COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, before adjourning yesterday afternoon, Your Honors properly asked a question or two about Documents 3051-PS and 3063-PS, to which I think I have an answer that will help the Tribunal. Your Honors will recall, with reference to Document 3051-PS-I believe it might be of assistance to turn to that document.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COL. STOREY: Your Honors asked yesterday afternoon, since this had to do with the SD and the SS, how the Party was involved. And I should like to quote Paragraph Number 1 on Page 2 of the English translation, which answers this question, and I am quoting:
"The Chiefs of the State Police or their deputies, upon receipt of this teletype, must get in contact by telephone with the political administration (Gauleitung or Kreisleitung) having jurisdiction over their districts and must arrange a joint meeting with the appropriate inspector or commander of the Order Police to discuss the organization of the demonstration. At these discussions the political leaders are to be informed that the German Police have received from the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police the following instructions, in accordance with which the political leaders should adapt their measures."
That had to do with the preparation for the general anti-Jewish uprisings.
Now, with reference to Document 3063-PS, which follows just below that one, if Your Honor pleases.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
COL. STOREY: That, if you recall, Your Honor, was a report from the Supreme Party Court Justice Buch to the Defendant Goering concerning punishment for the uprisings that followed the 9th and 10th of November demonstration. I should like to quote the portion signed by the Defendant Goering. It is, I believe, the second page of the English translation. It is dated "Berlin, 22 February 1939":
"Dear Party Member Buch:
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"I thank you for forwarding the report of your special court on the proceedings concluded up to now concerning the excesses on the occasion of the anti-Jewish incidents of 9 and 10 November 1938, of which I have taken cognizance. Heil Hitler! Yours, signed, Goering."
And then, passing, Your Honor, to Page Number 1, immediately following, of the English translation, I think the next two paragraphs will answer Your Honor's question. I quote:
"On the evening of 9 November 1938 the Reich Propaganda Director, Party Member Dr. Goebbels told the Party leaders assembled at a reunion in the old town hall in Munich that in the districts"-Gaue-"of Kurhessen and Magdeburg-Anhalt anti-Jewish demonstrations had taken place, during which Jewish shops were demolished and synagogues were set on fire. The Fuehrer, at Goebbels' suggestion, had decided that such demonstrations were not to be prepared or organized by the Party; but so far as they originated spontaneously, they were not to be interfered with either. Besides that, Party Member Dr. Goebbels interpreted the sense of the contents of the teletype of the Reich Propaganda Administration of 10 November 1938...."
THE PRESIDENT: What does "12:30 to 1 o'clock" mean there?
COL. STOREY: That is the time of the teletype message, I assume, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COL. STOREY: "It was probably understood by all the Party leaders present, from the oral instructions of the Reich Propaganda Director, that the Party should not appear outwardly as the originator of the demonstrations but in reality should organize and execute them. Instructions in this sense were telephoned immediately-thus a considerable time before transmission of the first teletype-to the headquarters of their districts"-Gaue-"by a large part of the Party members present."
Now Your Honors properly asked yesterday afternoon how the Blockleiter would be affected. Your Honors will recall that, in the instructions to the Blockleiter defining his offices, it was stated that his instructions would be received orally and they would be transmitted orally and never to use writing except in extreme cases. Therefore I say that these quoted portions clearly indicate that the Party was in fact used in connection with these famous 9 and 10 November 1938, anti-Jewish demonstrations.
Now, reverting back to the text where I left off yesterday afternoon: The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party participated in the confiscation of church and religious property.
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I offer in evidence Document 072-PS, which is Exhibit Number USA-357, a letter dated 19 April 1941 from Reichsleiter Bormann to Reichsleiter Rosenberg. This letter exposes the participation of the Gauleiter in measures relating to the confiscation of religious property.
I now quote from the last paragraph of Page 1 of the English translation of Document 072-PS, which reads:
"The libraries and art objects of the monasteries confiscated in the Reich were to remain for the time being in these monasteries insofar as the Gauleiter had not directed otherwise...."
On 21 February 1940 the Chief of the Security Police and SD, Heydrich, wrote a letter to Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler, proposing that certain listed churches and monasteries be confiscated for the accommodation of so-called "racial Germans."
The Tribunal, of course, will recall Himmler's position.
After pointing out that on political grounds outright expropriation of religious property would not be feasible at the time, Heydrich suggested certain specious interim actions with respect to the church properties in question, to be followed progressively by outright confiscation.
I now offer in evidence R-101(a)-it is right towards the end of Your Honor's Exhibit-as Exhibit USA-358.
If Your Honors please, there are several of those documents under R-101, and at the bottom you will notice they are labeled "a," "b," and "c." The first one is R-101(a), and I quote the first five paragraphs on Page 2 of the English translation:
"Enclosed is a list of church possessions which might be available for the accommodation of racial Germans. The list, which I beg you to return, is supplemented by correspondence and illustrated material pertinent to the subject.
"For political reasons, expropriation without indemnity of the entire property of the churches and religious orders will hardly be possible at this time.
"Expropriation with indemnity or in return for assignment of other lands and grounds will be even less possible.
"It is therefore suggested that the respective authorities of the orders be instructed that they make available the monasteries concerned for the accommodation of racial Germans and remove their own members to other less populous monasteries."
There is a marginal note opposite this paragraph that, translated, means "very good."
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"The final expropriation of these properties thus placed at our disposal can then be carried out step by step in the course of time."
On 5 April 1940 the Security Police and Security Service SS sent a letter to the Reich Commissar for the consolidation of Germandom, enclosing a copy of the foregoing letter from Heydrich to Himmler of 21 February 1940, proposing the confiscation of Church properties. The letter of 5 April 1940 is included in the Document R-101(a), just introduced in evidence; and I quote from the second sentence of the first paragraph thereof, on Page 1 of the English translation of Document R-101(a):
"The Reich Leader SS has agreed to the proposals made in the enclosed letter and has ordered the matter to be dealt with by collaboration between the Chief of the Security Police and Security Service and your office."
I now offer in evidence Document R-101(c), Exhibit USA-358. This is a letter dated July 30, 1941, written by an SS Standartenfuehrer whose signature is illegible, to the Reich Leader of the SS. The letter supplies further evidence of the participation of the Gauleiter in the seizure of church property. I quote from the first three paragraphs of the English translation of Document R-101(c), at the bottom of the page:
"With reference to the report of 30 May 1941, this office considers it its duty to call the Reich Leader's attention to the development which is taking place in the incorporated Eastern countries with regard to seizure and confiscation of church property.
"As soon as the Reich laws on expropriation became effective, the Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter in the Reichsgau Wartheland adopted the practice of expropriating church real estate for use as dwellings and paying the appraised value into blocked accounts.
"Moreover, the East German Agricultural Administrations Limited, reports that in the Warthegau all church-owned real estate is being claimed by the local Gau administration."
I next offer in evidence Document R-101(d), which immediately follows Exhibit Lumber USA-358 already in evidence. This is a letter from the Chief of Staff of the Main Office to Himmler, dated 30 March 1942, dealing with the confiscation of church property. The letter evidences the active participation of the Party Chancellery in the confiscation of religious property.
In this letter the Chief of Staff, Main Office, reports to Himmler concerning the policy of the SS in suspending all payment of rent to monasteries and other church institutions whose property had been expropriated. The letter discusses a proposal made by the
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Reich Minister of the Interior, in which the Party Chancellery prominently participated, to the effect that the church institutions should be paid amounts corresponding to current mortgage charges on the premises without realizing any profit. The writer further suggests that such payments should never be made directly to the ecclesiastical institutions but rather should be made to the creditors of the institutions.
I now quote from the fourth sentence on Page 3 of that document, the English translation, whereby such an arrangement would be in dine with "the basic idea of the settlement originally worked out between the Party Chancellery and the Reich Minister of the Interior."
I understand the Reich Minister of Interior for 1933-1944 was the Defendant Frick.
The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party participated in the suppression of religious publications and interfered with free religious education.
In a letter dated 27 September 1940 Reichsleiter and Deputy of the Fuehrer Bormann transmitted to the Defendant Rosenberg a photostatic copy of a letter from Gauleiter Florian dated 23 September 1940, which expresses the Gauleiter's intense disapproval, on Nazi ideological grounds, of a religious pamphlet entitled, The Spirit and Soul of the Soldier, written by a Major General Von Rabenau.
I now offer in evidence Document 064-PS, Exhibit Number USA-359. It is an original letter signed by Rosenberg attaching the copy of that matter. It contains Defendant Bormann's letter to Rosenberg, dated 27 September 1940, transmitting the Gauleiter's letter of 23 September 1940 to the Defendant Hess, in which the Gauleiter urges that the religious writings of General Von Rabenau be suppressed. In his letter to the Defendant Hess, Gauleiter Florian discusses a conversation he had with General Von Rabenau at the close of a lecture delivered by the General to a group of younger Army officers at Aachen. This conversation illumines the hostile attitude of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party towards the Christian Churches. I quote from the second sentence of the second paragraph of the second page of the Gauleiter's letter to the Defendant Hess, which appears on Page 2 of the English translation-the second paragraph-and I quote:
"After he had affirmed the necessity of the churches, Rabenau said, with emphasized self-assurance, something like the following:
" 'Dear Gauleiter, the Party is making mistake after mistake in the treatment of the churches. Obtain for me the necessary powers from the Fuehrer and I guarantee that I shall
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succeed in a few months in establishing peace with the churches for all time.'
"After this catastrophic ignorance, I gave up the conversation....
"Dear Party Member Hess, the reading of Von Rabenau's pamphlet, The Spirit and Soul of the Soldier, has reminded me again of this. In this brochure Rabenau affirms as before the necessity of the Church straightforwardly and clearly, even though he is shrewdly careful. He writes on Page 28: 'There could be more examples; they would suffice to show that a soldier in this world can scarcely get along without thoughts about the next one.' Because Von Rabenau has a false spiritual basis, I consider his activities as an educator in spiritual affairs dangerous; and I am of the opinion that his educational writings are to be dispensed with, by all means, and that the publication section of the NSDAP can and must forgo these writings...
"The churches with their Christianity constitute a danger against which a struggle absolutely must be carried on."
That the Party Chancellery shared with the Gauleiter hostility to the Christian Churches is further revealed by the Defendant Bormann's instruction to the Defendant Rosenberg, set forth in Bormann's letter of transmittal, that Rosenberg take action on the Gauleiter's recommendation that the General's writings be suppressed.
I now offer in evidence Document 089-PS, Exhibit Number USA-360, which is a letter from the Defendant Bormann, as Deputy of the Fuehrer, to the Defendant Rosenberg, dated 8 March 1940, enclosing a copy of Bormann's letter of the same date to Reichsleiter Amann. Amann was a top-member of the Leadership Corps by virtue of his position as Reichsleiter for the Press and Leader of the Party publishing company. In this letter to Amann Bormann expresses his dismay and dissatisfaction that only 10 percent of the 3,000 Protestant periodicals in Germany have ceased publication for whet are described as "papersaving" reasons. Bormann then advises Reichsleiter Amann that "the allocation of any paper whatsoever for such periodicals is blocked."
I now refer to this Document 089-PS; and I quote the second paragraph of Bormann's letter to Amann, which appears on the first page-the second paragraph-of the English translation:
"I urge you to see to it, in any re-allocation of paper to be considered later, that religious writings, which according to experiences so far gathered, possess very doubtful value for strengthening the power of resistance on the part of the
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people toward the external foe, receive still sharper restrictions in favor of literature politically and ideologically more valuable."
I next offer in evidence Document 101-PS, Exhibit Number USA-361, which is a letter from the Defendant Bormann, again to Reichsleiter Rosenberg, dated the 17th January 1940, expressing the Party's opposition to the circulation of religious literature to the members of the German Armed Forces. Among the soldiers of the United Nations the proposition that there are no atheists in the fox- . holes received a wide and reverent acceptation. However, in this document there is a contrary meaning, and I quote from Page 1 of the English translation, which reads:
"Nearly all the districts"-that is Gaue-"report to me regularly that the churches of both confessions are as active as ever in ministering spiritually to members of the Armed Forces. This finds expression especially in the fact that soldiers are being sent religious publications by the pastors of their home parishes. These publications are, in part, very well written. I have repeated reports that these publications are being read by the troops and thereby exercise a certain influence on their morale.
"I have at that time sought, by contacting at once the General Field Marshal, the High Command of the Armed Forces, and Party Member Reichsleiter Amann, to restrict considerably the production and shipment of publications of this type. The result of these efforts remained unsatisfactory. As Reichsleiter Amann has repeatedly informed me, the restriction of these pamphlets by means of the paper rationing cannot be achieved because the paper used for the pamphlets is being purchased on the open market....
"If the influencing of the soldiers by the Church is to be effectively combatted, this will be accomplished only by producing many good publications in the shortest possible time under the supervision of the Party....
"Also, at the last meeting of the Deputy Gauleiter comments were made on this matter to the effect that such publications are not available in sufficient quantities....
"I maintain that it is necessary that in the very near future we transmit to the Party Service Offices, down to the Ortsgruppenleiter, a list of additional publications of this sort which should be sent to our soldiers by the Ortsgruppen...." The Leadership Corps also participated in measures leading to the closing and dissolution of theological schools and other religious institutions. I now offer in evidence Document Number 122-PS, Exhibit Number USA-362, which, again, is a letter from the Defendant
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Bormann to the Defendant Rosenberg in his capacity as the Fuehrer's Representative for the Supervision of Spiritual and Ideological Schooling and Education of the NSDAP. This letter is dated 17 April 1939 and transmits to Rosenberg an enclosed photostatic copy of a plan suggested by the Reich Minister for Science, Education, and Popular Culture for the combining and closing of certain specially listed theological faculties. In his letter of transmittal the Defendant Bormann requested Reichsleiter Rosenberg to take cognizance and prompt action with respect to proposed suppression of religious institutions. I now quote from the next to the last paragraph on Page 2 of the English translation, in which the plan to suppress the religious institutions is summarized, and which reads:
"To recapitulate, this plan would mean, in addition to the closing of the theological faculties at Innsbruck, Salzburg, and Munich, which has already taken place, and the contemplated transfer of the faculty of Graz to Vienna, the elimination of four Catholic theological faculties:
"a) The abolition of three more Catholic theological faculties or higher schools and of four evangelical theological faculties in the winter semester 1939-1940;
"b) the abolition of one more Catholic and of three more evangelical theological faculties in the near future."
From the foregoing evidence the inference is irresistible that the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party shares a responsibility for the measures taken to subvert the Christian Churches and persecute the Christian clergy, both in Germany and in German-occupied territories of Europe. The evidence just offered, together with that previously presented by the Prosecution, demonstrates that there was a general participation by the Leadership Corps, ranging from the Reichsleiter to the Gauleiter, adhered to by the rank and file, in the deliberate program undertaken to undermine Christian religion. We stress the significance of the appointment of the Defendant Rosenberg, whose anti-Christian views are open and notorious, as the Fuehrer's "delegate" or "representative" for the whole spiritual and philosophical education of the Nazi Party. It was precisely this position which gave Rosenberg his seat in the Reichsleitung (the general staff of the Party), comprising all the Reichsleiter. But emphasis is placed, not merely upon the fact that anti-Christs such as the Defendants Bormann and Rosenberg held directive positions within the Leadership Corps, but upon the further fact that their directives and orders were passed down the chain of command of the Leadership Corps and caused the participation of its membership in acts subversive to the Christian Church.
In Document Number D-75, which I believe has been introduced previously-and I am just going to quote one line from
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it-the Defendant Bormann stated, "Nazism and Christianity are irreconcilable concepts." The defendant was never more right, but he erred grievously by his prophecy as to which of the two would first pass away.
I next turn to the responsibility of the Leadership Corps for the destruction of free trade unions and the imposition of the conspiratorial control over the productive labor capacity of the German nation.
The evidence relating to the responsibility of the Nazi conspirators for the destruction of the independent trade unions has been previously introduced in evidence in the U.S. Exhibit G. which was the document book containing the evidentiary materials relating to the destruction of the trade unions. The brief evidence which I shall now present is offered to prove the responsibility of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party for the smashing of the independent unions and the imposition of conspiratorial control over the productive labor capacity of the German nation.
Soon after the seizure of power, prominent members of the Leadership Corps participated in the smashing and dissolution of the independent trade unions of Germany. The Defendant Robert Ley, precisely by virtue of his office as Reich Organization Leader and Reichsleiter in the Leadership Corps, was directed by Hitler, in mid-April 1939, to smash the independent unions.
I will pass on now to Document 392-PS, Exhibit Number USA326; and I quote, beginning at the top of Page 1 of the English translation:
"On Tuesday, 2 May 1933 . . . the co-ordination action against the free trade unions begins....
"The essential part of the action is to be directed against the General German Trade Union League (ADGB) and the General Independent Employees' Federation (AFA:Bund). Anything beyond that which is dependent upon the free trade unions is left to the Gauleiter's judgment.
"The Gauleiter are responsible for the execution of the co-ordination action in their individual areas. The action will be carried out by the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization....
"The Gauleiter is to proceed with his measures on the basis of the closest agreement with competent Gau or regional factory cell directors....
"In the Reich, the following will be occupied:
"The headquarters of the unions...."
Then it lists a number of offices, and I previously quoted who was to be taken into protective custody.
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The next provision:
"Exceptions are granted only with the permission of the Gauleiter....
"It is understood that this action is to proceed in a strongly disciplined fashion. The Gauleiter are responsible for holding the direction of the action firmly in hand. Heil Hitler!"- signed-"Dr. Robert Ley."
The Defendant Ley's order for the dissolution of the independent trade unions was carried out as planned and directed. Trade union premises all over Germany were occupied by the SA and the unions dissolved. On the 2d of May 1933 the official NSDAP press service reported that the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization (NSBO) had "eliminated the old leadership of. free trade unions" and taken over their leadership.
I now offer in evidence Document 2224-PS, Exhibit Number USA-364, which is Pages 1 and 2 of the 2d of May 1933 issues of the National Socialist Party Press Agency. I quote from Paragraph 5 of Page 1 of the English translation:
"National Socialism, which today has assumed leadership of German labor, can no longer bear the responsibility for leaving the men and women of the German working class, the members of the largest trade Organization in the world, the German trade union movement, in the hands of people who do not know a fatherland called Germany. Because of that, the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization has taken over the leadership of the trade unions. The NSBO has eliminated the former leadership of the free trade unions of the General German Trade Unions League, and of the General Independent Employees' Federation....
"On 2 May 1933 the NSBO took over the leadership of all trade unions; all trade-union buildings were occupied and most stringent control of financial and personnel matters of the organizations has been set up."
As shown by this evidence, the assault on the independent unions was directed by the Defendant Ley, in his capacity as Reichsleiter in charge of Party organization, assisted by the Gauleiter and Party formations, and included the seizure of trade-union funds and property. In this connection I offer in evidence Document 1678-PS, Exhibit Number USA-365. This document is a report of a speech by Reichsleiter Ley on the 11th of September 1937 to the fifth annual session of the German Labor Front. In this speech Ley shamelessly corroborates the confiscation of the trade-union funds. I quote from Paragraph 4 of Page 1 of the English translation:.
"Once I said to the Fuehrer: 'My Fuehrer, actually I am standing with one foot in jail, for today I am still the trustee of
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the comrades Leipart and Imbusch; and should they some day ask me to return their money, then it will be found that I have put it into buildings or otherwise spent it. But they shall never again find their property in the condition in which they handed it over to me. Therefore I should have to be convicted.'
"The Fuehrer laughed then and remarked that apparently I felt extremely well in this condition.
"It was very difficult for us all. Today we laugh about it. . ."
The plan of the Nazi conspirators to eliminate the free trade unions was advanced by the enactment, on 19th May 1933, of a law which abolished collective bargaining between workers and employers and replaced it with a regulation of working conditions by labor trustees appointed by Hitler. I refer to Document 405-PS, which is the text of the law, 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt I, Page 285. After providing in Section 1 for the appointment by Hitler of trustees of labor, this law provides, and I quote from Section 2 of the English translation of Document 405-PS:
"Until a new revision of the social constitution, the labor trustees are to regulate the conditions for the conclusion of labor contracts. This practice is to be legally binding for all persons and replaces the system founded on combinations of workers, of individual employers, or of combinations of employers...."
Having destroyed the independent unions and collective bargaining, the next step of the Nazi conspirators was to secure the Nazification in the field of industrial relations. I refer to Document Number 1861-PS, which is the text of the law of 20 January 1934, 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt I, Page 45. This law was entitled the "Law Regulating National Labor"; and it imposed the leadership principle upon industrial enterprisers and provided, in Section I, Paragraph 1, that the enterprises should be the leader of the plant and the workers would constitute his followers. I now quote from Section I, Paragraph 2, of the first page of Document Number 1861-PS:
"The leader of the plant has full authority over the employees in all matters concerning the enterprise, as far as they are covered by this law.
"He is responsible for the well-being of the employees. The employees owe him loyalty in keeping with the principles of factory solidarity."
The trade unions having been dissolved and the leadership principle superimposed upon the relationship of management and labor, the members of the Leadership Corps joined in and directed measures designed to replace the independent unions by the German Labor Front, the DAF, an affiliated Party organization. On
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the very day the Nazi conspirators seized and dissolved the free trade unions, the 2d of May 1933, they publicly proclaimed that a "United Front of German Workers" would be formed with Hitler as honorary patron at a workers' congress on the 10th of May 1933. I quote from the next to the last paragraph of Page 2 of Document 2224-PS, which was a release of the Nazi Party Press Agency:
"The National Socialist Party Press Agency is informed that a great Workers' Congress will take place on Wednesday, 10 May, in the Prussian House of Lords in Berlin. The United Front of German Workers will be formed there. Adolf Hitler will be asked to assume the position of honorary patron."
The Nazi conspirators employed the German Labor Front, the DAF, as an instrument for propagandizing its millions of compulsory members with Nazi ideology. The control of the Leadership Corps over the German Labor Front was assured not only by the designation of Reichsleiter of the Party Organization Ley as head of the DAF, but by the employment of a large number of Politische Leiter, or political leaders, charged with disseminating and imposing Nazi ideology upon the large membership of the DAF. I now cite Document 2271-PS, Exhibit Number USA-328, which is the Party Organization Book referred to yesterday, Pages 185-187; and I quote from the first page of the English translation, the first paragraph:
"The NSBO is a union of the political leaders of the NSDAP in the German Labor Front.
"The NSBO is to undertake the organization of the German Labor Front.
"The duties and responsibilities of the NSBO have passed over to the German Labor Front.
"The political leaders who have been transferred from the NSBO to the German Labor Front guarantee the ideological education of the DAF in the spirit of the National Socialistic idea."
Now, if Your Honors please, in addition to the evidence heretofore presented, the Prosecution submits that it is another evidence of crime that the Leadership Corps of the NSDAP was responsible for the plundering of art treasures by the Defendant Reichsleiter Rosenberg's "Einsatzstab Rosenberg." The definition of "Einsatzstab" is a "special staff," and I am told that the word "Einsatz" means "to give action to." In other words, it was a task force, a special staff:
This subject, diverting from the text, had been prepared in connection with the general subject of "Plundering of Art Treasures"; and I shall now turn to the document books of the "Plundering of Art Treasures," because the citations now will be in this small book.
I now pass to Your Honors Document Book W; and, may I say, diverting from the text, that the trial address, which is very brief,
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has, as I have been told by the Translating Division, been translated into all four languages; and, as I understand, Colonel Dostert will distribute it to all parties in their native languages.
Also by way of explanation, in the beginning there is one reference here to the plundering of art treasures in the occupied portion of Poland which does not bear directly upon this subject but does on the general conspiracy; and I thought, in the. interest of time, that we might follow the presentation, because it is very brief.
May it please the Tribunal, the sections of the Indictment which are to be proved at this point are those dealing with the plunder of public and private property under Count One, the Common Plan or Conspiracy. It is not my purpose to explore all phases of the ordinary plunder in which the Germans engaged. However, I would bring to the attention of the Tribunal and of the world the defendants' vast, organized, systematic program for the cultural impoverishment of virtually every community of Europe and for the enrichment of Germany thereby.
Special emphasis will be placed on the activities of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg; and the responsibility of the Leadership Corps in this regard is a responsibility that is shared by the Defendants Rosenberg, Goering, and Keitel, and by the defendant organizations; the General Staff, High Command, Gestapo, the Security Service, and the SS.
Before I deal with the plunder of the cultural treasures by the Einsatzstab Rosenberg, I wish to reveal briefly the independent plundering operations conducted in the Government General of Occupied Poland by authority of the Defendant Goering and under the supervision of the Defendant Frank, the Governor General.
In October 1939 Goering issued a verbal order to a Dr. Muhlmann asking him to undertake the immediate securing of all Polish art treasures. Dr. Muhlmann himself gives evidence of this order in Document Number 3042-PS found in the document book last introduced as Exhibit USA-375.
THE; PRESIDENT: Are the documents in Book W?
COL. STOREY: Book W; yes, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: I was asking whether the documents in Book W are placed in or
der of number in PS?
COL. STOREY: They are; yes, Sir; and the first one is found on the first page. I beg your pardon; 3042 would be in numerical order toward the end, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: I have it. I was merely asking for general information.
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COL. STOREY: These are consecutive. I would like to offer this affidavit and to read it in full. In short, it was obtained in Austria. Kajetan Muhlmann states under oath:
"I have been a member of the NSDAP since 1 April 1938. I was Brigadier General"-Oberfuehrer-"in the SS.
"I was never an illegal Nazi.
"I was the special deputy of the Governor General of Poland, Hans Frank, for the safeguarding of art treasures in the Government General, October 1939 to September 1943.
"Goering, in his function as chairman of the Reich Defense Committee, had commissioned me with this duty.
"I confirm that it was the official policy of the Governor General, Hans Frank, to take into custody all important art treasures which belonged to Polish public institutions, private collections, and the Church. I confirm that the art treasures mentioned were actually confiscated; and it is clear to me that they would not have remained in Poland in case of a German victory, but they would have been used to complement German artistic property."-Signed and sworn to by Dr. Muhlmann.
On the 15th of November 1939 Frank issued a decree, which is published officially in The Law of the Government General, (1773-PS, Exhibit USA-376). It is E 800, Article 1, Section 1. It is not in the document book. It is just a short quotation of which we ask the Tribunal to take judicial knowledge. Quoting:
"All movable and stationary property of the former Polish State . . . will .be sequestered for the purpose of securing all manner of public valuables."
In a further decree of 16 December 1939, appearing as E 845 of the same publication, Frank provided that all art objects in public possession in the Government General were to be seized for the fulfillment of public tasks of common interest, insofar as they had not already been seized under the decree of 15 November. The decree provided that, in addition to art collections and art objects belonging to the Polish State, there would be considered as owned by the public, those private collections which have not already been taken under protection by the Special Commissioner, as well as all ecclesiastical art property.
On the 24th of September 1940 Frank decreed that all property seized on the basis of the decree of 15 November 1939 would be transferred to the ownership of the Government General; and this decree is found as E 810 of the same publication.
It is impossible for me to furnish this Tribunal a complete picture of the vastness of the program for the cultural impoverishment of Poland carried out pursuant to the directives, as I cannot
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read into the record the 500-odd masterpieces catalogued in Document 1233-PS (Exhibit USA-377) or the many hundreds of additional items catalogued in Document 1709-PS (Exhibit USA-378). Now Document 1233-PS, which I hold in my hand, is a finely bound, beautifully printed catalogue, in which Defendant Frank proudly lists and describes the major works of art which he had plundered for the benefit of the Reich. This volume was captured by the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Division of the 3rd United States Army and was found in Frank's home near Munich. The introductory page describes the thoroughness with which the Government General stripped Poland of its cultural possessions. That is quoted in Document 1233-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you hand that up?
COL. STOREY: I am quoting now from the introductory page, the English translation, the first paragraph. I might say by way of explanation, that this book lists the valuable art treasures by titles. I now quote from the introductory page:
"By reason of a decree of 16 December 1939 by the Governor General of the occupied Polish territories, the Special Commissioner for collecting objects of art and culture was able to collect within 6 months almost all of the art objects of the country, with one exception: a series of Flemish tapestries of the Castle of Krakow. According to the latest information these are now in France, so that it may be possible to secure these later."
Leafing through this catalogue, we find that it included references to paintings by German, Italian, Dutch, French, and Spanish masters; rare illustrated books; Indian and Persian miniatures; woodcuts; the famous Veit Stoss hand-carved altar (created here in Nuremberg and purchased for use in Poland); handicraft articles of gold and silver; antique articles of crystal, glass, and porcelain; tapestries; antique weapons; rare coins and medals. These articles were seized, as indicated in the catalogue, from public and private sources, including the national museums in Krakow and Warsaw, the cathedrals of Warsaw and Dublin, a number of churches and monasteries, university libraries, and a great many private collections of Polish nobility.
I wish now to offer in evidence the catalogue bearing our Number 1233-PS-it is the one just introduced in evidence-and the document bearing our Number 1709-PS. This latter report, in addition to listing the 521 major items described in the catalogue, lists many other items which, though generally no less important from an artistic standpoint, were considered by the Germans to be of secondary importance from the point of view of the Reich.
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It is interesting to note with what pains the Defendant Frank attempted to conceal his real purpose in seizing these works of art. The cover of the catalogue itself states that the objects listed were secured and safeguarded. Strangely enough, it was found necessary to safeguard some of the objects by transporting them to Berlin and depositing them in the depot of the Special Deputy or in the safe of the Deutsche Bank, as is indicated on Page 80 of Document 1709-PS, Exhibit USA-378. The items referred to as having been transported to Berlin are listed in the catalogue of objects safeguarded and their numbers are 4, 17, 27, 35, and so on. Thirty-one extremely valuable and world-renowned sketches of Albrecht Durer, taken from the collection of Lubomirski in Lemberg (Lvov), were likewise safeguarded. At Page 69 of this report, Dr. Muhlmann states that he personally handed these sketches to Goering, who took them to the Fuehrer at his headquarters.
Numerous objects of art: paintings, tapestries, plates, dishes, as well as other dinnerware, were also safeguarded by Frank, who had the Special Deputy deliver these objects to an architect for the purpose of furnishing the castle at Krakow and the Schloss Kressendorf, which were the residences of the Governor General Frank. It was apparently Frank's belief that these items would be safer in his possession, used to grace his table and dazzle his guests, than they would be in the possession of the rightful owners.
There is no doubt whatever that virtually the entire art possession of Poland was seized for the use of Germany and would never have been returned in the event of German victory. Dr. Muhlmann, a noted German art authority, who directed the seizure program for the period of 4 years and was endowed by Frank with sufficient authority to promulgate decrees generally applicable throughout the territory, has stated the objectives of the program in no uncertain terms in the affidavit to which I have just referred.
So much for Poland.
I now direct the attention of the Tribunal to the activities of the Einsatzstab Rosenberg, an organization which planned and directed the looting of the cultural treasures of nearly all Europe. To obtain a fun conception of the vastness of this looting program, it will be necessary to envision Europe as a treasure-house in which is stored the major portion of the artistic and literary product of two thousand years of Western civilization. It will further be necessary to envision the forcing of this treasure-house by a horde of vandals bent on systematically removing to the Reich these treasures, which are, in a sense, the heritage of all of us, to keep them there for the enjoyment and enlightenment of Germans alone. Unique in history, this art-seizure program staggers one's imagination and challenges one's credulity. The documents which I am about to offer in evidence will present undeniable proof of
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the execution of the policy to strip the occupied countries of the accumulated product of centuries of devotion to art and the pursuit of learning.
May I digress here a moment and state that we are not going to offer all the documents and all the details because our Soviet and French colleagues will offer a great many of the detailed documents in support of their case on War Crimes.
I now offer in evidence Document 136-PS as Exhibit USA-367. And that is an order of Hitler dated the 29th of January 1940 which set into motion the art-seizure program that was to envelop the continent. I now offer the original. I call Your Honors' attention to this original, being signed by Adolf Hitler, and I believe it is in the famous Jumbo type. I quote the order in its entirety. It is very short:
"The 'Hohe Schule' is to become the center for National Socialistic research, indoctrination, and education. It will be established after the conclusion of the war. I order that the already initiated preparations be continued by Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg-especially in the way of research and setting up of the library.
"All sections of the Party and State are required to co-operate with him in this task."
Although the above order makes no specific mention of the seizure of art properties, by the 5th of November 1940 the program had extended beyond its original scope to include the seizure of Jewish art collections.
I now offer in evidence Document Number 141-PS (Exhibit USA-368), which is a certified copy of an order signed by Goering, dated 5 November 1940, in which the Defendant Goering states; and I quote:
"In conveying the measures taken until now for the securing of Jewish art property by the Chief of the Military Administration, Paris, and the Einsatzstab Rosenberg... the art objects brought to the Louvre will be disposed of in the following way:
"1. Those art objects the decision as to the use of which the Fuehrer will reserve for himself;
"2. Those art objects which serve the completion of the Reich Marshal's collection;
"3. Those art objects and library materials which seem useful for the establishment of the Hohe Schule and for the program of Reichsleiter Rosenberg;
"4. Those art objects which are suitable for sending to the German museums...."
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Thus, early in 1940, 11 months after the initiation of the program for establishment of the library for ideological research, the original purpose had been expanded so as to include the seizure of art works not only for the benefit of research but for the delectation the Fuehrer and Goering and the enhancement of the collections of German museums.
Impelled as they were by the perfidious dream of subjugating a continent, the Nazi conspirators could not content themselves merely with the exploitation of the cultural riches of France and rapidly extended their activities to the other occupied countries. I now offer in evidence Document Number 137-PS as Exhibit USA-379. That is a copy of an order signed by the Defendant Keitel, dated 5th of July 1940, and I should like to read that brief order in full:
"To: The Chief of Army High Command, Chief of the Armed Forces in the Netherlands.
"Reichsleiter Rosenberg has suggested to the Fuehrer that:
"1. The state libraries and archives be searched for documents valuable to Germany.
"2. The Chancelleries of the high Church authorities and the lodges be searched for political maneuvers directed against us and that the material in question be seized.
"The Fuehrer has ordered that this suggestion be followed and that the Gestapo, supported by the archivists of Reichsleiter Rosenberg, be put in charge of the searches. The Chief of Security Police, SS-Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich, has been informed. He will communicate with the competent military commanders in order to execute this order.
"These measures will be executed in all regions of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France occupied by us.
"It is requested that subordinate services be informed.
"Chief of High Command of the Armed Forces,"-signed- "Keitel."
From the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France the Einsatzstab's activities ultimately were expanded still further to Norway and Denmark. I now offer in evidence Document 159-PS, Exhibit USA-380, which is the copy of an order signed by Utikal, Chief of the Einsatzstab, dated the 6th of June 1944, from which it is seen that a special mission of the Einsatzstab was sent to Norway and Denmark.
As the German Army penetrated to the East, the fingers of the Einsatzstab reached out to seize the cultural riches thus made available to them; and their activities were extended to the
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Occupied Eastern Territories, including the Baltic States and the Ukraine, as well to Hungary and Greece. I now offer in evidence Document 153-PS, Exhibit USA-381,~being a certified copy of a letter from Rosenberg to the Reich Commissioner for the East and Reich Commissioner for the Ukraine, dated 27 April 1942. The subject of the letter is stated to be as follows: "Formation of a Central Unit for the Seizure and Securing of Objects of Cultural Value in the Occupied Eastern Territories." In the last paragraph of that document, I quote:
"With the Commissioners of the Reich a special department within Department II (political) will be set up for a limited time for the seizure and securing of objects of cultural value. This department is under the direction of the appropriate head of the main group of the 'Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the Occupied Territories."'
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps this would be a good time to break off for 10 minutes.
[A recess was taken.]
COL. STOREY: Activities were initiated in Hungary as indicated by Document Number 158-PS, Exhibit USA-382, which I now offer in evidence. This was a copy of a message initialed by Utikal, Rosenberg's Chief of Staff. The first paragraph of this document states:
"The Einsatzstab of Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the Occupied Territories has dispatched a Sonderkommando under the direction of Einsatzstabsfuehrer Dr. Zeiss, who is identified by means of his Service Book Number 187, for the accomplishment of the missions of the Einsatzstab in Hungary outlined in the Fuehrer's Decree of 1 March 1942."
I now offer into evidence Document Number 171-PS, Exhibit USA-383, which is an undated report on the "Library for Exploration of the Jewish Question." The fifth paragraph states:
"The most significant book collections today belonging to the Library for Research on the Jewish Question are the following...." The ninth item of the list which follows refers to "Book collections from Jewish communities in Greece (about 10,000 volumes)."
It was only natural that an operation conducted on so vast a scale, extending as it did to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, the Occupied Eastern Territories, the Baltic States, the Ukraine, Hungary, and Greece, should call upon a multitude of other agencies for assistance. Among the other agencies co-operating in the plunder program were several of those which stand indicted here as criminal organizations. The
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co-operation of the Wehrmacht High Command was demanded by the Hitler order of 1 March 1942, which I now offer in evidence as our Document 149-PS, Exhibit USA-369, which is signed personally by Adolf Hitler and is also in the Jumbo type. The order decrees the ideological fight against the enemies of National Socialism to be a military necessity and reaffirms the authority of the Einsatzstab Rosenberg to conduct searches and seizures of suitable material for the Hohe Schule. The fifth paragraph states:
"The directives concerning co-operation with the Wehrmacht were given to the Chief of the OKW with the approval of Reichsleiter Rosenberg."
While I am on that document, which is referred to later, I should like to read the other portions. I call attention of Your Honors to the distribution. It is distributed to all duty stations of the Armed Forces, the Party, and the State. It says:
"Jews, Freemasons, and related ideological enemies of National Socialism are responsible for the war which is now being waged against the Reich. The co-ordinated ideological fight against those powers is a military necessity. I have therefore charged Reichsleiter Rosenberg to carry out this task in co-operation with the chief of the OKW. His Einsatzstab in the Occupied Territories is authorized to search libraries, record offices, lodges, and other ideological and cultural institutions of all kinds for suitable material, and to confiscate the said material for the ideological task of the NSDAP and the later scientific research work of the Hohe Schule. The same regulation applies to cultural assets which are in possession of or the property of Jews, or ownerless, or not clearly of unobjectionable origin."
The final passage is:
"The necessary measures within the Eastern territories under the German Administration are determined by Reichsleiter Rosenberg in his capacity as Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories."-Signed-"Adolf Hitler."
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, I think the Tribunal would find it convenient, and it would save time, if the documents, when they are referred to, were read in full insofar as you want to read them, rather than returning to read one passage and then returning to a document later on.
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir. May I explain why that was, Sir? I was trying to fit in this presentation with the Leadership Corps. It was quoted in two places and I didn't notice it unto I started.
THE PRESIDENT: What I am saying is that I think it is much easier to follow the documents if all the parts of the document
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which you wish to read are read at one Time, rather than to read one sentence, then come back to another sentence, and then possibly come back to a document for a third sentence. I don't know whether that will be possible for you to do.
COL. STOREY: We will try to work it out that way, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
COL. STOREY: Co-operation of the SS and the SD is indicated in a letter from Rosenberg to Bormann dated 23rd of April 1941, Document Number 071-PS, Exhibit USA-371, which I now offer in evidence. This letter states in the fifth sentence of the first numbered paragraph:
"It is self-evident that the confiscations are not executed by the Gauleitung, but that they are conducted by the Security Service as well as by the police."
Farther down in the same paragraph it is stated:
"It has been communicated to me in writing by a Gauleiter that the Reich Security Main Office of the SS has requested the following from the library of a confiscated monastery: The Catholic Handbook, Albertus Magnus, Edition of the Church Fathers, History of the Popes by L. von Pastor, and other works."
The second and last paragraph stated that:
"I should like to remark in this connection that this affair has already been settled on our side with the Security Service (SD) in the most co-operative fashion."
The Defendant Goering was especially diligent in furthering the purposes of the Einsatzstab Rosenberg, a diligence which will be readily understood in view of the fact that he himself directed that second in priority only to the demands of the Fuehrer were to be "those art objects which served the completion of the Reich Marshal's collection." That is Goering.
On May 1, 1941 Goering issued an order to all Party, State, and Wehrmacht services, which I am now offering into evidence as 1117-PS, Exhibit USA-384. That is an original bearing Goering's signature. This order requested all Party, State, and Wehrmacht services-and I now quote:
"... to give all possible support and assistance to the Chief of Staff of Reichsleiter Rosenberg's Einsatzstab.... The abovementioned persons are requested to report to me on their work, particularly on any difficulties which might arise."
On 30th of May 1942 Goering claimed credit for a large degree of the success of the Einsatzstab. I offer in evidence a captured photostatic copy of a letter from Goering to Rosenberg, showing Goering's signature, which bears our Number 1015(i)-PS, which I
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offer in evidence as Exhibit USA-385. The last paragraph of this letter states as follows:
"... On the other hand I also support personally the work of your Einsatzstab wherever I can do so, and a great part of the seized cultural objects can be accounted for by the fact that I was able to assist the Einsatzstab with my organizations."
If I have tried the patience of the Tribunal with numerous details as to the origin, the growth, and the operation of the art-looting organization, it is because I feel that it will be impossible for me to convey to you a full conception as to the magnitude of the plunder without conveying to you first, information as to the vast organizational work that was necessary in order to enable the defendants to collect in Germany cultural treasures of staggering proportions.
Nothing of value was safe from the grasp of the Einsatzstab. In view of the great experience of the Einsatzstab in the complex business of the organized plunder of a continent, its facilities were well suited to the looting of material other than cultural objects. Thus, when Rosenberg required equipment for the furnishing of the offices of the administration in the East, his Einsatzstab was pressed into action to confiscate Jewish homes in the West. Document Number L-188, which is Exhibit USA-386 and which I now offer in evidence, is a copy of a report submitted by the director of Rosenberg's Office West, operating under the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories. I wish to quote at some length from this document and I call the Tribunal's attention to the third paragraph on Page 3 of the translation:
"The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg was charged with the carrying out of this task"-that is, the seizure of art properties-"in the course of this seizure of property. At the suggestion of the Director West of the Special Section of the Einsatzstab, it was proposed to the Reichsleiter that the furniture and other contents of the unguarded Jewish homes should also be secured and dispatched to the Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories for use in the Eastern Territories."
The last paragraph on the same page states:
"At first all the confiscated furniture and goods were dispatched to the administrations of the Occupied Eastern Territories. Owing to the terror attacks on German cities which then began and in the knowledge that the bombed-out persons in Germany ought to have preference over the Eastern people, Reich Minister and Reichsleiter Rosenberg obtained a new order from the Fuehrer according to which
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the furniture, et cetera, obtained through the 'M Action' was to be put at the disposal of bombed-out persons within Germany."
The report continues with a description of the efficient employed in looting the Jewish homes in the West (top of Page 4 of translation):
"The confiscation of Jewish homes was carried out as follows: When no records were available of the addresses of Jews who had fled or departed, as was the case, for instance, in Paris, so-called requisitioning officials went from house to house in order to collect information as to abandoned Jewish homes.-They drew up inventories of those homes and sealed them.... In Paris alone, about twenty requisitioning officials requisitioned more than 38,000 homes. The transportation of these homes was completed with all the available vehicles of the Union of Parisian Moving Contractors who had to provide up to 150 trucks, 1,200 to 1,500 French laborers daily."
If Your Honor pleases, I am omitting the rest of the details of that report because our French colleagues will present the details later.
Looting on such a scale seems fantastic. But I feel I must refer to another statement, for though the seizure of the contents of over 71,000 homes and their shipment to the Reich in upwards of 26,000 railroad cars is by no means a petty operation, the quantities of plundered art treasures and books and their incalculable value, as revealed in the document I am about to offer, will make these figures dwindle by comparison.
I next refer to the stacks of leather-bound volumes in front of me, to which the Justice referred in his opening statement.
These 39 volumes which are before me contain photographs of works of art secured by the Einsatzstab and are volumes which were prepared by members of the Rosenberg staff. All of these volumes bear our Number 2522-PS, and I offer them in evidence as Exhibit USA-388.
I am passing to Your Honors eight of these volumes, so that each one of you-they are all different-might see a sample of the inventory. I caI1 Your Honors' attention to the inside cover page. Most of them have an inventory, in German, of the contents of the book; and then follow true photographs of each one of these priceless objects of art, separated by fine tissue paper.
There are 39 of these volumes that were captured by our forces when they overran a part of southern occupied German areas.
THE PRESIDENT: Is there anything known about the articles photographed here?
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COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir; I will describe them later. I believe each one of them is identified in addition to the inventory.
THE PRESIDENT: I meant whether the articles-the furniture or pictures themselves, have been found.
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir, most of them were found in an underground cavern, I believe in the southern part of Bavaria; and these books were found by our staff in connection with the group of U.S. Army people who have assembled these objects of art. and are now in the process of returning them to the rightful owners. That is where we got these books.
I should like to refer, while Your Honors are looking at these, just to the aggregate totals of the different paintings. Here are the totals as shown by Document 1015(b)-PS, which is in the document book. As they are totalled, I don't think Your Honors need to follow the document; you can continue looking at the books if you like.
"Up to 15 July 1944 the following had been scientifically inventoried:
"21,903 Works of Art:
"5,281 paintings, pastels, water colors, drawings; 684 miniatures, glass and enamel paintings, illuminated books and manuscripts; 583 sculptures, terra cottas, medallions, and plaques; 2,477 articles of furniture of art historical value; 583 textiles (tapestries, rugs, embroideries, Coptic textiles); 5,825 objects of decorative art (porcelains, bronzes, faience, majolica, ceramics, jewelry, coins, art objects with precious stones); 1,286 East Asiatic art works (bronzes, sculpture, porcelains, paintings, folding screens, weapons); 259 art works of antiquity (sculptures, bronzes, vases, jewelry, bowls, engraved gems, terra cottas)."
The mere statement that 21,903 art works have been seized does not furnish an adequate conception of their value. I refer again soothe statement in the document "The extraordinary artistic and intrinsic value of the seized art works cannot be expressed in figures," and to the fact that they are objects of such a unique character that their evaluation is entirely impossible. These 39 volumes are by no means a complete catalogue. They present, at the most, pictures of about 2,500 of the art objects seized; and I ask you to imagine that this catalogue had been completed and that, in the place of 39 volumes, we had 350 to 400 volumes. In other words, if they were prepared in inventory form as these 39 volumes, to cover all of them it would take 350 to 400 volumes.
We had arranged, Your Honor, to project just a. few of these on the screen; but before we do that, which is the end of this
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part of the presentation, I should like to call Your Honor's attention to Document 015-PS. It is dated April 16, 1943. It is a copy of a letter from Rosenberg to Hitler. The occasion for the writing of this letter was the birthday of the Fuehrer, to commemorate which, Rosenberg presented some folders of photographs of pictures seized by the Einsatzstab. And I imagine, although we have no authentic evidence, that probably some of these were prepared for that occasion. In the closing paragraph of the letter, Document 015-PS, Exhibit USA-387, he says:
"I beg of you, my Fuehrer, to give me a chance during my next audience to report to you orally on the whole extent and state of this art-seizure action. I beg you to accept a short, written, preliminary report of the progress and extent of the art-seizure action, which will be used as a basis for this later oral report, and also to accept three volumes of the provisional picture catalogues which, too, show only a part of the collection at your disposal. I shall deliver further catalogues, which are now being compiled, as they are finished."
Rosenberg then closes with this touching tribute to the aesthetic tastes of the Fuehrer, tastes which were satisfied at the expense of a continent, and I quote:
"I shall take the liberty during the requested audience to give you, my Fuehrer, another 20 folders of pictures with the hope that this short occupation with the beautiful things of art, which are so near to your heart, will send a ray of beauty and joy into your care-laden and revered life."
THE PRESIDENT: Will you read all the passage that you began, five lines above that, beginning with the words, "These photos represent..."?
COL. STOREY: "These photos represent an addition to the collection of 53 of the most valuable objects of art delivered some time ago to your collection. This folder also gives only a weak impression of the exceptional value and extent of these objects of art, seized by my service command"-Dienststelle-"in France and put into a safe place in the Reich." If Your Honors please, at this time we would like to project on the screen a few of these photographs. The photographs of paintings which we are now about to project on the screen are taken from a single volume of the catalogue and are merely representative of the many volumes of pictures of similar works. The other items, photos of which are to be projected, were picked from various volumes on special subjects. For example, the Gobelin tapestry which you are about to see is merely one picture from an entire volume of tapestry illustrations. Each picture that you will
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see is representative of a number of volumes of similar pictures, and each volume from which these single pictures were taken represents approximately a tenth of the total number of volumes which would be necessary to illustrate all the items actually plundered by the Einsatzstab. We will now have the slides, just a few of them.
[Photographs were projected on the screen in the courtroom.]
This first picture is a "Portrait of a Woman," painted by the Italian painter Palma Vecchio.
The next picture is a "Portrait of a Woman" by the Spanish painter Velasquez.
This picture is a "Portrait of Lady Spencer" by the English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds.
This picture is a painting by the French painter Watteau.
This is a painting of `'The Three Graces" by Rubens.
This is a "Portrait of an Old Woman" by the famous painter Rembrandt.
This painting of a young woman is by the Dutch painter Van Dyck.
Now this picture is a sample of 16th century jewelry in gold and enamel, decorated with pearls.
This is a 17th century Gobelin tapestry.
This picture is of a Japanese painting from the catalogue volume on East Asiatic art.
This is an example of famous china.
This is a picture of a silver-inlaid Louis XIV cabinet.
The last picture is of a silver altarpiece of the 15th or 16th century, of Spanish origin.
I call to your attention again that each of the pictures you have just seen is merely representative of a large number of similar items -illustrated in the 39-volume catalogue which is in itself only partially complete. There is little wonder that the Fuehrer's occupation with these beautiful things of art, which were nearest to his heart, should have sent a ray of beauty and joy into his revered life. I doubt that any museum in the world, whether the Metropolitan in New York, the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, or the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow, could present such a catalogue as this; in fact, should they pool their treasures, the result would certainly fall short of the art collection that Germany amassed for itself, at the expense of the other nations of Europe. Never in history has a collection so great been amassed with so little scruple.
It is refreshing, however, to know that the victorious Allied armies have recovered most of such treasures, principally hidden
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away in salt mines, tunnels, and secluded castles; and the proper governmental agencies are now in the process of restoring these priceless works of art to their rightful owners.
I shall next refer to Document 154-PS, which is a letter dated the 5th of July 1942 from Dr. Lammers, Reich Minister and Chief of the Chancellery, to the highest Reich authorities and services directly subordinate to the Fuehrer. This letter states and implements the Hitler order that was introduced in evidence and explains that the Fuehrer delegated authority to Rosenberg's staff to search for and seize cultural property by virtue of Reichsleiter Rosenberg's position as representative of the Fuehrer for the supervision of the whole ideological and political education of the NSDAP.
The Tribunal will recall, however, that it is by virtue of holding this office that Defendant Rosenberg occupied a place within the Reichsleitung, or Party Directorate of the Leadership Corps. That is Exhibit USA-370, and it is simply offered for the purpose of showing the address to the highest Reich authorities and services directly subordinate to the Fuehrer.
In a letter to the Defendant Bormann, dated the 23rd of April 1941, the Defendant Rosenberg protested against the arbitrary removal by the SD and other public services of property from libraries, monasteries, and other institutions; and he proposed that, in the claims by the SD and his representative, the final regulation as to the confiscation should be made by the Gauleiter. This letter has been offered previously as 071-PS; and I quote, beginning with the next to the last sentence at the bottom of Page 1 of the English translation-I am sorry, Your Honor, that is in the other book.
THE PRESIDENT: You cited 071-PS this morning.
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir, and I will forego that at the moment Your Honor, because it refers back to the other book. Finally, in connection with the presentation of this subject, I submit that the summary of evidence establishes that the defendants and the conspirators, Rosenberg and Bormann, acting in their capacity as political leaders of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party and as members thereof, participated in the Conspiracy or Common Plan alleged in Count One of the Indictment and committed acts constituting the crimes alleged. Accordingly we submit: (1) The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party is a group or organization in the sense in which those terms are used in Article 9 of the Charter; (2) The defendants and conspirators, Rosenberg and Bormann, committed the crimes defined in Article 6 of the Charter, and in that capacity as members of the political leaders of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party.
It was at all times the primary and central design and purpose of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party to direct, engage, and
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participate in the execution of the conspiracy which contemplated and involved the commission of the crimes as defined in Article 6 of the Charter.
And I should like now to call attention again to a chart which was identified in the beginning-I believe by Major Wallis; it was taken from the publication which is entitled The Face of the Party. This chart emphasizes, more clearly than I can state, the total and thorough control over the life of the German, beginning at the age of 10 at the bottom of the chart and continuing through the various categories on up through.
Notice the age of 10 to 14, the Jungvolk. Then it goes to the Adolf Hitler School on the right, 12 to 18. The Hitler Jugend, 15 to 18; the SA, the NSKK, NSFK, 19 to 20. And then the labor service over at the left. And then again to the SA, SS, NSKK, NSFK; and then into the Wehrmacht, and on up through to the top box on the left of the top row of men, the political leaders of the NSDAP. And
Then finally all of those buildings up there, as I understand, are the academies of the NSDAP. And then finally at the top to the political leaders of the German yolk, showing the evolution. This is the final exhibit, and with that I close the presentation of the Leadership Corps. The next presentation is the Reich Cabinet (the Reichsregierung). We will take just a few moments.
If Your Honors please, there is one thing Colonel Seay called my attention to. I simply refer to it for the record. In one of the previous documents, 090-PS, Exhibit USA-372, which is in the other document book, there was a statement that clearly established that the expenses of the Einsatzstab Rosenberg, that is, the staff's operational expenses, were financed by the Nazi Party.
If the Tribunal please, I now offer Document Book X, which I believe has been passed to Your Honors; and also Colonel Dostert's staff has prepared a chart of the Reichsregierung in different languages, and I believe Your Honors have copies. There is one copy here in German that I shall be glad to pass to counsel who are especially concerned with this case. They have one copy in German. I don't know who it is...
THE PRESIDENT: You mean counsel for the Reich Cabinet?
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir. May I say also, by preliminary reference, that we examined the records in the collection office this morning and only one letter of intervention has been filed on behalf of the Reich Cabinet and that was by the Defendant Keitel.
We will now consider the Reichsregierung. Some preliminary remarks about this group have already been placed before the Tribunal by Mr. Albrecht in his comments upon the government chart. It will be necessary, however, for sake of coherence, to repeat briefly
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some of the statements made by him, and therefore we beg the indulgence of the Tribunal.
The Reichsregierung, meaning Reich Cabinet, unlike most of the other groups named in the Indictment, was not especially created by the Nazi Party to carry out or implement its nefarious schemes and purposes. The Reichsregierung-commonly referred to as the Cabinet-had, before the Nazis came to power, a place in the constitutional and political history of the country. As with other cabinets of duly constituted governments, the executive power of the realm was concentrated in that body. The Nazi conspirators realized this only too well. Their aim for totalitarian control over the State could not be secured, they realized, except by acquiring, holding, and utilizing the top-level machinery of the State. And this they did. Under the Nazi regime the Reichsregierung gradually became a primary agent of the Nazi Party with functions and policies formulated in accordance with the objectives and methods of the Party itself. The institution of the "Reichsregierung" became- at first gradually and then with more rapidity-polluted by the infusion of the Nazi conspirators into the Cabinet. Many of them- 16 to be exact-sit before you today in the dock. There was no plan, scheme, or purpose, however vile or inhuman or illegal in any sense of the word, that was not clothed with the semblance of legality by the Nazi Reichsregierung. It is for that reason that we will ask this Tribunal-after the proof has been offered-to declare that body, as defined in the Indictment, to be a criminal organization. The proof will be divided into two main categories, the first of which will tend to establish the composition and nature of the Reichsregierung under the Nazis, as well as delineating briefly its functions and powers, while the second will tend to establish-and conclusively we believe-the reasons why the brand of criminality should be affixed to that group.
The term "Reichsregierung" literally translated reads "Reich Government." Actually, as we said, it was commonly taken to refer to the ordinary Reich Cabinet. In the Indictment the term "Reichsregierung" is defined to include not only those persons who were members of the ordinary Reich Cabinet, but also persons who were members of the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich and the Secret Cabinet Council. However, the really important subdivision of the three is-as the proof will show-the ordinary Cabinet. Between it and the other two there was in reality only an artificial distinction. There existed, in fact, a unity of personnel, actions, functions, and purposes that obliterated any academic separation. As used in the Indictment, the term "ordinary Cabinet" means Reich Ministers, that is, heads of departments of the central government, Reich Ministers without portfolio, State Ministers acting
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as Reich Ministers, and other officials enticed to take part in meetings.
I might state here that altogether there were 48 persons who held positions in the ordinary Cabinet. Seventeen of them are defendants before the Tribunal. Bormann is absent. Of the remaining 31, eight are believed to be dead.
Into the ordinary Cabinet were placed the leading Nazi collaborators, the trusted henchmen; and then, when new governmental agencies or bodies were created either by Hitler or the Cabinet itself, the constituents of these new bodies were taken from the roles of the ordinary Cabinet.
In 1933 when the first Hitler Cabinet was formed on the 30th of January, there were 10 ministries that could be classified as departments of the Central Government. I have here a typed copy of the minutes of the first meeting of that Cabinet. These were found in the files of the Reich Chancellery and bear the typed signature of one Weinstein, who was described in the minutes as responsible for the protocol, the counsellor of the ministry. That document already appears in Document Book B; but I again refer the Tribunal to Page 4 of the translation, which is Document 351 as shown in your document book and contains a list of those present.
THE PRESIDENT: 351-PS?
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir, 351-PS, Exhibit USA-389.
The 10 ministers referred to therein are set forth. They are:
Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Defendant Von Neurath; Reich Minister of the Interior, the Defendant Frick; Reich Minister of Finance, Von Krosigk; Reich Minister of Economy and Reich Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Hugenberg; Reich Minister of Labor, Seldte; Reich Minister of Justice-no name is given-the post was filled 2 days later by Gurtner; Reich Defense Minister Von Blomberg; and the Reich Postmaster General and Reich Minister for Transportation, Von Eltz-Rubenach.
In addition you will note that the Defendant Goering was there as a Reich Minister-he had no portfolio then-and as Reich Commissar for Aviation. Dr. Gereke was there as Reich Commissar for Procurement of Labor. Two State Secretaries were present: Dr. Lammers of the Reich Chancellery and Dr. Meissner of the Reich Presidential Chancellery.
THE PRESIDENT: In the copy I have the Defendant Goering appears as the Reich Minister for Aviation.
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir. I mentioned that he appears as Reich Minister and as Reich Commissar for Aviation.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I see. I was reading from the first two pages of the document. You were reading from Page 4?
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COL. STOREY: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
COL. STOREY: I am informed that the Ministry was created later, but it is given as Reich Commissar for Aviation.
In addition the Defendant Funk was present as Reich Press Chief, and the Defendant Von Papen was present as Deputy of the Reich Chancellor and Reich Commissar for the State of Prussia.
Not long after that date new ministries or departments were created into which leading Nazi figures were placed. On 13 March 1933 the Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda was created. The decree setting it up appears in the 1933 Reichspesetzblatt, Part I, Page 104, our Document 2029-PS.
I assume that the Court will take judicial notice of the laws and decrees, as we have mentioned in the previous proceeding.
The late Goebbels was named as Reich Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda.
On 5 May 1933 the Ministry of Air (Reichsgesetzblatt 1933, Part I, Page 241, our Document 2089-PS). On 1 May 1934 the Ministry of Education. I refer to 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 365, our Document 2078-PS. On 16 July 1935 the Ministry for Church Affairs (1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 1029, our Document 2090-PS). The Defendant Goering was made Air Minister; Bernhard Rust, Gauleiter of South Hanover, was named Education Minister; and Hans Kerrl named Minister for Church Affairs.
Two ministries were added after the war started. On 17 March 1940 the Ministry of Armaments and Munitions was established (1940 Reichspesetzblatt, Part I, Page 513, our Document 2091-PS). The late Dr. Totd, a high Party official, was appointed to this post. The Defendant Speer succeeded him. The name of this department was changed to "Armaments and War Production" in 1943 (1943 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 529, our Document 2092-PS). On 17 July 1941, when the seizure of the Eastern Territories was in progress, the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories was created. The decree appointing the Defendant Rosenberg to the post of Minister of this department has already been received in evidence as Exhibit USA-319.
During the years 1933 to 1945 one ministry was dropped-that of Defense which was later called "War". This took place in 1938 when, on 4 February, Hitler took over command of the whole Armed Forces. At the same time he created the "Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces" or, in other words, the Chief of the OKW. This was the Defendant Keitel. The decree accomplishing this change is published in the 1938 Reichspesetzblatt, Part I, at Page 111. It appears in our document book as 1915-PS,
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and I would like to quote a brief portion of that decree. It begins at the bottom of the second paragraph:
"He"-referring to the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces-"is an equal in rank to a Reich Minister.
"At the same time, the Supreme Command takes the responsibility for the affairs of the Reich Ministry of War; and by my order, the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces exercises the authority formerly belonging to the Reich Minister."
Another change in the composition of the Cabinet during the years in question should be noted. The post of Vice-Chancellor was never refilled after the Defendant Von Papen left on 30 July 1934.
In addition to the heads of departments that I have outlined, the ordinary Cabinet also contained Reich Ministers without portfolio. Among these were the Defendants Hans Frank; Seyss-Inquart; Schacht, after he left the Economics Ministry; and Von Neurath, after he was replaced as Minister for Foreign Affairs. There were other positions that were also an integral part of the Cabinet. These were: the Deputy of the Fuehrer, the Defendant Hess, and later his successor; the Leader of the Party Chancellery, the Defendant Bormann; the Chief of Staff of the SA, Ernst Rohm, for 7 months prior to his assassination; the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Lammers; and, as we have already mentioned, the Chief of the OKW, the Defendant Keitel. These men had either the title of, or the rank of, Reich Minister. I have already read portions of the law creating the Chief of the OKW where his importance in Cabinet affairs is delineated. The importance of the Defendants Hess and Bormann will soon be expounded, while that of the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Lammers, will also soon become self-evident.
But there were others, such as State Ministers acting as Reich Ministers. Only two persons fell within this category: the Chief of the Presidential Chancellery, Otto Meissner; and the State Minister of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Karl Hermann Frank. In addition, the Indictment names as belonging to the ordinary Cabinet "others entitled to take part in Cabinet meetings." Many governmental agencies were created by the Nazis between the years 1933 and 1945, but the peculiarity of such creations was that in most instances such new posts were given the right to participate in Cabinet meetings. Here the list is long but significant. Thus those entitled to take part in Cabinet meetings were: the Commanders-in-Chief of the Army and the Navy, the Reich Forest Master, the Inspector General for Water and Power, the Inspector General of German Roads, the Reich Labor Leader, the Reich Youth Leader, the Chief of the Foreign Organization in the Foreign Office, the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police in the Reich
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Ministry of the Interior, the Prussian Finance Minister, and the Cabinet Press Chief.
These, then, were the posts and some of the personnel in the ordinary Cabinet. They were all positions of such common knowledge and notoriety that the Tribunal can take judicial notice. Further, they all appear on the chart entitled "Organization of the Reich Government," which was authenticated by the Defendant Frick and is in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-3, which Mr. Albrecht introduced on the second day of the Trial. They are also provable by laws and decrees published in the Reichsgesetzblatt and by notices in the semi-official monthly publication entitled Das Archiv, which was edited by an official of the Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda-all of which, I submit, are within the judicial notice purview of the Tribunal. The persons who held these posts in the ordinary Cabinet varied between the years i933 to 1945.
Does Your Honor wish to adjourn at 12:45?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, perhaps we had better.
[A recess was taken until 1400 hours.]
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Afternoon Session
COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, the persons who held these posts in the ordinary Cabinet varied between the years 1933 and 1945. Although it is not incumbent upon us to prove who they were, since the group and not the individuals are under consideration, nevertheless their names are already before this Tribunal in the original governmental chart, Exhibit Number USA-3. Since it will be of interest to the Tribunal to see what persons-and 17 of them are defendants here-held what positions in the Cabinet, a table has been prepared which lists all the departments and posts I have mentioned and the incumbents thereof during the years 1933 to 1945. The German equivalents of the titles are also shown; and with the permission of the Tribunal, I will now distribute this table to the members of the Tribunal. Copies have likewise been filed in the defendants' Information Center. The table also is annotated with citations to sources verifying the facts shown-all of which, however, were of common knowledge during the period in question.
Diverting from the text: This is simply prepared for the convenience of the Tribunal in connection with the studying of the briefs and the documents. As I said at the outset, the proof will show that there was only an artificial distinction between the ordinary Cabinet, the Secret Cabinet Council, and the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich. This is evidenced in the first instance by the unity of personnel between the three subdivisions.
Thus, on 4 February 1938 Hitler created the Secret Cabinet Council. If Your Honors will refer to this big chart, you will notice under 1938 there is a red line pointing down to the Secret Cabinet Council created during that year. This decree appears in the 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, at Page 112. It is in our document booing, Document 2031-PS, and I should like to quote from this document. It begins with the opening paragraph, Document 2031-PS, under the Laws and Decrees Section. I quote:
"To advise me in directing the foreign policy I am setting up a Secret Cabinet Council. As President of the Secret Cabinet Council I nominate Reich Minister Baron von Neurath. As members of the Secret Cabinet Council I nominate:
"Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs Joachim van Ribbentrop; Prussian Minister President, Reich Minister of the Air, Supreme Commander of the Air Forces, General Field Marshal Hermann Goering; the Fuehrer's Deputy, Reich Minister Rudolf Hess; Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Dr. Joseph Goebbels; Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Hans Heinrich Lammers;"-that
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is shown at the top immediately under Hitler-"Supreme Commander of the Army, Colonel General Walther von Brauchitsch; Supreme Commander of the Navy, Grand Admiral Dr. Raeder; Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, General of the Artillery Wilhelm Keitel."
It will be noted that every member was either a Reich Minister or, as in the case of the Army, Navy, and OKW heads, had the rank and authority of a Reich Minister.
On 30 August 1939 Hitler established the Council of Ministers for Defense of the Reich, better known as the Ministerial Council- coming down from the year 1939, the Ministerial Defense Council. This was the so-called war cabinet. The decree appears in the 1939 Reichspesetzblatt, Part I, at Page 1539. I now refer to Document 2018-PS of the Laws and Decrees, and I quote Section Number 1:
"(1) A Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich shall be formed out of the Reich Defense Council as a standing committee;
"(2) The standing members of the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich shall include:
"General Field Marshal Goering as chairman; the Fuehrer's Deputy"-the Defendant Hess-"the Plenipotentiary General for Reich Administration"-who was the Defendant Frick-"the Plenipotentiary General for Economy"-the Defendant Funk-"the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery"-Dr. Lammers-"the Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces"-who was the Defendant Keitel. "(3) The chairman may draw on any other members of the Reich Defense Council as well as other personalities for advice."
Again it will be seen that all were also members of the ordinary Cabinet. But this use of the Cabinet as a manpower reservoir from whom the trusted collaborators were selected becomes particularly poignant when we consider the actions of the Nazi conspirators which were not published in the Reichsgesetzblatt, which were concealed from the world, and which were part and parcel of their conspiracy to wage aggressive war. It will have been noted that the decree setting up the Ministerial Council contained this language, the one to which I have just referred:
"A Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich shall be formed out of the Reich Defense Council as a standing committee...."-also Subparagraph 3 of the same one-The chairman may draw on any other members...."
There is evidence already before this Tribunal establishing the creation-by the Cabinet-on 4 April 1933 of this really secret warplanning body. I refer the Tribunal to Exhibit USA-24, which
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appears in our document book as Document 2261-PS. That document contains the unpublished Reich Defense Law of 21 May 1935. As to the membership of that Council when first created, I have here a copy of the minutes of the second session of the working committee of the delegates for the Reich defense, dated 22 May 1933, and signed by the Defendant Keitel. It appears in our document book as EC-177, Exhibit USA-390. The composition of the Reich Defense Council appears on Page 3 of the original, and also on Page 3 of the translation:
THE PRESIDENT: I thought you were going to refer to 2261-PS.
COL. STOREY: If Your Honor pleases, I just referred to it as being an exhibit already in evidence and said that it was one of the unpublished Reich defense laws. That was the only purpose in referring to it.
The quotation is from Page 3 of the translation, beginning at the top of the page:
"Composition of the Reich Defense Council:
"President, Reich Chancellor; Deputy, Minister of the Reichswehr; Permanent Members, Minister of the Reichswehr, Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs, Reich Minister of the Interior, Reich Minister of Finance, Reich Minister of Economic Affairs, Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Reich Air Ministry, Chief of the Army Command Staff, Chief of the Navy Command Staff, and-as the case may be-the remaining Reich Ministers, other personalities, for example, leading industrialists, et cetera."
All but the Chiefs of the Army and Navy Command Staff were, then, component parts of the ordinary Cabinet. The composition of this Defense Council was changed in 1938. I refer the Tribunal to Exhibit USA-36, which appears in our document book as Number 2194-PS. This contains the unpublished Reich Defense Law of 4 September 1938.
I now quote from Paragraph 10, entitled "The Reich Defense Council," which is found at Page 4 of the copy of the law in the original; and I now quote from Page 6 of the English translation, the top of the page:
"(2) The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor is chairman in the Reich Defense Council. His permanent deputy is General Field Marshal Goering; he has the authority to call conferences of the Council. Permanent members of the Council are:
"Reich Minister of Air and Supreme Commander of the Air Force, the Supreme Commander of the Army, the Supreme Commander of the Navy, the Chief of the OKW, the Fuehrer's
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"The other Reich Ministers and the Reich offices directly subordinate to the Fuehrer and the Reich Chancellor will be consulted if necessary. Further personalities may be called as the case demands."
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, it would help me if you explained to me what conclusions you are asking us to draw from these documents.
COL. STOREY: If Your Honor pleases, we were trying to show the progressive domination of the Reich Cabinet by the defendants and the members of this group, so that, as Your Honors will see as we later go ahead, they could pass laws and decrees secretly, by circulatory process or at the will, in effect, of the defendants. I realize it is a little detailed, but we are trying to show the composition and how it was set up, and the conclusions will be drawn later.
By that time the Supreme Commanders of the Army and Navy had been given ministerial rank and authorized to participate in Cabinet meetings. I cite 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 215.
May we at this time call the attention of the Tribunal to two members of the Defense Council who will also appear in the Ministerial Council under the same title: the Plenipotentiary for Administration and the Plenipotentiary for Economy. The former post was held by the Defendant Frick, while the latter was first held by the Defendant Schacht and then by the Defendant Funk, who signed the decree in that capacity. These facts are verified by the Defendant Frick in Exhibit Number USA-3, which is the Nazi governmental organization chart previously referred to.
As we will later show, these two posts had many of the other ministries subordinated to them for war-planning aims and purposes. They, together with the Chief of the OKW, formed a powerful triumvirate, known as the "Three-Man College"-that is shown in the three boxes down from 1935 to 1938-which figured prominently, as the proof will disclose, in the plans and preparations to wage aggressive war. And the incumbents of these positions were Cabinet members: the Defendants Frick, Funk, and Keitel.
This utilization of the ordinary Cabinet as a supply center for other governmental agencies and the cohesion between all of the groups is perhaps quickly seen on the chart which is shown.
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The points I have been making are illustrated on the chart. We are not offering this chart in evidence, although all facts thereon already have been or will be proved. The chart is also designed to depict-to the left of the line running down the right center- the chronological development of the offshoots of the ordinary Cabinet. Thus in the main box entitled "Reich Cabinet"-which appears directly under Hitler-certain dates appear.
I believe I will skip the part that describes those lines because it is self-evident.
The Ministerial Defense Council was created in 1944; the Delegate for Total War Effort was Goebbels. These agencies were, next to Hitler, the important Nazi functionaries. In every case, as the chart shows, they were occupied by persons taken from the ordinary Cabinet. The arrow running from the Reich Defense Council to the Ministerial Defense Council is intended to reflect the fact, shown previously, that the latter was formed out of the former. We will, for other points of this presentation, refer again to the chart, especially to that portion to the right, which relates to ministries.
The unity, cohesion, and inter-relationship of the subdivisions of the Reichsregierung were not the result of a co-mixture of personnel alone. It was also realized by the method in which it operated. The ordinary Cabinet consulted together both by meetings and through the so-called circulation procedure. Under this procedure, which was predominantly used when meetings were not held, drafts of laws prepared in the individual ministries were distributed to the other Cabinet members for approval or disapproval.
The man primarily responsible for. the circulation of drafts of laws under this procedure was Dr. Lammers, the Leader and Chief of the Reich Chancellery. I have here an affidavit executed by him concerning that technical device, which we offer in evidence as Exhibit USA-391, Document 2999-PS. It is short and I should like to quote all of it:
"I, Hans Heinrich Lammers, being first duly sworn, depose and say:
"I was Leader of the Reich Chancellery from 30 January 1933 until the end of the war. In this capacity I circulated drafts of proposed laws and decrees, submitted to me by the minister who had drafted the law or decree, to all members of the Reich Cabinet. A period of time was allowed for objections, after which the law was considered as being accepted by the various members of the Cabinet. This procedure continued throughout the entire war. It was likewise followed also in the Ministerial Council for
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Defense of the Reich."-Signed-"Dr. Lammers"-and sworn to before Lieutenant Colonel Hinkel.
As an illustration of how the circulation procedure worked, I have here a memorandum dated 9 August 1943, which bears the facsimile signature of the Defendant Frick and is addressed to the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery. Attached to the memorandum is a draft of the law in question and a carbon copy of a letter dated 22 December 1943, from the Defendant Rosenberg to the Reich Minister of the Interior, containing his comments on the draft. I now offer Document 1701-PS as Exhibit USA-392, and I call Your Honors' attention to the big red border around the enclosure. The quoted portion is from Page 1 of the translation and Page 1 of the original. Quoting:
"To the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin (We). For the information of the other Reich Ministers. Subject: Law on the Treatment of Asocial Elements of Society. Referring to my letter of 19 March 1942, 55 enclosures.
"The draft of the Law on the Treatment of Asocial Elements of Society having been completely rewritten, I am sending the enclosed new draft with the consent of the Reich Minister of Justice, D
r. Thierack, and ask that the law be approved in the circulatory manner. The necessary number of copies is attached."
The same procedure was followed in the Council of Ministers when that body was created; and the decrees of the Council of Ministers were also circulated to the members of the ordinary Cabinet.
I have here a carbon copy of a memorandum found in the files of the Reich Chancellery by the Allied armies and addressed to the members of the Council of Ministers, dated 17 September 1939 and bearing the typed signature of Dr. Lammers. It is Document 1141-PS, Exhibit USA-393. From the English translation, the last paragraph just above Dr. Lammers' signature, I quote:
"Matters submitted to the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich have heretofore been distributed only to the members of the Council. I have been requested by some of the Reich Ministers who are not permanent members of the Council to inform them of the drafts of the decrees which are being submitted to the Council, so as to enable them to check those drafts from the point of view of their respective offices. I shall follow this request so that all of the Reich Ministers will in the future be informed of the drafts of decrees which are to be acted upon by the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Retch. I therefore request that45 additional
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copies of the drafts, as well as of the letters which usually contain the arguments for the drafts, be added to the folders submitted to the Council."
Von Stutterheim, who was an official of the Reich Chancellery, comments on this procedure at Page 34 of a pamphlet entitled The Reich Chancellery, which I now offer in evidence, Document 2231-PS . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, I don't understand what the importance of the last document is.
COL. STOREY: The last document, if Your Honor pleases, is in further evidence of the approval of laws and of the passing of laws by a circulatory process.
THE PRESIDENT: We already have that in Dr. Lammers' affidavit.
COL. STOREY: It might be considered strictly cumulative, if that is what Your Honor has in mind.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, if it is cumulative, we don't really want to hear it.
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir; I will ask then that it be stricken from the record. I had really overlooked the fact that it was cumulative. Miss Boyd and Commander Kaplan tell me that the Document Number 2231-PS is probably also corroborative of the same process: and I will, therefore, not offer it.
I have already stated that for a time the Cabinet consulted together through actual meetings. The Council of Ministers did likewise, but those members of the Cabinet who were not already members of the Council also attended the meetings of the Ministerial Council. And when they did not attend in person they were usually represented by State Secretaries of the Ministries. We have here the minutes of six meetings of the Council of Ministers of the 1, 4, 8, and 19 September 1939, also- of the 16 October and 15 of November 1939. These original documents were found in the files of the Reich Chancellery. I offer them in evidence as Document 2852-PS, Exhibit USA-395. It will only be necessary to point, for our purposes, to a few of the minutes. I call the attention of the Tribunal to the meeting held on the 1st of September 1939, which is probably the first meeting since the Council was created on the 30th August 1939; and I read from that document-showing who was present-beginning at the top of the English translation:
"Present were the permanent members of the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich:
"The Chairman, General Field Marshal Goering; the Fuehrer's Deputy, Hess;"-for some unknown reason a line appears
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through the name Hess-"the Plenipotentiary General for Reich Administration, Dr. Frick; the Plenipotentiary General for Economy, Funk; the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Lammers; and the Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces, Keitel, represented by Major General Thomas."
These were the regular members of the Council. Also present were the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture, Darre, and seven State Secretaries-naming the secretaries. These State Secretaries were from the several ministries or other supreme
Reich authorities, as, for example, to name a few: Korner was the Deputy of the Defendant Goering in the Four Year Plan; Stuckart was in the Ministry of the Interior; Landfried was in the Ministry of Economics; Syrup was in the Ministry of Labor. These later positions appear on the government chart which is already in evidence. Another meeting of the Council-I will skip that one.
And then there came the names of nine State Secretaries...
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Colonel Storey, the last document showed only that certain members of the Cabinet came to a Cabinet meeting. Did it show any more than that?
COL. STOREY: It shows no more than that. I was just going
on a little farther to show that an SS Gruppenfuehrer was present also, and other people were present.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): What would that show?
COL. STOREY: In other words, that they called in these subordinate people, as in the meeting of the ministers.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): What would that show?
COL. STOREY: Well, it just shows the permeation of the Party
and the subordinate agencies, showing they could use the Reich Cabinet for whatever purpose they wanted and to devise laws any way they wanted. They called in these subordinate people, in these subordinate positions, to sit with them when they were passing Cabinet measures. I can also call Your Honors' attention to the Ministerial Council for Defense. It was supposed to be a ministerialrank Cabinet meeting; and as I just started to show, they called in SS Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich to this meeting.
THE PRESIDENT: There can be no doubt can there, that there was a Reich Cabinet?
COL. STOREY: No, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: And that the Reich Cabinet made decrees by this circulatory method? There is no doubt about that.
COL. STOREY: That is right, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: What does this document add to that?
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COL. STOREY: It shows who participated, and how they went out into the Party ranks to bring others, but I will omit the rest of the references to these other individuals.
THE PRESIDENT: But we have had ample evidence before, haven't we, as to who formed the Reich Cabinet?
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir. Well, I will skip the rest of the references to other people who participated, and pass over to Page 23 of the record. Before leaving these minutes and as indicative of the activities of the Reichsregierung, I would like to direct the attention of the Tribunal to some of the decrees passed and the minutes discussed at these meetings. At the first meeting of 1 September 1939, 14 decrees were ratified by the Council. Of this group I call the attention of the Tribunal to Decree Number 6, appearing on Page 2 of the translation, and I quote:
THE PRESIDENT: I don't think you gave us the number, did you?
COL. STOREY: I beg your pardon, Sir. It is the Reichsgesetzblatt, I, Page 1681, of which we ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice. That decree was about the organization of the administration and about the German Security Police in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. That appears in the translation of 2852-PS. Another one that was passed is dated 19 September 1938, on Page 6 of the translation; and I quote from the bottom of the page:
"The Chairman of the Council, General Field Marshal Goering, made comments regarding the structure of civil administration in the occupied Polish territory. He expressed his intentions regarding the economic evacuation measures in this territory. Then the questions of decreasing wages and the questions of working hours and the support of members of families of drafted workers were discussed."
There are a number of miscellaneous points of discussion appearing, and in Paragraph 2 of the minutes I quote the following as it appears on Page Number 7:
"The chairman directed that all members of the Council regularly receive the situation reports of the Reichsfuehrer SS. Then the question of the population of the future Polish Protectorate was discussed and the housing of Jews living in Germany."
Finally, I call the attention of the Tribunal to the minutes of the meeting of 15 November 1939, Page 10 of the translation, where, among other things, the treatment of Polish prisoners of war was also discussed.
We submit that this document not only establishes the close working union between agencies of the State and Party, especially
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with the notorious SS, but also tends to establish, as charged in the Indictment, that the Reichsregierung was responsible for the policies adopted and put into effect by the Government, including those which comprehended and involved the commission of crimes referred to in the Indictment. But a mere working alliance would be meaningless unless there was power. And the Reichsregierung had the power. Short of Hitler himself, it had practically all the power a government can exercise. The Prosecution has already offered evidence on how Hitler's Cabinet and the other Nazi conspirators secured the passage by the Reichstag of the "Law for the Protection of the People and the Reich" of 24 March 1933, which, has been previously referred to in Document 2001-PS, which law vested the Cabinet with legislative powers even to the extent of deviating from previously existing constitutional law; how such powers were retained even after the members of the Cabinet were changed; and how The several states, provinces, and municipalities, which had formerly exercised semi-autonomous powers, were transformed into the administrative organs of The central government. The ordinary Cabinet emerged all-powerful from this rapid succession of events. The words of the Defendant Frick are eloquent upon that achievement. Here is an article in Document 2380-PS, which I offer in evidence as Exhibit USA-396; and it is from the 1935 National Socialist Yearbook. I quote from Page 213 of the original, and it is on Page 1 of the English translation, the second paragraph:
"The relationship between the Reich and the States has been put on an entirely new basis never known in the history of the German people. It gives to the Reich Cabinet"-Reichsregierung-"unlimited power; it even makes it its duty to build a completely unified leadership and administration of the Reich. From now on there is only one national authority: that of the Reich. Thus, the German Reich has become a unified state; and the entire administration in the states is carried out only by order of, or in the name of, the Reich. The state borders are now only administrative-technical boundaries, but no longer boundaries of sovereignty. In calm determination, the Reich Cabinet realizes step by step, supported by the confidence of the entire German people, the great longing of the nation: the creation of the unified National Socialist German State."
TEE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, that document seems to me to be merely cumulative. You have established, and other counsel on behalf of the United States have established, that the Reich Ministers had power to make laws, and the question is whether you have given any evidence as to the criminal nature of the Reich Cabinet.
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COL. STOREY: If Your Honor pleases, again it was included for the purpose of connecting one of the defendants here...
THE PRESIDENT: What I was pointing out was that it was merely cumulative.
COL. STOREY: Yes, all right, Sir. It may be strictly cumulative. I will omit the next reference, which will probably also be cumulative and turn over to...
THE PRESIDENT: The same document, you mean?
COL. STOREY: No, Sir. There is another document that I was going to offer, Number 2849-PS. There is a quotation from another book; it probably bears on the same point. I will omit it also. The next is a reference to the Ministerial Council's being given legislative power. I don't believe that that has been introduced before-that the Council itself was given legislative powers. That is in Article 2 of the decree of 30 August 1939, Document 2018-PS. The ordinary Cabinet continued to legislate throughout the war.
Obviously, because of the fusion of personnel between the Ministerial Council and the ordinary Cabinet, questions were bound to arise as to what form should lend its name to a particular law. Thus Dr. Lammers, the Chief of the Reich Chancellery and a member of both agencies, wrote a letter on 14 June 1942 to the Plenipotentiary for Reich Administration about this question.
This next document, if the Court please, it may not be necessary to read. It just shows that both agencies continued to legislate side by side, and it would really be cumulative evidence. There were others that possessed legislative powers, besides the ones I have mentioned. Hitler, of course, had legislative power. Goering, as Deputy of the Four Year Plan, could and did issue decrees that had the effect of law. And the Cabinet delegated power to issue laws which could deviate from the existing law to the Plenipotentiaries of Economy and Administration and the Chief of the OKW, the so-called "Three-Man College"-the Three-Man College having authority to legislate. This was done in the war-planning law, the Secret Defense Law of 1938, Document 2194-PS, Exhibit Number USA-36. These three officials, Frick, Funk, and Keitel, however, were, as we have proved, also members of the Council of Ministers, as well as being part of the ordinary Cabinet. It can therefore be readily said, in the language of the Indictment, that the Reichsregierung possessed legislative powers of a very high order in the system of German government and that they exercised such powers has in part already been demonstrated. I simply refer to that to show that it was a secret Cabinet law without quoting-that the executive and administrative powers of the Reich were concentrated in the central Government primarily as the result of two basic Nazi laws that reduced the separate states-called Lander-to mere
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geographical divisions. If Your Honor pleases, these laws are cited, and I believe it would be cumulative evidence if we undertook to chronicle the laws. I pass to the part at the bottom of Page 29. There were other steps taken towards centralization. Let us see what powers the ordinary Cabinet would wield as a result. We have here a publication published in 1944, which was edited by Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart, State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of the Interior, and Dr. Harry von Rosen-von Hoewel, another official with the title of "Oberregierungsrat" in the Reich Ministry of the Interior. It is entitled Administrative Law, and I offer it as Document 2959-PS, Exhibit USA-399. It details the powers and functions of all the ministers of the ordinary Cabinet, from which I will select but a few to illustrate the extent of control vested in the Reichsregierung. The quotation is from Page 2 of the translation and Page 66 of the original: "The Reich Ministers. There are at present 21 Reich Ministers, namely...." May I say that the only purpose in offering this is to show what each minister had jurisdiction over and to what his authority extended; for example, the Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs-it details what he handles. The Reich Minister of the Interior follows in detail on the matters entrusted to his jurisdiction, and so on.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, may I ask you what has that to do with the criminality of the Reich Cabinet?
COL. STOREY: The point, as I see it, again though it may be cumulative, Your Honor, is to show how these defendants, and the others with them, formed the ministries, formed these councils, so that they could give semblance of legality to any action they determined to take, whether they were in session or not and according to the dictates of the respective Ministers; in other words, showing a complete domination.
THE PRESIDENT: I should have thought that was amply shown already.
COL. STOREY: All right, Sir, I'll pass further reference. I'll skip over all the rest of the laws and go to Page 35 of the record, in reference to the criminality and the particular crimes. We now come to the second phase of the proof against the Reichsregierung, tending to establish the criminal characteristics. As the proof of all phases of the Prosecution's case is received, the Tribunal will note more and more the relationship such evidence bears to the Reichsregierung and their resultant responsibility therefor. Here we will direct the Court's attention to some prominent elements of the evidence that brands the group. First, it cannot be stressed too frequently that under the Nazi regime the Reichsregierung became a criminal instrument of the Nazi Party. In the original Cabinet of 30 January 1933, there were only three Cabinet members who
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were members of the Party: Goering, Frick, and Hitler. I have already shown that as new ministries were added prominent Nazis were placed at their head. On 30 January 1937 Hitler executed acceptance into the Party of those Cabinet members who were not already members of the Nazi Party. This action is reported in the Volkischer Beobachter, South German edition, 1 February 1937; it is Document Number 2964-PS, Exhibit USA-401, and I quote from Paragraphs 3 and 4 of the English translation:
'`In view of the anticipated re-opening of the rolls for Party membership, the Fuehrer, as the first step in this regard, personally carried out the enlistment into the Party of the members of the Cabinet who so far had not belonged to it; and he handed them simultaneously the Gold Party Badge, the supreme badge of honor of the Party. In addition, the Fuehrer awarded the Gold Party Badge to Colonel General Baron van Fritsch; Generaladmiral, Dr. Raeder; the Prussian Minister of Finance, Professor Popitz; and the Secretary of State and Chief of the Presidential Chancellery, Dr. Meissner. The Fuehrer also honored with the Gold Party Badge the Party members State Secretary Dr. Lammers, State Secretary Funk, State Secretary Korner, and State Secretary General of the Air Force Milch."
It was possible to refuse the Party membership thus conferred. Only one man did this, however, Von Eltz-Rubenach, who was the Minister of Posts and Minister of Transport at the time. I have here an original letter, dated 30 January 1937, from Von Eltz-Rubenach to Hitler, and it is in his own personal handwriting. I offer it in evidence as Document 1534-PS, Exhibit USA-402; and I quote the entire document:
"Berlin (We), 30 January 1937, Wilhelm Street, 79 "My Fuehrer:
"I thank you for the confidence you have placed in me during the 4 years of your leadership and for the honor you do me . in offering to admit me into the Party.
"My conscience forbids me, however, to accept this offer. I believe in the principles of positive Christianity and must remain faithful to my God and to myself. Party membership, however, would mean that I should have to countenance, without protest, the increasing violent attacks by Party officers on the Christian confessions and on those who wish to remain faithful to their religious convictions.
"This decision has been infinitely difficult for me, for never in my life have I performed my duty with greater joy and satisfaction than under your wise state leadership.
"I ask to be permitted to resign.
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"With German greetings, yours very obediently, Baron von Eltz."
But the Nazis didn't wait until all members of the Cabinet
THE PRESIDENT: Was Baron von Eltz permitted to resign?
COL. STOREY: Yes. As I understand, Your Honor, every one of them was a member, except this one; and he declined and resigned-which was accepted. The Nazis didn't wait until all members of the Cabinet were Party members. Shortly after they came to power, they quickly assured themselves of active participation in the work of the Cabinet. On 1 December 1933 the Cabinet passed a law securing the unity of Party and State. That has been introduced previously and I will not refer to it any more. It is referred to here as our Document Number 1395-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: Why is Baron von Eltz shown as a member of the Cabinet in 1938?
COL. STOREY: If Your Honor pleases, the "1938" simply refers to the time the Secret Cabinet Council was created. It does not have to do with when any of these people came to the Cabinet.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I see.
COL. STOREY: In other words, all these arrows show that these different agencies were created during those years.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I follow it.
COL. STOREY: I say, for Your Honors' information, that in this list of all of the Cabinet members and the members of the Reichsregierung from 1933 his name is shown in the list that we handed to Your Honors.
THE PRESIDENT: Up to 1937?
COL. STOREY: No, Sir; from 1933 down to 1945 his name is listed. If Your Honors will recalls we handed in a separate list and it does contain the Baron's name, with the authority of his appointment, et cetera.
THE PRESIDENT: You mean that is a mistake?
COL. STOREY: No, Sir; it is not a mistake.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, then, he didn't resign?
COL. STOREY: He did resign; but Your Honor asked if his name was shown up here and I said that in the separate list showing the list of all members of the Reichsregierung, from 1933 to 1945, the Baron's name was included and the proper reference is made in this separate list for Your Honors' guidance.
I have here a copy of an unpublished decree signed by Hitler, dated 27 July 1934. It is Document D-138, Exhibit USA-403; and
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it is in the section of "Laws and Decrees," if Your Honor pleases, and I offer it in evidence. This is a decree of Adolf Hitler:
"I decree that the Fuehrer's Deputy, Reich Minister Hess, will have the capacity of a participating Reich Minister in connection with the preparation of drafts for laws in all Reich administrative spheres. All legislative work is to be sent to him when it is received by the other Reich Ministers concerned. This also applies in cases where no one else participates except the Reich Minister making the draft. Reich Minister Hess will be given the opportunity to comment on drafts suggested by experts. This order will apply in the same sense to legislative ordinances. The Fuehrer's Deputy in his capacity of Reich Minister can send, as representative, an expert on his staff. These experts are entitled to make statements to the Reich Ministers on his behalf." signed by Hitler.
The Defendant Hess himself has some pertinent comment to make regarding his right of participation on behalf of the Party. And I now offer in evidence Document D-139, Exhibit USA-404. This is an original letter signed by Rudolf Hess and is dated the 9th of October 1934, on the stationery of the National Socialist Party; and it is addressed to the Reich Minister for Enlightenment of the People and Propaganda. I now quote the entire document:
"By a decree of the Fuehrer dated 27 July 1934, I have been granted the right to participate in the legislation of the Reich as regards both formal laws and legal ordinances. This right must not be rendered illusory by the fact that I am sent the drafts of laws and decrees so late and am then given a time limit with the result that it is impossible for me to deal with the material concerned within the appointed time. I must point out that my participation means taking into account the opinion of the National Socialist Party as such and that, in the case of the majority of drafts of laws and decrees, I consult with the appropriate departments of the Party before making my comment. Only by proceeding in this manner can I do justice to the wish of the Fuehrer as expressed in the decree of the Fuehrer of 27 July 1934. I must therefore ask the Reich Ministers to arrange that drafts of laws and decrees reach me in sufficient time. Failing this, I should be obliged in the future to withhold my agreement to such drafts, from the beginning and without giving the matter detailed attention, in all cases where I am not given a sufficiently long period for dealing with them. Heil."-Signed Rudolf Hess.
A handwritten note appears attached to the letter. It reads, and I quote from Page 2 of the translation:
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"1. The identical letter seems to have been addressed to all Reich Ministers. In our special field the decree of 27 July 1934 has hardly become applicable so far. A reply does not seem called for.
"2. File. By order"-signed-"R."
The participating powers of Hess were later broadened. I now refer to Document D-140, Exhibit USA-405; and it is a letter dated the 12th of April 1938 from Dr. Lammers to the Reich Ministers. I offer it in evidence and quote from the English translation, Paragraph 3:
"Under the provisions of Paragraph 3 of the first decree concerning reconstruction of the Reich, of February 2d, 1934 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, Page 81), the Fuehrer's Deputy will also participate in the approval by Reich Ministers of laws and legislative ordinances of Lander. Where the Reich Ministers have already at an earlier date been engaged in the preparation of such laws or legislative ordinances or have participated in such preparation, the Fuehrer's Deputy likewise becomes participating Reich Minister. Laws and legislative
Decrees of the Austrian State are equally affected hereby."- Signed-"Dr. Lammers."
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, may I ask you what those three documents are supposed to prove?
COL. STOREY: In the first place, Your Honor, the one I have just referred to shows that they passed laws over conquered territory-that one related to Austria. The one signed by Hess, just before, gives him almost unlimited power as regards both formal and legal ordinances and over administrative districts; and in addition, I think, Your Honor, the most important point is that Hess says: You must send them to me long enough in advance so that I may consult with the Party and the appropriate Party members and get their reaction.
THE PRESIDENT: Is that relied upon as evidence of criminality, that he took the trouble to find out what other ministers thought?
COL. STOREY: I think it is a part of the general conspiracy showing the domination of Party and State by the Nazi Party and particularly the Leadership Corps.
THE PRESIDENT: I thought I had already said that it appeared to us-and I think I speak on behalf of all the Tribunal-that that matter had been amply proved and that we wished you to turn to the question of criminality of the Reich Cabinet.
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COL. STOREY: May I assume, Your Honors, that we need to offer no further proof that the Party itself had to do with the making of these laws as suggested by the Defendant Hess? I thought it was incumbent upon us to prove that the Party dominated this Cabinet, and particularly the Leadership Corps.
THE PRESIDENT: You are dealing now with the Reich Cabinet, and I think the Tribunal is satisfied that the Reich Cabinet had full powers to make laws.
COL. STOREY: I think that we go a little step and undertake to show, if we have not already shown, that the way and manner in which they did it-by consulting the Party-was criminal Now, I have some other laws to cite here in corroboration of that; but, if the Tribunal is satisfied, I don't see any use in citing them.
THE PRESIDENT: I don't think the Tribunal would imagine that they made laws without consulting somebody. Perhaps it would be a convenient time to break off for 10 minutes.
[A recess was taken.]
COL. STOREY: If Your Honors please, when we adjourned we were speaking of these laws that had been passed; and certainly I do not want to offer any cumulative evidence or any that is not necessary. I therefore am briefly referring to the laws which we propose to offer now.
The Party, as Your Honors will recall, had 25 fundamental points which they had set out to achieve, as introduced in evidence yesterday. Those points, Your Honors will recall, related to everything from the abrogation of the Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain to the obtaining of greater living space, and so forth.
Now, we propose to cite to Your Honors various decrees and laws passed by this Cabinet carrying into effect what we contend were the criminal purposes of the Party, and to show that the Reich Cabinet was asked by the Party to give semblance of legality to their alleged criminal purposes. That is the only reason we expect to chronicle or to mention the laws that were passed in pursuance thereof. And I shall proceed, as Your Honors suggest, by simply listing a group of the laws that seek to establish the so-called 25 points of the Nazi Party. Perhaps, with Your Honors' permission, I will just refer to a few of them as being indicative of the type of laws that were passed to further their 25 points.
For example, in implementation of this point the Nazi Cabinet enacted, among others, the following laws: .
The law of February 3, 1938, concerning the obligation of German citizens in foreign countries to register. That is cited in the Reichspesetzblatt. '
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The law of the 13th of March 1938, relating to the reunion of Austria with Germany.
THE PRESIDENT: These were all passed by the Reich Cabinet, were they?
COL. STOREY: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, aren't you going to cite the laws?
COL. STOREY: Yes, but I was going to show them as illustrative; that is the 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt Part I, Page 237.
The law of November 21, 1938, for the reintegration of the German Sudetenland with Germany, 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 1641.
The incorporation of Memelland into Germany, March 23, 1939, Part I, Page 559, of the 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt.
With reference to Point 2...
THE PRESIDENT: Would you give me the place where the 25 points are set out? Have you got a reference to that?
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir; it appears in Document 1708-PS, in Document Book A.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
COL. STOREY: And I believe we referred to it yesterday.
THE PRESIDENT: That is sufficient.
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir.
Now, as an illustration, Point 2 of that Party platform-which, as Your Honors will recall, demanded the cancellation of the Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain-the following acts of the Cabinet in support of this part of the program may be mentioned:
Proclamation of October 14, 1933 to the German people concerning Germany's withdrawal from the League of Nations and the Disarmament Conference, 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 730.
Law of March 16, 1935 for the establishment of the Wehrmacht and compulsory military service, 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Pages 369 to 375.
Now, with reference to Point 4 of the Party platform, which said:
"Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood without consideration of confession. Consequently, no Jew can be a member of the race."
That is Point 4. ,
Among other Cabinet laws, this point was implemented by the
law of July 14, 1933 for the recall of naturalization and deprivation of citizenship of these people, 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 480.
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The law of April 7, 1933, which said that persons of non-Aryan descent could not practice law, 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 188.
The law of April 25, 1933, restricting the number of non-Aryans in schools and higher institutions of learning, 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 225.
The law of September 29, 1933, excluding persons of Jewish blood from the peasantry, 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 685.
Another one, March 19, 1937, excluded Jews from the Reich Labor Service, 1937 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 325.
There is another one of July 6, 1938, prohibiting Jews from participating in six different types of businesses, 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 823.
Point 23 of that Party platform proclaimed, "We demand legislative action against conscious political lies and their broadcasting through the press...."
To carry out this point I give a few of the Cabinet laws that were passed. One of September 22, 1933, which established the Reich Culture Chamber, 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 661.
One concerning editors, of October 4, 1933, 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 713.
Another one with reference to restrictions as to the use of the theater, on May 15, 1934, 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 411.
Now, passing from those illustrative laws, the ordinary Cabinet in fact enacted most of the legislation which set the stage for and put into execution the Nazi conspiracy described under Count One of the Indictment. Many of these laws have been referred to previously by the Prosecution. All of the laws to which I shall refer or have referred were enacted specifically in the name of the Cabinet. A typical introductory paragraph reads, and I quote: "The Reich Cabinet has enacted the following law which is hereby promulgated." In other words, that shows it is a Cabinet law.
THE PRESIDENT: That applies to all the ones you have just given us?
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir. That is a typical heading.
In connection with the acquiring of control of Germany, under Count One of the Indictment, I refer to some of the following laws.
Here is a law of the 14th of July 1933 against the establishment of new parties. I believe I referred to that yesterday. That is 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 479. ,
Another of 14 July 1933 provided for the confiscation of property of Social Democrats and others, 1933 Reichspesetzblatt, Part I, Page 479.
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I have already referred to that law of 1 December 1933 which consolidated the Party and the State, which is found in 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 1016. In the course of consolidating the control of Germany these laws were enacted, and I give a few illustrations: 21 March 1933, creating special courts-that is in 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 136; law of the 31st of March 1933 for the integration of all the states into the Reich, 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 153.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat that. Integration of what?
COL. STOREY: Integration of the states-that is the separate states into the Greater Reich.
Here is one of 30 June 1933, eliminating non-Aryan civil servants or civil servants married to non-Aryans, 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 433; then the law of the 24th of April 1934 creating the People's Court, 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 341-and that was the same court Your Honors saw functioning in one of the movies exhibited last week.
Here is the law of 1 August 1934, uniting the office of President and Chancellor, 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 747.
I am not introducing all of them or referring to all of them.
Here is a law of the 18th of March 1938 that provides for the submission of one list of candidates to the electorate of the entire Reich, 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 258.
Nazi extermination of political internal resistance in Germany through the purge of their political opponents and through acts of terror, which are set forth in Paragraph III(D) 3(b) of Count One, was facilitated or legalized by the following Cabinet laws, translations being found in Document Book F. which has previously been submitted. I will just refer to a few of these as they are translated in that book.
Here is one of 14th of July 1933 that prohibits the establishment of new parties and contains a penal clause. That is found in 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 479. Here is one of 20th December 19...
THE PRESIDENT: You have already given that one.
COL. STOREY: I believe so; yes, Sir.
Here is a law of the 3rd of July 1934 concerning measures for emergency defense of the State, and which legalized their own purge. That is in 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 529.
Here is a law of the 20th of December 1934 on treacherous acts against the State and Party and for protection of the Party uniforms, 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 1269.
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Here is one of the 24th of April 1934 that makes the creation of a new, or continuance of existing, political Parties an act of treason, 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 341.
Here is one of the 28th of June 1935 that changes the Penal Code, 1935 Reichspesetzblatt, Part I, Page 839.
Here is the final one I will mention: 16 September 1939, permitting second prosecution of an acquitted person before a special court, the members of which were named by Hitler, 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 1841.
Now, next are some laws that related to the extermination of the Trade Unions, which I have already cited, and they are in Document Book G. I will not refer to them. Then the laws abolishing collective bargaining-I have referred to those; I will pass them.
In fact, even the infamous Nuremberg Laws of September 15 1935, although technically passed by the Reichstag, were nevertheless worked out by the Ministry of the Interior. This is verified by a work of Dr. Franz A. Medicus, Ministerialdirigent, published in 1940. It is Document 2960-PS, Exhibit USA-406. I would like to refer to the paragraphs at Page 62 of the original publication, and translated in our Document 2960-PS. Beginning the first paragraph:
"The work of the Reich Ministry of Interior forms the basis for the three 'Nuremberg Laws' passed by a resolution of the Reichstag on the occasion of the Reich Party Meeting of Freedom.
"The 'Reich Citizenship Law' as well as the 'Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor' opened extensive tasks for the Ministry of the Interior not only in the field. . . of administration. The same applies to the 'Reich Flag Law' that gives the basis for the complete revision of the national flags."
A few decrees of the Council of Ministers which similarly supplied the legal basis for the criminal acts and conduct of the conspirators, about which the Tribunal has already heard and will hear more, relate to those of August 5, 1940, which imposed a discriminatory tax on Polish workers in Germany, and that is in 1940 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 1077; also the law of 4 December 1941, which imposed penal measures against the Jews and the Poles in the eastern occupied countries, 1941 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 759. The last one was concerning the employment of Eastern Workers, which I referred to this morning.
Almost immediately upon Hitler's coming into power, the Cabinet commenced to implement the Nazi conspiracy to wage aggressive war. Three of the documents that establish this point have already been introduced in evidence. They are EC-177, 2261-PS,
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and 2194-PS, respectively. Document EC-177, which is Exhibit USA-390, is a long copy of the minutes; and I beg the indulgence of the Tribunal for referring to it again. It is EC-177...
THE PRESIDENT: Is it in this book?
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir, EC-177. Your Honors, I didn't intend to quote from that. I am simply referring to it as being the minutes of the second session of the working committee of the delegates for Reich defense and being signed by the Defendant Keitel.
Document 2261-PS consists of a letter dated the 24th of June 1935. That transmits a copy of a secret, unpublished defense law
of 21 May 1935 and also a copy of a decision of the Reich Cabinet of the same date, in the Council for Defense of the Reich. These have been previously introduced, but they are illustrative laws passed by this Cabinet.
Document 2194-PS also transmits a copy of the secret, unpublished Reich Defense Law, 4 September 1938.
I will skip down to the laws passed by the Reich Defense Council, on Page 50, for the record.
The Reich Defense Council was a creation of the Cabinet. On 4 April 1933 it was decided to form that agency. The decision of the Cabinet attached to Document 2261-PS, which is Exhibit USA-24, Page 4 of the translation, Paragraph 1, proves that fact. The two secret laws contained in Document 2261-PS, as well as 2194-PS, were passed by the Cabinet; nor was this a case of one group setting up an entirely distinct group to do its dirty work. The Cabinet put itself into the picture. This might have been a difficult task to accomplish before the Nazis assumed power, but with the Nazis in control, things could move swiftly; and I now refer again to Document EC-177, but I will not undertake to quote from that, although the quotation is set out here.
There is only one point in that connection which would not be cumulative. It is Page 5 of the translation and Page 8 of the original of EC-177, on the question of security and secrecy, that I think would be pertinent to the criminal nature. I quote:
"The question has been brought up by the Reich Ministries. The secrecy of all Reich defense work has to be maintained very carefully. Communications with the outside, by messenger service only, has been settled already with the Ministry of Posts, Ministry of Finance, Prussian Ministry of the Interior, and the Reichswehr Ministry. Main principle of security: no document must be lost, since otherwise enemy propaganda would make use of it. Matters communicated orally cannot be proved; they can be denied by us in Geneva. Therefore the Reichswehr Ministry has worked out security
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directives for the Reich Ministries and the Prussian Ministry of the Interior."
I will skip the next reference. I believe I will skip over to the affidavit of Defendant Frick, on Page 60.
THE PRESIDENT: What is that?
COL. STOREY: It is, if Your Honor pleases, Document 2986-PS. It is Exhibit USA-409. It is the original affidavit, signed by the Defendant Frick. I believe Defendant Frick sums up pretty well how the work was carried on.
"I, Wilhelm Frick, being first duly sworn, depose and say:
"I was Plenipotentiary General for the Reich Administration from the time when this office was created until 20 August 1943. Heinrich Himmler was my deputy in this capacity. Before the outbreak of the war my task as Plenipotentiary General for Reich Administration was the preparation of organization in the event of war, such as, for instance, the appointment of liaison men in the different ministries who would keep in touch with me. As Plenipotentiary General for Reich Administration I, together with the Plenipotentiary General for Economy and the OKW, formed a so-called 'Three Man College.' We were also members of the Reich Defense Council, which was to plan preparations and decrees in case of war, which later were published by the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich. Since, as soon as the war had started, everything would have to be done speedily and there would be no time for planning, such war measures and decrees were prepared in advance. All one then had to do was to pull out of the drawer the war orders that had been prepared. Later on, after the outbreak of the war, these decrees were enacted by the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich."-Signed and sworn to by Dr. Wilhelm Frick, on the 19th of November 1945.
To sum up this particular phase of the proof, the Cabinet by its own decision and its own laws created a large war-planning body- the Reich Defense Council-the members of which were taken from the Cabinet. Within the Council they set up a small working committee, again composed of Cabinet members and certain defense officials, a majority of whom were appointed from the Cabinet members. And to streamline the action, they placed all of its ministries-except Air, Propaganda, and Foreign Affairs-into the groups headed respectively by the Plenipotentiaries for Economy and Administration, and the OKW; and everything was organized in and for the greatest of secrecy.
That is this Three-Man College.
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Now, in conclusion, if Your Honor pleases, I would like at this time to summarize briefly the proof concerning the Reichsregierung.
From 1933 to the end of the war, the Reichsregierung comprised the dominant body of influence and leadership below Hitler in the Nazi Government. The three subdivisions were included in the term Reichsregierung in the Indictment: the ordinary Cabinet, the Secret Cabinet Council, and the Council of Ministers for Defense of the Reich. Yet in reality there existed only an artificial, illusory boundary between the three.
The predominant subdivision was, of course, the ordinary Cabinet, which was commonly referred to as the Reichsregierung. In it were the leading political and military figures in the Nazi Government. Seventeen of the 22 defendants before this Tribunal were integral parts of the ordinary Cabinet.
I should like now to name these defendants and to indicate the positions they held in the Reichsregierung:
Martin Bormann, Leader of the Party Chancellery; Karl Doenitz, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy; Hans Frank, Reich Minister without Portfolio; Wilhelm Frick, Minister of the Interior, Plenipotentiary for Reich Administration; Walter Funk, Minister of Economics, Plenipotentiary for Economy; Hermann Goering, Minister for Air, Reich Forest Master; Rudolf Hess, Deputy of the Fuehrer; Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the OKW; Constantin H. K. von Neurath, Minister for Foreign Affairs, President of the Secret Cabinet Council; Franz van Papen, Vice-Chancellor; Erich Raeder, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy; Joachim van Ribbentrop, Minister for Foreign Affairs; Alfred Rosenberg, Minister of the Occupied Eastern Territories; Hjalmar Schacht, Acting Minister of Economics, Reich Minister without Portfolio, President of the Reichsbank, Plenipotentiary for War Economy; Baldur von Schirach, Reich Youth Leader; Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Reich Minister without Portfolio; and finally, Albert Speer, Minister for Armaments and War Production.
From the ordinary Cabinet there came not only the members of the Secret Cabinet Council and the Council of Ministers for Defense of the Reich, but also the members of the war planning group, the Nazi secret Reich Defense Council. When it was deemed essential for the purposes of the conspiracy to wage aggressive war, that power was concentrated in a few individuals. Again these individuals were drawn from the ordinary Cabinet. Thus the Plenipotentiaries for Economy and Administration were also Ministers of the ordinary Cabinet, and they were also members of the Reich Defense Council and Ministerial Council.
Under them were grouped practically all the ministers of the ordinary Cabinet.
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Where political considerations of foreign policy required that another select group be chosen to act as advisors, the secret Cabinet was created and populated with members of the ordinary Cabinet.
The Reichsregierung was dominated by the Nazi Party through the control exercised over its legislation by the Deputy of the Fuehrer, Hess, and later by the Leader of the Party Chancellery, Bormann. Party control was also effected through the individual membership of all members and the union of various key Cabinet and Party positions in one man. As a result of this fusion of the Party and State, an enormous concentration of political power was gathered into the Cabinet.
The laws enacted by the Cabinet established the framework within which the Nazi conspirators established their control of Germany, set forth in Count One of the Indictment, by virtue of which they were enabled to commit the crimes alleged in Counts One, Two, Three, and Four of the Indictment. The Cabinet enacted harsh penal laws, discriminatory laws, confiscatory laws, in violation of the principles of justice and humanity. Decrees enacted by the Ministerial Council during the war clothed the criminal acts of the Nazi conspirators with a semblance of legality. As an instrument of the Party, the Cabinet effectively implemented the notorious points of the Party program. Finally, the Cabinet, almost immediately upon the coming into power of Hitler, became a war-planning group through its establishment in 1933 of a Reich Defense Council and its active participation in the schemes and plans for waging aggressive war.
It is therefore most respectfully submitted that, by virtue of all of the foregoing, the Reichsregierung, as defined in Appendix D, Page 35, of the Indictment, should be declared a criminal group within the meaning of Article 9 of Section II of the Charter.
That concludes, if Your Honor pleases, this presentation, and the next subject is the SA. It will take just about a couple of minutes to be ready for that.
May it please the Tribunal, I passed up Document Book Y. which contains the English translations of the documents relied upon in this presentation.
The organization which I shall now present for your consideration is the Sturmabteilung, the organization which the world remembers as the "Brown Shirts" or "Storm Troops," the gangsters of the early days of Nazi terrorism. It came to be known in later years as the SA, and I shall refer to it in that manner in the course of my presentation.
The SA was the first of the organizations conceived and created by the Nazis as the instrument and weapon to effectuate their evil
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objectives, and it occupied a place of peculiar and significant importance in the scheme of the conspirators. Unlike some of the other organizations, the functions of the SA were not fixed or static. On the contrary, it was an agency adapted to many designs and purposes, and its role in the conspiracy changed from time to time- always corresponding with the progression of the conspiracy through its various phases towards the final objective: abrogation of the Versailles Treaty and acquisition of the territory of other peoples and nations. If we might consider this conspiracy as a pattern, with its various parts fitting together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, we would find that the piece representing the SA constituted a link in the pattern vitally necessary to the presentation and development of the entire picture.
The SA participated in the conspiracy as a distinct and separate unit having a legal character of its own. This is shown by Document 1725-PS, which is tabbed in the document book, of which the Court will take judicial notice. It is an ordinance passed in March 1935, Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 502. It declares that the SA and certain other agencies were thereafter to be considered "components" of the Nazi Party. This ordinance further provided in Article 5-and it is on the second page of the English translation, right after the word "Article 5"-I quote, "The affiliated organizations can have their own corporate identity."
Similarly the Organization Book of the Nazi Party characterizes the SA as an "entity." Document 3220-PS, which I now offer, is an excerpt from the 1943 edition of the Organization Book, Page 358 of the original, and I quote from the English translation. It is there declared:
"The Fuehrer prescribes the law of conduct and commands its use. The Chief of Staff represents the SA as a complete entity on the mandate of the Fuehrer.
I am sure the evidence will demonstrate and characterize the SA as an entity and organization having a legal character of its own. This evidence will show that, while- the SA was composed of many individual members, these members acted collectively and cohesively as a unit. They were closely bound and associated together by many common factors, including: uniform membership standards and disciplinary regulations; a common and distinctive uniform; common aims and objectives; common activities, duties, and responsibilities; and-probably the most important factor of all-a fanatical adherence to the philosophies and ideologies conceived by the Nazi conspirators.
This is partially demonstrated by Document Number 2354-PS, which again is simply an excerpt from the Organization-Book; and it is found on Page 7 of the English translation. It provides that
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membership in the SA was voluntary but that the SA man should withdraw if "he can no longer agree with SA views or if he is not in a position to fulfill completely the duties imposed upon him as a member of the SA."
The SA man was well schooled in the philosophies, attitudes, and activities which he was expected and required to adopt and reflect in his daily life. Cohesion of thought and uniformity of action with respect to such matters was in part obtained by the publication and distribution of a weekly periodical entitled Der SA-Mann (The SA Man). This publication was principally devoted to the creation and fostering of the various aspects of Nazi ideology which constituted the doctrinal motives of many of the conspirators.
May I digress from my text and say to the Tribunal that we have here on the table all of these publications, beginning with the year 1934, up through and including the year 1939. The official weekly newspaper entitled Der SA-Mann, meaning The SA Man, published in Munich, had wide distribution and was on sale at news stands and distributed throughout Germany and occupied countries.
In addition, Der SA-Mann served to report upon and document the activities of the SA as an organization and those of its constituent groups. I shall have occasion at a later point to refer to certain portions of this publication for the consideration of the Tribunal.
The general organizational arrangement or plan of the SA will be demonstrated to the Tribunal by the documents which will subsequently appear. At this point I may say simply that this proof will show that the SA developed from scattered bands of street ruffians to a well-knit, cohesive unit organized on a military basis with military training and military functions and, above all, with an aggressive, militaristic, and warlike spirit and philosophy. The organization extended throughout the entire Reich territory and was organized vertically into local groups and divisions. Horizontally, therefore special units including military cavalry, communications, engineer, and medical units. Your Honors will observe the chart that I will introduce officially a little later on the wall. Co-ordination of these various groups and branches was strictly maintained by the SA headquarters and operational offices, and those offices were located in Munich.
The relationship between the SA and the NSDAP is the next subject.
The case against the SA is a strong one and its basis or foundation consists of its significant and peculiar relationship and affiliation with the Nazi Party and the principal conspirators.
It is submitted that a relationship or association among the alleged conspirators constitutes important and convincing evidence of their joint participation in an established conspiracy; and this
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principle is particularly applicable because the affiliation between the SA and the Nazi leaders was closely maintained and adhered to
And was adapted to the purpose of enabling the conspirators to employ the SA for any use or activity which might be necessary in the course of effectuating the objectives of the conspiracy.
Thus we find that the SA was, in fact, conceived and created by Hitler himself in the year 1921 at the very inception of the conspiracy. Hitler retained direction of the SA throughout the period of the conspiracy, delegating the responsibility for its leadership to a Chief of Staff. Hitler, in fact, was often known throughout Germany as OSAF, or "Oberster SA Fuehrer," or, translated, meaning the highest SA Fuehrer.
The Defendant Goering was an early member of the SA and he maintained a close affiliation with it throughout the course of the conspiracy.
The Defendant Hess participated in many of the early bathes of the SA and was leader of an SA group in Munich.
The Defendants Frank, Streicher, Von Schirach, and Sauckel each held a position of Obergruppenfuehrer in the SA, a position corresponding to the rank of Lieutenant General; and the Defendant Bormann was a member of the staff of the SA High Command.
The close relationship between the SA and the leaders of the Nazi Party is demonstrated by the fact that the Hoheitstrager of the Nazi Leadership Corps were authorized to call upon the SA for assistance in carrying out particular phases of the Party program. This was established yesterday by Document 1893-PS, which, Your Honors will recall, I quoted from a number of times in connection with the presentation of the Leadership Corps. It was declared in that excerpt, Page 11 of the English translation, as Your Honors will recall, that the Hoheitstrager were empowered to call upon the SA for the execution of political missions connected with the movement. This responsibility of the SA to the Party is also shown by Document 2383-PS, which is an ordinance for the execution of the Hitler decree, which I now offer in evidence as Exhibit USA-410. I quote from Page 3 of the English translation. If Your Honors will turn to Page 3 of the English translation, it is the fourth paragraph on Page 3:
"The affiliates of the NSDAP, with exception of the SS, for whom special provisions apply, are subordinated to the Hoheitstrager politically and for assignment to duty. Responsibility for the leadership of the units rests in the hands of the unit leader."
It was in accordance with such authority, as proved yesterday in the Leadership Corps presentation, that the SA was used in the seizure of trade union properties.
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In addition the SA demonstrated its close affiliation to the Nazi Party by participating in various ways in election proceedings. This is shown in Document 2168-PS, which is a pamphlet entitled The SA, which is Exhibit USA-411; and this pamphlet depicts the history and general activities of the SA, written by an SA Sturmfuehrer named Bayer upon orders from SA headquarters. In that pamphlet, and I quote on Page 4 of the English translation, down towards the bottom of the page, the last paragraph, beginning on line 3:
"The labor and the struggle of the SA was not in vain. They stood at the foremost front of election contests."
Adolf Hitler himself, on the 2d of September 1930, took over the leadership of the SA as the Supreme SA Fuehrer. He himself guided his SA in the fateful election fight of the year 1930.
Further evidence of the interest and participation of Nazi leaders in the activities of the SA is to be found in these five bound volumes, which consist of the issues of the SA newspaper, Der SA-Mann, from the year 1934 to 1539 inclusive; and I should like at this time to ask that each of these bound volumes be marked for identification, because each of them will be referred to from time to time during this presentation. They will begin with Exhibit USA-414, 415, 416, 417, and 418 and they are referred to by appropriate document numbers, which I will refer to when the quoted portions come in the English translation.
Throughout these volumes there appear photographs portraying the participation of Nazi leaders in SA activities. I should like at this time to describe a few of the photographs, and I will indicate the page numbers upon which they appear.
If Your Honors please, we set out a number of these pictures and a number of photographs; but I should like, at this time, to exhibit to the Tribunal and pass into evidence one of the photographs appearing in the January 1937 issue. It is a photograph of Goering at the ceremonies held upon the occasion of his being made Obergruppenfuehrer of the Feldherrnhalle Regiment of the SA on the 23rd of January 1937, and we offer in evidence the photograph and the page of the newspaper. We will pass it up to Your Honors if you would like to see it. We offer it in evidence.
Another photograph of Goering, leading the Feldherrnhalle Regiment of the SA in parade on the 18th of September 1937, is shown at Page 3. The other photograph was at Page 3 of the 1937 January edition of the SA-Mann.
I call the attention of Your Honors to a few of the other photographs that appear. There is a photograph of Hitler greeting Huhnlein, bearing the caption, "The Fuehrer greets Corps Fuehrer Huhulein at the opening of the International Automobile Fair-1935." That is dated the 23rd of March 1935, at Page 6.
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Here is another photograph of Himmler and Huhnlein, who was the Fuehrer of the NSKK, and Lutze, who was Chief of Staff of the SA, bearing the caption, "They lead the soldiers of National Socialism," 15th of June 1935, Page 1.
Another photograph of Hitler at an SA ceremony, carrying the SA battle flag; and the picture bears the caption, "As in the fighting years, the Fuehrer, on the Party Day of Freedom, dedicates the new regiments with the Blood Banner," 21 September 1935, Page 4.
I pass on. Here is a photograph of Goering in the SA uniform, reviewing SA marching troops, under the caption, "Honor Day of the SA," 21 September 1935, Page 3.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, is there any doubt that Hitler and Goering were members of the SA?
COL. STOREY: No, Sir; but the purpose in showing those photographs, if Your Honors please, was to show the militaristic character of the SA. If there is no question about that and it is cumulative, then I will pass on.
The work of the SA did not end with the seizure by the Nazis of the German Government, but affiliation between the SA and the Nazi leaders was continued after the acquisition by the Nazis of the control of the German State. The importance of the SA in connection with the Nazi Government and control of Germany is shown by the law of December 1, 1933. I have already referred to that, that is, the union of Party and State. However, there is one paragraph that has not been quoted before, if Your Honors please, and I would like to call Your Honors' attention to it. It is our Document 1395-PS, and it appears in the English translation on Page 1, and I quote Article 2:
"The Fuehrer's Deputy and the Chief of Staff of the SA become members of the Reich Government in order to insure close co-operation of the of flees of the Party and SA with the public authorities."
Similarly, in Document 2383-PS, which I referred to a moment ago-I will simply refer to it-that is 2383-PS, Page 11, the last paragraph:
"The Party and State offices must support the SA in this training program and value the certificate of award of the SA defense medal accordingly."
That the Nazis at all times possessed complete control of the SA is shown by the so-called Rohm Purge of June 1934. Evidence concerning this matter is to be found in the Volkischer Beobachter of 1 July 1934, at Page 1. I will not quote from that.
Rohm had been Chief of Staff of the SA for several years and was responsible for the development of the SA into a powerful organization with definite programs and objectives.
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Members of the SA were required to take a personal oath of fidelity to him. But when his policies conflicted with those of the Nazi leaders, he was removed and murdered and replaced by Victor Lutze. This drastic action was accomplished without revolt or dissension in the ranks of the SA and with no change in the objectives or program of the organization. The SA remained "a reliable and strong part of the National Socialist Movement"-and I am quoting; this is Document 2407-PS, Exhibit USA-412, the English translation of the Volkischer Beobachter. It is the last paragraph in the English translation, just above the name "Adolf Hitler." I will say for the translators that the quotation is included in our text. If we might go on, I quote:
"It is my wish that the SA be built up as a reliable and strong part of the National Socialist movement, full of obedience and blind discipline. They must help to create and form the new German citizens."
The importance of the SA in the Nazi plan for the utilization of the people of Germany is shown in Hitler's pronouncement, "The Course for the German," which appears in the issue of Der SA-Mann of the 5th of September 1936, at Page 22. It is our Document 3050-PS, Exhibit Numbers USA-414 and USA-418; and it is at Page 29 of the English translation-Page 29 of Document 3050-PS, the paragraph in the middle of the page; and I quote:
". . . the young boy will enter the Jungvolk, and the adolescent will enter the Hitler Youth; the young man of the Hitler Jugend will go into the SA, the SS, and other units, and the SA and SS men will one day enter into the labor service and from there the Army, and the soldier of the yolk will return again into the organization of the Movement, of the Party, into the SA and SS, and never again will our yolk decay as it once had decayed."
And so we see that at all times during the conspiracy the relationship between the SA and the Nazi Party was such that the SA was constantly available to the conspirators as an instrument to further their aims. The SA was created by the conspirators at the inception of the Nazi movement. It was at all times subject to the direction of Adolf Hitler. Seven of the defendants held positions of leadership and responsibility in the organization, and at all times the SA was subject to the call of the Hoheitstrager. The SA stood at the forefront of the election fights; and co-operation between the offices of the Party, of the SA, and of the State was assured by law.
And so it was declared by Victor Lutze, the former Chief of Staff of the SA, in a pamphlet entitled The Nature and Tasks of the SA; and it is our Document Number 2471-PS. The original we offer in evidence as Exhibit USA-413; and I quote from the top of
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Page 1 of the English translation, 2471-PS. I believe I will read that whole paragraph, the first paragraph on the top of the page:
"Before touching the real subject matter, I must tell you first, in order to clear up any uncertainty about my own position, that I never speak primarily as a member of the SA, but as a National Socialist, since the SA cannot be independent of the National Socialist movement but can only exist as a part of it."
I should next like to present to the Tribunal evidence which will demonstrate the principal functions and activities performed by the SA pursuant to the relationship which I have described above and in furtherance of the objectives of the conspiracy. These activities may be logically classified or divided into four distinct phases or aspects, each of which, I might add, corresponds with a particular phase in the progression of the conspiracy toward the objectives alleged in the Indictment.
The first phase consists of the use of the SA and its members as the instrument for the dissemination of ideology and fanaticism of the Nazis throughout Germany. The employment of the SA for this purpose continued throughout the entire period of the conspiracy as will, I am sure, be apparent from the evidence.
The second phase relates to the period prior to the Nazi seizure of power. During this period the SA was a militant and aggressive group of fighters or gangsters whose function was to combat, physically and violently, all opponents of the Party.
The third phase relates to the period of several years following the Nazi seizure of power. During this period the SA participated in various measures designed to consolidate the control of the Nazis, including such Nazi-inspired programs as the dissolution of the trade unions, the persecution of the Church, and the Jewish persecutions to which I have already alluded. During this period they continued to serve as a force of political soldiers whose purpose was physically to combat members of political parties which were considered hostile or opposed to the Nazi Party.
The fourth aspect of the SA activities consisted of its employment as an agency for the building up of an armed force in Germany in violation of the Treaty of Versailles and for the preparation of the youth of Germany-mentally and physically-for the waging of an aggressive war.
I should now like to discuss what I consider the highlights of the evidence relating to these four phases.
The first phase is in connection with the dissemination of ideology.
The first function of the SA consisted of its responsibility to disseminate the doctrines and ideologies, acceptance of which was
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necessary for the fulfillment of the Nazi objectives. From the very start the Nazi leaders emphasized the importance of this mission. During the course of the conspiracy the SA undertook many duties and responsibilities, but one responsibility which remained constant throughout was that of being propagandist of the National Socialist ideology.
I now refer, Your Honors, to the English translation of Document 2760-PS, Exhibit USA-256, which is an excerpt from Mein Kampf, and it is shown at Page 5 of the translation of the document. This is the third paragraph on Page 5 of the document, quoting:
"As the directing idea for the inner training of the Sturmabteilung, the intention was always dominant, aside from all physical education, to teach it to be the unshakeably convinced defender of the National Socialist idea...."
I might add that Hitler's pronouncement as to the function of the SA in this respect became, in effect, the guiding principle of SA members, for Mein Kampf was taken to express the basic philosophy of the SA.
In Document Number 2354-PS, which is an excerpt from the Organization Book of the Party, on Page 1 of the English translation-it is quoted in the text-I quote Paragraph 1:
"Education and training, according to the doctrines and aims of the Fuehrer as they are set down in Mein Kampf and in the Party program, for all phases of our living and of our National Socialist ideology...."
This same document-the Organization Book of the Party-refers to the SA's function as the propagandist of the Party.
I believe the next one, if Your Honor pleases, would simply be cumulative of what we have already referred to. I next refer to an article . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps this would be a convenient time to break off.
COL. STOREY: All right, Sir.
[The Tribunal adjourned until 19 December 1945 at 1000 hours].
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