Twenty-Third Day: Wednesday, 19th December, 1945
Now, let me state what Himmler conceived that this organisation was to be
used for. I quote from his address to the officers of the S.S. Leib
standarte "Adolf Hitler" on the " Day of Metz," our Document 19i8-PS,
Exhibit USA 304. I quote from Page 12 of the original document, the middle
of the page; from the translation Page 3, last paragraph. I will begin the
translation with the third sentence of that paragraph:
[Page 142]
THE TRIBUNAL (MR. BIDDLE): Is that one of the crimes you allege, domination
of Europe through an elite ?
MAJOR FARR: One of the crimes alleged is a 'conspiracy to dominate Europe,
preparation for aggressive war, leading to the ultimate colonisation of
Europe for the benefit of the conspirators. One of the instruments, we
submit, used for carrying out that policy, was the S.S. The conspirators
began, at the very beginning, the creation of the S.S., to build it up so
that it would be the elite through which Germany would be able to dominate
and rule the conquered territories.
We think that this conception of the S.S. has played a vital part in the
conspiracy. It has bearing on the whole programme of the conspirators. Now,
this certainly, in itself-
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but, Major Farr, what you have to show is not the
criminality of the people who used the weapon; the criminality of the
people who composed the weapon.
MAJOR FARR: I think I have to show two things, certainly the criminality of
the persons who composed the weapons, but it seems to me I must also show
that that weapon played a part in the conspiracy because the Indictment
alleges-
THE PRESIDENT: I should have thought you had shown that over and over
again, that the S.S. were a part of the weapon. If there was a criminal
conspiracy, then the S.S. were one of the weapons which were used by the
conspirators. But what you have got to show in this part of the case is
that the persons who formed that weapon were criminal and knew of the
criminal objects of the S.S.
MAJOR FARR: I quite agree I have to show that. I suppose I have to show,
before showing that the persons involved knew of the criminal aims of the
Organisation, what those criminal aims were. I was simply attempting to
show the Tribunal that one of those aims which I submit as criminal was a
plan to dominate Europe, and that the S.S. was one of the means by which
that was to be done.
Now, this is just one aspect of the S.S. criminality. I am quite ready not
to proceed any further with the point if the Court already has the point,
and thinks that the evidence of that aspect of its criminality is
sufficient. I certainly do not want to labour the point too hard.
I will now proceed further with the point as to the building up of the S.S.
as a racial elite to take over ; but I do think one other thing is
important, and that is the negative side of that racialism: the hatred of
other races. Himmler made some very striking points along that line as to
what the S.S. was to be in relation to it. I quote from his Posen speech,
that is, our document 1919-PS. The passage in question appears on Page 23
of the original speech, middle of the page, and will be found on Page I of
the English translation, third paragraph.
[Page 143]
I quote from Himmler's Kharkov speech, which appears in the same document
1919-PS.
THE TRIBUNAL (MR. BIDDLE): Can you not just give us the meaning of the
speech without quoting from it; can you just refer to it ? I
MAJOR FARR: I will be very glad to do that, if the Court will take
judicial notice of it. I will refer you to the passage I have in mind. The
passage in question appears on Page 14 of the translation, about fiheen
lines from the bottom of the page; it appears on Page 17 of the original,
at about the middle of the page.
In that passage, after having talked at great length about the racial
struggle, Himmler tells his commanding officers-and be is'making this
speech to the commanding officers of three divisions of the Waffen S.S.-he
tells his officers that the thing which he wants so thoroughly instilled
into every recruit in the Organisation, so that he becomes saturated with
it, is the necessity of the S.S. standing firm and carrying on the racial
struggle without mercy.
On the same point one further quotation-if the Tribunal will bear with
me-and I think this is important because this, again, is a public
quotation, found in the Organisation Book of the Party. That is our
document 2640-PS. It is a very short passage, appearing on Page V8 of the
original, and Page i of the English translation, the third paragraph from
the end of the page in the translation:
The S.S. had to, and did, develop a reputation for terror which was
Farefully cultivated. Himmler himself publicly attested it as early as 1936
in his pamphlet, " The S.S. as an Anti-Bolshevist Fighting Organisation "
our document 185I-PS, which has already been introduced into evidence as
exhibit USA 44o. I quote two sentences which appear at page 29 Of the
original pamphlet, and on page 4 of the translation, the first two
sentences:
The role which the S.S. was required to play demanded that it remain
constantly the essence of Nazism and that its elite quality should never be
diluted.
As evidence that even in 1943 the S.S. standards were still being main
tained, I offer in evidence a letter written to the defendant Kaltenbrunner
by Himmler. This letter is our Document 2768-PS. It is a letter from the
Reiclisfuehrer S.S., written at his field command post and bearing the date
24th April, 1943, 1 offer it as Exhibit USA 447. 1 quote from the first
paragraph of that letter:
I. If the man applies freely and voluntarily.
2. If, by applying strict and peace-time standards, the applicant fits
racially and ideologically into the S.S., guarantees according to the
number of his children a really healthy S.S. stock, and is neither in,
degenerate, nor worthless."
I do think it may be worth quoting the very brief oath which the S.S. man
takes. That oath is quoted in the Waffen S.S. recruiting pamphlet,
entitled, "The S.S. Calls You," our Document 3429-PS, which I offer in
evidence as Exhibit USA 446. The oath appears on Page 18 of that pamphlet,
and on Page 2 of the translation, in the middle of the page. I quote the
oath
swear to you, Adolf Hitler, as Fuehrer and Reichschancellor, loyalty
and bravery, I vow to you, and to those you have named to command me,
obedience unto death, so help me God." [Page 145]
I offer in evidence an affidavit by the defendant Wilhelm Frick, signed and
sworn to herein Nuremberg on the i 9th of November, 1945 - It is our
Document 2950-PS- I offer it as Exhibit USA 448. 1 shall quote a portion of
that affidavit, beginning about the middle of the first paragraph of the
affidavit, the tenth line in the original.
I turn now to the consideration of the development whereby the S.S. and the
police became intermingled. Shortly after the seizure of power the
conspirators began to develop, as a part of the State machinery, secret
political police forces, originating in Prussia in the Gestapo established
by decree of the defendant Goering in 1933, and this development will be
dealt with in the case against the'Gestapo. By 1934, the Reichsfuehrer S.S.
had become the chief of these secret political police forces in all the
States of Germany except Prussia, and deputy chief of the Prussian Gestapo.
In that capacity he infiltrated these forces with members of the S.S. until
a virtual identity of membership of the S.S. and the Gestapo was achieved.
On 17th June, 1936, by the Decree on the Establishment of a Chief of the
German Police, published in the Reichsgesetzblatt for 1936, Part 1, Pages
487 and 488, our Document 2073-PS, of which I assume the Court will take
judicial notice, the new post of Chief of the German Police was created in
the Ministry of the Interior. Under the terms of the decree
[Page 146]
The combination of these two positions, that of leader of the S.S., and
head of all the police forces in the Reich, was no accident, but was
intended to establish a permanent relation between the two bodies, and not
a mere 44 transitory fusion of personnel." The significance of this
combination of these two positions was referred to by Hitler in his secret
order of 17th August, 1938, on the organisation and mobilisation of the
S.S., our Document 647-PS, which I introduce in evidence as Exhibit USA
443, from which I will now quote just the preamble, which will be found on
the first page of our Document 647-PS, and at the beginning of the original
order. I quote:
To be head of the Sipo, that is, of the Criminal Police and the Gestapo,
Himmler appointed Reinhard Heydrich, who was at that time the Chief of the
S.D., the S.S. Intelligence Agency to which I have already referred. Thus,
through Himmler's dual capacity as Reichsfuehrer S.S. and as Chief of the
German Police, and through Heydrich's dual capacity as head of the S.D. and
of the Security Police, a unified personal command of the S.S. and Security
Police Forces was achieved.
.But further steps towards unification were taken. In 1939 the Security
Police and the S.D., which up to that time had been only an agency of the
S.S., were both combined in a single department: the Reich Security Main
Office, commonly referred to as R.S.H.A. An important point to be observed
is this: This newly created department, R.S.H.A., was not a mere department
of the Government. It was a dual thing. It was simultaneously an agency of
the Government, organisationally placed in the Ministry of the Interior,
and, at the same time, one of the principal departments of the S.S.,
organisationally placed in the Supreme Command of the S.S. This division in
the S.S. is shown by the chart before you, R.S.H.A. being indicated by the
sixth block from the left of the chart. But it was not merely the Gestapo
and Criminal Police which came under the sway of the S.S. The regular
uniformed police as well were affected. Like the R.S.H.A., the department
of the Regular Police, the Ordnungspolizei, was also not merely a
department in the Ministry of the Interior, but also simultaneously in the
Supreme
[Page 147]
Now this unity of command between S.S. and Police was not a mere matter of
the highest headquarters. It extended down to the operating level. The
Court will observe from the chart that the Higher S.S. and Police Leader in
each region, who was directly subordinate to Himmler, had under his command
both the Security Police, Sipo, and the regular uniformed police,
Ordnungspolizei; and also that these forces, Sipo and Orpo, were not only
under the command of the Higher S.S. and the Police Leader, but as
indicated by the blue line, were also under the command of the R.S.H.A.,
and the Department of the Ordnungspolizei and the S.S. Thus, you have
organisationally, a unity of command over the S.S. and the Police. This
organisation was not the only way by which unity was achieved. Unity of
personnel was also achieved. Vacancies occurring in the police forces were
filled by S.S. members. Police officials who were in the force were able to
join the S.S., and schools were operated by the S.S. for the police, as
well as for the S.S. officials.
These measures are described in Himmler's article " Organisation and
Obligations of the S.S. and the Police," our Document 1992-A-PS. They are
also described in an authoritative book on the Police, entitled, " The
German Police," the book published in 1940, written by Dr. Werner Best,
Ministerial Director in the Ministry of the Interior, and a department head
in the Security Police. It bears on its fly-leaf the imprimatur of the Nazi
Party, and the book is listed in the official list of National Socialist
bibliography. Chapter 7 from that book is our Document 1852-PS. I offer
this book in evidence as Exhibit USA 449.
Through this unity of organisation and personnel, the S.S. and the Police
became identified in structure and in activity. The resulting situation was
described in Best's book, which I have just offered in evidence, our
Document 1852-PS, as follows. I quote from Page 7 of that document,
paragraph 5 ; from the original book, Page 95, paragraph 3:
Control over the police was not enough. Potential sources of opposition
could be tracked down by.the S.D. Suspects could be seized by the Criminal
Police and the Gestapo, but these means alone would not assure the complete
suppression of all opponents and potential opponents of the regime. For
this purpose, concentration camps were invented. The evidence already
presented to the Tribunal has shown what the concentration camp system
[Page 148]
The first requirement for the camps was guard and administrative personnel.
Part-time volunteer members of the Allgerneine S.S. were originally
utilised as guards; but part-time volunteers could not adequately serve the
needs of the extensive, long-range programme that was planned. So beginning
in 1933 full-time professional guards units, the Death Head Units which I
have already described, were organised. During the war, members of the
General S.S. resumed the function of guarding camps, which they had
initially undertaken when the camps were created. The Tribunal will recall
the provisions of the Hitler order which I read a few moments ago,
directing the replacement of Death Head Units by General S.S. members in
the event of mobilisation. It is unnecessary to repeat the evidence of
wholesale brutality, torture and murder committed by S.S. guards. They were
not the sporadic crimes committed by irresponsible individuals, but a part
of a definite and calculated policy, a policy necessarily resulting from
S.S. philosophy, a policy which was carried out from the initial creation
of the camps.
Himmler bluntly stated the S.S. view as to the inmates of the camps in his
article, " Organisation and Obligations of the S.S. and the Police,"
Exhibit USA 439, our Document 1992-A-PS. I quote from Page 7 of the
translation, last paragraph; from Page 148 of the original, third
paragraph.
THE PRESIDENT: Did you say 439?
MAJOR FARR: It was Exhibit 439- It is our Document 1992-A-PS. I quote from
Page 7 of the translation, last paragraph:
[Page 149]
Certainly there was no " silly humanitarianism " in the manner in which
S.S. men performed their tasks. Just as an illustration, I should like to
examine their conduct, not in 1944 or 1945, but in 1933- 1 have four
reports, relating to the deaths of four different inmates of the
concentration camp Dachau between 16th and 27th May, 1933. Each report is
signed by the Public Prosecutor of the District Court in Munich and is
addressed to the Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court in Munich. These
four reports show that during that two-week period in 1933, at the time
when the concentration camps had barely started, S.S. men had murdered -- a
different guard each time -- an inmate of the camp.
Now, I do not want to take the time of the Tribunal to read that evidence
if it feels that it is a minor point. The significance of it is this: It is
just an illustration of the sort of thing that happened in the
concentration camps at the earliest possible date, in 1933. I am prepared
to offer those four reports in evidence and to quote from them, if the
Tribunal thinks that the point is not too insignificant.
THE PRESIDENT: Where are they?
MAJOR FARR: I have them here. I will offer them in evidence. The first is
our Document 641-PS. It is a report dated 1st June, 1933, and relates to
the death of Dr. Alfred Strauss, a prisoner in protective custody, in
Dachau. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit USA 450. I shall read a few
paragraphs from that report, beginning with paragraph one:
Kantschuster gives the following report: 'He himself had to urinate;
Strauss proceeded on his way. Suddenly Strauss broke away towards the
bushes located at a distance of about 6 m. from the line. When he
(Kantschuster) noticed it, he fired two shots at the fugitive from a
distance of about 8 m. ; whereupon Strauss collapsed dead.'
On the same day, 24th May, 1933, a judicial inspection of the locality
took place. The corpse of Strauss was lying at the edge of the wood.
Leather slippers were on his feet. He wore a sock on one foot, while
the other foot was bare, obviously because of an injury to it.
Subsequently an autopsy was performed. Two bullets had entered the
back of the head. Besides, the body showed several black and blue
spots and also open wounds." [Page 150]
The second report, a report dated 1st June, 1933, relates to the death of
Leonhard Hausmann, another prisoner in Dachau. It is our Document 642-PS,
and I offer it in evidence as Exhibit USA 451.
THE PRESIDENT: I do not think you need read the details.
MAJOR FARR: I will offer it without reading it.
The third report which I shall offer is dated 22nd May, 1933. It relates to
the death of Louis Schloss, an inmate of Dachau, and is our Document
644-PS. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit USA 452.
The fourth document, our Document 645-PS, dated ist June, 1933, relates to
the death of Sebastian Nefzger, 'another Dachau prisoner. I offer this in
evidence as Exhibit USA 453.
These four murders, committed within the short space of two weeks in the
spring of 1933, each by a different S.S. guard, are merely examples of S.S.
activities in the camps at that very early date. Many similar examples from
that period and later periods could be produced.
Indeed, that sort of thing was officially encouraged. I call the Tribunal's
attention to the Disciplinary Regulation for the Dachau Concentration Camp,
our Document 778-PS, which has already been introduced in evidence as
Exhibit USA 247- 1 want to read the fourth paragraph of the introduction to
those rules, a passage which was not read when the document was originally
introduced. The fourth paragraph on the first page of the translation and
of the original is as follows:
Furnishing guard and administrative personnel was not the only function of
the S.S. with relation to the camps. The entire internal management of the
camps, including the use of prisoners, their housing, clothing, sanitary
conditions, the determination of their very right to live and the disposal
of their remains, was controlled by the S.S. Such management was first
vested in the Leader of the S.S. Death Head Units who had the title of
Inspector of the Concentration Camps. This official was originally in the
S.S. Hauptamt-represented on the chart by the second box from the left.
During the course of the war -- in March 1942 -- Control of concentration
camps was transferred to another of the departments of the S.S. Supreme
[Page 151]
That change was announced in a letter to Himmler dated 3oth April, 1942,
from the Chief of W.V.H.A. The letter is our Document R-129 and it has
already been received in evidence as Exhibit USA 217. 1 shall not quote
from that letter now.
This shift of control to WN.H.A., the economic department of the S.S.,
coincided with a change in the basic purposes of the concentration camps.
Political and security reasons, which previously had been the ground for
confinement, were abandoned, and the camps were frankly made to serve the
slave-labour programme. The Tribunal will recall the evidence relating to
that programme which was presented last week by Mr. Dodd. I shall not deal
at any length with the matter again, except to summarise the principal
facts bearing on S.S. responsibility which were demonstrated by that
evidence.
To satisfy the increased demands for manpower it was not enough to work the
inmates of the camp harder. More inmates had to be obtained. The S.S.,
through its police arm, was prepared to satisfy this demand, as through the
W.N.H.A. it was prepared to work those who were already in the camp.
THE PRESIDENT: Have you got any figures you can give the Tribunal as to the
total numbers in the S.S. and the total numbers who were employed on
concentration camps ? If you gave us the total number of the S.S. and the
total number employed in concentration camps, we should see what the
proportion was.
MAJOR FARR: I think I can only give you the following figures. I earlier
quoted some figures from d'Alquen in his book published in 1939, in which
he said that the total strength of the General S.S. was about 240,000. That
is the General S.S., which was not at that time engaged in the guarding of
concentration camps. The Totenkopfverbiinde, the Death Head Units, at that
time, consisted of somethree or four regiments at the most. They were the
guards; so that of the personnel who were employed in actual guard duty
there were, in 1939, about three or four regiments.
The Court will recall that after the war had started, the TotenkopfverbInde
were no longer employed in that duty and that the members of the General
S.S. took it up. How many were employed is something that is difficult to
estimate. The concentration camp programme was constantly expanding and, of
course, as more camps were added more personnel was needed. I cannot give
the Tribunal the figures of the number of persons involved in guarding the
camps, but one of the matters I think significant is this: we have not only
guards, we have administrative personnel, we have the whole of the WN.H.A.
which, as I want to show by evidence, had complete control of the
management of the concentration camps. The members of the staff office,
WN.H.A., were derived from the General S.S. ; so you have on the one hand
the guard personnel, Death Head Units, up to 1939, and then you have after
1939 more guards from the Allgemeine S.S. You have, after 1939, more guards
from the General S.S. and also administrative personnel from W.V.H.A.
[Page 152]
Some conception of the number of persons who must have been engaged in the
activity may be gained from noting the number of persons involved in a
camp. I have a document, a report by W.V.H.A., in August 1944, which
reports the number of prisoners who were then on hand in the camps and the
recent arrivals who were expected. That document is our Document I I 66-PS,
which I will now offer in evidence as Exhibit USA 458.
THE PRESIDENT: I do not think we had better go into that to-night. What
will you be dealing with to-morrow ?
MAJOR FARR: To-morrow, Sir, I intend to offer evidence showing how.
W.V.H.A. and other S.S. personnel were involved in the control of every
phase of the concentration camp programme. That is the first thing. The
second thing is to point out the role that the S.S. played in the
persecution of the Jews and their extermination, not with a view to
repeating the substantive evidence to show that such acts took place, but
to show how many components, how many parts of the organisation were
involved in that programme.
Then I shall consider the role of the S.S. with respect to Preparations for
Aggressive War and the Crimes Against Peace-a relatively brief dis
cussion-and then pass on to the role that the S.S. played in War Crimes and
Crimes Against Humanity, set out in Counts 3 and 4 of the Indictment, and
finally, the role of the S.S. in the colonisation programme.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonisation ?
MAJ OR FARR: That may be an unfortunate word. Perhaps I should have said
Germanisation programme, a programme of resettlement, evacuation,
colonisation, and exploitation of the conquered territories.
Those, I think, are the four main functions of the S.S. which remain to be
considered, and I shall endeavour not to go again into substantive crimes
which have already been shown to the Tribunal, but to try to show how
almost every department-in fact, every de~artment of the S.S. and every
component-was involved in one or more, and mostly more, of these crimes.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal hopes that you will be able to confine yourself
to the reading of evidence which is not cumulative.
MAJOR FARR: I have that in mind and I do not intend to do anything more
than to show the figures and components of the S.S. which were involved in
various programmes.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 1000 hours on 20th December, 1945)
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(Part 8 of 8)
[MAJOR FARR continues]
"The ultimate aim for these 11 years during which I have been the
Reichsfuehrer S.S. has been invariably the same. To create an order of good
blood which is able to serve Germany, which unfailingly and without sparing
itself can be made use of because the greatest losses can do no harm to the
vitality of this order, the vitality of these men, because they will always
be replaced. To create an order which will spread the idea of Nordic blood
so far that we will attract all Nordic blood in the world, take away the
blood from our adversaries, absorb it so that never again, looking at it
from the viewpoint of the grand policy, Nordic blood in great quantities
and to an extent worth mentioning will fight against us. We must get it and
the others cannot have it. We never gave up the ideas and the aim,
conceived so many years ago. Everything we have done has taken us some
distance further on the way. Everything we are going to do will lead us
further on the way."
Now, one further quotation from the same document, which shows very
explicitly why there was the building up of this order of Nordic blood,
appears on Page 3 of the translation, the same document from which I have
just quoted, about the middle of the first paragraph. It appears on Page 11 of the original speech, about the middle of the page. That is the speech
to the officers of the S.S. Leibstandarte "Adolf Hitler."
"Please understand we would not be able to hold the great Germanic Reich
which is about to take shape. I am convinced that we can hold it, but we
have to prepare for that. If once we have not enough sons, those who come
after us will have to become cowards. A nation which
has an average of four sons per family can venture a war; if two of them
die, two transmit the name. The leadership of a nation having one or two
sons per family will have to be faint-hearted in any decision, on account
of their own experience because they will have to tell themselves: We
cannot afford it. Look at France, which is the best example. France had to
accept from us a dictate."
Domination of Europe through a Nazi elite required more, however, than a
positive side of racialism.
"One basic principle must be the absolute rule for the S.S. man. We must
be honest, decent, loyal, and comradely to members of our own blood and to
nobody else. What happens to a Russian, to a Czech, does not interest me in
the slightest."
The next few sentences from that same paragraph have already been read into
evidence, and I shall not repeat them. But I do want to quote, in the same
paragraph, the conclusion that Himmler draws from what he just said. This
sentence is about seven lines from the bottom of the paragraph, beginning:-
"That is what I want to instil into this S.S. and what I believe I have
instilled in them as- one of the most sacred laws of the future."
Now these principles-that is, the concepfion of being an elite which was to
take over Europe, and the conception of hatred toward inferior races, which
was instilled in the S.S.-these were principles which were publicly
reiterated over and over again so that the newest recruit was thoroughly
steeped in them.
"He openly and unrelentingly fights the most dangerous enemies of the
State: Jews, Freemasons, Jesuits, and political clergymen."
Now these were the fundamental principles of the S.S.: racial superiority
and blind obedience. A necessary corollary of these two principles was
ruthlessness. The evidence that we will introduce on these activities will
show how successfully the S.S. learned the lesson it was taught.
"I know that there are some people in Germany who become sick
[Page 144]
when they see these black coats. We understand the reason for this and do
not expect that we shall be loved by too many."
"Referring again to the matter which we discussed some time agothat is,
the admission of Sipo officials into the S.S.-I wish to clarify again: I
want an admission only if the following conditions are fulfilled:
Then, continuing with the third paragraph:
"I beg not only that you will act accordingly in the future, but
especially also that numerous admissions into the ranks of the S.S. in the
past be re-examined and revised according to these instructions."
Now I have appended this, to indicate to the Tribunal the normal manner in
which a man became a member of the S.S. This is discussed by Himmler in our
Document 1992-A-PS, at Page 142 of the original, and Page 5 Of the
translation. If the Court thinks that it can take judicial notice of that
passage, I shall not trouble to read it. What it does is to describe how a
young man comes into the S.S. normally, at the age of 18, serves an appren
ticeship and receives his instructions in S.S. ideology, takes the S.S.
oath, receives the S.S dagger, and how long he remains in the General S.S.
I will not trouble to read that paragraph, since I assume that the Court
will take judicial notice of it.
The Oath of the S.S. Man:
I turn now to a consideration of the activities of the S.S., the manner in
which it carried out the purposes of the conspirators and performed its
function of guarding the internal security of the Nazi regime. The proof of
the elite Nazi quality and thorough reliability of the S.S.-the test by
which it won its spurs--occurred on the 30th of June, 1934, when it participated in the purge of the S.A. and other opponents or potential opponents
of the Nazi regime. That was the first real occasion for the use of this
"Many people were killed -- I do not know how many -- who actually did
not have anything to do with the 'putsch.' People who just were not
liked very well, as for instance, Schleicher, the former Reich
Chancellor, were killed. Schleicher's wife was also killed, as was
Gregor Strasser, who had been the Reich Organisation Leader and second
man in the Party after Hitler. Strasser, at the time he was murdered,
was not active in political affairs any more. However, he had
separated himself from the Fuehrer in November or December of 1932.
The S.S. was used by Himmler for the execution of these orders to
suppress the 'putsch'."
It was in recognition of its services in this respect that the S.S. was
raised to the status of a component of the Party equal in rank to the S.A.,
and other similar ranking. I ask the Court to take judicial notice of a
passage which appears on Page i of the V614scher Beobachter of z6th July,
1934- It is our Document 1857-PS, Exhibit USA 412. 1 shall read the
translation of that passage, which is very brief:
"The Reich Press Office announces the following Order of the Fuehrer.
In consideration of the greatly meritorious service of the S.S.,
especially in connection with the events Of 3oth June, 1934, 1 raise
it to the standing of an independent Organisation within the
N.S.D.A.P. The Reiclisfuehrer S.S., like the Chief of Staff, is,
therefore, directly subordinate to the highest S.A. leader."
By its action on 30th June, the S.S. proved itself. It was, therefore, the
type of Organisation which the conspirators wanted for the first necessary
step in their programme, the acquisition of control over the police,
because one of the first steps essential to the security of any regime is
control of the police. The aim of the conspirators was to fuse the S.S. and
the police, to merge them into a single, unified repressive force.
"By means of the nomination of the Reichsfuehrer S.S. and Chief of the
German Police in the Ministry of the Interior on June 17th, 1936,
(Reichsgesetzblatt I, Page 487), 1 have created the basis for the
unification and reorganisation of the German Police. With this step,
the Schutzstaffeln of the N.S.D.A.P., which have been under the Reichs
fuehrer S.S. and Chief of the German Police up to now, have entered
into close connection with the duties of the German Police."
Upon his appointment, Himmler immediately proceeded to reorganise the
entire police force, designating two separate branches. (i) The regular
uniformed police force (Ordnungspolizei or Orpo as they were called by
their abbreviated title) ; and (2) the so-called Security Police, or as
they became to be known by their abbreviated title Sipo. The Security
Police was composed of all the Criminal Police in the Reich and all the
Gestapo. This reorganisation was achieved by the decree assigning functions
to the Office of the Chief of the German Police, published in the
Reichsministerialblatt for 1936, Pages 946-948, our Document 155I-PS- Of
that decree I assume the Court will take judicial notice.
"Thus the S.S. and the Police form one unit, both in their structure
and in their activity, although their individual organisations have
not lost their true individuality and their position in the larger
units of the Party and State administration which are concerned with
other points of view."
Through the Police, the S.S. was in a position to carry out a large part of
the functions assigned to it. The working partnership between the Gestapo,
the Criminal Police and the S.D. under the direction of the Reichsfuehrer
S.S. resulted in the end in repressive and unrestrained police activity.
That will be dealt with in the case against the Gestapo. In considering
that evidence, the Tribunal will bear in mind that the Police activities
there shown were one aspect of S.S. functions, one part of the whole
criminal S.S. scheme. I shall not, therefore, consider here evidence
relating strictly to the police functions of the S.S.
"It would be extremely instructive for everyone-some members of the
Wehrmacht had already been able to do so-to inspect such a
concentration camp. Once they have seen it, they are convinced of the
fact that no one has been sent there unjustly ; that it is the offal
of criminals and freaks. No better demonstration of the laws of in
heritance and race, as set forth by Doctor Guett, exists than such a
concentration camp. There you can find people with hydrocephalus,
people who are cross-eyed, deformed, half-Jewish, and a number of
racially inferior products. All that is assembled there. Of course, we
distinguish between those inmates who are only there for a few months
for the purpose of education, and those who are to stay for a very
long time. On the whole, education consists of discipline, never of
any kind of instruction on an ideological basis, for the prisoners
have, for the most part, slave-like souls; and only very few people of
real character can be found there."
Then, omitting the next two sentences, he continues with this striking
remark:
"The discipline thus means order. The order begins with these people
living in clean barracks. Such a thing can really only be accomplished
by us Germans, hardly another nation would be as human as we are. The
laundry is frequently changed. The people are taught to wash
themselves twice daily, and to use a toothbrush, a thing with which
most of them have been unfamiliar."
Having heard the evidence and seen the pictures as to conditions in
concentration camps, this Tribunal can appreciate how grim and savage that
"I do not believe the Communists could attempt any action, for their
leading elements, like most criminals, are in our concentration camps.
And here I must say this: that we shall bp able to see after the war
what a blessing it was for Germany that, in spite of all the silly
talk about humanitarianism, we imprisoned all this criminal sub
stratum of the German people in concentration camps. I will answer for
that."
But he is not here to answer.
"On 24th May, 1933, the 30-year-old, single, attomey-at-law, Dr.
Alfred Strauss from Munich, who was in the concentration camp Dachau
as a prisoner under protective custody, was killed by two pistol shots
from S.S. man Johann Kantschuster who escorted him on a walk
prescribed to him by the camp doctor, outside the fence part of the
camp.
"I have charged Kantschuster to-day with murder and have made
application for the opening and execution of a judicial preliminary
investigation as well as for the issuance of a warrant of arrest
against him."
That is the first of the four reports. The significance is that you have
four murders one after the other, committed within a short space of time,
and in each instance, an official report by the camp commander or the guard
as to the cause of death, which was completely disproved by the facts.
"Tolerance means weakness. In the light of this conception, punishment
will be mercilessly handed out whenever the interests of the
Fatherland warrant it. The fellow countryman who is decent but misled
will never be affected by these regulations. But let it be a warning
to the agitating politicians and intellectuals, regardless of which
kind: Be on guard not to be caught, for otherwise it will be your neck
and you will be hoist with your own petard."
Those regulations were issued in 1933 by S.S.-Fuehrer Eich, who, it is to
be noted, was the Commandant of the S.S.-Totenkopfverbinde.