Authoritarianism implies the following: All authority is concentrated at
the top and is vested in one person only, the Führer. It further implies
that the Führer is infallible as well as omnipotent. The Party manual
states:
“Under the Commandments of the National Socialists: The Führer is always
right. . . .”
Also, there are no legal or political limits to the authority of the
Führer. Whatever authority is wielded by others is derived from the
authority of the Führer. Moreover, within the sphere of jurisdiction
allotted to him, each appointee of the Führer manipulates his power in
equally unrestricted fashion, subordinate only to the command of those
above him. Each appointee owes unconditional obedience to the Führer and
to the superior Party leaders in the hierarchy.
Each Political Leader was sworn in yearly. According to the Party
manual, which will be introduced in evidence, the wording of the oath
was as follows:
“I pledge eternal allegiance to Adolf Hitler. I pledge
unconditional obedience to him and the Führer appointed by him.”
The Party manual also provides that:
“The Political Leader is inseparably tied to the ideology and
the organization of the NSDAP. His oath only ends with his death
or with his expulsion from the National Socialist Community.”
As the Defendant Hans Frank stated in one of his publications:
“Leadership principle in the administration means:
“Always to replace decision by majority, by decision on the part
of a specific person with clear jurisdiction and with sole
responsibility to those above, and to entrust to his authority
the realization of the decision to those below.”
And finally the concept of authoritarianism contained in the
Führerprinzip implies: The authority of the Führer extends into all
spheres of public and private life.
The second main concept of the Führerprinzip is totalitarianism which
implies the following:
The authority of the Führer, his appointees, and through them, of the
Party as a whole, extends into all spheres of public and private life.
The Party dominates the State.
The Party dominates the Armed Forces.
The Party dominates all individuals within the State.
The Party eliminates all institutions, groups, and individuals unwilling
to accept the leadership of its Führer.
As the Party manual states:
“Only those organizations can lay claim to the institution of
the leadership principle and to the National Socialist meaning
of the State and people in the National Socialist meaning of the
term, which . . . have been integrated into, supervised and
formed by the Party and which, in the future, will continue to
do so.”
The manual goes on to state:
“All others which conduct an organizational life of their own
are to be rejected as outsiders and will either have to adjust
themselves or disappear from public life.”
Illustrations of the Führerprinzip and its application to the Party, the
State and allied organizations are fully set forth in the brief and
accompanying documents, which will be offered in evidence.
The third doctrine or technique employed by the Nazi conspirators to
make the German people amenable to their will and aims was the doctrine
that war was a noble and necessary activity of Germans. The purpose of
this doctrine was well expressed by Hitler in _Mein Kampf_ when he said:
“The question of restoration of German power is not a question
of how to fabricate arms, but a question of how to create the
spirit which makes a people capable of bearing arms. If this
spirit dominates a people, the will finds a thousand ways to
secure weapons.”
Hitler’s writings and public utterances are replete with declarations
rationalizing the use of force and glorifying war. The following is
typical, when he said:
“Always before God and the world, the stronger has the right to
carry through his will. History proves it! He who has no might
has no use for right.”
As will be shown in subsequent proof, this doctrine of the glorification
of war played a major part in the education of the German youth of the
pre-war era.
I now offer the documents which establish the aims of the Nazi Party and
their doctrinal techniques. I also have for the assistance of the Court
and Defense Counsel, briefs which make the argument from these
documents.