Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-21/tgmwc-21-205.07
Last-Modified: 2000/12/04

DR. SERVATIUS: That is defined later, but at first in the
introduction the whole "Corps of Political Leaders" is
mentioned. If the prosecution would clarify that, the number
would be considerably reduced. I only wanted to point out
this statistical material..

THE PRESIDENT: Well, where was it that the Indictment was
confined to "Gauleiter to Blockleiter"?

DR. SERVATIUS: In the Trial Brief. The offices are listed in
detail, but it is never said that the others are omitted.

                                                  [Page 238]

THE PRESIDENT: As I understand what you say, the Indictment
charges the political leaders - the "Corps of Political
Leaders"?

DR. SERVATIUS: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: In that corps there are persons who were
"political leaders" who are not included in the "Gauleiter
down to the Blockleiter"?

DR. SERVATIUS: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Then at a later stage in the Trial Brief, the
prosecution emits, or purports at any rate to limit their
application for criminal declaration to the "Gauleiter down
to the Blockleiter," the original scope of the Indictment.

DR. SERVATIUS: Mr. President, I understand that you mean
that the staff of the Ortsgruppenleiter and the Block and
Zelle assistants were not omitted? Then the great mass still
remains so that the result is negative.

THE PRESIDENT: The Block- and Zellenleiter were not omitted,
you say?

DR. SERVATIUS: No, the assistants of the Block- and
Zellenleiter, that is their so-called staffs, and the staffs
of the Ortsgruppenleiter, and I believe that -

THE PRESIDENT: That is what I said, that the original
Indictment included the whole "Corps of Political Leaders,"
and these were limited to include only those from the
"Gauleiter down to the Blockleiter."

DR. SERVATIUS: I believe individual parts were taken out,
and it was not said "These are the remainder who are still
charged." It may be a misunderstanding. Perhaps the
prosecution could clear it up.

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Griffith-Jones, could you tell us?

L T-COLONEL GRIFFITH-JONES: Perhaps I can be of assistance.
The Indictment included all political Leiter. When the case
was presented, the prosecution excluded from that total
figure the staff officers on the staff of the
Ortsgruppenleiter. Your Lordship will remember that the
Corps of Political Leaders had its Hoheitstrager, the
bearers of sovereignty: the Gauleiter, Kreisleiter,
Ortsgruppenleiter, Zellenleiter, and Blockleiter. The
Gauleiter, Kreisleiter and Ortsgruppenleiter also had
staffs, people working in their offices who are also
political Leaders but not Hoheitstrager; and the prosecution
excluded the staff officers end the Ortsgruppen staffs,
leaving in: all Hoheitstrager, from the Gauleiter down to
the Blockleiter, and the staff political Leiter, or the Gau
staff officers. That is, I think, how it stands at the
moment.

THE PRESIDENT: You are agreed about that, Dr. Servatius? Are
you?

DR. SERVATIUS: Yes, but then a formal statement must be made
by the prosecution. The prosecution, as is well known,
indicted the whole "Corps of Political Leaders." If they
reserve the right to omit groups and now wish to omit from
the Indictment the political leaders in these organizations
just mentioned, the NSV, women's organizations, and Labour
Front, they should make a formal application.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, now, Colonel Griffith-Jones, Dr.
Servatius is submitting that you ought to make a formal
declaration on behalf of the prosecution that that is so.

LT.-COLONEL GRIFFITH-JONES: My Lord, as I understand the
position, all these political Leiter to which Dr. Servatius
is referring, the ones set out here, the women's
organizations and so on, they are all under the staff, they
do work for the political leaders on the staff of the
various Hoheitstrager. I think it may be there is a possible
exception in respect to the DAF (the German Labour Front).
It had been suggested by the witnesses for the defence that
there were other political leaders in the DAF who were not
directly on the staffs of one of the Hoheitstrager. If that
is so, they of course are included in the Indictment.

                                                  [Page 239]

THE PRESIDENT: This document does not appear to show whether
those are staff officers or not .... It simply gives us
numbers.

LT.-COLONEL GRIFFITH-JONES: It does not, but, in fact, that
is the position that that was what made up the staff of the
various Hoheitstrager. The representatives of these various
other organizations, the staff of each Hoheitstrager, the
Gauleiter, Kreis- and Ortsgruppenleiter, had very much the
same form. It had its staff officers, its training officer,
and so on; and it also had the representatives of these
other organizations, such as German Labour Front, the
Welfare, the women's associations, the student associations,
teachers, and so on. It was the staff officers who made up
the total staff. Perhaps I might just say that this figure
of 2,000,000 that has been given, of course that included
all the staff officers and the Ortsgruppen staffs, the ones
which the prosecution excluded, and it is the staff officers
and the Ortsgruppen staffs which make up the majority of
that total. I can give the Tribunal the exact figures, or as
near as we have been able to estimate them. I am afraid I
have not them with me in Court at the moment. But the
Tribunal will see that - I think I might say - there were
about 600 Ortsgruppen and on each Ortsgruppe about 15 staff
officers, so that the total is very considerable.

THE PRESIDENT: Those numbers would have to be deducted from
the numbers that are here?

LT.-COLONEL GRIFFITH-JONES: Those numbers would have to be
deducted. The prosecution has not included the number that
Dr. Servatius has given the Tribunal now. From that you have
to deduct the complete staff of all the Ortsgruppen, which
forms a very large part of that total given you. Speaking
from memory, the total, if you exclude that, was in the
region of 600,000.

THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps you could give us the figures in
writing, or perhaps you can state them now, because if there
are 2,000,000 here, how many staff officers of the
Ortsgruppenleiter are there, according to you?

LT.-COLONEL GRIFFITH-JONES: My Lord, I will be able to tell
the Tribunal within a quarter of an hour, if I might just
send for the figures. I am afraid that I cannot remember
them. I will get them, and I will let the Tribunal know.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

DR. SERVATIUS: Mr. President, may I comment on that
question? It is true that the staffs of the
Ortsgruppenleiter were omitted. According to my
calculations, they amount to about 1,000,000 but the number
is increased by the fact that one and a half times in the
course of these years a turnover took place, so that one
gets one and a half times the figure, and it then amounts to
millions. Another thing is that these Ortsgruppenleiter and
these offices are not given according to the number of
persons, but as offices, so that the deputies and successors
are not included. Only a statistician can deal with this
question in detail, but I do not believe that it is
necessary to figure it out in detail to get a general
impression that there are actually millions involved.

Then I go on to Page 4. This is also an excerpt from Der
Hoheitstrager. Unfortunately, it cannot be seen from the
document that this is another issue of the Hoheitstrager of
the year 1937, Second Series. Here one can see the
percentages of Blockleiter, Kreisleiter, and Gauleiter. The
majority - over 50 per cent - are Blockleiter and
Zellenleiter. These are not excluded from the Indictment.

Their assistant are excluded. The core of the political
leaders is formed by the Kreis- and Gauleiter, who amount to
3 per cent.

The figures under (5) and (6) are also significant. The
departmental offices were 27.8 per cent and the internal
Party offices, administration, 16.3 per cent.

                                                  [Page 240]

These departmental offices are significant, because they
include the political leaders of the organizations, of the
professional unions, the DAF, the NSV. But by no means were
all political leaders of these formations at the same time
an the staffs of the Gau, Kreis and Ortsgruppe. Only a very
few of them in each Gau, perhaps one or two, in the Kreis a
few; perhaps a few also with the Ortsgruppen so that it
remains a fairly small number. The majority of these experts
are in their own formations, of course.

Then I go on to Page 5. That is Document No. 12. It is
significant in regard to the term "Corps of Political
Leaders." Whether such a corps exists or can now be formed
is doubtful. Here it says that a political organization is
forbidden and expressly prohibited. It is an order of Hess,
issued in the year 1935, with the legal explanation that
there cannot be such a special organization.

Then I come to Document No. 13. This is significant for the
following reason: One does not become a political leader by
being given a position, but by special appointment. It is
stated here that since this appointment as Hoheitstrager
must be made by a special act of sovereignty, whoever is not
appointed is not a Hoheitstrager and does not belong to the
Corps of Political Leaders.

It shows that quite a number are not appointed, especially
during the war - all those who, as an emergency measure,
held lower offices in an honorary capacity.

Document No. 14 concerns the same question.

Document No. 15 also emphasises in a similar way that the
appointment is for public service and that it is therefore
not merely a private appointment to an office.

In Document No. 16, on Page 9, one finds the order that the
Leiter in the DAF (Labour Front) are also political leaders
of the Party. Thus, according to the concept of the
Indictment, they belong to the Corps of Political Leaders,
if they are not excluded.

The next document, No. 17, shows the higher Fuehrer Corps,
Hoheitstrager down to Kreisleiter, and shows that the
Ortsgruppenleiter and those below him are treated
differently in regard to appointment. Hitler himself
appointed the Gauleiter and their adjutants, the
Gauamtsleiter, and Kreisleiter. That is of significance when
judging these persons.

The next document, No. 18, on Page 11, shows the
exaggeration of the concept of "Hoheitstrager" whereas the
concept here is not "political leader," it mentions the
awarding of this title to motor vehicle drivers, telephone
operators, caretakers of buildings and orderlies, and it is
said that they should be made political leaders in the
organization, but not in the actual political department
between Gau and Ortsgruppenleiter.

Document No. 19, on Page 12, says that appointments as
"political leader" are suspended until further notice. It
dates from the year 1944. The consequence would be that
those who received an office after August, 1944, were in no
case made "political leaders." In practice, this was already
so before this time.

The word "Hoheitstrager" is of great importance. The
prosecution has placed great weight on it, and the small
functionaries - the Zellenleiter and the Blockleiter - were
not omitted from the proceedings, because they are
Hoheitstrager.

In Document No. 20, on Page 13, Hess orders on 14th April,
1934, that to be Hoheitstrager people must be Gauleiter,
Kreisleiter or Ortsgruppenleiter. This is not expressly
stated, but it can be concluded from the text.

The next document, No. 2, on Page 14, is important because
it also closes the circle of Hoheitstrager with the
Ortsgruppenleiter, omitting therefore the small officials
when this term is used.

The next document is No. 21, on Page 15. It also limits the
term to Gauleiter, Kreisleiter and Ortsgruppenleiter.

                                                  [Page 241]

In Document No. 1, on Page 16, the "Hoheitsgebeite" (areas
of authority) are clearly determined. It is a book entitled
The Administration of the National Socialist German Labour
Party, 1940, published by a Dr. Lingg. It says:

  "For the execution of its task the Party is divided into
  four areas of authority: (1) Reich, (2) Gau, (3) Kreis,
  and (4) Ortsgruppe. At the top of each of these areas of
  authority is placed the respective Hoheitstrager: (1) the
  Fuehrer, (2) the Gauleiter, (3) the Kreisleiter, (4) the
  Ortsgruppenleiter."

Document No. 22, on Page 77, of the year 1940, is an
official order to the same effect which defines the term
"Hoheitstrager."

Document No. 4, Page 18, is also to the same effect. It is
an order of Hitler about the circle of persons who can
determine the extent of damage after air raids. It says:
"The competent Hoheitstrager, viz., Gauleiter, Kreisleiter
and Ortsgruppenleiter, are permitted to enter the areas
affected."

In other words, just when something happens in the area of
the Blockleiter or Zellenleiter, he is not given access,
because he is not a Hoheitstrager.

I refer to Document No. 23, on Page 19, which is to the same
effect.

Document No. 24, on Page 20, again confirms my submission.

Document No. 25, on Page 21, is an excerpt from Der
Hoheitstrager. It deals with confidential information and
tells how far this information may be passed. This
confidential information may be passed on as far down as the
Ortsgruppenleiter; Block- and Zellenleiter are not informed.

There follows Document No. 9, on Page 23; it is a decree of
the Reich Finance Minister concerning the granting of
marriage loans and various other subsidies. The document is
of importance, because it states what applicants must afford
proof of their political reliability before being able to
expect a grant. This means that the Blockleiter and
Zellenleiter who must first prove their political
reliability cannot therefore be Hoheitstrager in the true
sense of the word.

Now I come to another subject.

Document No. 26, Page 26. The question is to what extent SA
and SS are subordinate to "political leaders." It says there
is no such relation either for the SA, SS, Hitler Youth or
NSKK.

Document No. 27 is to the same effect. It confirms that the
leaders of the SA groups or brigades were not under the
orders of the Gauleiter.

The next document, No. 28, deals with recruitment groups and
the question of how propaganda should be spread, assistance
should be given by word and deed, and above all, people have
to be won over and convinced. It also concerns the subject
of spies and informers, which comes up later.

The next document is No. 29. This refers to the relations
between Party and State, and interference of the Party in
State rights.

It is an instruction which says: "Keep away from measures to
enforce which is the State's responsibility. In calling upon
State organs, it is to be carefully considered whether an
interference is justified."

Document No. 30 is on Page 31. It is a decree of Hess as to
the attitude of a National Socialist; he should endeavour to
have confidence and willingness to co-operate.

The next document, No. 31, also condemns attempts to misuse
an official Party position in relations with other offices
for personal ends.

Document No. 32 deals with the legal proceedings. It
indicates that the Party has nothing to do with these and
that it shall endeavour to keep away from such proceedings.
It says:

  "The decision whether a punishable deed shall be
  prosecuted or not rests alone with the Public Prosecutor
  and/or the Reich Minister of Justice."

The next document is No. 33. It is another order of Hess, of
the year 1935, refers to political evaluation reports and
states that they could be issued only from the Kreisleiter
upwards. I should like to call special attention to this
because

                                                  [Page 242]

I consider it an essential indication concerning the higher
Party leader and a salient point which must lead to a proper
estimation.

Document No. 34 concerns the problem of investigation, known
as "spying for informing." It was issued by Hess in October,
1936, and I quote:

  "Never, even when attending to the least important fellow-
  Germans and their families, should Zellenleiter and
  Blockleiter become importunate, and their duty should
  never degenerate into prying and spying on them, which
  would not arouse confidence, but distrust."

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