1. That so far as possible throughout the four zones of occupation in

Germany the classifications, sanctions, and penalties be standardized.

Uniformity of treatment so far as practical should be a basic principle.

This does not, of course, mean that discretion in sentencing should not

be vested in the court; but the discretion should be within fixed limits

appropriate to the nature of the crime.

2. Law No. 10, to which reference has already been made, leaves

punishment entirely in the discretion of the trial court even to the

extent of inflicting the death penalty.

The De-Nazification Law of 5 March 1946, however, passed for Bavaria,

Greater-Hesse, and Württemberg-Baden, provides definite sentences for

punishment in each type of offense. The Tribunal recommends that in no

case should punishment imposed under Law No. 10 upon any members of an

organization or group declared by the Tribunal to be criminal exceed the

punishment fixed by the De-Nazification Law. No person should be

punished under both laws.

3. The Tribunal recommends to the Control Council that Law No. 10 be

amended to prescribe limitations on the punishment which may be imposed

for membership in a criminal group or organization so that such

punishment shall not exceed the punishment prescribed by the

De-Nazification Law.

The Indictment asks that the Tribunal declare to be criminal the

following organizations; The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party; the

Gestapo; the SD; the SS; the SA; the Reich Cabinet, and the General

Staff and High Command of the German Armed Forces.

_THE LEADERSHIP CORPS OF THE NAZI PARTY_

_Structure and Component Parts_: The Indictment has named the Leadership

Corps of the Nazi Party as a group or organization which should be

declared criminal. The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party consisted, in

effect, of the official organization of the Nazi Party, with Hitler as

Führer at its head. The actual work of running the Leadership Corps was

carried out by the Chief of the Party Chancellery (Hess, succeeded by

Bormann) assisted by the Party Reich Directorate, or Reichsleitung,

which was composed of the Reichsleiters, the heads of the functional

organizations of the Party, as well as of the heads of the various main

departments and offices which were attached to the Party Reich

Directorate. Under the Chief of the Party Chancellery were the

Gauleiters, with territorial jurisdiction over the major administrative

regions of the Party, the Gaue. The Gauleiters were assisted by a Party

Gau Directorate or Gauleitung, similar in composition and in function to

the Party Reich Directorate. Under the Gauleiters in the Party hierarchy

were the Kreisleiters with territorial jurisdiction over a Kreis,

usually consisting of a single county, and assisted by a Party Kreis

Directorate, or Kreisleitung. The Kreisleiters were the lowest members

of the Party hierarchy who were full-time paid employees. Directly under

the Kreisleiters were the Ortsgruppenleiters, then the Zellenleiters and

then the Blockleiters. Directives and instructions were received from

the Party Reich Directorate. The Gauleiters had the function of

interpreting such orders and issuing them to lower formations. The

Kreisleiters had a certain discretion in interpreting orders, but the

Ortsgruppenleiters had not, but acted under definite instructions.

Instructions were only issued in writing down as far as the

Ortsgruppenleiters. The Block and Zellenleiters usually received

instructions orally. Membership in the Leadership Corps at all levels

was voluntary.

On 28 February 1946 the Prosecution excluded from the declaration asked

for, all members of the staffs of the Ortsgruppenleiters and all

assistants of the Zellenleiters and Blockleiters. The declaration sought

against the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party thus includes the Führer,

the Reichsleitung, the Gauleiters and their staff officers, the

Kreisleiters and their staff officers, the Ortsgruppenleiters, the

Zellenleiters and the Blockleiters, a group estimated to contain at

least 600,000 people.

_Aims and Activities_: The primary purpose of the Leadership Corps from

its beginning was to assist the Nazis in obtaining and, after 30 January

1933, in retaining, control of the German State. The machinery of the

Leadership Corps was used for the wide-spread dissemination of Nazi

propaganda and to keep a detailed check on the political attitudes of

the German People. In this activity the lower Political Leaders played a

particularly important role. The Blockleiters were instructed by the

Party Manual to report to the Ortsgruppenleiters all persons circulating

damaging rumors or criticism of the regime. The Ortsgruppenleiters, on

the basis of information supplied them by the Blockleiters and

Zellenleiters, kept a card index of the people within their Ortsgruppe

which recorded the factors which would be used in forming a judgment as

to their political reliability.

The Leadership Corps was particularly active during plebiscites. All

members of the Leadership Corps were active in getting out the vote and

insuring the highest possible proportion of “yes” votes.

Ortsgruppenleiters and Political Leaders of higher ranks often

collaborated with the Gestapo and SD in taking steps to determine those

who refused to vote or who voted “no”, and in taking steps against them

which went as far as arrest and detention in a concentration camp.

_Criminal Activity_: These steps, which relate merely to the

consolidation of control of the Nazi Party, are not criminal under the

view of the conspiracy to wage aggressive war which has previously been

set forth. But the Leadership Corps was also used for similar steps in

Austria and those parts of Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, Poland, France,

Belgium, Luxembourg, and Yugoslavia which were incorporated into the

Reich and within the Gaue of the Nazi Party. In those territories the

machinery of the Leadership Corps was used for their Germanization

through the elimination of local customs and the detection and arrest of

persons who opposed German occupation. This was criminal under Article 6

(b) of the Charter in those areas governed by the Hague Rules of Land

Warfare and criminal under Article 6 (c) of the Charter as to the

remainder.

The Leadership Corps played its part in the persecution of the Jews. It

was involved in the economic and political discrimination against the

Jews which was put into effect shortly after the Nazis came into power.

The Gestapo and SD were instructed to coordinate with the Gauleiters and

Kreisleiters the measures taken in the pogroms of 9 and 10 November

1938. The Leadership Corps was also used to prevent German public

opinion from reacting against the measures taken against the Jews in the

East. On 9 October 1942, a confidential information bulletin was sent to

all Gauleiters and Kreisleiters entitled “Preparatory Measures for the

Final Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe. Rumors concerning the

Conditions of the Jews in the East.” This bulletin stated that rumors

were being started by returning soldiers concerning the conditions of

Jews in the East which some Germans might not understand, and outlined

in detail the official explanation to be given. This bulletin contained

no explicit statement that the Jews were being exterminated, but it did

indicate they were going to labor camps, and spoke of their complete

segregation and elimination and the necessity of ruthless severity.

Thus, even at its face value, it indicated the utilization of the

machinery of the Leadership Corps to keep German public opinion from

rebelling at a program which was stated to involve condemning the Jews

of Europe to a lifetime of slavery. This information continued to be

available to the Leadership Corps. The August 1944 edition of _Die

Lage_, a publication which was circulated among the Political Leaders,

described the deportation of 430,000 Jews from Hungary.

The Leadership Corps played an important part in the administration of

the Slave Labor Program. A Sauckel decree dated 6 April 1942 appointed

the Gauleiters as Plenipotentiary for Labor Mobilization for their Gaue

with authority to coordinate all agencies dealing with labor questions

in their Gaue, with specific authority over the employment of foreign

workers, including their conditions of work, feeding, and housing. Under

this authority the Gauleiters assumed control over the allocation of

labor in their Gaue, including the forced laborers from foreign

countries. In carrying out this task the Gauleiters used many Party

offices within their Gaue, including subordinate Political Leaders. For

example, Sauckel’s decree of 8 September 1942, relating to the

allocation for household labor of 400,000 women laborers brought in from

the East, established a procedure under which applications filed for

such workers should be passed on by the Kreisleiters, whose judgment was

final.

Under Sauckel’s directive the Leadership Corps was directly concerned

with the treatment given foreign workers, and the Gauleiters were

specifically instructed to prevent “politically inept factory heads”

from giving “too much consideration to the care of Eastern workers.” The

type of question which was considered in their treatment included

reports by the Kreisleiters on pregnancies among the female slave

laborers, which would result in an abortion if the child’s parentage

would not meet the racial standards laid down by the SS and usually

detention in a concentration camp for the female slave laborer. The

evidence has established that under the supervision of the Leadership

Corps, the industrial workers were housed in camps under atrocious

sanitary conditions, worked long hours and were inadequately fed. Under

similar supervision, the agricultural workers, who were somewhat better

treated, were prohibited transportation, entertainment, and religious

worship, and were worked without any time limit on their working hours

and under regulations which gave the employer the right to inflict

corporal punishment. The Political Leaders, at least down to the

Ortsgruppenleiters, were responsible for this supervision. On 5 May 1943

a memorandum of Bormann instructing that mistreatment of slave laborers

cease was distributed down to the Ortsgruppenleiters. Similarly on 10

November 1944 a Speer circular transmitted a Himmler directive which

provided that all members of the Nazi Party, in accordance with

instructions from the Kreisleiter, would be warned by the

Ortsgruppenleiters of their duty to keep foreign workers under careful

observation.

The Leadership Corps was directly concerned with the treatment of

prisoners of war. On 5 November 1941 Bormann transmitted a directive

down to the level of Kreisleiter instructing them to insure compliance

by the Army with the recent directives of the Department of the Interior

ordering that dead Russian prisoners of war should be buried wrapped in

tar paper in a remote place without any ceremony or any decorations of

their graves. On 25 November 1943 Bormann sent a circular instructing

the Gauleiters to report any lenient treatment of prisoners of war. On

13 September 1944, Bormann sent a directive down to the level of

Kreisleiter ordering that liaison be established between the

Kreisleiters and the guards of the prisoners of war in order “better to

assimilate the commitment of the prisoners of war to the political and

economic demands”. On 17 October 1944 an OKW directive instructed the

officer in charge of the prisoners of war to confer with the

Kreisleiters on questions of the productivity of labor. The use of

prisoners of war, particularly those from the East, was accompanied by a

widespread violation of rules of land warfare. This evidence establishes

that the Leadership Corps down to the level of Kreisleiter was a

participant in this illegal treatment.

The machinery of the Leadership Corps was also utilized in attempts made

to deprive Allied airmen of the protection to which they were entitled

under the Geneva Convention. On 13 March 1940 a directive of Hess

transmitted instructions through the Leadership Corps down to the

Blockleiter for the guidance of the civilian population in case of the

landing of enemy planes or parachutists, which stated that enemy

parachutists were to be immediately arrested or “made harmless”. On 30

May 1944 Bormann sent a circular letter to all Gau- and Kreisleiters

reporting instances of lynchings of Allied low-level fliers in which no

police action was taken. It was requested that Ortsgruppenleiters be

informed orally of the contents of this letter. This letter accompanied

a propaganda drive which had been instituted by Goebbels to induce such

lynchings, and clearly amounted to instructions to induce such lynchings

or at least to violate the Geneva Convention by withdrawing any police

protection. Some lynchings were carried out pursuant to this program,

but it does not appear that they were carried out throughout all of

Germany. Nevertheless, the existence of this circular letter shows that

the heads of the Leadership Corps were utilizing it for a purpose which

was patently illegal and which involved the use of the machinery of the

Leadership Corps at least through the Ortsgruppenleiter.

_Conclusion_

The Leadership Corps was used for purposes which were criminal under the

Charter and involved the Germanization of incorporated territory, the

persecution of the Jews, the administration of the slave labor program,

and the mistreatment of prisoners of war. The Defendants Bormann and

Sauckel, who were members of this organization, were among those who

used it for these purposes. The Gauleiters, the Kreisleiters, and the

Ortsgruppenleiters participated, to one degree or another, in these

criminal programs. The Reichsleitung as the staff organization of the

Party is also responsible for these criminal programs as well as the

heads of the various staff organizations of the Gauleiters and

Kreisleiters. The decision of the Tribunal on these staff organizations

includes only the Amtsleiters who were heads of offices on the staffs of

the Reichsleitung, Gauleitung, and Kreisleitung. With respect to other

staff officers and Party organizations attached to the Leadership Corps

other than the Amtsleiters referred to above, the Tribunal will follow

the suggestion of the Prosecution in excluding them from the

declaration.

The Tribunal declares to be criminal within the meaning of the Charter

the group composed of those members of the Leadership Corps holding the

positions enumerated in the preceding paragraph who became or remained

members of the organization with knowledge that it was being used for

the commission of acts declared criminal by Article 6 of the Charter, or

who were personally implicated as members of the organization in the

commission of such crimes. The basis of this finding is the

participation of the organization in War Crimes and Crimes against

Humanity connected with the war; the group declared criminal cannot

include, therefore, persons who had ceased to hold the positions

enumerated in the preceding paragraph prior to 1 September 1939.

_GESTAPO AND SD_

_Structure and Component Parts_: The Prosecution has named Die Geheime

Staatspolizei (Gestapo) and Der Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführer SS

(SD) as groups or organizations which should be declared criminal. The

Prosecution presented the cases against the Gestapo and SD together,

stating that this was necessary because of the close working

relationship between them. The Tribunal permitted the SD to present its

defense separately because of a claim of conflicting interests, but

after examining the evidence has decided to consider the case of the

Gestapo and SD together.

The Gestapo and the SD were first linked together on 26 June 1936 by the

appointment of Heydrich, who was the Chief of the SD, to the position of

Chief of the Security Police, which was defined to include both the

Gestapo and the Criminal Police. Prior to that time the SD had been the

intelligence agency, first of the SS, and, after 4 June 1934, of the

entire Nazi Party. The Gestapo had been composed of the various

political police forces of the several German Federal states which had

been unified under the personal leadership of Himmler, with the

assistance of Göring. Himmler had been appointed Chief of the German

Police in the Ministry of the Interior on 17 June 1936, and in his

capacity as Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police issued his

decree of 26 June 1936, which placed both the Criminal Police, or Kripo,

and the Gestapo in the Security Police, and placed both the Security

Police and the SD under the command of Heydrich.

This consolidation under the leadership of Heydrich of the Security

Police, a State organization, and the SD, a Party organization, was

formalized by the decree of 27 September 1939, which united the various

State and Party offices which were under Heydrich as Chief of the

Security Police and SD into one administrative unit, the Reichs Security

Head Office (RSHA) which was at the same time both one of the principal

offices (Hauptamter) of the SS under Himmler as Reichsführer SS and an

office in the Ministry of the Interior under Himmler as Chief of the

German Police. The internal structure of the RSHA shows the manner in

which it consolidated the offices of the Security Police with those of

the SD. The RSHA was divided into seven offices (Ämter), two of which

(Amt I and Amt II) dealt with administrative matters. The Security

Police were represented by Amt IV, the head office of the Gestapo, and

by Amt V, the head office of the Criminal Police. The SD were

represented by Amt III, the head office for SD activities inside

Germany, by Amt VI, the head office for SD activities outside of Germany

and by Amt VII, the office for ideological research. Shortly after the

creation of the RSHA, in November 1939, the Security Police was

“coordinated” with the SS by taking all officials of the Gestapo and

Criminal Police into the SS at ranks equivalent to their positions.

The creation of the RSHA represented the formalization, at the top

level, of the relationship under which the SD served as the intelligence

agency for the Security Police. A similar coordination existed in the

local offices. Within Germany and areas which were incorporated within

the Reich for the purpose of civil administration, local offices of the

Gestapo, Criminal Police, and SD were formally separate. They were

subject to coordination by Inspectors of the Security Police and SD on

the staffs of the local Higher SS and Police Leaders, however, and one

of the principal functions of the local SD units was to serve as the

intelligence agency for the local Gestapo units. In the occupied

territories, the formal relationship between local units of the Gestapo,

Criminal Police, and SD was slightly closer. They were organized into

local units of the Security Police and SD and were under the control of

both the RSHA and of the Higher SS and Police Leader who was appointed

by Himmler to serve on the staff of the occupying authority. The offices

of the Security Police and SD in occupied territory were composed of

departments corresponding to the various Amts of the RSHA. In occupied

territories which were still considered to be operational military areas

or where German control had not been formally established, the

organization of the Security Police and SD was only slightly changed.

Members of the Gestapo, Kripo, and SD were joined together into military

type organizations known as Einsatz Kommandos and Einsatzgruppen in

which the key positions were held by members of the Gestapo, Kripo, and

SD and in which members of the Order Police, the Waffen SS and even the

Wehrmacht were used as auxiliaries. These organizations were under the

over-all control of the RSHA, but in front line areas were under the

operational control of the appropriate Army Commander.

It can thus be seen that from a functional point of view both the

Gestapo and the SD were important and closely related groups within the

organization of the Security Police and the SD. The Security Police and

SD was under a single command, that of Heydrich and later Kaltenbrunner,

as Chief of the Security Police and SD; it had a single headquarters,

the RSHA; it had its own command channels and worked as one organization

both in Germany, in occupied territories, and in the areas immediately

behind the front lines. During the period with which the Tribunal is

primarily concerned, applicants for positions in the Security Police and

SD received training in all its components, the Gestapo, Criminal

Police, and SD. Some confusion has been caused by the fact that part of

the organization was technically a formation of the Nazi Party while

another part of the organization was an office in the Government, but

this is of no particular significance in view of the law of 1 December

1933, declaring the unity of the Nazi Party and the German State.

The Security Police and SD was a voluntary organization. It is true that

many civil servants and administrative officials were transferred into

the Security Police. The claim that this transfer was compulsory amounts

to nothing more than the claim that they had to accept the transfer or

resign their positions, with a possibility of having incurred official

disfavor. During the war a member of the Security Police and SD did not

have a free choice of assignments within that organization and the

refusal to accept a particular position, especially when serving in

occupied territory, might have led to serious punishment. The fact

remains, however, that all members of the Security Police and SD joined

the organization voluntarily under no other sanction than the desire to

retain their positions as officials.

The organization of the Security Police and SD also included three

special units which must be dealt with separately. The first of these

was the Frontier Police or Grenzpolizei which came under the control of

the Gestapo in 1937. Their duties consisted in the control of passage

over the borders of Germany. They arrested persons who crossed

illegally. It is also clear from the evidence presented that they

received directives from the Gestapo to transfer foreign workers whom

they apprehended to concentration camps. They could also request the

local office of the Gestapo for permission to commit persons arrested to

concentration camps. The Tribunal is of the opinion that the Frontier

Police must be included in the charge of criminality against the

Gestapo.

The border and customs protection or Zollgrenzschutz became part of the

Gestapo in the summer of 1944. The functions of this organization were

similar to the Frontier Police in enforcing border regulations with

particular respect to the prevention of smuggling. It does not appear,

however, that their transfer was complete but that about half of their

personnel of 54,000 remained under the Reich Finance Administration or

the Order Police. A few days before the end of the war the whole

organization was transferred back to the Reich Finance Administration.

The transfer of the organization to the Gestapo was so late and it

participated so little in the over-all activities of the organization

that the Tribunal does not feel that it should be dealt with in

considering the criminality of the Gestapo.

The third organization was the so-called Secret Field Police which was

originally under the Army but which in 1942 was transferred by military

order to the Security Police. The Secret Field police was concerned with

security matters within the Army in occupied territory, and also with

the prevention of attacks by civilians on military installations or

units, and committed War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity on a wide

scale. It has not been proved, however, that it was a part of the

Gestapo and the Tribunal does not consider it as coming within the

charge of criminality contained in the Indictment, except such members

as may have been transferred to Amt IV of the RSHA or were members of

organizations declared criminal by this Judgment.

_Criminal Activity_: Originally, one of the primary functions of the

Gestapo was the prevention of any political opposition to the Nazi

regime, a function which it performed with the assistance of the SD. The

principal weapon used in performing this function was the concentration

camp. The Gestapo did not have administrative control over the

concentration camps, but, acting through the RSHA, was responsible for

the detention of political prisoners in those camps. Gestapo officials

were usually responsible for the interrogation of political prisoners at

the camps.

The Gestapo and the SD also dealt with charges of treason and with

questions relating to the press, the churches and the Jews. As the Nazi

program of anti-Semitic persecution increased in intensity the role

played by these groups became increasingly important. In the early

morning of 10 November 1938, Heydrich sent a telegram to all offices of

the Gestapo and SD giving instructions for the organization of the

pogroms of that date and instructing them to arrest as many Jews as the

prisons could hold “especially rich ones”, but to be careful that those

arrested were healthy and not too old. By 11 November 1938, 20,000 Jews

had been arrested and many were sent to concentration camps. On 24

January 1939 Heydrich, the Chief of the Security Police and SD, was

charged with furthering the emigration and evacuation of Jews from

Germany, and on 31 July 1941, with bringing about a complete solution of

the Jewish problem in German-dominated Europe. A special section of the

Gestapo office of the RSHA under Standartenführer Eichmann was set up

with responsibility for Jewish matters which employed its own agents to

investigate the Jewish problem in occupied territory. Local offices of

the Gestapo were used first to supervise the emigration of Jews and

later to deport them to the East both from Germany and from the

territories occupied during the war. Einsatzgruppen of the Security

Police and SD operating behind the lines of the Eastern Front engaged in

the wholesale massacre of Jews. A special detachment from Gestapo

headquarters in the RSHA was used to arrange for the deportation of Jews

from Axis satellites to Germany for the “final solution”.

Local offices of the Security Police and SD played an important role in

the German administration of occupied territories. The nature of their

participation is shown by measures taken in the summer of 1938 in

preparation for the attack on Czechoslovakia which was then in

contemplation. Einsatzgruppen of the Gestapo and SD were organized to

follow the Army into Czechoslovakia to provide for the security of

political life in the occupied territories. Plans were made for the

infiltration of SD men into the area in advance, and for the building up

of a system of files to indicate what inhabitants should be placed under

surveillance, deprived of passports, or liquidated. These plans were

considerably altered due to the cancellation of the attack on

Czechoslovakia, but in the military operations which actually occurred,

particularly in the war against U.S.S.R., Einsatzgruppen of the Security

Police and SD went into operation, and combined brutal measures for the

pacification of the civilian population with the wholesale slaughter of

Jews. Heydrich gave orders to fabricate incidents on the Polish-German

frontier in 1939 which would give Hitler sufficient provocation to

attack Poland. Both Gestapo and SD personnel were involved in these

operations.

The local units of the Security Police and SD continued their work in

the occupied territories after they had ceased to be an area of

operations. The Security Police and SD engaged in widespread arrests of

the civilian population of these occupied countries, imprisoned many of

them under inhumane conditions, subjected them to brutal third degree

methods, and sent many of them to concentration camps. Local units of

the Security Police and SD were also involved in the shooting of

hostages, the imprisonment of relatives, the execution of persons

charged as terrorists and saboteurs without a trial, and the enforcement

of the “Nacht und Nebel” decrees under which persons charged with a type

of offense believed to endanger the security of the occupying forces

were either executed within a week or secretly removed to Germany

without being permitted to communicate with their family and friends.

Offices of the Security Police and SD were involved in the

administration of the Slave Labor Program. In some occupied territories

they helped local labor authorities to meet the quotas imposed by

Sauckel. Gestapo offices inside of Germany were given surveillance over

slave laborers and responsibility for apprehending those who were absent

from their place of work. The Gestapo also had charge of the so-called

work training camps. Although both German and foreign workers could be

committed to these camps, they played a significant role in forcing

foreign laborers to work for the German war effort. In the latter stages

of the war as the SS embarked on a slave labor program of its own, the

Gestapo was used to arrest workers for the purpose of insuring an

adequate supply in the concentration camps.

The local offices of the Security Police and SD were also involved in

the commission of War Crimes involving the mistreatment and murder of

prisoners of war. Soviet prisoners of war in prisoner-of-war camps in

Germany were screened by Einsatz Kommandos acting under the directions

of the local Gestapo offices. Commissars, Jews, members of the

intelligentsia, “fanatical Communists” and even those who were

considered incurably sick were classified as “intolerable”, and

exterminated. The local offices of the Security Police and SD were

involved in the enforcement of the “Bullet” decree, put into effect on 4

March 1944, under which certain categories of prisoners of war, who were

recaptured, were not treated as prisoners of war but taken to Mauthausen

in secret and shot. Members of the Security Police and SD were charged

with the enforcement of the decree for the shooting of parachutists and

commandos.

_Conclusion_

The Gestapo and SD were used for purposes which were criminal under the

Charter involving the persecution and extermination of the Jews,

brutalities, and killings in concentration camps, excesses in the

administration of occupied territories, the administration of the slave

labor program, and the mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war. The

Defendant Kaltenbrunner, who was a member of this organization, was

among those who used it for these purposes. In dealing with the Gestapo

the Tribunal includes all executive and administrative officials of Amt

IV of the RSHA or concerned with Gestapo administration in other

departments of the RSHA and all local Gestapo officials serving both

inside and outside of Germany, including the members of the Frontier

Police, but not including the members of the Border and Customs

Protection or the Secret Field Police, except such members as have been

specified above. At the suggestion of the Prosecution the Tribunal does

not include persons employed by the Gestapo for purely clerical,

stenographic, janitorial, or similar unofficial routine tasks. In

dealing with the SD the Tribunal includes Ämter III, VI, and VII of the

RSHA and all other members of the SD, including all local

representatives and agents, honorary or otherwise, whether they were

technically members of the SS or not, but not including honorary

informers who were not members of the SS, and members of the Abwehr who

were transferred to the SD.

The Tribunal declares to be criminal within the meaning of the Charter

the group composed of those members of the Gestapo and SD holding the

positions enumerated in the preceding paragraph who became or remained

members of the organization with knowledge that it was being used for

the commission of acts declared criminal by Article 6 of the Charter, or

who were personally implicated as members of the organization in the

commission of such crimes. The basis for this finding is the

participation of the organization in War Crimes and Crimes against

Humanity connected with the war; this group declared criminal cannot

include, therefore, persons who had ceased to hold the positions

enumerated in the preceding paragraph prior to 1 September 1939.

_SS_

_Structure and Component Parts_: The Prosecution has named Die

Schutzstaffeln der Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei

(commonly known as the SS) as an organization which should be declared

criminal. The portion of the Indictment dealing with the SS also

includes Der Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführer-SS (commonly known as

the SD). This latter organization, which was originally an intelligence

branch of the SS, later became an important part of the organization of

Security Police and SD and is dealt with in the Tribunal’s Judgment on

the Gestapo.

The SS was originally established by Hitler in 1925 as an elite section

of the SA for political purposes under the pretext of protecting

speakers at public meetings of the Nazi Party. After the Nazis had

obtained power the SS was used to maintain order and control audiences

at mass demonstrations and was given the additional duty of “internal

security” by a decree of the Führer. The SS played an important role at

the time of the Röhm purge of 30 June 1934, and, as a reward for its

services, was made an independent unit of the Nazi Party shortly

thereafter.

In 1929 when Himmler was first appointed as Reichs Führer the SS

consisted of 280 men who were regarded as especially trustworthy. In

1933 it was composed of 52,000 men drawn from all walks of life. The

original formation of the SS was the Allgemeine SS, which by 1939 had

grown to a corps of 240,000 men, organized on military lines into

divisions and regiments. During the war its strength declined to well

under 40,000.

The SS originally contained two other formations, the SS

Verfügungstruppe, a force consisting of SS members who volunteered for

four years’ armed service in lieu of compulsory service with the Army,

and the SS Totenkopf Verbände, special troops employed to guard

concentration camps, which came under the control of the SS in 1934. The

SS Verfügungstruppe was organized as an armed unit to be employed with

the Army in the event of mobilization. In the summer of 1939, the

Verfügungstruppe was equipped as a motorized division to form the

nucleus of the forces which came to be known in 1940 as the Waffen SS.

In that year the Waffen SS comprised 100,000 men, 56,000 coming from the

Verfügungstruppe and the rest from the Allgemeine SS and the Totenkopf

Verbände. At the end of the war it is estimated to have consisted of

about 580,000 men and 40 divisions. The Waffen SS was under the tactical

command of the Army, but was equipped and supplied through the

administrative branches of the SS and under SS disciplinary control.

The SS Central Organization had 12 main offices. The most important of

these were the RSHA, which has already been discussed, the WVHA or

Economic Administration Main Office which administered concentration

camps along with its other duties, a Race and Settlement Office together

with auxiliary offices for repatriation of racial Germans

(Volksdeutschemittelstelle). The SS Central Organization also had a

legal office and the SS possessed its own legal system; and its

personnel were under the jurisdiction of special courts. Also attached

to the SS main offices was a research foundation known as the

Experiments Ahnenerbe. The scientists attached to this organization are

stated to have been mainly honorary members of the SS. During the war an

institute for military scientific research became attached to the

Ahnenerbe which conducted extensive experiments involving the use of

living human beings. An employee of this institute was a certain Dr.

Rascher, who conducted these experiments with the full knowledge of the

Ahnenerbe, which were subsidized and under the patronage of the

Reichsführer SS who was a trustee of the foundation.

Beginning in 1933 there was a gradual but thorough amalgamation of the

police and SS. In 1936 Himmler, the Reichsführer SS, became Chief of the

German Police with authority over the regular uniformed police as well

as the Security Police. Himmler established a system under which Higher

SS and Police Leaders, appointed for each Wehrkreis, served as his

personal representatives in coordinating the activities of the Order

Police, Security Police and SD and Allgemeine SS within their

jurisdictions. In 1939 the SS and police systems were coordinated by

taking into the SS all officials of the Security and Order Police, at SS

ranks equivalent to their rank in the police.

Until 1940 the SS was an entirely voluntary organization. After the

formation of the Waffen SS in 1940 there was a gradually increasing

number of conscripts into the Waffen SS. It appears that about a third

of the total number of people joining the Waffen SS were conscripts,

that the proportion of conscripts was higher at the end of the war than

at the beginning, but that there continued to be a high proportion of

volunteers until the end of the war.

_Criminal Activities_: SS units were active participants in the steps

leading up to aggressive war. The Verfügungstruppe was used in the

occupation of the Sudetenland, of Bohemia and Moravia, and of Memel. The

Henlein Free Corps was under the jurisdiction of the Reichsführer SS for

operations in the Sudetenland in 1938, and the Volksdeutschemittelstelle

financed fifth-column activities there.

The SS was even a more general participant in the commission of War

Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. Through its control over the

organization of the Police, particularly the Security Police and SD, the

SS was involved in all the crimes which have been outlined in the

section of this Judgment dealing with the Gestapo and SD. Other branches

of the SS were equally involved in these criminal programs. There is

evidence that the shooting of unarmed prisoners of war was the general

practice in some Waffen SS divisions. On 1 October 1944 the custody of

prisoners of war and interned persons was transferred to Himmler, who in

turn transferred prisoner-of-war affairs to SS Obergruppenführer Berger

and to SS Obergruppenführer Pohl. The Race and Settlement Office of the

SS together with the Volksdeutschemittelstelle were active in carrying

out schemes for Germanization of occupied territories according to the

racial principles of the Nazi Party and were involved in the deportation

of Jews and other foreign nationals. Units of the Waffen SS and

Einsatzgruppen operating directly under the SS main office were used to

carry out these plans. These units were also involved in the widespread

murder and ill-treatment of the civilian population of occupied

territories. Under the guise of combatting partisan units, units of the

SS exterminated Jews and people deemed politically undesirable by the

SS, and their reports record the execution of enormous numbers of

persons. Waffen SS divisions were responsible for many massacres and

atrocities in occupied territories such as the massacres at Oradour and

Lidice.

From 1934 onwards the SS was responsible for the guarding and

administration of concentration camps. The evidence leaves no doubt that

the consistently brutal treatment of the inmates of concentration camps

was carried out as a result of the general policy of the SS, which was

that the inmates were racial inferiors to be treated only with contempt.

There is evidence that where manpower considerations permitted, Himmler

wanted to rotate guard battalions so that all members of the SS would be

instructed as to the proper attitude to take to inferior races. After

1942 when the concentration camps were placed under the control of the

WVHA they were used as a source of slave labor. An agreement made with

the Ministry of Justice on 18 September 1942 provided that anti-social

elements who had finished prison sentences were to be delivered to the

SS to be worked to death. Steps were continually taken, involving the

use of the Security Police and SD and even the Waffen SS, to insure that

the SS had an adequate supply of concentration camp labor for its

projects. In connection with the administration of the concentration

camps, the SS embarked on a series of experiments on human beings which

were performed on prisoners of war or concentration camp inmates. These

experiments included freezing to death, and killing by poison bullets.

The SS was able to obtain an allocation of Government funds for this

kind of research on the grounds that they had access to human material

not available to other agencies.

The SS played a particularly significant role in the persecution of the

Jews. The SS was directly involved in the demonstrations of 10 November

1938. The evacuation of the Jews from occupied territories was carried

out under the directions of the SS with the assistance of SS Police

units. The extermination of the Jews was carried out under the direction

of the SS Central Organizations. It was actually put into effect by SS

formations. The Einstzgruppen engaged in wholesale massacres of the

Jews. SS Police units were also involved. For example, the massacre of

Jews in the Warsaw ghetto was carried out under the directions of SS

Brigadeführer and Major General of the Police Stroop. A special group

from the SS Central Organization arranged for the deportation of Jews

from various Axis satellites and their extermination was carried out in

the concentration camps run by the WVHA.

It is impossible to single out any one portion of the SS which was not

involved in these criminal activities. The Allgemeine SS was an active

participant in the persecution of the Jews and was used as a source of

concentration camp guards. Units of the Waffen SS were directly involved

in the killing of prisoners of war and the atrocities in occupied

countries. It supplied personnel for the Einsatzgruppen, and had command

over the concentration camp guards after its absorption of the Totenkopf

SS, which originally controlled the system. Various SS Police units were

also widely used in the atrocities in occupied countries and the

extermination of the Jews there. The SS Central Organization supervised

the activities of these various formations and was responsible for such

special projects as the human experiments and “final solution” of the

Jewish question.

The Tribunal finds that knowledge of these criminal activities was

sufficiently general to justify declaring that the SS was a criminal

organization to the extent hereinafter described. It does appear that an

attempt was made to keep secret some phases of its activities, but its

criminal programs were so widespread, and involved slaughter on such a

gigantic scale, that its criminal activities must have been widely

known. It must be recognized, moreover, that the criminal activities of

the SS followed quite logically from the principles on which it was

organized. Every effort had been made to make the SS a highly

disciplined organization composed of the elite of National Socialism.

Himmler had stated that there were people in Germany “who become sick

when they see these black coats” and that he did not expect that “they

should be loved by too many.” Himmler also indicated his view that the

SS was concerned with perpetuating the elite racial stock with the

object of making Europe a Germanic continent and the SS was instructed

that it was designed to assist the Nazi Government in the ultimate

domination of Europe and the elimination of all inferior races. This

mystic and fanatical belief in the superiority of the Nordic German

developed into the studied contempt and even hatred of other races which

led to criminal activities of the type outlined above being considered

as a matter of course if not a matter of pride. The actions of a soldier

in the Waffen SS who in September 1939, acting entirely on his own

initiative, killed 50 Jewish laborers whom he had been guarding, were

described by the statement that as an SS man, he was “particularly

sensitive to the sight of Jews,” and had acted “quite thoughtlessly in a

youthful spirit of adventure” and a sentence of three-years imprisonment

imposed on him was dropped under an amnesty. Hess wrote with truth that

the Waffen SS were more suitable for the specific tasks to be solved in

occupied territory owing to their extensive training in questions of

race and nationality. Himmler, in a series of speeches made in 1943,

indicated his pride in the ability of the SS to carry out these criminal

acts. He encouraged his men to be “tough and ruthless”, he spoke of

shooting “thousands of leading Poles”, and thanked them for their

cooperation and lack of squeamishness at the sight of hundreds and

thousands of corpses of their victims. He extolled ruthlessness in

exterminating the Jewish race and later described this process as

“delousing.” These speeches show that the general attitude prevailing in

the SS was consistent with these criminal acts.

_Conclusions_: The SS was utilized for purposes which were criminal

under the Charter involving the persecution and extermination of the

Jews, brutalities and killings in concentration camps, excesses in the

administration of occupied territories, the administration of the slave

labor program and the mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war. The

Defendant Kaltenbrunner was a member of the SS implicated in these

activities. In dealing with the SS the Tribunal includes all persons who

had been officially accepted as members of the SS including the members

of the Allgemeine SS, members of the Waffen SS, members of the SS

Totenkopf Verbände, and the members of any of the different police

forces who were members of the SS. The Tribunal does not include the

so-called SS riding units. Der Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführer SS

(commonly known as the SD) is dealt with in the Tribunal’s Judgment on

the Gestapo and SD.

The Tribunal declares to be criminal within the meaning of the Charter

the group composed of those persons who had been officially accepted as

members of the SS as enumerated in the preceding paragraph who became or

remained members of the organization with knowledge that it was being

used for the commission of acts declared criminal by Article 6 of the

Charter, or who were personally implicated as members of the

organization in the commission of such crimes, excluding, however, those

who were drafted into membership by the State in such a way as to give

them no choice in the matter, and who had committed no such crimes. The

basis of this finding is the participation of the organization in War

Crimes and Crimes against Humanity connected with the war; this group

declared criminal cannot include, therefore, persons who had ceased to

belong to the organizations enumerated in the preceding paragraph prior

to 1 September 1939.

_THE SA_

_Structure and Component Parts_: The Prosecution has named Die

Sturmabteilungen der Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei

(commonly known as the SA) as an organization which should be declared

criminal. The SA was founded in 1921 for political purposes. It was

organized on military lines. Its members wore their own uniforms and had

their own discipline and regulations. After the Nazis had obtained power

the SA greatly increased in membership due to the incorporation within

it of certain veterans organizations. In April 1933 the Stahlhelm, an

organization of 1½ million members, was transferred into the SA, with

the exception of its members over 45 years of age and some others,

pursuant to an agreement between their leader Seldte and Hitler. Another

veterans’ organization, the so-called Kyffhauserbund, was transferred in

the same manner, together with a number of rural riding organizations.

Until 1933, there is no question but that membership in the SA was

voluntary. After 1933 civil servants were under certain political and

economic pressure to join the SA. Members of the Stahlhelm, the

Kyffhauserbund, and the rural riding associations were transferred into

the SA without their knowledge, but the Tribunal is not satisfied that

the members in general endeavored to protest against this transfer or

that there was any evidence, except in isolated cases, of the

consequences of refusal. The Tribunal therefore finds that membership in

the SA was generally voluntary.

By the end of 1933 the SA was composed of 4½ million men. As a result of

changes made after 1934, in 1939 the SA numbered 1½ million men.

_Activities_: In the early days of the Nazi movement the storm troopers

of the SA acted as the “strong arm of the Party”. They took part in the

beer hall feuds and were used for street-fighting in battles against

political opponents. The SA was also used to disseminate Nazi ideology

and propaganda and placed particular emphasis on anti-Semitic

propaganda, the doctrine of “Lebensraum”, the revision of the Versailles

Treaty, and the return of Germany’s colonies.

After the Nazi advent to power, and particularly after the elections of

5 March 1933, the SA played an important role in establishing a Nazi

reign of terror over Germany. The SA was involved in outbreaks of

violence against the Jews and was used to arrest political opponents and

to guard concentration camps, where they subjected their prisoners to

brutal mistreatment.

On 30 June and 1 and 2 July 1934 a purge of SA leaders occurred. The

pretext which was given for this purge, which involved the killing of

Röhm, the Chief of Staff of the SA, and many other SA leaders, was the

existence of a plot against Hitler. This purge resulted in a great

reduction in the influence and power of the SA. After 1934, it rapidly

declined in political significance.

After 1934 the SA engaged in certain forms of military or para-military

training. The SA continued to engage in the dissemination of Nazi

propaganda. Isolated units of the SA were even involved in the steps

leading up to aggressive war and in the commission of War Crimes and

Crimes against Humanity. SA units were among the first in the occupation

of Austria in March 1938. The SA supplied many of the men and a large

part of the equipment which composed the Sudeten Free Corps of Henlein,

although it appears that the corps was under the jurisdiction of SS

during its operation in Czechoslovakia.

After the occupation of Poland, the SA group Sudeten was used for

transporting prisoners of war. Units of the SA were employed in the

guarding of prisoners in Danzig, Posen, Silesia, and the Baltic States.

Some SA units were used to blow up synagogues in the Jewish pogrom of 10

and 11 November 1938. Groups of the SA were concerned in the

ill-treatment of Jews in the ghettos of Vilna and Kaunas.

_Conclusion_

Until the purge beginning on 30 June 1934, the SA was a group composed

in large part of ruffians and bullies who participated in the Nazi

outrages of that period. It has not been shown, however, that these

atrocities were part of a specific plan to wage aggressive war, and the

Tribunal therefore cannot hold that these activities were criminal under

the Charter. After the purge, the SA was reduced to the status of a

group of unimportant Nazi hangers-on. Although in specific instances

some units of the SA were used for the commission of War Crimes and

Crimes against Humanity, it cannot be said that its members generally

participated in or even knew of the criminal acts. For these reasons the

Tribunal does not declare the SA to be a criminal organization within

the meaning of Article 9 of the Charter.

_THE REICH CABINET_

The Prosecution has named as a criminal organization the Reich Cabinet

(Die Reichsregierung) consisting of members of the ordinary cabinet

after 30 January 1933, members of the Council of Ministers for the

Defense of the Reich and members of the Secret Cabinet Council. The

Tribunal is of opinion that no declaration of criminality should be made

with respect to the Reich Cabinet for two reasons: (1) because it is not

shown that after 1937 it ever really acted as a group or organization;

(2) because the group of persons here charged is so small that members

could be conveniently tried in proper cases without resort to a

declaration that the Cabinet of which they were members was criminal.

As to the first reason for our decision, it is to be observed that from

the time that it can be said that a conspiracy to make aggressive war

existed the Reich Cabinet did not constitute a governing body, but was

merely an aggregation of administrative officers subject to the absolute

control of Hitler. Not a single meeting of the Reich Cabinet was held

after 1937, but laws were promulgated in the name of one or more of the

cabinet members. The Secret Cabinet Council never met at all. A number

of the cabinet members were undoubtedly involved in the conspiracy to

make aggressive war; but they were involved as individuals and there is

no evidence that the Cabinet as a group or organization took any part in

these crimes. It will be remembered that when Hitler disclosed his aims

of criminal aggression at the Hossbach Conference, the disclosure was

not made before the Cabinet and that the Cabinet was not consulted with

regard to it, but, on the contrary, that it was made secretly to a small

group upon whom Hitler would necessarily rely in carrying on the war.

Likewise no cabinet order authorized the invasion of Poland. On the

contrary, the Defendant Schacht testifies that he sought to stop the

invasion by a plea to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army that Hitler’s

order was in violation of the Constitution because not authorized by the

Cabinet.

It does appear, however, that various laws authorizing acts which were

criminal under the Charter were circulated among the members of the

Reich Cabinet and issued under its authority signed by the members whose

departments were concerned. This does not, however, prove that the Reich

Cabinet, after 1937, ever really acted as an organization.

As to the second reason, it is clear that those members of the Reich

Cabinet who have been guilty of crimes should be brought to trial; and a

number of them are now on trial before the Tribunal. It is estimated

that there are 48 members of the group, that eight of these are dead and

17 are now on trial, leaving only 23 at the most, as to whom the

declaration could have any importance. Any others who are guilty should

also be brought to trial; but nothing would be accomplished to expedite

or facilitate their trials by declaring the Reich Cabinet to be a

criminal organization. Where an organization with a large membership is

used for such purposes, a declaration obviates the necessity of

inquiring as to its criminal character in the later trial of members who

are accused of participating through membership in its criminal purposes

and thus saves much time and trouble. There is no such advantage in the

case of a small group like the Reich Cabinet.

_GENERAL STAFF AND HIGH COMMAND_

The Prosecution has also asked that the General Staff and High Command

of the German Armed Forces be declared a criminal organization. The

Tribunal believes that no declaration of criminality should be made with

respect to the General Staff and High Command. The number of persons

charged, while larger than that of the Reich Cabinet, is still so small

that individual trials of these officers would accomplish the purpose

here sought better than a declaration such as requested. But a more

compelling reason is that in the opinion of the Tribunal the General

Staff and High Command is neither an “organization” nor a “group” within

the meaning of those terms as used in Article 9 of the Charter.

Some comment on the nature of this alleged group is requisite. According

to the Indictment and evidence before the Tribunal, it consists of

approximately 130 officers, living and dead, who at any time during the

period from February 1938, when Hitler reorganized the Armed Forces, and

May 1945, when Germany surrendered, held certain positions in the

military hierarchy. These men were high-ranking officers in the three

armed services: OKH—Army, OKM—Navy, and OKL—Air Force. Above them was

the overall Armed Forces authority, OKW—High Command of the German

Armed Forces with Hitler as the Supreme Commander. The officers in OKW,

including Defendant Keitel as Chief of the High Command, were in a sense

Hitler’s personal staff. In the larger sense they coordinated and

directed the three services, with particular emphasis on the functions

of planning and operations.

The individual officers in this alleged group were, at one time or

another, in one of four categories: 1) Commanders-in-Chief of one of the

three services; 2) Chief of Staff of one of the three services; 3)

“Oberbefehlshabers”, the field Commanders-in-Chief of one of the three

services, which of course comprised by far the largest number of these

persons; or 4) an OKW officer, of which there were three, Defendants

Keitel and Jodl, and the latter’s Deputy Chief, Warlimont. This is the

meaning of the Indictment in its use of the term “General Staff and High

Command”.

The Prosecution has here drawn the line. The Prosecution does not indict

the next level of the military hierarchy consisting of commanders of

army corps, and equivalent ranks in the Navy and Air Force, nor the

level below, the division commanders or their equivalent in the other

branches. And the staff officers of the four staff commands of OKW, OKH,

OKM, and OKL are not included, nor are the trained specialists who were

customarily called General Staff officers.

In effect, then, those indicted as members are military leaders of the

Reich of the highest rank. No serious effort was made to assert that

they composed an “organization” in the sense of Article 9. The assertion

is rather that they were a “group”, which is a wider and more embracing

term than “organization.”

The Tribunal does not so find. According to the evidence, their planning

at staff level, the constant conferences between staff officers and

field commanders, their operational technique in the field and at

headquarters was much the same as that of the armies, navies, and air

forces of all other countries. The over-all effort of OKW at

coordination and direction could be matched by a similar, though not

identical form of organization in other military forces, such as the

Anglo-American Combined Chiefs of Staff.

To derive from this pattern of their activities the existence of an

association or group does not, in the opinion of the Tribunal, logically

follow. On such a theory the top commanders of every other nation are

just such an association rather than what they actually are, an

aggregation of military men, a number of individuals who happen at a

given period of time to hold the high-ranking military positions.

Much of the evidence and the argument has centered around the question

of whether membership in these organizations was or was not voluntary;

in this case, it seems to the Tribunal to be quite beside the point. For

this alleged criminal organization has one characteristic, a controlling

one, which sharply distinguishes it from the other five indicted. When

an individual became a member of the SS for instance, he did so,

voluntarily or otherwise, but certainly with the knowledge that he was

joining something. In the case of the General Staff and High Command,

however, he could not know he was joining a group or organization for

such organization did not exist except in the charge of the Indictment.

He knew only that he had achieved a certain high rank in one of the

three services, and could not be conscious of the fact that he was

becoming a member of anything so tangible as a “group”, as that word is

commonly used. His relations with his brother officers in his own branch

of the service and his association with those of the other two branches

were, in general, like those of other services all over the world.

The Tribunal therefore does not declare the General Staff and High

Command to be a criminal organization.

Although the Tribunal is of the opinion that the term “group” in Article

9 must mean something more than this collection of military officers, it

has heard much evidence as to the participation of the officers in

planning and waging aggressive war, and in committing War Crimes and

Crimes against Humanity. This evidence is, as to many of them, clear and

convincing.

They have been responsible in large measure for the miseries and

suffering that have fallen on millions of men, women, and children. They

have been a disgrace to the honorable profession of arms. Without their

military guidance the aggressive ambitions of Hitler and his fellow

Nazis would have been academic and sterile. Although they were not a

group falling within the words of the Charter, they were certainly a

ruthless military caste. The contemporary German militarism flourished

briefly with its recent ally, National Socialism, as well as or better

than it had in the generations of the past.

Many of these men have made a mockery of the soldier’s oath of obedience

to military orders. When it suits their defense they say they had to

obey; when confronted with Hitler’s brutal crimes, which are shown to

have been within their general knowledge, they say they disobeyed. The

truth is they actively participated in all these crimes, or sat silent

and acquiescent, witnessing the commission of crimes on a scale larger

and more shocking than the world has ever had the misfortune to know.

This must be said.

Where the facts warrant it, these men should be brought to trial so that

those among them who are guilty of these crimes should not escape

punishment.

Article 26 of the Charter provides that the Judgment of the Tribunal as

to the guilt or innocence of any Defendant shall give the reasons on

which it is based.

The Tribunal will now state those reasons in declaring its Judgment on

such guilt or innocence.

_GÖRING_

Göring is indicted on all four Counts. The evidence shows that after

Hitler he was the most prominent man in the Nazi regime. He was

Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, Plenipotentiary for the Four Year

Plan, and had tremendous influence with Hitler, at least until 1943 when

their relationship deteriorated, ending in his arrest in 1945. He

testified that Hitler kept him informed of all important military and

political problems.

_Crimes against Peace_

From the moment he joined the Party in 1922 and took command of the

street-fighting organization, the SA, Göring was the adviser, the active

agent of Hitler, and one of the prime leaders of the Nazi movement. As

Hitler’s political deputy he was largely instrumental in bringing the

National Socialists to power in 1933, and was charged with consolidating

this power and expanding German armed might. He developed the Gestapo,

and created the first concentration camps, relinquishing them to Himmler

in 1934, conducted the Röhm purge in that year, and engineered the

sordid proceedings which resulted in the removal of Von Blomberg and Von

Fritsch from the Army. In 1936 he became Plenipotentiary for the Four

Year Plan, and in theory and in practice was the economic dictator of

the Reich. Shortly after the Pact of Munich, he announced that he would

embark on a five-fold expansion of the Luftwaffe, and speed rearmament

with emphasis on offensive weapons.

Göring was one of the five important leaders present at the Hossbach

Conference of 5 November 1937, and he attended the other important

conferences already discussed in this Judgment. In the Austrian

Anschluss, he was indeed the central figure, the ringleader. He said in

Court: “I must take 100 percent responsibility. . . . I even overruled

objections by the Führer and brought everything to its final

development.” In the seizure of the Sudetenland, he played his role as

Luftwaffe chief by planning an air offensive which proved unnecessary,

and his role as politician by lulling the Czechs with false promises of

friendship. The night before the invasion of Czechoslovakia and the

absorption of Bohemia and Moravia, at a conference with Hitler and

President Hacha he threatened to bomb Prague if Hacha did not submit.

This threat he admitted in his testimony.

Göring attended the Reich Chancellery meeting of 23 May 1939 when Hitler

told his military leaders “there is, therefore, no question of sparing

Poland,” and was present at the Obersalzberg briefing of 22 August 1939.

And the evidence shows he was active in the diplomatic maneuvers which

followed. With Hitler’s connivance, he used the Swedish businessman,

Dahlerus, as a go-between to the British, as described by Dahlerus to

this Tribunal, to try to prevent the British Government from keeping its

guarantee to the Poles.

He commanded the Luftwaffe in the attack on Poland and throughout the

aggressive wars which followed.

Even if he opposed Hitler’s plans against Norway and the Soviet Union,

as he alleged, it is clear that he did so only for strategic reasons;

once Hitler had decided the issue, he followed him without hesitation.

He made it clear in his testimony that these differences were never

ideological or legal. He was “in a rage” about the invasion of Norway,

but only because he had not received sufficient warning to prepare the

Luftwaffe offensive. He admitted he approved of the attack: “My attitude

was perfectly positive.” He was active in preparing and executing the

Yugoslavian and Greek campaigns, and testified that “Plan Marita,” the

attack on Greece, had been prepared long beforehand. The Soviet Union he

regarded as the “most threatening menace to Germany,” but said there was

no immediate military necessity for the attack. Indeed, his only

objection to the war of aggression against the U.S.S.R. was its timing;

he wished for strategic reasons to delay until Britain was conquered. He

testified: “My point of view was decided by political and military

reasons only.”

After his own admissions to this Tribunal, from the positions which he

held, the conferences he attended, and the public words he uttered,

there can remain no doubt that Göring was the moving force for

aggressive war, second only to Hitler. He was the planner and prime

mover in the military and diplomatic preparation for war which Germany

pursued.

_War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity_

The record is filled with Göring’s admissions of his complicity in the

use of slave labor.

“We did use this labor for security reasons so that they would

not be active in their own country and would not work against

us. On the other hand, they served to help in the economic war.”

And again:

“Workers were forced to come to the Reich. That is something I

have not denied.”

The man who spoke these words was Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan

charged with the recruitment and allocation of manpower. As Luftwaffe

Commander-in-Chief he demanded from Himmler more slave laborers for his

underground aircraft factories: “That I requested inmates of

concentration camps for the armament of the Luftwaffe is correct and it

is to be taken as a matter of course.”

As Plenipotentiary, Göring signed a directive concerning the treatment

of Polish workers in Germany and implemented it by regulations of the

SD, including “special treatment.” He issued directives to use Soviet

and French prisoners of war in the armament industry; he spoke of

seizing Poles and Dutch and making them prisoners of war if necessary,

and using them for work. He agrees Russian prisoners of war were used to

man anti-aircraft batteries.

As Plenipotentiary, Göring was the active authority in the spoliation of

conquered territory. He made plans for the spoliation of Soviet

territory long before the war on the Soviet Union. Two months prior to

the invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler gave Göring the over-all

direction for the economic administration in the territory. Göring set

up an economic staff for this function. As Reichsmarshal of the Greater

German Reich, “the orders of the Reich Marshal cover all economic

fields, including nutrition and agriculture.” His so-called “Green”

folder, printed by the Wehrmacht, set up an “Economic Executive Staff,

East.” This directive contemplated plundering and abandonment of all

industry in the food deficit regions and, from the food surplus regions,

a diversion of food to German needs. Göring claims its purposes have

been misunderstood but admits “that as a matter of course and a matter

of duty we would have used Russia for our purposes,” when conquered.

And he participated in the conference of 16 July 1941 when Hitler said

the National Socialists had no intention of ever leaving the occupied

countries, and that “all necessary measures—shooting, desettling, etc.”

should be taken.

Göring persecuted the Jews, particularly after the November 1938 riots,

and not only in Germany where he raised the billion-mark fine as stated

elsewhere, but in the conquered territories as well. His own utterances

then and his testimony now shows this interest was primarily

economic—how to get their property and how to force them out of the

economic life of Europe. As these countries fell before the German Army,

he extended the Reich’s anti-Jewish laws to them; the

_Reichsgesetzblatt_ for 1939, 1940, and 1941 contains several

anti-Jewish decrees signed by Göring. Although their extermination was

in Himmler’s hands, Göring was far from disinterested or inactive,

despite his protestations in the witness box. By decree of 31 July 1941

he directed Himmler and Heydrich to “bring about a complete solution of

the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence in Europe.”

There is nothing to be said in mitigation. For Göring was often, indeed

almost always, the moving force, second only to his leader. He was the

leading war aggressor, both as political and as military leader; he was

the director of the slave labor program and the creator of the

oppressive program against the Jews and other races, at home and abroad.

All of these crimes he has frankly admitted. On some specific cases

there may be conflict of testimony but in terms of the broad outline,

his own admissions are more than sufficiently wide to be conclusive of

his guilt. His guilt is unique in its enormity. The record discloses no

excuses for this man.

_Conclusion_

The Tribunal finds the Defendant Göring guilty on all four Counts of the

Indictment.

_HESS_

Hess is indicted under all four Counts. He joined the Nazi Party in 1920

and participated in the Munich Putsch on 9 November 1923. He was

imprisoned with Hitler in the Landsberg fortress in 1924 and became

Hitler’s closest personal confidant, a relationship which lasted until

Hess’ flight to the British Isles. On 21 April 1933 he was appointed

Deputy to the Führer, and on 1 December 1933 was made Reichsminister

without Portfolio. He was appointed member of the Secret Cabinet Council

on 4 February 1938, and a member of the Ministerial Council for the

Defense of the Reich on 30 August 1939. In September 1939 Hess was

officially announced by Hitler as successor designate to the Führer

after Göring. On 10 May 1941 he flew from Germany to Scotland.

_Crimes against Peace_

As deputy to the Führer, Hess was the top man in the Nazi Party with

responsibility for handling all Party matters, and authority to make

decisions in Hitler’s name on all questions of Party leadership. As

Reichs Minister without Portfolio he had the authority to approve all

legislation suggested by the different Reichs Ministers before it could

be enacted as law. In these positions, Hess was an active supporter of

preparations for war. His signature appears on the law of 16 March 1935

establishing compulsory military service. Throughout the years he

supported Hitler’s policy of vigorous rearmament in many speeches. He

told the people that they must sacrifice for armaments, repeating the

phrase, “Guns instead of butter.” It is true that between 1933 and 1937

Hess made speeches in which he expressed a desire for peace and

advocated international economic cooperation. But nothing which they

contained can alter the fact that of all the defendants none knew better

than Hess how determined Hitler was to realize his ambitions, how

fanatical and violent a man he was, and how little likely he was to

refrain from resort to force, if this was the only way in which he could

achieve his aims.

Hess was an informed and willing participant in German aggression

against Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. He was in touch with the

illegal Nazi Party in Austria throughout the entire period between the

murder of Dollfuss, and the Anschluss, and gave instructions to it

during that period. Hess was in Vienna on 12 March 1938 when the German

troops moved in; and on 13 March 1938 he signed the law for the reunion

of Austria within the German Reich. A law of 10 June 1939 provided for

his participation in the administration of Austria. On 24 July 1938 he

made a speech in commemoration of the unsuccessful putsch by Austrian

National Socialists which had been attempted four years before, praising

the steps leading up to Anschluss and defending the occupation of

Austria by Germany.

In the summer of 1938 Hess was in active touch with Henlein, Chief of

the Sudeten German Party in Czechoslovakia. On 27 September 1938, at the

time of the Munich crisis, he arranged with Keitel to carry out the

instructions of Hitler to make the machinery of the Nazi Party available

for a secret mobilization. On 14 April 1939 Hess signed a decree setting

up the Government of the Sudetenland as an integral part of the Reich;

and an ordinance of 10 June 1939 provided for his participation in the

administration of the Sudetenland. On 7 November 1938 Hess absorbed

Henlein’s Sudeten German Party into the Nazi Party, and made a speech in

which he emphasized that Hitler had been prepared to resort to war if

this had been necessary to acquire the Sudetenland.

On 27 August 1939 when the attack on Poland had been temporarily

postponed in an attempt to induce Great Britain to abandon its guarantee

to Poland, Hess publicly praised Hitler’s “magnanimous offer” to Poland,

and attacked Poland for agitating for war and England for being

responsible for Poland’s attitude. After the invasion of Poland Hess

signed decrees incorporating Danzig and certain Polish territories into

the Reich, and setting up the General Government (Poland).

These specific steps which this defendant took in support of Hitler’s

plans for aggressive action do not indicate the full extent of his

responsibility. Until his flight to England, Hess was Hitler’s closest

personal confidant. Their relationship was such that Hess must have been

informed of Hitler’s aggressive plans when they came into existence. And

he took action to carry out these plans whenever action was necessary.

With him on his flight to England, Hess carried certain peace proposals

which he alleged Hitler was prepared to accept. It is significant to

note that this flight took place only 10 days after the date on which

Hitler fixed, 22 June 1941, as the time for attacking the Soviet Union.

In conversations carried on after his arrival in England Hess

wholeheartedly supported all Germany’s aggressive actions up to that

time, and attempted to justify Germany’s action in connection with

Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, and the

Netherlands. He blamed England and France for the war.

_War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity_

There is evidence showing the participation of the Party Chancellery,

under Hess, in the distribution of orders connected with the commission

of War Crimes; that Hess may have had knowledge of, even if he did not

participate in, the crimes that were being committed in the East, and

proposed laws discriminating against Jews and Poles; and that he signed

decrees forcing certain groups of Poles to accept German citizenship.

The Tribunal, however, does not find that the evidence sufficiently

connects Hess with those crimes to sustain a finding of guilt.

As previously indicated the Tribunal found, after a full medical

examination of and report on the condition of this defendant, that he

should be tried, without any postponement of his case. Since that time

further motions have been made that he should again be examined. These

the Tribunal denied, after having had a report from the prison

psychologist. That Hess acts in an abnormal manner, suffers from loss of

memory, and has mentally deteriorated during this Trial, may be true.

But there is nothing to show that he does not realize the nature of the

charges against him, or is incapable of defending himself. He was ably

represented at the Trial by counsel, appointed for that purpose by the

Tribunal. There is no suggestion that Hess was not completely sane when

the acts charged against him were committed.

_Conclusion_

The Tribunal finds the Defendant Hess guilty on Counts One and Two; and

not guilty on Counts Three and Four.

_VON RIBBENTROP_

Von Ribbentrop is indicted under all four Counts. He joined the Nazi

Party in 1932. By 1933 he had been made Foreign Policy Adviser to

Hitler, and in the same year the representative of the Nazi Party on

foreign policy. In 1934 he was appointed Delegate for Disarmament

Questions, and in 1935 Minister Plenipotentiary at Large, a capacity in

which he negotiated the Anglo-German Naval Agreement in 1935 and the

Anti-Comintern Pact in 1936. On 11 August 1936 he was appointed

Ambassador to England. On 4 February 1938 he succeeded Von Neurath as

Reichsminister for Foreign Affairs as part of the general reshuffle

which accompanied the dismissal of Von Fritsch and Von Blomberg.

_Crimes against Peace_

Von Ribbentrop was not present at the Hossbach Conference held on 5

November 1937, but on 2 January 1938, while still Ambassador to England,

he sent a memorandum to Hitler indicating his opinion that a change in

the _status quo_ in the East in the German sense could only be carried

out by force and suggesting methods to prevent England and France from

intervening in a European war fought to bring about such a change. When

Von Ribbentrop became Foreign Minister Hitler told him that Germany

still had four problems to solve, Austria, Sudetenland, Memel, and

Danzig, and mentioned the possibility of “some sort of a show-down” or

“military settlement” for their solution.

On 12 February 1938 Von Ribbentrop attended the conference between

Hitler and Schuschnigg at which Hitler, by threats of invasion, forced

Schuschnigg to grant a series of concessions designed to strengthen the

Nazis in Austria, including the appointment of Seyss-Inquart as Minister

of Security and Interior, with control over the police. Von Ribbentrop

was in London when the occupation of Austria was actually carried out

and, on the basis of information supplied him by Göring, informed the

British Government that Germany had not presented Austria with an

ultimatum, but had intervened in Austria only to prevent civil war. On

13 March 1938 Von Ribbentrop signed the law incorporating Austria into

the German Reich.

Von Ribbentrop participated in the aggressive plans against

Czechoslovakia. Beginning in March 1938, he was in close touch with the

Sudeten German Party and gave them instructions which had the effect of

keeping the Sudeten German question a live issue which might serve as an

excuse for the attack which Germany was planning against Czechoslovakia.

In August 1938 he participated in a conference for the purpose of

obtaining Hungarian support in the event of a war with Czechoslovakia.

After the Munich Pact he continued to bring diplomatic pressure with the

object of occupying the remainder of Czechoslovakia. He was instrumental

in inducing the Slovaks to proclaim their independence. He was present

at the conference of 14-15 March 1939 at which Hitler, by threats of

invasion, compelled President Hacha to consent to the German occupation

of Czechoslovakia. After the German troops had marched in, Von

Ribbentrop signed the law establishing a protectorate over Bohemia and

Moravia.

Von Ribbentrop played a particularly significant role in the diplomatic

activity which led up to the attack on Poland. He participated in a

conference held on 12 August 1939, for the purpose of obtaining Italian

support if the attack should lead to a general European war. Von

Ribbentrop discussed the German demands with respect to Danzig and the

Polish Corridor with the British Ambassador in the period from 25 August

to 30 August 1939, when he knew that the German plans to attack Poland

had merely been temporarily postponed in an attempt to induce the

British to abandon their guarantee to the Poles. The way in which he

carried out these discussions makes it clear that he did not enter them

in good faith in an attempt to reach a settlement of the difficulties

between Germany and Poland.

Von Ribbentrop was advised in advance of the attack on Norway and

Denmark and of the attack on the Low Countries, and prepared the

official Foreign Office memoranda attempting to justify these aggressive

actions.

Von Ribbentrop attended the conference on 20 January 1941, at which

Hitler and Mussolini discussed the proposed attack on Greece, and the

conference in January 1941, at which Hitler obtained from Antonescu

permission for German troops to go through Rumania for this attack. On

25 March 1941, when Yugoslavia adhered to the Axis Tripartite Pact, Von

Ribbentrop had assured Yugoslavia that Germany would respect its

sovereignty and territorial integrity. On 27 March 1941 he attended the

meeting, held after the _coup d’état_ in Yugoslavia, at which plans were

made to carry out Hitler’s announced intention to destroy Yugoslavia.

Von Ribbentrop attended a conference in May 1941 with Hitler and

Antonescu relating to Rumanian participation in the attack on the

U.S.S.R. He also consulted with Rosenberg in the preliminary planning

for the political exploitation of Soviet territories and in July 1941,

after the outbreak of war, urged Japan to attack the Soviet Union.

_War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity_

Von Ribbentrop participated in a meeting of 6 June 1944, at which it was

agreed to start a program under which Allied aviators carrying out

machine gun attacks on the civilian population should be lynched. In

December 1944 Von Ribbentrop was informed of the plans to murder one of

the French generals held as a prisoner of war and directed his

subordinates to see that the details were worked out in such a way as to

prevent its detection by the protecting powers. Von Ribbentrop is also

responsible for War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity because of his

activities with respect to occupied countries and Axis satellites. The

top German official in both Denmark and Vichy France was a Foreign

Office representative, and Von Ribbentrop is therefore responsible for

the general economic and political policies put into effect in the

occupation of those countries. He urged the Italians to adopt a ruthless

occupation policy in Yugoslavia and Greece.

He played an important part in Hitler’s “final solution” of the Jewish

question. In September 1942 he ordered the German diplomatic

representatives accredited to various Axis satellites to hasten the

deportation of Jews to the East. In June 1942 the German Ambassador to

Vichy requested Laval to turn over 50,000 Jews for deportation to the

East. On 25 February 1943 Von Ribbentrop protested to Mussolini against

Italian slowness in deporting Jews from the Italian occupation zone of

France. On 17 April 1943 he took part in a conference between Hitler and

Horthy on the deportation of Jews from Hungary and informed Horthy that

the “Jews must either be exterminated or taken to concentration camps.”

At the same conference Hitler had likened the Jews to “tuberculosis

bacilli” and said if they did not work they were to be shot.

Von Ribbentrop’s defense to the charges made against him is that Hitler

made all the important decisions and that he was such a great admirer

and faithful follower of Hitler that he never questioned Hitler’s

repeated assertions that he wanted peace or the truth of the reasons

that Hitler gave in explaining aggressive action. The Tribunal does not

consider this explanation to be true. Von Ribbentrop participated in all

of the Nazi aggressions from the occupation of Austria to the invasion

of the Soviet Union. Although he was personally concerned with the

diplomatic rather than the military aspect of these actions, his

diplomatic efforts were so closely connected with war that he could not

have remained unaware of the aggressive nature of Hitler’s actions. In

the administration of territories over which Germany acquired control by

illegal invasion Von Ribbentrop also assisted in carrying out criminal

policies, particularly those involving the extermination of the Jews.

There is abundant evidence, moreover, that Von Ribbentrop was in

complete sympathy with all the main tenets of the National Socialist

creed, and that his collaboration with Hitler and with other defendants

in the commission of Crimes against Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes

against Humanity was whole-hearted. It was because Hitler’s policy and

plans coincided with his own ideas that Von Ribbentrop served him so

willingly to the end.

_Conclusion_

The Tribunal finds that Von Ribbentrop is guilty on all four Counts.

_KEITEL_

Keitel is indicted on all four Counts. He was Chief of Staff to the then

Minister of War Von Blomberg from 1935 to 4 February 1938; on that day

Hitler took command of the Armed Forces, making Keitel Chief of the High

Command of the Armed Forces. Keitel did not have command authority over

the three Wehrmacht branches which enjoyed direct access to the Supreme

Commander. OKW was in effect Hitler’s military staff.

_Crimes against Peace_

Keitel attended the Schuschnigg conference in February 1938 with two

other generals. Their presence, he admitted, was a “military

demonstration,” but since he had been appointed OKW Chief just one week

before he had not known why he had been summoned. Hitler and Keitel then

continued to put pressure on Austria with false rumors, broadcasts, and

troop maneuvers. Keitel made the military and other arrangements, and

Jodl’s diary noted “the effect is quick and strong.” When Schuschnigg

called his plebiscite, Keitel that night briefed Hitler and his

generals, and Hitler issued “Case Otto” which Keitel initialed.

On 21 April 1938 Hitler and Keitel considered making use of a possible

“incident,” such as the assassination of the German Minister at Prague,

to preface the attack on Czechoslovakia. Keitel signed many directives

and memoranda on “Fall Gruen”, including the directive of 30 May

containing Hitler’s statement: “It is my unalterable decision to smash

Czechoslovakia by military action in the near future.” After Munich,

Keitel initialed Hitler’s directive for the attack on Czechoslovakia,

and issued two supplements. The second supplement said the attack should

appear to the outside world as “merely an act of pacification and not a

warlike undertaking.” The OKW Chief attended Hitler’s negotiations with

Hacha when the latter surrendered.

Keitel was present on 23 May 1939 when Hitler announced his decision “to

attack Poland at the first suitable opportunity”. Already he had signed

the directive requiring the Wehrmacht to submit its “Fall Weiss”

timetable to OKW by 1 May.

The invasion of Norway and Denmark he discussed on 12 December 1939 with

Hitler, Jodl, and Raeder. By directive of 27 January 1940 the Norway

plans were placed under Keitel’s “direct and personal guidance.” Hitler

had said on 23 May 1939 he would ignore the neutrality of Belgium and

the Netherlands, and Keitel signed orders for these attacks on 15

October, 20 November, and 28 November 1939. Orders postponing this

attack 17 times until spring all were signed by Keitel or Jodl.

Formal planning for attacking Greece and Yugoslavia had begun in

November 1940. On 18 March 1941 Keitel heard Hitler tell Raeder complete

occupation of Greece was a prerequisite to settlement, and also heard

Hitler decree on 27 March that the destruction of Yugoslavia should take

place with “unmerciful harshness.”

Keitel testified that he opposed the invasion of the Soviet Union for

military reasons, and also because it would constitute a violation of

the Non-aggression Pact. Nevertheless he initialed “Case Barbarossa,”

signed by Hitler on 18 December 1940, and attended the OKW discussion

with Hitler on 3 February 1941. Keitel’s supplement of 13 March

established the relationship between the military and political

officers. He issued his timetable for the invasion on 6 June 1941, and

was present at the briefing of 14 June when the generals gave their

final reports before attack. He appointed Jodl and Warlimont as OKW

representatives to Rosenberg on matters concerning the Eastern

Territories. On 16 June he directed all army units to carry out the

economic directives issued by Göring in the so-called “Green Folder,”

for the exploitation of Russian territory, food, and raw materials.

_War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity_

On 4 August 1942 Keitel issued a directive that paratroopers were to be

turned over to the SD. On 18 October Hitler issued the Commando Order

which was carried out in several instances. After the landing in

Normandy, Keitel reaffirmed the order, and later extended it to Allied

missions fighting with partisans. He admits he did not believe the order

was legal but claims he could not stop Hitler from decreeing it.

When, on 8 September 1941, OKW issued its ruthless regulations for the

treatment of Soviet POW’s, Canaris wrote to Keitel that under

international law the SD should have nothing to do with this matter. On

this memorandum in Keitel’s handwriting, dated 23 September and

initialed by him, is the statement:

“The objections arise from the military concept of chivalrous

warfare. This is the destruction of an ideology. Therefore I

approve and back the measures.”

Keitel testified that he really agreed with Canaris and argued with

Hitler, but lost. The OKW Chief directed the military authorities to

cooperate with the Einsatzstab Rosenberg in looting cultural property in

occupied territories.

Lahousen testified that Keitel told him on 12 September 1939, while

aboard Hitler’s headquarters train, that the Polish intelligentsia,

nobility, and Jews were to be liquidated. On 20 October, Hitler told

Keitel the intelligentsia would be prevented from forming a ruling

class, the standard of living would remain low, and Poland would be used

only for labor forces. Keitel does not remember the Lahousen

conversation, but admits there was such a policy and that he had

protested without effect to Hitler about it.

On 16 September 1941 Keitel ordered that attacks on soldiers in the East

should be met by putting to death 50 to 100 Communists for one German

soldier, with the comment that human life was less than nothing in the

East. On 1 October he ordered military commanders always to have

hostages to execute when soldiers were attacked. When Terboven, the

Reich Commissioner in Norway, wrote Hitler that Keitel’s suggestion that

workmen’s relatives be held responsible for sabotage, could work only if

firing squads were authorized, Keitel wrote on this memorandum: “Yes,

that is the best.”

On 12 May 1941, five weeks before the invasion of the Soviet Union, OKW

urged upon Hitler a directive of OKH that political commissars be

liquidated by the Army. Keitel admitted the directive was passed on to

field commanders. And on 13 May Keitel signed an order that civilians

suspected of offenses against troops should be shot without trial, and

that prosecution of German soldiers for offenses against civilians was

unnecessary. On 27 July all copies of this directive were ordered

destroyed without affecting its validity. Four days previously he had

signed another order that legal punishment was inadequate and troops

should use terrorism.

On 7 December 1941, as already discussed in this opinion, the so-called

“Nacht und Nebel” Decree, over Keitel’s signature, provided that in

occupied territories civilians who had been accused of crimes of

resistance against the army of occupation would be tried only if a death

sentence was likely; otherwise they would be handed to the Gestapo for

transportation to Germany.

Keitel directed that Russian POW’s be used in German war industry. On 8

September 1942 he ordered French, Dutch, and Belgian citizens to work on

the construction of the Atlantic Wall. He was present on 4 January 1944

when Hitler directed Sauckel to obtain 4 million new workers from

occupied territories.

In the face of these documents Keitel does not deny his connection with

these acts. Rather, his defense relies on the fact that he is a soldier,

and on the doctrine of “superior orders”, prohibited by Article 8 of the

Charter as a defense.

There is nothing in mitigation. Superior orders, even to a soldier,

cannot be considered in mitigation where crimes as shocking and

extensive have been committed consciously, ruthlessly, and without

military excuse or justification.

_Conclusion_

The Tribunal finds Keitel guilty on all four Counts.

_KALTENBRUNNER_

Kaltenbrunner is indicted under Counts One, Three, and Four. He joined

the Austrian Nazi Party and the SS in 1932. In 1935 he became leader of

the SS in Austria. After the Anschluss he was appointed Austrian State

Secretary for Security and when this position was abolished in 1941 he

was made Higher SS and Police Leader. On 30 January 1943 he was

appointed Chief of the Security Police and SD and Head of the Reich

Security Head Office (RSHA), a position which had been held by Heydrich

until his assassination in June 1942. He held the rank of

Obergruppenführer in the SS.

_Crimes against Peace_

As leader of the SS in Austria Kaltenbrunner was active in the Nazi

intrigue against the Schuschnigg Government. On the night of 11 March

1938, after Göring had ordered Austrian National Socialists to seize

control of the Austrian Government, 500 Austrian SS men under

Kaltenbrunner’s command surrounded the Federal Chancellery and a special

detachment under the command of his adjutant entered the Federal

Chancellery while Seyss-Inquart was negotiating with President Miklas.

But there is no evidence connecting Kaltenbrunner with plans to wage

aggressive war on any other front. The Anschluss, although it was an

aggressive act, is not charged as an aggressive war, and the evidence

against Kaltenbrunner under Count One does not, in the opinion of the

Tribunal, show his direct participation in any plan to wage such a war.

_War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity_

When he became Chief of the Security Police and SD and Head of the RSHA

on 30 January 1943, Kaltenbrunner took charge of an organization which

included the main offices of the Gestapo, the SD, and the Criminal

Police. As Chief of the RSHA, Kaltenbrunner had authority to order

protective custody to and release from concentration camps. Orders to

this effect were normally sent over his signature. Kaltenbrunner was

aware of conditions in concentration camps. He had undoubtedly visited

Mauthausen and witnesses testified that he had seen prisoners killed by

the various methods of execution, hanging, shooting in the back of the

neck, and gassing, as part of a demonstration. Kaltenbrunner himself

ordered the execution of prisoners in those camps and his office was

used to transmit to the camps execution orders which originated in

Himmler’s office. At the end of the war Kaltenbrunner participated in

the arrangements for the evacuation of inmates of concentration camps,

and the liquidation of many of them, to prevent them from being

liberated by the Allied armies.

During the period in which Kaltenbrunner was Head of the RSHA, it was

engaged in a widespread program of War Crimes and Crimes against

Humanity. These crimes included the mistreatment and murder of prisoners

of war. Einsatz Kommandos operating under the control of the Gestapo

were engaged in the screening of Soviet prisoners of war. Jews,

commissars, and others who were thought to be ideologically hostile to

the Nazi system were reported to the RSHA, which had them transferred to

a concentration camp and murdered. An RSHA order issued during

Kaltenbrunner’s regime established the “Bullet Decree,” under which

certain escaped prisoners of war who were recaptured were taken to

Mauthausen and shot. The order for the execution of commando troops was

extended by the Gestapo to include parachutists while Kaltenbrunner was

Chief of the RSHA. An order signed by Kaltenbrunner instructed the

police not to interfere with attacks on bailed-out Allied fliers. In

December 1944 Kaltenbrunner participated in the murder of one of the

French generals held as a prisoner of war.

During the period in which Kaltenbrunner was head of the RSHA, the

Gestapo and SD in occupied territories continued the murder and

ill-treatment of the population, using methods which included torture

and confinement in concentration camps, usually under orders to which

Kaltenbrunner’s name was signed.

The Gestapo was responsible for enforcing a rigid labor discipline on

the slave laborers and Kaltenbrunner established a series of labor

reformatory camps for this purpose. When the SS embarked on a slave

labor program of its own, the Gestapo was used to obtain the needed

workers by sending laborers to concentration camps.

The RSHA played a leading part in the “final solution” of the Jewish

question by the extermination of the Jews. A special section under the

Amt IV of the RSHA was established to supervise this program. Under its

direction approximately 6 million Jews were murdered, of which 2 million

were killed by Einsatzgruppen and other units of the Security Police.

Kaltenbrunner had been informed of the activities of these

Einsatzgruppen when he was a Higher SS and Police Leader, and they

continued to function after he had become Chief of the RSHA.

The murder of approximately 4 million Jews in concentration camps has

heretofore been described. This part of the program was also under the

supervision of the RSHA when Kaltenbrunner was head of that

organization, and special missions of the RSHA scoured the occupied

territories and the various Axis satellites arranging for the

deportation of Jews to these extermination institutions. Kaltenbrunner

was informed of these activities. A letter which he wrote on 30 June

1944 described the shipment to Vienna of 12,000 Jews for that purpose,

and directed that all who could not work would have to be kept in

readiness for “special action,” which meant murder. Kaltenbrunner denied

his signature to this letter, as he did on a very large number of orders

on which his name was stamped or typed, and, in a few instances,

written. It is inconceivable that in matters of such importance his

signature could have appeared so many times without his authority.

Kaltenbrunner has claimed that when he took office as Chief of the

Security Police and SD and as Head of the RSHA he did so pursuant to an

understanding with Himmler under which he was to confine his activities

to matters involving foreign intelligence, and not to assume over-all

control over the activities of the RSHA. He claims that the criminal

program had been started before his assumption of office; that he seldom

knew what was going on; and that when he was informed he did what he

could to stop them. It is true that he showed a special interest in

matters involving foreign intelligence. But he exercised control over

the activities of the RSHA, was aware of the crimes it was committing,

and was an active participant in many of them.

_Conclusion._

The Tribunal finds that Kaltenbrunner is not guilty on Count One. He is

guilty under Counts Three and Four.

_ROSENBERG_

Rosenberg is indicted on all four Counts. He joined the Nazi Party in

1919, participated in the Munich Putsch of 9 November 1923, and tried to

keep the illegal Nazi Party together while Hitler was in jail.

Recognized as the Party’s ideologist, he developed and spread Nazi

doctrines in the newspapers _Völkischer Beobachter_ and _NS

Monatshefte_, which he edited, and in the numerous books he wrote. His

book, _Myth of the Twentieth Century_, had a circulation of over a

million copies.

In 1930 Rosenberg was elected to the Reichstag and he became the Party’s

representative for Foreign Affairs. In April 1933 he was made

Reichsleiter and head of the Office of Foreign Affairs of the NSDAP (the

APA). Hitler, in January 1934, appointed Rosenberg his deputy for the

supervision of the entire spiritual and ideological training of the

NSDAP. In January 1940, he was designated to set up the “Hohe Schule,”

the Center of National Socialistic Ideological and Educational Research,

and he organized the “Einsatzstab Rosenberg” in connection with this

task. He was appointed Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern

Territories on 17 July 1941.

_Crimes Against Peace._

As head of the APA, Rosenberg was in charge of an organization whose

agents were active in Nazi intrigue in all parts of the world. His own

reports, for example, claim that the APA was largely responsible for

Rumania’s joining the Axis. As head of the APA, he played an important

role in the preparation and planning of the attack on Norway.

Rosenberg, together with Raeder, was one of the originators of the plan

for attacking Norway. Rosenberg had become interested in Norway as early

as June 1939, when he conferred with Quisling. Quisling had pointed out

the importance of the Norwegian coast in the event of a conflict between

Germany and Great Britain, and stated his fears that Great Britain might

be able to obtain Norwegian assistance. As a result of this conference

Rosenberg arranged for Quisling to collaborate closely with the National

Socialists and to receive political assistance by the Nazis.

When the war broke out Quisling began to express fear of British

intervention in Norway. Rosenberg supported this view, and transmitted

to Raeder a plan to use Quisling for a _coup_ in Norway. Rosenberg was

instrumental in arranging the conferences in December 1939 between

Hitler and Quisling which led to the preparation of the attack on

Norway, and at which Hitler promised Quisling financial assistance.

After these conferences Hitler assigned to Rosenberg the political

exploitation of Norway. Two weeks after Norway was occupied, Hitler told

Rosenberg that he had based his decision to attack Norway “on the

continuous warnings of Quisling as reported to him by Reichsleiter

Rosenberg.”

Rosenberg bears a major responsibility for the formulation and execution

of occupation policies in the Occupied Eastern Territories. He was

informed by Hitler on 2 April 1941 of the coming attack against the

Soviet Union, and he agreed to help in the capacity of a “Political

Adviser.” On 20 April 1941 he was appointed Commissioner for the Central

Control of Questions Connected with the East-European Region. In

preparing the plans for the occupation, he had numerous conferences with

Keitel, Raeder, Göring, Funk, Von Ribbentrop, and other high Reich

authorities. In April and May 1941 he prepared several drafts of

instructions concerning the setting up of the administration in the

Occupied Eastern Territories. On 20 June 1941, two days before the

attack on the U.S.S.R., he made a speech to his assistants about the

problems and policies of occupation. Rosenberg attended Hitler’s

conference of 16 July 1941, in which policies of administration and

occupation were discussed. On 17 July 1941 Hitler appointed Rosenberg

Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, and publicly

charged him with responsibility for civil administration.

_War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity_

Rosenberg is responsible for a system of organized plunder of both

public and private property throughout the invaded countries of Europe.

Acting under Hitler’s orders of January 1940 to set up the “Hohe

Schule”, he organized and directed the “Einsatzstab Rosenberg”, which

plundered museums and libraries, confiscated art treasures and

collections, and pillaged private houses. His own reports show the

extent of the confiscations. In “Action-M” (Möbel), instituted in

December 1941 at Rosenberg’s suggestion, 69,619 Jewish homes were

plundered in the West, 38,000 of them in Paris alone, and it took 26,984

railroad cars to transport the confiscated furnishings to Germany. As of

14 July 1944, more than 21,903 art objects including famous paintings

and museum pieces, had been seized by the Einsatzstab in the West.

With his appointment as Reich Minister for Occupied Eastern Territories

on 17 July 1941, Rosenberg became the supreme authority for those areas.

He helped to formulate the policies of Germanization, exploitation,

forced labor, extermination of Jews and opponents of Nazi rule, and he

set up the administration which carried them out. He took part in the

conference of 16 July 1941, in which Hitler stated that they were faced

with the task of “cutting up the giant cake according to our needs, in

order to be able: first, to dominate it; second, to administer it; and

third, to exploit it”, and indicated that ruthless action was

contemplated. Rosenberg accepted his appointment on the following day.

Rosenberg had knowledge of the brutal treatment and terror to which the

Eastern people were subjected. He directed that the Hague Rules of Land

Warfare were not applicable in the Occupied Eastern Territories. He had

knowledge of and took an active part in stripping the Eastern

Territories of raw materials and foodstuffs, which were all sent to

Germany. He stated that feeding the German People was first on the list

of claims on the East, and that the Soviet People would suffer thereby.

His directives provided for the segregation of Jews, ultimately in

ghettos. His subordinates engaged in mass killings of Jews, and his

civil administrators in the East considered that cleansing the Eastern

Occupied Territories of Jews was necessary. In December 1941 he made the

suggestion to Hitler that in a case of shooting 100 hostages, Jews only

be used. Rosenberg had knowledge of the deportation of laborers from the

East, of the methods of “recruiting” and the transportation horrors, and

of the treatment Eastern laborers received in the Reich. He gave his

civil administrators quotas of laborers to be sent to the Reich, which

had to be met by whatever means necessary. His signature of approval

appears on the order of 14 June 1944 for the “Heu Aktion”, the

apprehension of 40,000 to 50,000 youths, aged 10-14, for shipment to the

Reich.

Upon occasion Rosenberg objected to the excesses and atrocities

committed by his subordinates, notably in the case of Koch, but these

excesses continued and he stayed in office until the end.

_Conclusion._

The Tribunal finds that Rosenberg is guilty on all four Counts.

_FRANK_

Frank is indicted under Counts One, Three, and Four. Frank joined the

Nazi Party in 1927. He became a member of the Reichstag in 1930, the

Bavarian State Minister of Justice in March 1933, and when this position

was incorporated into the Reich Government in 1934, Reich Minister

without Portfolio. He was made a Reichsleiter of the Nazi Party in

charge of Legal Affairs in 1933, and in the same year President of the

Academy of German Law. Frank was also given the honorary rank of

Obergruppenführer in the SA. In 1942 Frank became involved in a

temporary dispute with Himmler as to the type of legal system which

should be in effect in Germany. During the same year he was dismissed as

Reichsleiter of the Nazi Party and as President of the Academy of German

Law.

_Crimes against Peace_

The evidence has not satisfied the Tribunal that Frank was sufficiently

connected with the common plan to wage aggressive war to allow the

Tribunal to convict him on Count One.

_War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity_

Frank was appointed Chief Civil Administration Officer for occupied

Polish territory and, on 12 October 1939, was made Governor General of

the occupied Polish territory. On 3 October 1939 he described the policy

which he intended to put into effect by stating: “Poland shall be

treated like a colony; the Poles will become the slaves of the Greater

German World Empire.” The evidence establishes that this occupation

policy was based on the complete destruction of Poland as a national

entity, and a ruthless exploitation of its human and economic resources

for the German war effort. All opposition was crushed with the utmost

harshness. A reign of terror was instituted, backed by summary police

courts which ordered such actions as the public shootings of groups of

20 to 200 Poles, and the widespread shootings of hostages. The

concentration camp system was introduced in the General Government by

the establishment of the notorious Treblinka and Maidaneck camps. As

early as 6 February 1940, Frank gave an indication of the extent of this

reign of terror by his cynical comment to a newspaper reporter on Von

Neurath’s poster announcing the execution of the Czech students: “If I

wished to order that one should hang up posters about every seven Poles

shot, there would not be enough forests in Poland with which to make the

paper for these posters.” On 30 May 1940 Frank told a police conference

that he was taking advantage of the offensive in the West which diverted

the attention of the world from Poland to liquidate thousands of Poles

who would be likely to resist German domination of Poland, including

“the leading representatives of the Polish intelligentsia.” Pursuant to

these instructions the brutal A.B. action was begun under which the

Security Police and SD carried out these exterminations which were only

partially subjected to the restraints of legal procedure. On 2 October

1943 Frank issued a decree under which any non-Germans hindering German

construction in the General Government were to be tried by summary

courts of the Security Police and SD and sentenced to death.

The economic demands made on the General Government were far in excess

of the needs of the army of occupation, and were out of all proportion

to the resources of the country. The food raised in Poland was shipped

to Germany on such a wide scale that the rations of the population of

the occupied territories were reduced to the starvation level, and

epidemics were widespread. Some steps were taken to provide for the

feeding of the agricultural workers who were used to raise the crops,

but the requirements of the rest of the population were disregarded. It

is undoubtedly true, as argued by counsel for the Defense, that some

suffering in the General Government was inevitable as a result of the

ravages of war and the economic confusion resulting therefrom. But the

suffering was increased by a planned policy of economic exploitation.

Frank introduced the deportation of slave laborers to Germany in the

very early stages of his administration. On 25 January 1940 he indicated

his intention of deporting 1 million laborers to Germany, suggesting on

10 May 1940 the use of police raids to meet this quota. On 18 August

1942 Frank reported that he had already supplied 800,000 workers for the

Reich, and expected to be able to supply 140,000 more before the end of

the year.

The persecution of the Jews was immediately begun in the General

Government. The area originally contained from 2½ million to 3½ million

Jews. They were forced into ghettos, subjected to discriminatory laws,

deprived of the food necessary to avoid starvation, and finally

systematically and brutally exterminated. On 16 December 1941 Frank told

the Cabinet of the Governor General: “We must annihilate the Jews,

wherever we find them and wherever it is possible, in order to maintain

there the structure of the Reich as a whole.” By 25 January 1944, Frank

estimated that there were only 100,000 Jews left.

At the beginning of his testimony, Frank stated that he had a feeling of

“terrible guilt” for the atrocities committed in the occupied

territories. But his defense was largely devoted to an attempt to prove

that he was not in fact responsible; that he ordered only the necessary

pacification measures; that the excesses were due to the activities of

the police which were not under his control; and that he never even knew

of the activities of the concentration camps. It had also been argued

that the starvation was due to the aftermath of the war and policies

carried out under the Four Year Plan; that the forced labor program was

under the direction of Sauckel; and that the extermination of the Jews

was by the police and SS under direct orders from Himmler.

It is undoubtedly true that most of the criminal program charged against

Frank was put into effect through the police, that Frank had

jurisdictional difficulties with Himmler over the control of the police,

and that Hitler resolved many of these disputes in favor of Himmler. It

therefore may well be true that some of the crimes committed in the

General Government were committed without the knowledge of Frank, and

even occasionally despite his opposition. It may also be true that some

of the criminal policies put into effect in the General Government did

not originate with Frank but were carried out pursuant to orders from

Germany. But it is also true that Frank was a willing and knowing

participant in the use of terrorism in Poland; in the economic

exploitation of Poland in a way which led to the death by starvation of

a large number of people; in the deportation to Germany as slave

laborers of over a million Poles; and in a program involving the murder

of at least 3 million Jews.

_Conclusion_

The Tribunal finds that Frank is not guilty on Count One but guilty

under Counts Three and Four.

_FRICK_

Frick is indicted on all four Counts. Recognized as the chief Nazi

administrative specialist and bureaucrat, he was appointed

Reichsminister of the Interior in Hitler’s first Cabinet. He retained

this important position until August 1943, when he was appointed Reich

Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. In connection with his duties at the

center of all internal and domestic administration, he became the

Prussian Minister of the Interior, Reich Director of Elections, General

Plenipotentiary for the Administration of the Reich, and a member of the

Reich Defense Council, the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich,

and the “Three Man College”. As the several countries incorporated into

the Reich were overrun, he was placed at the head of the central offices

for their incorporation.

Though Frick did not officially join the Nazi Party until 1925, he had

previously allied himself with Hitler and the National Socialist cause

during the Munich Putsch, while he was an official in the Munich Police

Department. Elected to the Reichstag in 1924, he became a Reichsleiter

as leader of the National Socialist faction in that body.

_Crimes against Peace_