The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

Shofar FTP Archive File: imt//tgmwc/tgmwc-01/tgmwc-01-01.02


Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-01/tgmwc-01-01.02
Last-Modified: 1999/08/16

Accordingly :

(1) The Nazi conspirators destroyed the free trade unions in
Germany by confiscating their funds and properties,
persecuting their leaders, prohibiting their activities, and
supplanting them by an affiliated Party Organisation.  The
leadership principle was introduced into industrial
relations, the entrepreneur becoming the leader and the
workers becoming his followers. Thus any potential
resistance of the workers was frustrated and the productive
labour capacity of the German nation was brought under the
effective control of the conspirators.

(2) The Nazi conspirators, by promoting beliefs and
practices incompatible with Christian teaching, sought to
subvert the influence of the Churches over the people and,
in particular over the youth of Germany. They avowed their
aim to eliminate the Christian Churches in Germany and
sought to substitute therefor Nazi institutions and Nazi
beliefs, and pursued a programme of persecution of priests,
clergy and members of monastic orders whom they deemed
opposed to their purposes, and confiscated church property.

(3) The persecution by the Nazi conspirators of pacifist
groups, including religious movements dedicated to pacifism,
was particularly relentless and cruel.

(d) Implementing their "master race" policy, the
conspirators joined in a programme of relentless persecution
of the Jews, designed to exterminate them. Annihilation of
the Jews became an official State policy, carried out both
by official action and by incitements to mob, and individual
violence. The conspirators openly avowed their purpose. For
example, the defendant Rosenberg stated: " Anti-Semitism is
the unifying element of the reconstruction of Germany." On
another occasion he also stated:  "Germany will regard the
Jewish question as solved only after the very last Jew has
left the greater German living space...Europe will have its
Jewish question solved only after the very last Jew has left
the continent."

The defendant Ley declared:

"We swear we are not going to abandon the struggle until the
last Jew in Europe has been exterminated and is actually
dead.  It is not enough to isolate the Jewish enemy of
mankind - the Jew has got to be exterminated."

On another occasion he also declared:

"The second German secret weapon is anti-Semitism, because
if it is consistently pursued by Germany, it will become a
universal problem which all nations will be forced to
consider."

The defendant Streicher declared:

" The sun will not shine on the nations of the earth until
the last Jew is dead."

These avowals and incitements were typical of the
declarations of

                                                    [Page 6]

the Nazi conspirators throughout the course of their
conspiracy. The programme of action against the Jews
included disfranchisement, stigmatisation, denial of civil
rights,subjecting their persons and property to violence,
deportation, enslavement, enforced labour, starvation,
murder and mass extermination. The extent to which the
conspirators succeeded in their purpose can only be
estimated, but the annihilation was substantiallycomplete in
many localities of Europe. Of the 9,6000,00 Jews who lived
in the parts of Europe under Nazi domination, it is
conservatively estimated that 5,700,000 have disappeared,
most of them deliberately put to death by the Nazi
conspirators. Only remnants of the Jewish population of
Europe remain.

(e) In order to make the German people amenable to their.
will, and to prepare them psychologically for war, the Nazi
conspirators reshaped the educational system and
particularly the education and training of the German youth.
The leadership principle was introduced into the schools and
the Party and affiliated organisations were given wide
supervisory powers over education. The Nazi conspirators
imposed a supervision of all cultural activities, controlled
the dissemination of information and the expression of
opinion within Germany as well as the movement of
intelligence of all kinds from and into Germany, and created
vast propaganda machines.

(f) The Nazi conspirators placed a considerable number of
their dominated organisations on a progressively militarised
footing with a view to the rapid transformation and use of
such organisations whenever necessary as instruments of war.

(E) THE ACQUIRING OF TOTALITARIAN CONTROL IN GERMANY:
ECONOMIC; AND THE ECONOMIC PLANNING AND MOBILISATION FOR
AGGRESSIVE WAR

Having gained political power, the conspirators organised
Germany's economy to give effect to their political aims.

In order to eliminate the possibility of resistance in the
economic sphere, they
deprived labour of its rights of free industrial and
political association as particularised in paragraph (D) 3
(c) (1) herein.

They used organisations of German business as instruments of
economic mobilisation for war.

They directed Germany's economy towards preparation and
equipment of the military machine. To this end they directed
finance, capital investment, and foreign trade.

The Nazi conspirators, and in particular the industrialists
among them embarked upon a huge rearmament programme and set
out to produce and develop huge quantities of materials of
war and to create a powerful military potential.

With the object of carrying through the preparation for war
the Nazi conspirators set up a series of administrative
agencies and authorities. For example, in 1936 they
established for this purpose the office of the Four Year
Plan with the defendant Goering as Plenipotentiary, vesting
it with overriding control over Germany's economy.
Furthermore, on 28th August, 1939, immediately before
launching their aggression against Poland, they appointed
the defendant Funk Plenipotentiary for Economics; and on
30th August, 1939, they set up the Ministerial Council for
the Defence of the Reich to act as a War Cabinet.

(F) UTILISATION OF NAZI CONTROL FOR FOREIGN AGGRESSION

1. Status of the conspiracy by the middle of 1933 and
projected plans

By the middle of the year 1933 the Nazi conspirators, having
acquired governmental control over Germany, were in a
position to enter upon further and more detailed planning
with particular relationship to foreign policy.  Their plan
was to re-arm and to re-occupy and fortify the Rhineland, in
violation of the Treaty of Versailles and other treaties, in
order to acquire military strength and political bargaining
power to be used against other nations.

2. The Nazi conspirators decided that for their purpose the
Treaty of Versailles

                                                    [Page 7]

must definitely be abrogated, and specific plans were made
by them and put into operation by 7th March, 1936, all of
which opened the way for the major aggressive steps to
follow, as hereinafter set forth.  In the execution of this
phase of the conspiracy the Nazi conspirators did the
following acts :-

They led Germany to enter upon a course of secret re-
armament from 1933 to March, 1935, including the training of
military personnel and the production of munitions of war,
and the building of an Air Force.

(b) On 4th October, 1933, they led Germany to leave the
International Disarmament Conference and the League of
Nations.

     On 10th March, 1935, the defendant Goering announced
that Germany was building a Military Air Force.

     On 16th March, I935, the Nazi conspirators promulgated
a law for universal military service, in which they stated
the peace-time strength of the German Army would be fixed at
500,000 men.

     On 21St May, 1935, they falsely announced to the world,
with intent to deceive and allay fears of aggressive
intentions, that they would respect the territorial
limitations of the Versailles Treaty and comply with the
Locarno Pacts.

On 7th March, 1936, they re-occupied and fortified the
Rhineland, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles and the
Rhine Pact of Locarno of 16th October, 1925, and falsely
announced to the world that "we have no territorial demands
to make in Europe."

3. Aggressive Action against Austria and Czechoslovakia

    (a) The 1936-1938 phase of the plan: planning for the
assault on Austria and     Czechoslovakia.

The Nazi conspirators next entered upon the specific
planning for the acquisition of Austria and Czechoslovakia,
realising it would be necessary, for military reasons, first
to seize Austria before assaulting Czechoslovakia. On 21St
May, 1935, in a speech to the Reichstag, Hitler stated that:
"Germany neither intends nor wishes to interfere in the
internal affairs of Austria, to annex Austria or to conclude
an Anschluss." On 1st May, 1936, within two months after the
re-occupation of the Rhineland, Hitler stated: "The lie goes
forth again that Germany tomorrow or the day after will fall
upon Austria or Czechoslovakia." Thereafter, the Nazi
conspirators caused a treaty to be entered into between
Austria and Germany on 11th July, 1936, Article I of which
stated that  "The German Government recognises the full
sovereignty of the Federal State of Austria in the spirit of
the pronouncements of the German Fuehrer and Chancellor of
21st May, I935." Meanwhile, plans for aggression in
violation of that treaty were being made. By the autumn of
1937, all noteworthy opposition within the Reich had been
crushed.  Military preparation for the Austrian action was
virtually concluded. An influential group of the Nazi
conspirators met with Hitler on 5th November, 1937, to
review the situation. It was reaffirmed that Nazi Germany
must have "Lebensraum" in Central Europe.  It was recognised
that such conquest would probably meet resistance which
would have to be crushed by force and that their decision
might lead to a general war, but this prospect was
discounted as a risk worth taking. There emerged from this
meeting three possible plans for the conquest of Austria and
Czechoslovakia. Which of the three was to be used was to
depend upon the developments in the political and military
situation in Europe. It was contemplated that the conquest
of Austria and Czechoslovakia would, through compulsory
emigration of 2,000,000 persons from Czechoslovakia and
1,000,000 persons from Austria, provide additional food to
the Reich for 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 people, strengthen it
militarily by providing shorter and better frontiers, and
make possible the constituting of new armies up to about
twelve divisions. Thus, the aim of the plan against Austria
and Czechoslovakia was conceived of not as an end in itself
but as a preparatory measure toward the next aggressive
steps in the Nazi conspiracy.

                                                    [Page 8]

   (b) The execution of the plan to invade Austria :
November, 1937, to March, 1938

Hitler on 8th February, 1938, called Chancellor Schuschnigg
to a conference at Berchtesgaden.  At the meeting of 12th
February, 1938, under threat of invasion, Schuschnigg
yielded a promise of amnesty to imprisoned Nazis and
appointment of Nazis to ministerial posts. He agreed to
remain silent until Hitler's next speech in which Austria's
independence was to be reaffirmed, but Hitler in that
speech, instead of affirming Austrian independence, declared
himself protector of all. Germans. Meanwhile, subversive
activities of Nazis in Austria increased. Schuschnigg on 9th
March, 1938, announced a plebiscite for the following Sunday
on the question of Austrian independence. On 11th March
Hitler sent an ultimatum, demanding that the plebiscite be
called off or Germany would invade Austria. Later the same
day a second ultimatum threatened invasion unless
Schuschnigg should resign in three hours. Schuschnigg
resigned. The defendant Seyss-Inquart, who was appointed
Chancellor, immediately invited Hitler to send German troops
into Austria to "preserve order." The invasion began on 12th
March, I938 On 13th March, Hitler by proclamation assumed
office as Chief of State of Austria and took command of her
armed forces. By a law of the same date Austria was annexed
to Germany.

   (c) The execution of the plan to invade Czechoslovakia:
April, 1938, to March, 1939

1. Simultaneously with their annexation of Austria, the Nazi
conspirators gave false assurances to the Czechoslovak
Government that they would not attack that country. But
within a month they met to plan specific ways and means of
attacking Czechoslovakia, and to revise, in the light of the
acquisition of Austria, the previous plans for aggression
against Czechoslovakia.

2. On 21st April, 1938, the Nazi conspirators met and
prepared to launch an attack on Czechoslovakia not later
than 1st October, 1938.  They planned to create an
"incident" to "justify" the attack. They decided to launch a
military attack only after a period of diplomatic squabbling
which, growing more serious, would lead to the excuse for
war, or, in the alternative, to unleash a lightning attack
as a result of an " incident" of their own creation.
Consideration was given to assassinating the German
Ambassador at Prague to create the requisite incident.

From and after 21st April, 1938, the Nazi conspirators
caused to be prepared detailed and precise military plans
designed to carry out such an attack at any opportune moment
and calculated to overthrow all Czechoslovak resistance
within four days, this presenting the world with a fait
accompli, and so forestalling outside resistance. Throughout
the months of May, June, July, August and September, these
plans were made more specific and detailed, and by 3rd
September, it was decided that all troops were to be ready
for action on 28th September, 1983.

3. Throughout this same period, the Nazi conspirators were
agitating the minorities' question in Czechoslovakia, and
particularly in the Sudetenland, leading to a diplomatic
crisis in August and September, 1938.  After the Nazi
conspirators threatened war, the United Kingdom and France
concluded a pact with Germany and Italy at Munich on 29th
September, 1938, involving the cession of the Sudetenland by
Czechoslovakia to Germany. Czechoslovakia was required to
acquiesce. On 1st October, 1938, German troops occupied the
Sudetenland.

4. On 5th March, 1939, contrary to the provisions of the
Munich Pact itself, the Nazi conspirators completed their
plan by seizing and occupying the major part of
Czechoslovakia, i.e., Bohemia and Moravia, not ceded to
German by the Munich Pact.

4. Formulation of the plan to attack Poland : preparation
and initiation of aggressive war : March, 1939, to
September, 1939

With these aggressions successfully consummated, the
conspirators had obtained much desired resources and bases
and were ready to undertake further

                                                    [Page 9]

aggressions by means of war. Following the assurances to the
world of peaceful intentions, an influential group of the
conspirators met on 23rd May, 1939, to consider the further
implementation of their plan. The situation was reviewed and
it was observed that "the past six years have been put to
good use and all measures have been taken in correct
sequence and in accordance with our aims," that the national-
political unity of the Germans had been substantially
achieved, and that further successes could not be achieved
without war and bloodshed.  It was decided nevertheless next
to attack Poland at the first suitable opportunity. It was
admitted that the questions concerning Danzig which they had
agitated with Poland were not true questions, but rather
that the question was one of aggressive expansion for food
and "Lebensraum." It was recognised that Poland would fight
if attacked and that a repetition of the Nazi success
against Czechoslovakia without war could not be expected.
Accordingly, it was determined that the problem was to
isolate Poland and, if possible, prevent a simultaneous
conflict with the Western Powers. Nevertheless, it was
agreed that England was an enemy to their aspirations, and
that war with England and her ally France must eventually
result, and therefore that in that war every attempt must be
made to overwhelm England with a "Blitzkrieg" or lightning
war. It was thereupon determined immediately to prepare
detailed plans for an attack on Poland at the first suitable
opportunity and thereafter for an attack on England and
France, together with plans for the simultaneous occupation
by armed force of air bases in the Netherlands and Belgium.

(b) Accordingly, after having denounced the German-Polish
Pact Of 1934, on false grounds, the Nazi conspirators
proceeded to stir up the Danzig issue, to prepare frontier
"incidents" to "justify" the attack, and to make demands for
the cession of Polish territory. Upon refusal by Poland to
yield, they caused German armed forces to invade Poland on
1st September, 1939, thus precipitating war also with the
United Kingdom and France.

5. Expansion of the war into a general war of aggression:
planning and execution of attacks on Denmark, Norway,
Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, and
Greece: 1939 to April, 1941

Thus the aggressive war prepared for by the Nazi
conspirators through their attacks on Austria and
Czechoslovakia was actively launched by their attack on
Poland, in violation of the terms of the Briand-Kellogg
Pact, 1928.  After the total defeat of Poland, in order to
facilitate the carrying out of their military operations
against France and the United Kingdom, the Nazi conspirators
made active preparations for an extension of the war in
Europe. In accordance with these plans, they caused the
German armed forces to invade Denmark and Norway on 9th
April, 1940; Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg on 10th
May, 1940; Yugoslavia and Greece on 6th April, 1941. All
these invasions had been specifically planned in advance.

6. German invasion on 22nd June, 1941, of the U.S.S.R.
territory in violation of the Non-Aggression Pact Of 23rd
August, 1939

On 22nd June, 1941, the Nazi conspirators deceitfully
denounced the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the
U.S.S.R. and without any declaration of war invaded Soviet
territory, thereby beginning a war of aggression against the
U.S.S.R.

Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor

© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012

This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and to combat hatred. Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.

As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.