Chapter VII: MEANS USED BY THE NAZI CONSPIRATORS IN GAINING CONTROL OF THE GERMAN STATE

1. COMMON OBJECTIVES, METHODS, AND DOCTRINES OF THE CONSPIRACY

In 1921 Adolf Hitler became the supreme leader or Fuehrer of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party), also known as the Nazi Party, which had been founded in Germany in 1920. He continued as such throughout the period covered by the Indictment. As will be shown, the Nazi Party, together with certain of its subsidiary organizations, became the instrument of cohesion among the defendants and their co-conspirators and an instrument for the carrying out of the aims and purposes of the conspiracy. And as will also be shown, each defendant became a member of the Nazi party and of the conspiracy, with knowledge of their aims and purposes, or, with such knowledge, became an accessory to their aims and purposes at some stage of the development of the conspiracy.

A. aims and Purposes. the aims and purposes of the Nazi conspirators were:

(1) To abrogate and overthrow the Treaty of Versailles and its restrictions upon the military armament and activity of Germany. The first major public meeting of the NSDAP took place in Munich on 24 February 1920. At that meeting Hitler publicly announced the Program of the Party. That program, consisting of 25 points (annually reprinted in the National socialist yearbook), was referred to as “The political foundation of the NSDAP and therewith the fundamental political law of the state,” and “has remained unaltered” since the date of its promulgation. Section 2 of the Program provided as follows:

“We demand equality of rights for the German people with respect to other nations, and abolition of the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.” (1708-PS)

In a speech at Munich on 13 April 1923, Hitler said:

“It was no peace Treaty which they have signed, but a betrayal of Peace. So long as this Treaty stands there can be no resurrection of the German people: no social reform of any kind is possible. The Treaty was made in order to bring 20 million Germans to their deaths and to ruin the German nation. but those who made the Treaty cannot set it aside. At its foundation our movement formulated three demands:

184

1. Setting aside of the Peace Treaty
2. Unification of all Germans
3. Land and soil (Grund und Boden) to feed our nation.” (2405-PS)

On August 1, 1923 Hitler declared:

“The day must come when a German government shall summon up the courage to declare to the foreign powers: 'The Treaty of Versailles is founded on a monstrous lies' We fulfill nothing more. Do what you will! If you want battle, look for it! Then we shall see whether you can turn 70 million Germans into serfs and slaves!” (2405-PS; see also additional statements of Hitler contained in 2405-PS castigating those Germans who shared responsibility for the Treaty of Versailles, viz; the “November criminals.")

In his speech of 30 January 1941 Hitler alluded to the consistency of his record concerning the aims of National Socialist foreign policy:

“My foreign policy had identical aims. My program was to abolish the treaty of Versailles. 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'. * * *” (2541-PS)

Similar views were expressed by other Nazi conspirators. Rosenberg stated that the lie of Germany’s war guilt was the basis of the Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain. he rejected the idea of a “revision” of those Treaties and demanded outright cancellation. (2433-PS)

Hess, in advocating rearmament in violation of treaty restrictions, stated in 1936 that “guns instead of butter” were necessary lest “one day our last butter be taken from us.” (2426-PS)

(2) To acquire the territories lost by Germany as the result of the World war of 1914-1918, and other territories in Europe asserted to be occupied by so-called “racial Germans.” Section I of the Nazi Party Platform gave advance notice of the intentions of the Nazi conspirators to claim territories occupied by so-called racial Germans. It provided:

“We demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany on the basis of the right of self-determination of people.” (1708-PS)

While Rosenberg pointed out in 1922 that it was not possible at that time to designate “such European and nonEuropean territories which would be taken into consideration for colonization” he nevertheless stated that the following could be laid down as a basic objective, namely that

“* * * German Foreign Policy must make its most important primary goal the consolidation of all Germans living closely together in Europe in one state and to secure the territory of what today is the Polish-Czech East.” (2433-PS)

In his Reichstag speech of 20 February 1928 Hitler said:

“The claim, therefore, for German colonial possession will be voiced from year to year with increasing vigor, possessions which Germany did not take away from other countries, and which today are virtually of no value to these powers, but appear indispensable for our own people.” (2772-PS)

Again, in his Reichstag speech of 30 January 1939 Hitler declared:

“The theft of the German colonies was morally unjustified. Economically, it was utter insanity. The political motives advanced were so mean that one is tempted to call them silly. In 1918, after the end of the war, the victorious Powers really would have had the authority to bring about a reasonable settlement of international problems. ***

“The great German colonial possessions, which the Reich once acquired peacefully by treaties and by paying for them, have been stolen-contrary indeed to the solemn assurance given by President Wilson, which was the basic condition on which Germany laid down her arms. The objection that these colonial possessions are of no importance in any case should only lead to their being returned to us with an easy mind.” (2773-PS)

(3) To acquire further territories in colonial Europe and elsewhere claimed to be required by “racial Germans” as “lebensraum” or living space, at the expense of neighboring and other countries. Hitler made it clear that the two objectives of the Nazi conspirators set forth above were only preliminary steps in a more ambitious plan of territorial aggrandizement. Thus he stated:

“One must take the point of view, coolly and soberly, that it certainly cannot be the intention of Heaven to give one people fifty times as much space (Grund und Boden) on this earth as to another. One should not permit himself to be diverted in this case by political boundaries from the boundaries of eternal justice.

“The boundaries of 1914 do not mean anything for the future of the German nation. They did not represent either a defense of the past nor would they represent a power in the future. The German people will not obtain either its inner compactness by them, nor will its nutrition by secured by them, nor do these boundaries appear from a military standpoint as appropriate or even satisfactory. * * *” (2760-A-PS)

While the precise limits of German expansion were only vaguely defined by the Nazi conspirators, they clearly indicated that the lebensraum to which they felt they were entitled would be acquired primarily in the East. Rosenberg was particularly insistent in his declarations that Russia would have to “move over” to make way for German living space. he underlined this demand as follows:

“The understanding that the German nation, if it is not to perish in the truest sense of the word, needs ground and soil for itself and its future generations, and the second sober perception that this soil can no more be conquered in Africa, but in Europe and first of all in the East-these organically determine the German foreign policy for centuries. (2777-PS)

“The Russians * * * will have to confine themselves so as to remove their center of gravity to Asia.” (2426-PS)

A similar view was expressed by Hitler in Mein Kampf:

“If one wanted territory in Europe, this could be done on the whole at the expense of Russia, and the new Reich would have to set out to march over the road of the former Knights, in order to give soil to the German plow by means of the German sword, and to give daily bread to the nation.” (2760-A-PS)

in Mein Kampf Hitler threatened war as a means of attaining additional space:

“If this earth really has space (Raum) for all to live in, then we should be given the territory necessary. Of course, one will not do that gladly. Then, however, the right of selfpreservation comes into force; that which is denied to kindness, the fist will have to take. If our forefathers had made their decisions dependent on the same pacifistic nonsense as the present, then we would possess only a third of our present territory.

“In contrast, we, National Socialists, have to hold on steadily to our foreign political goals, namely, to secure on this earth the territory due to the German people. And this action is the only one which will make bloody sacrifice before God and our German posterity appear justified.” (2760-A-PS)

B. Methods. The Nazi conspirators advocated the accomplishment of the foregoing aims and purposes by any means deemed opportune, including illegal means and resort to threat of force. force. and aggressive war. The use of force was definitely sanctioned, in fact guaranteed, by official statements and directives of the conspirators which made activism and aggressiveness a political quality obligatory for Party members.

Hitler stated in Mein Kampf:

“* * * The lack of a great creative idea means at all times an impairment of the fighting spirit. The conviction that it is right to use even the most brutal weapons is always connected with the existence of a fanatical belief that it is necessary that a revolutionary new order of this earth should become victorious. A movement which does not fight for these highest aims and ideals will therefore never resort to the ultimate weapon.”

“* * * It is not possible to undertake a task half-heartedly or hesitatingly if its execution seems to be feasible only by expending the very last ounce of energy … One had to become clear in one’s mind that this goal [i.e. acquisition of new territory in Europe] could be achieved by fight alone and then had to face this armed conflict with calmness and composure.” (2760-A-PS)

In 1934 Hitler set out the duties of Party members in the following terms:

“Only a part of the people will be really active fighters. But they were the fighters of the National Socialist struggle. They were the fighters for the National Socialist revolution, and they are the millions of the rest of the population. For them it is not sufficient to confess: 'I believe,' but to swear:

'I fight'.” (2775-PS)

This same theme is expressed in the Party Organization Book:

“The Party includes only fighters who are ready to accept and sacrifice everything in order to carry through the National Socialist ideology.” (2774-PS)

At the trial of Reichswehr Officers at Leipzig in September 1930 Hitler testified:

“Germany is being strangled by Peace Treaties. * * * The National Socialists do not regard the Treaty as a low, but as something forced upon us. We do not want future generations, who are completely innocent, to be burdened by this. When we fight this with all means at our disposal, then we are on the way to a revolution.

President of the Court: 'Even by illegal means?'

Hitler: “I will declare here and now, that when we have become powerful (gesiegt haben), then we shall fight against the Treaty with all the means at our disposal, even from the point of view of the world, with illegal means.” (2512-PS)

Moreover, Hitler stated the true reason for rearmament as follows:

“It is impossible to build up an army and give it a sense of worth if the object of its existence is not the preparation for war. Armies for the preservation of peace do not exist; they exist only for the triumphant exertion of war.” (2541-PS)

C. Doctrines. The Nazi conspirators adopted and published the following doctrines:

(1) That persons of so-called “German blood” were a master race and were accordingly entitled to subjugate, dominate, or exterminate other “races” and “peoples.” The Nazi doctrine of racial supremacy was incorporated as Point 4 in the Party Program of 24 February 1920, which provided as follows:

“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 creed. Consequently no Jew can be a member of the race.” (1708-PS)

The Nazi conspirators' dogma of the racial supremacy of the Germanic peoples was fully elucidated in the writings of Rosenberg:

“The meaning of world history has radiated out from the north over the whole world, borne by a blue-eyed blond race which in several great waves determined the spiritual face of the world * * *

“We stand today before a definitive decision. Either through a new experience and cultivation of the old blood, coupled with an enhanced fighting will, we will rise to a purificatory action, or the last Germanic-western values of morality and state-culture shall sink away in the filthy human masses of the big cities, become stunted on the sterile burning asphalt of a bestialized inhumanity, or trickle away as a morbific agent in the form of emigrants bastardizing themselves in South America, China, Dutch East India, Africa.

“A new faith is arising today: the myth of the blood, the faith, to defend with the blood the divine essence of man. The faith, embodied in clearest knowledge that the Nordic blood represents that mysterium which has replaced and overcome the old sacraments.” (2771-PS)

Thus, the Nazi conspirators acclaimed the “master race” doctrine as a new religion-the faith of the blood-superseding in individual allegiance all other religions and institutions. According to Rosenberg:

“The new thought puts folk and race higher than the state and its forms. It declares protection of the folk more important than protection of a religious denomination, a class, the monarchy, or the republic; it sees in treason against the folk a greater crime than treason against the state.” (2771-PS; see also further excerpts from Rosenberg’s writings contained in 2405-PS.)

Illustrative of the Nazi conspirators' continued espousal and exploitation of racial dogmas following their accession to power was the discriminatory legislation which they caused to be enacted. These laws, with particular reference to Jews, are set forth in Section 7 of this Chapter on the Program for persecution of Jews.

The logical consequence of the “master race” dogma, in its bearing on the right of Germany to dominate other “inferior” peoples and to acquire such of their territory as was considered necessary for German living space, was disclosed by the Nazi conspirators. In a speech concluding the Reichsparteitag at Nurnberg on 3 September 1933 Hitler said:

“But long ago man has proceeded in the same way with his fellowman. The higher race-at first 'higher' in the sense of possessing a greater gift for organization-subjects to itself a lower race and thus constitutes a relationship which now embraces races of unequal value. Thus there results the subjection of a number of people under the will often of only a few persons, a subjection based simply on the right of the stronger, a right which, as we see it in Nature, can be regarded as the sole conceivable right because founded on reason. The wild mustang does not take upon itself the yoke imposed by man either voluntarily or joyfully; neither does one people welcome the violence of another.” (2584-PS)

(2) The Fuehrerprinzip (Fuehrer Principle).

(a) Essential elements.

1. Complete and total authority is vested in the Fuehrer.

“The Fuehrer Principle requires a pyramidal organization structure in its details as well as in its entirety.

“The Fuehrer is at the top.

“He nominates the necessary leaders for the various spheres of work of the Reich’s direction, the Party apparatus and the State administration.” (1814-PS)

“He shapes the collective will of the people within himself and he enjoys the political unity and entirety of the people in opposition to individual interests.

“The Fuehrer unites in himself all the sovereign authority of the Reich; all public authority in the state as well as in the movement is derived from the authority of the Fuehrer. We must speak not of the state’s authority but of the Fuehrer’s authority if we wish to designate the character of the political authority within the Reich correctly. The state does not hold political authority as an impersonal unit but receives it from the Fuehrer as the executor of the national will. The authority of the Fuehrer is complete and all embracing; it unites in itself all the means of political direction; it extends into all fields of national life; it embraces the entire people, which is bound to the Fuehrer in loyalty and obedience. The authority of the Fuehrer is not limited by checks and controls, by special autonomous bodies or individual rights, but it is free and independent, all-inclusive and unlimited.

“The Fuehrer-Reich of the (German) people is founded on the recognition that the true will of the people cannot be disclosed through parliamentary votes and plebiscites but that the will of the people in its pure and uncorrupted form can only be expressed through the Fuehrer.” (2771-PS)

“Thus at the head of the Reich, stands a single Fuehrer, who in his personality embodies the idea which sustains all and whose spirit and will therefore animate the entire community.” (2780-PS)

As stated in the Organization Book of the Nazi Party:

“The will of the Fuehrer is the Party’s law.” (1814-PS)

The first commandment for the Party members declares:

“The Fuehrer is always right.” (1814-PS)

“he (the Fuehrer) is responsible only to his conscience and the German people.” (1814-PS)

Hess, in a speech broadcast at Cologne on 25 June 1934, characterized the position of the Fuehrer as follows:

“It is with pride that we see that one man is kept above all criticism-that is the Fuehrer.

“The reason is that everyone feels and knows: he was always right and will always be right. The National Socialism of us all is anchored in the uncritical loyalty, in the devotion to the Fuehrer that does not ask for the wherefore in the individual case, in the tacit performance of his commands. We believe that the Fuehrer is fulfilling a divine mission to German destiny! This belief is beyond challenge.” (2426-PS; see also additional statements of the Nazi conspirators designed to condition the German people to blind acceptance of the decisions of the Fuehrer and his co-conspirators, as translated in 2373-PS.)

2. The Fuehrer’s power descends to subleaders in a hierarchical order. In the words of the Organization Book of the NSDAP:

“The Party is the order of fuehrers.

“All political directors (Politische Leiter) stand as appointed by the Fuehrer and are responsible to him. They possess full authority towards the lower echelons. (1893-PS)

“he (The Fuehrer) nominates the necessary leaders for the various spheres of work of the Reichs' direction, the Party apparatus, and the State administration.” (1814-PS)

The effect of this was aptly expressed by Hitler in 1933:

“When our opponents said, 'it is easy for you: you are a dictator'-We answer them, 'No, gentlemen, you are wrong; there is no single dictator, but ten thousand, each in his own place.' And even the highest authority in the hierarchy has itself only one wish, never to transgress against the supreme authority to which it, too, is responsible.” (2771-PS)

3. Each subleader is bound to unconditional obedience to his immediate superior and to the Fuehrer. As Hitler said,

“We have in our movement developed this loyalty in following the leader, this blind obedience of which all the others know nothing and which gave to us the power to surmount everything.” (2771-PS)

The duty of obedience is so fundamental that it is incorporated as the second of the NSDAP commandments for party members:

“Never go against discipline!” (2771-PS)

As Ley said:

“Our conscience is clearly and exactly defined. Only what Adolf Hitler, our Fuehrer, commands, allows, or does not allow is our conscience.” (2771-PS)

The obedience required was not the loyalty of a soldier to the Fatherland, as was the case prior to the Nazi regime. On the contrary, the obedience exacted was unconditional and absolute, regardless of the legality or illegality of the order. The oath taken by political leaders (politische Leiter) yearly was as follows:

“I pledge eternal allegiance to Adolf Hitler. I pledge unconditional obedience to him and the Fuehrers appointed by him.” (1893-PS)

4. Each subleader is absolute in his own sphere of jurisdiction. The Nazi Party Organization Book lays down the same principle with respect to the successive tiers of its leaders:

“The fuehrer Principle represented by the Party imposes complete responsibility on all party leaders for their respective spheres of activity * * * The responsibility for all tasks within a major sphere of jurisdiction rests with the respective leader of the NSDAP: i.e., with the Fuehrer for the territory of the Reich, the Gauleiter for the territory of the Gau, the district leader for the territory of the district, the local leader for the territory of the local group, etc.

“The Party leader has responsibility for the entire territory under his jurisdiction on the one hand, and on the other hand, his own political fields of activity appertaining thereto.

“This responsibility for the complete or partial performance of task entails a relationship of subordination of the leaders among themselves, corresponding to the fuehrer principle.” (2771-PS)

(3) Glorification of War as a noble and necessary activity of Germans. The Nazi conspirators disseminated dogmas designed to engender in the masses a deep reverence for the vocation of the warrior and to induce acceptance of the postulate that the waging of war was good and desirable per se. The motive underlying the concerted program of the Nazis to glorify war was disclosed by Hitler in Mein Kampf:

“Thus the question of how to regain German power is not: how shall we manufacture arms?, but: How do we create the spirit which enables a nation to bear arms? If this spirit governs a people, the will finds thousands of ways, each of which ends with a weapon!”

“* * * Oppressed countries are led back into the lap of a common Reich by a mighty sword and not by flaming protests. It is the task of the inner political leaders of a people to forge this sword; to safeguard the work of the smith and to seek comrades in arms in the task of the foreign policy.” (2760-A-PS)

Hitler’s writings and public utterances are full of declarations rationalizing the use of force and glorifying war. The following are typical:

“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 might. (2405-PS)

“The political testament of the German People for its foreign policy should and must always follow this line of thought: Never tolerate the rise of two continental powers in Europe. See in every attempt to organize a second military power, * * * an attack against Germany and take therefrom not only the right but the duty to prevent by all means, including the use of arms, the rise of such a state, respectively to destroy such a state if it has already arisen. Take care that the strength of our people should have its foundation not in colonies but in the soil of the home country in Europe. Never consider the Reich as secured as long as it cannot give to every descendant of our people his own bit of soil for centuries to come; never forget that the most sacred right on this earth is the right to own the soil which one wants to cultivate and the most sacred sacrifice, the blood which is shed for this soil.” (2760-a-PS)

(4) The leadership of the Nazi Party.

(a) The Nazi Party leadership was the sole bearer of the doctrines of the Nazi Party. The Party Organization Book declares:

“The party as an instrument of ideological education, must grow to be the Leader Corps (Fuehrer Korps) of the German Nation.

“This leader Corps is responsible for the complete penetration of the German Nation with the National Socialist spirit * * *” (1893-PS)

“The Party is the order of fuehrers. It is furthermore responsible for the spiritual ideological National Socialist direction of the German people.” (1814-PS)

Referring to the mission of the Ortsgruppenleiter (local chapter leader) of the NSDAP, the Party Organization Book states:

“As Hoeheitstraeger (bearer of sovereignty) all expressions of the party will emanate from him; he is responsible for the political and ideological leadership and organization within his zone of sovereignty.” (1893-PS)

Similar statements are made with regard to the Kreisleiter (county Leader) and the Gauleiter (Gau leader) and the Reich Directorate (1893-PS).

(b) The Nazi Party leadership was entitled to control and dominate the German state and all related institutions and all individuals therein. Hitler said at the 1935 Nurnberg Party Congress:

“It is not the State which gives orders to us, it is we who give orders to the State.” (2775-PS)

Frick declared in a similar vein:

“In national Socialist Germany, leadership is in the hands of an organized community, the National socialist Party; and as the latter represents the will of the nation, the policy adopted by it in harmony with the vital interests of the nation is at the same time the policy adopted by the country. * * *” (2771-PS)

Goebbels declared:

“The party must always continue to represent the hierarchy of National Socialist leadership. This minority must always insist upon its prerogative to control the state. * * * It is responsible for the leadership of the state and it solemnly relieves the people of this responsibility.” (2771-PS)

Hess remarked that the party was a “necessity” in the German state and constituted the cohesive mechanism with which to “organize and direct offensively and defensively the spiritual and political strength of the people.” (2426-PS)

Nazi interpreters of constitutional law expressed the same idea:

“The NSDAP is not a structure which stands under direct state control, to which single tasks of public administration are entrusted by the state, but it holds and maintains its claim to totality as the 'bearer of the German state-idea' in all fields relating to the community-regardless of how various single functions are divided between the organization of the Party and the organization of the State.” (2771-PS)

This doctrine was incorporated into laws which established the NSDAP as “the only political party in Germany” and declared the NSDAP “The bearer of the German state idea” and “indissolubly linked to the state.” (1388-A-PS; 1395-PS)

(c) The Nazi Party leadership was entitled to destroy all opponents. Reference is made generally to Sections 2 and 3 on the Acquisition and Consolidation of Political Control of Germany for proof of this allegation.

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO COMMON OBJECTIVES, METHODS, AND DOCTRINES OF THE CONSPIRACY

Document Description Vol. Page

Charter of the International Military tribunal, Article 6, especially 6 (a)… I 5

International Military Tribunal, Indictment Number 1, Sections IV (B, C)… I 16,17

Note: A single asterisk (*) before a document indicates that the document was received in evidence at the Nurnberg trial. A double asterisk (**) before a document number indicates that the document was referred to during the trial but was not formally received in evidence, for the reason given in parentheses following the description of the document. The USA series number, given in parentheses following the description of the document, is the official exhibit number assigned by the court.

1388-A-PS Law against the establishment of Pages 14 July 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 479… III 962

*1395-PS Law to insure the unity of Party and State, 1 December 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1016. (GB 252) … III 978

*1708-PS The Program of the NSDAP. National Socialistic Yearbook, 1941, p. 153. (USA 255; USA 324)… IV 208

*1814-PS The Organization of the NSDAP and its affiliated associations, from Organization book of the NSDAP, editions of 1936, 1938, 1940 and 1943, pp. 86-88. (USA 328)… IV 411

*1893-PS Extracts from Organization Book of the NSDAP, 1943 edition. (USA 323)… IV 529

2373-PS Extracts from German Publications… IV 1106

2405-PS Extracts from German Publications… V 79

*2426-PS Extracts from Speeches, by Hess. (GB 253)… V 90

*2433-PS Extracts from “Nature, Foundation and Aims of NSDAP” by Rosenberg, 1934. (USA 596)… V 93

2512-PS Hitler’s Testimony Before The Court For High Treason, Published In Frankfurter Zeitung, 26 September 1931… V 246

2541-PS Extracts from German Publications… V 285

2584-PS Hitler’s speech concluding the Reichsparteitag, 3 September 1933. The First Reichstag of the United German Nation, 1933… V 311

2760-A-PS Extract from Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, 41st edition, 1933… V 407

2771-PS U.S. State Department, National Socialism, published by U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943… V 417

2772-PS Speech of Hitler, published in Documents of German Politics, Vol. IV, Part I, p. 37… V 417

2773-PS Speech of Hitler, published in Documents of German Politics, Vol. VII, 1939, pp. 466-7… V 417

2774-PS Extract from Organization Book of the NSDAP, 1937, 4th Edition, p. 86… V 418

*2775-PS Hitler’s speech, published in Nurnberg Party Congress, 1934. (USA 330)… V 418

*2777-PS Article: Space Policy by Rosenberg, published in National Socialist Monthly, May 1932, p. 199. (USA 594) … V 418

2780-PS Extract from constitution and Administration in the Third Reich, by Paul Schmidt, Berlin, 1937… V 419

*3863-PS Extracts from Operations in the Third Reich by Lammers. (GB 320) … VI 786

2. ACQUISITION OF TOTALITARIAN POLITICAL CONTROL

A. First steps in Acquiring Control of State Machinery.

(1) The Nazi conspirators first sought control of State machinery by force. The Munich Putsch of 1923, aimed at the overthrow of the Weimar Republic by direct action, failed. On 8 November 1923 the so-called Munich putsch occurred. During the evening, von Kahr, State Commissioner General of Bavaria, was speaking at the Buergerbraeukeller in Munich. Hitler and other Nazi leaders appeared, supported by the Sturmabteilungen (Storm Troops) and other fighting groups. Hitler fired a shot and announced that a Nationalist Revolution setting up a dictatorship had taken place. There followed a conference after which von Kahr, von Lossow, and Colonel of Police von Seisser, announced they would cooperate with Hitler and that a “Provisional National Government” was established, as follows:

Reich Chancellor …Adolf Hitler
Leader of the National Army …Gen. von Ludendorff
Reich Minister of War …von Lossow
Reich Minister of Police …von Seisser
Reich Finance Minister …Feder

It was also announced that Kahr would be State Administrator for Bavaria, Poehner would be Bavarian Prime Minister, and Frick would be Munich Police President. Kahr, Lossow and Seisser then departed. During the night the latter group alerted the police, brought troops to Munich, and announced that their consent to the Putsch had been obtained by force. On the afternoon of the next day, Hitler, Ludendorff, and their supporters attempted to march into the center of Munich. At the Feldherrnhalle the procession met a patrol of police, shots were exchanged, and men on both sides were killed. Hermann Goering was wounded, the Putsch was broken up, the Party and its organization were declared illegal, and its leaders, including Hitler, Frick, and Streicher were arrested. Rosenberg, together with Amann and Drexler, tried to keep the Party together after it had been forbidden. Hitler and others later were tried for high treason. At the trial Hitler admitted his participation in the foregoing attempt to seize control of the State by force. He was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment. (2532-PS; 2404-PS)

(2) The Nazi Conspirators then set out through the Nazi Party to undermine and capture the German Government by “legal” forms supported by terrorism.

(a) In 1925, the conspirators reorganized the Nazi Party and began a campaign to secure support from Germany voters throughout the nation. On 26 February 1925, the Voelkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP) appeared for the first time after the Munich Putsch, and on the following day Hitler made his first speech after his release from prison. He then began to rebuild the Party organization. The conspirators, through the Nazi Party, participated in election campaigns and other political activity throughout Germany and secured the election of members of the Reichstag. (2532-PS)

As a reflection of this activity the Nazi Party in May 1928, received 2.6% of the total vote and obtained 12 out of 491 seats in the Reichstag. In September 1930, the Nazi Party polled 18.3% of the total vote and won 107 out of 577 seats in the Reichstag. In July 1932, it received 37.3% of the total vote cast and won 230 out of 608 seats. In November 1932, it polled 33.1% of the vote and won 196 out of 584 seats in the Reichstag. (2514-PS)

(b) The Nazi conspirators asserted they sought power only by legal forms. In November 1934, Hitler, speaking of the Munich Putsch of 1923 said:

“It gave me the opportunity to lay down the new tactics of the Party and to pledge it to legality". (2741-PS)

In September 1931, three officers of the Reichswehr were tried at Leipzig for high treason. At the request of Hans Frank, Hitler was invited to testify at this trial that the NSDAP was striving to attain its goal by purely legal means. he was asked: “how do you imagine the setting up of a third Reich?” his reply was, “This term only describes the basis of the struggle but not the objective. We will enter the legal organizations and will make our Party a decisive factor in this way. But when we do possess constitutional rights then we will form the State in the manner which we consider to be the right one.” The President then asked: “This too by constitutional means?” Hitler replied: “Yes.” (2512-PS)

(c) The purpose of the Nazi conspirators in participating in elections and in the Reichstag was to undermine the parliamentary system of the Republic and to replace it with a dictatorship of their own. this the Nazi conspirators themselves made clear. Frick wrote in 1927:

“There is no National socialist and no racialist who expects any kind of manly German deed from that gossip club on the Koenigsplatz and who is not convinced of the necessity for direct action by the unbroken will of the German people to bring about their spiritual and physical liberation. But there is a long road ahead. After the failure of November, 1923, there was no choice but to begin all over again and to strive to bring about a change in the spirit and determination of the most valuable of our racial comrades, as the indispensable prerequisite for the success of the coming fight for freedom. Our activities in parliament must be evaluated as merely part of this propaganda work.

“Our participation in the parliament does not indicate a support, but rather an undermining of the parliamentarian system. It does not indicate that we renounce our anti-parliamentarian attitude, but that we are fighting the enemy with his own weapons and that we are fighting for our National Socialist goal from the parliamentary platform.” (2742-PS)

On 30 April 1928, Goebbels wrote in his paper “Der Angriff";

“We enter parliament in order to supply ourselves, in the arsenal of democracy, with its own weapons. We become members of the Reichstag in order to paralyze the Weimar sentiment with its own assistance. if democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets and per diem for the this “blockade” (Barendienst), that is its own affair.”

Later in the same article he continued:

“We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals. We come as enemies: As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come.” (2500-PS)

In a pamphlet published in 1935, Goebbels said:

“When democracy granted democratic methods for us in the times of opposition, this was bound to happen in a democratic system. However, we national Socialists never asserted that we represented a democratic point of view, but we have declared openly that we used democratic methods only in order to gain the power and that, after assuming the power, we would deny to our adversaries without any consideration the means which were granted to us in the times of opposition. (2412-PS)

A leading Nazi writer on Constitutional Law, Ernst Rudolf Huber, Later wrote of this period:

“The parliamentary battle of the NSDAP had the single purpose of destroying the parliamentary system from within through its own methods. It was necessary above all to make formal use of the possibilities of the party-state system but to refuse real cooperation and thereby to render the parliamentary system, which is by nature dependent upon the responsible cooperation of the opposition, incapable of action.” (2633-PS)

The Nazi members of the Reichstag conducted themselves as a storm troop unit. Whenever representatives of the government or the democratic parties spoke, the Nazi members marched out in a body in studied contempt of the speaker, or entered in a body to interrupt the speaker, thus making it physically impossible for the Reichstag President to maintain order. In the case of speakers of opposition parties, the Nazi members constantly interrupted, often resorting to lengthy and spurious parliamentary maneuvers, with the result that the schedule of the session was thrown out of order. The tactics finally culminated in physical attacks by the Nazis upon members of the house as well as upon visitors. (L-83)

In a letter of 24 August 1931 to Rosenberg, Hitler deplored an article in “Voelkischer Beobachter” the effect of which was to prevent undermining of support for the then existing form of government, and said: “I myself am travelling all over Germany to achieve exactly the opposite. (047-PS)

(d) The Nazi conspirators supported their “legal” activities by terrorism.

1. The Nazi conspirators created and utilized as a Party formation the Sturmabteilungen (SA) a semi-military voluntary organization of young men trained for and committed to the use of violence, whose mission was to make the Party the master of the streets. The SA was organized in 1921. As indicated by its name, it was a voluntary organization of young men trained for and committed to the use of violence. To quote from a pamphlet compiled on order of the Supreme Sa Headquarters:

“The SA was not founded as one forms just any sort of club. It was born in midst of strife and received from the Fuehrer himself the name “Storm Troops” after that memorable hall battle in Hofbraeuhaus at Munich on the 4th of November 1921. * * * Blood and sacrifice were the most faithful companions of the young SA on its hard path to power. The Storm Troops were and still are today the fist and propaganda arm of the movement". (2168-PS)

It was organized along semi-military lines from the beginning. to quote again from the same official pamphlet:

“It is one of the greatest historical services of the SA that at the time when the German people’s Army had to undergo a dissolution, it held high those virtues which marked the German soldier: personal courage, idealism, willingness to sacrifice, consciousness of responsibility, power to decide, and leadership. Thus, the SA became among the people the messenger and bearer of German armed strength and German armed spirit.

“The 4th of November 1921 was not only the birth hour of the SA by itself, but was the day from which the young fighting troop of the Movement took its stand at the focal point of political events. With the clear recognition that now the unity (Geschlossenheit) of a troop led to victory, the SA was systematically Reorganized and so-called “Centuries” (Hundertschaften) were established * * *” (2168-PS)

In March 1923, Goering took command of the entire SA. In November 1923, SA units were used in the Munich Putsch. When the Party was reorganized in 1925, the SA continued to be the fighting organization of the Party. Again to quote the official pamphlet on the SA:

“And now a fight for Germany began of such a sort as was never before fought. What are names, what are words or figures which are not indeed able to express the magnitude of belief and of idealism on one side and the magnitude of hate on the other side. 1925: the Party lives again, and its iron spearhead is the SA. With it the power and meaning of the National Socialist movement grows. Around the central events of the whole Movement, the Reich Party Days, dates, decisions, fights and victory roll themselves into a long list of German men of undenying willingness to sacrifice.” (2168-PS)

Mastery of the streets was at all times the mission of the SA. While discussing his ideas as to the part which this organization should play in the political activity of his Party, Hitler stated:

“What we needed and still need were and are not a hundred or two hundred reckless conspirators, but a hundred thousand and a second hundred thousand fighters for our philosophy of life. We should not work in secret conventicles, but in mighty mass demonstrations, and it is not by dagger and poison or pistol that the road can be cleared for the movement but by the conquest of the streets. We must teach the Marxists that the future master of the streets is National Socialism, just as it will some day be the master of the state.” (404-PS)

To quote again from the official SA pamphlet:

“Possession of the streets is the key to power in the state-for this reason the SA marched and fought. the public would have never received knowledge from the agitative speeches of the little reichstag faction and its propaganda or from the desires and aims of the Party, if the martial tread and battle song of the SA companies had not beat the measure for the truth of a relentless criticism of the state of affairs in the governmental system. * * *

“The SA conquered for itself a place in public opinion and the leadership of the National Socialist Movement dictated to its opponents the law for quarrels. The SA was already a state within a state; a part of the future in a sad present.” (2168-PS; for further material concerning the SA, see Section 4 of Chapter XV.)

2. The Nazi conspirators constantly used physical violence and terror to break up meetings of political opponents, and to suppress opposition in their own meetings. The following facts are indicative of the methods constantly used by the Nazi conspirators during this period: On numerous occasions meetings of the Duetsche Friedensgesellschaft (Peace Society) were broken up and terrorized by shock troops and SA units. Groups of national Socialists invaded meetings of the society, interrupted the speaker, attempted to attack him, and endeavored to make sufficient disturbance so that the meetings would have to be cancelled. (L-83)

To quote once again from the official SA pamphlet:

“* * * As an example of a seemingly impossible deed, the 11th of February 1927 should be firmly preserved. It is the day on which the SA broke the Red Terror, with heavy sacrifice, in the hall battle at the Pharoah’s hall (Pharussaelen) in Berlin, the stronghold of the Communists, and thereby established itself decisively in the capitol city of the Reich. In considering the badly wounded SA men, Dr. Goebbels coined the phrase “unknown SA Man", who silently fights and bleeds, obeying only his duty.” (2168-PS)

In Berlin, under the leadership of Goebbels, so-called Rollkommandos were organized for the purpose of disrupting political meetings of all non-Nazi groups. These Rollkommandos were charged with interrupting, making noise, and unnerving the speaker. Finally the Nazis broke up meetings by Rollkommando raids. in many cases, fights resulted, during which furniture was destroyed and a number of persons hurt. The Nazis armed themselves with blackjacks, brass knuckles, rubber truncheons, walking sticks, and beer bottles. After the Reichstag election of 1930, Nazi terrorism became more overt, and from then on scarcely a day went by when the Chief of the Security Police in Berlin did not receive a minimum of five to ten reports, and often more, of riots instigated by Nazis. (2955-PS)

During the campaign for the Reichstag election of 14 September 1930, Nazi conspirators made it a practice to send speakers accompanied by many Storm Troopers to meetings of other political parties, often physically taking over the meetings. On one such occasion a large detachment of Storm Troopers, some of whom were armed with pistols and clubs, attended a meeting called by the Social Democratic Party, succeeded in forcibly excluding everybody not in sympathy with their views, and concluded the meeting as their own. Such violent tactics, repeated many times, were an integral part of the political creed of the Nazi. (L-83)

Ultimately, in Berlin, just before the Nazis seized power, it was necessary to devote the entire Police Force to the job of fighting the Nazis, thus leaving little time for other Police duties. (2955-PS)

3. The Nazi conspirators constantly threatened their opponents with organized reprisals and terror. During the course of the trial of three officers of the Reichswehr for high treason in Leipzig in September 1931, Hitler said:

“But I may assure you that if the Nazi movement’s struggle is successful, then there will be a Nazi Court of Law too, the November 1918 revolution will be atoned, and there'll be some heads chopped off.” (2512-PS)

Frick wrote in the National Socialist Yearbook for 1930:

“No wonder that as the situation of the entire German people, as well as that of the individual racial comrade, grows rapidly worse, increased numbers are realizing the incompetence of the parliamentarian system, and no wonder that even some who are responsible for the present system desperately cry for a dictatorship. This however, will not save them from their fate of one day being called to account before a German State Tribunal.” (2743-PS)

On 7 October 1929, the National socialist District leader Terboven said in a meeting in Essen:

“This weakness is especially known to Severing, who symbolizes the present State, and he intends to render a service to the State, which is breathing its last; but this too will no longer save the present corrupt parliamentarian system. * * * But I give such a dictatorship only four weeks. Then the people will awaken, then the National Socialists will come to power, and then there will not be enough lamp posts in Germany.

“The National Socialists will march into the new Reichstag with thirty members; then there will be black eyes every day in this Reichstag; thus this corrupt parliamentarian system will be further discredited; disorder and chaos will set in, and then the National Socialists will judge the moment to have arrived in which they are to seize the political power.” (2513-PS)

On 18 October 1929, Frick, while discussing the Young Plan in a meeting in Pyritz said:

“This fateful struggle will first be taken up with the ballot, but this cannot continue indefinitely, for history has taught us that in a battle, blood must be shed, and iron broken. the ballot is the beginning of this fateful struggle. We are determined to promulgate by force that which we preach. Just as Mussolini exterminated the Marxists in Italy, so must we also succeed in accomplishing the same through dictatorship and terror.” (2513-PS)

In December 1932, Frick, at that time Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Reichstag, stated to a fellow member of that committee:

“Don’t worry, when we are in power we shall put all of you guys into concentration camps.” (L-83)

4. The Nazi conspirators openly approved acts of terrorist committed by their subordinates. On 22 August 1932, five National Socialists were condemned to death for a murder in the town of Potempa. Hitler wired to the condemned men:

“My Comrades! Faced with this terrible blood sentence, I feel myself bound to you in unlimited faithfulness. Your liberty is from this moment a question of our honor. To fight against a Government under which such a thing could happen is our duty.” (2532-PS; 2511-PS)

Goering, two days later sent the following telegram to the condemned men:

“In nameless embitterment and rage against the terror sentence which has struck you, I promise you, My Comrades, that our whole fight from now on will be for your freedom. You are no murderers. You have defended the life and the honor of your Comrades. I send to your families today 1,000 Marks which I have received from your friends. be courageous. More than 14,000,000 of the best Germans have made your interest their own.” (2634-PS)

On 2 September 1932, the death sentences were commuted to imprisonment for life. In 1933, after the Nazis came into power, the five were set free (2532-PS)

Soon after coming to power the Nazi conspirators took steps to grant a general amnesty for all unlawful acts, including acts of violence, committed by their adherents in the course of their struggle for power. On 21 March 1933 a decree was promulgated, signed by von Hindenburg, Hitler, Frick, and von Papen granting amnesty “For penal acts committed in the national revolution of the German People, in its preparation or in the fight for the German soil". (2059-PS)

B. Control Acquired

(1) On 30 January 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of the German Republic.

(2) After the Reichstag fire of 28 February 1933, clauses of the Weimar Constitution Guaranteeing personal liberty and freedom of speech, of the press, of association and assembly, were suspended. the Weimar Constitution contained certain guarantees as to personal freedom (Article 114), as to inviolability of the home (Article 115), and as to the secrecy of letters and other communications (Article 117). It also had provisions safeguarding freedom of speech and of the press (Article 118), and of assembly (Article 123), and of association (Article 124). The Reich President was authorized, “if public safety and order in the German Reich are considerably disturbed or endangered,” to take steps to suspend “the Fundamental Rights” established in Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153. (Article 48 (2)). (2050-PS)

On 28 February 1933, the Nazi conspirators, taking as their excuse a fire which had just destroyed the Reichstag building, caused to be promulgated a Decree of the Reich President suspending the constitutional guarantees of freedom. This decree, which purported to be an exercise of the powers of the Reich President under Article 48 (2) of the Constitution, and which was signed by the Reich President, Hindenburg, the Reich Chancellor, Hitler, the Reich Minister of the Interior, Frick, and the Reich Minister of Justice, Guertner, provided in part:

“Sections 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. Thus, restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, on the right of assembly and the right of association, and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, and warrants for house-searchers, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.” (1390-PS)

(3) The Nazi conspirators secured the passage by the Reichstag of a “Law for the protection of the People and the Reich", giving Hitler and the members of his then Cabinet plenary powers of legislation. At the first meeting of Hitler’s Cabinet on 30 January 1933, passage of an Enabling Law (Ermaechtigungsgesetz) was discussed, and suppression of the Communist Party was considered as a means for securing the majority requisite for this and other purposes. (351-PS) Since such a law involved a change in the Constitution it was governed by Article 76 of the Weimar Constitution which provided: “The Constitution may be amended by law. The acts of the Reichstag amending the Constitution can only take effect if two-thirds of the regular number of members are present and at least two-thirds of those present consent.” (2050-PS) At the first meeting of the Hitler Cabinet on 30 January 1933, both Hitler and Goering favored early dissolution of the Reichstag and new elections in an effort to achieve a majority for the new Cabinet. (351-PS) This course was followed and new elections for the reichstag were held on 5 March 1933, at which 288 Nazi were elected out of 647 members (2514-PS).

Taking advantage of the Presidential decree of 28 February 1933 suspending constitutional guarantees of freedom, Goering and other Nazi conspirators immediately caused a large number of Communists, including party officials and Reichstag deputies, and a smaller number of Social Democratic officials and deputies to be placed in “protective custody". (2324-PS; 2573-PS; L-83) Thus all Communist deputies and a number of social Democratic deputies were prevented from attending the new session of the Reichstag. On 9 March 1933, Frick announced that the Communists would be prevented from participating in the first session of the Reichstag on March 21st, because of their being more usefully occupied. (2403-PS) As Frick cynically stated:

“When the reichstag meets the 21st of March, the Communists will be prevented by urgent labor elsewhere from participating 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 do not want to be re-educated.” (2651-PS)

At a meeting of the Reich Cabinet on 15 March 1933, the problem of securing the necessary two-thirds majority in favor of an Enabling Act was again considered. Frick stated his belief that the Act would have to be broadly conceived, in a manner to allow for any deviation from the clauses of the Constitution of the Reich. Goering thought the two-thirds majority would be forthcoming and that if necessary some of the Social Democrats could be excluded from the room during the voting. (2962-PS)

At a meeting of the Cabinet on 20 March 1933, there was further discussion of means for securing the majority and quorum necessary to secure passage of the Act (2963-PS). On 23 March, Hitler spoke in favor of an Enabling law proposed by the Nazi conspirators and in the course of the debate said:

“The Government insists on the passage of this law. It expects a clear decision in any case. it offers to all the Parties in the Reichstag the possibility of a peaceful development and a possible conciliation in the future. But it is also determined to consider a disapproval of this law as a declaration of resistance. it is up to you, gentlemen, to make the decision now. It will be either peace or war.” (2652-PS)

Thus subject to the full weight of Nazi pressure and terror, the Reichstag passed the proposed law, 441 deputies voting in its favor, and 94 Social Democrats being opposed (2579-PS). the following day, the law was promulgated. it provided:

“the Reichstag has resolved the following law, which is, with the approval of the Reichsrat, herewith promulgated, after it has been established that the requirements have been satisfied for legislation altering the Constitution.

“SECTION 1. Reich laws can be enacted by the Reich Cabinet as well as in accordance with the procedure established in the Constitution. This applies also to the laws referred to in article 85, paragraph 2, and in article 87 of the Constitution.

“SECTION 2. The national laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet may deviate from the Constitution so far as they do not affect the position of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat. The powers of the President remain undisturbed.

“SECTION 3. The national laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet are prepared by the Chancellor and published in the Reichsgesetzblatt. they come into effect, unless otherwise specified, upon the day following their publication. Articles 68 to 77 of the Constitution do not apply to the laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet.

“SECTION 4. Treaties of the Reich with foreign states which concern matters of national legislation do not require the consent of the bodies participating in legislation. The Reich Cabinet is empowered to issue the necessary provisions for the execution of these treaties.

“SECTION 5. This law becomes effective on the day of its publication. It becomes invalid on April 1, 1937; it further becomes invalid when the present Reich Cabinet is replaced by another.” (2001-PS)

The time limit stated in the law was twice extended by action of the Reichstag and once by decree of Hitler. (2047-PS; 2048-PS; 2103-PS)

On 29 June 1933, Dr. Hugenberg resigned as Reich Minister of Economy and as Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture (351-PS). Thereafter, other members of the Cabinet resigned from time to time, and new members were added. The Reich Cabinet continued to exercise, on numerous occasions the plenary powers conferred on it by the law of 24 March 1933. (See Section 3 of Chapter XV for further material on the Reich Cabinet.)

(4) The Nazi conspirators caused all political parties, except the Nazi Party, to be prohibited. After the Reichstag fire of 27 February 1933, the organization of the Communist Party was destroyed. On 9 March 1933, the Reich Minister of the Interior, Frick, announced that the Communists would be prevented from taking part in the opening of the reichstag on 21 March 1933, because of their seditious activity. On 26 May 1933, a law was promulgated, signed by Hitler and Frick, providing for the confiscation of Communist property. (2403-PS; 1396-PS)

After suspension of the Constitutional guarantees of freedom on 28 February 1933, numerous restraints were imposed on the Social Democratic Party, including the arrest of a number of its leaders and Reichstag deputies. The backbone of this Party was broken by the occupation of the trade union buildings and the smashing of free trade unions in May 1933. On 22 June 1933, the Social Democratic Party was suppressed in Prussia (2403-pS). On 7 July 1933 a Reich decree eliminated Social Democrats from the Reichstag and from the governing bodies of Provinces and Municipalities. (2058-PS)

On 14 July 1933, provisions of the Law of 26 May 1933 confiscating Communist property were made applicable to assets and interests of the Social Democratic Party and its affiliated organizations, “and also to assets and interests which are used or destined to promote Marxist or other activities found by the Reich Minister of the Interior to be subversive to people and state.” (1388-PS) Faced with similar pressure, the other German Parties either dissolved or combined with the Nazis (2403-PS).

The Nazi conspirators then promulgated a law declaring the Nazi Party to be the only political party in Germany and making it criminal to maintain any other political party or to form a new political party. This law, which was signed by Hitler, Frick, and Guertner, provided in part:

“Art. 1

The National Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) constitutes the only political party in Germany.

“Art. 2

Whoever undertakes to maintain the organizational structure of another political party or to form a new political party will be punished with penal servitude up to three years or with imprisonment of from six months to three years, if the deed is not subject to a greater penalty according to other regulations.” (1388-PS)

In a speech on 6 July 1933 Hitler stated:

“The political parties have finally been abolished. This is a historical occurrence, the meaning and implication of which one cannot yet be fully conscious of. Now, we must set aside the last vestige of democracy, particularly the methods of voting and making majority decisions which today are used in local governments, in economic organizations and in labor boards; in its place we must validate the responsibility of the individual. The achievement of external power must be followed by the inner-education of the people * * *”

Later in the same speech, Hitler said:

“The Party has become the State. All power lies with the Reich Authorities.” (2632-PS)

(5) The Nazi conspirators caused the Nazi Party to be established as a para-governmental organization with extensive and extraordinary privileges. On 1 December 1933 the Reich Cabinet promulgated a law designed for “Securing the Unity of Party and State". It was signed by Hitler and Frick, and provided:

“Art 1

1. After the victory of the National Socialistic Revolution, the National Socialistic German Labor Party is the bearer of the concept of the German State and is inseparably the state.

2. It will be a part of the public law. Its organization will be determined by the Fuehrer.

“Art 2

The deputy of the Fuehrer and the Chief of Staff of the SA will become members of the Reichs government in order to insure close cooperation of the offices of the party and SA with the public authorities.

“Art. 3

1. The members of the National Socialistic German Labor Party and the SA (including their subordinate organizations) as the leading and driving force of the National Socialist State will bear greater responsibility toward Fuehrer, people and state.

2. In case they violate these duties, they will be subject to special jurisdiction by party and state.

3. The Fuehrer may extend these regulations in order to include members of other organizations.

“Art. 4

Every action or neglect on the part of members of the SA (including their subordinate organizations) attacking or endangering the existence, organization, activity or reputation of the National Socialistic German Labor Party, in particular any infraction against discipline and order, will be regarded as a violation of duty.

“Art. 5

Custody and arrest may be inflicted in addition to the usual penalties.

“Art. 6

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.

“Art. 7

The law regarding the authority to inflict penalties on members of the SA and SS, of the 28 April 1933 (RGBl, p. 230), will be invalidated.

“Art. 8

The Reichs Chancellor, as Fuehrer of the National Socialistic German Labor Party and as the supreme commander of SA will issue the regulation 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. He will determine the time at which the regulations concerning this jurisdiction will be effective.” (1395-PS)

Thus the Nazi Party became a para-governmental organization in Germany.

The Nazi conspirators granted the Nazi Party and its components extensive and extraordinary privileges. On 19 May 1933, they passed a law to protect and insure respect for party symbols (2759-PS). On 20 December 1934 the Nazi conspirators caused a law to be promulgated, signed by Hitler, Guertner, Hess, and Frick, making it a crime to make false or grievous statements to injure the prestige of the Government of the Reich, the NSDAP, or its agencies. This law also declared it to be a crime to wear the uniform or the insignia of the NSDAP without authority to do so, and controlled the manufacture and sale of Party uniforms, flags, and insignia (1393-PS). A decree of 29 March 1935, defining the legal status of the NSDAP and of its components and affiliated organizations, is a further indication of the extraordinary privileges enjoyed by the Nazi Party. (1725-PS)

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO ACQUISITION OF TOTALITARIAN POLITICAL CONTROL

Document Description Vol. Page

Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Article 6, especially 6 (a)… 1 5

International Military Tribunal, Indictment Number 1, Sections IV (D) 1, 2… 1 17,18

note: a single asterisk (*) before a document indicates that the document was received in evidence at the nurnberg trial. a double asterisk (**) before a document number indicates that the document was referred to during the trial but was not formally received in evidence, for the reason given in parentheses following the description of the document. the usa series number, given in parentheses following the description of the document, is the official exhibit number assigned by the court. indicates that the document was received in evidence at the nurnberg trial. a double asterisk (**) before a document number indicates that the document was referred to during the trial but was not formally received in evidence, for the reason given in parentheses following the description of the document. the usa series number, given in parentheses following the description of the document. is the official exhibit number assigned by the court.

*047-PS Letter to Rosenberg signed by Hitler, 24 August 1931. (USA 725)… III 82

*351-PS Minutes of First Meeting of Cabinet of Hitler, 30 January 1933. (USA 389)… III 270

*404-PS Excerpts from Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 456, 475. (USA 256) … III 385

1388-PS Law concerning confiscation of Property subversive to People and State, 14 July 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 479… III 962

1388-A-PS Law against the establishment of Parties, 14 July 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 479… III 962

1390-PS Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State, 28 February 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 83… III 968

1393-PS Law on treacherous attacks against State and Party, and for the Protection of Party Uniforms, 20 December 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1269…III 973

*1395-PS Law to insure the unity of Party and State, 1 December 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1016. (GB 252) … iii 978

1396-PS Law concerning the confiscation of Communist property, 26 May 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 293… III 979

1725-PS Decree enforcing law for securing the unity of Party and State, 29 March 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 502…IV 224

2001-PS Law to Remove the Distress of People and State, 24 March 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 141… IV 638

2047-PS Law for the extension of the law concerning the removal of the distress of People and Reich, 30 January 1937. 1937 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 105… IV 660

2048-PS Law for the extension of the law concerning the removal of the distress of the People and Reich, 30 January 1939. 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 95… IV 660

2050-PS The Constitution of the German Reich, 11 August 1919. 1919 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1383… IV 662

2058-PS Decree for the securing of the State Leadership, 7 July 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 462… IV 699

2059-PS Decree of the Reich President relating to the granting of Amnesty, 21 March 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 134… IV 701

2103-PS Decree of Fuehrer on Cabinet Legislation, 10 May 1943. 1943 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 295… IV 729

*2168-PS Book by SA Sturmfuehrer Dr. Ernst Bayer, entitled “The SA", depicting the history, work, aim and organization of the SA. (USA 411)… IV 772

*2324-PS Extracts from Reconstruction of a Nation, by Hermann Goering, 1934. (USA 233)… IV 1033

2403-PS The End of the Party State, from Documents of German Politics, Vol. I, pp. 55-56… V 71

2404-PS Report of Hitler’s speech in his own defense, published in the Hitler Trial (1934)… V 73

2405-PS Extracts from German Publications… V 79

2412-PS Extracts from Nature and Form of National Socialism Pamphlet by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Berlin, 1935… V 88

2500-PS “What do we want in the Reichstag?” one of Goebbels newspaper articles… V 237

2511-PS Statement by Hitler from Voelkischer Beobachter, 24 August 1932… V 246

2512-PS Hitler’s Testimony Before the Court for High Treason, published in Frankfurter Zeitung, 26 September 1931… V 246

*2513-PS Extract from The National socialist Workers' Party as an Association Hostile to State and to Republican Form of Government and Guilty of Treasonable Activity. (USA 235) … V 252

2514-PS Extract from Statistical Yearbook of the German Reich 1933, concerning elections in the Reichstag… V 253

2532-PS Extract from The Third Reich, by Gerd Ruehle…V 268

2573-PS Announcement of Official Prussian Press Office, in Frankfurter Zeitung, 1 March 1933… V 303

2579-PS Extracts from the Frankfurter Zeitung, 24 March 1933, concerning happenings 23 March… V 303

2632-PS Extracts from The National Socialist Revolution 1933, published in Berlin 1935… V 343

2633-PS Extracts from Constitutional Law of the Greater German Reich, 1939… V 344

2634-PS Goering to the Condemned, published in Voelkischer Beobachter, 26 August 1932… V 344

2651-PS Statement by Frick from Voelkischer Beobachter, 14 March 1933… V 359

2652-PS Speech of Hitler to reichstag, 23 March 1933, from Voelkischer Beobachter, 24 March 1933… V 359

2741-PS Speech by Hitler on 9 November 1934, published in Voelkischer Beobachter, 10 November 1934… V 382

2742-PS Passage written by Frick in National Socialist Yearbook, 1927, p. 124… V 833

2743-PS Passage written by Frick in National Socialist Yearbook, 1930, p. 178… V 383

2759-PS Law for the protection of Nationalist Symbols, 19 May 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 285… V 394

*2955-PS Affidavit of Magnus Heimannsberg, 14 November 1945, referring to SA and other Nazi groups posted at polling places. (USA 755) … V 659

*2962-PS Minutes of meeting of Reich Cabinet, 15 March 1933. (USA 578) … V 669

*2963-PS Minutes of meeting of Reich Cabinet, 20 March 1933. (USA 656)… V 670

*3054-PS “The Nazi Plan", script of a motion picture composed of captured German film. (USA 167) … V 801

*3740-PS Affidavit of Franz Halder, 6 March 1946. (USA 779) … VI 635

*L-83 Affidavit of Gerhart H. Seger, 21 July 1945. (USA 234) … VII 859

3. CONSOLIDATION OF TOTALITARIAN POLITICAL CONTROL

Between the Accession to Power (early 1933) and the Outbreak of the War (late 1939) the nazi Conspirators Consolidated Their Control of Germany by Utilizing and Molding Its Political Machinery to Their Own Ends.

A. The Nazi conspirators reduced the Reichstag to an impotent body of their own appointees. Under the Weimar Constitution of the German Reich, adopted by the German people on 11 August 1919, the Reichstag was a representative parliamentary body with broad legislative powers. Article 20 provided that the Reichstag should be “composed of the delegates of the German people.” Article 68 of the Chapter on Legislation provided that:

“Bills are introduced by the government of the Reich or by members of the Reichstag. Reich laws shall be enacted by the Reichstag.” (2050-PS)

In Mein Kampf Hitler stated the conspirators' purpose to undermine the Reichstag:

“Our young movement in essence and structure is anti-parliamentarian, I. e., it rejects majority voting as a matter of principle as well as in its own organization * * * Its participation in the activities of a parliament has only the purpose to contribute to its destruction, to the elimination of an institution which we consider as one of the gravest symptoms of decay of mankind * * *” (2883-PS).

With the passage of the law for the Protection of the People and the Reich (also known as the Enabling Act) the Nazi succeeded, in effect, in depriving the Reichstag of its legislative functions. The legislative as well as the executive powers of the government were concentrated in Hitler and the Cabinet (2001-PS; the legislative activities of the Cabinet (Reichsregierung) and its power to contravene constitutional limitations are treated in Section 3 of Chapter XV).

During the period from March 1933 until the beginning of 1937, the Reichstag enacted only four laws: the Reconstruction Law of 30 January 1934 and the three Nurnberg laws of 15 September 1935. The Reichstag was retained chiefly as a sounding board for Hitler’s speeches. All other legislation was enacted by the Cabinet, by the Cabinet ministers, or by decree of the Fuehrer (2481-PS). Hess has admitted the lack of importance of the Reichstag in the legislative process after 1933. (2426-PS)

Hitler indicated in a 1939 decree that the Reichstag would be permitted to enact only such laws as he, in his own judgment, might deem appropriate for Reichstag legislation. (2018-PS)

Immediately after the Nazis acquired the control of the central government they proceeded systematically to eliminate their opponents. First they forced all other political parties to dissolve, and on 14 July 1933 issued a decree making illegal the existence of any political party except the Nazi Party. (1388-PS)

In early 1935 there were 661 delegates in the Reichstag. Of this number 641 were officially registered as Nazi party members and the remaining 20 were classified as “guests” (Gaeste). (2348-PS; 2380-PS)

B. The Nazi conspirators curtailed the freedom of popular elections throughout Germany. Under the Weimar Republic there existed constitutional and legislative guarantees of free popular elections. The Weimar Constitution guaranteed the universal, equal and secret ballot and proportional representation. (2050-PS) These general principles were implemented by the provisions of the Reich Election Law of 1924, particularly with respect to the multiple party system and the functioning of proportional representation. (2382-PS)

In Mein Kampf Hitler stated the conspirators' purpose to subvert the system of popular election:

“Majority can never replace men. * * * The political understanding of the masses is not sufficiently developed to produce independently specific political convictions and to select persons to represent them.” (2883-PS)

The occasional national elections after 1933 were formalities devoid of freedom of choice. Bona fide elections could not take place under the Nazi system. The basic ideological doctrine of the Fuehrerprinzip (leadership Principle) dictated that all subordinates must be appointed by their superiors in the governmental hierarchy. In order to insure the practical application of this principle the Nazis immediately liquidated all other political parties and provided criminal sanctions against the formation of new parties. (For further discussion see Section 2 on the Acquisition of Totalitarian Political Control.)

Although the Reichstag, unlike all other elective assemblies in Germany, was allowed to continue in existence, elections no longer involved a free choice between lists or candidates. at these elections there were usually large bands of uniformed Nazis surrounding the polls and intimidating the voters. (2955-PS)

The surreptitious marking of ballots (e.g. with skimmed milk) was also customary, to ascertain the identity of the persons who cast “No” or invalid votes. (R-142)

Although it had already become practically impossible to have more than one list of candidates, it was specifically provided by law in 1938 that only one list was to be submitted to the electorate. (2355-PS)

By the end of this period, little of substance remained in the election law. In an official volume published during the war there are reprinted the still effective provisions of the law of 1924. The majority of the substantive provisions have been marked “obsolete” (gegenstandslos) (2381-PS).

The comprehensive Nazi program for the centralization of German government included in its scope the whole system of regional and local elections, which soon ceased to exist. Article 17 of the Weimar Constitution had required a representative form of government and universal, secret elections in all Laender and municipalities (2050-PS). Yet in early 1934, the sovereign powers (Hoheitsrechte) of the Laender were transferred by law to the Reich, and the Land governments were placed under the Reich control:

“The popular assemblies (Volksvertretungen) of the Laender shall be abolished.” (2006-PS)

Pursuant to the German Communal Ordinance of 30 January 1935, the mayors and executive officers of all municipalities received their appointments “through the confidence of Party and State” (Article 6 (2)). Appointments were made by Reich authorities from lists prepared by the Party delegates (Article 41). City councillors were selected by the Party delegates in agreement with the mayors (Article 51 (1)). (2008-PS)

C. The Nazi conspirators transformed the states, provinces, and municipalities into what were, in effect, mere administrative organs of the central government. under the Weimar Constitution of the per-Nazi regime, the states, provinces, and municipalities enjoyed considerable autonomy in the exercise of governmental functions-legislative, executive and judicial. (2050-PS)

Hitler, in Mein Kampf, stated the conspirators' purpose to establish totalitarian control of local government:

“National Socialism, as a matter of principle, must claim the right to enforce its doctrines, without regard to present federal boundaries, upon the entire German nation and to educate it in its ideas and its thinking. * * *. The National Socialist doctrine is not the servant of political interests of individual federal states but shall become the ruler of the German nation.” (2883-PS)

These Views were echoed by Rosenberg:

“In the midst of the great power constellations of the globe there must be, for foreign as well as for internal political reasons, only one strong central national authority, if one wants Germany to regain a position which makes it fit for alliance with other countries.” (2882-PS)

By a series of laws and decrees, the Nazi conspirators reduced the powers of the regional and local governments and substantially transformed them into territorial subdivisions of the Reich government. the program of centralization began almost immediately after the Nazis acquired the chief executive posts of the government. On 31 March 1933, they promulgated the Provisional Law integrating the Laender with the Reich (2004-PS). this law called for the dissolution of all state and local self governing bodies and for their reconstitution according to the number of votes cast for each party in the Reichstag election of 5 March 1933. The Communists and their affiliates were expressly denied representation.

A week later there followed the Second Law Integrating the laender with the Reich (2005-PS). This Act established the position of Reich governor. He was to be appointed by the President upon the proposal of the Chancellor, and was given power to appoint the members of the Land governments and the higher Land officials and judges, the authority to reconstruct the Land legislature according to the law of 31 March 1933 (2004-PS, supra), and the power of pardon.

On 31 January 1934, most of the remaining vestiges of Land independence were destroyed by the Law for the reconstruction of the Reich:

“The popular referendum and the Reichstag election of November 12, 1933, have proved that the German people have attained an indestructible internal unity (unloesliche innere Einheit) superior to all internal subdivisions of political character. Consequently, the Reichstag has enacted the following law which is hereby promulgated with the unanimous vote of the Reichstag after ascertaining that the requirements of the Reich Constitution have been met:

Article I. Popular assemblies of the laender shall be abolished.

Article II. (1) The sovereign powers (Hoheitsrechte) of the Laender are transferred to the Reich.

(2) The Laender governments are placed under the Reich government.

Article III. The Reich governors are. placed under the administrative supervision of the Reich Minister of Interior.

Article IV. The Reich Government may issue new constitutional laws.”

This law was implemented by a regulation, issued by Frick, providing that all Land laws must have the assent of the competent Minister of the Reich, that the highest echelons of the Land Government were to obey the orders of the competent Reich Minister, and that the employees of the Laender might be transferred into the Reich Civil Service. (1653-PS)

The Reichsrat (Reich Council) was abolished by law on 14 February 1934, and all official representation on the part of the Laender in the administration of the central government was at an end (2647-PS). The legislative pattern was complete with the enactment of the Reich Governor Law on 30 January 1935, which solidified the system of centralized control. The Reich Governor was declared to be the official representative of the Reich government, who was to receive orders directly from Hitler (Reichstatthaltergesetz (Reich Governor Law), 30 January 1935, 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 65). The same development was apparent in the provinces, the territorial subdivisions of Prussia. All local powers were concentrated in the Provincial Presidents, who acted solely as representatives of the national administration (2049-PS). Similarly, in the case of the municipalities local self-government was quickly reduced to a minimum and communal affairs were placed under central Reich control. The Nazi Party Delegate was given special functions:

“* * * in order to insure harmony between the communal administration and the Party.” (Art. 6 (2)).

The Reich was given supervision over the municipalities:

“* * * in order to insure that their activities conform with the laws and the aims of national leadership.” (2008-PS)

The Nazi conspirators frequently boasted of their comprehensive program of government centralization. Frick, Minister of the Interior throughout this period, wrote:

“The reconstruction law abolished the sovereign rights and the executive powers of the Laender and made the Reich the sole beare of the rights of sovereignty. The supreme powers of the Laender do not exist any longer. The natural result of this was the subordination of the Land governments to the Reich government and the Land Ministers to the corresponding Reich Ministers. On 30 January 1934, the German Reich became one state. (2481-PS)

In another article Frick indicated even more clearly the purposes which underlay this program of centralization:

“In the National Socialist revolution of 1933, it was stipulated for the first time in the history of the German nation that the erection of a unified state (Einheitsstaat) would be accomplished. From the early days of his political activity, Adolf Hitler never left a doubt in the mind of anyone that he considered it the first duty of National Socialism to create a German Reich in which the will of the people would be led in a single direction and that the whole strength of the nation, at home and abroad, would be placed on the balance scale.” (2380-PS; 2378-PS.)

D. The Nazi conspirators united the offices of President and Chancellor in the person of Hitler. The merger of the two offices was accomplished by the law of 1 August 1934, signed by the entire cabinet (2003-PS). The official Nazi statement concerning the effect of this statute contains this observation:

“Through this law, the conduct of Party and State has been combined in one hand. * * * He is responsible only to his own conscience and to the German nation.” (1893-PS)

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 (2050-PS). Accordingly, every soldier was immediately required to take an oath of loyalty and obedience to Hitler. (2061-PS)

E. The Nazi conspirators removed great numbers of civil servants on racial and political grounds and replaced them with party members and supporters.

Hitler publicly announced the conspirator’s purpose:

“We know that two things alone will save us: the end of internal corruption and the cleaning out of all those who owe their existence simply to the protection of members of the same political parties. Through the most brutal ruthlessness towards all officials installed by those political parties we must restore our finances. * * * The body of German officials must once more become what it was.” (2881-PS)

The Nazi legislative machine turned to the task of purging the civil service soon after the accession to power. On 7 April 1933, the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service was promulgated (1397-PS). Article 3 of this law applies the Nazi blood theories:

“(1) Officials who are not of Aryan descent are to be retired (See Section 8); where honorary officials are concerned, they are to be discharged from office.

(2) (1) Does not apply to officials who have been in service since August 1, 1914, or who fought in the World War at the front for the German reich or for its allies or whose fathers or sons were killed in the World War. The reich Minister of the Interior after consultation with the competent Minister or with the highest state authorities may permit further exceptions in the case of officials who are in foreign countries.”

Article 8 provides that retirement does not carry a pension unless the official has served at least ten years. The political purge provision of this law is contained in Article 4:

“Officials who because of their previous political activity do not offer security that they will exert themselves for the national state without reservations, may be discharged. For three months after dismissal, they will be paid their former salary. From this time on they receive three-quarters of their pensions (see 8) and corresponding annuities for their heirs.”

The provisions of the Act apply to all Reich, Land, and Communal officials (Art. 1 (2)). Civil Servants may be placed on the retired list without any reason, “for the purpose of simplifying the administration” (Art. 6). Discharges and transfers, once decided on by the appropriate administrative chief, are final and are not subject to appeal (Art. 7 (1)).

This basic enactment was followed by a series of decrees, regulations, and amendments. For example, on 11 April 1933, the term “nonAryan” was defined to include persons with only one non-Aryan grandparent (2012-PS). An amendatory law of 30 June ruled out all civil servants married to non-Aryans. (1400-PS)

The political standards of the “Purge Law” were made more explicit by the supplementary law of 20 July 1933. Officials who belonged to any party or organization which, in the opinion of the Nazis, furthered the aims of Communism, Marxism, or Social Democracy were summarily to be discharged (1398-PS). In the later years, these earlier provisions were enlarged and codified, no longer solely for the purposes of affecting the existing civil service, but rather to set out the qualifications for the appointment of new applicants and for their promotion. Proof of devotion to national Socialism and documentary proof of acceptable “blood” were prescribed as conditions to promotion. (2326-PS)

The comprehensive German Civil Service Law of 26 January 1937 included the discriminatory provisions of the earlier legislation, and prevented the appointment of any applicants opposed or suspected of being opposed to the Nazi program and policy (2340-PS). The legislation dealing with the training and education of civil servants provided that no person can be accepted for an official position unless he is a member of the Nazi Party or one of its formations (Gliederungen). (2341-PS)

The total subjugation of the German civil servant was ultimately accomplished by the following resolution passed by the Reichstag at the request of the Fuehrer.

“* * * without being bound by existing legal provisions, the Fuehrer must therefore in his capacity as Fuehrer of the nation, as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, as Head of the Government and as the highest bearer of all power, as highest Law Lord and as Fuehrer of the Party, always be in a position to require every German-whether a simple soldier or officer, subordinate or higher official, or judge, supervisory or operating functionary of the Party, laborer or employer-to carry out his duties with all the means available to him and to discharge these duties according to a conscientious examination without reference to socalled vested rights, especially without the preambles of preexisting procedure, by removal of any man from his office, rank or position.” (2755-PS)

F. The Nazi conspirators restricted the independence of the judiciary and rendered it subservient to their ends.

The independence of judges, before the Nazi regime, was guaranteed by the Weimar constitution. The fundamental principle was stated briefly in Article 102:

“Judges are independent and subject only to the law.” (2050-PS)

Article 104 contained a safeguard against the arbitrary removal or suspension of judges, while Article 105 prohibited “exceptional courts". The fundamental rights of the individual are set out in Article 109 and include equality before the law. (2050-PS)

Like all other public officials, German judges who failed to meet Nazi racial and political requirements became the subject of a wide-spread purge. Non-Aryans, political opponents of the Nazis, and all persons suspected of antagonism to the aims of the Party were summarily removed (2967-PS). The provisions of the Law for the Restoration of Professional Civil Service of 7 April 1933 applied to all judges. this was declared expressly in the third regulation for the administration of the law. (2867-PS)

To make certain that cases with political ramifications would be dealt with acceptably and in conformity with Party principles, the Nazis granted designated areas of criminal jurisdiction to the so-called Special Courts (Sondergerichte). These constituted a new system of special criminal courts, independent of the regular judiciary and directly subservient to the Party (2076-PS). A later decree considerably broadened the jurisdiction of these courts. (2056-PS)

In 1934, the People’s Court was set up as a trial court “in cases of high treason and treason” (2014-PS). This action was a direct result of the dissatisfaction of the Nazi rulers with the decision of the Supreme Court (Reichsgericht) in the Reichstag fire trial. Three of the four defendants were acquitted although the Nazi conspirators had expected convictions in all cases (2967-PS). The law which created this new Tribunal Contained A Wide Definition Of Treason Which Would Include Most Of What WERE REGARDED BY THE NAZIS AS “POLITICAL” CRIMES (art. 3 (1)). The Express Denial Of Any Appeal From The Decisions Of The People’s Court (Art. 5 (2)) was a further indication of the intention of the Nazis to set up a criminal law system totally outside of accepted judicial pattern. The substantive organization of the People’s Court was later established by law in 1936. (2342-PS)

These new tribunals were staffed almost exclusively with Nazis and were used to tighten the Party’s grip on Germany. This control became progressively stronger, due first, to the power of the prosecutor to pick the appropriate court; second, to the restriction of defense counsel in these courts to specially admitted attorneys; and finally, to the absence of appeal from the decisions of these judges. Moreover, there developed along side of the entire judicial system the increasingly powerful police administration, under which persons opposed to the regime were regularly imprisoned in concentration camps without any type of hearing, even after acquittal by the courts. (2967-PS)

Still another group of courts was established within the Party itself. These Party Courts heard cases involving internal party discipline and infractions of the rules of conduct prescribed for members of formations and affiliated organizations. the published rules for the Party judges emphasized the complete dependence of these judges upon the directions and supervision of their Party superiors. (2402-PS)

The Nazi legal theorists freely admitted that there was no place in their scheme of things for the truly independent judge. They controlled all judges through special directives and orders from the central government. Frank underscored the role of the judge as a political functionary and as an administrator in the National Socialist state (2378-PS). Two case histories of this period serve to illustrate the manner in which criminal proceedings were directly suppressed or otherwise affected by order of the Reich government.

In 1935, the Reich Governor of Saxony, Mutschmann, attempted to quash criminal proceedings which, in this exceptional instance, had been brought against officials of the hohnstein concentration camp for a series of extremely brutal attacks upon inmates. The trial was held and the defendants convicted, but during the trial the governor inquired of the presiding judge whether he did not think the penalty proposed by the prosecutor too severe and whether an acquittal was not indicated. After the conviction, two jurymen were ousted from the NSDAP and the prosecutor was advised by his superior to withdraw from the SA. Although Guertner, the then Minister of Justice, strongly recommended against taking any action to alter the decision, Hitler pardoned all the accused. (783-PS; 784-PS; 785-PS; 786-PS)

In another similar case, Guertner wrote directly to Hitler narrating the horrible details of maltreatment and advising that the case be regularly prosecuted. Nevertheless, Hitler ordered complete suppression of the proceedings. (787-PS; 788-PS)

Under the Nazi regime, it was part of the official duty of many Party functionaries to supervise the administration of justice. The official papers of Hess contain detailed statements concerning his own functions and those of the Gauleiter in deciding criminal cases. (2639-PS)

Another type of governmental interference in judicial matters is evidenced by the confidential letter which the Ministry of Justice sent in early 1938 to the Chief Justices of the Regional Supreme Courts (Oberlandesgerichtspraesidenten). The judges were instructed to submit lists of lawyers who would be sufficiently able and trustworthy to represent in court persons who had been taken into “protective custody". The main requirement was absolute political reliability. Simple Party membership was not enough; to be selected, the lawyer had to enjoy the confidence of the “Gestapo". (651-PS)

After the war began, Thierack, Minister of Justice, revealed the low state to which the judiciary had fallen under Nazis rule. he argued that the judge was not the “supervisor” but the “assistant” of the government. He said that the word “independent", as applied to the judge, was to be eliminated from the vocabulary and that although the judge should retain a certain freedom of decision in particular cases, the government “can and must” give him the “general line” to follow. For this purpose, Thierack decided in 1942 to send confidential Judge’s Letters (Richterbriefe) to all German judges and prosecutors, setting forth the political principles and directives with which all judicial personnel were obligated to comply (2482-PS). The first of these Judge’s Letters clearly expresses the complete subordination of the judges to the Fuehrer and his government. (D-229)

G. The Nazi conspirators greatly enlarged existing State and Party organizations and established an elaborate network of new formations and agencies.

The totalitarian character of the Nazi regime led to the establishment of a great number of new official and semi-official agencies and organizations in the various fields of life which were permeated by Nazi doctrine and practice, including culture, trade, industry, and agriculture.

New agencies had to be created to handle the large number of additional administrative tasks taken over from the Laender and the municipalities. Moreover, the mobilization of the political, economic, and military resources of Germany required the formation of such coordinating “super-agencies” as the Four Year Plan, the Plenipotentiary for Economics, the Plenipotentiary for Administration, and the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich. At the time of the launching of war, the central Reich government was an extremely complicated structure held together under strict Nazi dictatorship. (See Chart Number 18; also 2261-PS; 2194-PS; 2018-PS.)

Simultaneously, in the Party, the growth of agencies and organizations proceeded rapidly. The Party spread, octopus-like, throughout all Germany and into many foreign lands. (See Chart Number 1; also 1725-PS.)

This process of growth was summed up late in 1937 in an official statement of the Party Chancellery:

“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.” (2383-PS)

H. The Nazi conspirators created a dual system of government controls, set up Party agencies to correspond with State agencies, and coordinated their activities, often by uniting corresponding State and Party offices in a single person.

In Mein Kampf, Hitler announced the conspirators' purpose:

“Such a revolution can and will only be achieved by a movement which itself is already organized in the spirit of such ideas and thus in itself already bears the coming state. Therefore, the National Socialist movement may today become imbued with these ideas and put them into practice in its own organization so that it not only may direct the state according to the same principles, but also may be in a position to put at the state’s disposal the finished organizational structure of its own state.” (2883-PS)

The Nazis attempted to achieve a certain degree of identity between the Party and the State and, at the same time, to maintain two separate organizational structures. After the rise to power, the fundamental principle of unity was translated into “law":

“Article 1. After the victory of the National Socialistic Revolution, the National Socialistic German Labor Party is the bearer of the concept of the German State and is inseparably the state.” (1395-PS)

The manner in which the Nazis retained a duality of organization despite the theory of unity is graphically portrayed in the charts of the Party and the State (Charts Number 1 and 18). These visual exhibits demonstrate the comprehensive character of the Party organization, which was established on parallel lines with the corresponding government structure. The Party structure remained at all times technically separate and could be used for non-governmental purposes whenever such use best served the needs of the conspirators. In innumerable instances, the corresponding Party and State offices were, in fact, held by the same person. For example, the Gauleiter of the Party in most instances also held the post of Reich Governor (or, in Prussia, that of Provincial President). (2880-PS)

The coordination of the Party and State functions started at the top. The Chief of the Party Chancellery was designated a Reich Minister and endowed with plenary powers in the preparation and approval of legislation. He acted as liaison officer at the highest level between Party officials and cabinet ministers. He was given also the duty of passing on the appointment of all the more important civil servants. (2787-PS)

Many of the same powers were bestowed upon the other Reichsleiter (Leaders composing the Party Directorate). The official Nazi exposition of their position is as follows:

“It is in the Reich Directorate where the strings of the organization of the German people and the State meet. By endowment of the Chief of the Party Chancellery with the powers of a Reich Minister, and by special administrative directives, the penetration of the State apparatus with the political will of the Party is guaranteed. It is the task of the separate organs of the Reich Directorate to maintain as close a contact as possible with the life of the nation through their sub-offices in the Gaus. Observations at the front are to be collected and exploited by the offices of the Reich Directorate.” (1893-PS)

On the regional and local levels, the Gauleiter, Kreisleiter, etc., were also empowered to control the purely governmental authorities on political matters. Hess issued the following order shortly after the war began:

“I, therefore order that the bearer of sovereignty (Hoheitstraeger) of the NSDAP (Gauleiter, Kreisleiter, Ortsgruppenleiter) in the scope of his authority is responsible for the political leadership and the frame of mind (Stimmung) of the population. It is his right and his duty to take or to cause to be taken any measures necessary for the expeditious fulfillment of his political duties and for the elimination of wrong within the Party. He is exclusively responsible to his superior bearers of sovereignty (Hoheitstraeger).” (2383-PS)

In the later years, the functional coordination of Party and State offices became much more common. The appointment of Himmler as Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police is a typical example of the way in which State and Party functions became inextricably merged so as to render any clean lines of demarcation impossible. (2073-PS)

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO CONSOLIDATION OF TOTALITARIAN POLITICAL CONTROL

Document Description Vol. Page

Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Article 6, especially 6 (a)…1 5

International Military Tribunal, Indictment Number 1, Section IV (D) 3 (a)…1 18

Note: A single asterisk (*) before a document indicates that the document was received in evidence at the Nurnberg trial. A double asterisk (**0 before a document number indicates that the document was referred to during the trial but was not formally received in evidence, for the reason given in parentheses following the description of the document. The USA series number, given in parentheses following the description of the document, is the official exhibit number assigned by the court.

*651-PS Confidential circular signed by Schlegeberger, 31 January 1938, concerning representation by Counsel of Inmates of concentration camps. (USA 730) … III 466

*783-PS Letter from Guertner to Mutschmann, 18 January 1935, concerning charges against members of camp personnel of protective custody Camp Hohnstein. (USA 731) …III 558

*784-PS Letters from Minister of Justice to Hess and SA Chief of Staff, 5 June 1935, concerning penal proceedings against merchant and SA leader and 22 companions because of inflicting bodily injury on duty. (USA 732) …III 559

*785-PS Memorandum of Guertner concerning legal proceedings against the camp personnel of concentration camp Hohnstein. (USA 733) …III 564

*786-PS Minister of Justice memorandum, 29 November 1935, concerning pardon of those sentenced in connection with mistreatment in Hohnstein concentration camp. (USA 734) …III 568

*787-PS Memorandum to Hitler from Public Prosecutor of Dresden, 18 June 1935, concerning criminal procedure against Vogel on account of bodily injury while in office. (USA 421) …III 568

*788-PS Letters from Secretary of State to the Minister of Justice, 25 June 1935 and 9 September 1935, concerning criminal procedure against Vogel. (USA 735) …III 571

1388-PS Law concerning confiscation of Property subversive to People and State, 14 July 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 479 …III 962

*1395-PS Law to insure the unity of Party and State, 1 December 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1016. (GB 252) …III 978

1397-PS Law for the reestablishment of the Professional Civil Service, 7 April 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 175 …III 981

1398-PS Law to supplement the Law for the restoration of the Professional Civil Service, 20 July 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 518 …III 986

1400-PS Law changing the regulations in regard to public officer, 30 June 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 433 …III 987

1653-PS First regulation concerning the reconstruction of the Reich, 2 February 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 81 …IV 162

1725-PS Decree enforcing law for securing the unity of Party and State, 29 March 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 502 …IV 224

*1893-PS Extracts from Organization Book of the NSDAP, 1943 edition. (USA 323) …IV 529

2001-PS Law to Remove the Distress of People and State, 24 March 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 141 …IV 638

2003-PS Law concerning the Sovereign Head of the German Reich, 1 August 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 747 …IV 639

2004-PS Preliminary law for the coordination of Federal States under the Reich, 31 March 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 153 …IV 640

2005-PS Second law integrating the “Laender” with the Reich, 7 April 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 173 …IV 641

2006-PS Law for the reconstruction of the Reich, 30 January 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 75 …IV 642

2008-PS German Communal Ordinance, 30 January 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 49 …IV 643

2012-PS First regulation for administration of the law for the restoration of professional Civil Service, 11 April 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 195 …IV 647

2014-PS Law amending regulations of criminal law and criminal procedure, 24 April 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 341 …IV 648

*2018-PS Fuehrer’s decree establishing a Ministerial Council for Reich Defense, 30 August 1939. 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1539. (GB 250) …IV 650

2049-PS Second Decree concerning the reconstruction of the Reich, 27 November 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1189 …IV 661

2050-PS The Constitution of the German Reich, 11 August 1919. 1919 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I,p.1383 …IV 662

2065-PS Decree concerning the extension of the Jurisdiction of Special Courts, 20 November 1938. 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1632 …IV 698

2061-PS Oath of Reich Officials and of German Soldiers, 20 August 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 785 … IV 702

2073-PS Decree concerning the appointment of a Chief of German Police in the Ministry of the Interior, 17 June 1936. 1936 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 487 …IV 703

2076-PS Decree of the Government concerning formation of Special Courts, 21 March 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, pp. 136-137 …IV 705

*2194-PS Top secret letter from Ministry for Economy and Labor, Saxony, to Reich Protector in Bohemia and Moravia, enclosing copy of 1938 Secret Defense Law of 4 September 1938. (USA 36) …IV 843

*2261-PS Directive from Blomberg to Supreme Commanders of Army, Navy and Air Forces, 24 June 1935; accompanied by copy of Reich Defense Law of 21 May 1935 and copy of Decision of Reich Cabinet of 12 May 1935 on the Council for defense of the Reich. (USA 24) …IV 934

2326-PS Reich Principles Regarding recruiting appointment and promotion of Reich and Provincial Officials, 14 October 1936. 1936 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 893 …IV 1034

2340-PS German public officials law of 27 January 1937. 1937 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 41 …IV 1058

2341-PS Decree on education and Training of German officials, 28 February 1939. 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 371 …IV 1062

2342-PS Law on People’s Court and on 25th Amendment to Salary Law of 18 April 1936. 1936 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 369 … IV 1062

2355-PS Second Law Relating to right to vote for Reichstag, 18 March 1938. 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 258 …IV 1098

2378-PS Extracts from Documents of German Politics, Vol. 4, pp. 207,337 …V 4

*2380-PS Articles from National Socialist Yearbook, 1935. (USA 396) …V 6

*2381-PS Extracts from The Greater German Diet, 1943. (USA 476) …V 7

2382-PS Law relating to the Reich Election, 8 March 1924. 1924 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, pp. 159-162 …V 8

*2383-PS Ordinance for execution of decree of Fuehrer concerning position of the Head of Party Chancellery of 16 January 1942, published in Decrees, Regulations, Announcements. (USA 410) … V 9

2384-PS The Delegates of the German People, published in Movement, State and People in their organizations, 1935, p. 161 … V 23

2402-PS Guide for Party Courts, 17 February 1934 …V 70

*2426-PS Extracts from Speeches, by Hess. (GB 253) …V 90

2481-PS Extracts from Four Years of the Third Reich, by Frick, published in Magazine of the Academy for German Law, 1937 …V 231

2482-PS Extract from German Justice, a legal periodical, 10th Year, Edition A, No. 42, 16 October 1942 …V 233

2639-PS Ordinances of the Deputy of the Fuehrer, published in Munich 1937 …V 345

2647-PS law relating to the abolition of the Reichsrat, 14 February 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 89 … V 358

2755-PS Resolution of the Greater German Reichstag, 26 April 1942. 1942 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 247 …V 393

2787-PS Excerpt from Order of the Deputy of the Fuehrer …V 420

2867-PS Third Decree relating to Implementation of Law for restoration of Professional Civil Service, 6 May 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 245…V 527

2880-PS Extracts from Handbook for Administrative Officials, 1942 …V 547

2881-PS Hitler’s speech of 12 April 1922, quoted in Adolf Hitler’s Speeches, published by Dr. Ernst Boepple, Munich, 1934, pp. 20-21, 72 … V 548

2882-PS The Party Program of 1922, By Rosenberg, 25Th edition, 1942, p. 60 …V 548

2883-PS Extracts from Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, 41st edition, 1933 …V 549

*2955-PS Affidavit of Magnus Heimannsbegr, 14 November 1945, referring to SA and other Nazi groups posted at polling places. (USA 755) …V 659

2957-PS Extract from German Civil Servants Calendar, 1940, p. 111 …V 663

*2967-PS Affidavit of Dr. Hans Anschuetz, 17 November 1945. (USA 756) …V 673

*3054-PS “The Nazi Plan", script of a motion picture composed of captured German film. (USA 167) …V 801

D-229 Extract from pamphlet “Judges Letters” concerning judgment of Lower Court, 24 April 1942, on concealment of Jewish identification …VI 1091

*R-142 Memoranda to Koblenz District Headquarters, 22 April 1938 And 7 May 1938, relating to the plebiscite of 10 April 1938. (USA 481) …VIII 243

Statement X The Relationship of Party and State, AS It Existed in Reality, by Wilhelm Stuckhart, Nurnberg, 1 December 1945 …VIII 736

*Chart No. 1 National Socialist German Workers' Party. (2903-PS; USA 2) …VIII 770

*Chart No. 18 Organization of the Reich Government. (2905-PS; USA 3) … End of Volume VIII

4. PURGE OF POLITICAL OPPONENTS AND TERRORIZATION

A. The Nazi conspirators ruthlessly purged their political opponents. Soon after the Nazi conspirators had acquired political control, the defendant Goering, 3 March 1933, stated:

“Fellow Germans, my measures will not be crippled by any judicial thinking. My measures will not be crippled by any bureaucracy. Here, I don’t have to give justice, my mission is only to destroy and exterminate, nothing more! This struggle, fellow Germans, will be a struggle against chaos and such a struggle, I shall not conduct with the power of any police. A bourgeoise state might have done that. Certainly, I shall use the power of the State and the police to the utmost, my dear Communists! So you won’t draw any false conclusions; but the struggle to the death, in which my fist will grasp your necks, I shall lead with those down there-those are the Brown Shirts.” (1856-PS)

In 1934 Heinrich Himmler, the Deputy Leader of the Prussian Secret State Police, stated:

“We are confronted with a very pressing duty-both the open and secret enemies of the Fuehrer and of the National Socialist movement and of our National Revolution must be discovered, combatted and exterminated. In this duty we are agreed to spare neither our own blood nor the blood of anyone else when it is required by our country.” (2543-PS)

Raymond H. Geist, former American Counsel and First Secretary of the Embassy in Berlin, Germany 1929-1939, has stated:

“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 6-13, 1933, accompanied by unusual mob violence. When the Nazi Party won the elections in March 1933-on the morning of the 6th-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. Victims numbered in the hundreds of thousands all over Germany.” (1759-PS)

The Sturmabteilung (SA) had plans for the murder of former Prime Minister Bruening, but his life was spared through the negotiations and activities of the defendant Hess and Dr. Haushofer, President of the Geopolitic Institute of Munich, because they feared his death might result in serious repercussions abroad. (1669-PS)

From March until October 1933 the Nazi conspirators arrested, mistreated and killed numerous politicians, Reichstag members, authors, physicians, and lawyers. Among the persons killed were the Social Democrat Stolling; Ernst Heilman, Social Democrat and member of the Prussian Parliament; Otto Eggerstadt, the former Police President of Altona; and various other persons. The people killed by the Nazis belonged to various political parties and religious faiths, such as Democrats, Catholics, Communists, Jews, and pacifists. The killings were usually camouflaged by such utterances as “killed in attempting to escape” or “resisting arrest.” It is estimated that during this first wave of terror conducted by the Nazi conspirators, between 500 and 700 persons died. (2544-PS; see also 2460-PS and 2472-PS.)

On 30 June, and 1, 2 July 1934, the Nazi conspirators proceeded to destroy opposition within their own ranks by wholesale murder (2545-PS). In making a formal report of these murders to the Reichstag on 13 July 1934, Hitler stated:

“The punishment for these crimes was hard and severe. There were shot 19 higher SA leaders, 31 SA leaders and SA members and also 3 SS leaders as participants in the plot. Also 13 SA leaders and civilians who tried to resist arrest and were killed in the attempt. 3 others committed suicide. 5 members of the Party who were not members of the SA were shot because of their participation. Finally, 3 SS members were at the same time exterminated because they had maltreated concentration camp inmates.” (2572-PS)

In this same speech, Hitler proudly boasted that he gave the order to shoot the principal traitors and that he had prosecuted thousands of his former enemies on account of their corruption. He justified this action by saying,

“In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people.” (Voelkischer Beobachter (People’s Observer), Berlin ed., issue 195, 14 July 1934, Beiblatt, p. 2.)

The conspirators took advantage of this occasion to eliminate many opponents indiscriminately.

In discussing the Roehm purge, the defendant Frick stated:

“On account of this order, many, many people were arrested * * * something like a hundred, even more, were even killed who were accused of high treason. All of this was done without resort to legal proceedings. 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 as was 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 anymore. However, he had separated himself from the Fuehrer in November or December of 1932.” (2950-PS)

Such a large scale of extermination could not be carried out without errors. Shortly after the event, the Nazi conspirators arranged for a Government pension to be paid to one of its citizens, because “by mistake” the political police had murdered her husband, Willi Schmidt, who had never engaged in any kind of political activity. It was believed at the time that the man intended was Willi Schmidt, an SA leader in Munich, who was later shot on the same day. (L-135)

The Nazi conspirators formally endorsed their murderous purge within their own ranks by causing the Reichstag to pass a law declaring that all measures taken in carrying out the purge on 30 June and 1-2 July 1934 were legal as a measure of State necessity (2057-PS). Referring to this act of approval on the part of the Nazi-controlled Reichstag, Goering stated:

“The action of the Government in the days of the Roehm revolt was the highest realization of the legal consciousness of the people. Later the action which itself was justified, now has been made legal by the passage of a law.” (2496-PS)

Furthermore, the leader of the Nazi conspiracy on 25 July 1934 issued a decree which stated that because of the meritorious service of the SS, especially in connection with the events of 30 June 1934, the organization was elevated to the standing of an independent organization within the NSDAP. (1857-PS)

B. The Nazi conspirators used the legislative and judicial powers of the German Reich to terrorize all political opponents.

(1) They created a great number of new political crimes. The decree of 28 February 1933 punished the inciting of disobedience to orders given out by State or Reich Government authorities or the provocation of acts “contrary to public welfare.” (1390-PS) A month later, in order to give themselves legal justification for murdering by judicial process their political enemies, the Nazi conspirators passed a law making the provisions of the above decree applicable retroactively to acts committed during the period from 31 January to 28 February 1933. (2554-PS) Referring to these laws, the defendant Goering stated:

“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.” (2494-PS)

On 21 March 1933 a decree was issued which provided for penitentiary imprisonment up to two years for possessing a uniform of an organization supporting the government of the Nationalist movement without being entitled thereto, or circulating a statement which was untrue or greatly exaggerated, or which was apt to seriously harm the welfare of the Reich or the reputation of the Government, or of the Party or organizations supporting the Government. (1652-PS)

The Nazi conspirators caused a law to be enacted punishing whoever undertook to maintain or form a political party other than the NSDAP. (1388-PS)

The Nazi conspirators enacted a law which made it a crime deliberately to make false or grave statements calculated to injure the welfare or the prestige of the Reich, or to circulate a statement manifesting a malicious or low-minded attitude toward leading personalities of the State or the Party. The law also applied to statements of this kind which were not made in public, provided the offender counted on his statements being eventually circulated in public. (1393-PS)

In commenting on the above law, one of the leading Nazi conspirators, Martin Bormann, stated:

“Although it must absolutely be prevented that martyrs are created, one must take merciless action against such people, in whose attacks a bad character or attitude, decisively inimical to the State, can be recognized. For this purpose, I request the Gauleiters to report here briefly all crimes, which must absolutely be punished, and which have become known to the districts, regardless of the report to be made to the district attorney’s office * * *.

“The district and local leaderships are to be notified accordingly. However, if it should be decided from wherein this or that punishable case, that the miscreant is to be given a simple or strong reprimand by the court, I shall give the directive for the future, that the Districts are informed of the names of the persons.

“I therefore request, to see to it, that these compatriots be especially watched by the Ortsgruppen, and that it be attempted, to influence them in the National Socialist sense. Otherwise, it will be necessary to place the activities of such persons, who do not want to be taught, under exact control. In these cases, it will eventually be necessary, to notify the Secret State Police.” (2639-PS)

On 24 April 1934 the Nazi conspirators passed a law imposing the death penalty for “any treasonable act.” Included in the law was a declaration to the effect that the creating or organizing of a political party, or continuing of an existing one was a treasonable act. (2548-PS)

(2) By their interpretation and changes of the penal law, the Nazi conspirators enlarged their terroristic methods. After the enactment of these new political crimes, the Nazi conspirators introduced into the penal law the theory of punishment by analogy. This enabled them legally to punish any act injurious to their political interests even if no existing statute forbade it. The culpability of the act and the punishment was determined by the law most closely relating to or covering the act which was in force at the time. (1962-PS)

In interpreting this law, Dr. Guertner, Reich Minister of Justice, stated:

“National Socialism substitutes for the idea of formal wrong, the idea of factual wrong. * * * Even without the threat of punishment, every violation of the goals toward which the community is striving is a wrong per se. As a result, the law ceases to be an exclusive source for the determination of right or wrong.” (2549-PS)

Referring to the penal code of Nazi Germany, the defendant Frank stated in 1935:

“The National Socialist State is a totalitarian State, it makes no concessions to criminals, it does not negotiate with them; it stamps them out.” (2552-PS)

The Nazi conspirators also revised the criminal law so that the State could, within one year after a decree in a criminal case had become final, apply for a new trial, and the application would be decided by members of a Special Penal Chamber appointed by Hitler personally. Thus, if a defendant should be acquitted in a lower court, the Nazi conspirators could rectify the situation by another trial. (2550-PS)

In direct contrast to the severity of the criminal law as it affected the general population of Germany, the Nazi conspirators adopted and endorsed a large body of unwritten laws exempting the police from criminal liability for illegal acts done under higher authority. This principle was described by Dr. Werner Best, outstanding Nazi lawyer, in the following terms:

“The police never act in a lawless or illegal manner as long as they act according to the rules laid down by their superiors up to the highest governing body. According to its nature, the police must only deal with what the Government wants to know is being dealt with. What the Government wants to know is being dealt with by the police is the essence of the police law and is that which guides and restricts the actions of the police. As long as the police carry out the will of the Government, it is acting legally.” (1852-PS)

C. The Nazi conspirators created a vast system of espionage into the daily lives of all parts of the population.

(1) They destroyed the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications. They enacted a law in February of 1933 providing that violations of privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications were permissible beyond legal limitations. (1390-PS)

Dr. Hans Anschuetz, the present District Court Director (Landgerichtsdirektor) at Heidelberg, Germany, recently stated:

“Subsequently, the system of spying upon and supervising the political opinions of each citizen which permeated the entire people and private life of Germany, was, of course, also extended to judges.” (2967-PS)

(2) They used the Secret State Police (Gestapo) and the Security Service (SD) for the purpose of maintaining close surveillance over the daily activities of all people in Germany. The Gestapo had as its primary preventive activity the thorough observation of all enemies of the State, in the territory of the Reich. (1956-PS)

The SD was an intelligence organization which operated out of various regional offices. it consisted of many hundreds of professional SD members who were assisted by thousands of honorary members and informers. These people were placed in all fields of business, education, State and Party administration, and frequently performed their duties secretly in their own organization. This information service reported on the activities of the people. (2614-PS)

D. Without judicial process, the Nazi conspirators imprisoned, held in protective custody and sent to concentration camps opponents and suspected opponents.

They authorized the Gestapo to arrest and detain without recourse to any legal proceeding. Officially, this power was described as follows:

“The Secret State Police takes the necessary police preventive measures against the enemies of the State on the basis of the results of the observation. The most effective preventive measure is without doubt the withdrawal of freedom which is covered in the form of protective custody. * * * While protective arrests of short duration are carried out in police and court prisons, the concentration camps under the Secret State Police admit those taken into protective custody who have to be withdrawn from public life for a longer time.” (1956-PS)

The Nazi conspirators issued their own orders for the taking of people into protective custody and these orders set forth no further details concerning the reasons therefor, except a statement such as “Suspicion of activities inimical toward the State.” (2499-PS)

The defendant Frank stated:

“To 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 yourselves 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.” (2533-PS)

The defendant Goering said in 1934:

“Against the enemies of the State, we must proceed ruthlessly. It cannot be forgotten that at the moment of our rise to power, according to the official election figures of March 1933, six million people still confess their sympathy for Communism and eight million for Marxism. * * * Therefore, the concentration camps have been created, where we have first confined thousands of Communists and Social Democrat functionaries. * * *” (2344-PS)

U.S. Ambassador George S. Messersmith, former Counsel General in Berlin, Germany, 1930-34, and Raymond H. Geist, former American Counsel and First Secretary of the Embassy in Berlin, Germany, 1929-1939, have recently stated:

“Independent of individual criminal acts committed by high functionaries of the German government or the Nazi Party, such as the murders ordered by Hitler, Himmler and Goering, all high functionaries of the German government and of the Nazi Party * * * are guilty in the highest degree of complicity in and furtherance of the cardinal crimes of oppression against the German people, persecution and destruction of the Jews and all of their political opponents.” (2386-PS)

Commenting further on the Nazi conspirators' use of concentration camps to destroy political opposition, Raymond H. Geist stated:

“The German people were well acquainted with the goings on 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 had first hand accounts of the brutalities inflicted in the concentration camps from someone either in the relationship or in the circle of friends who had served a sentence there; consequently the fear of such camps was a very effective brake on any possible opposition.” (1759-PS)

The Nazi Conspirators confined, under the guise of “protective custody” Reichstag members, Social Democrats, Communists, and other opponents or suspected opponents. (2544-PS; L-73; L-83; 1430-PS.)

E. The Nazi conspirators created and utilized special agencies for carrying out their system of terror.

(See Chapter XV, Sections 5 and 6, on the Gestapo, SS, and SD)

F. The Nazi conspirators permitted organizations and individuals to carry out this system of terror without restraint of law.

(1) Acts of the Gestapo were not subject to review by the courts. In 1935 the Prussian Supreme Court of Administration held that the orders of the Gestapo were not subject to judicial review; and that the accused person could appeal only to the next higher authority within the State Police itself. (2347-PS)

In 1936 a law was passed concerning The Gestapo in Prussia which provided that orders in matters of the Gestapo were not subject to review of the Administrative Courts. (2107-PS)

On the same subject, the following article appeared in the official German Lawyer’s Journal, 1935.

“Once again the court had to decide on the question of whether political measures could be subjected to the review of the ordinary courts. * * * The case in question concerned the official performance of his duty by an official of the NSDAP. * * * The principle of the importance and the mission of the Party and its 'Sovereign Functionaries' cannot be overlooked. Therefore, the plaintiff should have been denied the right to be in court.” (2491-PS)

(2) Where no definite law protected terroristic acts of Nazi conspirators and their accomplices, proceedings against them were in the first instance suppressed or thereafter their acts were pardoned. In 1935, proceedings against an employee of the Gestapo accused of torturing, beating, and killing of inmates of a concentration camp were suppressed (787-PS; 788-PS). In June 1935 twenty-three SA members and policemen convicted of the beating and murder of inmates of the Hohnstein concentration camp were pardoned (786-PS). The prosecutor was forced to resign from the SA. (784-PS)

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO PURGE OF POLITICAL OPPONENTS AND TERRORIZATION

Document Description Vol. Page

Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Article 6, especially 6 (a) … I 5

International Military Tribunal, Indictment Number 1, Section IV (D) 3 (b) … I 19

Note: A single asterisk (*) before a document indicates that the document was received in evidence at the Nurnberg trial. A double asterisk (**) before a document number indicates that the document was referred to during the trial but was not formally received in evidence, for the reason given in parentheses following the description of the document. The USA series number, given in parentheses following the description of the document, is the official exhibit number assigned by the court.

*784-PS Letters from Minister of Justice to Hess and SA Chief of Staff, 5 June 1935, Concerning penal proceedings against merchant and SA leader and 22 companions because of inflicting bodily injury on duty. (USA 732) … III 559

*786-PS Minister of Justice memorandum, 29 November 1935, concerning pardon of those sentenced in connection with mistreatment in Hohnstein concentration camp. (USA 734) … III 568

*787-PS Memorandum to Hitler from Public Prosecutor of Dresden, 18 June 1935, concerning criminal procedure against Vogel on account of bodily injury while in office. (USA 421) … III 568

*788-PS Letters from Secretary of State to the Minister of Justice, 25 June 1935 and 9 September 1935, concerning criminal procedure against Vogel. (USA 735) … III 571

1388-PS Law concerning confiscation of Property subversive to People and State, 14 July 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 479 … III 962

1390-PS Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State, 28 February 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 83 … III 968

1393-PS Law on treacherous attacks against State and Party, and for the Protection of Party Uniforms, 20 December 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1269 … III 973

1430-PS Compilation of Leading Men of the System Era, June 1939 … IV 15

1652-PS Decree of the Reich President for protection against treacherous attacks on the government of the Nationalist movement, 21 March 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 135 … IV 160

*1669-PS Correspondence between Dr. Haushofer and Hess, 24 and 28 August 1933. (USA 741) … IV 184

*1759-PS Affidavit of Raymond H. Geist. (USA 420) … IV 288

*1852-PS “Law” from The German Police, 1941, by Dr. Werner Best. (USA 449). (See Chart No. 16) … IV 490

*1856-PS Extract from book entitled “Hermann Goering — Speeches and Essays", 3rd edition 1939, p. 27. (USA 437)…IV 496

*1857-PS Announcement of creation of SS as independent formation of NSDAP. Voelkischer Beobachter, 26 July 1934, p. 1. (USA 412)…IV 496

1956-PS Meaning and Tasks of the Secret State Police, published in The Archives, January 1936, Vol. 22-24, p. 1342…IV 598

1962-PS Law to change the Penal Code of 28 June 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 839…IV 600

2057-PS Law relating to National Emergency Defense Measures of 3 July. 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 529…IV 699

2107-PS Law on Secret State Police of 10 February 1936. 1936 Preussiche Gesetzsammlung, pp. 21-22…IV 732

2344-PS Reconstruction of a Nation by Goering, 1934, p. 89…IV 1065

2347-PS Court decisions from 1935 Reichsverwaltungsblatt, Vol. 56, pp. 577-578, 20 July 1935…IV 1066

*2386-PS Joint affidavit of George S. Messersmith and Raymond H. Geist, 29 August 1945. (USA 750)…V 39

*2460-PS Affidavit of Rudolf Diels. (USA 751)…V 205

*2472-PS Affidavit of Rudolf Diels, 31 October 1945. (USA 752)…V 224

2491-PS Extract from Legal Review, published in Lawyers' Journal, 1935…V 235

2494-PS Prime Minister Goering’s Press Conference, published in Voelkischer Beobachter, Berlin edition, 23-24 July 1933, p. 1…V 236

2496-PS Extract from Goering’s address to Public Prosecutors of Prussia on 12 July 1934 from the Archive, 1934, Vols. IV-VI, p. 495…V 236

*2499-PS Original Protective Custody Order served on Dr. R. Kempner. 15 March 1935. (USA 232)…V 236

2533-PS Extract from article “Legislation and Judiciary in the Third Reich", from Journal of the Academy for German Law, 1936, pp. 141-142…V 277

2543-PS Extract from The Mission of the SS, published in The National Socialist Magazine, Issue 46, January 1934…V 288

*2544-PS Affidavit of Rudolf Diels, former Superior Government Counsellor of the Police Division of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior. (USA 753)…V 288

2545-PS Extract from Hitler’s cleaning up act in Reich, published in Voelkischer Beobachter, Berlin edition, No. 182-183, 1-2 July 1934, p. 1…V 290

2548-PS Law about changing rules of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure of 24 April 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 34…V 291

2549-PS Extract from “Germany’s Road to Freedom” as published in Documents of German Politics, Vol. 3…V 292

2550-PS Law on modification of rules of general criminal procedure, 16 September 1939. 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1841…V 293

2552-PS Excerpt concerning criminals, published in Journal of the Academy for German Law, No. 3, March 1935…V 293

2554-PS Law concerning adjudication and execution of the death penalties of 29 March 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 151…V 294

2572-PS Hitler’s speech to the Reichstag on 13 July 1934, printed in The Third Reich, Vol. II, p. 247…V 302

*2614-PS Affidavit of Dr. Wilhelm Hoettl, 5 November 1945. (USA 918)…V 337

2639-PS Ordinances of the Deputy of the Fuehrer, published in Munich 1937…V 345

*2950-PS Affidavit of Frick, 19 November 1945. (USA 448)…V 654

*2967-PS Affidavit of Dr. Hans Anschuetz, 17 November 1945. (USA 756)…V 673

*L-73 Affidavit of Bruno Bettelheim, 10 July 1945. (USA 746)…VII 818

*L-83 Affidavit of Gerhart H. Seger, 21 July 1945. (USA 234)…VII 859

*L-135 Affidavit of Kate Eva Hoerlin, 9 July 1945. (USA 747)… VII 883

5. DESTRUCTION OF THE FREE TRADE UNIONS AND ACQUISITION OF CONTROL OVER THE PRODUCTIVE LABOR CAPACITY

A. They destroyed the independent organization of German labor.

(1) Before the Nazis took control, organized labor held a well established and influential position in Germany. Most of the trade unions of Germany were joined together in two large congresses or federations, the Free Trade Unions (Freie Gewerkschaften) and Christian Trade Unions (Christlichen Gewerkschaften). Unions outside these two large groupings contained only 15 per cent of the total union membership. The Free Trade Unions were a congress of two federations of affiliated unions: (1) the General German Trade Union Federation (Allgemeinen Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbund, or the “ADGB") with 28 affiliated unions of industrial workers; (2) the General Independent Employees Federation (Allgemeinen Freien Angestelltenbund, or the “AFA") with 13 affiliated unions of white collar workers. (392-PS)

The membership of the Free Trade Unions, the affiliated organizations of the Christian Trade Unions, and all other unions at the end of 1931 (the last year for which the official government yearbook gives statistics) was as follows (2411-PS):

Union Group Number of members Percentage of total

Free Trade Unions…4,569,876 65.9

Christian Trade Unions…1,283,272 18.5

Others Unions…1,081,371 15.6

Total…6,934,519 100.0

Under the Weimar Constitution, workers were “called upon to take part on equal terms” with employers in regulating conditions of employment. “It was provided that organizations on both sides and agreements between them shall be recognized.” Factory Representative Councils (otherwise known as Workmens or Factory Works Councils) had the right, in conjunction with employers' representatives, to take an official part in the initiation and administration of social and economic legislation. (2050-PS)

(2) The Nazi conspirators conceived that the free trade unions were incompatible with their objectives.

Hitler stated in Mein Kampf:

“It (the trade union) created the economic weapon which the international world Jew uses for the ruination of the economic basis of free, independent states, for the annihilation of their national industry and of their national commerce, and thereby for the enslavement of free people in the service of the above-the-state-standing, world finance Jewry (ueberstaatlichen Weltfinanz-Judentums).” (404-PS)

In announcing to Germany the seizure of the Free Trade Unions, Dr. Robert Ley, speaking as chairman of the Nazi Committee for the Protection of German Labor, stated:

“You may say, what else do you want, you have the absolute power, but we do not have the whole people, we do not have you workers 100 percent, and it is you whom we want; we will not let you be until you stand with us in complete, genuine acknowledgement.” (614-PS; see also 2224-PS and 2283-PS.)

(3) Soon after coming to power the Nazi conspirators took drastic action to convert the Factory Representative Councils into Nazi controlled organizations. The Nazi conspirators eliminated the independence of the Factory Representative Councils by giving the Governors of the Laender authority to cancel the membership of labor representatives in the councils; by abrogating the right of the councils to oppose the dismissal of a worker when he was “suspected of an unfriendly attitude toward the state” (1770-PS); and finally by limiting membership in all Factory Representative Councils to Nazis (2336-PS). (After 7 April 1933, the Governors of the Laender were appointed by the Reich President “upon the proposal of the Reich Chancellor,” Hitler, 2005-PS).

(4) Soon after coming to power the Nazi conspirators proceeded to destroy the independent unions. In mid-April 1933, Hitler directed Dr. Robert Ley, then staff director of the PO (Political Organization) of the NSDAP, to take over the trade unions. (2283-PS)

Ley issued an NSDAP circular directive on 21 April 1933 detailing a “coordination action” (Gleichschaltunsaktion) to be taken on 2 May 1933 against the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB) and the General Independent Employees Federation (AFA), the so-called “Free Trade Unions” (392-PS). This directive created a special “Action Committee” to direct the entire action and declared that the supporters of the action were to be drawn from the National Socialist Factory Cells Organization or NSBO (Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellen-Organisation), the NSDAP political leaders (Politische Leiter) in the factories; it named NSDAP commissars for the administration of the larger ADGB unions to be seized in the action; it made the Gau leaders (Gauleiter) of the NSDAP responsible for the disciplined execution of the action in their respective areas and authorized them to nominate additional commissars to administer the unions subjected to the action. The directive ordered that SA and SS were to be used in occupying union offices and the Bank of Workers, Employees and Officials, Inc., and for taking into protective custody the higher union leaders.

The order of seizure was carried out as planned and ordered. On 2 May the official NSDAP press service reported that the NSBO had “eliminated the old leadership” of Free Trade Unions and taken over their leadership. (2224-PS)

On 3 May 1933 the NSDAP press service announced that the Central League of Christian Trade Unions (Gesamtverband der Christlichen Gewerkschaften) and several smaller unions “have unconditionally subordinated themselves to the leadership of Adolf Hitler” (2225-PS). The next day the NSDAP press stated that the German Nationalist Clerks League (DHV) had also “recognized the leadership of the NSDAP in German trade union affairs * * * after a detailed conversation” between Dr. Ley and the leader of the DHV (2226-PS). In late June 1933, as a final measure against the Christian Trade Unions, Ley directed that all their offices were to be occupied by National Socialists. (392-PS)

The duress practiced by the Nazi conspirators in their assumption of absolute control over the unions is shown by a proclamation of Muchow, leader of the organizatonal office of the German Labor Front, in late June 1933. By this Party proclamation, all associations of workers not yet “concentrated” in the German Labor Front had to report within eight days. Thereafter they were to be notified of the branch of the German Labor Front which “they will have to join". (2228-PS)

(5) The Nazi Conspirators eliminated the right of collective bargaining generally. During the same months in which the unions were abolished, a decree eliminated collective bargaining on conditions of employment and substituted regulation by “trustees of labor” (Treuhaender der Arbeit) appointed by Hitler. (405-PS)

(6) The Nazi conspirators confiscated all union funds and property. The NSDAP circular ordering the seizure of the Free Trade Unions on 2 May 1933 directed that the SA and SS were to be used to occupy the branches and paying offices of the Bank for Workers, Employees and Officials and appointed a Nazi commissar, Mueller, for the bank’s subsequent direction. The stock of this bank was held entirely by the General German Trade Union Association and its affiliated member unions. The NSDAP circular also directed that all union funds were to be blocked until re-opened under the authority and control of NSDAP-appointed commissars (392-PS; 2895-PS). The Fuehrer’s basic order on the German Labor Front of the NSDAP in October 1934 declared that all the property of the trade unions and their dependent organizations constituted (bildet) property of the German Labor Front (2271-PS). Referring to the Seizure of the property of the unions in a speech at the 1937 Party Congress, Ley mockingly declared that he would have to be convicted if the former trade union leaders were ever to demand the return of their property. (1678-PS)

(7) The Nazi conspirators persecuted union leaders. The NSDAP order on the seizure of the “Free Trade Unions” directed that the chairmen of the unions were to be taken into “protective custody". Lesser leaders could be arrested with the permission of the appropriate Gau leader of the NSDAP (392-PS). In late June 1933 the German Labor Front published a “List of Outlaws” who were to be denied employment in the factories. The List named union leaders who had been active in combatting National Socialism and who allegedly continued to carry on their resistance secretly. (2336-PS)

The Nazi conspirators subjected union leaders to maltreatment ranging from assaults to murder. Among the offenses committed against union leaders are the following: assault and battery; degrading work and work beyond their physical capacity; incarceration in concentration camps; solitary confinement; denial of adequate food; surveillance; arrest and maltreatment of members of their families; murder. (2330-PS; 2331-PS; 2335-PS; 2334-PS; 2928-PS; 2277-PS; 2332-PS; and 2333-PS)

B. The Nazi conspirators introduced the Leadership Principle into industrial relations. In January 1934, a decree introduced the Leadership Principle (Fuehrerprinzip) into industrial relations, the entrepreneur becoming the leader and the workers becoming his followers. (1861-PS)

C. The Nazi conspirators supplanted independent unions by an affiliated Party organization, the German Labor Front (DAF).

(1) They created the German Labor Front. On the day the Nazis seized the Free Trade Unions, 2 May 1933, they publicly announced that a “united front of German workers” with Hitler as honorary patron would be formed at a Workers' Congress on 10 May 1933. (2224-PS)

Ley was appointed “leader of the German Labor Front” (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, or “DAF") on 10 May 1933 (1940-PS). The German Labor Front succeeded to the confiscated property of the suppressed trade union. It was an affiliated organization of the NSDAP, subject to the Leadership Principle; Ley was concurrently Reich Organization Leader (Reichsorganisationsleiter) and leader of the German Labor Front (1814-PS). The National Socialist Factory Cells Organization or NSBO contained the political leaders (Politische Leiter) of the NSDAP in the German Labor Front and those political leaders were given first preference in the filling of jobs in the DAF (2271-PS). The German Labor Front became the largest of the Party’s organizations. At the outbreak of the war it had 23 million individual members and about 10 million corporative members who were members of organizations affiliated with it. (2275-PS)

(2) They utilized the German Labor Front as an instrument to impose their ideology on the masses, to frustrate potential resistance, and to insure effective control of the productive labor capacity of Germany. The DAF was charged with the ideological orientation of the broad masses of Germans working in the factories. its leaders were charged with weeding out potential opponents to National Socialism from the ranks of the DAF and from employment in industry. In its surveillance functions, the German Labor Front relied on Gestapo reports and on its own intelligence service (2336-PS). The German Labor Front took over the leadership of the German Cooperatives with the view to their subsequent liquidation (2270-PS). The Nazi conspirators established Factory Troops (Werkscharen) within the Strength Through Joy branch of the German Labor Front as an “ideological shock squad (Weltanschaulicher Stosstrupp) within the factory” (1817-PS). These shock squads were formed only of voluntary members ready “to fight” for Nazi conceptions. Among their objects were the speeding up of labor effort and the forging of a “single-willed community” (1818-PS). The SA was charged with the promotion and building up of Factory Troops by all means. When a factory worker joined the Factory Troops, he automatically became an SA candidate. Factory Troops were given a special uniform and their physical training took place within SA cadre units. (2230-PS)

During the war, the German Labor Front was made responsible for the care of foreign labor employed within the Reich (1913-PS). Barely two years after the suppression of the independent unions and the creation of the German Labor Front, the Nazi conspirators decreed compulsory labor service (Reichsarbeitsdienst) under which young men and women between 18 and 25 years of age were conscripted for labor service under the administration of the Reich Minister of Interior, Frick. (1389-PS)

After war had been declared, the Nazi conspirators openly admitted the objectives of the Nazis' control over labor. A publication of the Scientific Institute of the German Labor Front declared that it had been difficult to make the German people understand continuous renunciations in social conditions because all the nation’s strength had been channeled into armaments (Wehrhaftigkeit) for “the anticipated clash with an envious surrounding world” (2276-PS). Addressing workers five days after the launching of war on Poland, Ley admitted that the Nazis had mobilized all the resources and energies of Germany for seven years “so as to be equipped for the supreme effort of battle” and that the First World War had not been lost because of cowardice of German soldiers, “but because dissension and discord tore the people asunder” (1939-PS). Ley’s confidence in the Nazis' effective control over the productive labor capacity of Germany in peace or war was declared as early as 1936 to the Nurnberg Party Congress:

“The idea of the Factory Troops is making good progress in the plants, and I am able to report to you, my Fuehrer, 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 traitors 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 FUEHRER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.” (2283-PS)

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO DESTRUCTION OF THE FREE TRADE UNIONS AND ACQUISITION OF CONTROL OVER THE PRODUCTIVE LABOR CAPACITY

Document Description Vol. Page

Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Article 6, especially 6 (a)…I 5

International Military Tribunal, indictment Number 1, Section IV (D) 3 (c) (1)…I 19

Note: A single asterisk (*) before a document indicates that the document was received in evidence at the Nurnberg trial. A double asterisk (**) before a document number indicates that the document was referred to during the trial but was not formally received in evidence, for the reason given in parentheses following the description of the document. The USA series number, given in parentheses following the description of the document, is the official exhibit number assigned by the court.

*392-PS Official NSDAP circular entitled “The Social Life of New Germany with Special Consideration of the German Labor Front", by Prof. Willy Mueller (Berlin, 1938). (USA 326)…III 380

*404-PS Excerpts from Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 456, 475. (USA 256)…III 385

405-PS Law Concerning Trustees of Labor, 19 May 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 285…III 387

614-PS Proclamation of the Action Committee for the Protection of German Labor, 2 May 1933. Documents of German Politics, Vol. I, p. 151-3…III 447

1389-PS Law creating Reich Labor Service, 26 June 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 769…III 963

*1678-PS Speech of Dr. Robert Ley. Documents of German Politics, Vol. V, pp. 373, 376. (USA 365)…IV 190

1770-PS Law concerning factory representative councils and economic organizations, 4 April 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 161…IV 343

*1814-PS The Organization of the NSDAP and its affiliated associations, from Organization book of the NSDAP, editions of 1936, 1938, 1940 and 1943, pp. 86-88. (USA 328)…IV 411

1817-PS Bureau for factory troops, from Organization Book of the NSDAP, 1936 EDITION, P. 211…211 457

1818-PS Bureau for Factory troops and training, from Organization Book of the NSDAP, 1940 edition, pp. 195-196b…IV 457

1861-PS Law on the regulation of National labor, 20 January 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 45…IV 497

*1913-PS Agreement between Plenipotentiary General for Arbeitseinsatz and German Labor Front concerning care of non-German workers. 1943 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 588. (USA 227)…IV 547

1939-PS Speech by Ley published in Forge of the Sword, with an introduction by Marshal Goering, pp. 14-17…IV 581

1940-PS Fuehrer edict appointing Ley leader of German Labor Front. Voelkischer Beobachter, Munich (Southern German) edition. p. 1…IV 584

1947-PS Letter from von Fritsch, 11 December 1938, concerning need of Germany to be victorious over working class, Catholic Church and Jews…IV 585

2005-PS Second law integrating the “Laender” with the Reich, 7 April 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 173…IV 641

2050-PS The Constitution of the German Reich, 11 August 1919. 1919 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1383…IV 662

*2224-PS The End of the Marxist Class Struggle, published in National Socialist Party Press Agency, 2 May 1933, pp. 1-2. (USA 364)…IV 864

2225-PS The Front of German Workers has been Erected, published in National Socialist Party Press Agency, 3 May 1933, p. 1…IV 868

2226-PS The Labor Front Stands, published in National Socialist Party Press Agency, 4 May 1933, p. 2…IV 869

2228-PS Order issued by German Labor Front, published in National Socialist Party Press Agency, 26 June 1933, p. 5…IV 869

2230-PS Agreement between Ley and lutze, chief of staff of SA, published in Organization Book of NSDAP, 1938, pp. 484-485b, 486c…IV 871

2270-PS Coordination of Cooperatives, published in National Socialist Party Press Agency release of 16 May 1933…IV 938

2271-PS The National Socialist Factory Cells Organization, published in Organization Book of NSDAP, PP. 185-187…IV 940

2275-PS The German Labor Front, published in Nature-Aim-Means. Footnote on p. 11…IV 949

2276-PS The German Labor Front, published in Nature-Aim-Means. p. 55…IV 950

*2277-PS Affidavit, 17 October 1945, of Gustav Schiefer, Chairman of General German Trade Union Association, Local Committee, Munich, in 1933. (USA 748)…IV 951

*2283-PS The Fifth Day of the Party Congress, from Voelkischer Beobachter, Munich (Southern German) Edition, Issue 258, 14 September 1936. (USA 337)…IV 971

*2330-PS Order of Protective Custody, Police Directorate of Nurnberg-Fuerth of Josef Simon, Chairman of German Shoemaker’s Union, 29 August 1935. (USA 237)…IV 1038

*2331-PS Declaration required of union leader Josef Simon upon his release from Protective Custody by Bavarian Political Police, 20 December 1935. (USA 743)…IV 1039

2332-PS Death certificate, Flossenburg Concentration Camp, concerning union leader Staimer and official letter to his wife, 22 December 1941…IV 1040

*2333-PS Death certificate, Flossenburg Concentration Camp, concerning union leader Herrmann, and official letter to his wife, 29 December 1941. (USA 744)…IV 1040

*2334-PS Affidavits of Lorenz Hagen, Chairman of Local Committee, German Trade Unions, Nurnberg. (USA 238)…IV 1041

*2335-PS Affidavits of Josef Simon, Chairman of German Shoemakers' Union in 1933. (USA 749)…IV 1046

2336-PS Special Circular on Securing of association of German Labor Front against hidden Marxist sabotage, 27 June 1933…IV 1052

2411-PS Chart of unions of workers and employees, from Statistical yearbook for German Reich, 1932, p. 555…V 87

*2895-PS Joint affidavit of union leaders Simon, Hagen, and Lex, 13 November 1945. (USA 754)…V 563

*2928-PS Affidavit of Mathias Lex, deputy president of the German Shoemakers Union. (USA 239)…V 594

Statement XII Political Testament of Robert Ley, written in Nurnberg prison, October 1945…VIII 742

Statement XIII Outline of Defense of Dr. Robert Ley, written in Nurnberg prison, 24 October 1945…VIII 749

6. SUPPRESSION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

A. The Nazi conspirators sought to subvert the influence of the churches over the people of Germany.

(1) They sought to eliminate the Christian Churches in Germany.

(a) Statements of this aim. Martin Bormann stated in a secret decree of the Party Chancellery signed by him and distributed to all Gauleiters 7 June 1941:

“Our National Socialist ideology is far loftier than the concepts of Christianity, which in their essential points have been taken over from Jewry * * *. A differentiation between the various Christian confessions is not to be made here * * * the Evangelical Church is just as inimical to us as the Catholic Church. * * * All influences which might impair or damage the leadership of the people exercised by the Fuehrer with the help of the NSDAP must be eliminated. More and more the people must be separated from the churches and their organs the pastors. * * * Just as the deleterious influences of astrologers, seers and other fakers are eliminated and suppressed by the State, so must the possibility of church influence also be totally removed. * * * Not until this has happened, does the state leadership have influence on the individual citizens. Not until then are the people and Reich secure in their existence for all time.” (D-75)

Hans Kerrl, Reich Minister for Church Affairs, in a letter dated 6 September 1939 to a Herr Stapel, which indicated that it would be brought to the attention of the Confidential Council and of the defendant Hess, made the following statements:

“The Fuehrer considers his efforts to bring the Evangelical Church to reason, unsuccessful and the Evangelical Church with respect to its condition rightfully a useless pile of sects. As you emphasize the Party has previously carried on not only a fight against the political element of the Christianity of the Church, but also a fight against membership of Party Members in a Christian confession. * * *

“The Catholic Church will and must, according to the law under which it is set up, remain a thorn in the flesh of a Racial State * * *". (129-PS)

Gauleiter Florian, in a letter dated 23 September 1940 to the defendant Hess, stated:

“The churches with their Christianity are the danger against which to fight is absolutely necessary.” (064-PS)

Regierungsrat Roth, in a lecture 22 September 1941, to a group of Security Police, in the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) concluded his address on Security Police (Sipo) measures for combatting church politics and sects with the following remarks:

“The immediate aim: the church must not regain one inch of the ground it has lost. The ultimate aim: Destruction of the Confessional Churches to be brought about by the collection of all material obtained through the intelligence service (Nachrichtendienst) activities which will at a given time be produced as evidence for the charge of treasonable activities during the German fight for existence.” (1815-PS)

The Party Organization Book states:

“Bravery is valued by the SS man as the highest virtue of men in a struggle for his ideology.

“He openly and unrelentingly fights the most dangerous enemies of the State; Jews, Free Masons, Jesuits, and political clergymen.

“However, he recruits and convinces the weak and inconstant by his example, who have not been able to bring themselves to the National Socialistic ideology.” (1855-PS)

(b) The Nazi conspirators promoted beliefs and practices incompatible with Christian teachings. The 24th point of the Program of the NSDAP, unchanged since its adoption in 1920, is as follows:

“We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the germanic race. The Party as such advocates the standpoint of a positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any one denomination. It combats the Jewish materialistic spirit within and around us, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our nation can only succeed from within on the framework: common utility precedes individual utility.” (1708-PS)

In official correspondence with the defendant Rosenberg in 1940, Bormann stated:

“Christian religion and National Socialist doctrines are not compatible. * * * The churches cannot be subjugated through compromise, only through a new philosophy as prophesied in Rosenberg’s works.”

He then proposed creation of a National Socialist Catechism to provide a “moral foundation” for a National Socialist religion which is gradually to supplant the Christian churches. He stated the matter was so important it should be discussed with members of the Reich Cabinet as soon as possible and requested Rosenberg’s opinion before the meeting. (098-PS)

In a secret decree of the Party Chancellery, signed by Bormann and distributed to all Gauleiters on 7 June 1941, the following statements appeared:

“When we National Socialists speak of a belief in God, we do not understand by God, like naive Christians and their spiritual opportunists, a human-type being, who sits around somewhere in the sphere. * * * The force of natural law, with which all these innumerable planets move in the universe, we call the Almighty, or God. The claim that this world force * * * can be influenced by so-called prayers or other astonishing things is based upon a proper dose of naiveté or on a business shamelessness.

“As opposed to that we National Socialists impose on ourselves the demand to live naturally as much as possible, i.e., biologically. The more accurately we recognize and observe the laws of nature and of life, the more we adhere to them, so much the more do we conform to the will of the Almighty. The more insight we have into the will of the Almighty, the greater will be our successes.” (D-75)

Rosenberg in his book “The Myth of the 20th Century” advocated a new National Socialist faith or religion to replace the Christian confessions in Germany. He stated that the Catholic and Protestant churches represent “negative Christianity” and do not correspond to the soul of the “Nordic racially determined peoples"; that a German religious movement would have to declare that the idea of neighborly love is unconditionally subordinated to national honor; that national honor is the highest human value and does not admit of any equal valued force such as Christian love. He predicted:

“A German religion will, bit by bit, present in the churches transferred to it, in place of the crucifixion the spirit of fire -the heroic-in the highest sense.” (2349-PS)

The Reich Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst), a National Socialist youth organization, was prohibited from participating in religious celebrations of any kind, and its members were instructed to attend only the parts of such ceremonies as weddings and funerals which took place before or after the church celebration. (107-PS)

The Nazi conspirators considered religious literature undesirable for the Wehrmacht. National Socialist publications were prepared for the Wehrmacht for the expressed purpose of replacing and counteracting the influence of religious literature disseminated to the troops. (101-PS; 100-PS; 064-PS)

The Nazi conspirators through Rosenberg’s Office for Supervision of the Ideological Training and Education of the NSDAP and the Office of the Deputy of the Fuehrer “induced” the substitution of National Socialist mottoes and services for religious prayers and services in the schools of Germany. (070-PS)

On 14 July 1939, Bormann, as Deputy of the Fuehrer, issued a Party regulation excluding clergymen, persons closely connected with the church, and Theology students from membership in the Party. It was further decreed that in the future Party Members who entered the clergy or turned to the study of Theology must leave the Party. (840-PS)

(c) The Nazi conspirators persecuted priests, clergy and members of monastic orders. The priests and clergy of Germany were subjected by the police to systematic espionage into their daily lives. The Nazi conspirators through the Chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) maintained a special branch of the Security Police and Security Service (Sipo/SD) whose duties were to investigate the churches and maintain constant surveillance upon the public and private lives of the clergy. (1815-PS)

At a conference of these police “church specialists” called by Heydrich, who was then SS Gruppenfuehrer and Chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), in Berlin, 23 September 1941, SS Sturmbannfueherer Hartl, acting for Heydrich, stated that the greatest importance was to be attached to church political activity. The intelligence network in this field, he continued, was to be fostered with the greatest of care and enlarged with the recruitment of informants, particular value being attached to contacts with church circles. He closed his lecture with the following words:

“Each of you must go to work with your whole heart and a true fanaticism. Should a mistake or two be made in the execution of this work, this should in no way discourage you, since mistakes are made everywhere. The main thing is that the enemy should be constantly tackled with determination, will, and effective initiative.” (1815-PS)

In a letter of 22 October 1941, Heydrich, as Chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) issued detailed instructions to all State Police Offices outlining the organization of the Catholic Church and directing close surveillance of the activities, writings, and reports of the Catholic clergy in Germany. In this connection he directed:

“Reports are also to be submitted on those Theological students destined for Papal Institutes, and Priests returning from such institutes to Germany. Should the opportunity arise of placing someone for intelligence (nachrichtendienst) purposes in one of these Institutes, in the guise of a Theological student, we should receive immediate notification.” (1815-PS)

Priests and other members of the clergy were arrested, fined, imprisoned, and otherwise punished by executive measures of the police without judicial process. In his lecture before a conference at the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) in Berlin, for “church specialists,” of the Security Police, 22 November 1941, Regierungsrat Roth stated (1815-PS):

“It has been demonstrated that it is impracticable to deal with political offenses (malicious) under normal legal procedure. Owing to the lack of political perception which still prevails among the legal authorities, suspension of this procedure must be reckoned with. The so-called “Agitator-Priests” must therefore be dealt with in future by Stapo measures, and, if the occasion arises, be removed to a Concentration Camp, if agreed upon by the RSHA.

“The necessary executive measures are to be decided upon according to local conditions, the status of the person accused, and the seriousness of the case-as follows:

1. Warning

2. Fine

3. Forbidden to preach

4. Forbidden to remain in parish

5. Forbidden all activity as a priest

6. Short-term arrest

7. Protective custody.”

Members of monastic orders were forced by the seizure and confiscation of their properties to give up their established place of abode and seek homes elsewhere (R-101-A; R-101-D). A secret order of the SS Economic Administration Office to all Concentration Camp Commanders, dated 21 April 1942, concerning labor mobilization of clergy, reveals that clergymen were at that time, and had previously been, incarcerated in Concentration Camps. (1164-PS)

On the death of von Hindenburg, the Reich Government ordered the ringing of all church bells on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th August 1934. In Bavaria, there were many instances of failure to comply with this order. The Bavarian police submitted a report outlining the above situation and stating that in three cases the taking into protective custody of recalcitrant clergy could not be avoided.

“The Parish priest, Father Johann Quinger of Altenkunstadt BA., Lichtenfels. He was taken into protective custody on 3 August on the express order of the State Ministry of the Interior, because he assaulted SA leaders and SA men who were ringing the bells against his wishes. He was released from custody on 10 August 1934.

“The Parish priest, Father Ludwig Obholzer of Kiefersfelden, BA Rosenheim. For his personal safety he was in police custody from 2400 hours on the 2 August 1934, till 1000 hours on 3 August 1934. On 5 August 1934, he said sarcastically in his sermon, referring to the SA men who had carried out the ringing of the funeral knell on their own account, 'Lord forgive them, for they know not what they do'!

“The Parish priest, Father Johann Nepomuk Kleber of Wiefelsdorf, BA Burglengenfeld, refused to ring the church bells on the 2nd and 3rd. He is badly tainted politically and had to be taken into protective custody from the 5th to the 8th of August 34 in the interests of his own safety.” (1521-PS)

After Hitler’s rise to power, Bishop Sproll of Rottenburg delivered a series of sermons regarded by the Nazis as damaging, and on 10 April 1938 he refrained from voting in the plebiscite. For this, the Reich Governor of Wuertemberg declared he would no longer regard Bishop Sproll as head of the Diocese of Rottenburg; made an official request that he leave the Gau; and declared he would see to it that all personal and official intercourse between the Bishop and the State and Party offices as well as the Armed Forces would be denied (849-PS). For his alleged failure to vote in the plebiscite, of 10 April 1938, the Party caused three demonstrations to be staged against the Bishop and his household in Rottenburg. The third demonstration was described as follows in a teletype message from Gestapo Office Stuttgart to Gestapo Office Berlin:

“The Party on 23 July 1938 from 2100 on carried out the third demonstration against Bishop Sproll. Participants about 2,500-3,000 were brought in from outside by bus, etc. The Rottenburg populace again did not participate in the demonstration. The town took rather a hostile attitude to the demonstrations. The action got completely out of hand of the Party Member responsible for it. The demonstrators stormed the palace, beat in the gates and doors. About 150 to 200 people forced their way into the palace, searched the rooms, threw files out of the windows and rummaged through the beds in the rooms of the palace. One bed was ignited. Before the fire got to the other objects of equipment in the rooms and the palace, the flaming bed could be thrown from the window and the fire extinguished. The bishop was with Archbishop Groeber of Freiburg and the ladies and gentlemen of his menage in the chapel at prayer. About 25 to 30 people pressed into this chapel and molested those present. Bishop Groeber was taken for Bishop Sproll. He was grabbed by the robe and dragged back and forth. Finally the intruders realized that Bishop Groeber is not the one they are seeking. They could then be persuaded to leave the building. After the evacuation of the palace by the demonstrators I had an interview with Archbishop Groeber, who left Rottenburg in the night. Groeber wants to turn to the Fuehrer and Reich Minister of the Interior Dr. Frick anew. On the course of the action, the damage done as well as the homage of the Rottenburg populace beginning today for the Bishop I shall immediately hand in a full report, after I am in the act of suppressing counter mass meetings.” (848-PS)

Reich Minister for Church Affairs Kerrl and other Party officials alleged that these demonstrations were spontaneously staged by indignant citizens of Rottenburg and caused representations to be made to the Holy See in an effort to effect the Bishop’s removal from office. (849-PS)

On or about 3 December 1941, a copy of a secret decree of the Party Chancellery on the subject of Relationship of National Socialism to Christianity was found by the Security Police in the possession of Protestant Priest Eichholz at Aix-la-Chapelle. For this he was arrested and held for questioning for an unknown period of time. (D-75)

(d) The Nazi conspirators confiscated church property. On 20 January 1938, the Gestapo District Office at Munich issued a decree dissolving the Guild of the Virgin Mary of the Bavarian Diocese, together with its branches and associations. The decree also stated:

“The property belonging to the dissolved Guild is to be confiscated by the police. Not only is property in cash to be confiscated, but also any stock on hand and other objects of value. All further activity is forbidden the dissolved Guilds, particularly the foundation of any organization intended as a successor or as a cover. Incorporation as a body into other women’s societies is also to be looked on as a forbidden continuation of activity. Infringements against the above prohibition will be punished according to par. 4 of the order of 28.2.1933.”

The reasons for the dissolution and confiscation were that the Guild of the Virgin Mary had occupied itself for years “to a most far-reaching degree” with arrangements of a “worldly and popular sporting character” such as community games and “social evenings"; and further that the president of the society supplied the members with “seditious materials” which served for “seditious discussions"; and that the members of the Guild were trained and mobilized for “political and seditious tasks.” (1481-PS)

In a lecture delivered to a conference of police investigators of Church Affairs assembled in the lecture hall of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) in Berlin, 22 September 1941, Regiersrungsrat Roth stated that about 100 monasteries in the Reich had been dissolved and pointed out that the proper procedure called for seizure of the churches at the same time the monasteries were dissolved. (1815-PS)

In February 1940, SS Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich suggested to Himmler the seizure of monasteries for the accommodation of Racial Germans. He proposed that the authorities of the monastic orders be instructed to make the monasteries concerned available and move their own members to less populous monasteries. He pointed out that the final expropriation of properties thus placed at their disposal could be carried out step by step in the course of time. Himmler agreed to this proposal and ordered the measure to be carried out by the Security Police and Security Service (Sipo and SD) in collaboration with the Reich Commissioner for Consolidation of German Folkdom. (R-101-A)

These orders for confiscation were carried out, as revealed in a letter dated 30 March 1942 from the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) Chief of Staff to Himmler mentioning claims for compensation pending in a number of confiscation cases. In this letter he stated that all rental payments to those monasteries and ecclesiastical institutions whose premises had been put to use as camps for resettlers had been stopped on receipt of Himmler’s order. Concerning current developments, he stated:

“After further preparations in which the Party Chancellery participated prominently, the Reich Minister of the Interior found a way which makes it possible to seize ecclesiastical premises practically without compensation and yet avoids the impression of being a measure directed against the Church. * * *” (R-101-D)

In a letter of 19 April 1941, Bormann advised Rosenberg that libraries and art objects of the monasteries confiscated in the Reich were to remain for the time being in these monasteries and that the Fuehrer had repeatedly rejected the suggestion that centralization of all such libraries be undertaken. (072-PS)

(e) The Nazi conspirators suppressed religious publications. On 6 November 1934, Frick, as Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior, issued an order forbidding until further notice publication of all announcements in the daily press, in pamphlets and other publications, which dealt with the Evangelical Church; with the exception of official announcements of the Church Government of the Reich. (1498-PS)

By order of the State Police for the District of Duesseldorf, the Police Regulation which is quoted in part below was promulgated 28 May 1934:

“The distribution and sale of published items of any sort in connection with worship or religious instructions in public streets or squares near churches is forbidden. In the same sense the distribution and sale of published items on the occasions of processions, pilgrimages and similar church institutions in the streets or squares they pass through or in their vicinity is prohibited.” (R-145)

In January 1940, Bormann informed Rosenberg that he had sought to restrict production of religious publications by means of having their rations of printing paper cut down through the control exercised by Reichsleiter Amann, but that the result of these efforts remained unsatisfactory. (101-PS)

In March 1940, Bormann instructed Reichleiter Amann, Director of the NSDAP Publications Office, that in any future redistribution of paper, confessional writings should receive still sharper restrictions in favor of literature politically and ideologically more valuable. He went on to point out:

“* * * according to a report I have received, only 10% of the over 3000 Protestant periodicals appearing in Germany, such as Sunday papers, etc. have ceased publication for reasons of paper saving.” (089-PS)

In April 1940, Bormann informed the High Command of the Navy that use of the term “Divine Service” to refer exclusively to the services arranged by Christian Confessions was no longer to be used, even in National Socialist daily papers. In the alternative he suggested:

“In the opinion of the Party the term 'Church Service' cannot be objected to. I consider it fitting since it properly implies meetings arranged and organized by the Churches.” (068-PS)

(f) The Nazi conspirators suppressed religious organizations. On 28 May 1934, the State Police Office for the District of Duesseldorf issued an order concerning denominational youth and professional organizations which stated in part as follows:

“Denominational youth and professional organizations as well as those created for special occasions only are prohibited from every public activity outside the church and religious sphere.

“Especially forbidden is: Any public appearance in groups, all sorts of political activity. Any public sport function including public hikes and establishment of holiday or outdoor camps. The public display or showing of flags, banners, pennants or the open wearing of uniforms or insignia.” (R-145)

On 20 July 1935, Frick, as Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior, issued secret instructions to the provincial governments and to the Prussian Gestapo that Confessional youth organizations were to be forbidden to wear uniforms, or uniformlike clothing, to assemble publicly with pennants and flags, to wear insignia as a substitute for uniforms, or to engage in any outdoor sport activity. (1482-PS)

On 20 January 1938 the Gestapo District Office at Munich, issued a decree which stated in part as follows:

“The Guild of the Virgin Mary (die Marianisch Jungfrauenkongregation) of the Bavarian dioceses, including the diocese of Speyere, together with its branches and associations and the Societies of Our Lady (Jungfrauenvereinen) attached to it, is by police order to be dissolved and forbidden with immediate effect.”

Among the reasons cited for this action were the following:

“The whole behavior of the Guild of the Virgin Mary had therefore to be objected to from various points of view. It could be repeatedly observed that the Guild engaged in purely worldly affairs, such as community games, and then in the holding of 'Social Evenings'.

“This proves incontestably that the Guild of the Virgin Mary was active to a very great degree in a manner unecclesiastical and therefore worldly. By so doing it has left the sphere of its proper religious task and entered a sphere of activity to which it has no statutory right. The organization has therefore to be dissolved and forbidden.” (1481-PS)

According to the report of a Security Police “church specialist” attached to the State Police Office at Aachen, the following points were made by a lecturer at a conference of Security Police and Security Service church intelligence investigators in Berlin, on 22 September 1941:

“Retreats, recreational organizations, etc., may now be forbidden on ground of industrial war-needs, whereas formerly only a worldly activity could be given as a basis.

“Youth camps, recreational camps are to be forbidden on principle, church organizations in the evening may be prevented on grounds of the blackout regulations.

“Processions, pilgrimages abroad are to be forbidden by reason of the over-burdened transport conditions. For local events too technical traffic troubles and the danger of airattack may serve as grounds for their prohibition. (One Referent forbade a procession, on the grounds of it wearing out shoe leather).” (1815-PS)

(g) The Nazi conspirators suppressed religious education. In a speech on 7 March 1937, Rosenberg stated:

“The education of youth can only be carried out by those who have rescued Germany from disaster. It is therefore impossible to demand one Fuehrer, one Reich and one firmly united people as long as education is carried out by forces which are mutually exclusive to each other.” (2351-PS)

In a speech at Fulda, 27 November 1937 Reich Minister for Church Affairs Hans Kerrl stated:

“We cannot recognize that the Church has a right to insure that the individual should be educated in all respects in the way in which it holds to be right; but we must leave it to the National Socialist State to educate the child in the way it regards as right.” (2352-PS)

In January 1939, Bormann, acting as Deputy of the Fuehrer, informed the Minister of Education, that the Party was taking the position that theological inquiry was not as valuable as the general fields of knowledge in the universities and that suppression of Theological Faculties in the universities was to be under taken at once. He pointed out that the Concordat with the Vatican placed certain limitations on such a program, but that in the light of the general change of circumstances, particularly the compulsory military service and the execution of the four-year plan, the question of manpower made certain reorganizations, economies and simplification necessary. Therefore, Theological Faculties were to be restricted insofar as they could not be wholly suppressed. He instructed that the churches were not to be informed of this development and no public announcement was to be made. Any complaints, if they were to be replied to at all, should be answered with a statement that these measures are being executed in a general plan of reorganization and that similar things are happening to other faculties. He concludes with the statement that the professorial chairs vacated by the above program are to be turned over to the newly created fields of inquiry, such as racial Research. (116-PS)

A plan for the reduction of Theological Faculties was submitted by the Reich Minister for Science, Education and Training in April 1939 to Bormann, who forwarded it to Rosenberg for consideration and action. The plan called for shifting, combining and eliminating Theological Faculties in various schools and universities throughout the Reich, with the following results:

“To recapitulate this plan would include the complete closing of Theological Faculties at Innsbruck, Salzburg and Munich, the transfer of the faculty of Graz to Vienna and the vanishing of four Catholic faculties.

“a. Closing of three Catholic Theological Faculties or Higher Schools and of four Evangelic Faculties in the winter semester 1939/40.

“b. Closing of one further Catholic and of three further Evangelic Faculties in the near future.” (122-PS)

In a secret decree of the Party Chancellery, signed by Bormann, and distributed to all Gauleiters on 7 June 1941, the following statement concerning religious education was made:

“No human being would know anything of Christianity if it had not been drilled into him in his childhood by pastors. The so-called dear God in no wise gives knowledge of his existence to young people in advance, but in an astonishing manner in spite of his omnipotence leaves this to the efforts of the pastors. If therefore in the future our youth learns nothing more of this Christianity, whose doctrines are far below ours, Christianity will disappear by itself.” (D-75)

(2) Supplementary evidence of acts of suppression within Germany. In laying the groundwork for their attempted subversion of the Church, the Nazi conspirators resorted to assurances of peaceful intentions. Thus Hitler, in his address to the Reichstag on 23 March 1933 declared:

“While the government is determined to carry through the political and moral purging of our public life, it is creating and insuring prerequisites for a truly religious life. The government sees in both Christian confessions the factors most important for the maintenance of our Folkdom. It will respect agreements concluded between them and the states. However, it expects that its work will meet with a similar appreciation. The government will treat all other denominations with equal objective justice. However, it can never condone that belonging to a certain denomination or to a certain race might be regarded as a license to commit or tolerate crimes. The Government will devote its care to the sincere living together of Church and State.” (3387-PS)

(a) Against the Evangelical Churches. The Nazi conspirators, upon their accession to power, passed a number of laws, under innocent-sounding titles, designed to reduce the Evangelical Churches to the status of an obedient instrument of Nazi policy.

The following are illustrative:

Document Number Date Reichsgesetzblatt-Page Title and Gist of Law Signed by

3433-PS 14.7.33 I.471 Gesetz ueber die Verfassung der Deutschen Evangelischen Kirche (Law concerning the Constitution of the German Evangelical Church), establishing among other things the new post of Reich Bishop. Hitler Frick

3434-PS 26.6.35 I.774 Gesetz ueber das Beschlussverfahren in Rechtsangelegenheiten der Evangelisschen Kirche (Law concerning procedure for decisions in legal affairs of the Evangelical Church), giving the Reich Ministry of the Interior sole authority to determine the validity of measures taken in the Churches since 1 May 1933, when raised in a civil lawsuit. Hitler Frick

3435-PS 3.7.35 I.851 Erste Verordnung zur Durchfuehrung des Gesetzes ueber das Beschluss-verfahren in Rechtsangelegenheiten der. Evangelischen Kirche (First Ordinance for Execution of the Law concerning procedure for decisions in legal affairs of the Evangelical Church), setting up detailed organization and procedures under the law of 26 June 1935. Frick

3466-PS 16.7.35 I.1029 Erlass ueber die Zusammenfassung der Zustaendigkeiten des Reichs und Preussens in Kirchenangelegenheiten (decree to unite the competences of Reich and Prussia in Church affairs) transferring to Kerrl, Minister without Portfolio, the church affairs previously handled by Reich and Prussian Ministers of the Interior and of Science, Education, and Training. Hitler Rust Koerner

3436-PS 24.9.35 I.1178 Gesetz zur Sicherung der Deutschen Evangelischen Kirche (Law for the Safeguarding of the German Evangelical Church) empowering the Reich Minister of Church Affairs (Kerrl) to issue Ordinances with binding legal force. Hitler Kerrl

3437-PS 2.12.35 I.1370 Fuenfte Verordnung Zur Durchfuehrung des Gesetzes zur Sicherung der Deutschen Evangelischen Kirche (Fifth decree for execution of the law for the Safeguarding of the German Evangelical Church) prohibiting the churches from filling their pastorates, ordaining ministers, visitation, publishing of banns, and collecting dues and assessments. Kerrl

3439-PS 25.6.37 I.697 Fuenfzehnte Verordnung zur Durchfuehrung des Gesetzes zur Sicherung der Deutschen Evangelischen Kirche (Fifteenth decree for the Execution of the Law for Security of the German Evangelical Church) establishing in the Reich Ministry for Church Affairs a Finance Department, to supervise administration of the church property budget, tax assessment, and use of budget funds. Kerrl

With the help of their Reich Bishop, Bishop Mueller, they manoeuvered the Evangelical Youth Association into the Hitler Jugend under Von Schirach in December 1933. (1458-PS)

They arrested prominent Protestant leaders such as Pastor Niemoeller. By 1937, the result of all these measures was complete administrative control by the Nazi conspirators over the Evangelical churches.

(b) Against the Catholic Church. Just as in their program against the Evangelical Churches, so in their attack on the Catholic Church, the Nazi conspirators concealed their real intentions under a cloak of apparent respect for its rights and protection of its activities. On 20 July 1933, a Concordat was concluded between the Holy See and the German Reich, signed for the Reich by Von Papen (3280-A-PS). It was the Nazi Government, not the Church, which initiated the negotiations.

“The German Government asked the Holy See to conclude a Concordat with the Reich.” (3268-PS)

By Article I of the Concordat,

“The German Reich guarantees freedom of profession and public practice of the Catholic religion.

“It acknowledges the right of the Catholic Church, within the limit of those laws which are applicable to all, to manage and regulate her own affairs independently, and, within the framework of her own competence, to publish laws and ordinances binding on her members.” (3280-A-PS)

Other articles formulated agreements on basic principles such as free communication between Rome and the local ecclesiastical authorities, freedom of the Catholic press, of Catholic education and of Catholic action in charitable, professional, and youth organizations. In return, the Vatican pledged loyalty by the clergy to the Reich Government and emphasis in religious instruction on the patriotic duties of the Christian citizen. (3280-A-PS)

In reliance upon assurances by the Nazi conspirators, the Catholic hierarchy had already revoked their previous prohibition against Catholics becoming members of the Nazi Party (3389-PS). The Catholic Center Party, under a combination of Nazi pressure and assurances, published on 29 December 1933, an announcement of its dissolution (2403-PS). Thus the Catholics went a long way to disarm themselves and cooperate with the Nazis. Nevertheless, the Nazi conspirators continued to develop their policy of slow strangulation of religion, first in covert, and then in open, violation of their assurances and agreements.

In the Encyclical “Mit Brennender Sorge", on 14 March 1937, Pope Pius XI described the program:

“It discloses intrigues which from the beginning had no other aim than a war of extermination. In the furrows in which we had labored to sow the seeds of true peace, others -like the enemy in Holy Scripture (Matt. xiii, 25)-sowed the tares of suspicion, discord, hatred, calumny of secret and open fundamental hostility to Christ and His Church, fed from a thousand different sources and making use of every available means. On them and on them alone and on their silent and vocal protectors rests the responsibility that now on the horizon of Germany there is to be seen not the rainbow of peace but the threatening storm clouds of destructive religious wars. * * * Anyone who has any sense of truth left in his mind and even a shadow of the feeling of justice left in his heart will have to admit that, in the difficult and eventful years which followed the Concordat, every word and every action of Ours was ruled by loyalty to the terms of the agreement; but also he will have to recognize with surprise and deep disgust that the unwritten law of the other party has been arbitrary misinterpretation of agreements, evasion of agreements, evacuation of the meaning of agreements, and finally more or less open violation of agreements.” (3280-PS)

The Nazis suppressed the Catholic Youth League, beginning ten days after the concordat was signed. (See Section 8, infra.)

On 18 January 1942, in declining to accede to a demand made by the German Government that no further appointment of Archbishops, Bishops, and other high administrative dignitaries be made in the new territories of the Reich, or of certain of them within the old Reich, without previous consultation with the German Government (3261-PS), the Secretary of State of Pope Pius XII pointed to measures taken by the German Government,

“Contrary not only to the existing Concordats and to the principles of international law ratified by the Second Hague conference, but often-and this is much more grave-to the very fundamental principles of divine law, both natural and positive.”

The Papal Secretary of State continued:

“Let it suffice to recall in this connection, among other things, the changing of the Catholic State elementary schools into undenominational schools; the permanent or temporary closing of many minor seminaries, of not a few major seminaries and of some theological faculties; the suppression of almost all the private schools and of numerous Catholic boarding schools and colleges; the repudiation, decided unilaterally, of financial obligations which the State, Municipalities, etc. had towards the Church; the increasing difficulties put in the way of the activity of the religious Orders and Congregations in the spiritual, cultural and social field and above all the suppression of Abbeys, monasteries, convents and religious houses in such great numbers that one is led to infer a deliberate intention of rendering impossible the very existence of the Orders and Congregations in Germany.

“Similar and even graver acts must be deplored in the annexed and occupied territories, especially in the Polish territories and particularly in the Reichsgau Wartheland, for which the Reich Superintendent has issued, under date of September 13th last, a 'Decree concerning Religious Associations and Religious Societies' (Verordnung ueber Religioese Vereinigungen und Religion-gesellschaften) in clear opposition to the fundamental principles of the divine constitution of the Church.” (3261-PS)

Illustrative of the numerous other cases and specific incidents which might be adduced as the program of suppression was carried into action within Germany proper, are the measures adopted beginning in 1936 to eliminate the priest Rupert Mayer of Munich. Because of his sermons, he was confined in various prisons, arrested and rearrested, interned in Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and the Ettal Monastery, from which he was released by Allied troops in May 1945, and later died. (3272-PS)

(c) Against other religious groups.

Members of the sect known as “bibelforscher"-meaning “Members of a Biblical Society” or “Bible-Researchers"-were as early as 1937 sent as a routine matter to concentration camps by the Gestapo, even after serving of a sentence imposed by a court or after the cancellation of an arrest order (D-84). At one camp alone-Dachau-there were over 150 “Bibelforscher” in protective custody in 1937. (2928-PS)

B. Acts of suppression of the Christian Churches in Annexed and Occupied Territories.

(1) In Austria. The methods of suppression of churches followed in Austria by the occupying power began with measures to exclude the Church from public activities, such as processions, printing of newspapers and Reviews which could spread Christian doctrines; from forming Youth organizations, such as Boy Scouts; from directing educational or charitable activities; and even from extending help in the form of food to foreigners. Unable in conscience to obey the public prescription, ministers of religions were arrested and sent to concentration camps, and some were executed. Churches were closed, convents and monasteries suppressed, and educational property confiscated. The total number of confiscations, suppressions, or alienations of religious institutions exceeded 100 cases in one diocese alone. (3273-PS)

The Lutheran Church in Austria, though comprising a small minority of the population, was subjected to organized oppression. Its educational efforts were obstructed or banned. Believers were encouraged, and sometimes intimidated, to repudiate their faith. Lutheran pastors were given to understand that a government position would be awarded to each one who would renounce his ministry and if possible withdraw from the Lutheran Church. (3273-PS)

In summation of the period of Nazi domination and in review of the attempted suppression of the Christian Church, the Archbishops and Bishops of Austria in their first joint Pastoral after liberation declared:

“At an end also is an intellectual battle, the goal of which was the destruction of Christianity and the Church among our people; a campaign of lies and treachery against truth and love, against divine and human rights and against international law.” (3274-PS)

(2) In Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak Official Report for the prosecution and trial of the German Major War Criminals by the International Military Tribunal established according to the Agreement of the Four Great Powers of 8 August, 1945 describes in summary form the measures taken by the Nazi conspirators to suppress religious liberties and persecute the churches. The following excerpts are quoted from this report (998-PS):

“(a) Catholic Church.

“* * * At the outbreak of war, 487 Catholic priests were among the thousands of Czech patriots arrested and sent to concentration camps as hostages. Venerable high ecclesiastical dignitaries were dragged to concentration camps in Germany. * * * Religious orders were dissolved and liquidated, their charitable institutions closed down and their members expelled or else forced to compulsory labor in Germany. All religious instruction in Czech schools was suppressed. Most of the weeklies and monthlies which the Catholics had published in Czechoslovakia, had been suppressed from the very beginning of the occupation. The Catholic gymnastic organization “Orel” with 800,000 members was dissolved and its property was confiscated. To a great extent Catholic church property was seized for the benefit of the Reich.

“(b) Czechoslovak National Church.

“* * * The Czechoslovak Church in Slovakia was entirely prohibited and its property confiscated under German compulsion in 1940. It has been allowed to exist in Bohemia and Moravia but in a crippled form under the name of the Czecho-Moravian Church.

“(c) Protestant Churches.

“The Protestant Churches were deprived of the freedom to preach the gospel. German secret state police watched closely whether the clergy observed the restrictions imposed on it. * * * Some passages from the Bible were not allowed to be read in public at all. * * *

“* * * Church leaders were especially persecuted, scores of ministers were imprisoned in concentration camps, among them the General Secretary of the Students' Christian Movement in Czechoslovakia. One of the Vice-Presidents was executed.

“Protestant Institutions such as the YMCA and YWCA were suppressed throughout the country.

“The leading Theological School for all Evangelical denominations, HUS Faculty in Prague and all other Protestant training schools for the ministry were closed down in November 1939, with the other Czech universities and colleges.

“(d) Czech Orthodox Church.

“The hardest blow was directed against the Czech Orthodox Church. The Orthodox churches in Czechoslovakia were ordered by the Berlin Ministry of Church Affairs to leave the Pontificat of Belgrade and Constantinople respectively and to become subordinate to the Berlin Bishop. The Czech Bishop Gorazd was executed together with two other priests of the Orthodox Church. By a special order of the Protector Daluege, issued in September 1942, the Orthodox Church of Serbian Constantinople jurisdiction was completely dissolved in the Czech lands, its religious activity forbidden and its property confiscated.

“All Evangelical education was handed over to the civil authorities and many Evangelical teachers lost their employment; moreover the State grant to salaries of many Evangelical priests was taken away.” (998-PS)

(3) In Poland. The repressive measures levelled against the Christian Church in Poland where Hans Frank was Governor-General from 1939 to 1945, were even more drastic and sweeping. In protest against the systematic strangulation of religion, the Vatican, on 8 October 1942, addressed a memorandum to the German Embassy accredited to the Holy See in which the Secretariat of State emphasized the fact that despite previous protests to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Reich, von Ribbentrop, the religious condition of the Catholics in the Warthegau “has become even sadder and more tragic.” This memorandum states:

“For quite a long time the religious situation in the Warthegau gives cause for very grave and ever increasing anxiety. There, in fact, the Episcopate has been little by little almost completely eliminated; the secular and regular clergy have been reduced to proportions that are absolutely inadequate, because they have been in large part deported and exiled; the education of clerics has been forbidden; the Catholic education of youth is meeting with the greatest opposition; the nuns have been dispersed; insurmountable obstacles have been put in the way of affording people the helps of religions; very many churches have been closed; Catholic intellectual and charitable institutions have been destroyed; ecclesiastical property has been seized.” (3263-PS)

On 18 November 1942 the Papal Secretary of State requested the Archbishop of Breslau, Cardinal Bertram, to use every effort to assist Polish Catholic workers transferred to Germany, who were being deprived of the consolations of religion. In addition, he again appealed for help for the Polish priests detained in various concentration camps, whose death rate was “still on the increase.” (3265-PS). On 7 December 1942 the Cardinal Archbishop of Breslau replied that all possible efforts were being put forward by the German Bishops without success on behalf of the victims of concentration camps and labor battalions, and deplored “the intolerable decrees” against religious ministration to Poles. (3266-PS)

On 2 March 1943, the Cardinal Secretary of State addressed a note to von Ribbentrop, Reichsminister for Foreign Affairs, in which the violations of religious rights and conscience among the civilian population of Poland were set out in detail, and the time, locality, and character of the persecutions were specified. Priests and Ecclesiastics were still being arrested, thrust into concentration camps, and treated with scorn and derision, while many had been summarily executed. Religious instruction was hampered; Catholic schools were closed; the use of the Polish language in sacred functions and even in the Sacrament of Penance was forbidden. Even the natural right of marriage was denied to men of Polish nationality under 28 years of age to women under 25. In the territory called “General Government” similar conditions existed and against these the Holy See vigorously protested. To save the harassed and persecuted leaders of the Catholic Church, the Vatican had petitioned that they be allowed to emigrate to neutral countries of Europe or America. The only concession made was that they would all be collected in one concentration camp-Dachau. (3264-PS)

The Nazi conspirators adopted a dilatory and obstructionist policy toward complaints as to religious affairs in the overrun territories, and a decision was “taken by those competent to do so. * * * that no further consideration will be taken of proposals or requests concerning the territories which do not belong to the Old Reich.” (3262-PS)

“Those competent” to make decisions on complaints as to religious affairs in the overrun territories-especially the Party Chancery, headed by Bormann-the methods they used, and the reasons for their attitude are outlined by the Cardinal Archbishop of Breslau, a German living in Germany, in a letter to the Papal Secretary of State on 7 December 1942 as follows:

“Your Eminence knows very well the greatest difficulty in the way of opening negotiations comes from the overruling authority which the “national Socialist Party Chancery” (Kanzlei der Nazional-sozialistischen Partei, known as the Partei-Kanzlei) exercises in relation to the Chancery of the Reich (Reichskanzlei) and to the single Reich Ministries. This 'Parteikanzlei' directs the course to be followed by the State, whereas the Ministries and the Chancery of the Reich are obliged and compelled to adjust their decrees to these directions. Besides, there is the fact that the “Supreme Office for the Security of the Reich” called the 'Reichssicherheitshauptamt' enjoys an authority which precludes all legal action and all appeals. Under it are the 'Secret Offices for Public Security' called 'Geheime Staatspolizei' (a title shortened usually to Gestapo) of which there is one for each Province. Against the decrees of this Central Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt) and of the Secret Offices (Geheime Staatspolizei) there is no appeal through the Courts, and no complaint made to the Ministries has any effect. not infrequently the Councillors of the Ministries suggest that they have not been able to do as they would wish to, because of the opposition of these Party offices. As far as the executive power is concerned, the organization called the SS, that is Schutzstaffeln der Partei, is in practice supreme.

“This hastily sketched interrelation of authorities is the reason why many of the petitions and protests made by the Bishops to the Ministries have been foiled. Even if we present our complaints to the so-called Supreme Security Office, there is rarely any reply; and when there is, it is negative.

“On a number of very grave and fundamental issues we have also presented our complaints to the Supreme Leader of the Reich (Fuehrer). Either no answer is given, or it is apparently edited by the above-mentioned Party Chancery, which does not consider itself bound by the Concordat made with the Holy See.” (3266-PS)

The interchange of correspondence following the transmission of the above-described note of 2 March 1943 on the religious situation in the overrun Polish Provinces illustrates the same evasive tactics. (3269-PS)

In his Allocution to the Sacred College, on 2 June 1945, His Holiness Pope Pius XII recalled, by way of example, “some details from the abundant accounts which have reached us from priests and laymen who were interned in the concentration camp at Dachau":

“In the forefront, for the number and harshness of the treatment meted out to them, are the Polish priests. From 1940 to 1945, 2,800 Polish ecclesiastics and religious were imprisoned in that camp; among them was the Auxiliary bishop of Wloclawek, who died there of typhus. In April last there were left only 816, all the others being dead except for two or three transferred to another camp. In the summer of 1942, 480 German-speaking ministers of religion were known to be gathered there; of these, 45 were Protestants, all the others Catholic priests. In spite of the continuous inflow of new internees, especially from some dioceses of Bavaria, Rhenania and Westphalia, their number, as a result of the high rate of mortality, at the beginning of this year, did not surpass 350. Nor should we pass over in silence those belonging to occupied territories, Holland, Belgium, France (among whom the Bishop of Clermont), Luxembourg, Slovenia, Italy. Many of those priests and laymen endured indescribable sufferings for their faith and for their vocation. In one case the hatred of the impious against Christ reached the point of parodying on the person of an interned priest, with barbed wire, the scourging and the crowning with thorns of our Redeemer.” (3268-PS)

Further revealing figures on the persecution of Polish priests are contained in the following extract from Charge No. 17 against Hans Frank, Governor-General of Poland, submitted by the Polish Government, entitled “Maltreatment and Persecution of the Catholic Clergy in the Western Provinces":

“IV. GENERAL CONDITIONS AND RESULTS OF THE PERSECUTION

11. The general situation of the clergy in the Archdiocese of Poznan in the beginning of April 1940 is summarized in the following words of Cardinal Hlond’s second report:

'5 priests shot

27 priests confined in harsh concentration camps at Stutthof and in other camps

190 priests in prison or in concentration camps at Bruczkow, Chludowo, Goruszki, Kazimierz, Biskupi, Lad, Lubin and Puszczykowo,

35 priests expelled into the Government General,

11 priests seriously ill in consequence of ill-treatment,

122 parishes entirely left without priests.'

12. In the diocese of Chefmno, where about 650 priests were installed before the war only 3% were allowed to stay, the 97% of them were imprisoned, executed or put into concentration camps.

13. By January 1941 about 7000 priests were killed, 3000 were in prison or concentration camps.” (3279-PS)

The Allocution of Pope Pius XII on 2 June 1945 described National Socialism as “the arrogant apostasy from Jesus Christ, the denial of His doctrine and of His Work of redemption, the cult of violence, the idolatry of race and blood, the overthrow of human liberty and dignity.” It summarized the attacks of “National Socialism” on the Catholic Church in these terms:

“The struggle against the Church did, in fact, become even more bitter: there was the dissolution of Catholic organizations; the gradual suppression of the flourishing Catholic schools, both public and private; the enforced weaning of youth from family and Church; the pressure brought to bear on the conscience of citizens, and especially of civil servants; the systematic defamation, by means of a clever, closely-organized propaganda, of the Church, the clergy, the faithful, the Church’s institutions, teaching and history; the closing, dissolution, confiscation of religious houses and other ecclesiastical institutions; the complete suppression of the Catholic press and publishing houses.” (3268-PS)

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO SUPPRESSION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

Document Description Vol. Page

Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Article 6, especially 6 (a, c)…I 5

International Military Tribunal, Indictment Number 1, Sections IV (D) 3 (c) (2, 3); X (B)…I 20,55

Note: A single asterisk (*) before a document indicates that the document was received in evidence at the Nurnberg trial. A double asterisk (*) before a document number indicates that the document was referred to during the trial but was not formally received in evidence, for the reason given in parentheses following the description of the document. The USA series number, given in parentheses following the description of the document, is the official exhibit number assigned by the court.

*064-PS Bormann’s letter to Rosenberg, 27 September 1940, enclosing letter from Gauleiter Florian criticizing Churches and publications for soldiers. (USA 359)…III 109

*068-PS Letter from Bormann to Rosenberg, 5 April 1940, enclosing copy of Bormann’s letter to the High Command of Navy, and copy of Navy High Command letter to Bormann of 9 February 1940. (USA 726)…III 114

*070-PS Letter of Deputy Fuehrer to Rosenberg, 25 April 1941, on substitution of National Socialist mottos for morning prayers in schools. (USA 349)…III 118

*072-PS Bormann letter to Rosenberg, 19 April 1941, concerning confiscation of property, especially of art treasures in the East. (USA 357)…III 122

*089-PS Letter from Bormann to Rosenberg, 8 March 1940, instructing Amann not to issue further newsprint to confessional newspapers. (USA 360)…III 147

*098-PS Bormann’s letter to Rosenberg, 22 February 1940, urging creation of National Socialist Catechism, etc. to provide moral foundation for NS religion. (USA 350)…III 152

*100-PS Bormann’s letter to Rosenberg, 18 January 1940, urging preparation of National Socialist reading material to replace Christian literature for soldiers. (USA 691)…III 160

*101-PS Letter from Hess' office signed Bormann to Rosenberg, 17 January 1940, concerning undesirability of religious literature for members of the Wehrmacht. (USA 361)…III 160

*107-PS Circular letter signed Bormann, 17 June 1938, enclosing directions prohibiting participation of Reichsarbeitsdienst in religious celebrations. (USA 351)…III 162

*116-PS Bormann’s letter to Rosenberg, enclosing copy of letter, 24 January 1939, to Minister of Education requesting restriction or elimination of theological faculties. (USA 685)…III 165

*122-PS Bormann’s letter to Rosenberg, 17 April 1939, enclosing copy of Minister of Education letter, 6 April 1939, on elimination of theological faculties in various universities. (USA 362)…III 173

*129-PS Letter from Kerrl to Herr Stapol, 6 September 1939, found in Rosenberg files. (USA 727)…III 179

*840-PS Party Directive, 14 July 1939, making clergy and theology students ineligible for Party membership. (USA 355)…III 606

*848-PS Gestapo telegram from Berlin to Nurnberg, 24 July 1938, dealing with demonstrations against Bishop Sproll in Rottenburg. (USA 385)…III 613

*849-PS Letter from Kerrl to Minister of State, 23 July 1938, with enclosures dealing with persecution of Bishop Sproll. (USA 354)…III 614

*998-PS “German Crimes Against Czechoslovakia". Excerpts from Czechoslovak Official Report for the prosecution and trial of the German Major War Criminals by the International Military Tribunal established according to Agreement of four Great Powers of 8 August 1945. (USA 91)…III 656

*1164-PS Secret letter, 21 April 1942, from SS to all concentration camp commanders concerning treatment of priests. (USA 736)…III 820

*1458-PS The Hitler Youth by Baldur von Schirach, Leipzig, 1934. (USA 667)…IV 22

*1481-PS Gestapo order, 20 January 1938, dissolving and confiscating property of Catholic Youth Women’s Organization in Bavaria. (USA 737)…IV 50

*1482-PS Secret letter, 20 July 1933 to provincial governments and the Prussian Gestapo from Frick, concerning Confessional Youth Organizations. (USA 738)…IV 51

*1498-PS Order of Frick, 6 November 1934, addressed inter alios to Prussian Gestapo prohibiting publication of Protestant Church announcements. (USA 739)…IV 52

*1521-PS Report from the Bavarian Political Police to the Gestapo, Berlin, 24 August 1934, concerning National mourning on occasion of death of von Hindenburg. (USA 740)…IV 75

*1708-PS The Program of the NSDAP. National Socialistic Yearbook, 1941, p. 153. (USA 255; USA 324)…IV 208

*1815-PS Documents on RSHA meeting concerning the study and treatment of church politics. (USA 510)…IV 415

1855-PS Extract from Organization Book of the NSDAP, 1937, p. 418…IV 495

*1997-PS Decree of the Fuehrer, 17 July 1941, concerning administration of Newly Occupied Eastern Territories. (USA 319)…IV 634

*2349-PS Extracts from “The Myth of 20th Century” by Alfred Rosenberg, 1941. (USA 352)…IV 1069

2351-PS Speech of Rosenberg, 7 March 1937, from The Archive, Vol. 34-36, p. 1716, published in Berlin, March 1937…IV 1070

2352-PS Speech of Kerrl, 27 November 1937, from The Archive, Vol. 43-45, p. 1029, published in Berlin, November 1937…IV 1071

2403-PS The End of the Party State, from Documents of German Politics, Vol. I, pp. 55-56…V 71

2456-PS Youth and the Church, from Complete Handbook of Youth Laws…V 198

*2851-PS Statement by Rosenberg of positions held, 9 November 1945. (USA 6)…V 512

*2910-PS Certificate of defendant Seyss-Inquart, 10 November 1945. (USA 17)…V 579

*2928-PS Affidavit of Mathias Lex, deputy president of the German Shoemakers Union. (USA 239)…V 594

*2972-PS List of appointments held by von Neurath, 17 November 1945. (USA 19)…V 679

*2973-PS Statement by von Schirach concerning positions held. (USA 14)…V 679

*2978-PS Frick’s statement of offices and positions, 14 November 1945. (USA 8)…V 683

*2979-PS Affidavit by Hans Frank, 15 November 1945, concerning positions held. (USA 7)…V 684

*3261-PS Verbal note of the Secretariate of State of His Holiness, to the German Embassy, 18 January 1942. (USA 568)…V 1009

3262-PS Report of His Excellency, the Most Reverend Cesare Orsenigo, Papal Nuncio in Germany to His Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State to His Holiness, 27 June 1942…V 1015

*3263-PS Memorandum of Secretariate of State to German Embassy regarding the situation in the Warthegau, 8 October 1942. (USA 571)…V 1017

*3264-PS Note of His Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State to Foreign Minister of Reich about religious situation in Warthegau and in other Polish provinces subject to Germany, 2 March 1943. (USA 572)…V 1018

3265-PS Letter to His Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State to the Cardinal Archbishop of Breslau, 18 November 1942…V 1029

*3266-PS Letter of Cardinal Bertram, Archbishop of Breslau to the Papal Secretary of State, 7 December 1942. (USA 573)…V 1031

3267-PS Verbal note of German Embassy to Holy See to the Secretariate of State of His Holiness, 29 August 1941…V 1037

*3268-PS Allocution of His Holiness Pope Pius XII, to the Sacred College, 2 June 1945. (USA 356)…V 1038

3269-PS Correspondence between the Holy See, the Apostolic Nuncio in Berlin, and the defendant von Ribbentrop, Reich Minister of Foreign Affairs…V 1041

3272-PS Statement of Rupert Mayer, 13 October 1945…V 1061

3273-PS Statement of Lutheran Pastor, Friedrich Kaufmann, Salzburg, 23 October 1945…V 1064

*3274-PS Pastoral letter of Austrian Bishops read in all churches, 14 October 1945. (USA 570)…V 1067

*3278-PS Report on fighting of National Socialism in Apostolic Administration of Innsbruck-Feldkirch of Tyrol and Vorarlberg by Bishop Paulus rusch, 27 June 1945 and attached list of church institutions there which were closed, confiscated or suppressed. (USA 569)…V 1070

*3279-PS Extract from Charge No. 17 against Hans Frank submitted by Polish Government to International Military Tribunal. (USA 574)…V 1078

*3280-PS Extract from Papal Encyclical “Mit Brennender Sorge", set forth in Appendix II, p. 524, of “The Persecution of the Catholic Church in the Third Reich". (USA 567)…V 1079

3280-A-PS Concordat between the Holy See and the German Reich. Reichsgesetzblatt, Part II, p. 679…V 1080

*3387-PS Hitler Reichstag speech, 23 March 1933, asking for adoption of Enabling Act, from Voelkischer Beobachter, 24 March 1933, p. 1. (USA 566)…VI 104

*3389-PS Fulda Declaration of 28 March 1933, from Voelkischer Beobachter, 29 March 1933, p. 2. (USA 566)…VI 105

3433-PS Law concerning the Constitution of the German Protestant Church, 14 July 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 471…VI 136

3434-PS Law concerning procedure for decisions in legal affairs of the Protestant Church, 26 June 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 774…VI 143

3435-PS First Ordinance for Execution of Law concerning procedure for decisions in legal affairs of the Protestant Church, 3 July 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 851…VI 144

3436-PS Law for Safeguarding of German Protestant Church, 24 September 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1178…VI 145

3437-PS Fifth Decree for execution of law for safeguarding of the German Protestant Church, 2 December 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1370…VI 146

3439-PS Fifteenth decree for the Execution of law for Security of German Protestant Church, 25 June 1937. 1937 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 697…VI 147

3466-PS Decree to unite the competences of Reich and Prussia in Church Affairs, 16 July 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1029…VI 168

3560-PS Decree concerning organization and administration of Eastern Territories, 8 October 1939. 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 2042…VI 244

3561-PS Decree concerning the Administration of Occupied Polish Territories, 12 October 1939. 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 2077…VI 246

3701-PS Proposal for Reichsleiter Bormann concerning speech of Bishop of Meunster on 3 August 1941…VI 405

*3751-PS Diary of the German Minister of Justice, 1935 concerning prosecution of church officials and punishment in concentration camps. (USA 828; USA 858)…VI 636

*D-75 SD Inspector Bierkamp’s letter, 12 December 1941, to RSHA enclosing copy of secret decree signed by Bormann, entitled Relationship of National Socialism and Christianity. (USA 348)…VI 1035

*D-84 Gestapo instructions to State Police Departments, 5 August 1937, regarding protective custody for Bible students. (USA 236)…VI 1040

*EC-68 Confidential letter from Minister of Finance and Economy, Baden, containing directives on treatment of Polish Farm workers, 6 March 1941. (USA 205)…VI 260

*R-101-A Letter from Chief of the Security Police and Security Service to the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Folkdom, 5 April 1940, with enclosures concerning confiscation of church property. (USA 358)…VIII 87

R-101-B Letter from Himmler to Dr. Winkler, 31 October 1940, concerning treatment of church property in incorporated Eastern countries…VIII 89

*R-101-C Letter to Reich Leader SS, 30 July 1941, concerning treatment of church property in incorporated Eastern areas. (USA 358)…VIII 91

*R-101-D Letter from Chief of Staff of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) to Reich Leader SS, 30 March 1942, concerning confiscation of church property. (USA 358)…VIII 92

*R-103 Letter from Polish Main Committee to General Government of Poland on situation of Polish workers in the Reich, 17 May 1944. (USA 204)…VIII 104

*R-145 State Police Order, 28 May 1934, at Duesseldorf, signed Schmid, concerning sanction of denominational youth and professional associations and distribution of publications in churches. (USA 745)…VIII 248

7. ADOPTION AND PUBLICATION OF THE PROGRAM FOR PERSECUTION OF JEWS

A. The official program of the NSDAP, proclaimed 24 February 1920 by Adolf Hitler at a public gathering in Munich.

Point 4: “None but members of the nation (volksgenosse) may be citizens. None but those of German blood, whatever their creed, may be members of the nation. No Jew, therefore, may be a member of the nation.”

Point 5: “Anyone who is not a citizen may live in Germany only as a guest and must be regarded as being subject to legislation for foreigners.”

Point 6: “The right to determine matters concerning government and legislation is to be enjoyed by the citizen alone. We demand therefore that all appointments to public office, of whatever kind, whether in the Reich, Land, or municipality, be filled only by citizens. * * *”

Point 7: “We demand that the state make it its first duty to promote the industry and livelihood of citizens. If it is not possible to nourish the entire population of the State, the members of foreign nations (non-citizens) are to be expelled from the Reich.”

Point 8: “Any further immigration of non-Germans is to be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans who entered Germany subsequent to 2 August 1914, shall be forced immediately to leave the Reich.”

Point 23: “We demand legal warfare against conscious political lies and their dissemination through the press. In order to make possible the creation of a German press we demand:

(a) that all editors and collaborators of newspapers published in the German language be members of the nation.

(b) non-German newspapers be requested to have express permission of the State to be published. They may not be printed in the German language.

(c) non-Germans be prohibited by law from financial participation in or influence on German newspapers, and that as penalty for contravention of the law such newspapers be suppressed and all non-Germans participating in it expelled from the Reich. * * *” (1708-PS)

B. Development of ideological basis for anti-Semitic measures.

Among the innumerable statements made by the leaders of the NSDAP are the following:

Rosenberg advocated in 1920 the adoption of the following program concerning the Jews:

“(1) The Jews are to be recognized as a (separate) nation living in Germany, irrespective of the religion they belong to.

(2) A Jew is he whose parents on either side are nationally Jews. Anyone who has a Jewish husband or wife is henceforth a Jew.

(3) Jews have no right to speak and write on or be active in German politics.

(4) Jews have no right to hold public offices, or to serve in the Army either as soldiers or as officers. However, their contribution of work may be considered.

(5) Jews have no right to be leaders of cultural institutions of the state and community (theaters, galleries, etc.) or to be professors and teachers in German schools and universities.

(6) Jews have no right to be active in state or municipal commissions for examinations, control, censorship, etc. Jews have no right to represent the German Reich in economic treaties; they have no right to be represented in the directorate of state banks or communal credit establishments.

(7) Foreign Jews have no right to settle in Germany permanently. Their admission into the German political community is to be forbidden under all circumstances.

(8) Zionism should be energetically supported in order to promote the departure of German Jews-in numbers to be determined annually-to Palestine or generally across the border.” (2842-PS)

Rosenberg’s “Zionism” was neither sincere nor consistent, for in 1921 he advocated breaking up Zionism, “which is involved in English-Jewish politics.” (2432-PS). He advocated in 1921 the adoption by “all Germans” of the following slogans: “Get the Jews out of all parties. Institute measures for the repudiation of all citizenship rights of all Jews and half-Jews: banish all the Eastern Jews; exercise strictest vigilance over the native ones. * * *” (2432-PS)

Frick and other Nazis introduced a motion in the Reichstag on 27 May 1924, “to place all members of the Jewish race under special laws.” (2840-PS). Frick also asked in the Reichstag, on 25 August 1924, for the realization of the Nazi program by “exclusion of all Jews from public office.” (2893-PS)

C. Anti-Semitism was seized upon by the Nazi conspirators as a convenient instrument to unite groups and classes of divergent views and interests under one banner.

Adolf Hitler described racial anti-Semitism as “a new creed for the masses” and its spreading among the German people as “the most formidable task to be accomplished by our movement.” (2881-PS). Rosenberg called for the Zusammenraffen aller Deutschen zu einer stahlharten, voelkischen Einheitsfront” (gathering of all Germans into a steel-hard racial united front) on the basis of anti-Semitic slogans (2432-PS). Gotfried Feder, official commentator of the Nazi Party program, stated: “Anti-Semitism is in a way the emotional foundation of our movement.” (2844-PS)

There are innumerable admissions on the part of the Nazi leaders as to the part which their anti-Semitic propaganda played in their acquisition of control. The following statement concerning the purpose of racial propaganda was made by Dr. Walter Gross, director of the Office of Racial Policy of the Nazi Party:

“In the years of fight, the aim was to employ all means of propaganda which promised success in order to gather people who were ready to overthrow, together with the Party, the harmful post-war regime and put the power into the hand of the Fuehrer and his collaborators. * * * In these years of fight the aim was purely political: I meant the overthrow of the regime and acquisition of power. * * * Within this great general task the education in racial thinking necessarily played a decisive part, because herein lies basically the deepest revolutionary nature of the new spirit.” (2845-PS)

In another official Nazi publication, recommended for circulation in all Party units and establishments, it is stated:

“The whole treatment of the Jewish problem in the years prior to our seizure of power is to be regarded essentially from the point of view of the political education of the German people.” (To disregard this angle of the use made of anti-Semitism means) “to disregard the success and aim of the work toward racial education.” (2427-PS)

D. After the acquisition of power the Nazi conspirators initiated a state policy of persecution of the Jews.

(1) The first organized act was the boycott of Jewish enterprises on 1 April 1933. The boycott action was approved by all the defendants who were members of the Reichsregierung (Reich Cabinet), and Streicher was charged with its execution. Presented as an alleged act of “self defense", the boycott action was intended to frighten Jewish public opinion abroad and force it, by the threat of collective responsibility to all Jews in Germany, to desist from warning against the Nazi danger. (2409-PS; 2410-PS)

The boycott was devised as a demonstration of the extent to which the Nazi Party controlled its members and the German masses; consequently, spontaneous action and physical violence were discouraged. Goebbels stated:

“The national-socialist leadership had declared: 'The boycott is legal', and the government demands that the people permit that the boycott be carried out legally. We expect iron discipline. This must be for the whole world a wonderful show of unity and manly training. To those abroad who believe that we could not manage it, we want to show that we have the people in our hand.” (2431-PS)

(2) Laws eliminating Jews from various offices and functions.

The Nazi conspirators legislative program was gradual and, in the beginning, relatively “moderate.” In the first period, which dates from 7 April 1933 until September 1935, the laws eliminated Jews from public office and limited their participation in schools, certain professions, and cultural establishments. The following are the major laws issued in this period:

Document No. Date Reichsgesetzblatt page Title and gist of law Signed by

1397-PS 7.4.33 I.175 Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums (Law for the reestablishment of the professional civil service), removing Jews from Civil Service. Hitler Frick Schwerin V. Krosigk

7.4.33 I.188 Gesetz uber die Zulassung zur Rechtsanwaltschaft (Law relating to admission to the Bar) removing Jews from the Bar. Guertner

2868-PS 22.4.33 I.217 Gesetz betreffend die Zulassung zur Patentanwaltschaft (Law relating to the admission to the profession of patent agent and lawyer) excluding Jews from acting as patent attorneys. Hitler Guertner

2869-PS 6.5.33 I.257 Gesetz uber die Zulassung von Steuerberatern (Law relating to the admission of Tax Advisors) eliminating “non-Aryans” from the profession of tax consultants. Hitler Schwerin V. Krosigk

2084-PS 22.4.33 I.215 Gesetz uber die uberfullung deutscher Schullen (Law against the over-crowding of German schools and higher institutions) limiting drastically the number of Jewish students. Hitler Frick

2870-PS 26.7.33 I.538 Verordnung zur Durchfuehrung des Gesetzes uber den Widerruf von Einbuergerungen (Executing decree for the law about the Repeal of Naturalizations and the adjudication of German citizenship) defining Jews from Eastern Europe as “undesirable” and subject to denationalization. Pfundtner (Asst. to Frick)

2083-PS 4.10.33 I.713 Schriftleitergesetz (Editorial Law) barring “non-Aryans” and persons married to “non-Aryans” from the newspaper profession. Hitler Goebbels

2984-PS 21.5.35 I.608 Wehrgesetz (Law concerning Armed Forces) barring “non-Aryans” from military service.

V. Blomberg

On 10 September 1935, Minister of Education Rust issued a circular ordering the complete elimination of Jewish pupils from “Aryan” schools (2894-PS). This legislative activity, in addition to being the first step towards the elimination of the Jews, served an “educational” purpose and was a further test of the extent of control exerted by the Nazi Party and regime over the German masses.

Dr. Achim Gercke, racial expert of the Ministry of the Interior, stated:

“The laws are mainly educational and give direction. The aspect of the laws should not be underestimated. The entire nation is enlightened on the Jewish problem; it learns to understand that the national community is a blood community; it understands for the first time the racial idea, and is diverted from a too theoretical treatment of the Jewish problem and faced with the actual solution.” (2904-PS)

It was clear, however, that the Nazi conspirators had a far more ambitious program in the Jewish problem and put off its realization for reasons of expediency. In the words of Dr. Gercke:

“Nevertheless the laws published thus far cannot bring a final solution of the Jewish problem, because the time has not yet come for it, although the decrees give the general direction and leave open the possibility of further developments.

“It would be in every respect premature now to work out and publicly discuss plans to achieve more than can be achieved for the time being. However, one must point out a few basic principles so that the ideas which one desires and must have ripened will contain no mistakes. * * *

“All suggestions aiming at a permanent situation, at a stabilization of the status of the Jews in Germany do not solve the Jewish problem, because they do not detach the Jews from Germany. * * *

“Plans and programs must contain an aim pointing to the future and not merely consisting of the regulation of a momentarily uncomfortable situation.” (2904-PS)

(3) Deprivation of Jews of their rights as citizens. After a propaganda barrage, in which the speeches and writings of Streicher were most prominent, the Nazi conspirators initiated the second period of anti-Jewish legislation (15 September 1935 to September 1938). In this period the Jews were deprived of their full rights as citizens (First Nurnberg Law) and forbidden to marry “Aryans” (Second Nurnberg Law). Further steps were taken to eliminate Jews from certain professions, and the groundwork was laid for the subsequent expropriation of Jewish property. These laws were hailed as the fulfillment of the Nazi Party program.

The major laws issued in this period are listed below:

Document No. Date Reichsgesetzblatt page Title and gist of law Signed by

1416-PS 15.9.35 I 1145 Reichsbuergergesetz (Reich Citizenship Law), first Nurnberg Law, reserving citizenship for subjects of German blood. Hitler Frick

2000-PS 15.9.35 I 1146 Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes, (Law for protection of German blood and German honor), forbidding marriages and extramarital relations between Jews and “Aryans". Hitler Frick Guertner Hess

1417-PS 14.11.35 I 1333 Erste Verordnung zum Reichsbuergergesetz (First regulation to Reich citizenship law), defining the terms “Jew” and “part-Jew". Jewish officials to be dismissed. Hitler Frick Hess

2871-PS 7.3.36 I 133 Gesetz ueber das Reichstagwahlrecht (Law governing elections to the Reichstag) barring Jews from Reichstag vote. Hitler Frick

1406-PS 26.4.38 I 414 Verordnung ueber die Ammeldung des Vermogens von Juden (Decree for reporting Jewish owned property), basis for subsequent expropriation. Goering Frick

2872-PS 25.7.38 I 969 Vierte Verordnung zum Reichsbuergergesctz. Fourth decree on the Citizenship Law, revoking licenses of Jewish physicians. Frick

2873-PS 17.8.38 I 1044 Zweite Verordnung zur Durchfuhrung des Gesetzes ueber die Aenderung von Familiennamen und Vornamen (Second decree on law concerning change of first and last names), forcing Jews to adopt the names “Israel” and “Sara". Frick

2874-PS 27.9.38 I 1403 Fuenfte Verordnung zum Reichsbuergergesetz. (Fifth decree to law relating to the Reich citizenship), revoking admission of Jewish lawyers.

(4) Program of 9 November 1938 and elimination of Jews from economic life.

In the autumn of 1938, within the framework of economic preparation for aggressive war and as an act of defiance to world opinion, the Nazi conspirators began to put into effect a program of complete elimination of the Jews. The measures taken were partly presented as retaliation against “world Jewry” in connection with the killing of a German embassy official in Paris. Unlike the boycott action in April, 1933, when care was taken to avoid violence, an allegedly “spontaneous” pogrom was staged and carried out all over Germany on orders of Heydrich.

The organized character of the pogrom is also obvious from the admission of Heydrich and others at a meeting presided over by Goering at the Air Ministry in Berlin. (1816-PS)

The legislative measures which followed were discussed and approved in their final form at a meeting on 12 November 1938 under the chairmanship of Goering, with the participation of Frick, Funk and others. The meeting was called following Hitler’s orders “requesting that the Jewish questions be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or another.” The participants agreed on measures to be taken “for the elimination of the Jew from German economy.” Other possibilities, such as the establishment of ghettos, stigmatization through special insignia, and “the main problem, namely to kick the Jew out of Germany", were also discussed. All these measures were later enacted as soon as conditions permitted. (1816-PS)

The laws issued in this period were signed mostly by Goering, in his capacity as Deputy for the Four Year Plan, and were thus connected with the consolidation of control over German economy in preparation for aggressive war.

The major laws issued in this period are listed below:

Document No. Date Reichsgesetzblatt page Title and gist of law Signed by

1412-PS 12.11.38 I 1579 Verordnung ueber eine Suhneleistung der Juden (Order concerning expiation contribution of Jews of German nationality), obligating all German Jews to pay a collective fine of 1.000.000.000 Reichsmark. Goering

2875-PS 12.11.38 I 1580 Verordnung zur Ausschaltung der Juden aus dem deutschen Wirtschaftsleben (Decree on elimination of Jews from German economic life), barring Jews from trade and crafts. Goering

1415-PS 28.11.38 I 1676 Polizeiverordnung ueber das Auftreten der Juden in der Queffentlichkeit (Police regulation of the appearance of Jews in public), limiting movement of Jews to certain localities and hours. Heydrich (assistant to Frick)

1409-PS 3.12.38 I 1709 Verordnung ueber den Einsatz. des Juedischen Vermoegens (Order concerning the Utilization of Jewish property), setting time limit for the sale or liquidation of Jewish enterprises; forcing Jews to deposit shares and securities held by them; forbidding sale or acquisition of gold and precious stones by Jews. Funk Frick

1419-PS 30.4.39 I 864 Gesetz ueber Mietverhaeltnisse mit Juden (Law concerning Jewish tenants) granting to landlords the right to give notice to Jewish tenants before legal expiration of lease. Hitler Guertner Krohn Hess Frick

2876-PS 4.7.39 I 1097 zehnte Verordnung zum Reichsbuergergesetz (Tenth decree relating to the Reich Citizenship Law), forcible congregation of Jews in the “Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland". Frick Rust Kerrl Hess

2877-PS 1.9.41 I 547 Polizeiverordnung ueber die Konnzeichnung der Juden (Police order concerning identification of Jews) forcing all Jews over 6 years of age to wear the Star of David. Heydrich

(5) Extermination of German Jews. Early in 1939 Hitler and the other Nazi conspirators decided to arrive at a “final solution of the Jewish problem.” In connection with preparations for aggressive war, further consolidation of controls and removal of elements not belonging to the Volksgemeinschaft (racial community) were deemed necessary. The conspirators also anticipated the conquest of territories in Eastern Europe inhabitated by large numbers of Jews and the impossibility of forcing largescale emigration in war-time. Hence, other and more drastic measures became necessary. The emphasis in this period shifted from legislative acts to police measures.

On 24 January 1939 Heydrich was charged with the mission of “arriving at a solution of the Jewish problem.” (710-PS)

On 15 January 1939 Rosenberg stated in a speech at Detmold:

“For Germany the Jewish problem will be solved only when the last Jew has left Germany.”

On 7 February 1939, Rosenberg appealed to foreign nations to forget “ideological differences” and unite against the “real enemy,” the Jew. He advocated the creation of a “reservation” where the Jews of all countries should be concentrated (2843-PS). In his Reichstag speech on 30 January 1939, Hitler made the following prophecy:

“The result [of war] will be * * * the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.” (2663-PS)

Thus the direction was given for a policy which was carried out as soon as the conquest of foreign territories created the material conditions. (For the carrying out and results of the program of the Nazi conspirators against Jewry, see Chapter XII.)

In the final period of the anti-Jewish crusade very few legislative measures were passed. The Jews were delivered to the SS and various extermination staffs. The last law dealing with the Jews in Germany, signed by Frick, Bormann, Schwerin V. Krosigk, and Thierack, put them entirely outside the law and ordered the confiscation by the State of the property of dead Jews (1422-PS). This law was a weak reflection of a factual situation already in existence. Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart, assistant to Frick, stated at that time:

“The aim of the racial legislation may be regarded as already achieved and consequently the racial legislation as essentially closed. It led to the temporary solution of the Jewish problem and at the same time prepared the final solution. Many regulations will lose their practical importance as Germany approaches the achievement of the final goal in the Jewish problem.” (Stuckart and Schiedermair: Rassen und Erbpflege in der Gesetzgebung des Reiches (The care for Race and Heredity in the Legislation of the Reich), Leipzig, 1943, p. 14.)

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO ADOPTION AND PUBLICATION OF THE PROGRAM FOR PERSECUTION OF JEWS

Document Description Vol. Page

Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Article 6, especially 6 (a)…I 5

International Military Tribunal, Indictment Number 1, Section IV (D) 3 (d)…I 20

Note: A single asterisk (*) before a document indicates that the document was received in evidence at the Nurnberg trial. A double asterisk (**) before a document number indicates that the document was referred to during the trial but was not formally received in evidence, for the reason given in parentheses following the description of the document. The USA series number, given in parentheses following the description of the document, is the official exhibit number assigned by the court.

*710-PS Letter from Goering to Heydrich, 31 July 1941, concerning solution of Jewish question. (USA 509)…III 525

1397-PS Law for the reestablishment of the Professional Civil Service, 7 April 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 175…III 981

1401-PS Law regarding admission to the Bar, 7 April 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 188…III 989

1406-PS Decree for reporting of Jewish owned property, 26 April 1938. 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 414…III 1001

1406-PS Order concerning utilization of Jewish property, 3 December 1938. 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1709…IV 1

1412-PS Decree relating to payment of fine by Jews of German nationality, 12 November 1938. 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1579…IV 6

1415-PS Police regulation concerning appearance of Jews in public, 28 November 1938. 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1676…IV 6

1416-PS Reich Citizen Law of 15 September 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1146…IV 7

*1417-PS First regulation to the Reichs Citizenship Law, 14 November 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1333. (GB 258)…IV 8

1419-PS Law concerning Jewish tenants, 30 April 1939. 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 864…IV 10

1422-PS Thirteenth regulation under Reich Citizenship Law, 1 July 1943. 1943 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 372…IV 14

*1708-PS The Program of the NSDAP. National Socialistic Yearbook, 1941, p. 153. (USA 255, USA 324)…IV 208

*1816-PS Stenographic report of the meeting on The Jewish Question, under the Chairmanship of Fieldmarshal Goering, 12 November 1938. (USA 261)…IV 425

2000-PS Law for protection of German blood and German honor, 15 September 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, No. 100, p. 1146…IV 636

2022-PS Law against overcrowding of German schools and Higher Institutions, 25 April 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 225…IV 651

2083-PS Editorial control law, 4 October 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 713…IV 709

2084-PS Law on formation of the Student Organization at Scientific Universities, 22 April 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 215…IV 718

*2409-PS Extracts from The Imperial House to the Reich Chancellery by Dr. Joseph Goebbels. (USA 262)…V 83

2410-PS Article by Julius Streicher on the “coming popular action” under banner headline “Beat the World Enemy", from Voelkischer Beobachter, South German Edition, 31 March 1933…V 85

2427-PS The Racial Awakening of German Nation by Dr. Rudolf Frercks, in National Political Enlightenment Pamphlets…V 92

2431-PS The Revolution of the Germans; 14 years of National Socialism, by Dr. Joseph Goebbels…V 92

2432-PS Extracts from Rosenberg's, Writings From The Years, 1921-1923…V 93

*2663-PS Hitler’s speech to the Reichstag, 30 January 1939, quoted from Voelkischer Beobachter, Munich edition, 1 February 1939. (USA 268)…V 367

2840-PS Dr. Wilhelm Frick and his Ministry, 1937, p. 180-181…V 503

2841-PS Extract from the Care for Race and Heredity in the Legislation of the Reich, Leipzig, 1943, p. 14…V 504

2842-PS Extract from Writings of the years, 1917-21, by Alfred Rosenberg, published in Munich 1943, pp. 320-321…V 504

2843-PS Race Politics from Documents of German Politics, Vol. VII, pp. 728-729…V 505

2844-PS The Program of the Nazi Party, by Gottfried Feder, August 1927, Munich, p. 17…V 506

2845-PS One Year of Racial Political Education by Dr. Gross in National Socialist Monthly No. 54, September 1934, pp. 833-834…V 506

2868-PS Law relating to admission of profession of Patent-Agent and Lawyer, 22 April 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part II, No. 41, pp. 217-8…V 529

2869-PS Law relating to admission of Tax Advisors, 6 May 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, No. 49, p. 257…V 530

2870-PS Executory decree for law about repeal of Naturalization and Adjudication of German Citizenship, 26 July 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 538…V 530

2871-PS Law governing elections to Reichstag, 7 March 1936. 1936 Reichsgesetzblatt, No. 19, p. 133…V 532

2872-PS Fourth decree relative to Reich Citizen Law of 25 July 1938. 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 969…V 533

2873-PS Second decree allotting to Implementation of Law on change of first and family names, 17 August 1938. 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1044…V 534

2874-PS Fifth decree to law relating to Reich Citizenship, 27 September 1938. 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, No. 165, p. 1403…V 535

2875-PS Decree on exclusion of Jews from German economic life, 12 November 1938…V 536

2876-PS Tenth decree relating to Reich Citizenship Law, 4 July 1939. 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1097…V 537

2877-PS Police decree concerning “marking” of Jews, 1 September 1941. 1941 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, No. 100, p. 547…V 539

2881-PS Hitler’s speech of 12 April 1922, quoted in Adolf Hitler’s Speeches, published by Dr. Ernst Boepple, Munich, 1934, pp. 20-21, 72…V 548

2893-PS Article: “Dr. Frick and the Unity of the Reich” by Walter Koerber, published in Our Reich Cabinet, Berlin, 1936, p. 87…V 562

2894-PS General Decree of September 10, 1935 on establishment of separate Jewish schools published in Documents of German Politics, 1937, p. 152…V 562

2904-PS The Racial Problem and the New Reich, published in The National Socialist Monthly, No. 38, May 1933, pp. 196-7…V 570

2984-PS Law concerning armed forces, 21 May 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I…V 686

*3054-PS “The Nazi Plan", script of a motion picture composed of captured German film. (USA 167)…V 801

8. RESHAPING OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF YOUTH

A. The Nazi conspirators reshaped the educational system.

(1) The Nazi conspirators publicly announced the purposes of their educational and training program. Hitler stated at Elbing, Germany:

“When an opponent declares, 'I will not come over to your side, and you will not get me on your side,' I calmly say, 'Your child belongs to me already. A people lives forever. What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants however now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community'.” (2455-PS)

Hitler said on 1 May 1937:

“The Youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of innoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. * * * This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.” (2454-PS)

The first sentence in the official instructors manual for high schools reads:

“The German school is a part of the National Socialist Educational order. It is its obligation to form the national socialistic personality in cooperation with the other educational powers of the nation, but by its distinctive educational means.” (2453-PS)

Hitler stated in Mein Kampf:

“On this basis the whole education by the National State must aim primarily not at the stuffing with mere knowledge, but at the building up of bodies which are physically healthy to the core. The development of intellectual faculties comes only after this.” (2392-PS)

(2) They transferred responsibility for education from the states to the Reich. The Reich Ministry of Education was established, and control of all schools, public and private, including universities and adult educational activities, was transferred to this Reichsministry (2078-PS; 2088-PS). The control of education by the local authorities was replaced by the absolute authority of the Reich in all educational matters. (2393-PS)

(3) They changed the curricula and textbooks.

Kindergarten: Children from two to six years were trained in more than 15,000 Kindergartens operated by the Party and State. The teachers in charge were trained in special schools that emphasized the ideological views of the Nazi Party. The children were given a systematic training in Nazi ideology. (2443-PS; 2441-PS)

Elementary schools: Primary emphasis was placed on physical training. History, German race culture and mathematics were the other subjects emphasized. These subjects were taught in such a way as to emphasize the cultural superiority of the German people, the importance of race, the Fuehrer principle, glorification of German war heroes, the subversive elements that caused the defeat of Germany in World War I, the shame of the Versailles Treaty, and the rebirth of Germany under the Nazis. (2392-PS; 2397-PS; 2441-PS; 2394-PS)

In addition to education in the schools all children from six to ten years were registered in the Kindergruppen (Children’s Groups) conducted by the National Socialist Frauenschaft (National Socialist Women’s Organization). All children were required to obtain an efficiency record card and uniform and were instructed in Nazi ideology by the members of the Women’s Organization. (2441-PS; 2452-PS)

High Schools (Hoeheren Schule): The curricula and organization of the Hoeheren School was modified by a series of decrees of the Minister of Education in order to make these schools effective instruments for the teaching of the Nazi doctrines. A new curricula emphasizing physical training, German war history, and race culture was introduced. (2453-PS)

Universities: The schools of politics and physical education became the largest colleges at the universities. Beginning in 1933 the Nazis introduced courses in heredity and race culture, ancient and modern German history, biology and geopolitics. (2443-PS; 2441-PS)

Textbooks in the schools were changed to accord with the expressed objectives of the Nazi conspirators. (2446-PS; 2442-PS; 2444-PS; 2445-PS)

(4) The Nazi conspirators acquired domination and control over all teachers. The law for the reestablishing of the professional civil service made it possible for the Nazi conspirators thoroughly to reexamine all German teachers and to remove all “harmful and untrustworthy” elements (1397-PS; 2392-PS). Many teachers and professors (mostly Jewish) were dismissed and were replaced with “State spirited” teachers (2392-PS). All teachers were required to take an oath of loyalty and obedience to Hitler (2061-PS). All teachers were required to belong to the National Socialist Lehrerbund (National Socialist Teachers League), which organization was charged with the training of all teachers in the theories and doctrines of the NSDAP. (2452-PS)

In 1934 the National Socialist Teachers League was declared to be the official organ of German education. (2393-PS)

The Civil Service Act of 1937 required the teachers to be “the executors of the will of the party-supported State.” It required them to be ready at “any time to defend without reservation the National Socialist State.” The law required the teachers to participate strenuously in elections, have thorough knowledge of Party principles and literature, render the Hitler Salute, send their children to the Hitler Youth, and educate them in the Nazi spirit (2340-PS). Before taking their second examination (required for permanent appointment), teachers in Prussia were required to show service in the SA and in the Arbeitsdienst (Labor Service) (2392-PS). Candidates for teaching and other public positions were required to have “proved themselves” in the Hitler Jugend (2451-PS; 2900-PS). Teachers' academies were judged by the Minister of Education on their ability to turn out men and women with new ideas “based on blood and soil". (2394-PS)

The leadership principle replaced the democratic school principle. A decree of the Reich Minister of Education made the head of any school fully responsible for the conduct of the institution in line with the official party ideology. Teachers committees and Student Committees were abolished (2393-PS; 2392-PS). A “confidential instructor,” the school youth warden of the Hitler Jugend, appointed by the Hitler Youth authorities, was assigned to each school (2396-PS). The “Parents Advisory Committees” in the public schools were dissolved, and replaced by the “School Communities,” (Schulgemeinde). The headmaster was the leader. He appointed, after consultation with the local party leader, two to five teachers or parents, known as “Jugendwalter,” (Youth Advisors) and one Hitler Youth leader, who was appointed after consultation with the Hitler Youth officials in the district (2399-PS). The duties of the “School Community” were to bring to the attention of the public the educational objectives of the Nazi Party, including race questions, heredity indoctrination, physical training, and the Youth League activities. The function of advising the school authorities, formerly performed by the “Parents Advisory Committees,” was eliminated by the decree. (2399-PS)

Universities: The Leadership Principle was introduced into the universities. The Rektor (head of the university) was appointed by the Reich Minister of Education for an unspecified period of time and was responsible only to the Reichs Minister. The University was divided into the Dozentenschaft (Lecturers Corps) and the Studentenschaft (Student Corps). The leaders of these two bodies were also appointed by the Reichsminister of Education (2394-PS). The teaching staff of the university was subject to the control of the National Socialist Dozentenbund (NSDoB) (Nazi Association of University Lecturers). The purposes of the NSDoB were:

(a) to take a decisive part in the selection of lecturers and to produce candidates for the teaching staff who were wholly Nazi in their outlook.

(b) to train all university lecturers in Nazi ideology,

(c) to see that the entire university life was run in accordance with the philosophy of the Party. (2452-PS; 318-PS)

All German students at the universities were required to belong to the Studentenschaft (Student Corps) (2084-PS). The Student Corps was responsible for making the students conscious of their duties to the Nazis, and was obliged to promote enrollment in the SA and labor service. Physical training of students was the responsibility of the SA. Political education was the responsibility of the National-Socialistische Deutsche Studentenbund (NSDStB), (National Socialist German Student Bund) (2458-PS). The National Socialist Student Bund (NSDStB) was the Nazi “elite” of the student body and was responsible for the leadership of the university students, and all leaders of the Student Corps were appointed from its membership. The Nazi Student Bund was solely responsible for the entire ideological and political education of the students. (2395-PS; 2399-PS; 2441-PS; 2392-PS; 2393-PS)

B. The Nazi conspirators supplemented the school system by training the youth through the Hitler Jugend.

(1) The Nazi conspirators from their early days expressed their belief in the fundamental importance of controlling the education and training of youth. Hitler stated in Mein Kampf:

“It is precisely our German people, that today broken down, lies defenseless against the kicks of the rest of the world who need that suggestive force that lies in self-confidence. But this self-confidence has to be instilled into the young fellow-citizen from childhood on. His entire education and development has to be directed at giving him the conviction of being absolutely superior to others. With this physical force and skill he has again to win the belief in the invincibility of his entire nationality. For what once led the German army to victory was the sum of the confidence which the individual and all in common had in their leaders. The confidence in the possibility of regaining its freedom is what will restore the German people. But this conviction must be the final product of the same feeling of millions of individuals.” (404-PS; see also 2901-PS)

Again in Mein Kampf Hitler said:

“The racial State will have to see to it that there will be a generation which by a suitable education will be ready for the final and ultimate decision on this globe. The nation which enters first on this course will be the victorious one.” (404-PS)

The law of the Hitler Youth provides in part as follows:

“The future of the German nation depends on its youth, and the German youth shall have to be prepared for its future duties. * * *

“The German youth besides being reared within the family and school, shall be educated physically, intellectually and morally in the spirit of National Socialism to serve the people and community, through the Hitler Youth.” (1392-PS)

On May 1, 1938 Hitler said in a speech to the youth:

“Since the victory of the Movement, under whose banner you stand, there has been completed within our people the unification of heart (innere Einigung) of the Germans. And as wages for this work of ours Providence has given us Greater Germany (Grossdeutschland). This unification is no gift of chance, it is the result of a systematic education of our people by the National Socialist Movement…And this education begins with the individual at an age when he is not already burdened with preconceived ideas. The youth is the stone which is to go to the building of our new Reich! You are Greater Germany! In you is being formed the community of the German people. Before the single leader there stands a Reich, before the single Reich stands a people, and before the single people stands German youth! When I see you my faith in the future of Germany has no bounds, nothing can shake it. For I know that you will fulfill all that we hope of you. So I greet you today on this 1st of May in our new great Germany: for you are our spring. In you will and shall be completed that for which generations and centuries have striven, Germany!” (2454-PS)

(2) The Nazi conspirators destroyed or took over all other youth organizations. The first Nazi youth League (National-socialistischen Jugendbund) was organized in 1922. In 1925 the Hitler Youth was officially recognized by the Nazi Party and became a Junior Branch of the SA. In 1931 Baldur von Schirach was appointed Reichs Youth Leader of the NSDAP with the rank of SA Gruppenfuehrer. (1458-PS)

When the Nazi conspirators came to power the Hitler Jugend was a minor organization among many youth associations in Germany. At the end of 1932 it had only 107,956 members-less than 5 percent of the total youth population of Germany (2435-PS). Schirach was appointed “Jugendfuehrer des Deutschen Reichs” (Youth Leader of the German Reich), in June 1933. In this position he was directly responsible to Hitler for the education and training of the German youth outside of the home and school in accordance with the ideology of the Nazi Party. (1458-PS)

In June of 1933 on orders of Schirach, an armed band of Hitler youths occupied by force the headquarters of the Reich Committee of The German Youth Associations and took over all files and personnel records of the youth leagues represented by the Committee. By the same method the offices and property (including all youth hostels in Germany) of the Reich Association for German Youth Hostels was seized, and a Nazi representative of Schirach put in charge (1458-PS). By decree dated 22 June 1933 Schirach dissolved the Grossdeutsches Bund and all of its affiliated organizations and took over their property; he dissolved The Reich Committee of The German Youth Associations, and required all other youth organizations to make a complete report of all organizational information, including names of all officers and members and inventory of all funds and property (2229-PS). The Youth Associations of all political parties and of all labor organizations were dissolved by decree of Schirach. By virtue of these decrees all youth organizations except those sponsored by the Catholic and Protestant Churches were abolished or incorporated in the Hitler Jugend (1458-PS; 2260-PS). The Nazi-appointed Reichsbishop Mueller entered into an agreement with Schirach which transferred all members of the Evangelical Youth to the Hitler Jugend and provided that the Hitler Jugend alone would provide the state political and physical education of the Protestant youth. By the end of 1933 only the Catholic Youth organization remained untouched. (1458-PS)

The Concordat entered into with the Holy See on July 20, 1933 provided for the continuance of the Catholic Youth Association (2655-PS). contrary to the provisions of the Concordat, the Nazi conspirators immediately set out to smash the Catholic Youth organization and to force all young people into the Hitler Youth. Ten days after the signing of the Concordat, Schirach issued an order forbidding simultaneous membership in the Hitler Jugend and the Catholic Youth League (2456-PS). In 1934 Schirach wrote, “The denominational youth league (Catholic Youth Association) has no right to exist in our time.” (1458-PS). A year later Catholic youth associations were forbidden to wear uniforms, to assemble publicly, to wear insignia, or to engage in outdoor sport activity (1482-PS). Additional pressure was exerted on the Catholic Youth by the requirement of membership in the Hitler Youth as a prerequisite of public employment (2451-PS; 2900-PS). Finally, in 1937, Schirach announced:

“The struggle for the unification of the German Youth is finished. I considered it as my duty to conduct it in a hard and uncompromising manner. Many might not have realized why we went through so much trouble for the sake of the youth. And yet the National Socialist German Workers Party, whose trustee I felt I always was and always will be, this party considered the struggle for the youth as the decisive element for the future of the German nation.” (2306-PS)

(3) The Nazi conspirators made membership in the Hitler Jugend compulsory. The Hitler Youth Law of 1936 provided that “All of the German Youth in the Reich is organized within the Hitler Youth.” (1392-PS). Executive decrees later implemented this law by the establishment of severe penalties against anyone who deterred a youth from service in the Hitler Jugend, and confirmed the policy of excluding Jews from membership.

The Hitler Jugend had been from its inception a formation of the Nazi Party. By virtue of the 1936 Youth Law it became an agency of the Reich Government while still retaining its position as a formation of the Nazi Party. (1392-PS).

The membership statistics of the Hitler Jugend to 1940 were:

End 1932…107,956

End 1933…2,292,041

End 1934…3,577,565

End 1935…3,943,303

End 1936…5,437,601

End 1937…5,879,955

End 1938…7,031,226

End 1939…7,728,259

And BDM (League of German Girls)-440,789. (2435-PS)

(4) Through the Hitler Jugend the Nazi conspirators imbued the youth with Nazi ideology and prepared them for membership in the Party and its formations. Schirach said:

“I am responsible to the Reich that the entire youth of Germany will be educated physically, morally and spiritually in the spirit of the National Socialist Idea of the State.” (2306-PS)

Mein Kampf was regarded as the “Bible” of the Hitler Jugend (1458-PS). On entering the jungvolk at the age of 10, children took the following oath:

“In the presence of this blood-banner which represents our Fuehrer I swear to devote all my energies, and my strength to the Savior of our Country, Adolf Hitler. I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me God. One People, one Reich, one Fuehrer.” (2441-PS)

The Hitler Jugend organization operated solely on the Leadership Principle. The leader was always appointed from above and the leader’s will was absolute. (1458-PS; 2306-PS; 2436-PS; 2438-PS)

The Master Race doctrine and anti-semitism, including physical attacks on the Jews, was taught systematically in the Hitler Jugend training program. (2436-PS; L-360-H; 2441-PS)

The Hitler Jugend indoctrinated the youth with the idea that war is a noble activity. (1458-PS; 2436-PS)

The Hitler Jugend, in accordance with the policy of the Nazi Party, emphasized the importance and demanded the return of the colonies which had been taken from Germany by the “Versailles Shame Dictate.” (1458-PS; 2436-PS; 2440-PS; 2441-PS)

The Hitler Jugend taught that the guiding principle of German policy was the utilization of the space to the East (1458-PS); 2439-PS). All activities carried on in support of the demands for modification of the Versailles Treaty, the restoration of colonies, and the acquisition of additional living space were closely coordinated with the (VDA) Verein fuer das Deutschtum in Ausland (Office of Germans in foreign countries). (L-360-H)

In order to carry out the program of indoctrination of the youth, more than 765,000 were actively engaged as Hitler Youth leaders by May 1939. Youth leaders were thoroughly trained, many of them in special “Youth Leaders” schools (2435-PS). More than 200,000 political indoctrination meetings (heimabend) were held weekly. Each community was required by law to provide a suitable meeting house for the Hitler Jugend. Training and propaganda films were produced on an elaborate scale.

In the winter of 1937-38 more than three million youths attended showings of these films. The Hitler Jugend press and propaganda office published at least thirteen magazines and large numbers of other publications and yearbooks appealing to all age groups and to the various interest groups of the youth. (2435-PS)

One of the most important functions of the Hitler Jugend was to prepare the youth for membership in the Party and its formations. Hitler said at the Reichsparteitag, 1935:

“He alone, who owns the youth, gains the Future! Practical consequences of this doctrine: The boy will enter the Jungvolk (boy 10-14) and the Pimp (members of the Jungvolk) will come to the Hitler Youth, and the boy of the Hitler Youth will join the SA, the SS and the other formations, and the SA man and the SS man will one day join the Labor Service, and from there he will go to the Armed Forces, and the soldiers of the people will return again to the organization of Movement, the Party, the Sa, the SS, and never again will our people be so depraved as they were at one time.” (2656-PS; 2401-PS)

The Streifendienst, a special formation of the Himmler Jugend, was organized by virtue of an agreement between Hitler and Schirach for the purpose of securing and training recruits for the SS, with special emphasis on securing recruits for the Deaths Head Troops of the SS (concentration camp guards). (2396-PS)

The farm service section of the Hitler Jugend also became a cadet corps of the SS by reason of the agreement entered into between Himmler and Schirach in 1938. This formation was to train for SS membership youths especially suited to become Wehrbauer (militant peasants), who were to be settled in places where the Nazis needed especially trained farmers. (2567-PS)

In 1937 the Adolf Hitler Schools were established in order to indoctrinate boys selected by the Party to be the future leaders of the Nazi state. The schools were operated by the Hitler Jugend for the party. Boys entered at the age of 12 and remained in the school until 18 years of age. (2653-PS)

(5) The Nazi conspirators used the Hitler Jugend for extensive pre-military training of youth. In 1933 the Hitler Youth, in cooperation with the SA and the Wehrmacht, entered into a secret program of extensive pre-military training of the youth (1850-PS). Extensive premilitary training was carried on in all age groups of the Hitler Youth in close cooperation with the Wehrmacht. (2438-PS; 2441-PS; 1992-PS)

In addition to general military training, specialized training was given in special formations. These included:

Hitler Jugend Flying Units

Hitler Jugend Naval Units

Hitler Jugend Motorized Units

Hitler Jugend Signal Units

Hitler Jugend Medical Units

Hitler Jugend Musical Units. (2654-PS). The extent of the military training in 1937 was set out by Hitler in a speech at Berlin.

“The Naval Hitler Youth comprises 45,000 boys, the Motor Hitler Youth 60,000 boys. As part of the campaign for the encouragement of aviation 55,000 members of the Jungvolk were trained in gliding for group activities; 74,000 boys of the Hitler Youth are organized in its flying units; 15,000 boys passed their gliding test in the year 1937 alone.

“Today 1,200,000 boys of the Hitler Youth receive regular instructions in small-bore rifle shooting from 7,000 instructors.” (2454-PS; see also 2441-PS.)

A formal agreement between the Wehrmacht and the Hitler Jugend was published 11 August 1939. It recites that whereas 30,000 Hitler Jugend leaders had been trained annually in shooting and field exercises, the number would be doubled; that 60,000,000 shots had been fired in Hitler Youth training courses in 1938 and that a considerable increase in the figure was expected. The agreement recognized the close cooperation that existed between the Hitler Jugend and the Wehrmacht in the military training of youth and provided for a far more extensive program. (2398-PS)

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO RESHAPING OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF YOUTH

Document Description Vol. Page

Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Article 6, especially 6 (a)…I 5

International Military Tribunal, Indictment Number 1, Section IV (D) 3 (e)…I 21

Note: A single asterisk (*) before a document indicates that the document was received in evidence at the Nurnberg trial. A double asterisk (**) before a document number indicates that the document was referred to during the trial but was not formally received in evidence, for the reason given in parentheses following the description of the document. The USA series number, given in parentheses following the description of the document, is the official exhibit number assigned by the court.

200-PS Confidential telegram from Berger to Reich Ministry for Occupied Eastern Territories, 8 July 1944 concerning forced labor of children…III 214

*318-PS Agreement between Rosenberg and Leader of the National Socialist University Professor League (NSDoB), 2 December 1941. (USA 728)…III 255

*404-PS Excerpts from Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 456,475. (USA 256)…III 385

1392-PS Law on the Hitler Youth, 1 December 1936. 1936 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 993…III 972

1397-PS Law for the reestablishment of the Professional Civil Service, 7 April 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 175…III 981

*1458-PS The Hitler Youth by Baldur von Schirach, Leipzig, 1934. (USA 667)…IV 22

1462-PS First Execution Order to the Law of the Hitler Youth, 25 March 1939. 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 709…IV 44

*1482-PS Secret letter, 20 July 1933 to provincial governments and the Prussian Gestapo from Frick, concerning Confessional Youth Organizations. (USA 738)…IV 51

*1850-PS Conferences, 1933, calling for financing of military training of SA from Ministry of Interior Funds. (USA 742)…IV 478

*1992-PS Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police from “National Political Education of the Army, January 1937". (USA 439)…IV 616

2061-PS Oath of Reich Officials and of German Soldiers, 20 August 1943. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 785…IV 702

2078-PS Decree concerning establishment of Ministry for Science, Education and Popular Culture, 1 May 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 365…IV 706

2084-PS Law on formation of the Student Organization at Scientific Universities, 22 April 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 215…IV 718

2088-PS Decree relating to tasks of Reichs Ministry for Education, 11 May 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 375…IV 718

2115-PS Second Executive Order to the Law for the Hitler Youth, 25 March 1939. 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 710…IV 745

*2229-PS The reich Youth Leader at Work, published in National Socialist Party Press Service Release, 22 June 1933, pp. 2-3. (USA 668)…IV 870

2260-PS Settlement of Relationship between NSDAP and Stahlhelm (Steel Helmets) published in National Socialist Party Press Service release, 21 June 1933…IV 933

*2306-PS Revolution of Education, by Baldur von Schirach, 1938, pp. 51-52, 63. (USA 860)…IV 997

2340-PS German public officials law of 27 January 1937. 1937 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 41…IV 1058

2392-PS Extracts from The Third Reich, 1933, Vol. I, pp. 144-154…V 54

2393-PS Extracts from The Third Reich, 1934, pp. 218-224…V 58

2394-PS Extracts from The Third Reich, 1935, Vol. III, pp. 208-212…V 60

2395-PS Extracts from The Third Reich, 1936, Vol. IV, pp. 360-362…V 62

*2396-PS Handbook of Collected Youth Laws, Vol. I, Group 1, pp. 19a, 19b, 20. (USA 673)…V 63

2397-PS National Socialist Handbook for Law and Legislation by Dr. Hans Frank, p. 566…V 65

*2398-PS Cooperation of Hitler Jugend with Wehrmacht, 11 August 1939, published in The Archive, No. 65, August 1939, pp. 601-602. (USA 677)…V 66

2399-PS Articles “School Community to replace parents' advisory committee” and “NSDAP takes over education of university students", published in The Archive, 1934, pp. 1039, 1147-1148…V 67

*2401-PS The Hitler Youth as recruits for future leaders, from Organization Book of NSDAP, 1938, pp. 80-81. (USA 430)…V 69

2435-PS Extracts from The Coming Germany, The Education of the Youth in the Reich of Adolf Hitler, by Kaufmann…V 113

*2436-PS Extracts from Enjoyment, Discipline, Belief, Official handbook for cultural work in camp. (USA 859)…V 119

2438-PS Extracts from Boys in Service, handbook for boys 10 to 14 years of age…V 132

2439-PS Extracts from Girl in Vacation Camp, official publication of Reichs Youth Headquarters…V 136

2440-PS Extracts from Boys, Your World, the yearbook of the Hitler Youth…V 139

*2441-PS Affidavit of Gregor Ziemer, 4 October 1945, from his book “Education for Death". (USA 679)…V 141

2442-PS Guide of racial science and science of heredity of fostering congenitally sound progeny of family science…V 176

2443-PS Extracts from Education in the Greater German Reich…V 178

2444-PS Extracts from German Reading Book for Elementary Schools, second volume…V 181

2445-PS Extracts from German Reading Book for Elementary Schools, fourth volume…V 183

2446-PS Extracts from History Book for the German Youth…V 184

2451-PS Decree of Reichsminister of Education Candidates for Teacher’s Positions to Prove themselves in Hitler Youth, published in Voelkischer Beobachter, Berlin edition, 22 October 1935…V 187

2452-PS Extracts from Organization Book of NSDAP, 1943…V 187

2453-PS Education and Instruction in the Upper Schools, official publication of the Reich and Prussian Minister of Education, 1938…V 189

*2454-PS Quotations from speeches of Hitler, published in Voelkischer Beobachter, Munich edition. (USA 676)…V 196

2455-PS Statement by Hitler at Elbing, Germany, quoted in Voelkischer Beobachter, Berlin edition, 6 November 1933…V 198

2456-PS Youth and the Church, from Complete Handbook of Youth Laws…V 198

2458-PS Constitution of the German Student Corps, 1934 Reichs Ministerialblatt, pp. 76-79…V 199

*2567-PS Decree signed by Himmler and von Schirach, concerning cooperation of HJ and SS, printed in The Young Germany, Berlin, February 1939. (USA 674)…V 301

*2653-PS The Way of German Youth, from The Third Reich, 5th Year, 1937, pp. 117-118. (USA 669)…V 359

*2654-PS Organization and Insignia of the Hitler Youth, edited by Reich Youth Headquarters of NSDAP. (USA 675)…V 361

2655-PS Concordat between the Holy See and the German reich, Article, 31. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part II, p. 679,687-8…V 364

2656-PS The Bearer of Sovereignty, from speech of the Fuehrer at the Reichspartietag, 1935…V 365

2900-PS Speech by Frick at Anniversary meeting of Hitler Youth, published in The Archive, January 1936, p. 1339…V 567

2901-PS Extract from The Book of the NSDAP, p. 95…V 568

*3054-PS “The Nazi Plan", script of a motion picture composed of captured German film. (USA 167)…V 801

*3751-PS Diary of the German Minister to Justice, 1935 concerning prosecution of church officials and punishment in concentration camps. (USA 828; USA 858)…VI 636

*L-360-H Agreement between the League for Germandom in foreign Countries and the Hitler Youth, 6 May 1933. (USA 671)…VII 1108

*Chart No. 2 Totalitarian Control of Propaganda and Education. (USA 21)…VIII 771

9. PROPAGANDA, CENSORSHIP AND SUPERVISION OF CULTURAL ACTIVITIES

The party organization.

(1) The Reichspropagandaleitung (Party Propaganda Department) (RPL). This office was founded in 1932, as the central propaganda control office headed by Goebbels. Its functions were:

(a) To direct, supervise and synchronize propaganda within the Nazi movement.

“Propaganda of The NSDAP, its formations and affiliated associations is the responsibility of the Reichspropagandaleiter.

“He determines all manifestations of the Movement, including its formations and affiliated associations, with regard to propaganda.

“he issues the directives for the party, including its formations and affiliated associations, for the realization of the cultural wishes of the Fuehrer.” ( 2319-PS)

These functions were organized vertically through a close network of Gauleiters, Kreisleiters, and Ortsgruppenleiters which reached even the smallest communities. In addition, synchronization of propaganda within the Movement was guaranteed through the Reichsring fuer National-sozialistische Propaganda und Volksaufklaerung, (National Socialist Organization for Propaganda and People’s Enlightenment), an office within the Reichspropagandaleitung. The reichsring constituted the center of control responsible for the complete coordination of Party and Movement in the field of propaganda.

“The Reichsring * * * had the task to ensure the uniform direction of propaganda of all formations and affiliated associations through the Party.” (2319-PS)

(b) To imbue the Nazi Movement and the people with Nazi ideology.

“(The Reichspropagandaleiter) upon his initiative, is concerned with the permeation of German people with the National Socialist ideology.

“He enlightens the people about the achievements of Party and State.

“He controls the entire German wireless system with regard to its internal organizational, cultural and economic possibilities;

“Press, radio and film are in the service of propaganda.” (2319-PS)

(c) To coordinate Party propaganda with that of the Reich Government.

“The liaison officer has the task of centralizing all contacts with the Reich Ministries, public authorities, and corporations and to establish all such contacts with same * * *". (2319-PS)

(d) To investigate the effectiveness of Nazi propaganda. This function was assigned to the lower grades of the Party leadership, and to regional and local officials, who assembled and analyzed information on public reaction to the current content of propaganda.

(e) Other activities of the Reichspropagandaleitung were discharged by numerous functional departments which included, inter alia, “Hauptstellen” (main Bureaus) or offices for the following:

1. Press-preparation of all propaganda material issued by Reichspropagandaleitung for dissemination to newspapers.

2. Exhibits and fairs- supervision of propaganda aspects of exhibits and fairs in which the party participated.

3. Mass or “Aktive” propaganda-organization of propaganda campaigns within the movement; training and supplying speakers with propaganda materials.

4. Films-Popularization of Nazi-inspired films; photographing official rallies.

5. Radio-radio propaganda.

6. Culture-making all forms of art conform to Nazi standards.

Other Bureaus included Architecture, Style and Design, Works of Art, Formulation of Programs, and Training of Speakers. (2319-PS)

The Reichspropagandaleitung was regionally organized into Gau-, Kreis-, and Ortsgruppenpropagandaaemter (Gau, district, and local propaganda offices). The Gaupropagandaleiter (leader of the Gau propaganda office) was at the same time the Gau representative of the Chamber of Culture (Landeskulturwalter) and in most cases also represented the regional office of the Propaganda Ministry, so that on the lower levels, Party and State propaganda were completely unified. (2315-PS)

(2) The office of Reichspressechef (Reich Press Chief).

The office of Reich Press Chief of the NSDAP was created in 1934 by decree of the Fuehrer (2319-PS). The functions of this office were exclusive:

“The Reich Press Office of the NSDAP is the central office for the entire political publishing activity of the Party. It represents the press interests for the Reich leadership of the NSDAP vis a vis both the German and the foreign press. It alone has the authority to issue directives to the press of Reich policies concerning the treatment of Party affairs. It alone has the authority to issue press directives to all offices of Reich leadership. It is responsible for the political and editorial preparations, execution and utilization of all important Party activities in the Reich. It supplies the domestic and foreign press with information, news and commentaries about the Party. It keeps a record of press reaction to the Party work in publications of the domestic and foreign press.” (2319-PS)

The Reich Press Chief exercised control over all press offices, including the chief editors of the National Socialist newspapers, as well as the Gau press wardens of the Party. He also served as liaison officer between the party press and the “Independent” Press, and between Party and Government. (2319-PS)

The executive functions of the Reich Press Chief were carried out by two offices.

(a) The Pressepolitisches Amt (Press Political office):

(b) The Pressepersonalamt (Press Personnel Office), Which was in charge of training journalists and keeping files on German and foreign journalists.

The vertical organization of press controls, corresponding to that of the Reichspropagandaleitung, included Gau-, Kreis- and Ortsgruppen departments. Each was headed by a Amtsleiter, or press warden, who was responsible for the entire Party press within his sphere of jurisdiction. He supervised the editorial policy for the Party press, issued information bulletins about the activities of the Movement, and served as liaison officer between the Party and non-Party press. He also transmitted local information to headquarters for distribution and made recommendations concerning the appointments of local party editors. The Gau- and Kreis- press wardens, at the same time, served as regional and local representatives of the Home Press Division of the Propaganda Ministry and of the Reich Press Chamber. (2319-PS; 2315-PS)

(3) The Reichsleiter fuer die press (Reich Press Leader).

The Reich Press Leader, Max Amann, was charged with supervising all matters concerning the German publishing business The Organisations buch der NSDAP (1937) described his function as follows:

“He is charged with the creation of a press for the German people, which is responsible and answerable to him, and which reflects the life and experiences of the German people’s community. In addition, the Reichsleiter for Press has the function of issuing regulations necessary to carry out the demands concerning publication policies established in Article 23 of the Party Program and to supervise their execution.” ( 2319-PS)

Article 23 of the Party Platform referred to above, provided, inter alia, that (a) all editors and newspaper personnel must be “members of the nation"; (b) non-Germans are prohibited from financial participation in, or influence of, newspapers; (c) the publication of papers “which do not conduce to the national welfare” is prohibited; (d) tendencies in art or literature “of a kind likely to disintegrate our life as a nation” will be prosecuted; and (e) “institutions which militate against the requirements mentioned above” will be suppressed. (1708-PS)

Thus the Reich Press Leader was not only empowered to control all publishing houses of the Party, but was assigned the task of bringing the entire German press into line with National Socialist ideology. To this end he was given wide and specific powers.

His sphere of jurisdiction included specifically:

(a) The administration, publishing, and financing of the party press;

(b) The establishment of newspapers by party members or affiliated associations;

(c) The incorporation of newspapers into the Party press combine;

(d) The appointment of publishers and of their deputies;

(e) The termination or alteration of contracts with newspapers;

(f) The appointment of Commissars to supervise publishing houses. (2319-PS)

In addition to controlling the administration and finance of the National Socialist publishing houses in the Gau, the Press Leader headed the Zentralverlag, which was the central publishing house and holding company of the entire Party publishing machine and all its official organs, such as Der Voelkischer Beobachter, Der Angriff, Der SA Mann, Das Schwarze Korps, Die HJ, etc. ( 3016-PS)

It was one of the Reich Press Leader’s duties to turn all publishing by Party officials into a lucrative undertaking, and to set up an absolute monopoly in the publication of all political literature. To effectuate that objective, a decree was passed which made it mandatory for all “ manuscripts which have National Socialist problems and subject matter as themes” to be offered first to Eher Verlag publication. (2383-PS)

The Reichsleiter fuer die Press, who was also president of the Reich Press Chamber, exercised economic controls over the entire German press. He made use of his position to expand the Party publishing machine at the expense of non-party newspapers. As president of the Reich Press Chamber, he was authorized to issue directives with the force of law. In that capacity he issued certain regulations which had the effect of prohibiting the ownership of newspapers by corporations of any kind, except the NSDAP or such groups as were approved by the Party. (2315-PS)

These decrees enabled Amann to close down one or more papers in a particular locality “to safeguard reasonable standards of competition.” They thus provided, along with racial and other discriminatory legislation, the “legal” basis for the pressure which was brought to bear on such publishing firms as Ullstein and other opposition publications, in order to force them to sell out to the Party. These sales were in no sense voluntary; the alternative in each case was total suppression. The authorizing decree provided:

“The President of the Reich Chamber of the Press will therefore endeavor at first in every individual case to effect agreements which will relieve him of the necessity of issuing orders for the closing of establishments.” (2315-PS)

Max Amann has admitted in an affidavit that he discharged his duties as Reich Press Leader consistently with the statement of his functions contained in the party organization Book and with Article 23 of the party Program. He has further stated that racial and other discriminatory legislation made it expedient for firms “ owned or controlled by Jewish interests, or by political or religious interests hostile to the NSDAP to sell their newspapers or assets to the Ether concern"; and that there was “no free market for the sale of such properties and the Franz Eher Verlag was generally the only bidder.” His affidavit concludes as follows:

“It is a true statement to say that the basic purpose of the Nazi press program was to eliminate all press in opposition to the Party.” (3016-PS)

(4) Parteiamliche Prufungskommission zum Schutz des NS- Chriftums (Office of Party Examining Commission for the Protection of National Socialist Publications) (PPK)

The PPK was charged with the censorship and supervision of all literature with cultural or political implications. According to the Party Manual:

“The functional scope of the official Party Examining Commission is not confined to any one group of publications but includes the entire publishing field. Thus the work of the official Party Examining Commission is sub-divided into departments for books, magazines and newspapers. Out of these main departments a group of important special fields have emerged as more or less independent fields. They are specifically the editing of speeches, scientific books, textbooks, scientific periodicals and the calendar as a special type of magazine.” (2319-PS)

The Examining Commission’s function was to protect National Socialist literature from attempts to destroy its propagandistic effect or to prevent its political and social content. The Party Manual stated:

“It is the function of the Examining Commission to protect the National Socialist literature from abuse; corruption, and attempts at dissolution. Thus it forestalls the infiltration of elements within the National Socialist literature which are irreconcilable with it.” (2319-PS)

In addition, the PPK concerned itself with the actual suppression of literature incompatible with Party tenets, and with the approval of those works which it deemed beneficial to the extension of the National Socialist ideology. The Party Manual specified as follows:

“Particularly it is the function of the official Party Examining Commission to determine whether or not a work can be considered National Socialist literature.” (2319-PS)

This office worked in close collaboration with the Delegate of the Fuehrer for the Total Supervision of the Intellectual and Ideological Training and Education of the People (Rosenberg). (2319-PS; 2383-PS)

(5) The Beauftragte des Fuehrers fuer die Ueberwachung der gesamten geistigen und weltansschaulichen Schulung und Erziehung der NSDAP (Delegate of the Fuehrer for the Total Supervision of the Intellectual and Ideological Training and Education of the Party) (BdF).

The delegate of the Fuehrer was Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg. The office of the BdF was places in charge of the Party’s intellectual and ideological training and education. Its declared objective was the uniform ideological orientation of the Party, Party formations, and affiliated associations. Its main functions, in furtherance of this objective, were the preparation of suitable training materials and the issuance of directives thereon; the preparation, editing, and establishment of curricula; the training of qualified teaching staffs; the counseling of Party agencies, formations, and affiliates on content and methods of indoctrination; and the elimination of such reading and teaching materials as were deemed inappropriate from a National Socialist point of view. To perform these tasks, Rosenberg had the assistance of a large organization with numerous functional divisions (2319-PS). The BdF took a major part in the work of Party organizations, affiliated associations, and schools and training institutes which were instrumental in the indoctrination of the German people and youth. (2383-PS)

B. The Reich government organization.

The state organ of control was the Reichsministerium fuer Volksaufklaerung und Propaganda (Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda). The Minister was Josef Goebbels. The Ministry was founded by decree dated 13 March 1933, which defined its duties as the “enlightenment of, and propaganda among, the people on the subject of the policy of the Reich government and on the national reconstruction of the homeland.” (2029-PS). By decree dated 30 June 1933 the functions of the Minister were extended to include “jurisdiction over the whole field of spiritual indoctrination of the nation, of propagandizing the State, of cultural and economic propaganda, of enlightenment of the public at home and abroad; furthermore he is in charge of all institutions serving these purposes.” (2030-PS). In the words of Mueller, an authority on the Propaganda Ministry, these decrees formed the basis for the creation of a central agency for propaganda “the like of which heretofore existed nowhere in the world.” (2434-PS). The influence which this agency exerted on the everyday life and activities of the German citizen was illustrated by the multitude of civic and cultural affairs, including public entertainment, which fell under the sweep of its direction and control (2434-PS)

A few of the more important departments of the Propaganda Ministry, together with a brief description of their respective functions, follows:

(1) Personnel. This department issued directives for unified personnel policy, and exercised general supervision over the personnel of public art instituted within the entire Reich.

(2) Law. “The nuclear task of the law department is the publications and execution of national socialist cultural laws. The professions and institutions of literature and art had to be transformed from carriers of a liberal individualistic intellectual movement to the carriers of the tasks of public propaganda and leadership. To reach this goal required the enactment of governmental decrees for creating new organizations or the making of new laws.”

(3) Propaganda. This department coordinated propaganda policies and issued over-all directives to the various functional departments (press, radio, etc.) which then carried out the directives. A special function was “enlightenment of the people as to Jewish question” and as to “racial policies.”

(4) Foreign. This department was the Ministry’s listening post fro political and economic developments abroad “to counteract the worldwide publicity activities of the enemy against our philosophy and our political objectives by exposing and rectifying the lies of the press” and to exploit the information in German propaganda. It also cooperated closely with the Auslands-organization der NSDAP.

(5) Radio. Hans Fritsch headed this department. It supervised the political content of German broadcasting, issued directives as to the arrangement of programs and treatment of material, and cooperated with the Party in the technical organization of German radio.

(6) The Film Department was in charge of directing and guiding the German film industry, censoring of films, and developing the German weekly newsreel.

(7) literature. This agency, in close collaboration with BdF and PPK, controlled all German literary activities, censored new books, provided for the publication of German books abroad, and arranged for the translation and censorship of foreign books.

(8) Abteilung Deutsche Presse (German or Home Press Department). This department was headed by Fritzsche until he was relieved in 1942 to take charge of the Radio Division. It was responsible for political control over the entire German press; it controlled the editorial policy of the press and its personnel (through the Reich Press Chamber), and supervised the dissemination of news through the official German News Agency (DNB). The Home Press Division outlined the editorial policy off all newspapers and the comment of editors and journalists in its duly directives. (Tendenz berichte). These dealt with the daily contents of the paper, the methods of treatment of news material, the writing of headlines, the preference for or omission of certain items, and the modification or cessation of current campaigns. The directives were issued to the representatives of the press in person or sent through the facilities of the DNB to the local papers. (2334-PS; 2529-PS)

The Home Press Department of the Propaganda Ministry had an important participation in administering the provisions of the Editorial control Law, which made the profession of editor “a public task, which is regulated as to its professional duties and rights by the state.” That law also included requirements for admission to the profession and other elaborate controls. (2083-PS)

(9) Periodical literature. This department supervised German periodical literature in the same manner as the Abteilung Deutsche Presse controlled the daily press.

Other divisions exercised supervision over the Theatre ( Selection and supervision of the entire dramatic production and influencing the programs of all German Theatres); the Arts; Music ("The entire cultural and political leadership of German musical life"); Special Cultural Tasks ("This department serves mainly to eliminate all jews from German Cultural life"); and Foreign Tourists. (2434-PS)

A large organization of faithful Party followers was recruited to discharge the manifold functions of the Propaganda Ministry. The staff numbered 100 persons in 1939-1940. In the words of Mueller:

“It is no accident; therefore, that the great majority of the official workers and other personnel of the Ministry consist of reliable National Socialists of which almost 100 are bearers of the Gold Party Pin.” (2434-PS)

C. The semi-autonomous professional organizations Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture).

The Reich Chamber of Culture was set up in September 1933 to control (under the supervision of the Propaganda Ministry and within the framework of general policy directives issued by that activity) personnel engaged in all fields of propaganda ( 2082-PS). Its tasks as described in the First Executive Decree of the above law. dated 1 November 1933, were;

“To promote German culture as responsible to the people and the Reich, to regulate the social and economic relations of the different groups in the cultural professions and to coordinate their aims.” ( 2415-PS).

The Reichskulturkammer was a so-called “Nachgeordnete Dienststelle” (Subordinate office) of the Propaganda Ministry. Together with its subordinate Chambers it was charged with supervising all personnel active in any filed under the jurisdiction of the Propaganda Ministry. All persons employed in the cultural professions were obligated to register with one of the subordinate Chambers. The Chambers were also responsible for investigating the activities and political reliability of their members Moreover, power was given to Chambers to prosecute members of fending against Nazi standards or persons pursuing their occupation without being duly registered. The punitive powers included, expulsion from membership, which was tantamount to the loss of livelihood. The Chambers were also given power to issue directives, which had the validity of law, regulating the cultural activities under their control ( 2529-PS). The President of the Chamber of Culture was the Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, who nominated the Vice-Presidents. In 1937, the latter consisted of Walter Funk, Max Amann (Reich Leader of the Press) and Leopold Gutterer (Secretary of State in the Propaganda Ministry).

The Chamber of Culture was divided into seven functional chambers:

(1) Reichspressekammer (Reich Press Chamber). Max Amann was president of this chamber, which was, to a greater extent than the other chambers, a loose association of technical bodies and organizations, such as the Reich Association of German Newspaper Publishers. It integrated the activities of these groups and, through the composition of its governing body, ensured close coordination with Party and State propaganda machinery. (2529-PS; 3016-PS)

(2) Reichskammer der bildenden Kunste (Reich Chamber of Fine Arts). This chamber supervised the activities of all architects, interior decorators, landscape gardeners, sculptors, painters, draftsmen, art publishers, etc. By 1937, all other art groups and associations had been dissolved, and all their members “obligated by profession” to join this chamber. (2529-PS)

(3) Reichsmusikkammer (Reich Music Chamber). This Chamber was organized to “oversee the practice and activity of musicians in their cultural, economic, and legal relationships with the world. * * * in order that music will still remain a prized possession of the German people.” (2529-PS)

(4) Reichstheaterkammer (Reich Theater Chamber). The Theater Chamber was the professional organization for the entire field of the professional theater. Its purpose was to supervise and promote the “cultural, social and economic conditions of the professions which it includes". Actual censorship of stage production was the responsibility of the Reichsdramaturg. (2529-PS)

(5) Reichsfilmkammer (Reich Film Chamber). The primary function of this Chamber was to lift the film industry “ out of the sphere of liberal economic thoughts” by giving it a sound economic foundation and thus enable it to “receive those tasks which it has to fulfill in the National Socialist State". (2529-PS)

(6) Reichsschrifttumskammer (Reich Chamber of Literature). The Chamber of Literature had jurisdiction over all persons concerned with the “basic production” (writing and publishing) of literature. Its task was to protect writers “from undesirable elements” and to keep out of the book market everything “un German.” It had the further function of bringing literature to the people and making the writer more “aware of his duty to the nation.” Primary responsibility for critical evaluation and censorship of literature however, was left to the Propaganda Ministry. (2529-PS)

(7) Reichsrundfunkkammer (Reich Radio Chamber). The official gazette of the Reich Culture Chamber stated that the radio was the most immediate propaganda instrument of the National Socialist leadership; that the ideal and cultural life of the nation could be shown “totally” in and through the radio; and that since the radio constituted the most important technical means of influencing the masses it was necessary to establish a close tie between the radio and the Party.

Functions of the Radio Chamber included : mobilizing of all technical possibilities of broadcasting, bringing the people closer to radio, planning the manufacture of cheap receiving sets, and propaganda in connection with the drive fro new listeners. (2529-PS)

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO PROPAGANDA, CENSORSHIP, AND SUPERVISION OF CULTURAL ACTIVITIES

Document Description Vol. Page

Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Article 6 especially 6, (a)…I 5

International Military Tribunal, Indictment Number 1, Section IV (D) 3 (e)…I 21

Note: A single asterisk (*) before a document indicates that the document was received in evidence at the Nurnberg trail. A double asterisk (**) before a document number indicates that the document was referred to during the trial but was not formally received in evidence, for the reason given in parentheses following the description of the document. The USA series number, given in parentheses following the description of the document, is the official exhibit number assigned by the court.

*1708-PS The Program of the NSDAP. National Socialistic Yearbook, 1941, p. 153. (USA 255; USA 324)…IV 208

2029-PS Decree establishing the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, 13 March 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 104…IV 652

2030-PS Decree concerning the Duties of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, 30 June 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 449…IV 653

2082-PS Law relating to the Reich Chamber of Culture of 22 September 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 661…IV 708

2083-PS Editorial control law, 4 October 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 713…IV 709

2315-PS Order concerning the Supervision of District Leaders of Work of Reich Chamber of Culture, published in The Law of the Reich Chamber of Culture, Vol. 2, 1 January to 30 June 1935…IV 1007

*2319-PS Extracts from Organization Book of NSDAP, 4th edition, 1937. (USA 602)…IV 1009

*2383-PS Ordinance for execution of decree of Fuehrer concerning position of the Head of Party Chancellery of 16 January 1942, published in Decrees, Regulations, Announcements. (USA 410)…V 9

2415-PS First decree for the implementation of law relating to The Reich Chamber of Culture, 1 November 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I…V 89

*2434-PS The Reich Ministry for Enlightenment of the People and for Propaganda, Berlin 1940, by George Mueller. (USA 722)…V 102

2529-PS Extracts from Handbook of Reich Chamber of Culture for 1937…V 262

*3016-PS Affidavit of Max Amann, 19 November 1945. (USA 757)…V 735

*3469-PS Affidavit of Hans Fritzsche, 7 January 1946. (USA 721)…VI 174

*Chart No. 2 Totalitarian Control of Propaganda and Education. (USA 21)…VIII 771

10. MILITARIZATION OF NAZI ORGANIZATIONS

A. The Nazi conspirators placed many of their organizations on a progressively militarized footing with a view to the rapid transformation and use of such organizations as instruments of war.

(1) The Schutzstaffeln (SS). The SS was militarized beginning in March 1933, when special, volunteer, armed units were created consisting of full-time garrisoned troops. These units, which rapidly grew in strength, were a part neither of the Wehrmacht, nor of the police, but were exclusively at the disposal of the Fuehrer. This militarization of the SS was in accordance with Nazi policy. (For documentation and further discussion see Chapter XV, Section 5.)

(2) The Sturmabteilung (SA). The SA was founded in 1921 as a para-military organization to fight political enemies of the Nazis. After the accession of the Nazis to power, the Sa was used to provide pre-military training at a time when the Reichswehr was legally limited to a strength of 100,000 men. Thus the SA, from its inception, had a military purpose, which was carried out and gradually increased in scope. (For documentation and further discussion see Chapter XV, Section 4.)

(3) The Hitler Jugend (HJ). One of the chief purposes of the Hitler Jugend was to provide for military training of German youth at a very early age. As early as 1933, the HJ entered into a secret program of extensive pre-military training for German youth in conjunction with the SA and the Wehrmacht. In addition to general military training members of the HJ were given specialized training in various types of military units, such as flying units, naval units, motorized units, signal units, etc. (For documentation and further discussion, see Section 8, supra.)

(4) The National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK). The original NSKK was founded under the name of NSAK (National Socialist Automobile Corps) on 1 April 1930 by Hitler, who joined as its first member. By the end of 1931 it had a membership of approximately 10,000, as compared to 300 at the beginning of that year (2804-PS). In 1934 the motorized Hitler Jugend and the motorized SA were placed under the NSKK.

Hitler, on 23 August of that year, decreed that:

“the NSAK and the motorized SA are from now on welded together into a unit called NSKK. The NSKK is directly Thus the NSKK was elevated to the position of an independent affiliated unit of the NSDAP, similar to the SA and the SS. The membership of the enlarged NSKK grew rapidly.

The military purpose of the NSKK is evident from the following statement from the Organization buch der NSDAP (1940):

“The young driver who has received his training in the six-week courses of the NSKK will be well prepared in body and spirit when the time comes for his military service, and will wear with pride the dress of the Armed Forces of the Nation.” (2320-B-PS)

The program of militarization proceeded rapidly:

“More than one-third of all leaders and men of the NSKK, which had in the meantime gown to a membership of 350,000, were already active in the fight for power * * * Thus, the NSKK had in its ranks, in addition to the proud tradition of the period of our fight, also that of the World War. This front spirit and experience of a generation matured to manhood in the barrages, in the battles of attrition, in the battles of the Freikorps, and in the heroic fight of National Socialism for Germany’s rebirth, is passed on to our youth as a sacred heritage.” (2804-PS)

The training given to NSKK members was intended to furnish seasoned recruits for the Nazi military forces.

“Military motorized training of our youth is the cardinal task of the educational work of the NSKK. Here it collaborates most closely with the bearer of the arms of the Reich, the Wehrmacht, and it has done so already throughout the years before the seizure of power. The demands and needs of the Army, which continuously grew in scope after the awakening of our Nation and after our regained military freedom also caused the tasks and the work of the NSKK in the field of military motorized training to grow correspondingly * * * By order of the Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht, the NSKK has been given charge of the pre-military training of the entire young reserve of the motorized troop units of our Army in addition to post-military training.” (2804-PS)

NSKK-trained men were intended to be assimilated into Reich panzer units.

“Well prepared physically and spiritually, the young German man who has now become a motorized soldier, can serve with a motorized or partially-motorized unit of the Army. To become a tank soldier is his only ambition.” (2804-PS)

The NSKK was actually used for military purposes.

“The men of the NSKK have considerably contributed to the liberation of the Sudetenland by the Fuehrer and have thus gained undying merit, not only for the Germans in the Sudetenland, but for the entire German people as a whole.” (2804-PS)

Further evidence of actual military use of the NSKK is given in the following passage from “Deutschland im Kampf” written by Ministerialdirigent A. J. Berndt of the Reich Propaganda Ministry and Lt. Col. von Wedel of the German Army High Command, in the issue of June 1940:

“The NSKK is playing a decisive part in the carrying out of considerable war-important tasks on the Inner Front, one of which is traffic. Among the tasks of the NSKK are pre-military training, education, and schooling and motorized transport. Thus, for instance, the conducting of the entire transport system of the TODT Organization on the West Wall and the traffic in the Western War Theater are in the hands of the NSKK.” (2810-PS)

(5) The National Socialist Aviation Corps (NSFK). The NSFK was another organization affiliated with the NSDAP used by the Nazi conspirators for military purposes. It was the great training school for the Luftwaffe.

“In the endeavor to assure for the German Luftwaffe a numerically strong and wall prepared reserve, and to strengthen in the German people the conviction that Germany must retain its head-start in all spheres of aviation, the NSFK was founded by the Fuehrer on 17 April 1937 * * *.

“The NSFK at the time of its creation, was given the following tasks by the Reichsmarshal:

“1. Pre-military aviation training of the new blood for the Luftwaffe.

“2. The keeping in training of the reservists of the aviation troops.

“3. The combining and directing of all German air sports.

“4. Promotion and extension of the aviation idea among the German people.

“These tasks are so great that the cooperation of tens of thousands of active members in necessary to make carrying them out possible, so that the Luftwaffe may be able at any time to count on their fulfillment according to plan.” (2811-PS)

The paramount military purpose of the NSFK is clearly indicated in the following admission by Generalleutnant Friedrich Christiansen, Korpsfuehrer of the NSFK:

“Schooled in Character, trained physically as a flier, and as a soldier, the member-to-be of the Luftwaffe leaves the NSFK.” (2813-PS)

(6) The Reichsarbeitdienst (RAD) (The Reich Labor Service). The Reich Labor Service was also subverted to military purposes by the Nazi conspirators.

Membership in the RAD was made compulsory for both young men and women on 26 June 1935.

“All young Germans of either sex between 18-25 years of age are obligated to serve their people in the Reich Labor Service. As the Schooling of the Nation, it has as its object this education of the German Youth to National Socialist Ideology.

“The Reich Labor Service for men is, thanks to its military nature, closely-knit units, and its particular education and training an ever-ready, powerful tool of the National Socialist Reich.” (2805-PS)

The tens of thousands of members of the RAD were militarily trained and ready for action when Germany launched her campaigns of aggression. Actual military use of the men of the RAD is clearly shown in the 1 June 1943 edition of “Fuehren und Erziehen” (Leadership and Education), the official magazine of the Reich Labor Service. A photograph depicts a Labor Service man repairing a bridge at the front, across which four infantrymen are proceeding, and is titled as follows:

“The young crews who have gone through the educational institutions of the Reich Labor Service today represent the most active nucleus of our Army. * * * Our photograph shows labor men who in the East are preparing the way for infantry shock troops by repairing a bridge. Thus also the men of the Reich Labor Service are today one of the examples of eternal German soldierdom.” (2806-PS)

The military uses of the RAD are further described in the following letter written by Goering to Reich Labor Service Leader Konstantin Hierl:

“After the victorious termination of the campaign in Poland, I cannot but convey to you my sincere thanks fro and unreserved recognition of the help rendered by the Reich Labor Service in the carrying out of the operations of the Luftwaffe. In guarding Army airfields, in clearing and quickly repairing former enemy airports, in road construction and in bringing up supplies, everywhere your men have done a real job and have thus contributed considerably to the successes of the German Luftwaffe.” (2807-PS)

(7) The TODT Organization (OT). The TODT organization, or OT, was another NSDAP affiliate used to further the militaristic aims of the Nazi conspirators. The OT, originally an offshoot of the RAD, was created as a separate entity in June 1938 when Dr. Fritz Todt was charged with the construction of the Siegfried Line or West Wall. The military employment of the OT is clearly shown in the following passage from “Manner dr OT": which was published by the Photographic office of the Reich Propaganda Office:

“ No sooner had the greatest and most modern fortifications of the world, the West Wall, been completed by the workers of the OT, when these very same workers were called upon by the Fuehrer to prove their worth also in direct front service * * * and they thus helped * * * to achieve the greatest victory in history. When the great offensive in the west began, the brown workers' columns of the TODT organization followed immediately behind them. After the armistice with France had been signed, an entirely new situation developed for the TODT organization. Its columns had pushed deep into enemy country. Not seldom did they have direct contact with the enemy- their losses in deed and wounded and the Iron Cross awards are heroic proof of that. While, as the foremost construction workers of the German Reich, they had already proved their worth when building the West Wall, they were now able to perfect what they had learned in the fight against the British world enemy. From the Channel coast to the Atlantic Ocean, the front technicians and front workers of the OT now proceeded to create the prerequisites for a successful fight against England". (2808-PS)

Though the OT was in its origin technically a civilian organization, its subsequently became a para-military body which, before and during the war, cooperated fully with the German Army. On 2 July 1940, a directive was issued from the German High Command appointing a liaison officer.

“* * * to establish the closest liaison and cooperation of the respective military offices with the main construction work of the TODT Organization.” (2812-PS)

This militarization of the OT is further shown in the following passage from “Nationalsozialistische Monatscheffte” for 1942:

“From the Autobahn workers was developed the 'Organization TODT' a body of hundreds of thousands of workers who help the Wehrmacht everywhere in eliminating obstacles, building bridges and erecting fortifications and shelters. The front soldier and the front worker stand side by side. Together they have shed their blood in this war and together they have won victories. Long-range guns on the Channel coast, U-boat bases on the Atlantic, and now the East will render theft' immortal for all times to come.” (2809-PS)

A letter from Fritz Sauckel to Hitler, dated 17 May 1943, states that the OT had supplied 248,200 workers by March 1943 for the completion of the Atlantic Wall, and praises the OT for its excellent work in this regard. (407-VIII-PS)

By 1938, all phases of German life had been mobilized for the accomplishment of militant aims.

Hitler declared to the Reichstag on 20 February 1938:

“Only now we have succeeded in setting before us the great tasks and in possessing the material things which are the prerequisites for the realization of great creative plans in all fields of our national existence. Thus, National Socialism has made up within a few years for what centuries before it had omitted. * * *

“National Socialism has given the German people that leadership which as party not only mobilizes the nation but also organizes it, so that on the basis of the natural principle of selection, the continuance of a stable political leadership is safeguarded forever * * * National Socialism * * * possesses Germany entirely and completely since the day when, five years ago, I left the house in Wilhelmplatz as Reich Chancellor. There is no institution in this state which is not National Socialist. Above all, however, the National Socialist Party in these five years not only has made the nation National Socialist, but also has given itself that perfect organizational structure which guarantees its permanence for all future. The greatest guarantee of the National Socialist revolution lies in the complete domination of the Reich and all its institutions and organizations, internally and externally, by the National Socialist Party. Its protection against the world abroad, however, lies in its new National Socialist armed forces. * * *

“In this Reich, anybody who has a responsible position is a National Socialist. * * * Every institution of this Reich is under the orders of the supreme political leadership. * * * The party leads the Reich politically, the armed forces defend it militarily. * * * There is nobody in any responsible position in this state who doubts that I am the authorized leader of this Reich.” (2715-PS)

*407-VIII-PS Telegram from Sauckel to Hitler, 17 May 1943, concerning foreign labor. (USA 210)…III 394

2320-B-PS Extracts from Organization Book of NSDAP, 1940, p. 394…IV 1026

*2715-PS Speech by Hitler to the Reichstag on 20 February 1938, published in The Archive, February 1938, Vol. 47, pp. 1441-1442. (USA 331)…V 376

2804-PS Extracts from “Das NSKK” by Hans Helmut Krenzlein, NSKK Gruppenfuehrer, with foreword by Leader of NSKK, Korpsfuehrer A. Heuhnlein…V 446

2805-PS Extract from Organization Book of NSDAP, 1943, p. 465…V 447

2806-PS Extract from Leadership and Education, official magazine of Dutch Labor Service, 1 June 1943, p. 19…V 448

2807-PS Letter by Goering to Reich Labor Service Leader Konstantin Hirel, published by National Socialist Monthly, 1940, Vol. I, p. 155…V 448

2808-PS Men of the OT, published by Photographic Office of Reich Propaganda Office…V 448

2809-PS Extract from National Socialist Monthly, February-March, 1492, p. 167…V 449

2810-PS Extract from Germany in Battle, by Berndt of Reich Propaganda Ministry and von Wedel of German Army High Command, 1940, p. 107…V 449

2811-PS Extracts from Organization Book of the NSDAP, 1938, pp. 470, 470(c)…V 450

2812-PS directive from German Army High Command, published in General Army Bulletin, 1940, Vol. VII, p. 96…V 450

2813-PS Extract from The National Socialist Air Corps, p. 14…V 451

*3054-PS “The Nazi Plan", script of a motion picture composed of captured German film. (USA 167)…V 801