Nineteenth Day:
Thursday, 13th December, 1945
[Page 377]
There was called to my attention as late as this morning a
publication of a New York newspaper published in the United
States, part of which is made up of three or more pages
consisting of advertisements from the families, the
relatives, of people who once resided in Germany or in
Europe, asking for some advice about them. Most of the
advertisements refer to one of these concentration camps or
another. The paper is called Der Aufbau. It is a German
language newspaper in New York City, published on 23rd day -
this particular issue on 23rd November, 1945 - I do not
propose to burden the record of this Tribunal with the list
of the names of all of these unfortunate individuals, but we
refer to it as a publication in the City of New York, a
German language newspaper of recent date, which illustrates
the horrible extent of this terrible tragedy, which has
affected so many people as a result of this concentration
camp institution. We feel that no argument, no particular
argument, is necessary to support our statements that the
Nazi conspirators used these concentration camps and the
related instruments of terror in them, to commit Crimes
against Humanity and to commit War Crimes.
More about concentration camps will of necessity be involved
in the presentation concerning the persecution of the Jews,
but this concludes our presentation with respect to the
concentration camp as a specific entity of proof.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, speaking for myself, I should like
to know what these headings mean.
MR. DODD: Yes, I have them here.
THE PRESIDENT: Document 495-PS.
MR. DODD: Yes, Document 495-PS. Column 1 is the serial
number assigned to the prisoners in the order of their
deaths.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. DODD: Column 2, prisoners of war serial number. Column 3
is the last name, Column 4 is the first name.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. DODD: Column 5 is the date of birth. Column 6, the place
of birth. Column 7, cause of death. In these cases their
cause of death is stated as follows.
"Execution pursuant to order of the Chief of the Sipo and
S.D. dated 30th April, 1942," and the ditto marks beneath
indicate that the same cause of death was assigned to the
names which come beneath it. In the eighth column is the
date of death and the hour of death. The first one being 9-5-
42 at 23.35 hours. In the ninth column there is a space
which says it is reserved for comments.
THE PRESIDENT: There are numbers there too - M1681 is the
first one.
[Page 378]
THE PRESIDENT: I think you said the number of the corpse.
MR. DODD: The number of the corpse, I think that is what it
is as distinguished from the number of the prisoner. Each
corpse was given a number as well, after the individual
died.
COLONEL STOREY: If the Tribunal please, the next phase of
War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, the Persecution of
the Jews, will be presented by Major Walsh.
THE PRESIDENT: Major Walsh.
MAJOR WALSH: If the Tribunal please, on behalf of the United
States Counsel, I now present to this august Tribunal the
evidence to establish certain phases of the Indictment
alleged in Count I under War Crimes and Crimes against
Humanity, and by agreement between the prosecutors, the
allegations in Count IV, Paragraph 10 (b),
Crimes against Humanity. The topical title of this
presentation is: "The Persecution of the Jews."
At this time I offer in evidence a document book of
translations, lettered "T". The documents contained in the
book are arranged according to the D, L, PS, and R series;
and under the series the translations are listed
numerically. This title, "The Persecution of the Jews," is
singularly inappropriate when weighed in the light of the
evidence to follow. Academically, I am told, to persecute is
to afflict, harass, and annoy. The term used does not
convey, and indeed I cannot conjure a term that does convey
the ultimate aim, the avowed purpose to obliterate the
Jewish race.
This presentation is not intended to be a complete recital
of all the crimes committed against the Jews. The extent and
the scope of the crimes was so great that it permeated the
entire German nation, its people, and its organisations.
I am informed that others to follow me will offer additional
evidence under other phases of the prosecution's case.
Evidence relating to the Party organisations and State
organisations, whose criminality the prosecution will seek
to establish, will disclose and emphasise the part that
these organisations played in the pattern and plan for
annihilation.
The French and the Soviet Prosecutors, too, have a volume of
evidence all related to this subject, which will be
submitted in the course of the trial.
Before I begin a recital of the overt acts leading to the
elimination of the Jews, I am prepared to show that these
acts and policies within Germany from the year 1933 to the
end of the war, related to the planning, preparation,
initiation, and waging of aggressive wars, thus falling
within the definition of "Crimes against Humanity" as
defined in Article 6 (c) of the Charter.
It had long been a German theory that the first world war
ended in Germany's defeat because of a collapse in the zone
of the interior. In planning for future wars it was
determined that the home front must be secure, to prevent a
repetition of this 1918 debacle. Unification of the German
people was essential to successful planning and waging of
war, and the Nazi political premise must be established -
"One race, one State, one Fuehrer."
Free trade unions must be abolished, political parties
(other than the National Socialist Party) must be outlawed,
civil liberties must be suspended, and opposition of every
kind must be swept away. Loyalty to God, church, and
scientific truth was declared to be incompatible with the
Nazi regime.
[Page 379]
This view is clearly borne out by a statement contained in
Document 1919-PS, Exhibit USA 170. This document is a
transcript of a Himmler speech at a meeting of the S.S.
Major Generals on 4th October, 1943, and from Page 4,
Paragraph 3, of the translation before the court, I read a
very short passage:
It is obvious that the persecution and murder of Jews
throughout the conquered territories of Europe following
1939 are War Crimes as defined by Article 6 (b) of the
Charter. It further violates Article 46 of the Regulations
of the Hague Convention of 1907, to which Germany was a
signatory.. I quote Article 46 and ask the Court to take
judicial notice thereof.
Now this ultimate objective, that is, the elimination and
extermination of the Jews, could not be accomplished without
preliminary steps and measures. The German State must first
be seized by the Nazi Party, the force of world opinion must
be faced, and even the regimented German people must be
indoctrinated with hatred against the Jews.
The first clear-cut evidence of the Party policies
concerning, the Jews was expressed in the Party programme in
February, 1920. I offer in evidence Document 1708-PS,
Programme of the National Socialist Party, Exhibit USA 255.
With the Court's permission, I would like to quote the
relevant part of that programme.
[Page 380]
MAJOR WALSH: This, Sir, is Document 1708-PS.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Volume 2?
MAJOR WALSH: Volume 2.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): And what page of the document?
MAJOR WALSH: That is Paragraph 4 and Paragraph 6, Sir, on
the first page.
Paragraph (4)
I offer in evidence Document 1778-PS, Exhibit USA 257.
This book brands the Jew as a persecutor of the labour
class, as a race defiler, a devil in human form, a poisonous
mushroom, and a murderer. This particular book instructed
school children to recognise the Jew by caricature of his
physical features, shown on Pages 6 and 7, taught them that
the, Jew abuses little boys and girls, on Page 30, and that
the Jewish Bible permits all crimes, Pages 13-17. The
defendant Streicher's periodical Der Sturmer No. 14, April,
1937, in particular, went to such extremes as to publish the
statement that Jews at the ritual celebration of their
Passover slaughtered Christians.
[Page 381]
The blood of the victims is to be tapped by force. On
Passover it is to be used in wine and matzos. Thus a
small part of the blood is to be poured into the dough
of the matzos and into the wine. The mixing is done by
the Jewish head of the family. The procedure is as
follows:
The family head empties a few drops of the fresh and
powdered blood into the glass, wets the fingers of the
left hand and with it sprays and blesses everything on
the table. The head of the family then says, 'Thus we
ask God to send the ten plagues to all enemies of the
Jewish faith'. Then they eat, and at the end the head of
the family exclaims, 'May all Gentiles perish, as the
child whose blood is contained in the
bread and wine'.
The fresh, or dried and powdered blood of the
slaughtered is further used by young married Jewish
couples, by pregnant Jewesses, for circumcision and so
on. Ritual murder is recognised by all Talmud Jews. The
Jew believes he absolves himself thus of his sins."
I now offer in evidence Document 2697-PS, a copy of Der
Sturmer, Exhibit USA 259.
This publication, Der Sturmer, was published by the
defendant Streicher's publishing firm. In this publication,
Streicher, speaking of the Jewish faith, said:-
This propaganda campaign of hate was too widespread and
notorious to require further elaboration. Within the
documents offered in evidence in this and in other phases of
the case will be found similar and even more scurrilous
statements, many by the defendants themselves, and others by
their accomplices.
When the Nazi Party gained control of the German State, a
new and terrible weapon against the Jews was placed within
their grasp, the power to apply the force of the State
against them. This was done by the issuance of decrees
Jewish immigrants were denaturalised 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt,
Part I, Page 48o, signed by defendants Frick and Neurath.
[Page 382]
Jews were forbidden to live in marriage or to have extra
marital relations with persons of German blood: 1935
Reichsgesetzblatt, Part 1, Page 1146, signed by Frick and
Hess.
Jews were denied the right to vote: 1936 Reichsgesetzblatt,
Part 1, Page 133, signed by defendant Frick.
Jews were denied the right to hold public office or civil
service positions: Reichsgesetzblatt 1933, Part 1, Page 277,
signed by defendant Frick.
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(Part 7 of 10)
[MR. DODD continues]
"We know how difficult we should have made it for
ourselves if with the bombing raids, the burdens and
privations of war, we still had Jews today in every town
as secret saboteurs, agitators, and trouble mongers; we
would now probably have reached the 1916-1917 stage when
the Jews were still in the German national body."
The treatment of the Jews within Germany was therefore as
much of a plan for aggressive war as was the building of
armaments and the conscription of manpower. It falls within
the jurisdiction of this Tribunal, as an integral part of
the planning and preparation to wage a war of aggression.
"Family honour and rights, the lives of persons, and
private property, as well as religious convictions and
practice, must be respected."
I know of no crime in the history of mankind more horrible
in its details than the treatment of the Jews. It is
intended to establish that the Nazi Party precepts, later
incorporated within the policies of the German State, often
expressed by the defendants at bar, were to annihilate the
Jewish people. I shall seek to avoid the temptation to
editorialise or to draw inferences from the documents,
however great the provocation; rather I shall let the
documentary evidence speak for itself - its stark realism
will be unvarnished. Blood lust may have played some part in
these savage crimes, but the underlying purpose and
objective to annihilate the Jewish race was one of the
fundamental principles of the Nazi plan to prepare for and
to wage aggressive war. I shall from this point limit my
proof to the overt acts committed, but I venture to request
the Court's indulgence, if it is necessary in weaving the
pattern of evidence, to make reference to certain documents
and evidence previously submitted.
"Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of
the race can only be one who is of German blood without
consideration of confession."
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): May I interrupt a minute. It is a
little hard to know where these exhibits are or what volume
you are now quoting from.
"Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of
the race can only be one who is of German blood, without
consideration of confession. Consequently, no Jew can be
a member of the race."
And again, in Paragraph (6):-
"The right to determine matters concerning
administration and law belongs only to the citizen;
therefore, we demand that every public office of any
sort whatsoever, whether in the Reich, the county or
municipality, be filled only by citizens."
I now offer Document 2662-PS, Mein Kampf, Exhibit USA 256.
On Pages 724-725, Hitler, in this book, speaking of the Jew,
said that if the National Socialist movement was to fulfil
its task - and I quote:
"It must open the eyes of the people with regard to
foreign nations and must remind them again and again of
the true enemy of our present-day world. In the place of
hate against Aryans - from whom we may be separated by
almost everything, to whom, however, we are tied by
common blood or the great tie of a common culture - it
must dedicate to the general anger the evil enemy of
mankind as the true cause of all suffering. It must see
to it, however, that at least in our country he is
recognised as the most mortal enemy and that the
struggle against him may show, like a flaming beacon of
a better era, to other nations too, the road to
salvation for a struggling Aryan mankind."
A flood of abusive literature of all types and for all age
groups was published and circulated throughout Germany.
Illustrative of this type of publication is the book
entitled Der Giftpilz.
"Also numerous confessions made by the Jews show that
the execution of ritual murders is a law to the Talmud
Jew. The former Chief Rabbi, and later monk, Teofite,
declared that the ritual murders take place especially
on the Jewish Purim in memory of the Persian murders and
Passover in memory of the murder of Christ. The
instructions are as follows:
It is difficult for our minds to grasp that falsehoods such
as these could fall on fertile soil, that a literate nation
could read, digest, or believe these doctrines. We must
realise, however, that with a rigidly controlled Press which
precluded an expose of such lying propaganda, some of the
ignorant and gullible would be led to believe.
"The Holy Scripture is a horrible criminal romance
abounding with murder, incest, fraud and indecency."
And again he said:-
"The Talmud is the great Jewish book of crimes that the
Jew practises in his daily life."
This is contained in Document 2698-PS, Der Sturmer, which I
now offer in evidence, Exhibit USA 260.