior) Office will charge the
persons whose names are turned over to it to prove within 8 days
that they have applied for entry in the German ethnical list.
“If such proof is not submitted, the person in question is to be
taken into protective custody for transfer to a concentration
camp.”
The measures taken against persons in the fourth category—“Polonized
Germans” as the conspirators called them—were particularly harsh. These
persons were resistant to Germanization, and ruthless measures
calculated to break their resistance were prescribed. Where the
individual’s past history indicated that he could not be effectively
germanized, he was thrown into a concentration camp.
Some of these measures are set forth in Subparagraph A of Paragraph II
on Page 5 of Document R-112, and I quote in full from the English text
of that particular paragraph. This passage is set forth in the German
text at Pages 2 and 3 of the second decree dated 16 February 1942 under
II. This is what the directive provides:
“II. The re-Germanization of the Polonized Germans presupposes
their complete separation from Polish surroundings. For that
reason the persons entered in Division 4 of the German ethnical
list are to be dealt with in the following manner:
“A. They are to be resettled in Old Reich territory.
“1. The Higher SS and Police Leaders are charged with evacuating
and resettling them in Old Reich territory according to
instructions which will follow later.
“2. Asocial persons and others who are of inferior hereditary
quality will not be included in the resettlement. Their names
will be turned over at once by the Higher SS and Police Leaders
(Inspectors of Security Police and Security Service) to the
competent State Police (superior) Office. The latter will
arrange for their transfer to a concentration camp.
“3. Persons with a particularly bad political record will not be
included in the resettlement action. Their names will also be
given by the Higher SS and Police Leaders (Inspectors of
Security Police and Security Service) to the competent State
Police (superior) Office for transfer to a concentration camp.
“The wives and children of such persons are to be resettled in
Old Reich territory and to be included in the Germanization
measures. Where the wife also has a particularly bad political
record and cannot be included in the resettlement action, her
name, too, is to be turned over to the competent State Police
(superior) Office with a view to transferring her to a
concentration camp. In such cases the children are to be
separated from their parents and dealt with according to III,
Paragraph 2 of this decree.
“Persons are to be considered as having a particularly bad
political record who have offended the German nation to a very
great degree (for example, those who participated in
persecutions of Germans, or boycotts of Germans, _et cetera_.)”
Coincident with the program of germanizing persons of German extraction
in the incorporated areas, the conspirators, as previously indicated,
undertook to settle large numbers of Germans of proven Nazi convictions
in that area. This aspect of their program is clearly shown by an
article by SS Obergruppenführer and General of the Police Wilhelm Koppe,
who was one of Himmler’s trusted agents.
Excerpts from this article are contained in Document Number 2915-PS,
which was earlier introduced as Exhibit Number USA-306. I quote from the
second paragraph of the English text of this exhibit. The German text
appears at the third line from the bottom of Page 170 and continues to
the first full paragraph of Page 171. I now quote Koppe’s statement:
“The victory of German weapons in the East must, therefore, be
followed by the victory of the German race over the Polish race,
if the regained Eastern sphere—according to the Führer’s
will—shall henceforth remain for all time an essential
constituent part of the Greater German Reich. It is therefore of
decisive importance to infiltrate German farmers, laborers,
civil servants, merchants, and artisans into the regained German
region so that a living and deep-rooted bastion of German people
can be formed as a protective wall against foreign penetration
and possibly as a starting point for the racial infusion of the
territories farther east.”
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now for 10 minutes.
[_A recess was taken._]
CAPT. HARRIS: Up to this point we have been speaking of the
Germanization measures in the incorporated areas. I should like now
briefly to turn to the Germanization program in the Government General.
In the Government General there were relatively few persons, at the
outset, who qualified as Germans according to the conspirators’
standards. Hence little would be served by the introduction of a racial
register categorizing persons of German extraction on the model of the
one instituted in the incorporated area; and to our knowledge, no such
racial register was prescribed in the Government General. Rather, the
plan seems to have been (a) to make the Government General a colony of
Germany, which—as Your Honors will recall from Document EC-344(16),
which has been introduced as Exhibit Number USA-297—was the objective
expressed by the Defendant Frank; and (b) to create so-called “German
island settlements” in the productive farming areas. These island
settlements were to be created by an influx of German persons who
faithfully adhered to the principles of National Socialism.
In this connection I offer in evidence Document Number 910-PS. This is
Exhibit Number USA-310. These are secret notes bearing the date line,
“Department of the Interior, Kraków, 30 March 1942,” and they concerned
Himmler’s statements upon the planned Germanization of the Government
General. This document was obtained from the 3rd Army intelligence
center at Freising, Germany; and I now quote from Page 2 of the English
text, from line 3 to the end of the report. This appears in the German
text at Page 2, line 21, continuing to the end of the report. The
document states, and I quote:
“The Reichsführer SS”—Himmler—“developed additional trains of
ideas to the effect that, in the first 5-year plan for
resettlement after the war, the new German Eastern territories
should first be filled; it is intended afterwards to provide the
Crimea and the Baltic countries with a German upper class at
least. Into the Government General, perhaps, further German
island settlements should be newly transplanted from European
nations. An exact decision in this respect, however, has not
been issued. In any case, it is wished that at first a heavy
colonization along the San and the Bug be achieved so that the
parts of Poland with alien populations are encircled. Hitherto,
it has been always proved that this kind of encircling leads
most quickly to the desired nationalization.”
In this same connection, I offer in evidence Document Number 2233(h)-PS.
This is Defendant Frank’s diary, 1941, Volume II, Page 317. This is
Exhibit Number USA-311. I quote from the last sentence at the bottom of
our Page 3 of the English text of this exhibit. In the German text this
passage appears on Page 317, lines 25 to 28. Defendant Frank stated in
this diary, and I quote:
“Thanks to the heroic courage of our soldiers this territory has
become German; and the time will come when the valley of the
Vistula, from its source to its mouth at the sea, will be as
German as the valley of the Rhine.”
I now turn to another phase of the program that I mentioned earlier,
that is the conspirators’ plan to confiscate the property of Poles,
Jews, and dissident elements. As I previously mentioned, the evidence
will show that these plans were designed to accomplish a number of
objectives. Insofar as the Jews were concerned, they were part and
parcel of the conspirators’ overall program of extermination.
Confiscation was also a means of providing property for German settlers
and of rewarding those who had rendered faithful service to the Nazi
State. This phase of their program likewise made available dispossessed
Polish farmers for slave labor in Germany and operated to further the
conspirators’ objective of preventing the growth of another generation
of Poles.
Proof of the fact that the conspirators confiscated the property of
Poles in furtherance of their Germanization and slave labor program is
contained in Document Number 1352-PS, previously introduced by Mr. Dodd
as Exhibit Number USA-176. This exhibit contains a number of reports by
one Kusche, who appears to have been one of Himmler’s chief deputies in
Poland. Mr. Dodd quoted from one of Kusche’s confidential reports, dated
22 May 1940, at our Page 4, Paragraph 5 of the English text. In the
German text it is at Page 9, lines 16 to 18. In this statement Kusche
pointed out that it was possible, without difficulty, to confiscate
small farms and that—and I now quote:
“The former owners of Polish farms together with their families
will be transferred to the Old Reich by the labor offices for
employment as farm workers.”
I now desire to quote from another report by Kusche contained in the
same exhibit and bearing the same date, 22 May 1940. I think the upper
right-hand corner numbers might simplify it. The report from which I now
quote is marked “secret” and is entitled, “. . . Details of the
Confiscation in the Bielsko Region.” Initially, I should like to quote
from the last paragraph at the bottom of Page 1 of this exhibit. This
exhibit, you will recall, is 1352-PS, last paragraph at the bottom of
Page 1. The German text is at Page 11, Paragraphs 1 and 2. Kusche
stated, and I quote:
“Some days ago the commandant of the concentration camp being
built at Auschwitz called on Staff Leader Müller and requested
support for the carrying out of his assignments. He said that it
was absolutely necessary to confiscate the agricultural
enterprises within a certain area around the concentration camp,
since not only the fields but also in some cases the farm houses
of these border directly on the concentration camp. A local
inspection held on the 21st of this month revealed the
following:
“There is no room for doubt that agricultural enterprises
bordering on the concentration camp must be confiscated at once.
In addition, the camp commandant requests that further plots of
farm land be placed at his disposal, so that he can keep the
prisoners busy. This, too, can be done without difficulty since
enough land can be made available for the purpose. The owners of
the plots are all Poles.”
I next quote from Page 2, lines 22 to 31, of the English text of this
same exhibit. The German text is at Page 12, Paragraph 2, continuing
through to line 22 from the top of the page. I quote:
“I had the following discussion with the chief of the labor
office in Bielsko:
“The lack of agricultural laborers still exists in the Old
Reich. The transfer of the previous owners of the confiscated
agricultural enterprises to the Reich as farm workers, together
with their entire families, is possible without any difficulty.
It is only necessary for the labor office to receive the lists
of the persons in time, in order to enable it to take the
necessary steps (collection of transportation; distribution over
the various regions in need of such labor).”
Finally, I quote from Page 3 of this same exhibit, lines 6 to 13 of the
English text. The German text appears at Page 13, the last three lines,
continuing through to Page 14, line 9:
“The confiscation of these Polish enterprises in Alzen will also
be carried out within the next few days. The commandant of the
concentration camp will furnish SS men and a truck for the
execution of the action. Should it not yet be possible to take
the Poles from Alzen to Auschwitz”—and Auschwitz, Your Honors
will recall, is where the concentration camp was—“they should
be transferred to the empty castle at Zator. The liberated
Polish property is to be given to the needy racial German
farmers for their use.”
In order to regularize the program of confiscation, Defendant Göring
issued a decree on September 17, 1940. This decree appears in the
_Reichsgesetzblatt_, 1940, Part I, Page 1270; and I ask the Tribunal to
take judicial notice of it. Under Section 2 of this decree sequestration
of movable and immovable property, stores, and other intangible
property, interests of Jews and “persons who have fled or are not merely
temporarily absent”, was made mandatory. In addition, sequestration was
authorized under Section 2, Subsection 2, if the property was required
“for the public welfare, particularly in the interests of Reich defense
or the strengthening of German folkdom.” By Section 9 of this decree,
issued by Defendant Göring, confiscation of sequestrated property was
authorized “if the public welfare, particularly the defense of the
Reich, or the strengthening of German folkdom, so requires.” However,
Section 1, Subsection 2, of the decree provided that property of German
nationals was not subject to sequestration and confiscation; and Section
13 provided that sequestration would be suspended if the owner of the
property asserted that he was a German. The decree, on its face,
indicates very clearly a purpose to strip Poles, Jews, and dissident
elements of their property. It was, moreover, avowedly designed to
promote Germanism.
We ask the Court to take judicial notice of it. It is in the
_Reichsgesetzblatt_.
Apparently some question arose at one point as to whether the decree
required that a determination be made in each case, involving the
property of a Pole, that the property was required “for the public
welfare, particularly in the interests of Reich defense or the
strengthening of German folkdom.” The answer supplied by the
conspirators was firm and clear. In any case in which the property of a
Pole is involved, the “strengthening of German folkdom” required its
seizure. In this connection I offer in evidence document Number R-92,
which is Exhibit Number USA-312. This document, which is dated 15 April
1941, bears the letterhead of the Reich Leader SS, commissioner for the
consolidation of German nationhood, and is entitled, “Instruction for
Internal Use on the Application of the Law Concerning Property of the
Poles, of 17 September 1940.” This document was captured by the U.S.
Counter-Intelligence Corps. I quote from Page 2, lines 11 to 14 of the
English text. In the German text this statement appears at Page 3,
Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 2. I quote:
“The objective conditions permitting seizure according to
Section II, Subsection 2(a), are to be assumed whenever, for
example, the property belongs to a Pole, for the Polish real
estate will be needed without exception for the preservation of
the German folkdom.”
In the Government General Defendant Frank promulgated a decree on 24
January 1940 authorizing sequestration for the “performance of tasks
serving the public interest” and liquidation of “anti-social or
financially unremunerative concerns.” The decree is embodied in the
_Verordnungsblatt_ of the Government General, Number 6, 27 January 1940,
Page 23; and we ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of it. The
undefined criteria in this decree obviously empowered Nazi officials in
the Government General to engage in wholesale seizure of property.
The magnitude of the conspirators’ confiscation program in Poland was
staggering. I ask Your Honors to turn to the chart on the sixth page of
Document Number R-92, which was introduced into evidence a moment ago as
Exhibit Number USA-312.
This chart shows that as of 31 May 1943 the staggering total of 693,252
estates, comprising 6,097,525 hectares, had been seized and 9,508
estates, comprising 270,446 hectares, had been confiscated by the Estate
Offices Danzig-West Prussia, Posen, Ciechanów, and Silesia. This, it
will be noted, represented the seizure and confiscation of only four
offices.
That, Your Honors, concludes our discussion on Poland; and I now turn to
Czechoslovakia. At this point of the proceedings we shall introduce only
one document upon Czechoslovakia. This one document, however, contains a
startling revelation of the conspirators’ plans to germanize Bohemia and
Moravia. It relates how three plans, each characterized by its severity,
were discussed; and finally how the Führer decided on plan (c), which
involved the assimilation of about one-half of the Czech population by
the Germans and the extermination of the other half. Moreover, the plan
envisaged a large influx into Czechoslovakia of Germans whose loyalty to
the Führer was unquestioned. I offer this document in evidence. It is
Document Number 862-PS, and it is Exhibit Number USA-313. This is a
top-secret report, dated 15 October 1940, which was written by General
Friderici, Deputy General of the Wehrmacht in Bohemia and Moravia. On
the face of the document, it appears that only four copies were made.
The document we offer in evidence is the original document, which was
found among the captured files of the OKW. This document bears the
handwritten letters “K” and “J” on the first page on the left-hand side,
and I am advised that the handwriting is unquestionably that of
Defendants Keitel and Jodl. I quote the document in its entirety:
“On 9 October of this year the office of the Reich Protector
held an official conference in which State Secretary SS
Gruppenführer R. H. Frank spoke about the following . . . .”
SS Gruppenführer K. H. Frank, it may be noted, was Secretary of State
under Defendant Von Neurath, who at the date of this report was the
Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.
THE PRESIDENT: Who did you say Frank was?
CAPT. HARRIS: Frank was an SS Gruppenführer, and Secretary of State
under Defendant Von Neurath. He is not the Defendant Hans Frank. At the
date of this particular report Von Neurath, under whom K. H. Frank
served, was the Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. Continuing the
quotation:
“Since creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia,
Party agencies, industrial circles, as well as agencies of the
central authorities of Berlin, have considered a solution for
the Czech problem.
“After ample deliberation, the Reich Protector expressed his
views about the various plans in a memorandum. In this three
ways of solution were indicated:
“a) German infiltration of Moravia and confinement of the Czech
nationals to a residual Bohemia. This solution is considered
unsatisfactory, because the Czech problem, even if in diminished
form, will continue to exist.
“b) Many arguments can be brought up against the most radical
solution, namely, the deportation of all Czechs. Therefore, in
the memorandum it is concluded that it cannot be carried out
within a reasonable period of time.
“c) Assimilation of the Czechs, that is, absorption of about
half of the Czech nationals by the Germans insofar as these are
of racial or otherwise valuable importance. This will also be
caused, among other things, by increased employment of Czechs in
the Reich territory (with the exception of the Sudeten German
border districts), in other words, by dispersing the
concentrations of Czech nationals.
“The other half of the Czech nationals must be deprived of their
power, eliminated, and shipped out of the country by all sorts
of methods. This applies particularly to the racially mongoloid
part and to the major part of the intellectual class. The latter
can scarcely be converted and would become a burden by
constantly making claims for the leadership over the other Czech
classes and thus interfering with a possible rapid assimilation.
“Elements which counteract the planned Germanization ought to be
handled roughly and eliminated.
“The above development naturally pre-supposes an increased
influx of Germans from the Reich territory into the
Protectorate.
“Having been reported, the Führer has chosen solution (c)
(assimilation) as a directive for the solution of the Czech
problem and decided that, while keeping up the autonomy of the
Protectorate on the surface, the Germanization will have to be
carried out in a centralized way by the office of the Reich
Protector for years to come.
“From the above no particular conclusions are to be drawn by the
Armed Forces. This is the line which has always been taken here.
In this connection I refer to my memorandum submitted to the
Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces, dated 12 July
1939, file number 6/39, top secret, entitled ‘The Czech Problem’
(attached as annex).
“The Representative of the Armed Forces with the Reich Protector
in Bohemia and Moravia.”—Signed—“Friderici, General of
Infantry.”
With the permission of Your Honors, I should like to comment further
upon some parts of this memorandum. First, I invite your attention to
solution (a). This solution would have called for German infiltration
into Moravia and the forcible removal of the Czechs from that area to
Bohemia. As Your Honors know, Moravia lies between Bohemia and Slovakia.
Thus solution (a) would have involved the erection of a German State
between Bohemia and Slovakia, and would have prevented effective
inter-communications between the Czechs and the Slovaks. In this manner,
the historic desire for unity of these two groups of peace-loving people
and the continued existence of their Czechoslovakian State would have
been frustrated. Solution (a), it may be noted, was rejected because the
surviving Czechs, even though compressed into a “residual Bohemia”,
would have remained to plague the conspirators.
Solution (b) which involved the forcible deportation of all Czechs was
rejected, not because its terms were deemed too drastic, but rather
because a more speedy resolution of the problem was desired.
Solution (c), as shown in the exhibit, was regarded as the most
desirable and was adopted. This solution first provided for the
assimilation of about one-half of the Czechs. This meant two things: a.
Enforced Germanization for those who were deemed racially qualified and
b. deportation to slave labor in Germany for others. “Increased
employment of Czechs in the Reich territory” as stated in the exhibit
meant, in reality, slave labor in Germany.
Solution (c) further provided for the elimination and deportation “by
all sorts of methods” of the other half of the Czech population,
particularly the intellectuals and those who did not meet the racial
standards of the conspirators. Intellectuals everywhere were an anathema
to the Nazi conspirators, and the Czech intellectuals were no exception.
Indeed, the Czech intellectuals, as the conspirators well knew, had a
conspicuous record of gallantry, self-sacrifice, and resistance to the
Nazi ideology. They were, therefore, to be exterminated. As will be
shown in other connections, that section of the top-secret report which
stated “elements which counteract the planned Germanization are to be
handled roughly and eliminated” meant that intellectuals and other
dissident elements were either to be thrown in concentration camps or
immediately exterminated.
In short, the provisions of solution (c) were simply a practical
application of the conspirators’ philosophy as expressed in Himmler’s
speech, part of which we have quoted in L-70, already presented in
evidence as Exhibit Number USA-308. Himmler said that “either we win
over any good blood that we can use for ourselves . . . or we destroy
this blood.”
I now turn briefly to the conspirators’ program of spoliation and
Germanization in the western occupied countries. Evidence which will be
presented at a later stage of this proceeding will show how the
conspirators sought to germanize the western occupied countries; how
they stripped the conquered countries in the West of food and raw
materials, leaving to them scarcely enough to maintain a bare existence;
how they compelled local industry and agriculture to satisfy the
insatiable wants of the German civilian population and the Wehrmacht;
and finally how the spoliation in the western occupied countries was
aided and abetted by excessive occupation charges, compulsory and
fraudulent clearing arrangements, and confiscation of their gold and
foreign exchange. The evidence concerning these matters which will be
presented in great detail by the Prosecutor for the Republic of France
is so overwhelming that the inference is inescapable that the
conspirators’ acts were committed according to plan.
However, it will not be until after the Christmas recess that the
evidence concerning the execution of the conspirators’ plans in the West
will be presented to this Tribunal. Accordingly, by way of illustration,
and for the purpose of showing in this presentation that the
conspirators’ plans embraced the occupied Western countries as well as
the East, we now offer in evidence a single exhibit on this aspect of
the case, R-114, which is Exhibit Number USA-314. This document was
obtained from the U.S. Counter-Intelligence branch. This exhibit
consists of a memorandum dated 7 August 1942 and a memorandum dated 29
August 1942 from Himmler’s personal files. The former memorandum deals
with a conference of SS officers and bears the title, “Directions for
the Treatment of Deported Alsatians.” The latter memorandum is marked
secret and is entitled, “Shifting of Alsatians into the Reich.” The
memoranda comprising this exhibit show that plans were made and
partially executed to remove all elements from Alsace which were hostile
to the conspirators and to germanize the province. I quote from Page 1,
lines 21 to 31, of the English text entitled, “Directions for the
Treatment of Deported Alsatians.” These extracts contained in the German
text at Page 1, the last 8 lines, and Page 2, lines 1 to 5. I now quote:
“The first expulsion action was carried out in Alsace in the
period from July to December 1940; in the course of it 105,000
persons were either expelled or prevented from returning. They
were in the main Jews, gypsies and other foreign racial
elements, criminals, asocial and incurably insane persons, and
in addition Frenchmen and Francophiles. The _patois_-speaking
population was combed out by this series of deportations in the
same way as the other Alsatians.
“Referring to the permission the Führer had given him to cleanse
Alsace of all foreign, sick, or unreliable elements, Gauleiter
Wagner has recently pointed out the political necessity of a new
deportation”—zweite Aussiedlungsaktion—“which is to be
prepared as soon as possible.”
I should like Your Honors to permit me to defer the remainder of this
presentation until Monday. Mr. Justice Jackson would like to make a few
remarks to the Tribunal.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: May it please the Tribunal, I wish to bring to the
attention of the Tribunal and of the Defense Counsel some matters
concerning the case as it will take its course next week, in the belief
that it will result in expediting our procedure if, over the weekend,
our program can be considered.
Captain Harris’ presentation will take a short time longer on Monday;
and when it has concluded, the presentation by the United States will
have reached that part of the Indictment which seeks a declaratory
judgment of this Tribunal that six of the organizations named therein
are criminal organizations. They effect such a finding only that they
may constitute such a basis for prosecution against individual members
in other courts than this, proceedings in which every defense will be
open to an accused individual, except that he may not deny the findings
made by this Tribunal as to the character of the organization of which
he was a member.
The United States desires to offer this evidence under conditions which
will save the time of the Tribunal and advance the prosecution as
rapidly as possible so that United States personnel can be released.
We also desire defendants’ counsel to have before them as much as
possible of our evidence against organizations before the Christmas
recess so that they may use that recess time to examine it and to
prepare their defenses and that we may be spared any further
applications for delay for that purpose.
The substance of our proposal is that all of the ultimate questions on
this branch of the case be reserved for consideration after the evidence
is before the Tribunal. The real question, we submit, is not whether to
admit the evidence. The real question is its value and its legal
consequences under the provisions of this Charter. All of the evidence
which we will tender will be tendered in the belief that it cannot be
denied to have some probative value and that it is relevant to the
charges made in the Indictment. And those are the grounds upon which the
Charter authorizes a rejection of evidence.
At the time we seek no advantage from this suggestion except the
advantage of saving time to the Tribunal and to ourselves to get as much
of the case as possible in the hands of the defendants before the
Christmas recess and to urge the ultimate issues only when they can be
intelligibly argued and understood on the basis of a real record instead
of on assumptions and hypothetical statements of fact.
In offering this evidence as to the organizations, therefore, we propose
to stipulate as follows:
Every objection of any character to any item of the evidence offered by
the United States, as against these organizations, may be deemed to be
reserved and fully available to Defense Counsel at any time before the
close of the United States case with the same effect as if the objection
had been made when the evidence was offered. All evidence on this
subject shall remain subject to a continuing power of the Tribunal, on
motion of any counsel or on its own motion, to strike, unprejudiced by
the absence of objection. Every question as to the effect of the
evidence shall be considered open and unprejudiced by the fact it has
been received without objection.
Now we recognize the adherent controversial character of the issues
which may be raised concerning this branch of the case. What this
evidence proves, what organizations it is sufficient to condemn, and how
the Charter applies to it are questions capable of debate, which we are
quite ready to argue when it can be done in orderly and intelligible
fashion. We had expected to do it in final summation, but we will do it
at any time suggested by the Tribunal, after there is a record on which
to found the argument; and we are willing to do it either before or
after the defendants take up the case. But we do suggest that, if it is
done step by step as the evidence is produced and on questions of
admissibility, it will be disorderly and time-consuming. Piecemeal
argument will consume time by requiring counsel on both sides to recite
evidence that is either in the case, or to speculate as to evidence that
is not yet in, to resort to hypothetical cases, and to do it over and
over again to each separate objection. It will also be disorderly
because of our plan of presentation.
Questions which relate to these organizations go to the very basis of
the proposal made by President Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference,
agreement upon which was the basis for this proceeding. The United
States would not have participated in this kind of determination of
question of guilt but for this or some equivalent plan of reaching
thousands of others, who, if less conspicuous, are just as guilty of
these crimes as the men in the dock. Because of participation in the
framing of the Charter and knowledge of the problem it was designed to
reach, I shall expect to reach the legal issues involved in these
questions.
The evidence, however, will be presented by the lawyers who have
specialized in the search for the arrangement of evidence on a
particular and limited charge or indictment. Piecemeal argument,
therefore, would not be orderly, but would be repetitious, incomplete,
poorly organized, and of little help to the Tribunal. The issues deserve
careful, prepared presentation of the contentions on both sides.
We will ask, therefore, upon these conditions, which we think protect
everybody’s rights and enable the Defense as well as ourselves to make a
better presentation of their questions because they will have time to
prepare them, to lay before the Tribunal, as rapidly as possible next
week and as uninterruptedly as possible, the evidence which bears upon
the accusations against the organizations.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Justice Jackson, have you yet communicated that to
the defendants’ counsel in writing or not?
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: I have not communicated it, unless it has been sent
to the Information Center since noon.
THE PRESIDENT: I think, perhaps, it might be convenient that you should
state what you have stated to us as to objections to the evidence in
writing so they may thoroughly understand it.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: I have prepared to do that and to supply sufficient
copies for members of the Tribunal and for all defense counsel.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
HERR BÖHM: I represent the members of the S.A. who have volunteered to
be questioned before the Tribunal. I understood the statement of Justice
Jackson only partially. As Defense Counsel I have no one who can supply
me with information and I cannot, under any circumstances, agree to give
my views on statements which I do not know or which are made known to me
in such a way that I am not in a position to get information.
I should like to ask first that I be supplied with a German translation
of the statement which the Prosecution has made on the future course of
the Trial, so that I can express my views on it. I do not represent here
just one person but millions of people who will, after the Trial, come
forward with all sorts of accusations against me, possibly even
justified accusations. My own responsibility, as well as that of my
colleagues who represent the organizations, is immense. I should
therefore like to request, as a matter of principle, that anything which
is presented in this Trial at all be submitted to me in the German
language, because I am not in a position to have whole volumes of
documents translated into German from one day to the next—documents
which could quite easily be given to me in the German original. This is
a circumstance which makes it dreadfully hard for me, as well as for a
number of my colleagues, to follow the Trial at all.
Of the incriminatory evidence against the organizations, I have
previously gathered little in the proceedings up to now. Since,
according to today’s statements, however, the evidence against the
organizations is to be presented shortly, I should like to ask
emphatically that, if we are to continue to represent the organizations,
the proceedings be conducted in such a way that, in a technical respect,
too, we shall be in a position to carry on the defense in a responsible
manner.
THE PRESIDENT: As you know or have been told, only those parts of
documents which are read before the Tribunal are treated as being in
evidence and therefore you hear through your earphones everything that
is in evidence read to you in German. You know also that there are two
copies of the documents in your Information Center which are in German.
So much for that. That has been the procedure up to now.
In order to meet the legitimate wishes of German counsel, the proposal
which Mr. Justice Jackson has just made is perfectly simple, as I
understand it, and it is this:
That the question of the criminality of these organizations should not
be argued before the evidence is put in; that the United States counsel
should put in their evidence first, and that they hope to put the
majority of it in evidence before the Christmas recess, but that the
German counsel (defendants’ counsel) shall be at liberty at any time, up
to the time the United States case is finished, to make objection to any
part of the evidence on these criminal organizations. Is that not clear?
HERR BÖHM: Yes, that is clear.
THE PRESIDENT: Have you any objection to that procedure?
HERR BÖHM: Yes. The procedure as suggested is clear, but I think it is
highly inadequate. I have as yet had no opportunity to get into my hands
either of the two copies, which are said to be downstairs in Room 54,
maybe because two copies are not sufficient for the purposes of 25
lawyers, especially if these copies are placed in Room 54 at 10:30 in
the morning, when the session starts at 10:00 o’clock. It would not even
suffice if these two copies for 25 of us were placed into our room on
the day before, since it is not possible for all of us to make
satisfactory use of these two copies in so short a time. Arrangements
should therefore be made—just how the Prosecution will make them, I
cannot say—to enable us to know at the proper time—and I emphasize
again, in the German language—what the Prosecution expects of us, so
that our work may be of avail to the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: What you have just stated is a general objection to the
procedure which has been adopted up to now and has nothing to do with
the procedure which has been suggested by Mr. Justice Jackson with
reference to these criminal organizations. His suggestion was that
argument on the law of the criminal issue or the criminal nature of
these organizations should be postponed until the evidence was put in
and that the right of Counsel for the Defense should be to make
objection at any stage or, rather, to defer their objections until the
evidence had been put in; and it was hoped that the evidence would be
completed or nearly completed by the Christmas recess. What you say
about the general procedure may be considered by the Tribunal.
So far as the particular question is concerned, namely, the question of
the procedure suggested by Mr. Justice Jackson, have you any objection
to that?
HERR BÖHM: I have objections to this procedure only—and in this respect
I reserve for myself all rights, for the sake of the great number of
people I represent—if it handicaps or hinders me in any way in
representing the interests of my many clients.
THE PRESIDENT: We are aware of that fact, but that does not seem to be
material to the question whether the legal argument should be deferred
until after the evidence is presented. The fact that you have millions
of people to represent has nothing to do with the question whether the
legal argument shall take place before, or in the middle of, or at the
end of the presentation of the evidence. What I am asking you is: Have
you any objection to the legal argument taking place at the end of the
presentation of the evidence?
HERR BÖHM: I have no objection to these suggestions if they do not
impair my defense in any way.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now adjourn.
[_The Tribunal adjourned until 17 December 1945 at 1000 hours._]
TRANSCRIBER NOTES
Punctuation and spelling has 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
depending on the author; however, American spellings are the rule,
hence, 'Defense' versus 'Defence'. Multiple occurrences of the following
spellings which differ and are found throughout this volume are as
follows:
cooperation co-operation
Sudeten Gau Sudetengau
Sudeten-Deutsche territory Sudeten-German territory
Sudeten German(s) Sudeten-German(s)
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(s).
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. 3)_,
by Anonymous.]