Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression I. COMMON OBJECTIVES, METHODS, AND DOCTRINES OF
In 1921 Adolf Hitler became the supreme leader or Fuehrer of
the Nationalsozistishe Deutsche arbeiterpartei (National
Socialist German Workers Party), also known as the Nazi
Party, which had been founded in Germany in 1920. He
continued as such throughout the period covered by the
Indictment. As will be shown, the Nazi Party, together with
certain of its subsidiary organizations, became the
instrument of cohesion among the defendants and their co-
conspirators and an instrument for the carrying out of the
aims and purposes of the conspiracy. And as will also be
shown, each defendant became a member of the Nazi Party and
of the conspiracy, with knowledge of their alms and
purposes, or, with such knowledge, became an accessory to
their aims and purposes at some stage of the development of
the conspiracy.
A. Aims and Purposes. The aims and purposes of the Nazi
conspirators were:
(1) To abrogate and overthrow the Treaty of Versailles and
its restrictions upon the military armament and activity of
Germany. The first major public meeting of the NSDAP took
place in Munich on 24 February 1920. At that meeting Hitler
publicly announced the Program of the
Party. That program, consisting of 25 points (annually
reprinted in the National Socialist Yearbook), was referred
to as "The political foundation of the NSDAP and therewith
the fundamental political law of the state, and "has
remained unaltered" since the date of its
promulgation. Section 2 of the Program provided as follows:
"We demand equality of rights for the German people
with respect to other nations, and abolition of the
Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain." (1708-
PS)
In a speech at Munich on 13 April 1923, Hitler said:
"It was no Peace Treaty which they have signed, but a
betrayal of Peace. So long as this Treaty stands there
can be no resurrection of the German people: no social
reform of any kind is possible. The Treaty was made in
order to bring 20 million Germans to their deaths and
to ruin the German nation. But those who made the
Treaty cannot set it aside. At its foundation our movement formulated three
demands:
[Page 185]
1. Setting aside of the Peace Treaty
On August 1, 1923 Hitler declared:
"The day must come when a German government shall summon up the courage
to declare to the foreign powers: 'The Treaty of Versailles is founded on a monstrous lie.' We fulfill nothing more. Do what you will! If you want battle, look for it! Then we shall see whether you can turn 70 million Germans into serfs and slaves!" (2405-PS; see also additional statements of Hitler contained in 2405- PS castigating those Germans who shared responsibility for the Treaty of Versailles, viz; the "November criminals.")
In his speech of 30 January 1941 Hitler alluded to the
consistency of his record concerning the aims of National
Socialist foreign policy: "My foreign policy had identical
aims. My program was to abolish the Treaty of Versailles. It
is futile nonsense for the rest of the world to pretend
today that I did not reveal this program until 1933 or 1935
or 1937. Instead of listening to the foolish chatter of
emigres, these gentlemen would have been wiser to read what
I have written thousands of times. "No human being has
declared or recorded what he wanted more
than I. Again and again I wrote these words- 'The abolition
of the Treaty of Versailles'. *********" (2541-PS)
Similar views were expressed by other Nazi conspirators.
Rosenberg stated that the lie of Germanys war guilt was the
basis of the Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain. He
rejected the idea of a "revision" of those Treaties and
demanded outright cancellation. (243-PS)
Hess, in advocating rearmament in violation of treaty
restrictions, stated in 1936 that "guns instead of butter"
were necessary lest "one day our last butter be taken from
us." (2426-PS)
(2) To acquire the territories lost by Germany as the result
of World War of 1914-1918, and other territory in Europe asserted to
be occupied by so-called "racial Germans." Section I of thee Nazi Party Platform gave advance notice of the intentions of the Nazi
conspirators to claim territories occupied by so-called racial Germans. It
provided:
"We demand the unification of all Germans in the
Greater Germany on the basis of the right of self-
determination of people." (1708-PS)
[Page 186]
While Rosenberg pointed out in 1922 that it was not possible
at that time to designate "such European and non-European
territories which would be taken into consideration for
colonization" he nevertheless stated that the following
could be laid down as a basic objective, namely that
"*********German Foreign Policy must make its most
important primary goal the consolidation of all Germans
living closely together in Europe in one state and to
secure the territory of what today is the Polish-Czech
East." (2433-PS)
In his Reichstag speech of 20 February 1928 Hitler said:
"The claim, therefore, for German colonial possession
will be voiced from year to year with increasing vigor,
possessions which Germany did not take away from other
countries, and which today are virtually of no value to
these powers, but appear indispensable for our own people." (2772-PS)
Again, in his Reichstag speech of 30 January 1939 Hitler declared:
"The theft of the German colonies was morally
unjustified. Economically, it was utter insanity. The
political motives advanced were so mean that one is
tempted to call them silly. In 1918, after the end of
the war, the victorious Powers really would have had the
authority to bring about a reasonable settlement of
international problems. *********
"The great German colonial possessions, which the Reich
once acquired peacefully by treaties and by paying for
them, have been stolen contrary indeed to the solemn
assurance given by President Wilson, which was the
basic condition on which Germany laid down her arms.
The objection that these colonial possessions are of no
importance in any case should only lead to their being
returned to us with an easy mind." (2773-PS)
(3) To acquire further territories in colonial Europe and
elsewhere claimed to be required by "racial Germans" as
"Lebensraum" or living space, at the expense of neighboring
and other countries. Hitler made it clear that the two
objectives of the Nazi conspirators set forth above were
only preliminary steps in a more ambitious plan of
territorial aggrandizement. Thus he stated:
"One must take the point of view, cooly and soberly,
that it certainly cannot be the intention of Heaven to
give one people fifty times as much space (Grund und
Boden) on this earth as to another. One should not
permit himself to be diverted
[Page 187]
in this case by political boundaries from the
boundaries of eternal justice.
"The boundaries of 1914 do not mean anything for the
future of the German nation. They did not represent
either a defense of the past nor would they represent a
power in the future. The German people will not obtain
either its inner compactness by them, nor will its
nutrition be secured by them, nor do these boundaries
appear from a military standpoint as appropriate or
even satisfactory. *********" (2760. A-PS)
While the precise limits of German expansion were only
vaguely defined by the Nazi conspirators, they clearly
indicated that the Lebensraum to which they felt they were
entitled would be acquired primarily in the East. Rosenberg
was particularly insistent in his declarations that Russia
would have to "move over" to make way for German living
space. He underlined this demand as follows:
"The understanding that the German nation, if it is not
to perish in the truest sense of the word, needs ground
and soil for itself and its future generations, and the
second sober perception that this soil can no more be
conquered in Africa, but in Europe and first of all in
the East-these organically determine the German foreign
policy for centuries. (2777-PS)
"The Russians *********will have to confine themselves so
as to remove their center of gravity to Asia." (2426-PS)
A similar view was expressed by Hitler in Mein Kampf:
"If one wanted territory in Europe, this could be done
on the whole at the expense of Russia, and the new
Reich would have to set out to march over the road of
the former Knights, in order to give soil to the German
plow by means of the German sword, and to give daily
bread to the nation."
In Mein Kampf Hitler threatened war as a means of attaining
additional space:
"If this earth really has space (Raum) for all to live
in, then we should be given the territory necessary. Of
course, one will not do that gladly. Then, however, the
right of self-preservation comes into force; that which
is denied to kindness, the fist will have to take. If
our forefathers had made their decisions dependent on
the same pacifistic nonsense as the present, then we
would possess only a third of our present territory.
*******
[Page 188]
"In contrast, we, National Socialists, have to hold on steadily to our foreign political goals, namely, to secure on this earth the territory due to the German people. And this action is the only one which will make bloody sacrifice before God and our German posterity appear justified." (2760-A-PS)
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Volume
I Chapter VII
Means Used by the Nazi Conspiractors in Gaining Control of the German State
(Part 1 of 55)
THE CONSPIRACY
2. Unification of all Germans
3. Land and soil (Grund und Boden) to feed our nation." (2405-PS)