The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

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         Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression, Supplement B
  Frick's Part in the Reichstag, and Views on Jewish Rights
                              
     Testimony of Wilhelm Frick, taken at Nurnberg,
     Germany, 2 October 1945, 1435-1655, by Mr. H.R.
     Sackett. Also present: T/5 Gunther Kosse,
     Interpreter; S/Sgt Horace M. Levy, Court Reporter.
     
                                                 [Page 1407]
                                                            
Q. After Hitler got out of jail in 1924, from then on to
1933, you saw him quite often, did you not?

A. Yes, I saw him, because I was a member of the Reichstag.

Q. When were you made Reichsleiter of the Reichstag?

A. At the Party meeting in `33. I was Reichsleiter in my
capacity as leader.

Q. Leader of the Party faction in the Reichstag?

A. The Party was represented in the Reichstag by a faction,
and I was the chairman of this faction, and as such, I was
the Reich leader.

Q. Well, as I understand it, you were the leader of the
Party in the Reichstag in 1933, and as such, you were called
"Reichsleiter."

A. As such, the Fuehrer gave me this title.

Q. Were you not the leader of the Party in the Reichstag,
prior to 1933?

A. My connection with the Party started in 1924, when I was
elected to the Reichstag. Even though the Party was not
allowed at that time, up to 1925, the people who elected me
to the Reichstag were former members of the Party.

Q. My question was, prior to 1933 were you not considered by
the Party as its leader in the Reichstag?

A. Only in 1933, the Fuehrer said, "In order to give you a
position in the Party, I am going to make you the
Reichsleiter." The faction was a body by itself. I had a
special position in the Reichstag. I always consulted Hitler
and asked him about the outlines, and what he wanted to have
represented in the Reichstag.

Q. That was prior to 1933, to which you are referring now?

A. That was before `33. I was leader of the faction after
the elections in `27. In 1927 and `28, we did not have the
Voelkische Arbeitsgemeinschaft (People's Working Community)
any more; we only had the National Socialist Party. We were
12 members in the beginning.

Q. How many times were you elected to the Reichstag
altogether?

A. Since 1926, I was elected every time.

Q. And how often were elections held?

A. In `24; and then maybe again in the fall of `24 or `25;
and

                                                 [Page 1408]
                                                            
then maybe there was an election again in `27; from `24 to
`33, there were about four or five elections; and then after
`33, there were about four elections. My task also was to
choose the candidates for the party. I did all this in the
name of the Fuehrer.

Q. How did the Fuehrer decide upon who were going to be
candidates?

A. We made a list of prominent members, such as Gauleiters,
and so on, and gave them to the Fuehrer. He approved of
them, or sometimes even added some names.

Q. Did you assist these people in their campaigns for
office?

A. There were special representatives of the Party, who
prepared the campaigns according to their won territories.

Q. Were you in charge of this?

A. I had to make the preparation for the others. The lists
had to be brought to the election commissioner, and so on.
In September 1930, after the elections, we had 107 members
instead of 12.

Q. How many members did you have in December 1932?

A. There was another election in July `32, and then we had
about 230 members.

Q. And that was out of a total membership of how many, did
you say?

A. There were more than 500 members.

Q. As I understand it, in the early days of 1923, you were
not very close to Hitler, but by 1933, you were not very
close to Hitler, but by 1933, you were one of his close
advisors; is that right?

A. Naturally, because the faction in the Reichstag grew
larger and larger. Therefore, I had to get to know him
better.

Q. And it was through the Reichstag and through you that
Hitler decided to try to come into power, was it not?

A. In a legal democratic way, according to the rules of the
Weimar Republic.

Q. When was it that Hitler first preached anti-Semitism?

A. Shortly after the Raeterepublik in Munich. [The
Raeterepublik was the name applied to the brief government
formed by the Communists in Bavaria after the 1918
revolution.]

Q. To what year are you referring?

A. It was already in the program of 1924.

Q. On many occasions you talked with Hitler about the Jewish
question; did you not?

A. During these election campaigns, the Jewish question was
not important.

Q. Wasn't the Jewish question mentioned in the campaigns?

A. Naturally, because it was a point of the Party program.

                                                 [Page 1409]
                                                            
Q. Well, in general, what was said by the Party speakers on
the Jewish question, prior to 1933?

A. It was said that the influence in politics by the Jews is
a bad one, because the Jews were always considered by the
people as a foreign body in the German government. This also
could be seen in the Weimar Republic, because many Jews were
active in prominent positions, as Ministers, and so on.

Q. Well, the Party opposed the Jews whether they were
Communists or not; didn't they?

A. That is a question of race.

Q. Well, I don't know whether I understand you or not. Let
me ask you this: Was it your feeling that the Jews should
not be entitled to have political rights, but all other
constitutional rights that they were guaranteed by the
Weimar Constitution, they should be allowed to keep?

A. The freedom of speech is not a political right, to be
compared with the election to the Reichstag, for instance.

A. And you thought that Jews were entitled to freedom of
speech; did you?

A. That they should not be treated any differently in that
respect than the other German citizens.

Q. How about their freedom from arrest, search, and seizure?

A. Exactly the same as the others, that is, a protection of
personal freedom.

Q. Why is it you distinguish so much between the rights of
the Germans and the Jews to political freedom?

A. There is the question of what is the right of the citizen
of Germany.

Q. You don't think the Jews should be entitled to be
citizens?

A. They should not be allowed to be a citizen, since this is
limited only to people of German blood, just as any
foreigners are not allowed to be citizens.

Q. But the Party and Hitler advocated the taking away of
their property rights as well as their political rights, did
they not?

A. That was not the case from the beginning on.

Q. When did that become the case?

A. I believe it was only done in `37, when the first laws in
that respect were passed in the economic field.

Q. And in 1937, also, you changed your mind about the right
of the Jews to own property and enjoy freedom of speech; did
you not?

A. I was not concerned with these things. All this was
discussed in the Ministries of Interior and the Four-Year
Plan.

                                                 [Page 1410]
                                                            
Q. Well, my question was, did you change your mind or not?

A. No, I did not change my mind. I considered it better to
keep on doing it the way I just mentioned to you.

Q. Do you consider the Jewish people an inferior race?

A. I look at them as a foreign body in the German State,
which should not be allowed to assimilate with the Germans.

Q. Well, the Party attitude against the Jews, originally
arose out of the fact that they were powerful politically,
and the Party wanted to get into power; and they had to
dispose of the Jews in politics to do so; did they not?

A. In comparison to the number of Jews in Germany, they had
a much too strong influence in politics.


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