Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-22/tgmwc-22-209.01
Last-Modified: 2001/01/10

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TWO HUNDRED AND NINTH DAY

THURSDAY, 22nd AUGUST, 1946

DR. BOEHM (for the SA): Mr. President, may it please the
Tribunal. Yesterday I submitted some of the documents which
prove that many people were forced into the SA through legal
compulsion. I should now like to continue my presentation of
evidence in that direction.

SA Documents 200, 201, 203, 208, and 213 demand service for
young personnel in the financial administration.

It is regrettable that on account of the attitude of one of
the occupying powers the witness, Dr. Meder, could not
appear here. Defence counsel for the SA was able to
correspond with him until it became known that he had been
selected as a witness in this trial. In spite of all the
efforts of the General Secretary of this High Tribunal we
have not succeeded in bringing this witness to Nuremberg
from the Russian Zone.

This witness had been called to testify that from 1936 to
the end of 1944, fourteen Reich Finance Schools -

THE PRESIDENT (interposing): Dr. Boehm, we are hearing you
now upon your documents; we are not hearing you upon the
question of any difficulties there may have been in getting
witnesses.

Kindly go on.

DR. BOEHM: The following are the Finance Schools which
existed in the Reich: Herrsching Ilmenau, Meersburg,
Wollerhof, Berlin, Molln, Feldkirch, Leipa, Leitmeritz,
Bodenbach, Thorn, Sigmaringen, and Boppard.

Even private enterprises, to a large extent, required
membership in the HJ and the SA as a condition for
employment. This is proved by Documents 215 and 216.

SA Document 218 states that the directive of the 3rd
October, 1933 -

THE PRESIDENT (interposing): You are going a little bit too
fast; your light is flickering.

DR. BOEHM: Very well, Mr. President, I shall try to speak
more slowly.

SA Document 218 states that the directive of the 3rd
October, 1933, ordered that the Auxiliary Pioneer Service
(Hilfspionierdienst) of the Technical Emergency Service was
to be transferred into the SA.

SA Document 220 deals with the question of whether expulsion
from the SA was a reason for terminating an employment
contract, and under certain circumstances the answer was
"Yes".

A commentary on this point is furnished by Document 221, I
quote:

  "The obligation under the oath sworn to the Fuehrer means
  that leaving the SA or any other association is
  absolutely impossible. Only physical unfitness or an
  assignment to special work elsewhere can warrant leaving
  the SA."

This is an excerpt from the Handbook of the SA, published by
permission of the Supreme SA Command.

                                                    [Page 2]

Document 222 also shows that expulsion from the Party or
from its formations might result in loss of occupation. The
fact that this was stated in a basic official directive of
the Reich and Prussian Ministry of Justice explains why this
attitude was adopted in practice. Therefore, it is not
surprising that even non-German quarters pointed out the
existing coercion. As may be seen from Document SA 243, a
note of the Holy See dated 14th May, 1934, reads:

  "The Holy See is aware of the extent to which freedom to
  make decisions is restricted in Germany today through the
  pressure brought to bear on officials, employees,
  workmen, scholars, even on the formerly free professions,
  in fact on almost all German citizens, by economic
  factors and by exploiting the anxieties for a bare
  existence."

THE PRESIDENT: Is it 243 in your document book?

DR. BOEHM: 143, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Go on.

DR. BOEHM: In the third part of my presentation of evidence,
I should like to deal with the aims of the SA as they
appeared to members of the SA who had no special leading
position; thus, in keeping with the decision of the Tribunal
of 13th March, 1946, paragraph 6 (3), I shall quote
testimony on behalf of the SA by members of the SA
themselves.

In Document 224, an excerpt of the journal Der SA Fuehrer, a
magazine for the SA, the term "Wehrtuchtigkeit" (Proficiency
in military service) is explained as follows: "Instruction
in the use of arms and the mastering of the weapons of war
and their use will be given to the German man in the
Wehrmacht, during service and exercises."

SA Document 224 shows clearly that the SA did not have
anything to do with the Waffenschule (Military Training
School), and that it did not give military training to its
members. This is also proved by SA Documents 225 and 226,
again excerpts from the magazine, Der SA Fuehrer, published
by the Supreme SA Command. I quote:

  "In addition one can recognise the clear limits drawn
  between the tasks of the SA on the one hand, and those of
  the Wehrmacht on the other; these limits always have
  existed and always will exist. After the HJ, the SA only
  creates the necessary spiritual, mental and physical
  preliminary conditions."

Document 226 shows that Hitler was quite clearly and
definitely opposed to giving the SA a military character,
the character of a defence organisation, of a militia or of
a Free Corps.

Document 229 shows that members of the SA could not have
known of the criminal aims of the SA, as the prosecution
calls them, because as early as 21st March, 1925, the
Rhineland Commission lifted the ban on the German Freedom
Party and the National Socialist Party. How well Hitler knew
how to lull the people to sleep is proved by his order of
1st July, 1934, in which he gave to the Roehm Putsch a
background entirely different from the real facts.

Mr. Jackson has said that members of the various formations
could not be charged with joining the organisations, but
were charged with remaining in the organisations, once they
knew - as they did - of the conditions in the concentration
camps. In this connection I should like to submit Document
250 in which one of the most prominent members of the
Catholic Church in Munich, who spent many years in a
concentration camp, deals with the question of whether the
injustices which took place in the Third Reich were easily
apparent. The document quite clearly shows that the answer
was "No". I quote:

  "For eight years I collected everything available
  concerning National Socialist laws, decrees, police
  measures, information about injustices, acts of violence,
  infamy, crimes, blasphemies, persecution of the Church,
  murder, etc. Hundreds of pages of the book The
  Persecution of the Catholic Church,

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  published in 1940, which I have already mentioned, come
  from my collection. It will carry all the more weight if
  I testify that, as far as atrocities in concentration
  camps and crimes in the occupied territories were
  concerned, I could discover and report practically
  nothing."

How, then, could the things which have now come to light be
discovered by an ordinary person who, moreover, would not
have at his disposal the sources of information available to
Prelate Newhaeusler.

I shall now turn to the third part of the presentation of
documents, which deals with the assertion of the prosecution
that the SA was a terror organisation. What the real facts
regarding this so-called terror were may be seen from
Documents 285, 286 and 287. The pamphlet quoting from a
judgement of the State Tribunal of the Republic illustrates
clearly that it was the KPD which incited the people against
the democratic republic; and that it was the KPD which
propagated the class conflict. As is shown in Document 286,
this incitement to class conflict was embodied in the so-
called idea of world revolution. In this connection I also
submit Document 132, which describes how civil war was
advocated by the KPD in 1921. The terroristic conflicts,
therefore, originated with the political Left.

SA Document 287, a judgement passed by State Tribunal on
14th January, 7925, against Link and his associates, shows
that in this period of latent civil war the call to fight
the fascists, that is the NSDAP and the Reichswehr, was made
again and again. The fact that the SA was established for
this reason, namely, as a protection against the Leftists,
is shown in Documents 311 and 314. These are excerpts from
Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf.

SA Document 300, an excerpt from Gisevius's book, Until the
Bitter End, also states that pressure from the Reds produced
counter-pressure from the Brownshirts. Although these were
very like times of civil war, even an opponent such as Herr
Gisevius had to admit, and this is evident from Document SA
301, that the National Socialist revolution cost
comparatively few victims. In SA Document 302, Herr Gisevius
admits that when excesses did occur, it was on the whole,
just a very small clique which perpetrated them. May I
quote:

  "They were the group staffs, their hired staff guards and
  that gang of hooligans which can be found wherever
  mischief is afoot."

SA Documents 304, 305 and 306 show how seriously Hitler, as
the Supreme SA Leader, was determined to prevent a civil
war. For that reason, he repeatedly, in his many
proclamations, demanded discipline. In this connection I
would like to present the directive of 30th March, 1931, SA
Document 306. It expressly says, in paragraph 2:

  "Every Party member, regardless of his position in the
  Party, will be immediately excluded from the Party if he
  should venture either consciously to violate the
  regulations of the emergency decrees or to tolerate or
  approve such offences."

Document SA 312 deals with the directive forbidding
terrorisation of Jewish citizens.

In the fifth part of my document book I have set forth the
attitude of the SA with regard to the Church. Document 316
shows that in 1933 the Party and the Church had come to an
agreement. The proclamation of the German episcopate shows
that the Church believed she could be confident that the
prohibitions and warnings previously issued were no longer
necessary. For that reason, entire formations were permitted
to attend services also.

SA Document 317 says that youth was asked to join the
formations of the Party and to work in them for the future
of Germany. I quote:

  "For that reason, we mean to devote our entire Catholic
  heritage, Christian Conservative ideas and Christian
  progressive forces to the New Germany; to build and
  enhance her spirit with our own. We are, therefore,
  determined to work actively, with all the means and ways
  at our disposal, for the union

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  of all Germans. And for the same reason, we commend to
  all our members a practical military training as their
  duty."

And then:

  "It must particularly be the task of youth to work with
  courage for a union between our vigorous national
  movement and the eternal Christian values."

SA Document 320 mentions the assurance given in the 115th
Session of the Bavarian Diet of the 29th April, 1931. It
reads:

  "On the contrary, our Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, has
  repeatedly stated that the Party will always be led in a
  way which will not bring any Roman Catholic, as a
  faithful member of the National Socialist Party, into
  conflict with his conscience."

SA Document 327, the Hitler speech of the 23rd March, 1933,
contains the same assurance:

  "The National Government considers both the Christian
  Churches factors of the greatest importance in the life
  of our nation. It will respect the agreements concluded
  between them and the administrations of the Lander, and
  their rights shall not be infringed. The National
  Government will permit and safeguard the rightful
  influence of the Christian Churches in school and
  education. The Government is anxious to secure sincere co-
  operation between Church and State."

This shows that there was no reason to anticipate a struggle
with the Church, particularly since, after feelings had run
high, a directive issued by the Fuehrer's Deputy on the 23rd
January, 1933 (SA Document 321) stated:

  "In my directives of 11th April, 1937, and 1st June,
  1938, I decreed that the Party, its formations and
  affiliated organisations were to abstain from influencing
  internal Church matters in any way."

SA Document 326 shows that in the year 1931 there was no
thought of an extermination of the Jews, as unfortunately
actually happened later.

Now I shall deal with the members of the Steel Helmet
Organisation (Stahlhelm) who came from the Stahlhelm into
the SA. May I draw the attention of the Tribunal to the SA
document book, dealing with the Stahlhelm.

Document No. 1 is a radio address of the leader of the
Stahlhelm, Franz Seldte.

THE PRESIDENT: Which book is it?

DR. BOEHM: Book 4, Mr. President.

The first document is a radio address of the leader of the
Stahlhelm organisation, Franz Seldte, delivered on the 27th
April, 1933. It contains the condition for the transfer
which subsequently took place, a condition based on
sovereign rights. I quote:

  "Having no Party affiliation, I hereby declare my entry
  into the Nation Socialist German Workers' Party, because
  this Party is the movement which will unite the entire
  German people in a single unit. I therefore place myself
  and the Stahlhelm association of front-line soldiers
  which I founded, as military unit complete in itself
  under the command of the Fuehrer Adolf Hitler."

Document 2 contains a statement of the Reich directorate of
the NSDAP, signed Rudolf Hess, dated 1st May, 1933, and
taken from the German newspaper Frankischer Kurier. This
document shows that the Stahlhelm, despite its subordination
to Hitler, was to remain a unit complete in itself.

Document 3 is an excerpt from a report made by the leader of
the Stahlhelm on 28th April, 1933. The first few paragraphs
show that the deputy leader Duesterberg, was not willing to
accept the contact established by the leader, Seldte, with
the National Socialists. The next paragraph describes the
immediate dismissal of the deputy leader, Duesterberg, in a
telegraphic order of Seldte. From the last paragraph of this
document, I should like to quote the last sentence - from
Seldte's telegram of the same day:

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  "I herewith assume the sole dictatorial leadership of the
  Association."

Document 5 contains the open letter to one of the leaders of
the Stahlhelm, dated the 3rd May, 1933; the letter speaks of
these events and states that, as a result of Seldte's
unconstitutional measures, the opposition group Duesterberg
would no longer consider him as the lawful leader of the
organisation.

Document 6 contains an agreement between Hitler and Seldte.

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Boehm, if I remember rightly, one of your
witnesses who was heard here before the Tribunal dealt with
the entry of the Stalhhelm into the SA, did he not?

DR. BOEHM: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: And was he cross-examined at all, to
contradict him?

DR. BOEHM: No, Mr. President.

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