The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

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In his speech on the occasion of the Day of the Reich
University Professors of the National Socialist Lawyers'
League on 3rd November, 1936, the defendant Frank explained
to the gathering of professors, the elimination of Jews from
the legal field, in accordance with the Nazi plan. Our
partial translation of the speech appears as Document 2536-
PS, at Page 62 of the document book. The official text
appears likewise in "Dokumente der Deutschen Politik," in
Volume IV, Pages 225 to 230. I ask the Tribunal to take
judicial notice of this. It deals, to summarise -

THE PRESIDENT: I do not think you need it because we have
already had documents of the same sort.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BALDWIN: As the leading Nazi Jurist, the
defendant Frank accepted, condoned and promoted the system
of concentration camps and of arrest without warrant. He
apparently had no hesitancy in subverting his professional
ethics, if he had any, while subverting the legal framework
of the German State to Nazi ends. He explains that
outrageous departure from civilisation - the concentration
camps - in an article on "Legislation and Judiciary in the
Third Reich," published in 1936 in the official journal of
the Academy of German Law, of which, of course, he was the
editor. The partial translation of this article appears as
our Document 2533-PS, at Page 61 of the document book. The
official German text of the extract appears in "Zeitschrift
der Akademie fur Deutsches Recht," 1936, at Page 141, and I
will ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of this. Since
the extract is short, I will ask permission to read it.
Frank says:

   "Before the world we are blamed again and again because
   of the concentration camps. We are asked, 'Why do you
   arrest without a warrant of arrest'? I say, put
   yourselves into the position of our nation. Remember
   that the very great and still untouched world of
   Bolshevism cannot forget that here on our German soil we
   have made final victory for them impossible in Europe."

It can be seen, therefore, that just as other defendants
mobilised the military, economic and diplomatic resources
for aggressive war, the defendant Frank, in the field of
legal policy, geared the German judicial machine for a war
of aggression, which war of aggression, as he explained in
1942 to the N.S.D.A.P. political leaders of Galicia at a
mass meeting in Lemberg - and I now quote from the "Frank
Diary," our Document 2233-PS-S, at Page 50 in the document
book, the original of  which I offer into evidence as
Exhibit USA 607 - bad for its purpose, and I quote:

   "To expand the living space for our people in a natural
   manner."

The distortions and warpings of German law which defendant
Frank engineered for the Party gave him, if not the world,
vast satisfaction. He reported this to the powerful Academy
for German Law in November, 1939, one month after becoming
Governor-General of Occupied Poland. This speech is
partially translated in our Document 3445-PS, at Page 73 in
the document book. The official text of the speech appears
in "Deutsches Recht," 1939, Volume 2, the week of 23rd-30th
December, 1939, beginning at Page 2121, and we ask the Court
to take judicial notice of this, but would like permission
to read the excerpt, as it is very short.

Frank stated:

   "To-day we are proud to have formulated our legal
   principles from the very beginning in such a way that
   they need not be changed in the case of war. For the
   rule - right is that which is useful to the nation, and
   wrong is that which harms it - which stood at the
   beginning of our legal

                                                  [Page 141]

   work, and which established the idea of the people's
   community as the only standard of the law - this rule
   also dominates the social order of these times."

If this sentiment has a familiar ring to it, it is because
it is a restatement of a Party commandment tailored and
furnished by the Party lawyer to fit the Party's concept of
law. I allude, of course, to the Party commandment
previously commented upon (Page 30, Part 3) in the treatment
of the Leadership Corps, which commandment stated, and I
quote: "Right is that which serves the movement and thus
Germany."

It follows, I think, that the prosecution conceives the
defendant Frank to be jointly responsible for all those
cruel and discriminatory enabling acts and decrees through
which the Nazis crushed minorities in Germany, and
consolidated their control over the German State, and
prepared it for its early entry upon aggression. It matters
not, in our view, that the signature of this lawyer does not
appear at the foot of every decree. Enough has been shown,
in our submission, to indicate culpability in this regard.
There is sufficient, we believe, now in this record - and I
refer to decrees cited by Major Walsh in his treatment of
the persecution of the Jews and by Colonel Storey in his
treatment of the Reich Cabinet - to demonstrate that type of
enactment and the consequences thereof, for which we hold
the defendant Frank liable. In following this theory, may it
please the Tribunal, we are only arriving at conclusions
already arrived at for us by the defendant Frank himself.

I now pass to that second and well-known phase of the
defendant Frank's official life, wherein he, for five years
as chief Party and Government Agent, was bent upon the
elimination of a whole people. He was appointed Governor-
General of the Occupied Polish Territory by a decree signed
by his then Fuehrer, on 12th October, 1939. The decree
defined the scope of Frank's executive power and is
contained in our Document 2537-PS, at Page 66 in the
document book. I shall ask the Tribunal to take judicial
notice of this, since it appears in Reichsgesetzblatt, 1939,
Part 1, Page 2077.

It merely states that Dr. Frank is appointed as Governor-
General of the Occupied Polish Territory; that Dr. Seyss-
Inquart is appointed as Deputy Governor-General and that
"the Governor-General shall be directly responsible to me,"
meaning Hitler, he having signed the decree.

While some of the outside world was prone in earlier days to
wonder at the apparent efficiency of Nazi administration, we
now know that it was often riddled with the petty jealousies
of small men in positions of some authority and with
jurisdictional fractiousness. No such difficulty existed
with the defendant Frank, however, for though he was not
without the threat of divided authority, he insisted upon,
and was granted, the favour of supreme command within the
territorial confines of the General Government. Only two
references from his diary, one in 1940 and one in 1942, are
necessary to show how all-embracing was his direction and
authority.

At a meeting of Department Heads of the Government General
on 8th March, 1940, in the Bergakademie, the defendant Frank
clarified his status as Governor-General, and these remarks
appear in the diary and in our document 2233-PS-N, at Page
42 in the document book, the original of which I offer into
evidence as Exhibit USA 173.

In the German text, the extracts appear in the Department
Head Meetings, Volume for 1939-40, Pages 6, 7 and 8. Frank
says:

   "One thing is certain. The authority of Governor-General
   as the representative of the Fuehrer and the will of the
   Reich in this territory is certainly strong, and I have
   always emphasised that I would not tolerate misuse of
   this authority. I have allowed this to be known anew at
   every office in Berlin, especially after Herr Field
   Marshal Goering on 12th February, 1940, from Karin Hall,
   had forbidden all Administrative Offices

                                                  [Page 142]

   of the Reich, including the Police and even the
   Wehrmacht, to interfere in administrative matters of the
   Government General.."

He goes on to say:

   "There is no authority here in the Government General
   which is higher as to rank, influence and authority than
   that of the Governor-General Even the Wehrmacht has no
   governmental or official functions of any kind in this
   connection; it has only security functions and general
   military duties - it has no political power whatsoever.
   The same applies here to the Police and the SS. There is
   here no State within a State, but we are Representatives
   of the Fuehrer and of the Reich."

Later, in 1942, at a conference of the District political
leaders of the N.S.D.A.P. in Cracow on 18th March, defendant
Frank further explained the relationship between the
administration and the Reichsfuehrer S.S. Himmler. These
remarks appear in the diary and in our Document 2233-PS-R
and at Page 48 of the document book, the original of which I
offer into evidence, as Exhibit USA 608. In the German text,
the extract to be quoted appears at Page 185, of diary
volume 1942, Part 1. I quote:

   "As you know" - says Frank - "I am a fanatic as to unity
   in administration.... It is, therefore, clear that the
   Higher S.S. and Police Leader is subordinated to me,
   that the Police is a component of the Government, that
   the S.S. and Police Leader in the district is
   subordinated to the Governor, and that the district
   chief has the authority of command over the Police in
   his district. This, the Reichsfuehrer S.S. has
   recognised; in the written agreement all these points
   are mentioned word for word and signed.
   
   It is also self-evident that we cannot establish a
   closed set-up here which can be treated in the
   traditional manner of small States."

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Do you think all this has to be
read?

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BALDWIN: It is considered important, Sir,
by the United States prosecution, in view of the fact that
this is the later extract from the diary, and communicates
that two years later Frank considered himself to be the
Supreme Authority in the Government General. This is a point
which we conceive to be of importance, Sir.

May I proceed ?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BALDWIN:

   "It would, for instance, be ridiculous if we were to
   build up here a security police of our own against our
   Poles in the country, while knowing that the Poles in
   West Prussia, in Posen, in Wartheland and in Silesia
   have one and the same Movement of Resistance. The
   Reichsfuehrer S.S. and Chief of the German Police thus
   must be able to carry out, with the aid of his agencies,
   his police measures concerning the interests of the
   Reich as a whole. This, however, will be done in such a
   way that the measures to be adopted will first be
   submitted to me, and carried out only when I give up
   consent. In the Government General, the Police are the
   Armed Forces. As a result of this, the Leader of the
   Police system will be called by me into the Government
   of the Government General; he is subordinate to me, or
   to my deputy, as a State Secretary for the Security
   System."

At this juncture, it is appropriate to mention that the man
who filled the position of State Secretary for Security in
the Government General was Frank's Higher S.S. and Police
Leader, Kruger.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you read the next page?

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BALDWIN: May it please the Tribunal, I
shall come to that excerpt later.

                                                  [Page 143]

THE PRESIDENT: In the same document?

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BALDWIN: Yes, Sir. It seems more
appropriate at another point.

The Tribunal may recall that the reports of the
extermination of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were made in the
spring of 1943 by S.S. Leader Stroop - who immediately
supervised the operation - to this same Kruger, who was
still at that time one of the most influential members of
Frank's Cabinet, as State Secretary for Security.

It was inevitable that the grand Common Plan or Conspiracy
should have, as its component parts, a host of small plans,
each dealing with a particular sphere of activity. These
plans, differing from the master plan only in size, are the
blueprints for a specific action drawn from the broad
policies. Occupied Poland was no exception to this rule. The
plan for the administration of Poland was contained in a top
secret memorandum of a conference between Hitler and the
Chief of the O.K.W., defendant Keitel, entitled, "Regarding
Future Relations of Poland to Germany" and dated 20th
October, 1939. This report was initialled by General
Warlimont. It is our Document 964-PS and may be found at
Page 3 of the document book, and I shall offer it into
evidence as Exhibit USA 609.

I shall quote, if the Court please, only from paragraphs 1,
3, 4 and 6:

   "1. The Armed Forces will welcome it if they can dispose
   of administrative questions in Poland.
   
   On principle, there cannot be two administrations.
   
   3. It is not the task of the Administration to make
   Poland into a model province or a model State of the
   German Order or to put her economically or financially
   on a sound basis.
   
   The Polish intelligentsia must be prevented from forming
   a ruling class. The standard of living in the country is
   to remain low; we want only to draw labour forces from
   there. Poles are also to be used for the administration
   of the country. However, the forming of national
   political groups may not be allowed.
   
   4. The administration has to work on its own
   responsibility and must not be dependent on Berlin. We
   do not want to do there what we do in the Reich. The
   responsibility does not rest with the Berlin Ministries,
   since there is no German administration unit concerned.
   
   The accomplishment of this task will involve a hard
   racial struggle which will not allow any legal
   restrictions. The methods will be incompatible with the
   principles otherwise adhered to by us.
   
   The Governor General is to give the Polish nation only
   bare living conditions and is to maintain the basis for
   military security.
   
   6. Any tendencies towards the consolidation of
   conditions in Poland are to be suppressed. The 'Polish
   Muddle' must be allowed to develop. The government of
   the territory must make it possible for us to purify the
   Reich territory from Jews and Poles too. Collaboration
   with new Reich provinces (Posen and West Prussia) only
   for resettlements (compare Mission Himmler).
   
   Purpose: Shrewdness and severity must be the maxims in
   this racial struggle, in order to spare us from going to
   battle on account of this country again."

The defendant Frank was the chosen executor of this
programme. He knew its aims, approved of them, and actively
carried out the scheme. The Tribunal's attention has already
been invited to Exhibit USA 297 wherein (Page 422, Part 2)
the defendant Frank expounded the mission which his Fuehrer
had assigned to him and according to which he intended to
administer in Poland. It contemplated, in brief, ruthless
exploitation, deportation of all supplies and

                                                  [Page 144]

workers, reduction of the entire Polish economy to absolute
minimum necessary for bare existence of the population, and
the closing of all schools. No more callous statement exists
than one Frank made in this report, wherein he said, "Poland
shall be treated as a colony; the Poles shall be the slaves
of the Greater German World Empire."

In December, 1940, Frank submitted to his department heads
that the task of administering Poland did truly involve a
hard racial struggle which would not allow any legal
restrictions. I refer to our Document 2233PS-O, which may be
found at Page 45 in the document book. It is taken from the
"Frank Diary," and I offer it in evidence as Exhibit USA
173. In the German text the extract to be quoted appears in
the volume of the diary entitled "Department Heads Meetings
1939-40," on Pages 12 and 13. I now quote:

   "In this country the force of a determined leadership
   must rule. The Pole must feel here that we are not
   building him a legal State, but that for him there is
   only one duty, namely to work and to behave himself. It
   is clear that this must sometimes lead to difficulties,
   but you must, in your own interest, see that all
   measures are ruthlessly carried out in order to become
   master of the situation. You can rely on me absolutely
   in this."

As for the Poles and Ukrainians, defendant Frank's attitude
was clear. They were to be permitted to slave for the German
economy as long as the war emergency continued. Once the war
was won, even this cynical interest would cease. I refer to
a speech before German political. leaders at Cracow on 12th
January, 1944. It appears in the "Frank Diary" and as our
Document 2233PS-B at Page 60 in the document book. It is the
first passage on that page. I offer it in evidence as
Exhibit USA 295. In the diary, the German text will be found
in the loose-leaf volume covering the period from 1st
January to 28th February, 1944, at the entry for 14th
January, 1944, at Page 24:

"Once the war is won," Frank tells these leaders - and here
we have, may it please the Court, the classic example of the
completely brutal statement" Once the War is won, then for
all I care, mincemeat can be made of the Poles and the
Ukrainians and all the others who run around here-it does
not matter what happens."

In accordance with the racial programme of the Nazi
conspirators, the defendant Frank makes it quite clear in
his diary that the complete annihilation of Jews was one of
his cherished objectives. In Exhibit USA 271, Frank stated
in late 1940 in his diary that he could not eliminate all
lice and Jews in a year's time. In Exhibit USA 281, he says
in his diary in the year 1942 that a programme of starvation
rations sentencing, in effect, 1,200,000 Jews to die of
hunger, should be noted only marginally. In Exhibit USA 295,
he confided to a secret Press conference that in the year
1944 - and this, too, is from the diary - there were still
in the Government General perhaps 100,000 Jews.


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