Archive/File: imt/nca/nca-02/nca-02-15-criminality-02-08
Last-Modified: 1996/12/28

Reichsleiter Bormann distributed to all Reichsleiter,
Gauleiter, and leaders of Party affiliated organizations, by
an undated letter of transmittal, and order of the Supreme
Command of the Wehrmacht relating to self-defense by German
guard personnel and German contractors and workers against
prisoners of war (656-PS). The order of the Wehrmacht states
that the question of treatment of prisoners of war is
continually being discussed by Wehrmacht and Party bureaus.
The order states that should prisoners of war refuse to obey
orders to work, the guard has "in the case of the most
pressing need and danger, the right to force obedience with
the weapon if he has no other means. He can use the weapon
as much as is necessary to attain his goal ***."

On 18 April 1944, Reich Commissar Lohse, Reich Minister for
the Occupied Eastern Territories, in a letter to Reich Youth
Leader Axmann, proposed that the Hitler Youth participate in
and supervise the military education of the Estonian and
Latvian youth (347-PS). Lohse stated in this letter that "in
the military education camps, the young Latvians are trained
under Latvian

                                                   [Page 55]
                                                            
leaders in the Latvian language not because this is our
ideal, but because absolute military necessity demands
this." Lohse further stated:

     "*** in contrast to the Germanic peoples of the West,
     military education is no longer to be carried out
     through voluntary enlistments but through legal
     conscription. The camps in Estonia and Latvia *** will
     have to be under German Leadership and, as military
     education camps of the Hitler Youth, they must be a
     symbol of our educational mission beyond Germany's
     borders *** I consider the execution of the military
     education of the Estonian and Latvian youth not only a
     military necessity, but also a war mission of the
     Hitler Youth especially. I would be thankful to you,
     Party member Axmann, if the Hitler Youth would put
     itself at our disposal with the same readiness with
     which they have so far supported our work in the Baltic
     area." (347-PS)

The Reichsfuehrer of the SS, as shown earlier, was a
Reichsleiter of the NSDAP (2473-PS). An order of the Reich
Minister of the Interior, Frick, dated 22 October 1938,
provided as follows:

"The Reichsfuehrer SS and the Chief of the German Police ***
can take the administrative measures necessary for the
maintenance of security and order, even beyond the legal
limits otherwise set on such measures." (1438-PS)

This order related to the administration of the Sudeten-
German territory.

In a letter dated 23 June 1943 (407-VI-PS) Gauleiter and
Plenipotentiary for the Direction of Labor, Fritz Sauckel,
wrote to Hitler advising him of the success of the forced
labor program of that date. Sauckel

     "You can be assured that the District of Thueringen
     [Gau] and I will serve you and our dear people with
     the employment of all strength ***." (407-VI-PS)

On 1 September 1939, Hitler wrote a memorandum stating:

     "Reichsleiter Bouhler and Dr. Brandt, M.D., are charged
     with the responsibility of enlarging the authority of
     certain physicians to be designated by name in such a
     manner that persons who, according to human judgment,
     are incurable can, upon a most careful diagnosis of
     their condition of sickness, be accorded a mercy death.
     
     "(Signed) A. Hitler." (630-PS)

                                                   [Page 56]
                                                            
A handwritten note on the face of the document states:

     "Given to me by Bouhler on 27 August 1940, [signed] Dr.
     Guertner." (630-PS)

In a memorandum recording an agreement between himself and
Himmler, the Minister of Justice Thierack stated that, on
the suggestion of Reichsleiter Bormann, an agreement had
been reached between Himmler and himself with respect to
"special treatment at the hands of the police in cases where
judicial sentences are not severe enough" (654-PS). The
agreement related that:

     "The Reich Minister for Justice will decide whether and
     when special treatment at the hands of the police is to
     be applied. The Reich Fuehrer of SS will send the
     reports, which he sent hitherto to Reichsleiter
     Bormann, to the Reich Minister for Justice."

If the views of the Reich Fuehrer of SS and the Reich
Minister for Justice disagreed,

     "the opinion of Reichsleiter Bormann will be brought to
     bear on the case, and he will possibly inform the
     Fuehrer ***.
                           *******
     "The delivery of antisocial elements from execution of
     their sentence to the Reich Fuehrer of SS to be worked
     to death. Persons under protective arrest, Jews,
     Gypsies, Russians and Ukrainians, Poles with more than
     3-year sentences, Czechs and Germans with more than 8-
     year sentences, according to the decision of the Reich
     Minister of Justice. First of all the worst antisocial
     elements amongst those just mentioned are to be handed
     over. I shall inform the Fuehrer of this through
     Reichsleiter Bormann." (654-PS)

With respect to the "administration of justice by the
people," the memorandum states:

     "This is to be carried out step by step as soon as
     possible *** I shall rouse the Party particularly to
     cooperate in this scheme by an article in the
     Hoheitstraeger [NSDAP publication] ***." (654-PS)

At a meeting of the NSDAP in Kiev, the theory of the master
race as the basis of German administrative policy in the
East was expressed by Koch, Reich Commissioner for the
Ukraine:

     "We are the master race *** I will squeeze the last
     drop out of the country . . . the people must work,
     work and work. We are a master race *** the lowest
     German
     
                                                   [Page 57]
                                                            
     worker is racially and biologically a thousand times
     more valuable than the people here." (1130-PS)

A letter from RSHA (Reich Security Main Office) to police
chiefs, dated 5 November 1942, recites an agreement between
the Reich Fuehrer SS and the Reich Minister of Justice,
approved by Hitler, providing that ordinary criminal
procedure was no longer to be applied to Poles and members
of the Eastern populations (L-316). The agreement provided
that such people, including Jews and Gypsies, should
henceforth be turned over to the police. he principles
applicable to a determination of the punishment of German
offenders, including appraisal of the motives of the
offender, were not to be applied to foreign offenders. The
letter stated:

     "*** the offense committed by a person of foreign
     extraction is not to be regarded from the view of legal
     retribution by way of justice, but from the point of
     view of preventing dangers through police action. From
     this it follows that the criminal procedure against
     persons of foreign extraction must be transferred from
     Justice to the Police. The preceding statements serve
     for personal information. There are no objections if
     the Gauleiter are informed in the usual form should the
     need arise ***." (L-316)
     
With respect to the evacuation, deportation, and
Germanization of the civilian population of the incorporated
eastern territories, Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler, in his
capacity as Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of
German Nationhood, issued several decrees requiring the
deportation to Germany of all Germans from such territories
who had renounced their nationality during the existence of
the Polish State (R-112). These decrees directed that
persons affected by the provisions thereof who failed to
comply were to be sent to concentration camps. After
deportation to Germany, such persons were to be closely
supervised by NSDAP -"Counsellors and secret police to
insure their Germanization. certain of the decrees directing
such deportation are addressed, inter alia, to the
"Gauleiter" and the "Reich Governors in the Reich Gaue." (R-
112)

In a conference with Reichsleiter Rosenberg, Hitler
emphasized that he "-wished to have the Crimea cleaned out,"
and Rosenberg died that he had given much consideration to
renaming the towns in the Crimea in order to invest the area
with a German character. (1517-PS)

In a speech to a gathering of persons intimately concerned
with the Eastern problem on 20 June 1941, Reichsleiter
Rosenberg

                                                   [Page 58]
                                                            
stated that the southern Russian territories and the
northern Caucasus would have to provide food for the German
people:

     "We see absolutely no obligation on our part to feed
     also the Russian people with the-products of that
     surplus territory. We know that this is a harsh
     necessity, bare of any feelings ***." (1058-PS)

Rosenberg stated that, as a consequence of the above policy,
extensive evacuations of Russians from that Area would have
to take place. (1058-PS)

Gauleiter Wagner of the German-occupied Areas of Alsace
prepared plans and took measures leading to the expulsion
and deportation of certain groups within the Alsatian civil
population. His plans called for the forcible expulsion of
certain categories of so-called undesirable persons, as a
means of punishment and compulsory Germanization. The
Gauleiter supervised deportation measures in Alsace from
July to December 1940, in the course of which 105,000
persons were either expelled or prevented from returning. A
memorandum, dated 4 August 1942, of a meeting of high SS and
police officials, convened to receive the reports and plans
of the Gauleiter relating to the Alsatian evacuations,
states that the persons deported were mainly-

     "Jews, Gypsies and other foreign racial elements,
     criminals, asocial and incurably insane persons, as
     well as Frenchmen and Francophiles." (R-114)

According to the memorandum, the Gauleiter stated that the
Fuehrer had given him permission "to cleanse Alsace of all
foreign, sick, or unreliable elements," and emphasized the
political necessity of further deportation. The memorandum
further records that the SS and police officials present at
the above conference approved the Gauleiter's proposals for
further evacuation. (R-114)

A second memorandum, dated 17 August 1942, relating to a
conference called by SS-Gruppenfuehrer Kaul, held at the
Gauleiter office at Karlsruhe for the purpose of considering
the deportation of Alsatians into Germany, states that the
Gauleiter had reported to the Fuehrer with respect to the
proposed evacuation of Alsatians. It is further stated that
the Fuehrer verbally declared that "asocial and criminal
persons" were to be expelled. The Gauleiter stated at the
above conference that the action leading to such evacuation
had already begun. The Gauleiter further declared that he
intended to offset the loss of population as far as possible
by transplantation of people from Baden, "thus creating a
uniform race mixture." (R-114)

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