Third Day:
Thursday, 22st November, 1945
(9) Some of the documents which will be offered in
evidence by the United States were seized and processed
by the British Army. Also, personnel from the Office of
the United States Chief of Counsel and the British War
Crimes Executive have acted jointly in locating,
seizing and processing such documents.
(10) Substantially the same system of acquiring
documentary evidence was utilised by the British Army
and the British War Crimes Executive as that
hereinabove set forth with respect to the United States
Army and the Office of the United States Chief of
Counsel.
(11) Therefore, I certify in my official capacity as
hereinabove stated, to the best of my knowledge and
belief, that the documents captured in the British Zone
of Operations and Occupation, which will be offered in
evidence by the United States Chief of Counsel, have
been authenticated, translated, and processed in
substantially the same manner as hereinabove set forth
with respect to the operations of the United States
Chief of Counsel.
(12) Finally, I certify that all documentary evidence
offered by the United States Chief of Counsel,
including those documents from British Army sources,
are in the same condition as captured by the United
States and British Armies; that they have been
translated by competent and qualified translators; that
all photostatic copies are true and correct copies of
the originals and that they have been correctly filed,
numbered and processed as above outlined."
(Part 2 of 8)
[COLONEL STOREY continues]
(8) All original documents are now located in safes in
the document room, where they will be secured until
they are presented by the prosecution to the court
during the process of this trial.
After the documents selected by the screening process outlined reached our office they were again examined, re- screened, and translated by expert U.S. Army personnel, as outlined by Major Coogan.
[Page 90]
Finally, more than 2,500 documents were selected and filed here in the Court House. At least several hundred will be offered in evidence. They have been photographed, translated into English, filed, indexed, and processed. The same general procedure was followed by the British War Crimes Executive with regard to documents captured by the British Army, and there has been complete integration and co- operation of activities with the British in that regard.In order to present our case and to assist the Tribunal, we have prepared written briefs on each phase of our case, which cite the documents by appropriate numbers. Legal propositions of the United States will also be presented in such briefs. The briefs and documents will cover each allegation of the Indictment which is the United States' responsibility. I hold in my hand one of the trial briefs entitled "Reshaping of Education, Training of Youth," which will be offered later on this day. Accompanying each brief is a document book containing true copies in English of all documents referred to in the brief. I hold in my hand the document book that will be submitted to this Tribunal in support of the brief which I have just exhibited to your Honour. Likewise, copies in German have been or will be, furnished to defence counsel at the time such documents are offered in evidence. Upon conclusion of the presentation of each phase or section of our case by counsel, the entire book of documents will be offered in evidence such as this book. At the same time, Lt. Barrett, who will sit here during the whole trial and who is on our staff, will hand to the clerk of this Tribunal the original documents that may be offered in evidence in this form. It will have the seal of the Tribunal, will be exhibit USA --, 2836-PS, and in turn Lt. Barrett will hand the original document to the Tribunal. In the same manner, the document book will be passed by Lt. Barrett to the clerk of the Court, and these trial briefs for the assistance of the Tribunal will be made available to the Court and to the defence counsel. Likewise, copies of documents actually introduced in evidence will be made available to the Press. Thus, may your Honour please, it is hoped that by this procedure the usual laborious and tedious method of introducing documentary evidence may be expedited.
May I, therefore, respectfully inquire of the Tribunal and of defence counsel if there is any objection to the procedure outlined? If not, the United States will proceed with the presentation of the documentary evidence and trial briefs as outlined herein.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you wait one moment?
COLONEL STOREY: Yes, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal has no objection to the course that you propose.
COLONEL STOREY: If your Honour pleases, may I now announce what will be presented immediately following by the United States?
THE PRESIDENT: I think perhaps that I ought to say to counsel for the defendants that their silence will be taken as their assent to the course proposed. In the absence of any objection by them to the course proposed by Col. Storey on behalf of the Chief Prosecutor for the United States, the Tribunal will take it, that they agree that the course is convenient.
Thank you, gentlemen.
COLONEL STOREY: If your Honour pleases, the next presentation will be the briefs and documents on the Common Plan or Conspiracy up to 1939. We will open by presentation of charts of the Nazi Party and Reich Government with exhibits and explanation by Mr. Albrecht. That will be followed by a presentation of the trial briefs and documents on the other phases of the Common Plan or Conspiracy up to 1939.
Mr. Albrecht.
MR. ALBRECHT: May it please the Tribunal, the prosecution will now allude briefly to certain facts, which may well be considered to be within judicial purview,
[Page 91]
the consideration of which the prosecution has found useful in understanding and evaluating the evidence that will be presented to the Tribunal during the trial, in support of the allegations of the Indictment.In the opinion of the prosecution, some preliminary references must be made to the National Socialist German Labour Party, the NSDAP, which in itself is one of the defendant organisations in this proceeding, but which is represented among the defendant organisations by its most important formations, namely the Leadership Corps of the NSDAP, which you will hear referred to as "Das Korps der Politischen Leiter der NSDAP," the "SS" (Die Schutzstaffeln der NSDAP), and the "SA" (Die Sturmabteilungen der NSDAP).
With the permission of the Tribunal the prosecution will offer at this point, as its first exhibit, a chart showing, the structure and Organisation of the NSDAP substantially as it existed at the peak of its development in March, 1945. This chart has been prepared by the prosecution on the basis of information contained in important and well-known official publications of the National Socialist Party with which the defendants must be presumed to have been well acquainted. We refer particularly to the Organisation Book of the Party, "Das Organisationsbuch der NSDAP", and to the National Socialist Year Book," Nationalsozialistisches Jahrbuch", of both of which, be it noted, the late defendant, Robert Ley was the chief editor or publisher. Both books appeared, in the course of time, in many editions and appeared in hundreds of thousands of copies, throughout the period when the National Socialist Party was in control of the German Reich and of the German people. The chart, furthermore, which we are offering, has been certified on its face as correct by a high official of the Nazi Party, namely Franz Xaver Schwarz, its Treasurer (Reichsschatzmeister der NSDAP), and official in charge of Party administration. This affidavit is being submitted with the chart, and I now wish to offer this chart in evidence.
We have been able to have this chart duplicated, and, with the permission of the Tribunal, are making it available to all concerned.
Before I offer some remarks of explanation concerning the Organisation of the National Socialist German Labour Party, which, we believe, will be found useful in connection with the prosecution's case, I would just like to call the attention of the Tribunal to the fact, that the larger chart which now appears is a simplification of the duplicated chart with which your Honour has been furnished. For if it had been reproduced in the same detail, I am afraid many of the boxes would not have appeared intelligible from this point.
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