The first attempt to acquire political control was by force. In fact at
no time during this period did the Party participate in any electoral
campaigns, nor did it see fit to collaborate with other political. . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Major Wallis, have you got copies of these for
defendants’ counsel?
MAJOR WALLIS: In Room 54, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, they will be wanting to follow them now.
MAJOR WALLIS: Mr. President, my remarks, which I am proceeding toward,
will cover an entirely different subject than in the briefs before you.
The briefs cover what I have already said, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Are you depositing a copy of these briefs for each of the
defendants’ counsel?
MAJOR WALLIS: I am informed, if Your Honor pleases, that the same
procedure has been followed with respect to these briefs as has been
followed with respect to the documents, namely, a total of six has been
made available to the defendants in Room 54. If Your Honor does not deem
that number sufficient, I feel sure that I can give assurance, on behalf
of the Chief Prosecutor of the United States, that before the close of
the day an ample supply of copies will be there for use.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal thinks that the Defense Counsel should each
have a copy of these briefs.
MAJOR WALLIS: That will be done, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Members of the Defense Counsel: You will understand that
I have directed on behalf of the Tribunal that you should each have a
copy of this brief.
DR. DIX: We are very grateful for this directive, but none of us has
seen any of these documents so far. I assume and hope that these
documents will be given to the Defense in the German translation.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Major Wallis.
MAJOR WALLIS: I now direct your attention to the rise to power of the
Nazi Party.
The 9th of November 1923 warranted the end as well as the beginning of
an era. On the 9th of November occurred the historical fact popularly
known as the Hitler Putsch. During the night of November 8th to 9th
Hitler, supported by the SA under the Defendant Göring, at a meeting in
Munich, proclaimed the National Revolution and his dictatorship of
Germany, and announced himself as the Chancellor of the Reich. On the
following morning the duly constituted authorities of the State, after
some bloodshed in Munich, put an end to this illegal attempt to seize
the Government. Hitler and some of his followers were arrested and
tried, and sentenced to imprisonment.
The new era in the National Socialist movement commences with Hitler’s
parole from prison in December 1924. With the return of its leader, the
Party took up its fight for power once again. The prohibitions invoked
by the Government against the Nazi Party at the time of the Munich
Putsch gradually were removed and Hitler the Führer of the Party,
formally announced that in seeking to achieve its aims to overthrow the
Weimar Government, the Party would resort only to “legal” means. A valid
inference from these facts may well be suggested, namely that the
Party’s resort to “legality” was in reality only a condition on which it
was permitted to carry on its activities in a democratically organized
state. But consistent with its professed resort to “legality”, the Party
now participated in the popular elections of the German people and
generally took part in political activity. At the same time it engaged
in feverish activity to expand the Party membership, its organizational
structure and activities. The SA and the SS recruited numerous new
members. Hitler’s _Mein Kampf_ appeared in 1925. The Hitler Youth was
founded. Newspapers were published, among them the _Völkischer
Beobachter_ of which the Defendant Rosenberg was editor, and _Der
Angriff_ published by Goebbels, later the notorious Minister of
Propaganda and Public Enlightenment. Meetings of other political parties
were interfered with and broken up, and there was much street brawling.
The results of the Party’s attempt to win political power made little
headway for a number of years, despite the strenuous efforts exerted to
that end. In 30 elections in which the National Socialists participated
from 1925 to 1930 for seats in the Reichstag and in the Landtage or
Provincial Diets of the various German states, the Nazis received
mandates in but 16 and gained no seats at all in 14 elections. The
National Socialist vote in the 1927 elections did not exceed 4 per cent
of the total number of votes cast. The year 1929 marks the first modest
success at the polls in the State of Thuringia. The Nazi received over
11 per cent of the popular vote, elected 6 representatives out of the
total of 53 to the Diet, and the Defendant Frick became Minister of
Interior of Thuringia, the first National Socialist chosen to
ministerial rank.
With such encouragement and proof of the success of its methods to win
support, the Nazi Party redoubled its traditional efforts (by means of
terror and coercion). These met with some rebuff on the part of the
Reich and various German states. Prussia required its civil servants to
terminate their membership in the Party and forbade the wearing of brown
shirts, which were worn by the SA of the Party. Baden likewise ruled
against the wearing of brown shirts, and Bavaria prohibited the wearing
of uniforms by political organizations. New National Socialist writings
appeared in Germany. The new _National Socialist Monthly_ appeared under
the editorship of the Defendant Rosenberg, and shortly thereafter, in
June 1930, Rosenberg’s _Myth of the 20th Century_ was published.
Against this background—President Von Hindenburg having meanwhile
dissolved the Reichstag when Chancellor Brüning failed to obtain a vote
of confidence—Germany moved to the polls once more on the 14th
September 1930. By this election their representation in the Reichstag
was increased from 12 seats to 107 seats out of a total of 577.
The new Reichstag met and 107 Nazis marched into the session dressed in
brown shirts. Rowdy opposition at once developed, intent on causing the
fall of the Brüning Cabinet. Taking advantage of the issues caused by
the then prevailing general economic distress, the Nazis sought a vote
of non-confidence and dissolution of the Reichstag. Failing in these
obstructionary tactics, the Nazis walked out on the Reichstag.
With 107 members in the Reichstag the Nazi propaganda increased in
violence. The obstruction by the Nazi deputies of the Reichstag
continued with the same pattern of conduct. Repeatedly motions of
non-confidence in Brüning and for dissolution of the Reichstag were
offered and were lost. And after every failure the Nazi members stalked
out of the chamber anew.
By spring of 1932, Brüning’s position became untenable and the Defendant
Von Papen was appointed Chancellor. The Reichstag was dissolved and new
elections held in which the Nazis increased the number of their seats to
230 out of a total of 608. The Nazi Party was becoming a strong party in
Germany, but it had failed to become the majority party. The obstructive
tactics of the Nazi deputies in the Reichstag continued, and by the fall
of 1932 Von Papen’s Government was no longer able to continue. President
Von Hindenburg again dissolved the Reichstag, and in the new elections
of November the Nazi representation in the Reichstag actually decreased
to 196 seats. The short-lived Von Schleicher Government then came into
being—it was the 3rd December 1932—and by the end of January 1933 it
went out of existence. With the support of the Nationalist Party under
Hugenberg and other political assistance, Hitler became Chancellor of
Germany by designation of Von Hindenburg.
That is the end of the prologue, as it were, to the dramatic and
sinister story that will be developed by the Prosecution in the course
of this Trial. Let it be noted here, however, and remembered, as the
story of the misdeeds and crimes of these defendants and their fellow
conspirators are exposed, that at no time in the course of their alleged
“legal” efforts to gain possession of the State, did the conspirators
represent a majority of the people.
Now it is commonly said that the Nazi conspirators “seized control” when
Hitler became Chancellor of the German Republic on 30 January 1933. It
may be more truly said that they seized control upon securing the
passage of the Law for the Protection of the People and the State on 24
March 1933. The steps leading to this actual seizure of power are worthy
of recital. The Nazi conspirators were fully cognizant of their lack of
control over the legislative powers of the republic. They needed, if
they were to carry out the first steps of their grand conspiracy under
the cloak of law, an enabling act which, would vest supreme legislative
power in Hitler’s Cabinet, free from all restraints of the Weimar
constitution. Such an enabling act however required a change in the
constitution which, in turn, required two-thirds of the regular members
of the Reichstag to be present, and at least two-thirds of the votes of
those present.
The time-table of events leading up to the passage of this enabling act,
known as the Law for the Protection of the People and the State, is as
follows:
1. On January 30th, 1933 Hitler held his first Cabinet meeting and we
have the original minutes of that meeting, which will be offered in
evidence. The Defendants Von Papen, Von Neurath, Frick, Göring, and Funk
were present. According to the minutes of this meeting, Hitler pointed
out that the adjournment of the Reichstag would be impossible without
the collaboration of the Center Party. He went on to say:
“We might, however, consider suppressing the Communist Party to
eliminate its votes in the Reichstag and by this measure achieve
a majority in the Reichstag.”
He expressed the fear, however, that this might result in a general
strike. The Reich Minister of Economy, according to these official
minutes, stated that in his opinion, it was impossible to avoid the
suppression of the Communist Party of Germany, for, if that were not
done they could not achieve a majority in the Reichstag, certainly not a
majority of two-thirds; that, after the suppression of the Communist
Party, the passage of an enabling act through the Reichstag would be
possible. The Defendant Frick suggested that it would be best initially
to request an enabling law from the Reichstag. At this meeting Hitler
agreed to contact representatives of the Center Party the next morning
to see what could be done by way of making a deal with them.
2. The next event in this time-table was the Reichstag fire on the 28th
of February 1933.
3. Taking advantage of the uncertainty and unrest created by the
Reichstag fire, and the disturbances being created by the SA, the
provisions of the Weimar constitution guaranteeing personal freedom, and
other personal liberties were suspended by a decree of the Reich
President on February 28, 1933.
Then on 5th of March 1933, elections to the Reichstag were held. The
Nazis acquired 288 seats out of a total of 647.
On the 15th of March 1933, another meeting of the Reich Cabinet was
held, and we also have the original official minutes of that meeting
which bears the initials, opposite their names, of the defendants who
were present at that meeting, signifying that they have read—I contend
that it is a reasonable inference to state that it signifies that they
read these minutes and approved them. The following defendants were
present at this meeting: Von Papen, Von Neurath, Frick, Göring, and
Funk. At this meeting, according to these official minutes Hitler stated
that the putting over of the enabling act in the Reichstag by a
two-thirds vote would, in his opinion, meet with no opposition. The
Defendant Frick pointed out that the Reichstag had to ratify the
enabling act with a constitutional majority within three days, and that
the Center Party had not expressed itself negatively. He went on to say
that the enabling act would have to be broadly conceived in a manner to
allow for deviation from the provisions of the Constitution of the
Reich. He further stated that as far as the constitutional requirements
of a two-thirds majority was concerned, a total of 432 delegates would
have to be present for the ratification of the enabling act. The
Defendant Göring expressed his conviction at this meeting that the
enabling act would be ratified with the required two-thirds vote for, if
necessary, the majority could be obtained by refusing admittance to the
Reichstag of some Social Democrats.
Now on the 20th of March another Cabinet meeting was held, and we also
have the official, original records of this meeting which will be
offered in evidence. The Defendants Frick, Von Papen, Von Neurath,
Göring, and Funk were present. The proposed enabling act was again the
subject of a discussion. Hitler reported on the conference he had
completed with the representatives of the Center Party. The Defendant
Neurath proposed a note concerning the arrangement to be agreed to by
the representatives of the Center Party. The Defendant Frick expounded
to the meeting the contents of the draft of the proposed law, and
further stated that changes in the standing orders or rules of the
Reichstag were also necessary, that an explicit rule must be made that
unexcused absent delegates be considered present, and if that was done
it would probably be possible to ratify the enabling act on the
following Thursday in all three readings.
It is interesting to note that among the things recorded in the official
minutes of this Cabinet meeting was the Defendant Göring’s announcement
that he had ordered SA troops on the Polish border to be cautious and
not to show themselves in uniform, and that the Defendant Neurath
recommended also that the SA be cautious, especially in Danzig. In
addition, the Defendant Neurath pointed out that Communists in SA
uniforms were being caught continuously. These stool pigeons had to be
hanged. Justice had to find means and ways to make possible such
punishment for Communist stool pigeons, according to the Defendant
Neurath.
On 14th March 1933 the Defendant Frick announced:
“When the Reichstag meets the 21st of March, the Communists will
be prevented by urgent labor elsewhere from participation in the
session. In concentration camps they will be re-educated for
productive work. We will know how to render harmless
permanently, sub-humans who don’t want to be re-educated.”
During this period, taking advantage of the decree suspending
constitutional guarantees of freedom, a large number of Communists,
including Party officials and Reichstag deputies, and a smaller number
of Social Democrat officials and deputies, were placed in protective
custody. On 23 March 1933, in urging the passage of the enabling act,
Hitler stated before the Reichstag:
“It is up to you gentlemen, to make the decision now. It will be
for peace or war.”
On 24 March 1933 only 535 out of the regular 747 deputies of the
Reichstag were present. The absence of some was unexcused; they were in
protective custody in concentration camps. Subject to the full weight of
the Nazi pressure and terror, the Reichstag passed an enabling act known
as the “Law for the Protection of the People and State,” with a vote of
441 in favor. This law marks the real seizure of political control by
the conspirators. Article 1 provided: that the Reich laws can be enacted
by the Reich Cabinet. Article 2 provided: the National laws enacted by
the Reich Cabinet may deviate from the constitution. Article 3 provided:
National Laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet are prepared by the
Chancellor and published in the Reichsgesetzblatt. Article 4 provided:
Treaties of the Reich with foreign states, which concern matters of
national legislation, do not require the consent of the parties
participating in legislation. The Reich Cabinet is empowered to issue
the necessary provisions for the execution of these treaties.
Thus the Nazis acquired full political control, completely unrestrained
by any provision of the Weimar constitution.
I now offer the documents which establish the facts which I have just
stated, and I also present, for the assistance of the Court and the
Defense Counsel, the briefs covering this portion of the case.
THE PRESIDENT: I wish to speak to Major Wallis. Would it be possible for
the Prosecution to let defendants’ counsel have at least one copy
between each two of them here in court? If not today, then tomorrow?
COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, there has been some
misunderstanding and the briefs were delivered to the Defendants’
Document Room. We have sent for some of them and they should be here
shortly. However, Sir, in all fairness the briefs themselves are not in
the German language, because we had intended to take the trial brief and
the lawyers follow it over the translating system and thus, when it was
finished, it would be translated into all languages.
However, in order to shorten the proceeding, Major Wallis has made a
summary, and he is giving the summary and will offer the documents in
evidence and later the briefs, as needed, to the Tribunal, and to
Defense Counsel, and unfortunately, in the rush of time, they have been
put down in the Defendants’ Document Room and we have sent for some of
them. We understand, also, if the Tribunal please, that Dr. Kempner
approached some of the distinguished counsel for the Defense, and
learned that a great many of them not only speak English, but understand
it when they read it, and to save the tremendous physical burden on
facilities, the briefs have not, as yet, been translated into German. If
there is objection, the only thing we can do is to withhold them at this
time, but we understood it would be agreeable to pass them to them in
English, and that is what we propose to do at the present moment, and
have German speaking officers in the Document Room who will translate
for any of them who may not be able to read German—pardon me, to read
English.
DR. DIX: I have one request. We are here, as German Defense Counsel, and
in face of great difficulties. These proceedings are conducted according
to Anglo-American customs. We are doing our best to make our way through
these principles, and would be very grateful if the President would take
into consideration our difficult situation.
I have heard—I am not quite sure if it was right—that according to
these Anglo-American principles, it is necessary to prepare objections
immediately, if one has any objections to the contents of a document,
and that this is not possible unless one does it at once. This is a
point on which I would like to make my request. I am convinced that both
the trial brief and the documents will be made available to us, and we
will see if we can have a German translation of one or the other. If
this trouble can be spared, if the Defense Counsel needs a translation,
we shall have it, but I should like—I have one request—that we have
leisure to raise an objection later when we have had a chance to discuss
it. I think in that way we shall easily overcome the difficulties raised
by the present situation, and we are trying to cooperate in order to
overcome any difficulties.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal is glad that defendants’ counsel are making
efforts to cooperate in the Trial. After the adjournment, the Tribunal
will consider the best method of providing defendants’ counsel with as
many translations as possible, and you are right in thinking that you
will be able to make objections to any document after you have had time
to consider it.
DR. DIX: Thank you, Sir.
MAJOR WALLIS: Having acquired full political control, the Nazi
conspirators now proceeded to consolidate their power, and at this point
I would like to impress upon the Tribunal once again that with the
exception of a very few documents, the subject matter of my remarks is
within the purview of judicial notice of the Court, a matter of history
well known to these defendants and their counsel. Their first step in
the consolidation of power was ruthlessly to purge their political
opponents by confining them to concentration camps or by murder.
Concentration camps made their first appearance in 1933 and were first
used as means of putting political opponents out of circulation by
confining them to a so-called “protective custody.” This system of
concentration camps grew and expanded within Germany. At a subsequent
stage in these proceedings full and complete evidence of the
concentration camp system and the atrocities committed therein will be
presented to the Court, both by documents and films.
Illustrative documentary evidence of the arrest, mistreatment, and
murder by the Nazi conspirators of their political opponents is
contained in the documentary evidence offered by the United States.
As an illustration, affidavit of Raymond H. Geist, former American
Consul and First Secretary of the Embassy in Berlin from 1929 to 1938,
states (which will be offered):
“Immediately in 1933, the concentration camps were established
and put under charge of the Gestapo. Only political prisoners
were held in concentration camps.
“The first wave of terroristic acts began in March 1933, more
particularly from March 6 to 13, 1933, accompanied by unusual
mob violence. When the Nazi Party won the elections in March
1933, the accumulated passion blew off in wholesale attacks on
the Communists, Jews, and others suspected of being either. Mobs
of SA men roamed the streets, beating up, looting and even
killing persons.
“For Germans taken into custody by the Gestapo there was a
regular pattern of brutality and terror. All over Germany
victims were numbered by the hundred thousand.”
On the 30th of June and 1 and 2 July 1934 the conspirators proceeded to
destroy opposition within their own ranks by wholesale murder. In
discussing this purge, the Defendant Frick stated, in an affidavit under
oath, signed on the 19th day of November 1945, in the presence of his
Defense Counsel, as follows. This is document number 2950-PS. It has not
yet been introduced in evidence, Sir:
“Himmler, in June of 1934, was able to convince Hitler that Röhm
wanted to start a Putsch. The Führer ordered Himmler to suppress
the Putsch which was supposed to take place at the Tegernsee,
where all of the SA leaders were coming together. For northern
Germany, the Führer gave the order to suppress the Putsch to
Göring.”
Frick goes on to say:
“Pursuant to this order, a great many people were arrested and
something like a hundred, and possibly more, were even put to
death, accused of high treason; all this was done without
judicial process.” They were just killed on the spot. Many
people were killed—I don’t know how many—who actually did not
have anything to do with the Putsch. People who just weren’t
liked very well as, for instance, Schleicher, the former Reich
Chancellor, were killed. Schleicher’s wife was also killed. Also
Gregor Strasser, who had been the Reich Organization Leader and
second man in the Party after Hitler. Strasser, at the time he
was murdered, was not active in political affairs any more; he
had however separated himself from the Führer in November or
December of 1932”.
Frick goes on to say:
“The SS was used by Himmler for the execution of these orders to
suppress the Putsch.”
During this period the conspirators created, by a series of decrees of
the Reich Cabinet, a number of new political crimes. Any act or
statement contrary to the Nazi Party was deemed to be treason and
punished accordingly. The formations of the Party, the SA, SS, as well
as the SD and the Gestapo, were the vicious tools used in the
extermination of all opposition, real or potential. As the Defendant
Göring said on July 24th, 1933—I refer to Document Number 2494-PS,
which will be introduced in evidence:
“Whoever in the future raises a hand against a representative of
the National Socialist movement or of the State, must know that
he will lose his life in a very short while. Furthermore, it
will be entirely sufficient, if he is proven to have intended
the act, or, if the act results not in a death, but only in an
injury.”
The Defendant Frank stated, in a magazine of the Academy for German Law,
1936, which will be introduced as Document Number 2533-PS, as follows:
“By the world we are blamed again and again because of the
concentration camps. We are asked, ‘Why do you arrest without a
warrant of arrest?’ I say, ‘Put yourself into the position of
our nation.’ Don’t forget that the very great and still
untouched world of Bolshevism cannot forget that we have made
final victory for them impossible in Europe, right here on
German soil.”
And Raymond Geist, whose affidavit I previously referred to, being
Document Number 1759-PS, states:
“The German people were well-acquainted with what was happening
in concentration camps, and it was well known that the fate of
anyone too actively opposed to any part of the Nazi program was
liable to be one of great suffering. Indeed, before the Hitler
regime was many months old, almost every family in Germany had
received first-hand accounts of the brutalities inflicted in the
concentration camps from someone, either in the family circle or
in the circle of friends who had served a sentence, and
consequently the fear of such camps was a very effective brake
on any possible opposition.”
And as the Defendant Göring said in 1934,—and I refer to Document
Number 2344-PS, which will be offered in evidence:
“Against the enemies of the State, we must proceed ruthlessly
. . . therefore the concentration camps have been created, where
we have first confined thousands of Communist and Socialist
Democrat functionaries.”
In addition to ruthlessly purging all political opponents, the Nazi
conspirators further consolidated their position by promptly proceeding
to eliminate all other political parties. On 21 March 1933, the
Defendant Frick announced that the Communists would be prevented from
taking part in the Reichstag proceedings. This was accomplished, as has
been pointed out, by placing them in “protective custody in
concentration camps.” On the 26th May 1933 a Reich Cabinet decree,
signed by Hitler and the Defendant Frick, provided for the confiscation
of the Communist property. On 22 June 1933 the Social Democratic Party
was suppressed in Prussia, it previously having been seriously weakened
by placing a number of its members in concentration camps. On the 7th of
July 1933 a Reich decree eliminated Social Democrats from the Reichstag
and from the governing bodies of the provinces and municipalities. On
the 14 of July 1933, by a decree of the Reich Cabinet, the property of
the Social Democrats was confiscated, and the Nazi Party was constituted
as the sole political party in Germany, and thereupon it became illegal
to maintain or to form any other political party. Thus, Hitler was able
to say within hardly more than 5 months after becoming Chancellor, I
quote: “The Party has become the State.”
The Nazi conspirators immediately proceeded to make that statement a
recorded fact, for on the 1st of December 1933 the Reich Cabinet issued
a law for “Securing the Unity of Party and State.” This law was signed
by Hitler and the Defendant Frick.
Article 1 provided that the Nazi Party:
“. . . is the bearer of the concept of the State and is
inseparably the State. It will be a part of the public law. Its
organization will be determined by the Führer.”
Article 2 provided:
“The Deputy of the Führer and the Chief of Staff of the SA will
become members of the Reich Cabinet in order to insure close
cooperation of the offices of the Party and SA with public
authorities.”
Article 3 provided:
“The members of the National Socialist German Workers Party and
the SA (including their subordinate organizations) as the
leading and driving force of the National Socialist State will
bear greater responsibility toward Führer, People, and State.”
[_A recess was taken._]
COL. STOREY: During the recess defendants’ counsel and the Prosecution
arrived at an agreement for the furnishing of briefs to the defendants,
which I understand to be this:
Copies of the documents offered in evidence in German will be delivered
in the Defendants’ Information Center, with the understanding that if
any Defense Counsel needs to show the German photostatic copy to his
client he may do so in the defendants’ counsel room adjacent thereto;
that the briefs which we are passing to the Tribunal as an aid will
likewise be passed to defendants’ counsel in English, and that if any of
them have trouble in the translation of any portion of the briefs, we
have German-speaking officers in the Defendants’ Information Center who
will assist counsel. I understand that all of these defendants’ counsel
have so agreed.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Now, Major Wallis.
MAJOR WALLIS: May it please the Court, at the moment of recess I was
referring to the law which was passed on 1 December 1933, for securing
the unity of Party and State.
Article 6 of that law provided:
“The public authorities have to grant legal and administrative
assistance to the offices of the Party and the SA which are
entrusted with the execution of the jurisdiction of the Party
and SA.”
Article 8 provided:
“The Reich Chancellor as Führer of the National Socialistic
German Workers Party and, as the supreme commander of the SA,
will issue the regulations necessary for the execution and
augmentation of this law, particularly with respect to the
organization and procedure of the jurisdiction of the Party and
SA.”
Thus by this law the Nazi Party became a para-governmental organization
in Germany.
The further merger of the Party and State occurred on the death of
Hindenburg. Instead of holding an election to fill the office of
President, the merger of the offices of President and Chancellor, in the
person of Hitler, was accomplished by the law of 1 August 1934, signed
by the entire Reich Cabinet. One of the significant consequences of this
law was to give to Hitler the supreme command of the German Armed
Forces, always a prerequisite of the presidency, and every soldier was
immediately required to take an oath of loyalty and unconditional
obedience to Hitler. On 4 February 1938 Hitler issued a decree which
stated in part—and I quote from Document Number 1915-PS, which will be
offered in the document book at the close of my remarks—as follows:
“From now on, I take over directly the command of the whole Armed
Forces.”
As a further step in the consolidation of their political control, the
Nazi conspirators reduced national elections to mere formalities devoid
of the element of freedom of choice. Elections, properly speaking, could
not take place under the Nazi system. In the first place, the basic
doctrine of the Führerprinzip dictated that all subordinates must be
appointed by their superiors in the Government hierarchy. Although it
had already become the practice, in 1938 it was specifically provided by
law that only one list of candidates was to be submitted to the people.
By the end of this pre-war period little of substance remained in the
election law. The majority of the substantive provisions had become
obsolete.
By a series of laws and decrees the Nazi conspirators reduced the powers
of regional and local governments and substantially transformed them
into territorial subdivisions of the Reich Government. With the
abolition of representative assemblies and elective officials in the
Länder and the municipalities, regional and local elections ceased to
exist. On 31 January 1934 the last vestiges of Land independence was
destroyed by the Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich. The Defendant
Frick, Minister of the Interior throughout this period, has written of
this Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich as follows:
“The reconstruction law abolished the sovereign rights and
executive powers of the Länder and made the Reich the sole
bearer of the rights of sovereignty. The supreme powers of the
Länder do not exist any longer. The natural result of this was
the subordination of the Land government to the Reich Government
and the Land ministers to the corresponding Reich ministers. On
30 January, 1934 the German Reich became one state.”
Another step taken by the Nazi conspirators in consolidating their
political power was the purge of civil servants on racial and political
grounds and their replacement by Party members and supporters. This
purge was accomplished through a series of Nazi laws and decrees. The
first was on 7 April 1933, entitled: “Law for the Restoration of the
Professional Civil Service.” Article 3 of the law applied the Nazi blood
and master race theories in providing that officials who were not of
Aryan descent were to be retired. The political purge provision of the
law is contained in Article 4, and I quote:
“Officials who, because of their previous political activities,
do not offer security that they will assert themselves for the
National State without reservations may be dismissed.”
The effect of this law and the decrees and regulations issued thereunder
was to fill every responsible position in the Government with a Nazi and
to prevent the appointment of any applicant opposed, or suspected of
being opposed, to the Nazi program and policy.
Even the judiciary did not escape the purge of the Nazi conspirators.
All judges who failed to fulfill the racial and political requirements
of the conspirators were quickly removed. In addition, the Nazis set up
a new system of special criminal courts independent of the regular
judiciary and directly subservient to the Party program. Moreover, the
Nazis controlled all judges through special directives and orders from
the central Government, their aim being, as expressed by one Gerland,
one of the leading Nazi lawyers of that time: “. . . to make the word
‘terrorization’ in the penal law respectable again.”
As their control was consolidated, the conspirators greatly enlarged
existing State and Party organizations and established an elaborate
network of new formations and agencies. The Party spread octopus-like
throughout all of Germany. This process of growth was summed up late in
1937 in an official statement of the Party Chancellery, as follows:
“In order to control the whole German nation in all spheres of
life”—and I repeat, in order to control the whole German nation
in all spheres of life—“the NSDAP, after assuming power, set up
under its leadership, the new Party formations and affiliated
organizations.”
At this point I would like to offer to the Court the document book which
contains the laws and conditions which I have referred to in this part
of my presentation together with the briefs covering this part of it.
Labor unions:
I would like to direct the Tribunal’s attention to some case histories
in the consolidation of control by the conspirators.
The first case history in the consolidation of the Nazi conspirators’
control of Germany is the destruction of the free trade unions and the
obtaining of control over the productive labor capacity of the German
nation.
The position of organized labor in Germany, at the time of the Nazi
seizure of power, the obstacles they afforded to the Nazi plans, the
speed with which they were destroyed, the terror and maltreatment
ranging from assault to murder of union leaders, were fully outlined in
the opening address of the Chief Prosecutor of the United States, and
are fully set forth in the document book which I will present to the
Court on this phase of the case.
The result achieved by the Nazi conspirators is best expressed in the
Words of Robert Ley. Ley’s confidence in the Nazis’ effective control
over the productive labor capacity of Germany in peace or in war was
declared as early as 1936 to the Nuremberg Party Congress. I refer to
Document 2283-PS which is included in the document book which will be
presented on this phase of the case. He stated:
“The idea of the factory troops is making good progress in the
plants, and I am able to report to you, my Führer, that security
and peace in the factories has been guaranteed, not only in
normal times, but also in times of the most serious crisis.
Disturbances, such as the munitions strikes of the traitor Ebert
and confederates, are out of the question. National Socialism
has conquered the factories. Factory troops are the National
Socialist shock troops within the factory, and their motto is:
The Führer is always right.”
At this time I would like to offer to the Court the document book
containing the documents on this phase of the case, namely, “The
destruction of labor unions and the gaining of control of all productive
labor in Germany,” together with the brief on that subject. At the same
time, if it please the Court, I would like to offer the document book
concerning the consolidation of control with respect to the utilization
and molding of political machinery, which is, in law, a decree which I
referred to just prior to my discussion of the destruction of labor
unions.
I would now direct your attention to the second case history in the
consolidation of control.
The Nazi conspirators early realized that the influence of the Christian
churches in Germany was an obstacle to their complete domination of the
German people and contrary to their master race dogma. As the Defendant
Martin Bormann stated in a secret decree of the Party Chancellery signed
by him and distributed to all Gauleiter on 7 June 1941—it is identified
as Document Number D-75 and will be included in the document book which
will be presented to the Court—he stated as follows:
“More and more must the people be separated from the churches
and their organizations and pastors .... Not until this has
happened does the State leadership have influence on the
individual citizens.”
Accordingly, the Nazi conspirators, seeking to subvert the influence of
the churches over the people of Germany, proceeded to attempt to
eliminate these churches:
1. By promoting beliefs and practices incompatible with Christian
teachings.
2. By persecuting priests, clergy, and members of monastic orders. This
persecution, as the documentary evidence will show, ran the gauntlet of
insults and indignities, physical assault, confinement in concentration
camps, and murder.