Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression The Nazi conspiracy, as we shall show, always contemplated
not merely overcoming current opposition but exterminating
elements which could not be reconciled with its philosophy
of the state. It not only sought to establish the Nazi "new
order" but to secure its sway, as Hitler
predicted, "for a thousand years." Nazis were never in doubt
or disagreement as to what these dissident elements were.
They were concisely described by one of them, Col. General
von Fritsch, on December 11, 1938, in these words:
"Shortly after the first war I came to the conclusion that we should have to be victorious in three battles if Germany were to become powerful again: 1. The battle against the working class Hitler has won this. 2. Against the Catholic Church, perhaps better expressed against Ultramontanism. 3. Against the Jews." (1947-PS).
[Page 129]
The warfare against these elements was continuous. The
battle in Germany was but a practice skirmish for the
worldwide drive against them. We have in point of geography
and of time two groups of crimes against humanity -- one within
Germany before and during the war, the other in occupied
territory during the war. But the two are not separated in
Nazi planning. They are a continuous unfolding of the Nazi
plan to exterminate peoples and institutions which might
serve as a focus or instrument for overturning their "new
world order" at any time. We consider these Crimes against
Humanity in this address a manifestations of the one Nazi
plan and discuss them according to General von Fritch's
classification.
1. The Battle Against the Working Class
When Hitler came to power, there were in Germany three
groups of trade unions. The General German Trade Union
Confederation (ADGB) with twenty-eight affiliated unions,
and the General Independent Employees Confederation (AFA)
with thirteen federated unions together numbered
more than 4,500,000 members. The Christian Trade Union had
over 1,250,000 members.
The working people of Germany, like the working people of
other nations, had little to gain personally by war. While
labor is usually brought around to the support of the nation
at war, labor by and large is a pacific, though by no means
a pacifist force in the world. The working people of Germany
had not forgotten in 1933 how heavy the yoke of the war lord
can be. It was the workingmen who had joined the sailors and
soldiers in the revolt of 1918 to end the First World War.
The Nazis had neither forgiven nor forgotten. The Nazi
program required that this part of the German population not
only be stripped of power to resist diversion of its scanty
comforts to armament, but also be wheedled or whipped into
new and unheard of sacrifices as part of the
Nazi war preparation. Labor must be cowed, and tat meant its
organizations and means of cohesion and defense must be
destroyed.
The purpose to regiment labor for the Nazi Party was avowed
by Ley in a speech to workers on 2 May 1933, as follows:
"You may say what else do you want, you have the absolute power. True we have the power, but we do not have the whole people, we do not have you workers 100%, and it is
[Page 130]
you whom we want; we will not let you be until you stand with us in complete, genuine acknowledgment." (614-PS).
The first Nazi attack was upon the two larger unions. On
April 21, 1933 an order not even in the name of the
Government, but of the Nazi Party was issued by the
conspirator Robert Ley as "Chief of Staff of the political
organization of the NSDAP," applicable to the Trade Union
Confederation and the Independent Employees Confederation.
It directed seizure of their properties and arrest of their
principal leaders. The party order directed party organs
which we here denounce as criminal associations, the SA and
SS "to be employed for the occupation of the trade union
properties, and for the taking into custody of personalities
who come into question." And it directed the taking into
"protective custody" of all chairmen and district
secretaries of such unions and branch directors of the labor
bank (392-PS).
These orders were carried out on May 2, 1933. All funds of
the labor unions, including pension and benefit funds, were
seized. Union leaders were sent to concentration camps. A
few days later, on May 10, 1933, Hitler appointed Ley leader
of the German Labor Front (DEUTSCHE
ARBEITSFRONT), which succeeded to the confiscated union
funds. The German Labor Front, a Nazi controlled labor
bureau, was set up under Ley to teach the Nazi philosophy to
German workers and to weed out from industrial employment
all who were backward in their lessons (1940-PS). "Factory
Troops" were organized as an "ideological shock squad within
the factory" (1817-PS). The Party order provided that
"outside of the German Labor Front, no other organization
(whether of workers or of employees) is to exist." On June
24, 1933 the remaining Christian Trade Unions were seized
pursuant to an order of the Nazi Party signed by Ley.
On May 19, 1933, this time by government decree, it was
provided that "trustees" of labor, appointed by Hitler,
should regulate the conditions of all labor contracts,
replacing the former process of collective bargaining (405-
PS). On January 20, 1934 a decree "regulating
national labor" introduced the fuehrer-principle into
industrial relations. It provided that the owners of
enterprises should be the "fuehrers" and the workers should
be the followers. The
enterpriser-fuehrers should "make decisions for employees
and laborers in all matters concerning the enterprise" (1861-
PS). It was by such bait that the great German
industrialists were induced to support the Nazi cause, to
their own ultimate ruin.
[Page 131]
Not only did the Nazis dominate and regiment German labor,
but they forced the youth into the ranks of the laboring
people they had thus led into chains. Under a compulsory
labor service decree on June 26, 1935, young men and women
between the ages of 18 and 25 were conscripted for labor
(see 1654-PS). Thus was the purpose to subjugate German labor
accomplished. In the words of Ley, this accomplishment
consisted "in eliminating the association character of the
trade union and employees' associations, and in its place we
ave substituted the conception 'soldiers of work'." The
productive manpower of the German nation was in Nazi
control. By these steps the defendants won the battle to
liquidate labor unions as potential opposition and were
enabled to impose upon the working class the burdens of
preparing for aggressive warfare.
Robert Ley, the field marshal of the battle against labor,
answered our indictment with suicide. Apparently he knew no
better answer.
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Volume
I Chapter V
Justice Jackson's Opening Address for the United States of America
(Part 5 of 17)