If the Court will look at the extract from Page 256, it reads as
follows:
“Had it not been possible for them to employ members of the
inferior race which they conquered, the Aryans would never have
been in a position to take the first steps on the road which led
them to a later type of culture; just as, without the help of
certain suitable animals which they were able to tame, they
would never have come to the invention of mechanical power,
which has subsequently enabled them to do without these
beasts. . . .
“For the establishment of superior types of civilization the
members of inferior races formed one of the most essential
prerequisites . . . .”
And in a later passage in _Mein Kampf_, at Page 344, Hitler applies
these general ideas to Germany:
“If in its historical development the German people had
possessed the unity of the herd by which other people have so
much benefited, then the German Reich would probably be mistress
of the globe today. World history would have taken another
course, and in this case no man can tell if what many blinded
pacifists hope to attain by petitioning, whining, and crying may
not have been reached in this way: namely, a peace which would
not be based upon the waving of olive branches by tearful
misery-mongering of pacifist old women, but a peace that would
be guaranteed by the triumphant sword of a people endowed with
the power to master the world and administer it in the service
of a higher civilization.”
In these passages which I have quoted, the Tribunal will have noticed
Hitler’s love of war and scorn of those whom he described as pacifists.
The underlying message of the whole of this book, which appears again
and again, is: Firstly, that the struggle for existence requires the
organization and use of force; secondly, that the Aryan German is
superior to other races and has the right to conquer and rule them;
thirdly, that all doctrines which preach peaceable solutions of
international problems represent a disastrous weakness in the nation
that adopts them.
Implicit in the whole of the argument is a fundamental and arrogant
denial of the possibility of any rule of law in international affairs.
It is in the light of the general doctrines of _Mein Kampf_ that I
invite the Tribunal to consider the more definite passages in which
Hitler deals with specific problems of German foreign policy.
The very first page of the book contains a remarkable forecast of Nazi
policy. It reads—Page 1, Column 1:
“German Austria must be restored to the great German motherland;
and not, indeed, on any grounds of economic calculation
whatsoever. No, no. Even if the union were a matter of economic
indifference, and even if it were to be disadvantageous from the
economic standpoint, still it ought to take place. People of the
same blood should be in the same Reich. The German people will
have no right to engage in a colonial policy until they shall
have brought all their children together in one state. When the
territory of the Reich embraces all the Germans and finds itself
unable to assure them a livelihood, only then can the moral
right arise from the need of the people, to acquire foreign
territory. The plough is then the sword; and the tears of war
will produce the daily bread for the generations to come.”
Hitler in this book also roundly declares that the mere restoration of
Germany’s frontiers as they were in 1914 would be wholly insufficient
for his purposes. At Page 553 he writes:
“In regard to this point I should like to make the following
statement: To demand that the 1914 frontiers should be restored
is a glaring political absurdity that is fraught with such
consequences as to make the claim itself appear criminal. The
confines of the Reich as they existed in 1914 were thoroughly
illogical because they were not really complete, in the sense of
including all the members of the German nation. Nor were they
reasonable, in view of the geographical exigencies of military
defense. They were not the consequences of a political plan
which had been well considered and carried out, but they were
temporary frontiers established in virtue of a political
struggle that had not been brought to a finish; and indeed, they
were partly the chance result of circumstances.”
In further elaboration of Nazi policy, Hitler does not merely denounce
the Treaty of Versailles; he desires to see a Germany which is a world
power with territory sufficient for a future German people, of a
magnitude which he does not define.
In the next quotation, from Page 554, the first sentence reads:
“For the future of the German nation the 1914 frontiers are of
no significance.”
And in the third paragraph the Court sees:
“We National Socialists must stick firmly to the aim that we
have set for our foreign policy, namely, that the German people
must be assured the territorial area which is necessary for it
to exist on this earth. And only for such action as is
undertaken to secure those ends can it be lawful in the eyes of
God and our German posterity to allow the blood of our people to
be shed once again; before God, because we are sent into this
world with the commission to struggle for our daily bread, as
creatures to whom nothing is donated and who must be able to win
and hold their position as lords of the earth only through their
own intelligence and courage.
“And this justification must be established also before our
German posterity, on the grounds that for each one who has shed
his blood the life of a thousand others will be guaranteed to
posterity. The territory on which one day our German peasants
will be able to bring forth and nourish their sturdy sons will
justify the blood of the sons of the peasants that has to be
shed today. And the statesmen who have decreed this sacrifice
may be persecuted by their contemporaries, but posterity will
absolve them from all guilt for having demanded this offering
from their people.”
Then, the next quotation; Hitler writes at Page 557:
“Germany will either become a world power or will not continue
to exist at all. But, in order to become a world power, it needs
that territorial magnitude which gives it the necessary
importance today and assures the existence of its citizens.”
And, finally, he writes:
“. . . we must take our stand on the principles already
mentioned in regard to foreign policy, namely, the necessity of
bringing our territorial area into just proportion with the
number of our population. From the past we can learn only one
lesson, and this is that the aim which is to be pursued in our
political conduct must be twofold, namely: (1) The acquisition
of territory as the objective of our foreign policy, and (2) the
establishment of a new and uniform foundation as the objective
of our political activities at home, in accordance with our
doctrine of nationhood.”
Now these passages from _Mein Kampf_ raise the question: Where did
Hitler expect to find the increased territory beyond the 1914 boundaries
of Germany? To this Hitler’s answer is sufficiently explicit. Reviewing
the history of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918, he wrote in an early
passage of _Mein Kampf_, at Page 132:
“Therefore, the only possibility which Germany had of carrying a
sound territorial policy into effect was that of acquiring new
territory in Europe itself. Colonies cannot serve this purpose
so long as they are not suited for settlement by Europeans on a
large scale. In the nineteenth century it was no longer possible
to acquire such colonies by peaceful means. Therefore, any
attempt at such a colonial expansion would have meant an
enormous military struggle. Consequently, it would have been
more practical to undertake that military struggle for new
territory in Europe rather than to wage war for the acquisition
of possessions abroad.
“Such a decision naturally demanded that the nation’s undivided
energies should be devoted to it. A policy of that kind, which
requires for its fulfillment every ounce of available energy on
the part of everybody concerned, cannot be carried into effect
by half measures or in a hesitant manner. The political
leadership of the German Empire should then have been directed
exclusively to this goal. No political step should have been
taken in response to considerations other than this task and the
means of accomplishing it. Germany should have been alive to the
fact that such a goal could have been reached only by war, and
the prospect of war should have been faced with calm and
collected determination.
“The whole system of alliances should have been envisaged and
valued from that standpoint.”
And then this is the vital sentence:
“If new territory were to be acquired in Europe, it must have
been mainly at Russia’s cost, and once again the new German
Empire should have set out on its march along the same road as
was formerly trodden by the Teutonic Knights, this time to
acquire soil for the German plough by means of the German sword
and thus provide the nation with its daily bread.”
To this program of expansion in the East, Hitler returned again at the
end of _Mein Kampf_. After discussing the insufficiency of Germany’s
pre-war frontiers, he again points the path to the East and declares
that the ‘Drang nach Osten’ (the drive to the East) must be resumed; and
he writes:
“Therefore we National Socialists have purposely drawn a line
through the line of conduct followed by pre-war Germany in
foreign policy . . . . We put an end to the perpetual Germanic
march towards the south and west of Europe and turn our eyes
towards the lands of the East. We finally put a stop to the
colonial and trade policy of pre-war times and pass over to the
territorial policy of the future.
“But when we speak of new territory in Europe today we must
principally think of Russia and the border states subject to
her.”
Now Hitler was shrewd enough to see that his aggressive designs in the
East might be endangered by a defensive alliance between Russia, France,
and England. His foreign policy, as outlined in _Mein Kampf_, therefore
was to detach England and Italy from France and Russia and to change the
attitude of Germany towards France from the defensive to the offensive.
The final quotation from _Mein Kampf_ comes from Page 570:
“As long as the eternal conflict between France and Germany is
waged only in the form of a German defense against the French
attack, that conflict can never be decided, and from century to
century Germany will lose one position after another. If we
study the changes that have taken place, from the 12th century
up to our day, in the frontiers within which the German language
is spoken, we can hardly hope for a successful issue to result
from the acceptance and development of a line of conduct which
has hitherto been so detrimental for us.
“Only when the Germans have taken all this fully into account
will they cease allowing the national will-to-live to wear
itself out in merely passive defense and will rally together for
a last decisive contest with France. And in this contest the
essential objective of the German nation will be fought for.
Only then will it be possible to put an end to the eternal
Franco-German conflict which has hitherto proved so sterile.
“Of course it is here presumed that Germany sees in the
suppression of France nothing more than a means which will make
it possible for our people finally to expand in another quarter.
Today there are 80 million Germans in Europe. And our foreign
policy will be recognized as rightly conducted only when, after
barely a hundred years, there will be 250 million Germans living
on this continent, not packed together as the coolies in the
factories of another continent, but as tillers of the soil and
workers whose labor will be a mutual assurance for their
existence.”
I submit, therefore, that, quite apart from the evidence already
submitted to the Tribunal, the evidence of _Mein Kampf_, taken in
conjunction with the facts of Nazi Germany’s subsequent behavior towards
other countries, goes to show that from the very first moment that they
attained power, and indeed long before that time, Hitler and his
confederates, the defendants, were engaged in planning and preparing
aggressive war as is alleged against them in this Indictment.
Events have proved in the blood and misery of millions of men, women,
and children that _Mein Kampf_ was no mere literary exercise to be
treated with easy indifference, as unfortunately it was treated before
the war by those who were imperiled, but was the expression of a
fanatical faith in force and fraud as the means to Nazi dominance in
Europe, if not in the whole world. The Prosecution’s submission is that,
accepting and propagating the jungle philosophy of _Mein Kampf_, the
Nazi confederates who are indicted here deliberately pushed our
civilization over the precipice of war.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now adjourn for 10 minutes.
[_A recess was taken._]
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: May it please the Tribunal, the next stage of
the Prosecution is the presentation of the cases against the individual
defendants under the Counts One and Two of the Indictment. Before that
is begun the chief prosecutors for the United States and Great Britain
wish, with the permission of the Tribunal, to make four points perfectly
clear:
The object of this part of the case is to collect for the benefit,
first, of the members of the Tribunal and, secondly, of the Defense
Counsel concerned, the evidence against each defendant under Counts One
and Two which has been presented by the American and British
Delegations. Otherwise it would be easy among the many documents already
before the Court to miss relevant pieces of evidence which the Tribunal
might wish to consider and to which the defendants may wish to make a
reply.
This does not mean that the case against these defendants has in any way
ended. Vital and important parts of the case remain concerning the
actual atrocities, both War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. The
evidence in regard to these will shortly be presented by the French
Delegation and the Delegation of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics, and when the massive documentation of these crimes is placed
before the Court, the French and Soviet Delegations will have the
opportunity of relating them to the individual defendants in the dock.
It has been the desire of all the chief prosecutors to delimit as
clearly as possible the evidence under the respective Counts of the
Indictment. The documents in evidence, however, were not written with a
view to this Trial, and therefore many of them inevitably deal with
offenses under more than one Count. It is by reason of this alone that
some overlapping and repetition necessarily exists.
Similarly it may occur that as the French and Soviet cases are developed
documents may come to light which bear on the common plan or the
initiation of wars of aggression or on other material connected with
Counts One and Two. The American and British Delegations will welcome
any addition to the evidence on these parts of the case which such
documents may provide and gladly receive such reinforcement from their
French and Soviet colleagues.
With this explanation, and I am very grateful to the Tribunal for
allowing me to make it, I call on my friend Mr. Albrecht to commence
this part of the case.
DR. THOMA: Colonel Wheeler in his accusation concerning the oppression
of the Christian churches in the Eastern territory also named the Reich
Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, the Defendant Rosenberg,
and held him responsible. I have, however, neither in the speech of the
Prosecution nor in the document book, found any proof that such
persecution of the Church also took place in the territories
administered by Rosenberg. I wish rather to direct the attention of the
Tribunal to Document 1517-PS, in which there is a note signed by
Rosenberg concerning a discussion on questions of the East. This
document contains the following statement made by Rosenberg, “The Führer
agrees with Rosenberg’s Edict of Tolerance.”
THE PRESIDENT: Am I to understand that you are making a motion at this
stage?
DR. THOMA: I have a request to make to the Prosecution: that it should,
if possible, subsequently substantiate its charge against Rosenberg.
THE PRESIDENT: Is your point that this Document 1517-PS has not yet been
in, or what is your point?
DR. THOMA: To my knowledge this document has already been submitted, and
that was in connection with Hitler’s opinion that the Crimea question
should be cleared up completely. But in my present request I am
concerned with the fact that the Prosecution stated that in the
Government General and likewise in Warthegau and in the Eastern
countries, and in the areas administered by the Defendant Rosenberg as
well, persecution of the Church took place. The Prosecution has produced
documents concerning the first three territories, but as far as the
latter territory is concerned, I have learned of no such documents being
either in the document book or in the personal presentation made by the
Prosecution.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you must understand that the Tribunal are not at
this stage accepting everything that has been said by the Prosecution.
You will have full opportunity when you present the case on behalf of
the Defendant Rosenberg to present any documents which may be relevant
and to comment upon any documents which have been cited by the
Prosecution and to make any argument that you think right; but this is
not the appropriate time to make any such argument. We are still
considering the case for the Prosecution, and you will have full
opportunity hereafter. Do you understand?
DR. THOMA: Then I ask the High Tribunal to consider my present
explanation as a statement.
THE PRESIDENT: We will do so, but it is not convenient for Counsel for
the Defense to intervene with statements of this sort; otherwise each
one of the defendants’ counsel might be doing it all the time. We must
ask you therefore to withhold such statements until your time comes to
answer the case for the Prosecution.
MR. RALPH G. ALBRECHT (Associate Trial Counsel for the United States):
May it please the Tribunal, I have been charged by the Chief of Counsel
for the United States with the duty of pointing out, on the basis of
evidence already admitted and of additional evidence that will be
offered, the individual responsibility of some of these defendants for
the crimes specified in Counts One and Two of the Indictment.
When these defendants chose to abandon everything that had been
recognized as good in German life and affirmatively participated in the
work of achieving the objectives of the Party, we submit that they well
knew what National Socialism stood for. They knew of the program
announced by the Nazi Party and they also had knowledge of Nazi methods.
The official NSDAP program with its 25 points was open and notorious.
Announced and published to the world in 1920, it was published and
republished and adverted to throughout the years. The Nazis made no
secret of their intentions to make the Party program the fundamental law
of the German State. The Nazis made no secret of their intentions
generally. For all to read there was _Mein Kampf_, the product of the
warped brain of the Führer, and there were the prolific writings and
utterances of many other leaders who rose to prominence, some of whom
are not sitting in the defendants’ box. And Hitler himself had
announced, that the Nazis would use force if necessary to achieve their
purposes.
Among these conspirators there were those who, like the Defendants Hess,
Rosenberg, and Göring, were associated with Hitler since the very
inception of the conspiracy. These men were among the original planners.
They were the men who subsequently set the pace and cast the mould for
the future. But there were also other conspirators (the balance of the
defendants in the dock fit into this category), who voluntarily joined
the conspiracy later.
While these men may be characterized perhaps as cruel, callous, or
inhuman, they certainly may not be called dull or stupid. They knew, and
had had the opportunity to observe, the manifestations of Nazi violence
and Nazi methods as the pattern of the swastika developed. They knew the
nature of what they were getting into. Therefore they must be presumed
to have had the desire to participate—and participate they
did—voluntarily, and so we submit that it may not validly be inferred
that they did not join the stream of the conspiracy with their eyes
open, _scienter_, as the conspiracy gathered momentum and developed into
a rushing torrent.
Much evidence has already been admitted by the Tribunal of the overt
acts of these defendants, as well as of their fellow conspirators. We
shall make no effort at this time to present an exhaustive recital of
all crimes planned or initiated by these defendants for which they must
bear full responsibility beyond peradventure. The world already knows
more of the evil deeds of these men and of their co-conspirators than
the Prosecution possibly could hope to establish within the reasonable
limits of time and of men’s patience. At this point we shall attempt to
focus attention merely to illustrative criminal conduct of the
individual conspirators.
There is an advantage to proceeding, we submit, as we propose to do,
with the permission of the Tribunal, to show in outline the extent to
which these defendants have become implicated in the serious charges
against them. In the case of many of these conspirators, a recital of
their crimes will relate to their planning of several of the categories
of crimes described in Counts One and Two of the Indictment. We shall
draw these various threads together and show, as I have said, the
outline of the completed proof, as it were, within Count One of the
Indictment, against the individual conspirators.
Thus, on behalf of the United States, I shall commence to show how some
of these defendants fit into the broad stream of the Common Plan or
Conspiracy to wage aggressive war and the extent of their individual
responsibility for their acts in pursuance of that conspiracy.
First of all, we mention the late Defendant Robert Ley who, by recourse
to self-destruction, has escaped all punishment for his participation in
the conspiracy.
Next we mention Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, the action against
whom has been severed from this proceeding.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that documentary proof has been offered
and will be offered in support of the allegations of the Indictment that
implicate both Ley and Krupp as co-conspirators, for whose crimes the
remaining defendants also must accept responsibility.
Next we consider the Defendant Fritz Sauckel. The case against Sauckel
has been completely stated and supported by a wealth of damning evidence
by my learned colleague Mr. Dodd in his presentation of the case on
slave labor. We submit that it is unnecessary to add anything further to
the case against Sauckel to demonstrate how completely he filled his
place in the stream of the conspiracy.
The next defendant to be considered is Albert Speer. Like his
fellow-conspirator Sauckel, Speer is deeply implicated as a member of
the conspiracy and much of the case against him has been presented by
Mr. Dodd in the case on slave labor. But, unlike Sauckel, Speer’s
criminal activity went substantially beyond the realm of slave labor.
His was one of the master minds in the plan for the systematic robbery
and spoliation of the lands overrun by the German war machine.
Documentary proof of Speer’s participation in the spoliation practices
in the countries of Western Europe, as well as in the Occupied Eastern
Territories, will be presented subsequently by our learned colleagues,
the Chief Prosecutor representing the Soviet Union and the Chief French
Prosecutor, under the remaining Counts of the Indictment. This is
essentially the case that proves Speer to have been a member of the
conspiracy.
There is, however, one additional exhibit that I would like to offer
into evidence at this time. It was received only a few days ago from the
Ministerial Document Center at Kassel and it is a dossier maintained on
the Defendant Speer in the offices of the Reichsführer SS. I offer this
file as Exhibit Number USA-575. It is our Document 3568-PS and I shall
read from the dossier. I shall read from the letter dated the 25th of
July 1942, from the second paragraph:
“Reich Minister Speer was enrolled as an SS man on the personal
staff of the Reichsführer SS under SS Number 46104, with effect
from the 20th of July 1942, by order of the Reichsführer SS.”
And I think that is all I need to read from that letter. But I should
like to call the Tribunal’s attention to the annexed document, which is
a questionnaire, and right at the beginning of the same it is related
that Albert Speer was in the SS since the autumn of 1932, and his
membership number in the Party was 474481.
I next mention the Defendant Ernst Kaltenbrunner, whose case has been
completely presented in connection with the presentation on the Gestapo
and the SD as criminal organizations. We submit that further proof is
not needed to prove how completely this enemy of his own fatherland,
Austria, had been carried along in the stream of the conspiracy.
We pass then to the case of perhaps the most important conspirator on
trial before this Tribunal—the Number Two Nazi, the Nazi who stood next
to the Führer himself, the Nazi who was in some respects even more
dangerous than the Führer and other leading Party leaders.
We say that he was more dangerous because, unlike many leading Nazis,
including Hitler, who were morally and socially on the fringes of
society before the Nazi Party rode to success in 1933, this conspirator
was known to come of substantial family which had furnished officers to
the army and important civil servants to the country, in the past.
Moreover, he was possessed of substantial appearance, an ingratiating
manner, a certain affability. But all of these facets of character were
but deceptions, because they helped to conceal the man’s core of steel,
his vindictiveness, his cruelty, his lust for self-adornment,
self-glorification, and power.
This man was most dangerous, furthermore, because the outward
characteristics to which I have called attention and which he has to
some extent demonstrated here in the presence of the Tribunal were
useful in deceiving the representatives of foreign states who, in their
concern, sought to learn from him the true intentions of the Nazi State
which, by its repeated floutings of its international commitments, had
so seriously disturbed the tranquillity of the world since 1933.
And I think that the record should show how throughout the earlier
stages of this Trial, that is, before the nature of the documentary
evidence offered by the Prosecution—too grim and almost
implausible—much of the benevolence of this conspirator, his ever-ready
smile and ingratiating manner, were daily in evidence in this chamber.
His ready affirmation, by a pleasant nod for all to see, of the
correctness of statements made or the contents of documents offered by
counsel, his chiding shake of the head when he disagreed with such facts
were commonplace.
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think the Tribunal is interested in this, Mr.
Albrecht.
MR. ALBRECHT: I shall pass on, then, with the presentation, with the
permission of the Tribunal, and I shall give an account of certain facts
already established by the documents in evidence; and with the
permission of the Tribunal I shall not, unless it is so wished, refer to
the exhibit numbers or citations of most of the old evidence that I
shall allude to. These are all set forth in the trial brief that has
already been distributed.
Against the background of this factual account, into which we have drawn
the main threads of the case already presented that show the complicity
of the Defendant Göring, we shall offer certain additional documentary
evidence which we believe necessary to demonstrate Göring’s connection
and responsibility for certain phases of the conspiracy.
I should have said before, if Your Honors please, that there have been
distributed and are now before you three volumes of document books
bearing the letters “DD,” which contain substantially all the documents,
new as well as old, bearing on the individual responsibility of this
defendant.
We shall first deal with the individual responsibility of this
conspirator for Crimes against Peace. These crimes include Göring’s
participation in the acquisition and consolidation of power in Germany,
the economic and military preparations for war, and the waging of
aggressive war.
For more than two decades Göring’s activities extended over nearly every
phase of the conspiracy. He was one of the conspirators associated with
Hitler from the very beginning. A member of the Party since 1922, he
participated in the Munich Putsch of November 1923 at the head of the
SA, a Nazi organization shown to have been committed to the use of
violence.
Göring fled the country after the Putsch in order to escape arrest.
After his return he became more than a commander of street fighters. He
was designated Hitler’s first political assistant. A measure of the man
may be gleaned from an exhibit already in evidence, namely, Gritzbach’s
official biography of Göring, in which are recorded his dealings with
the Brüning Government, his attempts to break down the barrier around
President Von Hindenburg, and his coup as Reichstag President in
September 1932 in procuring a vote of no confidence against the Von
Papen Government just before the Reichstag was dissolved.
Göring’s writings show him not to be backward in taking credit for his
efforts to advance the cause of the Party. Full credit has also been
accorded him by Hitler, and Göring has boasted that no title and no
decoration could make him so proud as the designation given to him by
the German people, and I quote, “the most faithful paladin of our
Führer.” That short quotation, may it please the Court, comes from our
Exhibit Number USA-233, our Document 2324-PS.
With the advent of the Nazis to power in January 1933 Göring became
acting Minister of the Interior and Prime Minister of Prussia. In these
capacities he proceeded promptly to establish a regime of terror in
Prussia designed to suppress all opposition to the Nazi program.
His chief tool in that connection was the Prussian Police, which
remained under his jurisdiction until 1936. As early as February 1933,
he directed the entire police force to render unqualified assistance to
the para-military organizations supporting the new government, such as
the SA and the SS, and to crush all political opponents with firearms,
if necessary, and regardless of the consequences. The Tribunal will take
judicial notice of the directives of the 10th and 17th of February 1933,
which are cited on Page 7 of our brief and which appear in that
collection of decrees known as the _Ministerialblatt für die Preussische
Innere Verwaltung_ of 1933.
Göring has frequently and proudly acknowledged his personal
responsibility for the crimes committed pursuant to orders of this
character, and I recall his words which he uttered before thousands of
his fellow Germans:
“Each bullet which leaves the barrel of a police pistol now is
my bullet. If one calls this murder, then I have murdered; I
ordered all this, I back it up. I assume the responsibility and
I am not afraid to do so.”
That quotation, may it please the Tribunal, comes from our Exhibit
Number USA-233, already in evidence, our Document 2324-PS.
Soon after he became Prime Minister of Prussia, in pursuance of the
conspiracy, Göring began to develop the Gestapo or Secret State Police,
the details of which organization of terror were presented to the Court
by my learned colleague, Colonel Storey. As early as the 26th of April
1933, he signed the first law officially establishing the Gestapo in
Prussia; and, pursuant to a decree which he signed, he named himself
Prime Minister, Chief of the Prussian Secret State Police.
Göring was undoubtedly an efficient conspirator. He was impatient to
consolidate the power of the Party at home. Already in spring 1933 the
concentration camps were established in Prussia. Men and women,
so-called “Marxists” and other political opponents, taken into custody
by the Gestapo were thrown into concentration camps without trial.
Göring said, “Against the enemies of the state we must proceed
ruthlessly.” That statement appears in our Document 2324-PS, which is
already in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-233.
The range of political terrorism under his leadership was almost
limitless. A glance at a few of his police directives in those early
days will indicate the extent and thoroughness with which every
dissident voice was silenced. I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice
of some of these decrees in the same collection I mentioned a short
while ago, entitled the _Ministerialblatt für die Preussische Innere
Verwaltung_, and we have cited these decrees on Pages 9 and 10 of our
brief. These include:
A directive of the 22d of June 1933, which required all officials to
watch the statements of civil servants and to denounce to the Defendant
Göring those who made critical remarks. The failure to make such reports
was to be regarded as proof of hostile attitude. Then there was the
directive of the 23rd of June 1933, which suppressed all activities of
the Social Democratic Party, including meetings and the party press, and
ordered the confiscation of its property. There was the directive of the
30th of June 1933, which directed the Gestapo authorities to report to
the Labor Trustees on the political attitude of the workers. There was
the directive of the 15th of January 1934, which ordered the Gestapo and
the frontier police to keep track of _émigrés_, particularly political
_émigrés_ and Jews residing in neighboring countries, and to arrest them
and to put them in concentration camps if they returned to Germany.
The essential ruthlessness of Göring is further illustrated by a
well-known bloody episode. After the elimination of the forces of the
opposition, the Nazis felt it necessary to dispose of non-conformists
within their own ranks. This they accomplished in what has become known
as the Röhm Purge of the 30th of June 1934. The Defendant Frick, a chief
conspirator in his own right, stated in that connection, in an
affidavit, that many people were murdered who had nothing to do with the
internal SA revolt, but who were “just not liked very well.”
Göring’s role in this sordid affair was related less than 2 weeks after
the event by Hitler in a speech to the Reichstag, and I would like to
offer in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-576 our Document 3442-PS, in
which is contained the speech of Hitler made on the 13th of July 1934 in
the Reichstag. It is published in _Das Archiv_, Volume 4, at Page 505. I
quote:
“Meanwhile Minister President Göring, had already received my
instructions that in case of a purge he was to take analogous
measures at once in Berlin and in Prussia. With an iron fist he
beat down the attack on the National Socialist State before it
could develop.”
With the accession of the Nazis to power Göring at once assumed a number
of the highest and most influential positions also in the Reich. The
proof already presented on the composition and functions of the Reich
Cabinet and of the offices held by Göring shows him to have been, in
fact, the most important executive of the Nazi State.
A member of the Reichstag since 1928 and its President since 1932, he
was a member of the Cabinet from the beginning as Reich Minister without
Portfolio. Shortly thereafter he received the portfolio as Reich
Minister for Air. When, in an early meeting, the Cabinet discussed the
pending Enabling Act, which gave the Cabinet plenary powers of
legislation, he offered the suggestion that the required two-thirds
majority might be obtained simply by refusing admittance to Social
Democratic delegates. I offer in evidence, as Exhibit Number USA-578,
our Document 2962-PS, which contains the minutes of that meeting. If
Your Honors will note, that meeting was held on the 15th of March 1933,
and there were present, besides the Defendant Göring, the Defendants Von
Papen, Von Neurath, Frick, and Funk. I read from Page 6 of that
document:
“Reich Minister Göring expressed his conviction that the
Enabling Act would be passed with the necessary two-thirds
majority. Possibly a majority could be obtained by banishing
several Social Democrats from the hall. Possibly the Social
Democrats would even refrain from voting on the Enabling
Act. . . .”
In 1935, with the unmasking of a secret Luftwaffe, Göring became its
Commander-in-Chief. He sat as a member and the Führer’s Deputy on the
Reich Defense Council, established by the secret law of the 21st of May
1933. The purpose of that Council was, as stated by the Defendant Frick
in an affidavit that is in evidence—and I quote:
“To plan preparations and decrees in case of war, which later on
were published by the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the
Reich.”
His assumption of ever greater responsibility seemed limitless. In 1936
Göring was made Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan, whereby he
acquired plenary legislative and administrative powers over all German
economic life. In 1938 he became a member of the Secret Cabinet Council,
which had been established to act as “an advisory board in the direction
of foreign policy.”
The Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich, created in 1939,
took over, in effect, all of the legislative powers of the Cabinet which
had not been reserved otherwise, and Göring became its chairman.
His efficient and ruthless services were recognized by Hitler in 1939,
when he designated Göring as his successor, as heir apparent to the “New
Order.”
In April 1936 Göring was appointed Coordinator for Raw Materials and
Foreign Exchange and empowered to supervise all State and Party
activities in these fields. I offer in support of that fact, as Exhibit
Number USA-577, our Document 2827-PS, which is an excerpt from Rühle,
_Das Dritte Reich_. I read from the fourth paragraph of the excerpt, if
Your Honor pleases, which is an excerpt from a decree signed by Hitler,
and it reads as follows:
“Minister President, Colonel General Göring will take the
measures necessary for the accomplishment of the tasks given to
him and has the authority to issue decrees and general
administrative directives. He, for this purpose, is authorized
to question and issue directives to all authorities, including
the highest Reich authorities, and all agencies of the Party,
its formations and attached organizations.”
In this capacity Göring convened the War Minister, the Defendant Schacht
as Minister of Economics and President of the Reichsbank, and the
Finance Minister for the Reich and the State of Prussia to discuss
inter-agency problems connected with war mobilization. At a meeting of
this group on the 12th of May 1936, when the question of the prohibitive
cost of synthetic raw material substitutes arose, Göring decided:
“If we have war tomorrow we must help ourselves by substitutes.
Then money will not play any role at all. If that is the case,
then we must be ready to create the prerequisites for that in
peacetime.”
A few days later, on the 27th of May 1936, at a meeting of the same
group Göring opposed any limitations dictated by orthodox financial
policies. He said that “all measures are to be considered from the
standpoint of an assured waging of war.”
The well-known Four Year Plan was proclaimed by Hitler at the 1936
Nuremberg Party Day. Göring was appointed Plenipotentiary in charge of
the program, which was intended to achieve national self-sufficiency.
Furthermore, Göring commented in 1936 that his chief task as
Plenipotentiary was “to put the whole economy on a war footing within 4
years.” I would like to offer into evidence, as Exhibit Number USA-579,
our Document EC-408, so that I may direct the Tribunal’s attention to a
memorandum, dated the 30th of December 1936, of the Defense Division of
the Wehrmacht, entitled, “Memorandum on the Four Year Plan and
Preparation of the War Economy”; and in the third paragraph of the
translation, or at Page 2, in the middle of Paragraph Number 3 in the
German original, there is the statement registered in the protocol, in
the memorandum, that:
“Minister President General Göring, as Commissioner for the Four
Year Plan, by authority of the Führer and Reich Chancellor,
granted 18 of October 1936.
“As regards the war economy, Minister President, Colonel General
Göring sees it as his task ‘within 4 years to put the entire
economy in a state of readiness for war.’”
The exhibit from which I have just read is of interest because of
another document that has just been brought to the attention of the
Prosecution. It is a note for the files, dated December 2, 1936, written
in longhand on the letterhead of “Minister President General Göring,”
and is in the handwriting of Colonel Bodenschatz, Göring’s Chief of
Staff. I offer this memorandum as Exhibit Number USA-580. It is our
Document 3474-PS, and I direct the Tribunal’s attention to the fact that
the date of this document is the 2d of December 1936. That was a
conference, apparently, at which all the chief officers and generals of
the Air Force, the German Air Force, met. Besides the Defendant Göring,
there were General Milch, General Kesselring, Rüdel, Stumpff,
Christiansen, and all the top commanders of the Air Force, and I read:
“World press excited about the landing of 5,000 German
volunteers in Spain. Official complaint by Great Britain; she
gets in touch with France.
“Italy suggests that Germany and Italy send, each, one division
ground troops to Spain. It is, however, necessary that Italy, as
interested Mediterranean power, issue a political declaration
first. A decision can be expected only within a few days.
“The general situation is very serious. Russia wants the war.
England rearms speedily. Command therefore: Beginning today
‘höchste Einsatzbereitschaft’”—apparently the translator did
not see fit to translate those words, which mean the “highest
degree of readiness”—“regardless of financial difficulties.
Göring takes over full responsibility.”
“Peace until 1941 is desirable. However, we cannot know whether
there will be implications before. We are already in a state of
war. It is only that no shot is being fired so far.”
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps that would be a convenient time to break off.
[_A recess was taken until 1400 hours._]
_Afternoon Session_
MR. ALBRECHT: May it please the Tribunal, two important conferences
which have already been adverted to by the Prosecution show clearly how
the Defendant Göring inspired and directed the preparation of the German
economy for aggressive war. On the 8th of July 1938 he addressed a
number of the leading German aircraft manufacturers and laid the
groundwork for a vast increase in aircraft production. He stated that
war with Czechoslovakia was imminent and boasted that the German Air
Force was already superior in quality and quantity to the English. He
said that:
“. . . if Germany wins the war. Then she will be the greatest
power in the world, dominating the world market, and Germany
will be a rich nation. For this goal, risks must be
taken. . . .”
That quotation, may it please the Court, is taken from Document R-140,
Exhibit Number USA-160.
A few weeks after the Munich Agreement, on the 14th of October 1938, at
another conference held in Göring’s office, he made the statement that
Hitler had instructed him to organize a gigantic armament program which
would make insignificant all previous achievements. He indicated that he
had been ordered to build as rapidly as possible an air force five times
as large, to increase the speed of army and navy rearmament, and to
concentrate on offensive weapons, principally heavy artillery and heavy
tanks; and at that meeting he proposed a specific program designed to
accomplish those ends. That is a short summary of facts which appear
from Exhibit Number USA-123 already in evidence, our Document 1301-PS.
In his dual role as Reich Air Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the
German Air Force it was Göring’s function to develop the Luftwaffe to
practical war strength. As early as the 10th of March 1935, in an
interview with the correspondent of the _London Daily Mail_, the mask of
hypocrisy was removed and Göring frankly announced to the world that he
was in the process of building a true military air force.
Two months later, in a speech to 1,000 Air Force officers, Göring spoke
in a still bolder vein. I offer in evidence from Exhibit Number USA-437,
our Document 3441-PS—which is Göring’s _Reden und Aufsätze_—another
excerpt that has not yet been read in evidence, from Page 242. Göring
said:
“I repeat: I intend to create a Luftwaffe which, if the hour
should strike, shall burst upon the foe like a chorus of
revenge. The enemy must have the feeling of being lost already
before having fought.”
In the same year, on the 16th of March 1935, he signed his name to the
conscription law which provided for compulsory military service and
constituted an act of defiance on the part of Nazi Germany in violation
of the Versailles Treaty. The Tribunal will take judicial notice of that
decree, which is our Document 1654-PS, from which I shall not read, with
the permission of the Tribunal—the Law for the Organization of the
Armed Forces; it is cited in 1935 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 369.
As is demonstrated by the affidavit of Ambassador Messersmith already in
evidence, Göring’s statements during this period left no doubt in the
minds of Allied diplomats that Germany was engaged in full mobilization
of air power for an impending war.
Göring was in fact the central figure in German preparation for military
aggression. In German economic development, too, he held the key
positions throughout the pre-war period. Although he held no official
position in the field of foreign affairs, as the Number Two Nazi,
history records that he was prominent in all major phases of Nazi
aggression between 1937 and 1941.
In the Austrian affair Göring was the prompter and director of the
diplomatic “tragicomedy” enacted before a shocked but silent world.
The Tribunal is familiar with Göring’s complicity in the aggression
against Austria. However, some additional documents have just come to
our notice which show that Göring not only participated actively, but
may even have been in direct charge of the German plan to bring about
the Austrian Anschluss. I will offer the first of these documents, our
Document 3473-PS, as Exhibit Number USA-581. I shall not read from that
exhibit, if Your Honors please, but I would like to call the attention
of the Tribunal to the letter from Keppler, who was one of Göring’s
agents, addressed to the Defendant Göring. It is dated the 6th of
January 1938. From its context it would seem that a valid inference can
be drawn that Göring was already active in the Austrian matter in 1937.
Our prior evidence brought him into the picture much later. The
Prosecution believes this document to be of great significance, as it
shows that the Defendant Seyss-Inquart actually had Göring’s mandate to
carry out the orders of the Nazi conspirators in Vienna. The document
itself will be read and discussed in the presentation of the case
showing the individual responsibility of the Defendant Seyss-Inquart;
and I shall not take the time of the Tribunal at this time.
The second document I wish to introduce is Exhibit Number USA-582, our
Document 3472-PS. This exhibit would seem to show that the conspirators
attempted to create the impression that the Anschluss, when it took
place, was achieved by “legal” means. The command apparently was given
the members of the NSDAP in Austria to keep “hands off” in order to
permit the deviltry to be worked out by the official Reich agencies,
that is, through the Defendant Göring and, presumably, the Defendant Von
Papen, by direct contact with the Austrian officials.
I read from that document:
“Yesterday information reached me to the effect that
Landesleiter Leopold”—and may I interrupt for a moment to point
out that the word “Landesleiter” is the title of the leader of
the Nazi community in Austria—“also on his part has started
negotiations with Chancellor Schuschnigg. Thereupon I have asked
the Foreign Office to investigate the truth of this information
and, in case it is true, to take care that such negotiations are
not held because they would merely disturb the proceedings of
the other negotiations.
“Just now I got word from the Foreign Office that they received
a report from the embassy in Vienna confirming the facts. I
therefore would like to know whether it would not be more
appropriate to forbid Landesleiter Leopold and the other members
of the country’s leadership to negotiate with Chancellor
Schuschnigg as well as with any Austrian Government authorities
as to the execution of the pact of the 11th of July 1936, unless
it is done after contacting and in agreement with the
authorities in charge in the Reich.”
Now below, if I may call the attention of the Tribunal to the note that
appears in this letter. It is written in blue pencil, and, while the
translator has not indicated the initial below that note, it is a large
“G”; and I have no doubt that that note was written by the Defendant
Göring. It reads:
“Agreed, Minister Hess or Herr Bormann can give this order best!
Keppler ought to ask therefore by telephone!”
If I may direct your attention to the upper right corner, there is
another note in pencil, “Transmitted to Herr Keppler on the 11th of
February 1938 by Fräulein Ernst;” and it is signed with initial “G,”
which in this case, however, we are quite sure is the initial of Miss
Grundmann, who was one of Göring’s secretaries.
The third document I offer as Exhibit Number USA-583, our Document
3471-PS. The first letter of this exhibit is written by the same Keppler
to the same Bodenschatz mentioned a short while ago, but who is now a
general. I shall not read from this exhibit, with the permission of the
Tribunal, but I shall briefly summarize it. This letter and the annexes
show that Leopold, the Nazi Landesleiter in Austria, was apparently not
completely amenable to the orders given by Berlin and pursued his own
methods for accomplishing an Anschluss. The second annex to this letter,
addressed to Keppler, who appears from this letter to have been an SS
Gruppenführer, shows that prominent Nazis had declared themselves in
favor of a Major Klausner to succeed Leopold as Landesleiter; and I
would like to call the Tribunal’s attention to the fact that in the left
margin of the covering letter appear some red crayon marks in the
characteristic color employed on several occasions, to our knowledge, by
Göring; and they would seem to show that Göring personally had seen
these documents and that General Bodenschatz had brought them to his
attention. In any event these letters again demonstrate that Göring was
one of the principal conspirators in the Austrian affair.
When the time finally came, on 11 March 1938, to consummate the
Anschluss, Göring was in complete command. Throughout the afternoon and
evening of that day he directed by telephone the activities of the
Defendant Seyss-Inquart and of the other Nazi conspirators in Vienna.
The pertinent portions of these telephone conversations, it will be
remembered, were read into the record.
It will be recalled that early on the same evening of 11 March he
dictated to the Defendant Seyss-Inquart the telegram which the latter
was to send to Berlin, requesting the Nazi Government to send German
troops to “prevent bloodshed.” Two days later he was able to call the
Defendant Ribbentrop in London and gleefully relate to him of his
success and that “this story that we had given an ultimatum is just
foolish gossip.”
If I may interrupt for a moment, that passage I just alluded to was read
into the record at Page 581 (Volume II, Page 424).
Similarly, Göring played an important role in the attack on
Czechoslovakia. In March of 1938, at the time of the Anschluss, he had
given a solemn assurance to the Czechoslovakian Minister in Berlin that
the developments in Austria would in no way have a detrimental influence
on the relations between Germany and Czechoslovakia and he had
emphasized the continued earnest endeavor on the part of Germany to
improve these relations. In this connection Göring had used the
expression, “Ich gebe Ihnen mein Ehrenwort” (“I give you my word of
honor”).
That expression was read previously into the record at Page 962 (Volume
III, Page 192).
On the other hand, in his address to German airplane manufacturers on
the 8th of July 1938, which I have already mentioned, he made his
private views on this subject, which were hardly consistent with his
solemn official statements, abundantly clear.
On the 14th of October 1938, shortly after the Munich Agreement, at a
conference in the Air Ministry, Göring stated that the Sudetenland had
to be exploited with all means and that he counted upon a complete
industrial assimilation of Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, as proof before
the Tribunal shows, he was deceiving the representatives of the puppet
Slovakian Government to the same end.
In the following year, with the rape of Czechoslovakia complete, Göring
frankly stated what Germany’s purpose had been throughout the whole
affair. He explained that the incorporation of Bohemia and Moravia into
the German economy had taken place, among other reasons, in order to
increase the German war potential by exploitation of the industry there.
Göring was also a moving force in the later crimes against the peace. As
the successor designate to Hitler, chief of the air forces and economic
czar of Greater Germany, he was a party to all the planning for military
operations of the Nazi forces in the East and in the West.
In the Polish affair, for example, it was Göring who, on the 31st of
January 1935, gave assurances to the Polish Government through Count
Czembek, as revealed in the Polish _White Book_, of which I ask the
Tribunal to take judicial notice, that “there should be not the
slightest fear in Poland that on the German side it”—meaning the
German-Polish alliance—“would not be continued in the future.” Yet, 4
years later, Göring helped to formulate plans for the ruthless invasion
of Polish territory.
In respect to the attack upon the Soviet Union, the documents already
introduced prove that plans for the ruthless exploitation of Soviet
territory were made months in advance of the opening of hostilities.
Göring was placed in charge of this army of spoliation, whose mission
was that of “seizing raw materials and taking over all important
concerns.”
But these specific instances cited are merely illustrative of Göring’s
activities in the field of aggressive war. On Pages 20, 21, and 22 of
our brief there appears a list of documents—by no means
exhaustive—previously offered by the Prosecution, which demonstrate
Göring’s knowledge of and continued participation in the Nazi war
program.
We turn now to Göring’s responsibility for planning and his
participation in the procurement of forced labor, the deportation and
enslavement of residents of occupied territories, the employment of
prisoners of war in war industry, the looting of works of art, and the
Germanization and spoliation of countries overrun by the Nazis.
Evidence previously introduced has detailed the slave labor program of
the Nazi conspirators and has shown its two purposes, both of them
criminal. The first was to satisfy the labor requirements of the Nazi
war machine by forcing residents of occupied countries to work in
Germany. The second purpose was to destroy or weaken the peoples of the
occupied territories. It has been shown that millions of foreign workers
were taken to Germany, for the most part under pressure and generally by
physical force; that these workers were forced to labor under conditions
of indescribable brutality and degradation; and that often they were
used in factories and industries devoted exclusively to the production
of munitions of war.
Göring was at all times implicated in the slave labor program.
Recruitment and allocation of manpower and determination of working
conditions were included in his jurisdiction as Plenipotentiary for the
Four Year Plan, and from its beginning a part of the Four Year Plan
Office was devoted to such work. I ask the Tribunal in this connection
to take judicial notice of our Document 1862-PS, Ordinance for the
Execution of the Four Year Plan, dated 18 October 1936, which appears in
1936, _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 887, and with the permission of
the Tribunal I shall not read the same.
Soon after the fall of Poland Göring began the enslavement of large
numbers of Poles. On 25 January 1940 the Defendant Frank, the Governor
General of Poland, reported to Göring on his directive for the:
“Supply and transportation of at least 1 million male and female
agricultural and industrial workers to the Reich—among them at
least 750,000 agricultural workers of which at least 50 percent
must be women in order to guarantee agricultural production in
the Reich and as a replacement for industrial workers lacking in
the Reich.”
This is taken from our Exhibit Number USA-172, our Document Number
1375-PS.
That orders for this enormous number of workers originated with the
Defendant Göring is clear from statements in the Defendant Frank’s diary
for 10 May 1940, already introduced in evidence.
For the harsh treatment given those workers when they reached Germany
the Defendant Göring is also responsible. On 8 March 1940, as
Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan and as Chairman of the Cabinet
Council for the Defense of the Reich, he issued a directive entitled,
“Treatment of Male and Female Civilian Workers of Polish Nationality in
the Reich.” I refer to our Document R-148 as proof of that fact. I shall
not introduce it at this time into evidence, with the permission of the
Tribunal, as it will be introduced by the Soviet prosecution at a later
date.
On 29 January 1942 the division for the employment of labor in the Four
Year Plan office issued a circular, signed by Dr. Mansfeld, the general
delegate for labor employed in the Four Year Plan office, addressed to
various civilian and military authorities in the occupied territories,
explaining that, and I quote, “any and all . . . methods . . . must be
adopted” to force workers to go to Germany. I shall not read from our
exhibit, if the Tribunal please, but I would like to offer in evidence
Document 1183-PS as our Exhibit Number USA-585. This is a circular
letter dated the 29th of January 1942 of the Commissioner for the Four
Year Plan.
It has been shown previously that on 21 March 1942 Hitler promulgated a
decree appointing the Defendant Sauckel Plenipotentiary General for
manpower, directing him to carry out his tasks within the framework of
the Four Year Plan, and making him directly responsible to Göring as
head of the Four Year Plan.
On 27 March 1942 the Defendant Göring issued his important enabling
decree in pursuance of the decree of the Führer of 21 March 1942. The
Tribunal has already judicially noted this decree, which is our Document
1666-PS.
Since the Defendant Sauckel was an authority under the Four Year Plan,
the Defendant Göring retains full responsibility for the enormous war
crimes committed by Sauckel as Plenipotentiary General for manpower.
These crimes have been the subject of our presentations on slave labor
and on the illegal use of prisoners of war.
It was also proven during those presentations that the Nazi conspirators
ordered prisoners of war to work under dangerous conditions and in the
manufacturing and transportation of arms and munitions of war, in
violation of the laws of war and of Articles 31 and 32 of the Geneva
Convention of 27 July 1929 on prisoners of war. The Defendant Göring had
a part in all these crimes.
At a conference on 7 November 1941, the subject of which was the
employment of citizens of the Soviet Union, including prisoners of war,
it appears from a memorandum signed by Körner, who was State Secretary
to the Defendant Göring as Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan, that
Göring gave certain ruthless directives for the use of Soviet citizens,
both prisoners of war and free Soviet workers, as laborers. I refer to
our Document 1193-PS which, with the permission of the Tribunal, I shall
not offer in evidence at this time and which will be offered by the
Soviet Prosecution.
In a set of top-secret notes of outlines laid down by Göring in what was
apparently the same conference of 7 November 1941, which are already in
evidence, the following facts appear:
1) That, of a total of 5 million prisoners of war, 2 million were
employed in war industries;
2) That it was better to employ PW’s than unsuitable foreign workers;
3) That Poles, Dutchmen, _et cetera_, should be seized if necessary as
PW’s and employed as such, if work through free contract cannot be
obtained.
These facts, if Your Honors please, appear in our Document 1206-PS,
which was submitted in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-215.
In a secret letter from the Reich Minister of Labor to the presidents of
the regional labor exchange offices, already in evidence, it is
furthermore recorded that upon the personal order of the Reich Marshal,
the Defendant Göring, 100,000 men are to be taken from among the French
PW’s not yet employed in the armament industry and assigned to the
airplane armament industry and that gaps in manpower supply resulting
therefrom are to be filled by Soviet PW’s.
Evidence has also been introduced showing the organized, systematic
program of the Nazi conspirators for the cultural impoverishment of
every country in Europe. The continuous connection of the Defendant
Göring with these activities has been substantiated.
In October 1939 the Defendant Göring requested Dr. Mühlmann to undertake
immediately the “securing” of all Polish art treasures. In his
affidavit, already offered, Dr. Mühlmann states that he was the special
deputy of the Governor General of Poland, the Defendant Frank, for the
safeguarding of art treasures in the Government General from October
1939 to September 1943, and that the Defendant Göring, in his capacity
as Chairman of the Reich Defense Council, had commissioned him with this
duty.
Mühlmann also confirms that it was the official policy of the Defendant
Frank to take into custody all important art treasures which belonged to
Polish public institutions, private collections, and the Church, and
that such art treasures were actually confiscated.
It appears also from a report made by Dr. Mühlmann on 16 July 1943 on
his operations that at one time 31 valuable sketches by the artist
Albrecht Dürer were taken from the Polish collection and personally
handed to the Defendant Göring who took them to the Führer’s
headquarters.
The part played by Göring in the looting of art by the Einsatzstab
Rosenberg has been shown. We refer to Exhibit Number USA-368, which is
our Document Number 141-PS, which is an order dated 5 November 1940,
already read in evidence, in which Göring directs the chief of the
Military Administration in Paris and the Einsatzstab Rosenberg to
dispose of the art objects brought to the Louvre in the following
priority:
“1) Those art objects as to the use of which the Führer has
reserved the decision for himself;
“2) Those art objects which serve to complete the Reich
Marshal’s collection;
“3) Those art objects and library stocks, which seem of use for
the establishment of the Hohe Schule and for Rosenberg’s sphere
of activities;
“4) Those art objects suitable for German museums . . . .”
In view of the high priority afforded by the foregoing order to the
completion of the defendant’s own collection, it is not surprising to
find that Göring continued to aid the operations of the Einsatzstab
Rosenberg. It has been established that on 1 May 1941 Göring issued an
order under his own signature to all Party, State, and Wehrmacht
services, requesting them to give all possible support and assistance to
the chief of staff of Reichsleiter Rosenberg.
By May 1942 the Defendant Göring was able to boast of the assistance
which he had rendered to the work of the Einsatzstab Rosenberg. In our
Document 1015(i)-PS which has been read in evidence on Page 1678 of the
record (Volume IV, Page 87), he is shown writing to the Defendant
Rosenberg that he personally supports the work of the Einsatzstab
wherever he can do so and that accounted for the seizure of such a large
number of art objects because he was able to render assistance to the
Einsatzstab.
Thus, the Defendant Göring’s responsibility for the planning of the
looting of art, which was actually accomplished by the Einsatzstab
Rosenberg, would seem clear.
Details of the execution of both the Germanization and spoliation
policies in both the Western and Eastern countries occupied by the
German armies will be presented subsequently by the French and Soviet
Delegations. The responsibility of the Defendant Göring, in his capacity
as Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan, as President of the Cabinet
Council for the Defense of the Reich, and in other capacities, will be
further demonstrated by that evidence.
The plans of the Nazi conspirators with respect to Poland have been
shown by evidence already offered. The Nazis purported to incorporate
the four western provinces of Poland into the German Reich. In the
remaining portions occupied by them they set up the Government General.
It has been shown that the Nazis planned to germanize the so-called
incorporated territories ruthlessly, by deporting the Polish
intelligentsia, Jews, and dissident elements to the Government General
for eventual elimination, by confiscating Polish property, by sending
those so deprived of their property to Germany as laborers, and by
importing German settlers. It was specifically planned to exploit the
people and material resources of the territory within the Government
General by taking whatever was needed to strengthen the Nazi war
machine, thus impoverishing this region and reducing it to a vassal
state.
The Defendant Göring, together with Hitler and Lammers and with the
Defendants Frick and Hess, on 8 October 1939 signed the decree by which
certain parts of Polish territory were incorporated into the Reich.
Purporting to act by virtue of the foregoing decree, Göring, as
Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan, signed an order on 30 October
1939 concerning the introduction of the Four Year Plan in the Eastern
territories.
In his directive dated 19 October 1939 (Document Number EC-410, Exhibit
Number USA-298) Göring stated that the task for the economic treatment
of the various administrative regions would differ, depending on whether
a country was to be incorporated politically into the German Reich or
whether the Government General was involved, which, in all probability,
would not be made a part of Germany. He went on to say:
“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 bare
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.”
From the foregoing documents the complicity of the Defendant Göring in
the plans for the ruthless exploitation of Poland appears clear. But his
fine hand also may be found behind the remainder of the Nazi plans for
Poland. As an illustration, it was the Defendant Göring who signed, with
Hitler and the Defendant Keitel, the secret decree of 7 October 1939
which entrusted Himmler with the task of executing the Germanization
program. That secret decree was read into evidence at Pages 1522-23
(Volume III, Page 583).
Evidence already introduced has shown from the mouths of Himmler, the
Defendant Frank, and others just what this appointment involved in human
suffering and degradation.
Similarly, it was the Defendant Göring who, by virtue of his powers as
Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan, issued a decree on 17 September
1940 concerning confiscation in the incorporated Eastern territories.
This decree applied to “property of citizens of the former Polish State
within the territory of the Greater German Reich including the
incorporated Eastern territories.” I ask the Court to take judicial
notice of our Document 1665-PS, which is an “Order concerning Treatment
of Property of Nationals of the Former Polish State,” cited in 1940
_Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 1270. I shall read from this document:
“Article I.
“1) Property of nationals of the former Polish State within the
area of the Greater German Reich, including annexed Eastern
territories, is subject to confiscation, administration by
commissioner and sequestration in accordance with the following
regulations.”
I now skip to Article II.
“1) Confiscation will be applied in case of property belonging
to: a) Jews; b) persons who have fled or who have absented
themselves for longer than a temporary period.
“2) Confiscation may be applied: a) If the property is needed
for the public good, especially for purposes of national defense
or the strengthening of German folkdom; b) if the owners or
other persons entitled to it immigrated into the area of the
German Reich after 1 October 1918.”
I skip now to Article IX, the first part:
“1) Sequestered property can be confiscated in favor of the
Reich by the competent office . . . if the public weal,
particularly the defense of the Reich or the consolidation of
the German nationality, requires it.”
Evidence has also been introduced by the United States showing the
extent to which the spoliation of Soviet territory and resources and the
barbarous treatment inflicted on Soviet citizens were the result of
plans long made and carefully drawn up by the Nazis before they launched
their aggressive war on the Soviet Union. The Nazis planned to destroy
the industrial potential of the northern regions occupied by their
armies and so to administer the production of food in the south and
southeast, which normally produced a surplus of food, that the
population of the northern region would inevitably be reduced to
starvation because of diversion of such surplus food to the German
Reich. It has been shown also that the Nazis planned to incorporate
Galicia and all of the Baltic countries into Germany and to convert the
Crimea, an area north of the Crimea, the Volga territory, and the
district around Baku into German colonies.
By 29 April 1941, almost 2 months prior to the invasion of the Soviet
Union, it appears that Hitler had entrusted the Defendant Göring with
the over-all direction of the economic administration in the area of
operations and in the areas under political administration. It further
appears that Göring had set up an economic staff and subsidiary
authorities to carry out this function.
The form of this organization created by Göring and the duties of its
various sections appear more clearly in a set of directives “for the
operation of the economy in the newly occupied Eastern territories”
issued by Göring, as Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich, in June
1941. These directives are contained in the important _Green Portfolio_
which, curiously enough, was printed by the Wehrmacht. By the terms of
these directives it is stated that:
“The orders of the Reich Marshal cover all economic fields,
including nutrition and agriculture. They are to be executed by
the subordinate economic offices. . . .”
An Economic Staff East was charged with the execution of orders
transmitted to it from higher authority. One subdivision of this staff,
the agricultural section, was charged with the following functions:
“Nutrition and agriculture, the economy of all agricultural
products, provision of supplies for the Army in co-operation
with the army groups concerned.”
Excerpts from the _Green Portfolio_ have already been admitted as
Exhibit Number USA-315, but I will offer at this time without reading
some additional excerpts in support of the facts that have just been
related. I would like to offer, as Exhibit Number USA-587, our Document
1743-PS. This is another copy of the _Green Portfolio_, and I want to
offer this portfolio to show to the Tribunal that these directives were
originally published in June 1941. Document EC-472, which is already in
evidence as Exhibit Number USA-315, was a revised edition published in
July 1941. In other words, the economic plan for the invasion was ready
when the Wehrmacht actually marched into the Soviet Union on June 22,
1941.
As appears from the foregoing directives, it was a subdivision of the
economic organization set up by the Defendant Göring, the agricultural
section of the Economic Staff East, which rendered a report on 23 May
1941, containing a set of policy directives for the exploitation of
Soviet agriculture. It will be recalled that these directives
contemplated abandonment of all industry in the food deficit regions,
with certain exceptions, and the diversion of food from the food surplus
regions to German needs, even though millions of people would inevitably
die of starvation as a result. Those directives have already been read
into evidence at Page 1558 (Volume IV, Page 5).
Minutes of a meeting at Hitler’s headquarters on 16 July 1941, kept by
the Defendant Bormann, have also been read in part in evidence. It was
at this meeting that Hitler stated that the Nazis never intended to
leave the countries then being occupied by their armies, that although
the rest of the world was to be deceived on this point, nevertheless,
“this need not prevent us from taking all necessary measures—shooting,
desettling, _et cetera_—and we shall take them.” That quotation, may it
please the Tribunal, was taken from our Exhibit USA-317, our Document
L-221. Then Hitler discussed making the Crimea and other parts of the
Soviet Union into German colonies. The Defendant Göring was present and
participated in this conference.
As a final illustration it appears from a memorandum dated 16 September
1941, which is our Exhibit Number USA-318, that Göring presided over a
meeting of German military officials concerned with the better
exploitation of the occupied territories for the German food economy. In
discussing this topic, the Defendant Göring said:
“In the occupied territories on principle only those people are
to be supplied with an adequate amount of food who work for us.
Even if one wanted to feed all the other inhabitants, one could
not do it in the newly occupied Eastern areas. It is, therefore,
wrong to funnel off food supplies for this purpose if it is done
at the expense of the Army and necessitates increased supplies
from home.”
From the foregoing documents participation of the Defendant Göring in
the Nazi plans for committing wholesale War Crimes in occupied
territories is, we submit, clear.
I turn now to Göring’s planning and his participation in inhumane acts
committed against civilian populations before and during the war. It has
been shown that shortly after becoming Prime Minister of Prussia in
1933, Göring created the Gestapo in Prussia, which became a model for
that instrument of terror as it was extended to the rest of Germany.
Concentration camps were established in Prussia in the spring of 1933
under his administration, and these camps were then placed in the charge
of the Gestapo, of which he was chief.
The extent to which Göring and the other Nazi conspirators employed
these institutions as agencies for the commission of their crimes
already appears from the evidence. In 1936 Himmler became chief of the
German Police. Thereafter Göring was able to devote his attention
chiefly to the task of creating the German Air Force and to the task of
preparing the nation economically for aggressive war. However, he
continued to be concerned with these institutions of his creation. An
example of this is shown in our Document 1584(I)-PS, already introduced
as Exhibit Number USA-221, which is a teletype sent by Göring to Himmler
in which he requested the latter to place at his disposal as great a
number of concentration camp inmates as possible, as the situation of
air warfare made the subterranean transfer of industry necessary.
In his reply Himmler advised Göring by teletype that a survey on the
employment of prisoners in the aviation industry showed that 36,000 were
being employed for the purposes of the Air Forces and that an increase
to a total of 90,000 prisoners was being contemplated.
Evidence has been introduced as to medical experiments performed on
human beings at the concentration camp at Dachau and the part played by
Field Marshal Milch, State Secretary and deputy to the Defendant Göring
as Air Minister, for whose acts the latter must bear full
responsibility. It is abundantly clear from letters written by Milch to
General Wolff on 20 May 1942 and to Himmler in August 1942, both of
which have been read in evidence at Page 1850 of the record (Volume IV,
Page 204, 205), our Document 343-PS.
Finally, I turn to Göring’s participation in and planning for
elimination of all members of the Jewish race from the economic life of
Germany and in the planned extermination of all Jews from the continent
of Europe.
In 1935 the Defendant Göring, as President of the Reichstag, made a
speech urging that body to pass the infamous Nuremberg race laws. I
offer, as Exhibit Number USA-588, our Document 3458-PS, which is an
excerpt from Rühle, _Das Dritte Reich_, Page 257. Göring said:
“God has created the races. He did not want equality and
therefore we energetically reject any attempt to falsify the
concept of race purity by making it equivalent with racial
equality. We have experienced what it means when a people has to
live in accordance with the laws of an equality that is alien to
its kind and contrary to nature. For this equality does not
exist. We have never acknowledged such an idea and therefore
must reject it also, as a matter of principle, in our laws, and
we must acknowledge that purity of race which nature and
providence have destined.”
Again, to show his official attitude, as revealed on 26 March 1938 in a
speech in Vienna, I offer, as Exhibit Number USA-437, our Document
3460-PS, starting with Page 348. Göring said:
“I must address myself with a serious word to the city of
Vienna. The city of Vienna can no longer rightfully be called a
German city. So many Jews live in this city. Where there are
300,000 Jews, you cannot speak of a German city.
“Vienna must once more become a German city, because it must
perform important tasks for Germany in Germany’s Ostmark. These
tasks lie in the sphere of culture as well as in the sphere of
economics. In neither of them can we, in the long run, put up
with the Jew.
“This, however, should not be attempted by inappropriate
interference and stupid measures but must be done systematically
and carefully. As Delegate for the Four Year Plan, I commission
the Reichsstatthalter in Austria jointly with the
Plenipotentiary of the Reich to consider and take any steps
necessary for the redirection of Jewish commerce, i.e., for the
Aryanization of business and economic life, and to execute this
process in accordance with our laws, legally but inexorably.”
Acting within the framework of economic preparation for aggressive war,
the Nazi conspirators then began the complete elimination of Jews from
economic life preparatory to their physical annihilation. The Defendant
Göring, as head of the Four Year Plan, was in active charge of this
phase of the persecution.
The first step in his campaign was the decree of 26 April 1938,
requiring registration of all Jewish-owned property. Both Göring and the
Defendant Frick signed that law. It is already in evidence.
I beg the Tribunal’s pardon. I would like the Tribunal to take judicial
notice of that decree, which is our Document 1406-PS and cited as 1938
_Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 414.
Now, armed with the information thus secured, the Nazi conspirators were
fully prepared to take the next step. The killing of Vom Rath, a German
Legation secretary in Paris on 9 November 1938, was made the pretext for
widespread “spontaneous” riots, which included the looting and burning
of many Jewish synagogues, homes, and shops, all carefully organized and
supervised by the Nazi conspirators. The Defendant Göring was fully
informed of the measures taken. The teletype orders of 10 November 1938
given by Heydrich are already in evidence and were read at Page 1405 of
the record (Volume III, Page 500). A letter which Heydrich wrote to
Göring on the following day has also been read. It is our Document
3058-PS, Exhibit Number USA-508. In it Himmler summarizes the so-called
“spontaneous” riots that had taken place. He reported the day after the
riot that insofar as the official reports from the district police were
concerned he was able to state that 815 shops were destroyed, 171
dwelling houses set on fire or destroyed, and that all this indicates
only a fraction of the actual damage caused, as far as arson is
concerned. He also said that:
“Due to the urgency of the reporting, the reports received to
date are entirely limited to general statements, such as
‘numerous’ or ‘most shops destroyed’. Therefore”—says
Heydrich—“the figures given will be considerably augmented.
“One hundred and ninety-one synagogues were set on fire and
another 76 completely destroyed. In addition 11 parish halls,
cemetery chapels, and similar buildings were set on fire. . . .
“Twenty thousand Jews were arrested. . . .
“Thirty-six deaths were reported and those seriously injured
were also numbered at 36.”
Immediately after these so-called “spontaneous” riots of 9 November,
Göring acted as chairman of a meeting at the Reich Ministry of Air
devoted to the Jewish question, which also was attended by the Defendant
Funk and other conspirators. The stenographic report on that meeting is
an extraordinary document, and it does not make pretty reading. It is
our Document 1816-PS, which has already been offered as Exhibit Number
USA-261. I should like to read certain passages that have not as yet
been read into the record. I read from the top of first page, the first
two paragraphs of Page 1 of the German original; Göring speaks:
“Gentlemen, today’s meeting is of a decisive nature. I have
received a letter written on the Führer’s order by the
Stabsleiter of the Führer’s deputy, Bormann, requesting that the
Jewish question be now uniformly comprehended and solved one way
or another. And yesterday once again the Führer requested me by
phone to take co-ordinated action, in the matter.
“Since the problem is mainly an economic one, it is from the
economic angle that it will have to be tackled. Naturally a
number of legal measures will have to be taken which fall into
the sphere of the Minister for Justice and into that of the
Minister of the Interior; then certain resulting propaganda
measures shall be taken care of by the office of the Minister
for Propaganda. The Minister of Finance and the Minister for
Economic Affairs shall take care of problems falling into their
respective departments.”
Specific measures to effect the Aryanization of Jewish business were
then discussed. A representative of German insurance companies was
called in to assist in the solving of the difficulties created by the
fact that most of the Jewish stores and other property destroyed in the
rioting were, in fact, insured, in some cases, ultimately by foreign
insurance companies. All present were agreed that it would be
unfortunate to pass a law which would have the effect of allowing
foreign insurance companies to escape liability. The Defendant Göring
then suggested a characteristic solution, and I pass to Page 10. In
German it is the third full paragraph on Page 3/11. Göring said:
“No, I don’t even dream of refunding the insurance companies the
money. The companies are liable. No, the money belongs to the
State. That’s quite clear. That would indeed be a present for
the insurance companies. You made a wonderful _Petitum_ there.
You’ll fulfill your obligations; you may count on that.”
It is superfluous to quote further from the extensive discussion of all
phases of persecution of the Jews that took place at this meeting. It is
sufficient to point out that on the same day the Defendant Göring, over
his own signature, promulgated three decrees putting into effect the
most important matters decided at this meeting. In the first of these
decrees a collective fine of 1 billion Reichsmarks was placed on all
German Jews. I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of that decree,
which is our Document 1412-PS and appears in 1938 _Reichsgesetzblatt_,