Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-03/tgmwc-03-24-07
Last-Modified: 1999/08/01

                                      [Page 181]
                                                
COLONEL STOREY: If the Tribunal please, the next
presentation will be the Gestapo, and it will
take just a few seconds to get the material
here.

We are now ready to proceed if your Honour is.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

COLONEL STOREY: We first pass to the Tribunal
Document Books marked "Exhibit AA," Your Honour
will notice they are in two volumes, and I will
try each time to refer to the appropriate
volume. They are separated into the D Documents,
the L Documents, the PS Documents, etc.

The presentation of evidence on the criminality
of the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) includes
evidence on the criminality of the
Sicherheitsdienst (S.D.) and of the
Schutzstaffeln (S.S.), which has been discussed
by

                                      [Page 182]

Major Farr, because a great deal of the criminal
acts were so inter-related. In the Indictment,
as your Honour knows, the S.D. is included by
special reference as a part of the S.S., since
it originated as a part of the S.S. and always
retained its character as a Party organisation,
as distinguished from the Gestapo, which was a
State organisation. As will be shown by the
evidence, however, the Gestapo and the S.D. were
brought into very close working relationship,
the S.D. serving primarily as the information
gathering agency and the Gestapo as the
executive agency of the police system
established by the Nazis for the purpose of
combating the political and ideological enemies
of the Nazi regime.

In short, I think we might think of the S.D. as
the intelligence organisation and the Gestapo
the executive agency, the former a Party
organisation and the latter a State
organisation, but merged together for all
practical purposes.

The first subject: The Gestapo and S.D. were
formed into a powerful, centralised political
police system that served Party, State and Nazi
leadership.

The Geheime Staatspolizei, or Gestapo, was first
established in Prussia on 26th April, 1933, by
the defendant Goering, with the mission of
carrying out the duties of political police,
with or in place of, the ordinary police
authorities. The Gestapo was given the rank of a
higher police authority and was subordinated
only to the Minister of the Interior, to whom
was delegated the responsibility of determining
its functional and territorial jurisdiction.
That fact is established in the "Preussische
Gesetzsammlung," of 26th April, 1933, Page 122,
and it is our Document 2104-PS.

Pursuant to this law, and on the same date, the
Minister of the Interior issued a decree on the
reorganisation of the Police, which established
a State Police Bureau in each governmental
district of Prussia subordinate to the Secret
State Police Bureau in Berlin, and 1 cite as
authority, the Ministerial-Blatt for the
Internal Administration of Prussia, 193 3, Page
503, and it is Document 2371-PS.

Concerning the formation of the Gestapo, the
defendant in " Aufbau einer Nation," 1934, Page
87, which is our Document 2344-PS-I quote from
the English translation a short paragraph, of
which your Honour will take judicial notice,
unless you wish to turn to it in full-the
defendant Goering said:

     "For weeks 1 had been working personally on
     the reorganisation, and at last I alone and
     upon my own decision and my own reflection
     created the office of the Secret State
     Police. This instrument, which is so feared
     by the enemies of the State, has
     contributed most to the fact that to-day
     there can no longer be talk of a Communist
     or Marxist danger in Germany and Prussia."

THE PRESIDENT: What was the date?

COLONEL STOREY: The date? 1934, sir.

On 30th November, 1933, Goering issued a decree
for the Prussian State Ministry and the Reich
Chancellor, placing the Gestapo under his direct
supervision as chief. The Gestapo was thereby
established as an independent branch of the
administration of the Interior, responsible
directly to Goering as Prussian Prime Minister.
This decree gave the Gestapo jurisdiction over
the political police matters of the general and
interior administration and provided that the
district, county, and local police authorities
were subject

                                      [Page 183]

to its directives, and that cites the Prussian
laws of 30th November, 1933, Page 413, and
Document 2105-PS.

In a speech delivered at a meeting of the
Prussian State Council on 18th June, 1934, which
is published in "Speeches and Essays of Hermann
Goering, 1939," Page 102, our Document 3343-PS,
Goering said, and I quote one paragraph:

     "The creation of the Secret State Police
     was also a necessity. You may recognise the
     importance attributed to this instrument of
     State security from the fact that the Prime
     Minister has made himself head of the
     department of the administration, because
     it is precisely the observation of all
     currents directed against the new State
     which is of fundamental importance."

By a decree of 8th March, 1934, the Regional
State Police Offices were separated from their
organisational connection with the District
Government and established as independent
authorities of the Gestapo. That cites the
"Preussische Gesetzsammlung" of 8th March, 1943,
Page 143, our Document 2 11 3-PS.

I now offer in evidence Document 1680-PS,
Exhibit USA 477. This is an article entitled
"Ten Years Security and S.D.", published in the
German Police Journal, the magazine of the
Security Police and S.D., of 1st February, 1943.
I quote one paragraph from this article on Page
2 of the English translation, Dociiment 1680,
which is the third main paragraph:

     "Parallel to that development in Prussia,
     the Reichsfuehrer S.S. Heinrich Himmler,
     created in Bavaria the Bavarian Political
     Police, and also suggested and directed in
     the other Federal States outside Prussia
     the establishment of political police. The
     unification of the political police of all
     the Federal States took place in the spring
     of 1934 when Minister President Hermann
     Goering appointed Reichsfuehrer S.S.
     Heinrich Himmler, who had meanwhile become
     Commander of the Political Police of all
     the Federal States outside Prussia, to the
     post of Deputy Chief of the Prussian Secret
     State Police."

The Prussian law about the Secret State Police,
dated 10th February, 1936, then summed up the
development to that date and determined the
position and responsibilities of the Secret
State Police in the executive regulations issued
the same day.

On 10th February, 1936, the basic law for the
Gestapo was promulgated by Goering as Prussian
Prime Minister. I refer to Document 2107-PS.
This law provided that the Secret State Police
had the duty of investigating and combating, in
the entire territory of the State, all
tendencies inimical to the State, and declared
that orders and matters of the Secret State
Police were not subject to the review of the
administrative courts. That is the Prussian
State law of that date, cited on Pages 21-22 of
the publication of ihe laws of 1936.

Also on that same date, 10th February, 1936, a
decree for the execution of the law was issued
by Goering, as Prussian Prime Minister, and by
Frick, as Minister of the Interior. This decree
provided that the Gestapo had authority to enact
measures valid in the entire area of the State
and measures affecting that area-by the way,
that is found in 2io8-PS and is also a published
law-that it was the centralised agency for
collecting political intelligence in the field
of political police, and that it administered
the

                                      [Page 184]

concentration camps. The Gestapo was given
authority to make police investigations in cases
of criminal attacks upon the Party as well as
upon the State.

Later, on 28th August, 1936, a circular of the
Reichsfuehrer'S.S. and Chief of the German
Police provided that as on 1st  October, 1936,
the Political Police Forces of the German
provinces were to be called the "Geheime
Staatspolizei". That means the Secret State
Police. The regional offices were still to be
described as State Police.

The translation of that law is in Document 2372-
PS, Reichsministerial-Gesetzblatt of 1936, No.
44, Page 1344.

Later, on 20th September, 1936, a circular of
the Minister of the Interior, Frick,
commissioned the Gestapo Bureau in Berlin with
the supervision of the duties of the Political
Police Commanders in all the States of Germany.
That is, Reichsministerial-Gesetzblatt, 1936,
Page 1,343, our Document L-297.

The law regulating and relating to financial
measures in connection with the police, of 19th
March, 1937, provided that the officials of the
Gestapo were to be considered direct officials
of the Reich, and that their salaries, in
addition to the operational expenses of the
whole State Police, were to be borne from 1st
April, 1937, by the Reich. That is shown in
Document 2243-PS, which is a copy of the law of
igth March, 1937, Page 325.

Thus, through the above laws and decrees, the
Gestapo was established as a uniform political
police system operating throughout the land and
serving Party, State, and Nazi leadership.

In the course of the development of the S.D., it
came into increasingly close co-operation with
the Gestapo and also with the
"Reichskriminalpolizei ", the Criminal Police,
known as Kripo, shown up there under A.M.T. V.
The S.D. was called upon to furnish information
to various State authorities. On iith November,
1938, a decree of the Reich Minister of the
Interior declared the S.D. to be the
intelligence organisation for the State as well
as for the Party, to have the particular duty of
supporting the Secret State Police, and to
become thereby active on a national mission.
These duties necessitated a closer co-operation
between the S.D. and the authorities for the
general and interior administration. That law is
translated in Document 1638-PS.

The Tribunal has already received evidence
concerning the decrees of 17th and 26th June,
1936, under which Himmler was appointed Chief of
the German Police, and by which Heydrich became
the first Chief of the Security Police and S.D.
Even then Goering did not relinquish his
position as Chief of the Prussian Gestapo. Thus,
the decree of the Reichsfuehrer S.S. and Chief
of German Police which was issued on 28th
August, 1936, which is our Document 2372-PS, was
distributed "to the Prussian Minister President
as Chief of the Prussian Secret State Police",
that is, to Goering.

On 27th September, 1939, by order of Hirmnler in
his capacity as Reichsfuehrer S.S. and Chief of
the German Police, the Central Offices of the
Gestapo and S.D., and also of the Criminal
Police, were merged in the office of the Chief
of the Security Police and S.D. under the name
of R.S.H.A., which your Honour has heard
described by Major Farr. Under this order the
personnel and administrative sections of each
agency were co-ordinated in Amt. I and II of the
chart shown here, of the R.S.H.A. The
operational sections of the S.D. became Amt.
Ill, shown in the box

                                      [Page 185]

Amt. III, except for foreign intlligence which
was placed over in Amt. VI. The operational
sections of the Gestapo became Amt. IV, as shown
on the chart, and the operational sections of
the Kripo, that is, the Criminal Police, became
Amt. V, as shown on the chart.

Ohlendorf was named the Chief of Amt. Ill, the
S.D. inside Germany; Mueller was named Chief of
Amt. IV, and Nebe was named Chief of Amt. V, the
Kripo.

On 27th September, 1939, Heydrich, the Chief of
the Security Police and S.D., issued a directive
pursuant to the order of Himmler in which he
ordered that the designation and heading of
R.S.H.A. was to be used exclusively in internal
relations of the Reich Ministry of the Interior,
and the heading "The Chief of the Security
Police and S.D." in transactions with outside
persons and offices. The directive provided that
the Gestapo would continue to use the
designation and heading "Secret State Police"
according to the particular instructions.

This order is Document L-361, Exhibit USA 478,
which we now offer in evidence, and refer your
Honour to the first paragraph L-361. That is
found in the first volume. I just direct your
Honour's attention to the date and to the
subject, which is the amalgamation of the "
Zentral Arnter " of the Sicherheitspolizei and
the S.D., and the creation of the four sections,
and then to the words will be joined to the
R.S.H.A. in accordance with the following
directives . . This amalgamation carries with it
no change in the position of the ' Ainter ' in
the Party nor in their local administration."

1 might say here parenthetically, if the
Tribunal please, that we like to think of the
R.S.H.A. as being the so-called administrative
office through which a great many of these
organisations were administered, and then a
number of these organisations, including the
Gestapo, maintaining their separate identity as
an operational organisation. I think a good
illustration, if your Honour will recall, is
that during the war there may be a certain
division or a certain air force which is
administratively under a certain headquarters,
but operationally, when they had an invasion,
may be under the general supervision of somebody
else who was operating a task force. So the
R.S.H.A. was really the administrative office of
a great many of these alleged criminal
organisations.

The Gestapo and the S.D. were therefore
organised functionally on the basis of the
opponents to be combated and the matters to be
investigated.

I now invite the attention of the Tribunal to
this chart which has already been identified,
and I believe it is Exhibit 53. This chart -- I
am in error; that is the original identification
number. This chart shows the main chain of
command from Himmler, who was the Reich Leader
of the S.S. and Chief of the German Police, to
Kaltenbrunner, who was Chief of the Security
Police and S.D., and from Kaltenbrunner to the
various field offices of the Gestapo and the
S.D.

We now formally offer in evidence this chart,
Document L-219, as Exhibit USA 479.

This chart, from which the one on the wall is
taken, has been certified by Otto Ohlendorf,
Chief of Amt III of the R.S.H.A., and by Walter
Schellenberg, Chief of Amt VI of the R.S.H.A.,
and has been officially identified by both of
those former officials.

The chart shows that the principal flow of
command in police matters came from Himmler as
Reich Leader of the S.S. and Chief of the German

                                      [Page 186]

Police directly to Kaltenbrunner, who was Chief
of the Security Police and S.D., and as such was
also head of the R.S.H.A., which is the
administrative office to which I have referred.

Kaltenbrunner's headquarters organisation was
composed of seven Aemter, plus a military office
; the seven Aemter shown here.

Under subsection D was Obersturmbannfuehrer
Rauff, who handled technical matters, including
motor vehicles of the Sipo and the S.D., to
which we will refer later.

Amt Ill was the S.D. inside Germany and was
charged with investigations into spheres of
German national life. It was the Internal
Intelligence Organisation of the police system
and its interests extended into all areas
occupied by Germany during the course of the
war. In 1943 it contained four sections. I would
like to mention them briefly. It shows their
scope of authority.

Section A dealt with questions of legal order
and structure of the Reich.

Section B dealt with nationality, including
minorities, race, and health of the people.

Section C dealt with culture, including science,
education, religion, Press, folk culture, and
art.

Section D dealt with economics, including food,
commerce, finance, industry, labour, colonial
economics, and occupied regions.

Now, Amt IV, with which we are dealing here, was
the Gestapo, and was charged with combating
opposition. In 1945, as identified by these two
former officials, it contained six subsections.

1. Subsection A dealt with opponents, sabotage,
and protective service, including Communism,
Marxism, Reaction and Liberalism.

2. Subsection B dealt with political churches,
sects and Jews, including political Catholicism,
political Protestantism, other Churches,
Freemasonry, and a special section, B-4, that
had to do with Jewish affairs, matters of
evacuation, means of suppressing enemies of the
people and State, and dispossession of rights of
German citizenship. The head of this office was
Eichmann.

3. Subsection C dealt with protective custody.

4. Subsection D dealt with regions under German
domination.

5. Subsection E dealt with security.

6. Subsection F dealt with passport matters and
alien police.

Now, Amt V, which will be referred to as the
Kripo was charged with combating crime. For
example, Subsection D was the criminological
institute for the: Sipo and handled matters of
identification, chemical and biological
investigations, and technical research.

Amt VI was the S.D. outside Germany and was
concerned primarily with foreign political
intelligence. In 1944, the "Abwehr," or Military
Intelligence, was joined with Amt VI as military
"Amt." Your Honour will recall that the witness
Lahousen was in the "Abwehr." Amt VI maintained
its own regional organisation.

And finally, Amt VII handled ideological
research among enemies such as Freemasonry,
Judaism, Political Churches, Marxism and
Liberalism.

Within Germany there were regional offices of
the S.D., the Gestapo, and the Kripo, shown on
the chart at the right. The Gestapo and Kripo
offices were often located in the same place and
were always collectively referred to as the
Sipo. You see that shaded line around

                                      [Page 187]

the Secret Police, and kripo the Criminal
Police. These regional offices all maintained
their separate identity and reported directly to
the section of the R.S.H.A., that is, under
Kaltenbrunner, which had the jurisdiction of the
subject matter. They were, however, co-ordinated
by .Inspectors of the Security Police and S.D.,
as shown at the top of the chart. The Inspectors
were also under the supervision of Higher S.S.
and Police Leaders appointed for each
"Wehrkreis." The Higher S.S. and Police Leaders
reported to Himmler and supervised not only the
Inspectors of the Security Police and S.D., but
also the Inspectors of the Order Police and
various sub-divisions of the S.S.

In the occupied territories, the organisation
developed as the German armies advanced.
Combined operational units of the Security
Police and the S.D., known as Einsatz Groups,
about which your Honour will hear in a few
minutes, operated with and in the rear of the
army. These groups were officered by personnel
of the Gestapo, Kripo and the S.D., and the
enlisted men were composed of Order Police and
"Waffen S.S." They functioned with various Army
groups.. The Einsatz Groups -- and, if your
Honour will recall, they are simply task force
groups for special projects -- were divided into
"Einsatzkornmandos," "Sonderkonunandos," and
"Teilkommandos," all of which performed the
functions of the Security Police and the S.D.,
with or closely behind the Army.

After the occupied territories had been
consolidated, these Einsatz Groups and their
subordinate parts were formed into permanent
combined offices of the Security Police and S.D.
within the particular geographical location.
These combined forces were placed under the
Kornmandeurs of the Security Police and S.D.,
and the offices were organised in sections
similar to this R.S.H.A. headquarters. The
Konimandeurs of the Security Police and S.D.
reported directly to Befehlshaber of the
Security Police and S.D. who in turn reported
directly to the Chief of the Security Police and
S.D.

In the occupied countries, the Higher S.S. and
Police Leaders were more directly controlled by
the Befehlshabers and the Kornmandeurs of the
Security Police and S.D. than within the Reich.
They had authority to issue direct orders so
long as they did not conflict with the Chief of
the Security Police and S.D. who exercised
controlling authority.

The above chart and the remarks concerning it
are based upon two documents which I now offer
in evidence. They are Document L-219, which is
the organisation plan of the R.S.H.A. of 1st
October, 1943, and document 2346-PS, which is
Exhibit USA 480.

Now the primary mission of the Gestapo and the
S.D. was to combat the actual and ideological
enemies of the Nazi regime and to keep Hitler
and the Nazi leadership in power as specified in
Count 1 of the Indictment. The tasks and methods
of the Secret State Police were well described
in an article which is translated in Document
1956-PS, Volume 2 of the document book, which is
an article published in January, 1936, in Das
Archiv, at Page 1342, which I now offer in
evidence and quote from. It is on Page 1 of the
English translation, 1956. I will first read the
first paragraph and then the third and fourth
paragraphs. That is in January 1936:

     "In order to refute the malicious rumours
     spread abroad, the Voe1kischer Beobachter
     published on 22nd January, 1936, an article
     
                                      [Page 188]
     
     on the origin, meaning and tasks of the
     Secret Police; extracts from this read as
     follows:"
     
Now passing to the third paragraph:

     "The Secret State Police is an official
     machine on the lines of the Criminal
     Police, whose special task is the
     prosecution of crimes and offences against
     the State, above all the prosecution of
     high treason and treason. The task of the
     Secret State Police is to detect these
     crimes and offences, to ascertain the
     perpetrators and to bring them to judicial
     punishment. The number of criminal
     proceedings continually pending in the
     People's Court on account of high
     treasonable actions and of treason is the
     result of this work. The next most
     important field of operations for the
     Secret State Police is the preventive
     combating of all dangers threatening the
     State and the leadership of the State. As,
     since the National Socialist Revolution,
     all open struggle and all open opposition
     to the State and to the leadership of the
     State is forbidden, a Secret State Police
     as a preventive instrument in the struggle
     against all dangers threatening the State
     is indissolubly bound up with the National
     Socialist Leader State. The opponents of
     National Socialism were not removed by the
     prohibition of their organisations and
     their newspapers, but have withdrawn to
     other forms of struggle against the State.
     Therefore, the National Socialist State has
     to trace out, to watch over and to render
     harmless the underground opponents fighting
     against it in illegal organisations, in
     camouflaged associations, in the coalitions
     of well-meaning fellow Germans and even in
     the organisations of Party and State before
     they have succeeded in actually executing
     an action directed against the interest of
     the State. This task of fighting with all
     means the secret enemies of the State will
     be spared no Leader State, because powers
     hostile to the State from their foreign
     headquarters, always make use of some
     persons in such a State and employ them in
     underground activity against the State.
     
     The preventive activity of the Secret State
     Police consists primarily in the thorough
     observation of all enemies of the State in
     the Reich Territory. As the Secret State
     Police cannot carry out, in addition to its
     primary executive tasks, this observation
     of the enemies of the State, to the extent
     necessary, there marches by its side, to
     supplement it, the Security Service of the
     Reichsfuehrer of the S.S., set up by his
     deputy as the Political Intelligence
     Service of the movement, which puts a large
     part of the forces of the movement
     mobilised by it into the service of the
     security of the State.

     The Secret State Police takes the necessary
     police preventive measures against the
     enemies of the State on the basis of the
     results of the observation. The most
     effective preventive measure is, without
     doubt, the withdrawal of freedom, which is
     covered in the form of protective custody,
     if it is to be feared that the free
     activity of the persons in question might
     endanger the security of the State in any
     way. The employment of protective custody
     is so organised by directions of the Reich
     and Prussian Minister of the Interior and
     by a special arrest procedure of the Secret
     State Police that, as far as the preventive
     fight against the enemies of the State
     permits, continuous guarantees against the
     mis-use of the protective custody are also
     provided."

                                      [Page 189]

THE PRESIDENT: Have we not really got enough now
as to the organisation of the Gestapo and its
Objective?

COLONEL STOREY: Your Honour, 1 had finished with
the organisation. I was just going into the
question of the action of protective custody,
for which the Gestapo was famous, and showing
how they went into that field of activity and
the authority for taking people into protective
custody -- alleged protective custody.

THE PRESIDENT: I think that has been proved more
than once in the preceding evidence that we have
heard.

COLONEL STOREY: There is one more law I would
like to refer to, to the effect that that action
is not subject to judicial review, .... unless
that has already been established. I do not know
whether Major Farr did that, or not.

THE PRESIDENT: They are not subject to judicial
review?

COLONEL STOREY: Review, yes.

THE PRESIDENT: I think you have told us that
already this afternoon.

COLONEL STOREY: The citation is in the
Reichsgesetzblatt of 1935, Page 577, which is
Document 2347-PS.

I would like, if your Honour pleases, to refer
to this quotation from that law.

The decision of the Prussian High Court of
Administration on 2nd May, 1935, held that the
status of the Gestapo as a special Police
authority removed its orders from the
jurisdiction of the administrative tribunal, and
the Court said in that law that the only redress
available was by appeal to the next higher
authority within the Gestapo itself.

THE PRESIDENT: I think you told us that, apropos
of the document of 10th February, 1936, where
you said the Secret State Police was not subject
to review by any of the State Courts.

COLONEL STOREY: I just did not want there to be
any question about the authority. I refer your
Honour to Document 1825-B-PS, which is already
in evidence as Exhibit USA 449, also stating
that theory, and also Document 1723-PS, and that
is the decree, your Honour, of 1st  February,
1938, which relates to the protective custody
and the issuance of new regulations, and I would
like to quote just one sentence from that law-"
. . . as a coercive measure of the Secret State
Police against persons.who endanger the security
of the people and the State through their
attitude, in order to counter all aspirations of
the enemies of the people and the State". The
Gestapo had the exclusive right to order
protective custody and that protective custody
was to be executed in the State concentration
camps.

Now, I pass to another phase where the S.D.
created an organisation of agents and informers
who operated through the various regional
offices throughout the Reich and later in
conjunction with the Gestapo and the Criminal
Police throughout the occupied countries. The
S.D. operated secretly. One of the things it did
was to mark ballots secretly in order to
discover the identity of persons who cast "No "
and "invalid " votes in the referendum. I now
offer in evidence Document R-142, second volume.
I believe it is toward the end of Document
R-142, Exhibit USA 481.

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