Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-01/tgmwc-01-03.06
Last-Modified: 1999/08/28


In speaking of the first aim, Hitler made an admission which

applied equally



                                                  [Page 103]



to the other aims, namely, that he had stated and written a

thousand times or more that he demanded the abolition of the

Versailles Treaty.



These aims are fully documented in the evidence offered by

the prosecution on this phase of the case, and it is not my

purpose at this time to recite to the Court numerous

declarations made by the defendants and others with respect

to these aims.



Moreover, these conspirators again and again publicly

announced to the still unbelieving world that they proposed

to accomplish these objectives by any means found opportune,

including illegal means and resort to threat of force,

force, and aggressive war. The use of force was distinctly

sanctioned, in fact guaranteed, by official statements and

directives of the conspirators which made activism and

aggressiveness a political quality obligatory for Party

members.



As Hitler stated in "Mein Kampf":



    "What we needed and still need are not a hundred or two

    hundred reckless conspirators, but a hundred thousand

    and a second hundred thousand fighters for our

    philosophy of life."



In 1929 Hitler stated:



     "We confess further that we will tear anyone to pieces

     who would dare hinder us in this undertaking. Our

     rights will be protected only when the German Reich is

     again supported by the point of the German dagger."



Hitler, in 1934, in addressing the Party Congress at

Nuremburg, stated the duties of Party members in the

following terms:



"Only a part of the people will consist of really active

fighters. It is they who were fighters of the National

Socialist revolution. Of them, more is demanded than of the

millions among the rest of the population. For them it is

not sufficient to confess, 'I believe,' but to swear, 'I

fight.'"



In proof of the fact that the Party was committed to the use

of any means, whether or not legal or honourable, it is only

necessary to remind the Court that the Party virtually

opened its public career by staging a revolution-the Munich

Putsch of 1923.



Now let us consider for a moment the doctrinal techniques of

the Common Plan or Conspiracy which are alleged in the

Indictment.



To incite others to join in the Common Plan or Conspiracy

and as a means of securing for the Nazi conspirators the

highest degree of control over the German community, they

disseminated and exploited certain doctrines.



The first of these was the "master race" doctrine - that

persons of so-called German blood were a master race. This

doctrine of racial supremacy was incorporated as Point 4 in

the Party Programme, which provided:



    "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."



They outlined this master race doctrine as a new religion-

the faith of the blood - superseding in individual

allegiance all other religions and institutions. The

defendant Rosenberg and the defendant Streicher were

particularly prominent in disseminating this doctrine. Much

of the evidence to be offered in this case will illustrate

the Nazi conspirators' continued espousal and exploitation

of this master race doctrine.



This doctrine had an eliminatory purpose; call anything "non-

German" or Jewish, and you have a clear right, indeed a

duty, to cast it out. In fact purges did not stop at so-

called racial lines, but went far beyond.



The second important doctrine, which permeates the entire

conspiracy and is one of the important links in establishing

the guilt of each of these defendants, is the doctrine or

concept of the "Fuehrerprinzip" or leadership principle.



This doctrine permeated the Nazi Party and all its

formations and allied organisations and eventually permeated

the Nazi State and all institutions, and is of such



                                                  [Page 104]



importance that I would like to dwell upon it for a few

moments and attempt to explain the concepts which it

embraces.



The "Fuehrerprinzip" embodies two major political concepts:

    1. Authoritarianism.

    2. Totalitarianism.



Authoritarianism implies the following: All authority is

concentrated at the top and is vested in one person only,

the Fuehrer. It further implies that the Fuehrer is

infallible as well as omnipotent. The Party Manual states:



    "Under the Commandments of the National Socialists:-

    The Fuehrer is always right.."



Also, there are no legal or political limits to the

authority of the Fuehrer. Whatevery [sic] authority is

wielded by others is derived from the authority of the

Fuehrer. Moreover, within the sphere of jurisdiction

allotted to him, each appointee of the Fuehrer manipulates

his power in equally unrestricted fashion, subordinate only

to the command of those above him. Each appointee owes

unconditional obedience to the Fuehrer and to the superior

Party leaders in the hierarchy.



Each political leader was sworn in yearly. According to the

Party Manual, which will be introduced in evidence, the

wording of the oath was as follows:



    "I pledge eternal allegiance to Adolf Hitler.

    I pledge unconditional obedience to him and the

    fuehrers appointed by him."



   The Party Manual also provides that:



     "The political leader is inseparably tied to the

     ideology and the Organisation of the N.S.D.A.P. His

     oath only ends with his death or with his expulsion

     from the National Socialist Community."



As the defendant Hans Frank stated in one of his

publications:



"Leadership principle in the administration means: always to

replace decision by majority, by decision on the part of a

specific person with clear jurisdiction and with sole

responsibility to those above, and to entrust to his

authority the realisation of the decision to those below."



And finally the concept of Authoritarianism contained in the

"Fuehrerprinzip" implies: The authority-of the Fuehrer

extends into all spheres of public and private life.



The second main concept of the "Fuehrerprinzip" is

Totalitarianism which implies the following: The authority

of the Fuehrer, his appointees and, through them, of the

Party as a whole, extends into all spheres of public and

private life.



The Party dominates the State.

The Party dominates the Armed Forces.

The Party dominates all individuals within the State.

The Party eliminates all institutions, groups and

individuals unwilling to accept the leadership of the

Fuehrer.



As the Party manual states:



    "Only those organisations can lay claim to the

    institution of the leadership principle and to the

    National Socialist meaning of the State and people in

    the National Socialist meaning of the term, which . . .

    have been integrated into, supervised and formed by the

    Party and which, in the future, will continue to do

    so."



The Manual goes on to state:



    "All others which conduct an organisational life of

    their own are to be rejected as outsiders and will

    either have to adjust themselves or disappear from

    public life."



Illustrations of the Fuehrerprinzip and its application to

the Party, the State and allied organisations are fully set

forth in the brief and accompanying documents, which will be

offered in evidence.



                                                  [Page 105]



The third doctrine or technique employed by the Nazi

conspirators to make the German people amenable to their

will and aims was the doctrine that war was a noble and

necessary activity of Germans. The purpose of this doctrine

was well expressed by Hitler in "Mein Kampf" when he said:-



    "The question of restoration of German power is not a

    question of how to fabricate arms, but a question of

    how to create the spirit which makes a people capable

    of bearing arms. If this spirit dominates a people, the

    will finds a thousand ways to secure weapons."



Hitler's writings and public utterances are replete with

declarations rationalising the use of force and glorifying

war. The following is typical, when he said:-



"Always before God and the world, the stronger has the right

to carry through his will. History proves it! He who has no

might has no use for right."





As will be shown in subsequent proof, this doctrine of the

glorification of war played a major part in the education of

the German youth of the pre-war era.



I now offer the documents which establish the aims of the

Nazi Party and their doctrinal techniques. I also have for

the assistance of the Court and defence counsel, briefs

which make the argument part of these documents.



I now direct your attention to the rise to power of the Nazi

Party.



The first attempt to acquire political control was by force.

In fact at no time during this period did the Party

participate in any electoral campaigns, nor did it see fit

to collaborate with other political groups and parties.



THE PRESIDENT: Major Wallis, have you got copies of these

for defendants' counsel ?



MAJOR WALLIS: In Room 54-



THE PRESIDENT: Well, they will be wanting to follow them

now.



MAJOR WALLIS: Mr. President, my remarks, with which I am

proceeding, will cover an entirely different subject than in

the briefs before you. The briefs cover what I have already

said, Sir.



THE PRESIDENT: Are you depositing a copy of these briefs for

each of the defendants' counsel ?



MAJOR WALLIS: I am informed, if your Honour pleases, that

the same procedure has been followed with respect to these

briefs as has been followed with respect to the documents,

namely, a total of six has been made available to the

defendants in Room 54.



THE PRESIDENT: What do you say?



MAJOR WALLIS: A total of six copies has been made available

to the defendants in Room 54. If your Honour does not deem

that number sufficient, I feel sure that I can give

assurance, on behalf of the Chief Prosecutor of the United

States, that before the close of the day an ample supply of

copies will be there for use.



THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal thinks that the defence counsel

should each have a copy of these briefs.



MAJOR WALLIS: That will be done, sir.



THE PRESIDENT: Members of the defence counsel, you will

understand that I have directed on behalf of the Tribunal

that you should each have a copy of this brief.



DR. RUDOLF DIX: (Counsel for defendant Schacht): We are very

grateful for this directive, but none of us has seen any of

these documents so far. I assume and hope that these

documents will be given to the defence in the German

translation.



THE PRESIDENT: Yes. (Pause) Yes, Major Wallis.



MAJOR WALLIS: I now direct your attention to the rise to

power of the Nazi Party.



The 9th November, 1923, warranted the end as well as the

beginning of an era. On the 9th November occurred the

historical fact popularly known as the Hitler Putsch. During

the night of the 8th to 9th November, Hitler, supported by



                                                  [Page 106]



the S.A. under the defendant Goering, at a meeting in

Munich, proclaimed the National Revolution and his

dictatorship of Germany, and announced himself as the

Chancellor of the Reich. On the following morning the duly

constituted authorities of the State, after some bloodshed

in Munich, put an end to this illegal attempt to seize the

government. Hitler and some of his followers were arrested

and tried, and sentenced to imprisonment.



The new era in the National Socialist movement commences

with Hitler's parole from prison in December 1924. With the

return of its leader, the Party took up its fight for power

once again. The prohibitions invoked by the government

against the Nazi Party at the time of the Munich Putsch

gradually were removed, and Hitler the Fuehrer of the Party,

formally announced that in seeking to achieve its aims to

overthrow the Weimar Government, the Party would resort only

to "legal" means. A valid inference from these facts may

well be suggested, namely that the Party's resort to

"legality" was in reality only a condition on which it was

permitted to carry on its activities in a democratically

organised State. But, consistent with its professed resort

to "legality," the Party now participated in the popular

elections of the German people and generally took part in

political activity. At the same time it engaged in feverish

activity to expand the party membership, its organisational

structure and activities. The S.A. and the S.S. recruited

numerous new members. Hitler's "Mein Kampf" appeared in

1925. The Hitler Youth was founded. Newspapers were

published, among them the Volkischer Beobachter of which the

defendant Rosenberg was editor, and Der Angriff published by

Goebbels, later the notorious Minister of Propaganda and

Public Enlightenment. Meetings of other political parties

were interfered with and broken up, and there was much

street brawling.



The results of the Party's attempt to gain political power

made little headway for a number of years, despite the

strenuous efforts exerted to that end. In 30 elections in

which the National Socialists participated from 1925 to 1930

for seats in the "Reichstag" and in the "Landtage" or

Provincial Diets of the various German states, the Nazis

received mandates in but 16 and gained no seats at all in 14

elections. The National Socialist vote in the l927 elections

did not exceed 4 per cent of the total number of votes cast.

The year 1929 marks the first modest success at the polls in

the State of Thuringia. The Nazi received over 11 per cent

of the popular vote, elected six representatives out of the

total of fifty-three to the Diet, and the defendant Frick

became Minister of Interior of Thuringia, the first National

Socialist chosen to ministerial rank.



With such encouragement and proof of the success of its

methods to win support, the Nazi Party redoubled its

traditional efforts (by means of terror and coercion). These

met with some rebuff on the part of the Reich and various

German States. Prussia required its civil servants to

terminate their membership in the Party and forbade the

wearing of brown shirts, which were worn by the S.A. of the

Party. Baden likewise ruled against the wearing of brown

shirts, and Bavaria prohibited the wearing of uniforms by

political organisations. New National Socialist writings

appeared in Germany. The new "National Socialist Monthly"

appeared under the editorship of the defendant Rosenberg,

and shortly thereafter, in June, 1930, Rosenberg's "Myth of

the 20th century" was published.



Against this background - President von Hindenburg having

meanwhile dissolved the Reichstag when Chancellor Bruning

failed to obtain a vote of confidence - Germany moved to the

polls once more on the 14th September, 1930. By this

election their representation in the Reichstag was increased

from 12 seats to 107 seats out of a total of 577.



The new Reichstag met and 107 Nazis marched into the session

dressed in brown shirts. Rowdy opposition at once developed,

intent on causing the fall of the Bruning Cabinet. Taking

advantage of the issues caused by the then prevailing

general economic distress, the Nazis sought a vote of non-

confidence



                                                  [Page 107]



and dissolution of the Reichstag. Failing in these

obstructionary tactics, the Nazis walked out of the

Reichstag.



With 107 members in the Reichstag, the Nazi propaganda

increased in violence. The obstruction by the Nazi deputies

of the Reichstag continued with the same pattern of conduct.

Repeatedly motions of non-confidence in Bruning and for

dissolution of the Reichstag were offered and were lost. And

after every failure the Nazi members stalked out of the

chamber anew.



By spring of 1932, Brunings' position became untenable and

the defendant von Papen was appointed Chancellor. The

Reichstag was dissolved and new elections held in which the

Nazis increased the number of their seats to 230 out of a

total of 608. The Nazi Party was becoming a strong party in

Germany, but it had failed to become the Majority Party. The

obstructive tactics of the Nazi deputies in the Reichstag

continued, and by the fall of 1932 von Papen's government

was no longer able to continue. President von Hindenburg

again dissolved the Reichstag, and in the new elections of

November the Nazi representation in the Reichstag actually

decreased to 196 seats. The short-lived von Schleicher

government then came into being - it was the 3rd December,

1932 - and by the end of January, 1933, it went out of

existence. With the support of the Nationalist Party under

Hugenberg and other political assistance, Hitler became

Chancellor of Germany by designation of von Hindenburg.

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