Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-03-22.06
Last-Modified: 1998/08/25

                                                   [Page 77]


COLONEL STOREY: If the Tribunal please, the persons who held
these posts in the ordinary Cabinet varied between the years
1933 and 1945. Although it is not encumbent upon us to prove
who they were, since the group and not the individuals are
under consideration, nevertheless their names are

                                                   [Page 78]

already before this Tribunal in the original governmental
chart, Exhibit USA 3. Since it will be of interest to the
Tribunal to see what persons -- and 17 of them are
defendants here -- held any particular positions in the
Cabinet, a table has been prepared which lists all the
departments and posts I have mentioned, and the encumbents
thereof, during the years 1933 to 1945. The German
equivalents of the titles are also shown and, with the
permission of the Tribunal, I will now distribute this table
to its members. Copies have likewise been filed in the
defendants' Information Centre. The table also is annotated
with citations to sources verifying the facts shown -- all
of which, however, were of common knowledge during the
period in question.

Diverting from the text: This is simply prepared for the
convenience of the Tribunal in connection with the studying
of the briefs and the documents. As I said at the outset,
the proof will show that there was only an artificial
distinction between the ordinary Cabinet, the Secret Cabinet
Council, and the Council of Ministers for the Defence of the
Reich. This is evident in the first instance by the unity of
personnel between the three subdivisions.  Thus on 4th
February, 1938, Hitler created the Secret Cabinet Council.
If your Honours will refer to this big chart, you will
notice under 1938 there is a red line pointing down to the
Secret Cabinet Council created during that year. This decree
appears in the 1938 Reichgesetzblatt, Part I, at Page 112.
It is in our document book as Document 2031-PS, and I should
like to quote from it.

THE PRESIDENT: It is not in Book X, is it?

COLONEL STOREY: Yes, Sir; 2031-PS.

THE PRESIDENT: 2031?

COLONEL STORY: Yes, Sir; I beg your pardon, it is under the
Laws and Decrees Section.

     "To advise me in conducting the foreign policy I am
     setting up a Secret Cabinet Council.
     
     As President of the Secret Cabinet Council I nominate:
     Reich Minister Baron von Neurath.
     
     As members of the Secret Cabinet Council I nominate:
     Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs Joachim von
     Ribbentrop; Prussian Prime Minister, Reich Minister of
     the Air, Supreme Commander of the Air Force, General
     Field Marshal Hermann Goering; the Fuehrer's Deputy,
     Reich Minister Rudolph Hess; Reich Minister for the
     Enlightenment of the People and Propaganda, Dr. Joseph
     Goebbels; Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich
     Chancellery, Dr. Lammers; Supreme Commander of the
     Army, General Walther von Brauchitsch; Supreme
     Commander of the Navy, Grand Admiral Dr. (honorary)
     Raeder; Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed
     Forces, Lt.-Gen. Wilhelm Keitel."

It will be noted that every member was either a Reich
Minister or, as in the case of the Army, Navy, and O.K.W.
heads, had the rank and authority of a Reich Minister.

On 30th August, 1939, Hitler established the Council of
Ministers for the Defence of the Reich, better known as the
Ministerial Council. This was the so-called Cabinet. The
decree appears in the 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, at
Page 1539. I now refer to Document 2018-PS of the Laws and
Decrees, and I quote paragraph 1:

     "1. From members of the Reich Defence Council shall be
     set up a standing
     
                                                   [Page 79]
                                                            
     Committee to be known as the Ministerial Council for
     the Defence of the Reich.
     
     2. The standing members of the Ministerial Council for
     Defence of the Reich shall be:
     
     General Field Marshal Goering as chairman;
     The Fuehrer's Deputy -- the defendant Hess;
     Commissioner General for Reich Administration -- the
     defendant Frick;
     Commissioner General for Economy -- the defendant Funk;
     Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery --
     Dr. Lammers;
     Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces -- the
     defendant Keitel.
     
     3. The chairman may draw on any other members of the
     Reich Defence Council including further personnel for
     advice."
     
Again it will be seen that all were also members of the
ordinary Cabinet. But this use of the Cabinet as a manpower
reservoir, from whom the trusted collaborators were
selected, becomes particularly poignant when we consider the
actions of the Nazi conspirators which were not published in
the Reichsgesetzblatt, which were concealed from the world
and which were part and parcel of their conspiracy to wage
aggressive war. It will have been noted that the decree
setting up the Ministerial Council, one to which I have just
referred ,contained this sentence:

     "Out of the Reich Defence Council a standing committee
     shall be set up as a A Ministerial Council for Defence
     of the Reich."

There is evidence already before this Tribunal establishing
the creation -- by the Cabinet -- on 4th April, 1933, of
this really secret war-planning body. I refer the Tribunal
to Exhibit USA 24, which appears in our document book as
Document 2261-PS. That document contains the unpublished
Reich Defence Law of 21st May, 1935. As to the membership of
that Council when first created, I have here a copy of the
second session of the working committee of those delegated
for the Reich Defence, dated 22nd May, 1933, and signed by
the defendant Keitel. It appears in our document book as EC-
177, Exhibit USA 390. The composition of the Reich Defence
Council appears on Page 3 of the original and also on Page 3
of the translation:

THE PRESIDENT: I thought you were going to refer to 2261-PS.

COLONEL STOREY: If your Honour pleases, I just referred to
it as being an exhibit already in evidence, and said that it
was one of the unpublished Reich Defence Laws. That was the
only purpose in referring to it.

THE PRESIDENT: You were referring to EC-177. Where is it?

COLONEL STOREY: In the document book, your Honour, just this
side of the Laws and Decrees.

The quotation is from the top of Page 3 of the translation:

     "Composition of the Reich Defence Council:
     
          President: Reich Chancellor
          Deputy: Reichswehr Minister
          Permanent Members:
     
               Minister of the Reichswehr
               Minister for Foreign Affairs
               Minister of the Interior
     
                                                   [Page 80]
                                                            
               Minister of Finance
               Minister of Economic Affairs
               Minister for Public Enlightenment and
               Propaganda
               Minister of Air
               Chief of the Army Command Staff
               Chief  of the Navy Command Staff
     
     Depending on the case: the remaining members, further
     personnel, e.g. leading industrialists," etc.

All but the Chiefs of the Army and Navy Command Staff were,
then, component parts of the ordinary Cabinet. The
composition of his Defence Council was changed in 1938. I
refer the Tribunal to Exhibit USA 36, which appears in our
Document Book as No. 2194-PS. This contains the unpublished
Reich Defence Law of 4th, paragraph 10, 4th September, 1938.

I now quote from paragraph 10, entitled "The Reich Defence
Council," which is found at Page 4 of the copy of the law in
the original, and I now quote from Page 6 of the English
translation, the top of the page:

     "2. The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor is chairman in the
     R.V.R. His permanent deputy is General Field Marshal
     Goering. He has the right to call conferences of the
     R.V.R. Permanent members of the R.V.R. are:
     
     Reich Minister of Air and Supreme Commander of the Air
     Force.
     Supreme Commander of the Army,
     Supreme Commander of the Navy,
     Chief of the O.K.W.,
     Deputy of the Fuehrer,
     Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery,
     President of the Secret Cabinet Council,
     General Plenipotentiary for the Reich Administration,
     General Plenipotentiary for Economics,
     Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs,
     Reich Minister of the Interior,
     Reich Finance Minister,
     Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda,
     President of the Reich Bank Directory,
     The other Reich Ministers and the Reich Offices
     directly subordinate to the Fuehrer and the Reich
     Chancellor will be consulted, if necessary. From time
     to time additional personages may be summoned as the
     case demands."

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, it would help me, if you
explained to me what conclusions you are asking us to draw
from these documents.

COLONEL STOREY: If your Honour pleases, we were trying to
show the progressive domination of the Reich Cabinet by the
defendants and the members of this group, so that, as your
Honour will see as we proceed, they could pass laws and
decrees secretly by circulatory process or, in effect, at
their will. I realise it is a little detailed, but we are
trying to show the composition and how it was set up, and
the conclusions will be drawn later.

By that time the Supreme Commanders of the Army and Navy had
been given ministerial rank and authorised to participate in
Cabinet meetings. I cite 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I,
Page 215.

May we at this time call the attention of the Tribunal to
two members of the Defence Council who also appear in the
Ministerial Council under the

                                                   [Page 81]
                                                            
same title: the Plenipotentiary for Administration and the
Plenipotentiary for Economy? The former post was held by the
defendant Frick, while the latter was first held by the
defendant Schacht and then by the defendant Funk, who signed
the decree in that capacity. These facts are verified by the
defendant Frick in Exhibit USA 3, which is the Nazi
Governmental organisation chart previously referred to.

As we will show later, these two posts had many of the other
ministries subordinated to them for war-planning aims and
purposes. They, together with the Chief of the O.K.W.,
formed a poverful triumvirate that is known as the "3-Man
College"  shown in the three boxes down from 1935-1938,
which figured prominently, as the proof will disclose, in
the plans and preparations to wage aggressive war. The
holders of these positions vere Cabinet members: the
defendants Frick, Funk and Keitel.

This utilisation of the ordinary Cabinet as a supply centre
fo other governmental agencies, and the cohesion between all
of the groups, is perhaps quickly seen on the chart which is
shown.

The points I have been making are illustrated on the chart.
We are not offering this chart in evidence, although all
facts thereon already have been proved or will be proved.
The chart is also designed to depict (to the left of the
line running down the right centre) the chronological
development of the offshoots of the ordinary Cabinet. Thus
in the main box entitled "Reich Cabinet" (which appears
directly under Hitler) certain dates appear.

I think I will omit the part that describes those lines
because it is self-evident.

The Ministerial Council for the Defence of the Reich was
created in 1944; the Delegate for Total War Effort was
Goebbels. These agencies were, next to Hitler, the important
Nazi functionary bodies. In every case, as the chart shows,
they were occupied by persons taken from the ordinary
Cabinet. The arrow running from the Reich Defence Council to
the Ministerial Council for the Defence of the Reich, is
intended to reflect the fact shown previously, that the
latter was formed out of the former. We will, for other
points of this presentation, refer again to the chart,
especially to that portion to the right which relates to
ministries.

The unity, cohesion and inter-relationship of the
subdivisions of the "Reichsregierung" was not the result of
a co-mixture of personnel alone. It was also realised by the
method in which it operated. The ordinary Cabinet consulted
together both by meetings and through the so-called
circulation procedure. Under this procedure, which was
predominantly used when meetings were not held, drafts of
laws prepared in the individual ministries were distributed
to the other Cabinet members for approval or disapproval.

The man primarily responsible for the circulation of drafts
of laws under this procedure was Dr. Lammers, the Leader and
Chief of the Reich Chancellery. I have here an affidavit
executed by him concerning that technical device, which we
offer in evidence as Exhibit USA 391, Document 2999-PS. It
is short and I should like to quote all of it:

     "I, Hans Heinrich Lammers, being first duly sworn,
     depose and say:

     I was Leader of the Reich Chancellery from 30th
     January, 1933, until the end of the war. In this
     capacity I circulated drafts of proposed laws

                                                   [Page 82]
                                                            
     and decrees, submitted to me by the Minister who had
     drafted the law or decree, to all members of the Reich
     Cabinet. A period of time was allowed for objections,
     after the expiration of which the law was considered as
     having been duly accepted by the various members of the
     Cabinet. This procedure continued throughout the entire
     war. It was followed also in the Council of Ministers
     for the Defence of the Reich.
     
     Signed: `Dr. Lammers' -- and sworn to before Colonel
     Hinkel."

As an illustration of how the circulation procedure worked I
have here a memorandum dated 9th August, 1943, which bears
the facsimile signature of the defendant Frick and is
addressed to the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich
Chancellery. Attached to the memorandum is a draft of the
law in question and a carbon copy of a letter dated  22nd
December, 1943, from the defendant Rosenberg to the Reich
Minister of the Interior, containing his comments on the
draft. I now offer Document 1701-PS as Exhibit USA 392, and
I call your Honour's attention to the big red border around
the enclosure. The quoted portion is from Page 1 of the
translation and Page 1 of the original. Quoting:

     "To the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich
     Chancellery.
          For the information of the other Reich Ministers.
     Subject: Law on the Treatment of Asocial Elements of
     the Community.
     
     In addition to my letter of 19th March, 1942.
     
     After the draft of the Law on the Treatment of Asocial
     Elements of the Community has been completely re-
     written, I am sending the enclosed new draft with the
     consent of the Reich Minister of Justice, Dr. Thierack,
     and ask that the law be approved in the circulatory
     manner. The necessary number of prints is attached."

The same procedure was followed in the Council of Ministers
when that body was created. And the decrees of the Council
of Ministers were also circulated to the members of the
ordinary Cabinet.

I have here a carbon copy of a memorandum found in the files
of the Reich Chancellery by the Allied Armies, and addressed
to the members of the Council of Ministers, dated 17th
September, 1939, and bearing the typed signature of Dr.
Lammers. It is Document 1141-PS, Exhibit USA 393, from the
English translation, the last paragraph just above Dr.
Lammers' signature, I quote:

     "Matters submitted to the Council of Ministers for the
     Reich Defence have heretofore been distributed only to
     the members of the Council. I have been requested by
     some of the Reich Ministers who are not permanent
     members of the Council to inform them of the drafts of
     the decrees which are being submitted to the Council,
     so as to enable them to check those drafts from the
     point of view of their respective offices. I shall
     follow this request so that all of the Reich Ministers
     will in future be informed of the drafts of decrees
     which are to be acted upon by the Council for the Reich
     Defence. I therefore request peermission to add forty-
     five additional copies of the drafts, as well as of the
     letters which usually contain the arguments for the
     drafts, to the folders submitted to the Council."

Von Stutterheim, who was an official of the Reich
Chancellery, comments

                                                   [Page 83]
                                                            
on this procedure, at Page 34 of a pamphlet entitled "The
Reich Chancellery," which I now offer in evidence, Document
2231-PS ...

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, I do not understand what the
importance of the last document is.

COLONEL STOREY: The last document, if your Honour pleases,
is in further evidence of the approval of the laws, and of
the passing of laws by a circulatory process.

THE PRESIDENT: We already have Dr. Lammers' affidavit.

COLONEL STOREY: It might be considered strictly cumulative,
if that is what your Honour has in mind.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, if it is cumulative, we do not really
want to hear it.

COLONEL STOREY: Yes, Sir; I will ask then that it be
stricken from the record. I really overlooked the fact that
it was cumulative. Miss Boyd and Commander Kaplan tell me
that the Document 2231-PS is probably also corroborative of
the same process, and I will, therefore, not offer it.

I have already stated that for a time the Cabinet consulted
together through actual meetings. The Council of Ministers
did likewise, but those members of the Cabinet who were not
already members of the Council also attended the meetings of
the Ministerial Council. And when they did not attend in
person they were usually represented by State Secretaries of
the Ministries. We have here minutes of six meetings of the
Council of Ministers as of 1st, 4th, 8th and 19th September,
1939, also of 16th October and 15th November, 1939. These
original documents were found in the files of the Reich
Chancellery. I offer them in evidence as Document 2852-PS,
Exhibit USA 395. It will only be necessary to point out for
our purposes at this time a few of the minutes. I call the
attention of the Tribunal to the meeting held on 1st
September, 1939, which is probably the first meeting since
the Council was created on the 30th August, 1939; and I read
from that document which shows who was present, beginning at
the top of the English translation:

     "Present were the permanent members of the Council of
     Ministers for Defence of the Reich: The Chairman,
     General Field Marshal Goering; the Deputy of the
     Fuehrer, Hess;" -- for some unknown reason a line
     appears through the name Hess -- "the Plenipotentiary
     for Reich Administration, Dr. Frick; the
     Plenipotentiary for Economy, Funk; the Reich Minister
     and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Lammers; and
     the Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces,
     Keitel, represented by Major-General Thomas."

These were the regular members of the Council. Also present
were the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture, Darre; and
seven State Secretaries: Koerner, Neumann, Stuckart, Posse,
Landfried, Backe, Syrup. These State Secretaries were from
the several ministries or other top Reich authorities, as,
for example, to name a few: Koerner was the deputy of the
defendant Goering in the Four Year Plan; Stuckart was in the
Ministry of the Interior; Landfried was in the Ministry of
Economics; Syrup was in the Ministry of Labour. These later
positions appear on the government chart which is already in
evidence. Now the meeting of the Council, I will omit that
one.

And then there came the names of nine State Secretaries...

                                                   [Page 84]

THE TRIBUNAL (MR. BIDDLE): Colonel Storey, the last document
shows only that certain members of the Cabinet were at the
Cabinet meeting.

COLONEL STOREY: Yes, it shows no more than that. I am going
on a little farther, to show that the S.S. Gruppenfuehrer
was present also, and other people were present.

THE TRIBUNAL (MR. BIDDLE): What does that show?

COLONEL STOREY: In other words, that they called in these
subordinate people, as in the meeting of the ministers.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): What would that show?

COLONEL STOREY: Well, it just shows the permeation of the
Party and the subordinate agencies, showing they could use
the Reich Cabinet for whatever purpose they wanted and to
devise laws any way they wanted. They called in these
people, in subordinate positions, to sit with them when they
were passing Cabinet measures. I can also call your Honour's
attention to the Ministerial Council for Defence. The
Cabinet was supposed to be a Ministerial-rank Cabinet
meeting, and as I just started to show, they called in the
S.S. Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich to this meeting.

THE PRESIDENT: There could be no doubt, could there, that
there was a Reich Cabinet?

COLONEL STOREY: No, Sir.

THE PRESIDENT: And that the Reich Cabinet made decrees by
this circulatory method? There is no doubt about that.

COLONEL STOREY: That is right, Sir.

THE PRESIDENT: What does this document have to do with that?

COLONEL STOREY: It shows who participated, and how they were
there in their Party rank; and I will omit the rest, with
reference to these other individuals.

THE PRESIDENT: But we have had ample evidence before,
haven't we, as to who formed the Reich Cabinet?

COLONEL STOREY: Yes. Well, I will omit the rest with
reference to other people who participated, and just skip
over to Page 23 for the record. Before leaving these
minutes, and as indicative of the activities of the
Reichsregierung, I would like to call the attention of the
Tribunal to some of the decrees passed and minutes discussed
at these meetings. At the first meeting of 1st September,
1939, fourteen decrees were ratified by the Council. Of this
group I call the attention of the Tribunal to Decree No. 6,
appearing on Page 2 of the translation, and I quote:

THE PRESIDENT: I do not think you gave us the number.

COLONEL STOREY: I beg your pardon, Sir. It is the
Reichsgesetzblatt No. 1, Page 1681, of which we ask the
Tribunal to take judicial notice. That decree was about the
organisation of the administration and about the German
Security Police in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
That appears in the translation of 2852-PS.  Another one
that was passed is dated 19th September, 1938, on Page 6 of
the translation, and I quote from the bottom of Page 6:

     "The Chairman of the Council, General Field Marshal
     Goering, made comments regarding the structure of civil
     administration in the occupied Polish territory. He
     expressed his intentions regarding the economic
     evacuation measures in this territory. Then the
     questions of decreasing wages, and the question of
     working hours and the support of members of families of
     drafted workers were discussed."
     
                                                   [Page 85]

There are a number of miscellaneous points of discussion
appearing, and in paragraph 2 of the minutes I quote the
following, as it appears on Page 7:

     "The chairman directed that all members of the Council
     should regularly receive the situation reports of the
     Reichsfuehrer S.S. Then the question of the population
     of the future Polish Protectorate was discussed and the
     housing of Jews living in Germany."

Finally, I call the attention of the Tribunal to the minutes
of the meeting of 15th November, 1939, Page 10 of the
translation, where, among other things, the treatment of
Polish prisoners of war was also discussed.

We submit that this document not only establishes the close
working union between agencies of the State and Party,
especially with the notorious S.S., but also tends to
establish, as charged in the Indictment, that the
Reichsregierung was responsible for the policies adopted and
put into effect by the government, including those which
comprehended and involved the commission of crimes referred
to in the Indictment. But a mere working alliance would be
meaningless unless there were power. And the Reichsregierung
had the power. Short of Hitler himself, it had practically
all the power a government can exercise. The prosecution has
already offered evidence on how Hitler's Cabinet and the
other Nazi conspirators secured the passage by the Reichstag
of the "Law for the Protection of the People and the Reich"
of 24th March, 1933, which has been previously referred to
in our Document 2001-PS, and which vested the Cabinet with
legislative powers even to the extent of deviating from
previously existing constitutional law; how such powers were
retained even after the members of the Cabinet were changed;
and how the several States, provinces, and municipalities,
which had formerly exercised semi-autonomous powers, were
transformed into the administrative organs of the Central
Government. The ordinary Cabinet emerged all-powerful from
this rapid succession of events. The words of the defendant
Frick are eloquent upon that achievement. I have an article
of his which he wrote for the 1935 National Socialist Year
Book, Document 2380-PS, which I offer in evidence as Exhibit
USA 396, and I quote from Page 213 of the original, and it
is on Page 1 of the English translation, the second
paragraph:

     "The relationship between the Reich and the States has
     been put on an entirely new basis never known in the
     history of the German people. It gives to the Reich
     Cabinet (Reichsregierung) unlimited power, it even
     makes it its duty to build a completely unified
     leadership and administration of the Reich. From now on
     there is only one national authority: that of the
     Reich. From now on, there is only one national
     authority: that of the Reich. Thus, the German Reich
     has become a unified State, and the entire
     administration in the States is carried out only by
     order of, or in the name of, the Reich. The State
     borders are now only administrative-technical
     boundaries, but no longer boundaries of sovereignty.
     
     In calm determination, the Reich Cabinet
     (Reichsregierung) realises step by step, supported by
     the confidence of the entire German people, the great
     longing of the Nation: the creation of the unified
     National Socialist German State."

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey.

COLONEL STOREY: Yes, Sir?

THE PRESIDENT: That document seems to me to be merely
cumulative. You have established, and other counsel on
behalf of the United States have

                                                   [Page 86]
                                                            
established, that the Reich Ministers had power to make
laws, and the question is whether you have given any
evidence as to the criminal nature of the Reich Cabinet.

COLONEL STOREY: If your Honour pleases, again it was
included for the purpose of connecting one of the defendants
here-----

THE PRESIDENT: What I was pointing out was that it was
merely cumulative.

COLONEL STOREY: Yes, all right, Sir. It may be strictly
cumulative. I will omit the next reference, which will
probably also be cumulative and turn over to-----

THE PRESIDENT: The same document, you mean?

COLONEL STOREY: No, Sir. There is another document that I
was going to offer, No. 2849. There is a quotation from
another book; it probably bears on the same point. I will
omit it also. The next is a reference to the Ministerial
Council's being given legislative power. I do not believe
this has been introduced before, that the Council itself was
given legislative powers. That is in Article 2 of the decree
of 30th August, 1939, Document 2018-PS; the ordinary Cabinet
continued to legislate throughout the war.

Obviously, because of the fusion of personnel between the
Ministerial Council and the ordinary Cabinet, questions were
bound to arise as to what form should lend its name to a
particular law. Thus Dr. Lammers, the Chief of the Reich
Chancellery and a member of both agencies, wrote a letter on
14th June, 1942, to the Plenipotentiary for Reich
Administration about this question.

This next document, if the Court please, it may not be
necessary to read. It generally shows that both agencies
continued to legislate side by side, and it would really be
cumulative evidence. There were others that possessed
legislative powers, besides the ones I have mentioned.
Hitler, of course, had legislative power. Goering, as Deputy
of the Four Year Plan, could and did issue decrees that had
the effect of law, and the Cabinet delegated power to issue
laws which could deviate from the existing ones, to the
Plenipotentiaries of Economy and Administration and the
Chief of the O.K.W., and to the so-called "3-Man College,"
the "3-Man College" having authority to legislate. This was
done in the war-planning law, the Secret Defence Law of
1938, Document 2194-PS, Exhibit USA 36. These three
officials, Frick, Funk and Keitel, however, were, as we have
proved, also members of the Council of Ministers, as well as
being part of the ordinary Cabinet.

It can, therefore, be readily said, in the language of the
Indictment, that the Reichsregierung possessed legislative
powers of a very high order in the system of German
government; and that they exercised such powers has in part
already been demonstrated. I refer to that merely to show
that it was a Secret Cabinet law -- without quoting -- that
the executive and administrative powers of the Reich were
concentrated in the Central Government primarily as the
result of two basic Nazi laws that reduced the separate
States (called Laender) to mere geographical divisions. If
your Honour pleases, these laws are cited, and I believe it
would be cumulative evidence if I undertook to chronicle
them. I pass to the part at the bottom of Page 29.

There were other steps taken towards centralisations. Let us
see what powers the ordinary Cabinet would wield as a
result. We have here a publication of 1934, which was edited
by Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart, State Secretary in the Reich
Ministry of the Interior, and Dr. Harry V.

                                                   [Page 87]
                                                            
Rosen v. Hoewel, another official with the title of
"Oberregierungsrat," in the Reich Ministry of the Interior.
It is entitled "Administrative Law," Document 2959-PS, and I
offer it as Exhibit USA 399. It details the powers and
functions of all the ministers of the ordinary Cabinet, from
which I will select but a few to illustrate the extent of
control vested in the Reichsregierung. The quotation is from
Page 2 of the translation and Page 66 of the original. "The
Reich Ministers. There are at present twenty-seven Reich
Ministers, namely...."

May I say that the only purpose in offering this is to show
over what each Minister had jurisdiction and to what his
authority extended; for example, the Reich Minister for
Foreign Affairs -- it details what he handles. The Reich
Minister of the Interior follows in detail on the matters
entrusted to his jurisdiction, and so on.

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, may I ask you what has that
to do with the criminality of the Reich Cabinet?

COLONEL STOREY: The point, as I see it, again though it may
be cumulative, your Honour, is to show how these defendants,
and the others with them, formed a Cabinet, formed the
Ministries, formed these councils, so that they could give
semblance of legality to any action they determined to take,
whether they were in session or not, and according to the
dictates of the respective Ministers, in other words,
showing a complete domination.

THE PRESIDENT: I should have thought that was amply shown
already.

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