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                          Judgment
                           of the
               International Military Tribunal
                           For The
             Trial of German Major War Criminals

                           London
               His Majesty's Stationery Office
                            1951
                              
           THE LEADERSHIP CORPS OF THE NAZI PARTY
                              
                                                   [Page 67]

Structure and Component Parts: The Indictment has named the
Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party as a group or
organisation which should be declared criminal. The
Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party consisted, in effect, of
the official organisation of the Nazi Party, with Hitler as
Fuehrer at its head. The actual work of running the
Leadership Corps was carried out

                                                   [Page 68]
                                                            
by the Chief of the Party Chancellery (Hess, succeeded by
Bormann) assisted by the Party Reich Directorate, or
Reichsleitung, which was composed of the Reichleiters, the
heads of the functional organisations of the Party, as well
as of the heads of the various main departments and offices
which were attached to the Party Reich Directorate. Under
the Chief of the Party Chancellery were the Gauleiters, with
territorial jurisdiction over the major administrative
regions of the Party, the Gaus. The Gauleiters were assisted
by a Party Gau Directorate or Gauleitung, similar in
composition and in function to the Party Reich Directorate.
Under the Gauleiters in the Party hierarchy were the
Kreisleiters with territorial jurisdiction over a Kreis,
usually consisting of a single county, and assisted by a
Party Kreis Directorate, or Kreisleitung. The Kreisleiters
were the lowest members of the Party hierarchy who were full-
time paid employees. Directly under the Kreisleiters were
the Ortsgruppenleiters, then the Zellenleiters and then the
Blockleiters. Directives and instructions were received from
the Party Reich Directorate. The Gauleiters had the function
of interpreting such orders and issuing them to lower
formations. The Kreisleiters had a certain discretion in
interpreting orders, but the Ortsgruppenleiters had not, but
acted under definite instructions. Instructions were only
issued in writing down as far as the Ortsgruppenleiters. The
Block and Zellenleiters usually received instructions
orally. Membership in the Leadership Corps at all levels was
voluntary.

On 28th February, 1946, the Prosecution excluded from the
declaration asked for, all members of the staffs of the
Ortsgruppenleiters and all assistants of the Zellenleiters
and Blockleiters. The declaration sought against the
Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party thus includes the
Fuehrer, the Reichsleitung, the Gauleiters and their staff
officers, the Kreisleiters and their staff officers, the
Ortsgruppenleiters, the Zellenleiters and the Blockleiters,
a group estimated to contain at least 600,000 people.

Aims and Activities: The primary purpose of the Leadership
Corps from its beginning was to assist the Nazis in
obtaining and after January 30, 1933, in retaining, control
of the German State. The machinery of the Leadership Corps
was used for the widespread dissemination of Nazi propaganda
and to keep a detailed check on the political attitudes of
the German People. In this activity the lower Political
Leaders played a particularly important role. The
Blockleiters were instructed by the Party Manual to report
to the Ortsgruppenleiters all persons circulating damaging
rumors or criticism of the regime. The Ortsgruppenleiters,
on the basis of information supplied them by the
Blockleiters and Zellenleiters, kept a card index of the
people within their Ortsgruppe which recorded the factors
which would be used in forming a judgment as to their
political reliability.

The Leadership Corps was particularly active during
plebiscites. All members of the Leadership Corps were active
in getting out the vote and insuring the highest possible
proportion of "yes" votes. Ortsgruppenleiters and Political
Leaders of higher ranks often collaborated with the Gestapo
and SD in taking steps to determine those who refused to
vote or who voted "no", and in taking steps against them
which went as far as arrest and detention in a concentration
camp.

Criminal Activity: These steps, which relate merely to the
consolidation of control of the Nazi Party, are not criminal
under the view of the conspiracy to wage aggressive war
which has previously been set forth. But the Leadership
Corps was also used for similar steps in Austria and those
parts of Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, Poland, France, Belgium,
Luxembourg, and Yugoslavia which were incorporated into the
Reich and within the Gaus of the Nazi Party. In those
territories the machinery of the Leadership Corps was used
for their Germanization through the elimination of local
customs and the detection and

                                                   [Page 69]
                                                            
arrest of persons who opposed German occupation. This was
criminal under Article 6 (b) of the Charter in those areas
governed by the Hague Rules of Land Warfare and criminal
under Article 6 (c) of the Charter as to the remainder.

The Leadership Corps played its part in the persecution of
the Jews. It was involved in the economic and political
discrimination against the Jews which was put into effect
shortly after the Nazis came into power. The Gestapo and SD
were instructed to coordinate with the Gauleiters and
Kreisleiters the measures taken in the pogroms of 9th and
10th November in the year 1938. The Leadership Corps was
also used to prevent German public opinion from reacting
against the measures taken against the Jews in the East. On
the 9th October, 1942, a confidential information bulletin
was sent to all Gauleiters and Kreisleiters entitled
"Preparatory Measures for the Final Solution of the Jewish
Question in Europe. Rumors concerning the Conditions of the
Jews in the East." This bulletin stated that rumors were
being started by returning soldiers concerning the
conditions of Jews in the East which some Germans might not
understand, and outlined in detail the official explanation
to be given. This bulletin contained no explicit statement
that the Jews were being exterminated, but it did indicate
they were going to labor camps, and spoke of their complete
segregation and elimination and the necessity of ruthless
severity. Thus, even at its face value, it indicated the
utilization of the machinery of the Leadership Corps to keep
German public opinion from rebelling at a program which was
stated to involve condemning the Jews of Europe to a
lifetime of slavery. This information continued to be
available to the Leadership Corps. The August, 1944 edition
of "Die Lage", a publication which was circulated among the
Political Leaders, described the deportation of 430,000 Jews
from Hungary.

The Leadership Corps played an important part in the
administration of the Slave Labor Program. A Sauckel decree
dated 6th April, 1942, appointed the Gauleiters as
Plenipotentiary for Labor Mobilization for their Gaus with
authority to coordinate all agencies dealing with labor
questions in their Gaus, with specific authority over the
employment of foreign workers, including their conditions of
work, feeding, and housing. Under this authority the
Gauleiters assumed control over the allocation of labor in
their Gaus, including the forced laborers from foreign
countries. In carrying out this task the Gauleiters used
many Party offices within their Gaus, including subordinate
Political Leaders. For example, Sauckel's decree of 8th
September, 1942, relating to the allocation for household
labor of 400,000 women laborers brought in from the East,
established a procedure under which applications filed for
such workers should be passed on by the Kreisleiters, whose
judgment was final.

Under Sauckel's directive the Leadership Corps was directly
concerned with the treatment given foreign workers, and the
Gauleiters were specifically instructed to prevent
"politically inept factory heads" from giving "too much
consideration to the care of Eastern workers." The type of
question which was considered in their treatment included
reports by the Kreisleiters on pregnancies among the female
slave laborers, which would result in an abortion if the
child's parentage would not meet the racial standards laid
down by the SS and usually detention in a concentration camp
for the female slave laborer. The evidence has established
that under the supervision of the Leadership Corps, the
industrial workers were housed in camps under atrocious
sanitary conditions, worked long hours and were inadequately
fed. Under similar supervision, the agricultural workers,
who were somewhat better treated, were prohibited
transportation, entertainment, and religious worship, and
were worked without any time limit on their working hours
and under regulations

                                                   [Page 70]

which gave the employer the right to inflict corporal
punishment. The Political Leaders, at least down to the
Ortsgruppenleiters, were responsible for this supervision.
On the 5th May,1943, a memorandum of Bormann instructing
that mistreatment of slave laborers cease was distributed
down to the Ortsgruppenleiters. Similarly on the 10th
November, 1944, a Speer circular transmitted a Himmler
directive which provided that all members of the Nazi Party,
in accordance with instructions from the Kreisleiter, would
be warned by the Ortsgruppenleiters of their duty to keep
foreign workers under careful observation.

The Leadership Corps was directly concerned with the
treatment of prisoners of war. On 5th November, 1941,
Bormann transmitted a directive down to the level of
Kreisleiter instructing them to insure compliance by the
Army with the recent directives of the Department of the
Interior ordering that dead Russian prisoners of war should
be buried wrapped in tar paper in a remote place without any
ceremony or any decorations of their graves. On 25th
November, 1943, Bormann sent a circular instructing the
Gauleiters to report any lenient treatment of prisoners of
war. On 13th September, 1944, Bormann sent a directive down
to the level of Kreisleiter ordering that liaison be
established between the Kreisleiters and the guards of the
prisoners of war in order "better to assimilate the
commitment of the prisoners of war to the political and
economic demands". On 17th October, 1944, an OKW directive
instructed the officer in charge of the prisoners of war to
confer with the Kreisleiters on questions of the
productivity of labor. The use of prisoners of war,
particularly those from the East, was accompanied by a
widespread violation of rules of land warfare. This evidence
establishes that the Leadership Corps down to the level of
Kreisleiter was a participant in this illegal treatment.

The machinery of the Leadership Corps was also utilized in
attempts made to deprive Allied airmen of the protection to
which they were entitled under the Geneva Convention. On
13th March, 1940, a directive of Hess transmitted
instructions through the Leadership Corps down to the
Blockleiter for the guidance of the civilian population in
case of the landing of enemy planes or parachutists, which
stated that enemy parachutists were to be immediately
arrested or "made harmless". On 30th May, 1944, Bormann sent
a circular letter to all Gau and Kreisleiters reporting
instances of lynchings of Allied low-level fliers in which
no police action was taken. It was requested that
Ortsgruppenleiters be informed orally of the contents of
this letter. This letter accompanied a propaganda drive
which had been instituted by Goebbels to induce such
lynchings, and clearly amounted to instructions to induce
such lynchings or at least to violate the Geneva Convention
by withdrawing any police protection. Some lynchings were
carried out pursuant to this program, but it does not appear
that they were carried out through out all of Germany.
Nevertheless, the existence of this circular letter shows
that the heads of the Leadership Corps were utilizing it for
a purpose which was patently illegal and which involved the
use of the machinery of the Leadership Corps at least
through the Ortsgruppenleiter.

Conclusion

The Leadership Corps was used for purposes which were
criminal under the Charter and involved the Germanization of
incorporated territory, the persecution of the Jews, the
administration of the slave labor program, and the
mistreatment of prisoners of war. The Defendants Bormann and
Sauckel, who were members of this organisation, were among
those who used it for these purposes. The Gauleiters, the
Kreisleiters, and the Ortsgruppenleiters participated, to
one degree or another in these criminal

                                                   [Page 71]
                                                            
programmes. The Reichsleitung as the staff organisation of
the Party is also responsible for these criminal programs as
well as the heads of the various staff organisations of the
Gauleiters and Kreisleiters. The decision of the Tribunal on
these staff organisations includes only the Amtsleiters who
were heads of offices on the staffs of the Reichsleitung,
Gauleitung, and Kreisleitung. With respect to other staff
officers and Party organisations attached to the Leadership
Corps other than the Amtsleiters referred to above, the
Tribunal will follow the suggestion of the Prosecution in
excluding them from the declaration.

The Tribunal declares to be criminal within the meaning of
the Charter the group composed of those members of the
Leadership Corps holding the positions enumerated in the
preceding paragraph who became or remained members of the
organisation with knowledge that it was being used for the
commission of acts declared criminal by Article 6 of the
Charter, or who were personally implicated as members of the
organisation in the commission of such crimes. The basis of
this finding is the participation of the organisation in War
Crimes and Crimes against Humanity connected with the war;
the group declared criminal cannot include, therefore,
persons who had ceased to hold the positions enumerated in
the preceding paragraph prior to 1st September, 1939.


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