“4. The Field Branch of the Documentation Division was staffed
by personnel thoroughly conversant with the German language.
Their task was to search for and select captured enemy documents
in the European Theater which disclosed information relating to
the prosecution of the major Axis war criminals. Officers under
my command were placed on duty at various document centers and
also dispatched on individual missions to obtain original
documents. When the documents were located, my representatives
made a record of the circumstances under which they were found
and all information available concerning their authenticity was
recorded. Such documents were further identified by Field Branch
pre-trial serial numbers, assigned by my representatives who
would then periodically dispatch the original documents by
courier to the Office of the United States Chief of Counsel.
“5. Upon receipt of these documents they were duly recorded and
indexed. After this operation, they were delivered to the
Screening and Analysis Branch of the Documentation Division of
the Office of United States Chief of Counsel, which Branch
re-examined the documents in order to finally determine whether
or not they should be retained as evidence for the prosecutors.
This final screening was done by German-speaking analysts on the
staff of the United States Chief of Counsel. When the document
passed the screeners, it was then transmitted to the Document
Room of the Office of United States Chief of Counsel, with a
covering sheet prepared by the screeners showing the title or
nature of the document, the personalities involved, and its
importance. In the Document Room, a trial identification number
was given to each document and to each group of documents, in
cases where it was desirable for the sake of clarity to file
several documents together.
“6. United States documents were given trial identification
numbers in one of five series designated by the letters: “PS”,
“L”, “R”, “C”, and “EC”, indicating the means of acquisition of
the documents. Within each series documents were listed
numerically.
“7. After a document was so numbered, it was then sent to a
German-speaking analyst who prepared a summary of the document
with appropriate references to personalities involved, index
headings, information as to the source of the document as
indicated by the Field Branch, and the importance of the
document to a particular phase of the case. Next, the original
document was returned to the Document Room and then checked out
to the Photostating Department, where photostatic copies were
made. Upon return from photostating, it was placed in an
envelope in one of the several fireproof safes in the rear of
the Document Room. One of the photostatic copies of the document
was sent to the translators, thereafter leaving the original
itself in the safe. A commissioned officer has been, and is,
responsible for the documents in the safe. At all times when he
is not present the safe is locked and a military guard is on
duty outside the only door. If the officers preparing the
certified translation, or one of the officers working on the
briefs, found it necessary to examine the original document,
this was done within the Document Room in the section set aside
for that purpose. The only exception to this strict rule has
been where it has been occasionally necessary to present the
original document to Defense Counsel for examination. In this
case, the document was entrusted to a responsible officer of the
Prosecution staff.
“8. All original documents are now located in safes in the
Document Room, where they will be secured until they are
presented by the Prosecution to the court during the progress of
this Trial.
“9. Some of the documents which will be offered in evidence by
the United States were seized and processed by the British Army.
Also, personnel from the Office of the United States Chief of
Counsel and the British War Crimes Executive have acted jointly
in locating, seizing and processing such documents.
“10. Substantially the same system of acquiring documentary
evidence was utilized by the British Army and the British War
Crimes Executive as above set forth with respect to the United
States Army and the Office of the United States Chief of
Counsel.
“11. Therefore, I certify in my official capacity as hereinabove
stated, to the best of my knowledge and belief, that the
documents captured in the British Zone of Operations and
Occupation, which will be offered in evidence by the United
States Chief of Counsel, have been authenticated, translated,
and processed in substantially the same manner as hereinabove
set forth with respect to the operations of the United States
Chief of Counsel.
“12. Finally, I certify that all documentary evidence offered by
the United States Chief of Counsel, including those documents
from British Army sources, are in the same condition as captured
by the United States and British Armies; that they have been
translated by competent and qualified translators; that all
photostatic copies are true and correct copies of the originals
and that they have been correctly filed, numbered, and processed
as above outlined.”
Signed by: “William H. Coogan, Major, QMC, 0-455814.”
After the documents selected by the screening process outlined reached
our office, they were again examined, re-screened, and translated by
expert U.S. Army personnel, as outlined by Major Coogan.
Finally, more than 2,500 documents were selected and filed here in this
Court House. At least several hundred will be offered in evidence. They
have been photographed, translated into English, filed, indexed, and
processed. The same general procedure was followed by the British War
Crimes Executive with regard to documents captured by the British Army,
and there has been complete integration and cooperation of activities
with the British in that regard.
In order to present our case and to assist the Tribunal, we have
prepared written briefs on each phase of our case which cite the
documents by appropriate numbers. Legal propositions of the United
States will also be presented in such briefs. The briefs and documents
will cover each allegation of the Indictment which is the United States’
responsibility. I hold in my hand one of the trial briefs entitled
“Reshaping of Education, Training of Youth,” which will be offered later
on this day. Accompanying each brief is a document book containing true
copies in English of all documents referred to in the brief. I hold in
my hand the document book that will be submitted to this Tribunal in
support of the brief which I have just exhibited to your Honors.
Likewise, copies in German have been, or will be, furnished to Defense
counsel at the time such documents are offered in evidence. Upon
conclusion of the presentation of each phase or section of our case by
counsel, the entire book of documents will be offered in evidence, such
as this book. At the same time, Lieutenant Barrett who will sit right
here all during the Trial and who is on our staff, will hand to the
clerk of this Tribunal the original documents that may be offered in
evidence in this form. It will have the seal of the Tribunal, will be
Exhibit USA, 2836-PS, and in turn Lieutenant Barrett will hand that
original document to the Tribunal. In the same manner, the document book
will be passed by Lieutenant Barrett to the clerk of the Court, and
these trial briefs for the assistance of the Tribunal will be made
available to the Court and to Defense Counsel. Likewise, copies of
documents actually introduced in evidence will be made available to the
press. Thus, may Your Honors please, it is hoped that by this procedure
the usual laborious and tedious method of introducing documentary
evidence may be expedited.
May I, therefore, respectfully inquire of the Tribunal and of Defense
counsel if there is any objection to the procedure outlined? If not, the
United States will proceed with the presentation of the documentary and
trial briefs as outlined herein.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal has no objection to the course that you
propose.
COL. STOREY: If Your Honors please, may I now announce what will be
presented immediately following by the United States?
THE PRESIDENT: I think perhaps that I ought to say to counsel for the
defendants that their silence will be taken as their assent to the
course proposed. In the absence of any objection by them to the course
proposed by Colonel Storey on behalf of the Chief Prosecutor for the
United States, the Tribunal will take it that they agree that the course
is convenient.
Thank you, gentlemen.
COL. STOREY: If Your Honors please, the next presentation will be the
briefs and documents on the Common Plan or Conspiracy up to 1939. We
will open by presentation of charts of the Nazi Party and Reich
Government with exhibits and explanation by Mr. Albrecht. That will be
followed by a presentation of the trial briefs and documents on the
other phases of the Common Plan or Conspiracy up to 1939.
RALPH G. ALBRECHT (Associate Trial Counsel for the United States): May
it please the Tribunal, the Prosecution will now allude briefly to
certain facts, which may well be considered to be within judicial
purview, the consideration of which the Prosecution has found useful in
understanding and evaluating the evidence that will be presented in the
course of the Trial, in support of the allegations of the Indictment.
In the opinion of the Prosecution, some preliminary references must be
made to the National Socialist German Labor Party, the NSDAP, which in
itself is not one of the defendant organizations in this proceeding, but
which is represented among the defendant organizations by its most
important formations, namely the Leadership Corps of the NSDAP, which
you will hear referred to as Das Korps der Politischen Leiter der NSDAP,
the SS (Die Schutzstaffeln der NSDAP), and the SA (Die Sturmabteilungen)
of the Party.
With the permission of the Tribunal the Prosecution will offer at this
point, as its first exhibit, a chart showing the structure and
organization of the NSDAP, substantially as it existed at the peak of
its development in March 1945. This chart has been prepared by the
Prosecution on the basis of information contained in important and
well-known official publications of the National Socialist Party with
which the defendants must be presumed to have been well acquainted. We
refer particularly to the _Organization Book of the Party_, (_Das
Organisationsbuch der NSDAP_), and to the _National Socialist Year
Book_, (_Nationalsozialistisches Jahrbuch_), of both of which, be it
noted, the late Defendant Robert Ley was the chief editor or publisher.
Both books appeared, in the course of time, in many editions and in
hundreds of thousands of copies, throughout the period when the National
Socialist Party was in control of the German Reich and of the German
people. The chart, furthermore, which we are offering has been certified
on its face as correct by a high official of the Nazi Party, namely
Franz Xaver Schwarz, its treasurer (Reichsschatzmeister der NSDAP) and
its official in charge of Party administration; and his affidavit is
being submitted with the chart, and I now wish to offer this chart in
evidence. (Document Number 2903-PS, Exhibit USA-2.)
We have been able to have this chart duplicated, and, with the
permission of the Tribunal, we are making it available to all concerned.
Before I offer some remarks of explanation concerning the organization
of the National Socialist German Labor Party, which, we believe, will be
found useful in connection with the Prosecution’s case, I would just
like to call the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that the larger
chart which now appears is a simplification of the duplicated chart
which Your Honors have been furnished. For if it had been reproduced in
the same detail, I am afraid many of the boxes would not have appeared
intelligible from this point.
I would like to call your attention first of all to an organization with
which we will have to become very familiar: the Leadership Corps of the
NSDAP, (the Reichsleiter), which has been named as a defendant
organization and which comprises the sum of the officials and leaders of
the Nazi Party. If Your Honors will be good enough to follow me down the
center line of the chart, we come to the main horizontal line of
division where the word “Reichsleiter” appears. That is the first
category of the Leadership Corps, I should say, the main category,
perhaps, of the Leadership Corps.
The Führer, of course, stands above it. As we follow the vertical line
of division to the lower part of the chart, we reach five additional
boxes, which may be referred to collectively as the Hoheitsträger, the
bearers of the sovereignty of the Party, and those, are the Gauleiter,
the Kreisleiter, the Ortsgruppenleiter, the Zellenleiter, and the
Blockleiter.
The Führer at the top of our chart is the supreme and the only leader in
the Nazi hierarchy. His successor-designate was first the Defendant Hess
and subsequently the Defendant Göring.
The Reichsleiter, of whom 16 are shown on this chart, comprise
collectively the Party Directorate (Reichsleitung). Through them,
coordination of the Party and State machinery was achieved. A number of
these Reichsleiter, each of whom, at some time, was in charge of at
least one office within the Party Directorate, were also the heads of
other Party formations and affiliated and supervised organizations of
the Party and also of agencies of the State, and they even held
ministerial positions. The Reichsleitung may be said to represent the
horizontal organization of the Party according to functions, within
which all threads controlling the varied life of the German people met.
Each office within the Reichsleitung of the NSDAP executed definite
tasks assigned to it by the Führer, or by the leader of the Party
Chancellery (Chef der Parteikanzlei), who on the chart before you
appears directly under the Führer.
In 1945 the chief of the Party Chancellery was Martin Bormann, the
defendant in this proceeding, and before him, and until his flight to
England in 1941, the Defendant Rudolf Hess. It was the duty of the
Reichsleitung to make certain that these tasks assigned to it by the
Führer were carried out with expedition and without interruption, in
order that the will of the Führer quickly and rapidly was communicated
to the lowest Party echelon, the lowliest Zelle or Block. The individual
offices of the Reichsleitung had the mission to remain in constant and
closest contact with the life of the people through the agency of the
subdivisions of the component Party organizations in the Gaue, within
the Kreis, or the Ort or the lower group. These leaders had been taught
that the right to organize human beings accrued through the appreciation
of the fact that a people must be educated ideologically;
“weltanschaulich”, the Germans call it, that is to say, according to the
philosophy of National Socialism.
Among the Reichsleiter, on trial in this cause, may be included the
following defendants:
If Your Honors will follow me to this broad, horizontal line, we start
at the extreme left at the box marked with the Defendant Frank’s name.
At one time, although not in March 1945, he was the head of the Legal
Office of the Party. He was the Reichsleiter des Reichsrechtsamtes.
In the third square appears the Defendant Rosenberg, the delegate of the
Führer for Ideological Training and Education of the Party. He was
called “Der Beauftragte des Führers für die Überwachung der gesamten
geistigen und weltanschaulichen Schulung der NSDAP.” Next to him, to the
right, is the Defendant Von Schirach, leader of youth education, (Leiter
für die Jugenderziehung). Next to him, appears the late Defendant Robert
Ley, at one time head of the Party Organization
(Reichsorganisationsleiter der NSDAP) and also the leader of the German
Labor Front, the DAF (Leiter der Deutschen Arbeitsfront).
Then, if we cross the vertical line, and proceed to the right—in
passing I might allude to the box marked with the name of Schwarz. He
was the Party official and Reichsleiter, who certified to the chart
before the Tribunal.
As we proceed further to the right, next to the last box, we find the
name of the Defendant Frick, who was the leader of the Reichstag
fraction (Leiter der NS Reichstagsfraktion).
The next categories to be considered are the Hoheitsträger, at the
bottom of the vertical line, in the center of the chart. The National
Socialists called them the bearers of sovereignty. To them was assigned
the political sovereignty over specially designated subdivisions of the
State, of which they were the appointed leaders. The Hoheitsträger may
be said to represent the vertical organization of the Party.
These leaders, these Hoheitsträger included all Gauleiter, of whom there
were 42 within the Reich in 1945. A Gauleiter was a political leader of
the largest subdivision of the State. He was charged by the Führer with
the political, cultural, and economic control over all forms and
manifestations of the life of the people and the coordination of the
same with National Socialist philosophy and ideology.
A number of the defendants before the bar of this Tribunal were former
Gauleiter of the NSDAP. I mention, in this connection, the Defendant
Streicher, Gauleiter of Franconia, “Franken-Führer” they called him,
whose seat was in the city of Nuremberg. Von Schirach was Gauleiter of
Vienna and the Defendant Sauckel was Gauleiter of Thuringia.
The next lower category on the chart were the Kreisleiter, the political
leaders of the largest subdivision within a Gau. Then follow the
Ortsgruppenleiter, the political leaders of the largest subdivision
within the Kreis. And a Kreis consisted perhaps of several towns or
villages or, in the case of a larger city, anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000
households.
The next Hoheitsträger were the Zellenleiter, the political leaders of a
group from four to eight city blocks, or of a corresponding group within
country districts, and then follow the Blockleiter, the political
leaders of from 40 to 60 households.
Now, each of these political leaders, of these Hoheitsträger, or bearers
of sovereignty, was directly responsible to the next highest leader in
the Nazi hierarchy. The Gauleiter was directly responsible to the Führer
himself; the Kreisleiter was directly responsible to the Gauleiter, the
Ortsgruppenleiter to the Kreisleiter, and so on.
The Führer himself reserved to himself, in accordance with the
philosophy that runs through the Party, the right to name all Führer. It
was he, personally, that named the Reichsleiter, all members of the
Party Directorate. It was he that appointed all Gauleiter and
Kreisleiter and all political leaders, down to the grade of
Gauamtsleiter, which was a lower classification of political leader
within the Party organization of the Gau.
These Hoheitsträger, together with the Reichsleitung, constituted the
all-powerful group of leaders by means of which the Nazi Party reached
right down into the lives of the people, consolidated its control of
them and compelled them to conform to the National Socialist pattern.
For this purpose broad powers were given to them, including the right to
call upon all Party formations to effectuate their plans. They could
requisition the services of the SA and of the SS, as well as of the HJ
and of the NSKK. If I may direct your attention, for the moment, to the
Party organizations that appear at the extreme left of the chart, I
would just like to say that structurally these organizations were
organized regionally to accord with the offices and regions controlled
by the Hoheitsträger. If I might be more explicit, let us take the SA.
The subsidiary formations of the SA came down and corresponded, in its
lower organizations, to the Gau, so that we have a Gauleitung in the SA,
and further down, to the Kreis, so that we have a Kreisleitung in the
SA, so that the Gauleiter and the Kreisleiter, to cite two examples,
charged with a particular duty by the Führer, could call on these
organizations for assistance in carrying out their tasks.
These sinister implications of the use of this power will become more
apparent as the Prosecution’s case develops, and as the wealth of
evidentiary material is introduced into evidence to prove the
criminality of the defendant organizations.
The component Party-organizations, called “Gliederungen” within the
Party, are shown at the extreme left of the chart, and are the
organizations to which I directed the attention of Your Honors a moment
ago. These organizations actually constitute the Party itself, and
substantially the entire Party-membership is contained within these
organizations. The four principal organizations are sometimes referred
to as “para-military” organizations. They were uniformed organizations
and they were armed. These organizations were the notorious SA and SS,
which are named as party-defendants in this case, the HJ (Hitler Youth),
and the NSKK—the Motor Corps of the Party (Kraftfahrkorps). Then there
were also the National Socialist Women’s Organization, the National
Socialist German Students’ Bund (Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher
Studentenbund), and the National Socialist University Teachers’
Organization (Nationalsozialistischer Dozentenbund).
There are additional organizations that were officially designated
within the Party, as affiliated organizations, not Gliederungen or
controlled organizations, but affiliated organizations (Angeschlossene
Verbände der NSDAP). Among those organizations we have the German Labor
Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront)—the DAF; we have an organization that
controlled the civil service (Reichsbund der Deutschen Beamten). There
were the physicians within the National Socialist Deutscher Ärztebund;
there were the teachers in the National Socialist Lehrerbund; there were
the lawyers within the National Socialist Rechtswahrerbund, of which, at
one time, the Defendant Frank was the head.
There is another group of organizations which was officially known as
supervised organizations (Betreute Organisationen der NSDAP),
organizations that included certain specialized women’s organizations
(Deutsches Frauenwerk), certain student societies
(Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Studentenschaft), former university
students (Altherrenbund der Deutschen Studenten). There was a group that
had reference to the German communes (Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher
Gemeindetag), and there was a Reichsbund für Leibesübungen that
interested itself in controlling all those interested in physical
exercise.
According to the official Party designations applicable to the various
organizations and associations that controlled German life there was a
fourth category, which is the last organization that appears to the
right on the chart before Your Honors, which is sometimes simply called
“Weitere Nationalsozialistische Organisationen”, and here, in some
respects, we are in “No man’s land”, because the Party was not static,
it was dynamic and our latest information is now to the effect that the
organizations that ordinarily came within this category, well-known
organizations like the RAD (Reich Labor Service) and the NSFK (the
National Socialist Fliegerkorps) or Flying Corps may no longer be
included there. At least that was the opinion of the Party treasurer,
who certified to this chart.
I think with these few remarks, I have given some general impression of
the structure of the Party, with which we are dealing in this proceeding
before Your Honors.
Before leaving the chart, perhaps I would just like to point out several
other instances where some of the defendants appear in this set-up.
At the very top, to the left of the Führer, as marked on the chart
before Your Honors, are the successors-designate of the Führer. First is
the Defendant Hess, until 1941, and followed by the Defendant Göring.
Under the Führer appears the chief of the Party Chancellery, the
Defendant Martin Bormann, and then, if we come to the level of the
Reichsleiter, and go to the left, opposite Rosenberg’s name, we find
that somewhat below that his name is repeated as the head of an office
on a lower level, namely, the Foreign Relations Office of the Party,
which played such a sinister influence in the early work of the Party,
as will later appear in the documentary evidence to be presented to Your
Honors.
We then come to the late Defendant Ley’s name, on the main horizontal
division, and follow the dotted line to a lower level, and we will find
he was the chief of the German Labor Front, and if we come closer to the
vertical line, to a lower level, below the Reichsleitung, we find the
Defendant Speer in the Hauptamt für Technik (the Office of Technical
Affairs), and below that as the chief of the Bund Deutscher Technik
(German Technological League).
With the permission of the Tribunal, the Prosecution will now pass to
the consideration of the governmental machinery of the German State,
which, like the organization of the Nazi Party, requires some brief
observations before the Prosecution proceeds with the submission of
proof on the Common Plan of Conspiracy, with which the defendants have
been charged.
If the Tribunal will allow, the Prosecution will offer as its second
exhibit, another chart, delineating substantially the governmental
structure of the Reich Government as it existed in March 1945, and also
the chief Leadership Corps of the Reich Government and the Reich
Administration during those years. (Document Number 2905-PS, Exhibit
USA-3)
This chart has been prepared by the Prosecution on the basis of
information contained in two official publications, _Das Taschenbuch für
Verwaltungsbeamte_, (_the Manual for Administrative Officers_) and the
_National Sozialistisches Jahrbuch_, to which I have already alluded,
edited by the Defendant Ley.
This chart has been examined, corrected, and certified by the Defendant
Wilhelm Frick, whose affidavit is submitted with the chart. In fact, it
is reproduced directly on the copies of the charts before Your Honors.
It seems plain that the Defendant Frick, a former Minister of Interior
of the Reich from January 1933 to August 1943, was well qualified, by
reason of his position and long service in public office during the
National Socialist regime, to certify to the substantial accuracy of the
facts disclosed in this chart.
Now, with the permission of the Tribunal, I would like to make some
brief comments on this chart.
First of all, we refer to the Reichsregierung, which is the big box in
the center of the chart on the vertical line, directly below Hitler. The
Reichsregierung is a word that may not be translated literally as
“government of the Reich.” The word “Reichsregierung” is a word of art
and is applied collectively to the ministers who composed the German
Cabinet.
The Reichsregierung has been named as a defendant in this proceeding,
and as used in the Indictment the expression “Reichsregierung”
identifies a group which, we will urge, should be declared to have been
a criminal organization.
This group includes all the men named in that center box, who were
members of the Cabinet after 30 January 1933, that is, Reich ministers
with and without portfolio, and all other officials entitled to
participate in the deliberations of the Cabinet.
Secondly, it includes members of the Counsel of Ministers for the
Defense of the Reich. It is called “Ministerrat für die
Reichsverteidigung”, which is the large box to the right of the vertical
line.
Then, it includes the members of the Secret Cabinet Council, which is
the small box to the left of the vertical line, the Geheimer
Kabinettsrat, of which the Defendant Von Neurath was the President.
Unlike the Cabinets and Ministerial Councils in countries that were not
within the orbit of the Axis, the Reichsregierung, after 30 January,
1933 when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of the German Reich, did not
remain merely the executive branch of the Government. In short order it
also came to be possessed, and it exercised legislative, and other
functions as well, in the governmental system into which the German
Government developed while under the domination of the National
Socialist Party.
It is proper to observe here that unlike such Party organizations as the
SA and SS, the Reichsregierung, before 1933, certainly, was not a body
created exclusively or even predominantly for the purpose of committing
illegal acts. The Reichsregierung was an instrument of government
provided for by the Weimar constitution. Under the Nazi regime, however,
the Reichsregierung gradually became a primary agent of the Party, with
functions formulated in accordance with the objectives and methods of
the Party itself. The Party to all intents and purposes, was intended to
be a Führerorden, an order of Führer, a pool of political leaders. And
while the Party was, in the words of a German law, “the bearer of the
concept of the German State,” it was not identical with the State.
Thus, in order to realize its ideological and political objectives and
to reach the German people, the Party had to avail itself of official
state channels.
The Reichsregierung, and such agencies and offices established by it,
were the chosen instruments, by means of which the Party policies were
converted into legislative and administrative acts, binding upon the
German people as a whole.
In order to accomplish this result, the Reichsregierung was thoroughly
remodelled by the Party. Some of the steps may be here recorded, by
which the coordination of Party and State machinery was assured in order
to impose the will of the Führer on the German people.
On January 30, 1933, the date that the Führer became Reich Chancellor,
there were few National Socialists that were Cabinet members. But, as
the power of the Party in the Reich grew, the Cabinet came to include an
ever increasing number of Nazis, until by January 1937 no non-Party
member remained in the Reichsregierung. New cabinet-posts were created
and Nazis appointed to them. Many of these cabinet members were also in
the Reichsleitung of the Party.
To give but a few examples:
The Defendant Rosenberg, whose name Your Honors will find in that
central box on the vertical line, the delegate of the Führer for
Ideological Training and Education of the Party, was a member of the
Reichsregierung in his capacity as Minister for the Occupied Eastern
Areas, the Reichsminister für die besetzten Ostgebiete.
And if Your Honors will follow me on the vertical line to the main
horizontal line and proceed to the very end, you will find a box marked
“Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories”, of which the head was
the Defendant Rosenberg.
The Defendant Frick, the leader of the National Socialist fraction in
the Reichstag, was also Minister of the Interior.
If Your Honors will follow me down to the main horizontal line and two
boxes over you will find the Ministry presided over by the Defendant
Frick. Goebbels, the Reichsleiter für Propaganda, also sat in the
Cabinet as Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
(Reichsminister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda). He is in the next
box to the right from the Ministry of the Interior.
After the 25th of July 1934 Party participation in the work of the
Cabinet was at all times achieved through the person of the Defendant
Rudolf Hess, the deputy of the Führer. By a decree of Hitler the
Defendant Hess was invested with the power to take part in the editing
of legislative bills with all the departments of the Reich. Later this
power of the Führer’s deputy was expanded to include all executive
decisions and orders that were published in the _Reichsgesetzblatt_, the
official volume in which are contained the decrees of the State. After
Hess’s flight to England in 1941, the Defendant Martin Bormann, as his
successor, took over the same functions, and in addition he was given
the authority of a Reichsminister so that he could sit in the Cabinet.
Now, another item of importance:
On the 30th of January 1937, four years after Hitler became Chancellor,
the Führer executed the acceptances into the Party of those last few
Cabinet members who still remained out of the Party. Only one Cabinet
member had the strength of character to reject membership in the Party.
That was the Minister of Transportation and Minister of Posts, Mr.
Eltz-Rübenach. His example was not followed by the Defendant Von
Neurath. His example was not followed by the Defendant Raeder. And if
the Defendant Schacht was not yet at that time a member of the Party, I
might say that his example was not followed by the Defendant Schacht.
The chart shows many other instances where Party members on the highest,
as well as subordinate levels, occupied corresponding or other positions
in the organization of the State. Take Hitler himself. The Führer of the
NSDAP was also the Chancellor of the Reich, with which office,
furthermore, the office of President of the Reich was joined and merged
after the death of President Von Hindenburg in 1934.
Take the Defendant Göring, the successor-designate of Hitler. As Führer
of the SA, he sat in the Cabinet as Air Minister (Luftfahrtminister) and
he also held many other important positions, including that of
Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe (the German Air Force) and that of
Delegate for the Four Year Plan.
Himmler, the notorious head of the SS, the Reichsführer SS, was also the
chief of the German Police, reporting to the Defendant Frick. He himself
later became Minister of the Interior after the attempted assassination
of Hitler on June 20, 1944, which event also catapulted him into the
position of Commander-in-Chief of the German Reserve Army.
Now, at the extreme upper left of the chart is a small box that is
labeled “Reichstag” (the former German parliament).
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn for 10 minutes, and 10 minutes
only.
[_A recess was taken._]
MR. ALBRECHT: The Reichstag presents an anomaly in this picture. Under
the republic it had been the supreme law-making body of the Reich,
subject only to a limited check by the Reichsrat (the Council of the
Reich), by the President, and by the people themselves by way of
initiative and referendum.
Putting their opposition to all forms of Parliamentarianism into effect
at once, the Nazis proceeded to curtail the powers of the Reichstag, to
eliminate the Reichsrat, and to merge the Presidency with the Office of
Chancellor occupied by the Führer. By the Act of 24th of March 1933 the
Cabinet was given unlimited legislative powers, including the right to
deviate from the constitution. Subsequently, as I stated, the Reichsrat
was abolished, and with that act the residuum of the power to legislate
in the Reichstag was reduced to a minimum. I say the power was reduced
to a minimum because the actual power to legislate was never taken away
from the Reichstag, but certainly after the advent of the Party to power
it was never permitted to exercise as a legislature.
The Reichsregierung retained its legislative powers throughout, even
though from time to time other agencies of the Reichsregierung, such as
the Plenipotentiary for Administration, in the upper right of the chart,
(the Generalbevollmächtigter für die Reichsverwaltung), the
Plenipotentiary for Economy, also in the right-hand corner of the chart,
(the Generalbevollmächtigter für die Wirtschaft), and the Council of
Ministers for the Defense of the Reich, were created. That is the big
box to the right of the vertical line. And these agencies of the
Reichsregierung received certain concurrent legislative powers.
The development of the Reichstag into an emasculated legislative body
was, however, only an intermediate step on the road to rule by Führer
decrees. That was the ultimate goal of the Party, and a goal which they
achieved.
The Nazis then proceeded to delegate some of the powers of the Reich
Cabinet to all sorts of newly created agencies, some of which I have
already mentioned. Cabinet functions were delegated first of all to the
Reich Defense Council, the Reichsverteidigungsrat, possibly as early as
the 4th of April 1933, but we believe certainly not later than 1935. I
might say in this connection that with respect to a number of these
agencies of the Reichsregierung which received delegated powers, we are
moving in a somewhat shadowy land, because in developing this
organization we are dealing—to some extent, at least—with decrees and
actions that were secret, or secretive, in character.
A number of these decrees were never definitely fixed in time. A number
of them were never published and the German people themselves never
became acquainted with them. And that is why I say that the Reich
Defense Council may possibly have been created as early as two and
one-half months after the advent of Hitler to power but we believe that
we will be able to show to the satisfaction of the Tribunal that that
important body in the Government of the Reich was created certainly not
later than May 1935.
I say it is an important body. This was the war-planning group, of which
Hitler himself was chairman and the Defendant Göring the alternate. It
was a large war-planning body, as Your Honors will note, that included
many Cabinet members, and there was also a working committee—the true
numerical size of which does not appear from the chart—which was
presided over by the Defendant Keitel. That also was composed of Cabinet
members and of Reich defense officials, the majority of whom were
appointed by Cabinet officers and subject to their control. Other powers
were delegated to the Plenipotentiary, whom I have named before, for
Administration, appearing at the extreme right of the chart. That was
the Defendant Frick, and later the notorious Himmler.
Subordinate to Frick in his capacity as Plenipotentiary for
Administration were complete ministries, the Ministry of the Interior
(Frick’s old ministry), Ministry of Justice, Education, Church Affairs,
and Raumordnung (the Ministry for Special Planning).
Other powers went to the delegate for the Four Year Plan, again the
Defendant Göring, whose box appears to the left of the median line, half
way to the edge.
There were certain other powers that went to an organization within the
shadow-land I mentioned, and which, unfortunately, does not have its
name appear on this chart, the Dreierkollegium (the College of Three),
which title should really be imposed over the last three boxes in the
upper right hand corner; because the Dreierkollegium consisted not alone
of the Plenipotentiary for Administration, but also the Plenipotentiary
for War Economy, and the chairman of that group who, I believe, was the
Defendant Keitel, as the head of the OKW, the Wehrmacht, all the armed
forces. The duties of the Dreierkollegium would seem to have included
the drafting of decrees in preparation of and for use during war. To the
Secret Cabinet Council, the Geheimer Kabinettsrat, of which the
Defendant Von Neurath was chairman,—or President, I believe was his
title, went other powers. That Secret Cabinet Council was created by a
decree of the Führer in 1938.
Certain other delegation of power took place to the Ministerrat für die
Reichsverteidigung (the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the
Realm), which is the smallest box appearing under the large box of the
Reich Defense Council, to the right of the vertical line.
The Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich was responsible to
the Führer alone. Its membership, as would seem to be indicated on the
chart, was taken from the Reich Defense Council. It had broad powers to
issue decrees with the force of law in so far as the Reichsregierung
itself had not legislated on the subject.
It should be stressed that this delegation of Cabinet functions to
various groups, composed largely of its own members, helped to conceal
some of the important policies of the Reichsregierung, namely, those
relating to the preparation of war, which delegated the necessary
authority to secret and semi-secret agencies. Thus in a general way, as
I have outlined, did the National Socialist Party succeed in putting
Nazi policies into effect through its dummy, through the machinery of
the State, the Reichsregierung, in its revised form.
I think it might be helpful if Your Honors will permit me to point out
on this chart the large number of instances in which the defendants’
names reappear in connection with the functions of the Government of the
Reich.
Now, first of all, the Reichsregierung itself—I am sorry to say in that
connection that there is one omission, a very important omission. It is
the name of the Vice Chancellor under Hitler, Von Papen, who was Vice
Chancellor from the seizure of power until some time around the purge in
June 1934.
Your Honors will see a grouping of Reich Ministers with portfolio, and
under it of Ministers without portfolio, in which mostly the names of
the defendants in court are listed. There are State Ministers listed
acting as Reich Ministers, and you will note the name of the Defendant
Frank. There are other participants in Cabinet meetings, among which you
will notice the name of the Defendant Von Schirach.
Now, this whole line on which the Cabinet hangs is the level of the
Reich Cabinet, and as I have stated, organizations that grew out of this
maternal organism, the Reichsregierung.
To the left the Secret Cabinet Council includes the names of the
defendants. Still further to the left is the delegate for the Four Year
Plan. And over to the very end is the Reichstag, of which the President
was the Defendant Göring, and the leader of the Reichstagsfraktion, the
Defendant Frick.
If we proceed to the right of the median line, we have the Reich Defense
Council, with Hitler himself as chairman, the Reich Defense Committee
under it, and the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Realm,
which grew out of the Reich Defense Council. And we see mostly the names
of Cabinet ministers, including, if I may advert to that fact,
particularly the names of purely military leaders, such as the Defendant
Raeder and the Defendant Keitel.
And farther to the right, all names mentioned as defendants in these
proceedings, Schacht, the first Plenipotentiary for War Economy, later
succeeded by Funk; Field Marshal Keitel as the Chief of the OKW, and the
Defendant Frick again as Plenipotentiary for Administration, in the
triangle which became known as the “Dreierkollegium.”
If we descend the vertical line to the horizontal line in the middle, we
have the various ministries over which these Cabinet ministers, this
Reichsregierung, presided. We have also at the extreme left and the
extreme right, very important and special offices that were set up at
the instigation of the Party, and those offices reported directly to the
Führer himself.
If I may start at the extreme left, I will point out that as the civil
government moved after the military machine into the lowlands, the
Defendant Seyss-Inquart became the Reichskommissar for the Netherlands.
A few names below that of Seyss-Inquart is the name of the Defendant Von
Neurath, the Reichsprotektor for Bohemia and Moravia, who was later
succeeded by the Defendant Frick; and under those names, the name of the
Defendant Frank, the General-gouverneur of Poland.
Adjoining the box of these administrators who reported directly to the
Reich Chancellor and President was the Foreign Office, presided over
first by the Defendant Von Neurath, and subsequently by the Defendant
Von Ribbentrop.
If we proceed down below the elongation under the smaller box dealing
with German legations, there should, of course, in any itemized,
detailed treatment of that box appear the name of the Defendant Von
Papen, the representative of the Reich in Austria for a time, and later
in Turkey.
The next box on the horizontal line is the Ministry of Economics, (the
Reichswirtschaftsministerium). First is the name of the Defendant
Schacht, followed by the name of the Defendant Göring, and by the name
of the Defendant Funk.
The next box, the Ministry for Armament and War Production (the
Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion), was presided over
by the Defendant Speer. And out of this organization, and subordinate to
it, in the box devoted to the Organization Todt, again the name of the
Defendant Speer, who succeeded Todt to the leadership of that
organization upon the death of Todt.
Two boxes over, the Ministry of Justice, if Your Honors will follow me,
down close to the bottom of the page to the last left-hand box,
appearing under the Ministry of Justice, is the
Reichsrechtsanwaltskammer—I am sorry, the box next to the bottom at the
left which is devoted to the Academy for German Law (Die Akademie für
deutsches Recht), over which the Defendant Frank presided for a time.
Almost at the vertical line, the Air Ministry, of which the Defendant
Göring was Oberkommandant; and next to it again the Ministry of the
Interior, presided over by the Defendant Frick.
If Your Honors will follow me again to the bottom of all the squares to
the small horizontal line at the bottom of the Ministry of the Interior,
we come to certain state officials, called “Reich Governors”
(Reichsstatthalter). And if those boxes were sufficiently detailed there
would appear thereon the names, among others, of the Defendant Sauckel,
who besides being the Gauleiter of Thuringia, was also the
Reichsstatthalter or Governor there. There would also appear the name of
the Defendant Von Schirach, who was not only the Gauleiter of Vienna,
but also the State representative there—the Governor—the
Reichsstatthalter of Vienna.
And springing out of the Ministry of the Interior is the box or boxes
devoted to the German police, and in the first sub-division appearing to
the right, the Chief of the Security Police and SD, the name of the
Defendant Kaltenbrunner.
In the Ministry of Propaganda, about midway down in this box, appears
the name of the Defendant Fritzsche, who, although as the chart is
drawn, would not appear in the position of one of the chief directing
heads of the Ministry, actually was very much more important than his
position there will indicate; and proof will be submitted to Your Honors
in support of that contention.
At the end of the horizontal line is the Ministry for the Occupied
Eastern Territories (the Reichsministerium für die Besetzten Ostgebiete)
of which the Defendant Rosenberg was the head.
And to the right of that box, among the agencies immediately subordinate
to Hitler as Reichskanzler and President, there is the office of General
Inspector for Highways, with the name of the Defendant Speer associated
with it; the General Inspector for Water and Energy, again with the name
of the Defendant Speer associated with it.
There follows the Reich Office for Forestry (the Reichsforstamt) under
the Defendant Göring; the Reichsjugendführer (the leader of the Reich
Youth), the Defendant Von Schirach; the Reich Housing Commissioner
(Reichswohnungskommissar), the late Defendant Robert Ley; and among the
subsequent agencies, that of the important Reichsbank, over which the
Defendant Schacht presided, to be succeeded subsequently by the
Defendant Funk; the General Inspector for the Reich Capital
(Generalbauinspekteur für die Reichshauptstadt), the Defendant Speer.
I think I have named all of the defendants as they appear on this chart,
and of those now before Your Honors in this cause I think they all
appear on this chart in one capacity or another, in one or more
capacities,—all, I might add, except the Defendant Jodl. Jodl was the
Chief of Staff of all the Armed Forces. He was the head of the Wehrmacht
Führungsstab, and in the chart as evidential material which will be
subsequently brought before Your Honors, the name Jodl will figure
prominently in connection with the organization of the Armed Forces.
If I may make one correction at this point, a slip of the tongue that
was called to my attention, in discussing the chart of the Party, in the
small box to the left containing the designates of the Führer to succeed
him to the Party leadership, I made the statement that Göring succeeded
Hess as Führer-designate. Actually, when the designations were announced
by the Führer, Göring was always the first designate, and the Defendant
Hess the second.
In Annex A of the Indictment the various offices, Party functions, and
State offices which these defendants held in the course of the period
under discussion, these various offices are mentioned. And we would like
to submit at this time and offer into evidence as exhibits proof of the
offices that were occupied by these defendants. This proof consists of
17 statements, more or less, signed by the defendants themselves and/or
their counsel, certifying to the Party and State offices that they have
held from time to time. Some of these statements were not as complete as
we desired to have them, and we have appended thereto a statement
showing such additional offices or proof of Party membership as was
available to us. I would like to offer those into evidence.
MR. ALBRECHT: And now, if Your Honors please, I offer into evidence the
two charts to which my remarks have been addressed in the course of the
morning.
THE PRESIDENT: Will counsel for the United States continue the evidence
until half past 12?
COL. STOREY: If Your Honor please, it lacks 2 minutes until half past
12. Mr. Albrecht has finished, and will it be convenient for Your Honors
for Major Wallis to start at 2 o’clock?
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
[_The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours._]
_Afternoon Session_
COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, Major Frank Wallis will now present
the briefs and documents supporting the briefs in behalf of the phase of
the case known as the Common Plan or Conspiracy, up through 1939.
Major Wallis.
MAJOR FRANK B. WALLIS (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States):
Mr. President, members of the Tribunal:
It will be my purpose to establish most of the material allegations of
the Indictment running from Paragraph IV on Page 3, to Subparagraph E on
Page 6. The subjects involved are:
The aims of the Nazi Party, their doctrinal techniques, their rise to
power, and the consolidation of control over Germany between 1933 and
1939 in preparation for aggressive war.
This story has already been sketched by the American Chief Prosecutor.
Moreover, it is history, beyond challenge by the defendants. For the
most part, we rely upon the Tribunal to take judicial notice of it. What
we offer is merely illustrative material—including statements by the
defendants and other Nazi leaders—laws, decrees, and the like. We do
not need to rest upon captured documents or other special sources,
although some have been used.
For the convenience of the court and Defense counsel, the illustrative
material has been put together in document books, and the arguments
derived from them have been set out in trial briefs.
I intend only to comment briefly on some of the materials and to
summarize the main lines of the briefs.
What is the charge in Count One?
The charge in Count One is that the defendants, with divers other
persons, participated in the formulation or execution of a Common Plan
or Conspiracy to commit, or which involved the commission of Crimes
against Humanity (both within and without Germany), War Crimes, and
Crimes against Peace.
The charge is, further, that the instrument of cohesion among the
defendants, as well as an instrument for the execution of the purposes
of the conspiracy, was the Nazi Party, of which each defendant was a
member or to which he became an adherent.
The scope of the proof which I shall offer is:
First, that the Nazi Party set for itself certain aims and objectives,
involving basically the acquisition of “Lebensraum”, or living space,
for all “racial” Germans.
Second, that it was committed to the use of any methods, whether or not
legal, in attaining these objectives, and that it did in fact use
illegal methods.
Third, that it put forward and disseminated various lines of propaganda,
and used various propaganda techniques to assist it in its unprincipled
rise to power.
Fourth, that it ultimately did seize all governmental power in Germany.
Fifth, that it used this power to complete the political conquest of the
State, to crush all opposition, and to prepare the nation
psychologically and otherwise for the foreign aggression upon which it
was bent from the outset.
In general we undertake to outline, so far as relevant to the charge,
what happened in Germany during the pre-war period, leaving it to others
to carry the story and proof through the war years.
The aims of this conspiracy were open and notorious. It was far
different from any other conspiracy ever unfolded before a court of
justice, not only because of the gigantic number of people involved, the
period of time covered, the magnitude and audacity of it, but because,
unlike other criminal conspirators, these conspirators often boastfully
proclaimed to the world what they planned to do, before they did it.
As an illustration, Hitler, in his speech of 30 January 1941, said:
“My program was to abolish the Versailles Treaty. It is futile
nonsense for the rest of the world to pretend today that I did
not reveal this program until 1933 or 1935 or 1937. Instead of
listening to the foolish chatter of emigres, these gentlemen
would have been wiser to read what I have written thousands of
times. No human being has declared or recorded what he wanted
more than I. Again and again I wrote these words, ‘The abolition
of the Treaty of Versailles’.”
First, a brief reference to the history of the Nazi Party.
The Court will no doubt recollect that the National Socialist Party had
its origin in the German Labor Party, which was founded on 5 January
1919 in Munich. It was this organization which Hitler joined as seventh
member on 12 September 1919. At a meeting of the German Labor Party held
on 24 February 1920, Hitler announced to the world the “25 Theses” that
subsequently became known as the “unalterable” program of the National
Socialist German Workers Party.
A few days later, on 4 March 1920, the name of the German Labor Party
was changed to the “National Socialist German Workers Party,” frequently
referred to as the NSDAP, or Nazi Party. It is under that name that the
Nazi Party continued to exist until its dissolution after the collapse
and unconditional surrender of Germany in 1945.
The disagreements and intrigues within the Party between Hitler’s
followers and those who opposed him were finally resolved on 29 July
1921, when Hitler became “First Chairman” and was invested with
extraordinary powers. Hitler immediately reorganized the Party and
imposed upon it the Führerprinzip—the leadership principle—of which
you will hear more later. Thereafter Hitler, the Führer, determined all
questions and made all decisions for the Party.
The main objectives of the Party, which are fastened upon the defendants
and their co-conspirators by reason of their membership in, or knowing
adherence to the Party, were openly and notoriously avowed. They were
set out in the Party program of 1920, were publicized in _Mein Kampf_
and in Nazi literature generally, and were obvious from the continuous
pattern of public action of the Party from the date of its founding.
Now two consequences, of importance in the Trial of this case, derive
from the fact that the major objectives of the Party were publicly and
repeatedly proclaimed:
First, the Court may take judicial notice of them.
Second, the defendants and their co-conspirators cannot be heard to deny
them or to assert that they were ignorant of them.
The Prosecution offers proof of the major objectives of the Party—and
hence of the objectives of the conspiracy—only to refresh or implement
judicial recollection. The main objectives were:
First, to overthrow the Treaty of Versailles and its restrictions on
military armament and activity in Germany;
Second, to acquire territories lost by Germany in World War I;
Third, to acquire other territories inhabited by so-called “racial
Germans”;
and
Fourth, to acquire still further territories said to be needed as living
space by the racial Germans so incorporated—all at the expense of
neighboring and other countries.
In speaking of the first aim, Hitler made an admission which applied
equally to the other aims, namely, that he had stated and written a
thousand times or more that he demanded the abolition of the Versailles
Treaty.
These aims are fully documented in the evidence offered by the
Prosecution on this phase of the case, and it is not my purpose at this
time to recite to the Court numerous declarations made by the defendants
and others with respect to these aims.
Moreover, these conspirators again and again publicly announced to the
still unbelieving world that they proposed to accomplish these
objectives by any means found opportune, including illegal means and
resort to threat of force, force, and aggressive war. The use of force
was distinctly sanctioned, in fact guaranteed, by official statements
and directives of the conspirators which made activism and
aggressiveness a political quality obligatory for Party members. As
Hitler stated in _Mein Kampf_:
“What we needed and still need are not a hundred or two hundred
reckless conspirators, but a hundred thousand and a second
hundred thousand fighters for our philosophy of life.”
In 1929 Hitler stated:
“We confess further that we will tear anyone to pieces who would
dare hinder us in this undertaking. Our rights will be protected
only when the German Reich is again supported by the point of
the German dagger.”
Hitler, in 1934, addressing the Party Congress at Nuremberg, stated the
duties of Party members in the following terms:
“Only a part of the people will consist of really active
fighters. It is they who were fighters of the National Socialist
revolution. Of them, more is demanded than of the millions among
the rest of the population. For them it is not sufficient to
confess, ‘I believe’, but to swear, ‘I fight’.”
In proof of the fact that the Party was committed to the use of any
means, whether or not legal or honorable, it is only necessary to remind
the Court that the Party virtually opened its public career by staging a
revolution—the Munich Putsch of 1923.
Now let us consider for a moment the doctrinal techniques of the Common
Plan or Conspiracy which are alleged in the Indictment.
To incite others to join in the Common Plan, or Conspiracy and as a
means of securing for the Nazi conspirators the highest degree of
control over the German community, they disseminated and exploited
certain doctrines.
The first of these was the “master race” doctrine—that persons of
so-called “German blood” were a master race. This doctrine of racial
supremacy was incorporated as Point 4 in the Party program, which
provided:
“Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the
race can only be one who is of German blood without
consideration of confession. Consequently, no Jew can be a
member of the race.”
They outlined this master race doctrine as a new religion—the faith of
the blood—superseding in individual allegiance all other religions and
institutions. The Defendant Rosenberg and the Defendant Streicher were
particularly prominent in disseminating this doctrine. Much of the
evidence to be offered in this case will illustrate the Nazi
conspirators’ continued espousal and exploitation of this master race
doctrine.
This doctrine had an eliminatory purpose. Call anything “non-German” or
Jewish, and you have a clear right, indeed a duty, to cast it out. In
fact purges did not stop at so-called racial lines, but went far beyond.
The second important doctrine which permeates the entire conspiracy and
is one of the important links in establishing the guilt of each of these
defendants is the doctrine or concept of the Führerprinzip, or
leadership principle.
This doctrine permeated the Nazi Party and all its formations and allied
organizations and eventually permeated the Nazi State and all
institutions, and is of such importance that I would like to dwell upon
it for a few moments and attempt to explain the concepts which it
embraces.
The Führerprinzip embodies two major political concepts: