The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

The Trial of German Major War Criminals

Sitting at Nuremberg, Germany
7th January to 19th January, 1946

Thirty-First Day: Thursday, January 10th, 1946
(Part 4 of 10)


[LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BALDWIN continues]

[Page 149]

Kruger went on to mention that there was a great deal of unrest in the territory as a result, and Frank informed him, that is, Kruger, that each individual case of resettlement would be discussed in the future exactly as that of Zamosc had been.

Although the illegality of this dispossession of Poles to make room for Germans was evident, and although the fact that the Poles who were not only being dispossessed but sent off to concentration camps, became increasingly difficult to handle, the resettlement projects continued in the Government General.

The third item mentioned by Frank-the encroachments and confiscations of industry and private property-was again an early Frank policy. He explained this to his department heads in December, 1939. The report is from his diary and is our Document 2233-PS-K and it appears at Page 40 in the document book. I now offer it in evidence as Exhibit USA 173. The German text appears in the Department Heads Conference Volume for 1939-40 at the entry for 2nd December, 1939, at Pages 2 and 3. Defendant Frank states:

"Principally it can be said regarding the administration of the Government General: This territory in its entirety is booty of the German Reich, and it thus cannot be permitted that this territory shall be exploited in its individual parts, but that the territory in its entirety shall be economically used and its entire economic worth redound to the benefit of the German people."
Reference is made to Exhibit USA 297, if any further support of an early policy of ruthless exploitation is deemed necessary by the Tribunal. In addition, the decree permitting sequestration in the Government General, heretofore pointed out to the Tribunal (Verordnungsblatt fur das General-Gouvernement No. 6, 27th January, 1940, Page 23), which decree was signed by the defendant Frank, permitted and empowered the Nazi officials to engage in wholesale seizure of property. This was made the easier by the undefined criteria of the decree. The looting of the Government General under this and other decrees has already been presented to the Tribunal on 14th December, 1945, under the subject heading "Germanisation and Spoliation of Occupied Territories," and the Tribunal is respectfully referred to that portion of the record and, in particular, to that segment dealing with the Government General.

The defendant Frank mentioned mass arrests and mass shootings and the application of collective responsibility as the fourth reason for the apparent deterioration of the attitude of the entire Polish people. In this, too, he is to blame, for it was no part of defendant Frank's policy that reprisal should be commensurate with the gravity of the offence. He was, on the contrary, an advocate of the most drastic measures. At a conference of District Political Leaders at Cracow, on 18th March, 1942, Frank stated his policy. This extract

[Page 150]

is from his diary, and is our Document 2233-PS-R, and will be found at Page 49 in the document book. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit USA 608. The German text may be found in the volume for 1942, of the diary, Part 1, Pages 195 and 196. I quote Frank's statement:
"Incidentally, the struggle for the achievement of our aims will be pursued cold-bloodedly. You see how the State agencies work. You see that we do not hesitate at anything, and put dozens of people against the wall. This is necessary because here simple consideration says that it cannot be our task at this period, when the best German blood is being sacrificed, to show regard for the blood of another race. For out of that, one of the greatest dangers might arise. One already hears to-day in Germany that prisoners of war, for instance, in Bavaria or Thuringia, are administering large estates entirely independently, while all the men in a village fit for service are at the front. If this state of affairs continues, then a gradual retrogression of Germanism will show itself. One should not underestimate this danger. Therefore, everything revealing itself as a Polish power of leadership must be destroyed again and again with ruthless energy. This does not have to be shouted abroad; it will happen silently."
And on 15th January, 1944, defendant Frank assured the political leaders of the N.S.D.A.P. that reprisals would be made for German deaths. These remarks are to be found in the "Frank Diary," in our Document 2233-PS-BB, at Page 60 in the document book, the second quotation on that page, the original of which I offer in evidence as Exhibit USA 295. The German text appears in the loose-leaf volume of the diary covering the period from 1st January, 1944, to 28th February, 1944, and appears at Page 13. Frank says quite simply:
"I have not been hesitant in declaring that when a German is shot, up to 100 Poles shall be shot, too."
The whole tragic history of slave labour and recruitment of workers has been placed before this Tribunal in great detail. When the defendant Frank refers to these methods as his fifth reason for disaffection in Poland, in his report to Hitler, he once more cites policies which he executed. Force, violence, and economic duress were all supported by him as means for recruiting labourers for deportation to slavery in Germany. This was an announced policy, and I have already alluded to Exhibit USA 297, which contains verification of this fact.

While, in the very beginning, recruitment of labourers in the Government General may have been voluntary, these methods soon proved inadequate. In the spring of 1940 the question of utilising force came up, and the matter was discussed at an official meeting at which the defendant Seyss-Inquart was also present. I refer to the "Frank Diary" and our Document 2233-PS-N, which the Tribunal will find at Page 43 in the document book. I offer the original in evidence as Exhibit USA 614. The German text appears in the volume of the diary for 1940, Part 11, at Page 333. I quote the conference report:

"The Governor General stated that the fact that all means in the shape of proclamations, etc., did not bring success, leads to the conclusion that the Poles, out of malevolence and guided by the intention of harming Germany by not putting themselves at its disposal, refuse to enlist for working duty. Therefore, he asks Dr. Frauendorfer if there are any other measures not as yet employed to win the Poles on a voluntary basis.

Reichshauptamtsleiter Dr. Frauendorfer answered the question in the negative.

The Governor General emphasised the fact that he will now be asked to take a definite attitude towards this question. Therefore, the question will arise whether any form of coercive measures should now be employed.

[Page 151]

The question put by the Governor General to S.S. Lieutenant-General Kruger: Does he see the possibilities of calling Polish workers by coercive means, is answered by Kruger in the affirmative."
In May, 1940, at an official conference - and this record is already before the Tribunal as Exhibit USA 173 - defendant Frank stated that compulsion in recruitment of labour could be exercised, that Poles could be snatched from the streets, and that the best method would be organised raids.

As in the case of persecution of the Jews, the forced labour programme in the Government General is almost beyond belief. I refer to the "Frank Diary" and to our Document 2233-PS-W, which will be found at Page 53 in the document book, the original of which I offer in evidence as Exhibit USA 607. This excerpt is a record, if the Court please, of a discussion between the defendant Sauckel and the defendant Frank at Cracow on 18th August, 1942, and it appears in the 1942 volume of the diary, Part III, at Pages 918 and 920. Frank speaks:

"I am pleased to report to you officially, Party Comrade Sauckel, that we have up to now supplied 800,000 workers for the Reich."
He continues:
"Recently you have requested us to supply a further 140,000. I have pleasure in informing you officially that in accordance with our agreement of yesterday, 60 per cent. of the newly requested workers will be supplied to the Reich by the end of October and the balance of 40 per cent. by the end of the year."
Frank continues:
"Beyond the present figure of 140,000 you can, however, next year reckon upon a higher number of workers from the Government General. For we shall employ the police to conscript them."
How this recruitment was carried out - by wild and ruthless manhunts - is clearly shown in Exhibit USA 178, which is in evidence before the Tribunal. Starvation, violence and death, which characterised the entire slave labour programme of the conspirators, was thus faithfully reflected in the administration of the defendant Frank.

There were, of course, other grounds for uneasiness in Occupied Poland, which the defendant Frank did not mention in his report to Hitler. He does not mention the concentration camps, perhaps because, as a representative jurist of National Socialism, the defendant Frank had himself defended the system in Germany. As Governor General the defendant Frank must be held responsible for all concentration camps within the boundaries of the Government General. These include, among others, the notorious camp at Maidenek and the one at Lublin. As indicated previously, the defendant Frank knew and approved that Poles were to be taken to concentration camps in connection with resettlement projects. He had certain jurisdiction as well in relation to the extermination camp Auschwitz, to which Poles from the Government General were committed by his administration. In February, 1944, Ambassador Counsellor Dr. Schumberg suggested a possible amnesty of Poles who had been taken to Auschwitz for trivial offences and kept there for several months. This, if the Court please, is reported in the "Frank Diary" and is contained in our Document 2233-PS-BB, at Page 60 of the document book. It is the third quotation on that page. I offer the original in evidence as Exhibit USA 295.

THE PRESIDENT: You go too fast. Did you say Page 70?

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BALDWIN: Page 60, Sir. The German text appears in the loose-leaf volume covering the period 1st January, 1944, to 28th February, 1944, at the conference on 8th February, 1944, on Page 7. I quote:

"The Governor General will take under consideration an amnesty, probably for 1st May of this year. Nevertheless, one must not lose

[Page 152]

sight of the fact that the German leadership of the Government General must not now show any sign of weakness."
This, was, and is, the conspirator Hans Frank. The evidence is by no means exhausted, but it is our belief that sufficient proof has been given to this Tribunal to establish his liability under Count I of the Indictment.

As legal adviser of Hitler and the Leadership Corps of the N.S.D.A.P., defendant Frank promoted the conspirators' rise to power. In his various juridical capacities, both in the N.S.D.A.P. and in the German Government, Frank certainly advocated and promoted the political monopoly of the N.S.D.A.P., the racial programme of the conspirators, the terror systems of the concentration camps, and arrests without warrant. His role, early in the Common Plan, was to realise "the National Socialist Programme in the realm of law," and to give the outward form of legality to this programme of terror, persecution and oppression which had as its ultimate purpose mobilisation for aggressive war.

As a loyal adherent of Hitler and the N.S.D.A.P., defendant Frank was appointed Governor General in 1939 of that area of Poland known as the Government General. Frank had defined justice as that which benefited the German nation. His five years' administration of the Government General illustrates the most extreme extension of that principle.

It has been shown that defendant Frank took the office of Governor General under a programme that constituted in itself a criminal plan or conspiracy, as defendant Frank well knew and approved, to exploit the territory ruthlessly, for the benefit of Nazi Germany, to conscript its nationals for labour in Germany, to close its schools and colleges, to prevent the rise of a Polish intelligentsia, and to administer the territory as a colonial possession of the Third Reich, in total disregard of the duties of an occupying power towards the inhabitants of occupied territory.

Under defendant Frank's administration, this criminal plan was consummated, but the execution went even beyond the plan. Food contributions to Germany increased to the point where the bare subsistence reserved for the Government General under the plan was reduced to a level of mass starvation. The savage programme of exterminating Jews was relentlessly executed. Resettlement projects were carried out with reckless disregard of the rights of the local population, and the terror of the concentration camp followed in the wake of the Nazi invaders.

This statement of evidence has been compiled in large part from statements by the defendant Frank himself, from the admissions found in his diary, official reports, reports of conferences with his colleagues and subordinates, and his speeches. It is, therefore, appropriate that a passage from his diary should be quoted in conclusion. It is our Document 2233-PS-AA. It appears at Page 59 of the document book. I offer the original in evidence as Exhibit USA 613. The German text appears in the 1943 volume of Labour Conference Meetings at the 25th January, 1943, entry on Page 53. In his address, defendant Frank, prophetically enough, told his colleagues in the Government General that their task would grow more difficult. Hitler, he said, could only help them as a kind of "administrative hedge-hog." They must depend on themselves. I quote Frank:

"We are now duty bound to hold together. We must remember that we who are gathered together here figure on Mr. Roosevelt's list of war criminals. I have the honour of being Number One. We have, so to speak, become accomplices in the world historic sense."
This concludes the presentation on the defendant Frank.

May it please the Tribunal, Lieutenant-Colonel Griffith- Jones of the British delegation will now deal with the individual responsibility of the defendant Streicher.

[Page 153]

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GRIFFITH-JONES: If the Tribunal please, it is my duty to present the case against the defendant Julius Streicher.

Appendix A of the Indictment, that paragraph of the Appendix relating to Streicher, sets out the positions which he held and which I shall prove. It then goes on to allege that he used those positions and his personal influence and his close connection with the Fuehrer in such a manner that he promoted the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators and the consolidation of their control over Germany, as set forth in Count 1 of the Indictment; that he authorised, directed and participated in the Crimes against Humanity, set forth in Count 4 of the Indictment, including particularly the incitement of the persecution of the Jews, set forth in Count 1 and Count 4 of the Indictment.

My Lord, the case against this defendant can be, perhaps, described by the unofficial title that he assumed for himself as "Jew-baiter Number One." It is the prosecution's case that for the course of some twenty-five years, this man educated the whole of the German people in hatred, and that he incited them to the persecution and to the extermination of the Jewish race. He was an accessory to murder, perhaps on a scale never attained before.

With the Tribunal's permission, I propose to prove quite shortly the position and influence that he held, and then to refer the Tribunal to several short extracts from his newspapers and from his speeches, and finally to outline the part that he played in the particular persecutions against the Jews that occurred between the years 1933 and 1945.

My Lord, perhaps, before I start on that, I might say that the document book before the members of the Tribunal is arranged in the order in which I intend to refer to the documents. They are paged, and there is an index at the beginning of the book, and if the Tribunal have got what is called the Trial Brief, it is in effect a note of the evidence to which I shall refer, and again in the order in which I shall refer to it, which may be of some assistance.

My Lord, this defendant was born in 1885. He became a school teacher in Nuremberg and formed a party of his own, which he called the German Socialist Party. The chief policy of that Party, again, was anti-Semitism. In 1922 he handed over his Party to Hitler, and there is a glowing account of his generosity which appears in Hitler's "Mein Kampf," which I do not think it worth occupying the time of the Tribunal in reading. It appears as M-3, and is the first document in the Tribunal's document book. The copy of "Mein Kampf" is already before the Tribunal as Exhibit GB 128.

The appointments that he held in the Party and State were few. From 1921 until 1945, he was a member of the Nazi Party. In 1925 he was appointed Gauleiter of Franconia and he remained as such until about February of 1940, and from the time that the Nazi Government came into power in 1933 until 1945 he was a member of the Reichstag. In addition to that, he held the title of Obergruppenfuehrer in the S.A. All that information appears in Document 2975-PS, which is already in evidence as Exhibit USA 9, and is the affidavit that he made himself.

The propaganda that he carried out throughout those years was chiefly done through the medium of his newspapers. He was the editor and publisher of the journal "Der Sturmer" from 1922 until 1933, and thereafter, the publisher and owner of the paper.

In 1933 he also founded and thereafter, I think, published - certainly was responsible for the daily newspaper called the "Frankische Tageszeitung."

There were, in addition to that, and particularly later, several others, mostly local journals, which he published from Nuremberg.

Those are the positions that he held, and now if I may, I shall quite briefly trace the course of his incitement and propaganda, more or less in chronological order, by referring the Tribunal to the short extracts. I would say this: These extracts are really selected at random. They are selected with a view to showing the

[Page 154]

Tribunal the various methods that he employed to incite the people against the Jewish race, but his newspapers were crowded with them, week after week, day after day. It is impossible to pick up any copy without finding the same kind of stuff in the headlines and in the articles.


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