Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-01/tgmwc-01-04.02
Last-Modified: 1999/08/28

During this period one of the strongest weapons of the

conspirators was propaganda. From the outset they

appreciated the urgency of the task of inculcating the

German masses with the National Socialist principles and

ideology. The early utterances of Hitler and his fellow

conspirators evidenced full recognition of the fact that

their power could endure only if it rested on general

acceptance of their political and social views.



Immediately following their accession to power, the Nazi

conspirators instituted a determined programme for wholesale

Organisation of the masses by seizing control of all

vehicles of public expression. The widespread use of

propaganda by the political machine thus created became a

key device in establishing control over all phases of the

German economy, public and private. They conceived that the

proper function of propaganda was:-

   

   "To prepare the ground psychologically for political

   action and military aggression, and to guarantee popular

   support of a system which was based on a permanent and

   steadily intensified application of terror and

   aggression, both in the sphere of domestic politics and

   foreign relations."



To attain these objectives, propaganda was used to create a

specific thought pattern designed to make the people

amenable to the aims and programme of the



                                                  [Page 122]



Nazis and to foster their active participation therein to

the greatest extent possible. The nature of this propaganda

is within the judicial purview of the Court. As Goebbels put

it, it was aimed at "the conquest of the masses." Its

intended effect was the elimination of all serious

resistance in the masses. To achieve this result, as will be

shown later in the evidence, the Nazi conspirators were

utterly unscrupulous in their choice of means, a total

disregard of veracity that presented their case purely from

the standpoint of political expediency and their conception

of national self-interest. Inasmuch as propaganda was the

means to an end, "the conquest of the masses," it required

different strategy at different times, depending on the

objectives issued and pursued by the Nazi conspirators at

any given moment. According to Hitler: "the first task of

propaganda is gaining of people for the future

organisation."



The recruiting of people for enlistment in the Party and

supervised organisations was the primary objective in the

years preceding and immediately following the seizure of

power. After the rise to power, this task was broadened to

include the enlistment of the people as a whole for the

active support of the regime and its policies. As the Reich

Propaganda Leader of the Party and Reich Minister for

Propaganda, Goebbels stated:-



   "Propaganda, the strongest weapon in the conquest of the

   State, remains the strongest weapon in the consolidation

   and building up of the State."



   The methods which they used to control this strongest

weapon in the power of the State are set forth in a chart

which I would like to call to the Court's attention at this

time, and would like to introduce in evidence as exhibit USA

21.



As you will note from the charts, there were three separate

levels of control within the German Reich. The first level

was the Party Controls, which are represented on the chart

by the top block. And you will see that the Party through

its Examining Commission controlled the books and magazines,

and issues of books and magazines setting forth the ideology

of the Party.



The second block, the Press Leader Division, supervised all

publishers, and headed the Party newspapers and book

publishers.



The third block, Press Chief - this office controlled the

Press Political Office, the Press Personnel Office, and

supervised the Party treatment of the Press and treatment of

Party affairs in the Press.



The centre block, the Office of Propaganda Leader, had under

its control not only the Press, but Exhibits, Affairs,

Speaker's Bureau, Films, Radio, Culture, and other means of

expression, and dissemination of the ideology of the Party

and its purposes.



The next block, Ideology, was devoted exclusively to the

ideology of the Party headed by the defendant Rosenberg. It

supplied all the training periodicals, prepared for the

schools, and the indoctrination of the people into the

ideology of the Party. On that same level is Youth

Education, presided over by the defendant Schirach, who had

under his control the Hitler Jugend; and then there were the

University Students and Teachers Division of the Party

Control.



On the next level you have the controls that were exercised

by the State, and reading from left to right you have the

Propaganda Co-ordination, Foreign Co-ordination, and Co-

operation.



Radio, which was under the control of the defendant

Fritzsche, Film, Literature, the German Press, Periodicals,

Theatre, Arts, Other Cultural Things, and the Ministry for

Education.



Then, in the last, there is what is known as the Corporate

Controls. These were under a semi-official control of both

the Party and the State. These are the so-called Cultural

Chambers. Their purpose was to have full control over the

personnel engaged in the various arts and cultures, and

engaged in the preparation and dissemination of news. First

the Press. All reporters and writers belonged to that

section. The next section was Fine Arts, Music, Theatre,

Film, Literature, Radio, and then going over into the

Educational Branch the organisation which the



                                                  [Page 123]



University Teachers, the Students, the former Corps Members

of the University had to belong to.



By means of this vast network of propaganda machinery, the

Nazi conspirators had full control over the expression and

dissemination of all thought, cultural activities, and

dissemination of news within the Reich. Nothing was or could

be published in Germany that did not have the approval,

express or implied of the Party and State. The defendant

Schacht in his personal notes explains the effect of the

killing of a piece of news in a totalitarian dictatorship.

As he states it, it has never become publicly known that

there have been thousands of martyrs in the Hitler regime.

They have all disappeared in the cells or graves of the

concentration camps, without ever having been heard of

again; and he goes on to say, "what is the use of martyrdom

in the fight against terror if it has no chance of becoming

known and thus serving as an example for others."



I would . . .



THE PRESIDENT: What were you reading from then? From what

document were you reading when you quoted Schacht?



MAJOR WALLIS: I am afraid . . .



THE PRESIDENT: You can tell us later on.



MAJOR WALLIS: I will tell you later on, Sir. I would now

like to turn your attention . . .



THE PRESIDENT: Before you pass from this subject, there is a

note on the documents which shows that certain documents are

missing. What does that mean?



MAJOR WALLIS: Those documents are in the process of being

reproduced and will be furnished to the Court, I hope,

before the close of the day, Sir. They have been added to

that book and, as yet, have not been completed in their

process of reproduction.



THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Have they been translated ?



MAJOR WALLIS: Yes, Sir, they have been translated, and the

translations are in the process of being reproduced.



THE PRESIDENT: Are the documents in their original form in

German?



MAJOR WALLIS: Yes, I believe they are, Sir.



THE PRESIDENT: Very well.



MAJOR WALLIS: I would now like to direct the Court's

attention to the militarisation of Nazi-dominated

organisations during this pre-war period, and for that

purpose I offer Exhibit USA J, which consists of a document

book with English translations, and I present to the Court

also a brief which accompanies this portion of the case.



Throughout this pre-war period, and while the Nazi

conspirators were achieving and consolidating their

totalitarian control of Germany, they did not lose sight of

their main objective-aggressive war. Accordingly, they

placed a considerable number of their dominated

organisations on a progressively militarised footing, with a

view to the rapid transformation of these organisations

whenever necessary, as instruments of war. These

organisations were the SS, the SA, the Hitler Jugend, the

NSKK or National Socialist Motor Corps, the NSFK (the

National Socialist Aviation Corps), the RAD (Reich Labour

Service), and the OT, the Todt Organisation.



The manner in which the militarisation was accomplished is

detailed in part in the documents, which have been presented

to us, and will be detailed further when the particular

organisations are taken up and discussed and their

criminality established at subsequent stages in the case. At

this time, I would like to call the Court's attention to a

chart, and while the chart is physically being placed on the

board, I would offer exhibits USA 22 and 23, I beg your

pardon--exhibit 22, which is document 2899-PS, and is a

reproduction of Page 15 of the book entitled, "History of

the Nazi Party". You will note that on the left lower corner

of the chart placed oil the board, there are some papers

attached. The top paper is an affidavit which reads as

follows: "I certify that the above enlargement is a true



                                                  [Page 124]



and correct copy prepared under my direct supervision, of

document Number 2833-PS, Page 15 of the book entitled

"History of the Nazi Part," and you will note underneath is

a second paper and this affidavit states it is a correct

photographic copy, and which appears in the left-hand corner

of the panel. This affidavit is signed by David Zablodowsky,

sworn to and subscribed 23rd November, 1945, at Nuremburg,

Germany, before James H. Johnston, 1st Lt., Office of U.S.

Chief of Counsel.



This chart visualises, as vividly as possible, just how this

militarisation took place in Germany. The chart is entitled,

"The Organic Incorporation of German Nationals into the

National Socialist System, and the Way to Political

Leadership".



Starting at the bottom of the chart, you see the young folk,

between the ages of 10 and 14. The arrows point both right

and left. The arrow to the right is the Adolf Hitler School,

for youth between the ages Of 12 and 18. Both from the

School and from the young folk, they proceed to the Hitler

Jugend. At 18 years of age, they graduate from the Hitler

Jugend into the various party formations, the SA, SS, the

NSKK, and the NSFK. At the age of 20 they continue from

these party formations into the Labour Service, and from the

Labour Service, after they have served their period of time

there, back again to the party formations, of the SA, the

SS, NSKK, and NSFK, until they reach the age Of 21. Then

they proceed into the Army, serve in the Army from the ages

Of 21 to 23, and then back again into the party formations

of SA, SS, etc.



And from that group, the select move to be Political Leaders

(Leiter) of the Nazi Party, and from that group are selected

the cream of the crop who go to the Nazi Party Special

Schools and from these schools, as is represented on the top

of the chart, graduate the political Fuehrers of the People.



I would emphasise again to the Court that this chart is not

anything that was prepared by counsel in this case. It was

prepared by the Nazi Party people and it comes from their

own history.



Thus, by the end of the pre-war period, the Nazi

conspirators had achieved one of the first major steps in

their grand conspiracy. All phases of German life were

dominated by Nazi doctrine and practice and mobilised for

the accomplishment of their militant aims. The extent to

which this was accomplished can be no better expressed than

by the words of Hitler when he spoke to the Reichstag on

20th February, 1938. I refer to document 2715-PS. He said:



   "Only now have we succeeded in setting before us the

   great tasks and in possessing the material things which

   are the prerequisites for the realisation of great

   creative plans in all fields of our national existence.

   Thus, National Socialism has made up with a few years

   for what centuries before it had omitted. . . . National

   Socialism has given the German people that leadership

   which as Party not only mobilises the nation but also

   organises it, so that on the basis of the natural

   principle of selection, the continuance of a stable

   political leadership is safeguarded forever . . .

   National Socialism . . .possesses Germany entirely and

   completely since the day when, five years ago, I left

   the house in Wilhelmsplatz as Reich Chancellor. There is

   no institution in this State which is not National

   Socialist. Above all, however, the National Socialist

   Party in these five years not only has made the nation

   National Socialist, but has given itself the perfect

   organisational structure which guarantees its permanence

   for all future. The greatest guarantee of the National

   Socialist revolution lies in the complete domination of

   the Reich and all its institutions and organisations,

   internally and externally, by the National Socialist

   Party. Its protection against the world abroad, however,

   lies in its New National Socialist armed forces. . . .

   

   In this Reich, anybody who has a responsible position is

   a National Socialist. . . . Every institution of this

   Reich is under the orders of the supreme political

   leadership. . . . The Party leads the Reich politically,

   the armed



                                                  [Page 125]



   forces defend it militarily. . . . There is nobody in

   any responsible position in this State who doubts that I

   am the authorised leader of this Reich."



Thus spoke Adolf Hitler at the end of this period on the

2oth February, 1938.



COLONEL STOREY: If the Tribunal please ...



DR. SEIDL (Counsel for defendant Frank): Mr. President, may

I make a few short remarks in this connection? The

defendants were given, along with the Indictment, a list of

the documents, which is introduced as follows:



   "Every one of the defendants is hereby being informed

   that the prosecution will use several or all the

   documents listed in the enclosure.."



THE PRESIDENT (interposing): You must speak more slowly.



DR. SEIDL (continuing):

   ".in order to implement the points enumerated in the

   Indictment."



Now, the Chief Prosecutor introduced in Court this morning

about twelve documents and a check of that list revealed

that not a single one of the documents is mentioned. Thus,

already now, at the very beginning of the trial, we are

confronted with the fact that documents are presented to the

Court with the contents of which the defendant is

unacquainted and, further, that documents which are not even

listed are being used as documentary evidence.



Not a single one of these documents is mentioned in the

list, and I must confess that an adequate defence is

altogether impossible under these circumstances. I therefore

move:



(1) That the Tribunal supply the prosecution with a list of

all documents available, which are to be placed before the

Court as evidence.

(2) To instruct the prosecution to make available to the

defence and their counsel - at the latest on the day when

documents are being presented to the Court - a copy of the

German text; and

(3) That the main proceedings be suspended until the

prosecution will be in a position to comply with these

requests. Otherwise I, at least, will not be able to proceed

with the defence.



THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, or counsel for the

prosecution, will you say what answer you have to make to

this objection?



COLONEL STOREY: If the Tribunal please, in the first place

practically every document referred to by Major Wallis is a

document of which the Court would take judicial knowledge.

Secondly, a list of documents was filed in the Defendants'

Information Centre on 1st November. I am not sure as to

whether all of these or a part of them were included. Each

attorney presenting each segment of the case sends down to

the Defendants' Information Centre a list of the documents

which he proposes to offer in evidence Upon his

presentation. Thirdly, I wonder if the Tribunal and defence

counsel realise the physical problems that are imposed? I am

informed that copies of these documents in English as well

as copies of the briefs, were delivered either last night or

this morning in Defendants' Information Centre. Lastly,

other presentations that follow, we will abide by the

Tribunal's request, namely, that, prior to the presentation

the Court will be furnished with these documents books, with

these briefs, and defence counsel will also be furnished

with them in advance. The week-end will permit us to do

that.



THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal thinks that the trial must now

continue without any adjournment, but that in future as soon

as possible the defendants' counsel will be furnished with

copies of the documents which are to be put in evidence.



DR. SERVATIUS (Counsel for defendant Sauckel): I should like

to present the following: The documents are presented to the

Court also in an English translation. An examination of

these translations should be made available to the defence.

I point out particularly that the translation of technical

terms could possibly lead to misunderstandings. Moreover,

the documents are provided with an introductory remark and a

table of contents. The defence should also have opportunity

to read through this table of contents and examine it.



                                                  [Page 126]



I make the motion that these English translations and their

preliminary remarks be made available to the defence.

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