The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression
Volume II
Criminality of Groups and Organizations
The Reich Cabinet
(Part 5 of 8)


Other important powers and functions contained in the ordinary cabinet were not included in the foregoing list. or example, upon the creation of the People's Court on 24 April 1934) it was placed within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice (2014-PS). With the acquisition and occupation of new territories, the integration and coordination thereof were placed within the Ministry of the Interior. The Reich Minister of the Interior, Frick, (in some cases in cooperation with other Reich Ministers) was, by law, given regulatory powers over such territories. The territory and the applicable law may be listed as follows:

(1) The Saar (1935, Reichsgesetzblatt Part I, page 66).
(2) Austria (1938, Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 237).
(3) Memel (1939, Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 54).
(4) Bohemia and Moravia (1939, Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 485).
(5) Sudetenland (1939, Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 780).
(6) Danzig (1939, Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 1547.

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(7) Incorporated Poland (1939, Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 2042).
(8) Occupied Poland (1939, Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 2077).
(9) Eupen, Malmedy and Moresnet (1940, Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 803).
(10) Norway (1941, Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 765).

Such were the powers and functions of the ordinary cabinet.

(2) The Secret Cabinet Council. Of the other two subdivisions of the Reichsregierung -- the Secret Cabinet Council and the Ministerial Council -- the Secret Cabinet Council had no legislative or administrative powers. It was created by Hitler on 4 February 1938

"To advise me in conducting the foreign policy ***." (2031-PS)

Its position in the Nazi regime is described by Ernst Rudolf Huber, a leading Nazi Constitutional Lawyer, in his book entitled "Verfassungsrecht des Grossdeutschen Reiches" ("Constitutional Law of the Greater German Reich"). In this book, which was an authoritative, widely used work on Nazi Constitutional Law, Huber States (1774-PS):

"A privy cabinet council, to advise the Fuehrer in the basic problems of foreign policy, has been created by the decree of 4 February 1938 (RGBI. I, 112). This privy cabinet council is under the direction of Reich Minister v. Neurath, and includes the Foreign Minister, the Air Minister, the Deputy Commander for the Fuehrer, the Propaganda Minister, the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, the Commanders-in-Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. The privy cabinet council constitutes a select staff of collaborators of the Fuehrer which consists exclusively of members of the Government of the Reich; thus, it represents a select committee of the Reich Government for the deliberation on foreign affairs." (1774-PS)

(3) The Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich. The powers concentrated in the Ministerial Council, which did possess legislative and administrative functions, at its creation in 1939, are best expressed by the lecture which Frick gave before the University of Freiburg on 7 March 1940. The lecture, published in a pamphlet entitled "The Administration in Wartime," contains these statements (2608-PS):

"*** The composition of the Ministerial Council for

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the defense of the Reich shows the real concentration of power in it. General Field Marshal Goering is the chairman and also the Supreme Director of the War Economy and Commissioner for the our Year Plan. He is joined by the Plenipotentiary General for the Reich Administration, who directs the entire civilian administration with the exception of the economic administration, and the Plenipotentiary General for Economy. The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces is the liaison man to the Armed Forces. It is primarily his duty to coordinate the measures for civilian defense in the area of administration and economy with the genuine military measures for the defense of the Reich. The Deputy of the Fuehrer represents the Party, thus guaranteeing the unity between Party and State also within the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich. The Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery is in charge of the business management of the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich."

*******

"The Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich, the highest legislative and executive organ in wartime next to the Fuehrer, created a subordinate organ for the purpose of the defense of the Reich: The Commissioners for the Reich Defense, who have their headquarters at the seat of the individual corps area." (2608-PS)

With such power concentrated in the Reichsregierung and to such a high degree, the Nazi conspirators possessed a formidable weapon to effectuate their plans.


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