Third Day:
Thursday, 22st November, 1945
In addition to ruthlessly purging all political opponents,
the Nazi conspirators further consolidated their position by
promptly proceeding to eliminate all other political
parties. On 21st March, 1933, the defendant Frick announced
that the Communists would be prevented from taking part in
the Reichstag proceedings. This was accomplished, as has
been pointed out, by placing them in "protective custody in 21
concentration camps." On 26th May, 1933, a Reich Cabinet
decree, signed by Hitler and the defendant Frick, provided
for the confiscation of the
[Page 112]
Article 1 provided that the Nazi Party "is the bearer of
the concept of the State and is inseparably the State. It
will be a part of the public law. Its organisation will be
determined by the Fuehrer."
Article 2 provided: "The Deputy of the Fuehrer and the Chief
of Staff of the S.A. will become members of the Reich
Cabinet in order to insure close co-operation of the offices
of the Party and S.A. with public authorities."
Article 3 provided: "The members of the National Socialist
German Workers Party and the S.A. (including their
subordinate organisations) as the leading and driving force
of the National Socialist State will bear greater
responsibility toward Fuehrer, People and State."
(A recess was taken.)
COLONEL STORY: During the recess defendants' counsel and the
prosecution arrived at an agreement for the furnishing of
briefs to the defendants, which I understand to be this:
Copies of the documents offered in evidence in German will
be delivered in the defendants' information centre, with the
understanding that if any defence counsel needs to show the
German photostatic copy to his client he may do so in the
defendants' counsel room adjacent thereto; that the briefs
which we are passing to the Tribunal as an aid will likewise
be passed to defendants' counsel in English, and that if any
of them have trouble in the translation of any portion of
the briefs we have German-speaking officers in defendants'
information centre who will assist counsel. I understand
that all of these defendants' counsel have so agreed.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Now, Major Wallis.
MAJOR WALLIS: May it please the Court, at the moment of
recess I was referring to the law which was passed on 1st
December, 1933, for securing the unity of Party and State.
Article 6 of that law provided: "The public authorities have
to grant legal and administrative assistance to the officers
of the Party and the S.A. which are entrusted with the
execution of the jurisdiction of the Party and S.A."
Article 8 provided: "The Reich Chancellor as Fuehrer of the
National Socialistic German Workers Party and, as the
supreme commander of the S.A., will issue the regulations
necessary for the execution and augmentation of this law,
particularly with respect to the organisation and procedure
of the jurisdiction of the Party and S.A." Thus by this law
the Nazi Party became a paragovernmental Organisation in
Germany.
The further merger of the Party and State occurred on the
death of Hindenburg. Instead of holding an election to fill
the office of President, the merger of the offices of
President and Chancellor, in the person of Hitler, was
accomplished by the law of ist August, 1934, signed by the
entire Reich Cabinet. One of the significant consequences of
this law was to give to Hitler the supreme command of the
German Armed Forces, always a prerequisite of the
presidency, and every
[Page 113]
As a further step in the consolidation of their political
control, the Nazi conspirators reduced national elections to
mere formalities devoid of the element of freedom of choice.
Elections, properly speaking, could not take place under the
Nazi system. In the first place, the basic doctrine of the
Fuehrerprinzip dictated that all subordinates must be
appointed by their superiors in the government hierarchy.
Although it had already become the practice, in 1938 it was
specifically provided by law that only one list of
candidates was to be submitted to the people. By the end of
this pre-war period little of substance remained in the
election law. The majority of the substantive provisions had
become obsolete.
By a series of laws and decrees the Nazi conspirators
reduced the powers of regional and local governments and
substantially transformed them into territorial subdivisions
of the Reich Government. With the abolition of
representative assemblies and elective officials in the
Lander, and the municipalities, regional and local elections
ceased to exist. On 31st January, 1934, the last vestiges of
Land independence was destroyed by the Law for the
Reconstruction of the Reich. The defendant Frick, Minister
of the Interior throughout this period, has written of this
Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich as follows:
Even the judiciary did not escape the purge of the Nazi
conspirators.
All judges who failed to fulfil the racial and political
requirements of the conspirators were quickly removed. In
addition, the Nazis set up a new system of special criminal
courts independent of the regular judiciary and directly
subservient to the Party programme.
Moreover, the Nazis controlled all judges through special
directives and orders from the central government, their aim
being, as expressed by one Garland, one of the leading Nazi
lawyers of that time, "to make the word 'terrorisation' in
the penal law respectable again."
As their control was consolidated, the conspirators greatly
enlarged existing State and Party organisations and
established an elaborate network of new
[Page 114]
I would like to direct the Tribunal's attention to some case
histories in the consolidation of control by the
conspirators.
The first case history in the consolidation of the Nazi
conspirators' control of Germany is the destruction of the
free trade unions and the obtaining of control over the
productive labour capacity of the German nation.
The position of organised labour in Germany, at the time of
the Nazi seizure of power, the obstacles they afforded to
the Nazi plans, the speed with which they were destroyed,
the terror and maltreatment ranging from assault to murder
of union leaders, were fully outlined in the opening address
of the Chief Prosecutor of the United States, and are fully
set forth in the document book - which I will present to the
Court on this phase of the case.
The result achieved by the Nazi conspirators is best
expressed in the words of Robert Ley. Ley's confidence in
the Nazis' effective control over the productive labour
capacity of Germany in peace or in war was declared as early
as 1936 to the Nuremberg Party Congress. I refer to document
2283-PS which is included in the document book which will be
presented on this phase of the case. He stated:-
I would now direct your attention to the second case history
in the consolidation of control.
The Nazi conspirators early realised that the influence of
the Christian churches in Germany was an obstacle to their
complete domination of the German people and contra to their
master race dogma. As the defendant Martin Bormann stated in
a secret decree of the Party Chancellery, signed by him and
distributed to all Gauleiters on 7th June, 1941 - it is
identified as document D-75 and will be included in the
document book which will be presented to the Court - he
stated as follows:-
[Page 115]
We now come to what might be called the third case history,
the persecution of the Jews. The Nazi conspirators adopted
and publicised a programme of ruthless persecution of Jews.
It is not our purpose at this time to present to the Court a
full and complete story, in all its sickening details, of
the Nazi conspirators' plans and acts for the elimination
and liquidation of the Jewish population of Europe. This
will be done in due course, at a subsequent stage of these
proceedings, but it is our purpose at this time to bring
before you, as one of the elements in the Nazi scheme for
the consolidation of their control of Germany, the action
which was planned and taken with respect to the Jews within
Germany during the pre-war period.
As a means of implementing their master race policy and as a
means of rallying otherwise discordant elements behind the
Nazi banner, the conspirators adopted and publicised a
programme of relentless persecution of Jews. This programme
was contained in the official, unalterable twenty-five
points of the Nazi Party, of which six were devoted to the
master race doctrine. The defendants Goering, Hess,
Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Funk, Schirach, Bormann
and others, all took prominent parts in publicising this
programme. Upon the Nazis' coming into power, this Party
programme became the official State programme. The first
organised act was the boycott of Jewish enterprises on the
1st April, 1933. The defendant Streicher, in a signed
statement, admits that he was in charge of this programme
only for one day. We, of course, reserve the right to show
additional evidence with respect to that fact. The Nazi
conspirators then embarked upon a legislative programme
which was gradual and which dates from 7th April, 1933 until
September, 1935. During this period a series of laws was
passed removing the Jews from civil service, from the
professions and from the schools and military service. It
was clear, however, that the Nazi conspirators had a far
more ambitious programme for the Jewish problem and only put
off its realisation for reasons of expediency. After the
usual propaganda barrage, in which the speeches and writings
of the defendant Streicher were most prominent, the Nazi
conspirators initiated the second period of anti-Jewish
legislation, namely, from 15th September, 1935 to
September,1938. In this period the famous Nuremberg laws
were passed,
[Page 116]
I would now offer to the Court the document book, which
contains the laws referred to, with respect to the
persecution of the Jews, and the brief outlining that
subject.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now adjourn until 10
o'clock to-morrow morning.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 23rd November at 1000 hours.)
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(Part 8 of 8)
[MAJOR WALLIS continues]
"The Party has become the State."
The Nazi conspirators immediately proceeded to make that
statement a recorded fact, for on 1st December, 1933, the
Reich Cabinet issued a law for "Securing the Unity of Party
and State". This law was signed by Hitler and the defendant
Frick.
"The reconstruction law abolished the sovereign rights
and executive powers of the Lander and made the Reich the
sole bearer of the rights of sovereignty. The supreme
powers of the Lander do not exist any longer. The natural
result of this was the subordination of the Land
government to the Reich Government and the Land ministers
to the corresponding Reich ministers. On 30th January,
1934, the German Reich becomes one State."
Another step taken by the Nazi conspirators in
consolidating their political power was the purge of civil
servants on racial and political grounds and their
replacement by Party members and supporters. This purge was
accomplished through a series of Nazi laws and decrees. The
first was on 7th April, 1933, entitled " Law for the
Restoration of the Professional Civil Service." Article 3 of
the law applied the Nazi blood and master race theories in
providing that officials who were not of Aryan descent were
to be retired. The political purge provision of the law is
contained in Article 4 and I quote:
"Officials who, because of their previous political
activities, do not offer security that they will assert
themselves for the National State without reservations
may be dismissed."
The effect of this law and the decrees and regulations
issued thereunder was to fill every responsible position in
the government with a Nazi and to prevent the appointment of
any applicant opposed, or suspected of being opposed, to the
Nazi programme and policy.
"In order to control the whole German nation in all
spheres of life - and I repeat, 'in order to control the
whole German nation in all spheres of life'- the
N.S.D.A.P., after assuming power, set up under its
leadership the new Party formations and affiliated
organisations."
At this point I would like to offer to the court the
document book which contains the laws and conditions which I
have referred to in this part of my presentation together
with the briefs covering this part of it.
"The idea of the factory troops is making good progress
in the plants, and I am able to report to you, my
Fuehrer, that security and peace in the factories has
been guaranteed, not only in normal times, but also in
times of the most serious crisis. Disturbances, such as
the munitions strikes of the traitor Ebert and
confederates, are out of the question. National
Socialism has conquered the factories. Factory troops
are the National Socialist shock troops within the
factory, and their motto is "The Fuehrer is always
right."
At this time I would like to offer to the Court the document
on this phase of the case, namely, "The destruction of
Labour unions and the gaining of control of all productive
labour in Germany" together with the brief on that subject.
At the same time, if it pleases the Court, I would like to
offer the document book concerning the consolidation of
control with respect to the utilisation and moulding of
political machinery, which is, in law, a decree which I
referred to just prior to my discussion of the destruction
of labour unions.
"More and more must the people be separated from the
churches and their organisations and pastors.. Not
until this has happened does the State leadership have
influence on the individual citizens."
Accordingly, the Nazi conspirators, seeking to subvert the
influence of the
1. By promoting beliefs and practices incompatible with
Christian teachings.
Moreover, they also suppressed religious education. This is
illustrated by the secret decree of the Party Chancellery
which I just referred to in document D-75, when the
defendant Bormann stated:-
2. By persecuting priests, clergy and members of
monastic orders. This persecution, as the documentary
evidence will show, ran the gauntlet of insults and
indignities, physical assault, confinement and
concentration camps and murder.
3. By the confiscation of church properties.
4. By suppressing religious publications.
5. By the suppression of religious organisations. "No human being would know anything of Christianity if
it had not been drilled into him in his childhood by
his pastors. The so-called 'dear God' in no wise gives
knowledge of his existence to young people in advance,
but in an astonishing manner, in spite of His
omnipotence, leaves this to the efforts of the pastors.
If, therefore, in the future our youth learns nothing
more of this Christianity, whose doctrines are far
below ours, Christianity will disappear by itself."
At a subsequent stage in these proceedings, additional
documentary evidence of the acts of the conspirators in
their attempt to subvert the influence of the Christian
churches will be offered. At this time I offer the document
book in support of this phase of the case together with the
accompanying brief.
"The aim of the racial legislation may be regarded as
already achieved and consequently the racial
legislation as essentially closed. It led to the
temporary solution of the Jewish problem and at the
same time essentially prepared for the final solution.
Many regulations will lose their practical importance
as Germany approaches the achievement of the final goal
on the Jewish problem."
Hitler, on 30th January, 1939, in a speech before the
Reichstag, made the following prophecy:-
"The result (of a war) will be the annihilation of the
Jewish race in Europe."
I will leave to others in this case the task of presenting
to the Court the evidence as to how well that prophecy was
fulfilled.