Fifty-Third Day: Thursday, 7th February, 1946
[Page 154]
I turn then to the part which he played in the actual
planning and preparation for aggressive war. We find that as
early as in 1932 he was concerned with the rearmament and
reorganisation of the Air Force. The Tribunal will remember
a document, 1143-PS, Exhibit USA 40, dated 20th October,
1932, which showed that a report on the preparation of
material and the training of air personnel to provide for
the armament of the Air Force was sent to Hess by
Rosenberg's chief of staff. That document, for reference,
appears on Page 43 of the Tribunal's document book.
That was in 1932. Throughout the years we find him connected
with the rearmament of the German Armed Forces. On 16th
March, 1935, it was Hess who signed the decree for the
introduction of compulsory military service. On 11th
October, 1936, in a speech that he made, he took up
Goering's cry of "Guns before Butter," when he said:
That document is 104-M. It becomes Exhibit GB 260 and will
be found on Page 14 of the Tribunal's document book.
In May, 1941, he was making a speech at the Messerschmidt
Works, of which occasion the Tribunal has already a
photograph before it. It was one of those four photographs
we were looking at a moment ago. He said then:
One of the most important parts that this defendant took in
the preparation for aggressive war was his organisation of
the famous German Fifth Column. He was the responsible
person, as Deputy of the Fuehrer, of the
Auslandsorganisation of the Party -- that is to say, the
Foreign Organisation of the Party. A history of that
organisation, a very brief history, will be found in an
American State publication, 3258-PS. It becomes Exhibit GB
262. It is on Page 147 of the document book.
I would only mention now two matters. In October, 1933, that
organisation was placed directly under Hess's control, and a
year later it was Hess himself who gave it its present name
of the Auslandsorganisation.
For the convenience again of the Tribunal, a chart is set
out in the organisation book for 1938, which is 2354-PS,
Exhibit USA 430, and is on Page 69 of the Tribunal's
document book, and I think it is unnecessary to refer to it
now in detail. It had the various offices, Civil Service
offices, cultural offices, Press and propaganda offices,
labour front offices, and the foreign trade offices, the
various offices dealing with the German merchant marine,
which afforded, of course, an excellent medium for spreading
Nazi propaganda to every port through the world.
The Tribunal has heard a good deal about a somewhat similar
organisation of Rosenberg's, the A.P.A. Very briefly and in
a word, I think the distinction between the two can be said
to be that the A.P.A. was concerned with the enrollment and
propaganda for non-Germans, for foreigners, whereas the
Auslandsorganisation was concerned with Germans living
abroad, who, of course, were to form the basis of Fifth
Column activities in future years.
[Page 155]
I think the Tribunal will see that there are set out, under
the heading "Scope of the Organisation's Work," two
documents. I think that perhaps it is sufficient to refer to
the first of them now, 3401-PS, which becomes Exhibit GB
263, and which the Tribunal will find on Page 173 of that
document book.
That is an article from the "Voelkischer Beobachter," which
begins by saying, "National Socialism is a philosophy which
takes hold of our fellow Germans, and strengthens them in
holding fast to the German nature and customs," and then
goes on to say that the place for the practical application
of that policy and principle is the foreign organisation of
the N.S.D.A.P., which is directly subordinated to the Deputy
of the Fuehrer, Hess. I quote the last three lines of that
paragraph.
Two of the other various organisations which were run by the
Foreign Organisation were known as the National League for
Germanity Abroad, the V.D.A., and the German Eastern League,
the B.D.O.
I would refer the Tribunal to a document which they will
find on Page 38 of the document book. It is 837-PS, which
becomes Exhibit GB 265. That is a letter, which it will be
seen on the next page is signed by Hess, dated 3rd February,
1939. It is a circular order -- "Not for publication." The
subject is the National League of Germans Abroad and the
German Eastern League. I quote from the first paragraph:
[Page 156]
Hess is seen to be participating in the preparations to
occupy Austria from the very beginning. In the autumn of
1934, it was he that appointed Reinthaler as leader of the
Austrian Peasants in the Nazi Party in Austria, after the
failure of the July, 1934, rising. That has already been
given in evidence: Document 812-PS, Exhibit USA 61, and the
relevant passage was read into the transcript (Part I, Page
227).
Another document that has already been put in evidence, 3254-
PS Exhibit USA 704, is Seyss-Inquart's statement of 10th
December, 1945, when he mentions that he held meetings with
Goering and Hess in 1936.
On the morning that the German troops eventually marched
into Austria, 12th March, 1938, Hess and Himmler, together,
were the first of the leaders of the German Government to
appear in Vienna, and they were there by midday on that day.
It was Hess who signed the law of the 13th March, the next
day, for the reunion of Austria with the German Reich, and
the Tribunal will, no doubt, remember the occasion, which
was described fully by Mr. Alderman, of the shocking
celebrations which were held in anniversary of the murder of
Dollfuss, the celebrations being held on 24th July, 1938,
when the highlight of the occasion was a speech by Hess.
I would refer the Tribunal to a document which appears on
Page 165 of the document book, which throws some light, in
his own words, both on his activity as far as Austria was
concerned and also with Czechoslovakia. This was a speech he
made on 28th August, 1938, at the annual meeting of the
Foreign Organisation. It is 3258-PS. It is already in as
Exhibit GB 262. I quote from the last three paragraphs on
Page 165 of the document book:
[Page 157]
And then on the next page, 166, where he turns to discuss
the struggle of the Sudetenland:
I would refer the Tribunal to one short document on Page 120
of the document book, on which begins another speech by the
defendant, a speech he made on the 7th November, 1938, on
the occasion of the initiation of the Sudeten German Party
into the N.S.D.A.P.:
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(Part 15 of 18)
[LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES continues]
"We are prepared in the future, too, if need be, at
times to eat a little less fat, a little less pork, a
few eggs, since we know that this little sacrifice is a
sacrifice on the altar of the freedom of our people. We
know that the foreign exchange which we thereby save,
expedites the output of armaments."
The phrase still holds good to-day -- guns instead of
butter.
"The German soldier must understand that for the
uniqueness and abundance of his weapons and his
material, he has to thank the untiring efforts of Adolf
Hitler over many years."
A report of that speech appears in the "Voelkischer
Beobachter" on the 2nd May, 1941. It is 105-M and becomes
Exhibit GB 261. It is on Page 15 of the Tribunal's document
book.
"The work of the Foreign Organisation is literally
extended over the entire earth, and the following
slogan could, with full justice, be displayed in its
workrooms in Hamburg 'My field is the world.' The whole
Foreign Organisation, under the leadership of Gauleiter
Bohle, who is aided by a large staff of experts and
qualified co-workers, to-day includes over 350 national
groups and cells of the N.S.D.A.P. in all parts of the
world, and in addition to this, it looks after a large
number of individual Party comrades in widely scattered
places."
My Lord, in view of the time I will not refer to any further
documents about the activity and the scope of that
organisation. They will be found as set out in the following
document, 3258-PS, which is at Page 150 of the document
book. I beg your pardon, that is Exhibit GB 262 already in
evidence. There is another extract from the British "Basic
Handbook on Germany," which is in the addendum to the
document book. It is not, I think, actually put into the
Tribunal's brief. It appears as Document 122-M, and becomes
Exhibit GB 264.
"The Director of the Agency for Racial Germans, S.S.
Gruppenfuehrer Lorenz" ...
The Agency for Racial Germans, which was the Volksdeutsche
Mittelstelle, was another similar foreign organisation, but
one run by Himmler and the SS. All these gentlemen appear to
have had their own foreign organisations. No doubt they were
all engaged for the same purpose. Himmler's was called the
Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle. I quote again:
"The director for that agency has instigated on my
behalf the following new ruling for questions affecting
racial work and work in the border country. The
National League for Germans Abroad, the V.D.A., is the
association responsible for national work beyond the
frontiers."
I go down to the last two lines of that paragraph:
"The V.D.A. is organised into State associations which
correspond in area to the Gaue of the N.S.D.A.P."
And the first two lines of the next paragraph:
"The German Eastern League, the B.D.O., is the
association responsible for work in the border
country."
I turn to the next page, Paragraph 4 of that letter, No. 4:
"The V.D.A. is solely responsible for racial work
beyond the frontiers. I hereby forbid the Party, its
organisations and affiliated associations
from all racial work abroad. The only competent body
for this task is the agency for racial Germans and the
V.D.A. as its camouflaged tool. Within the Reich, the
V.D.A., generally speaking, is responsible only for
providing the means for racial work beyond the
frontiers. In this task V.D.A. must be supported in
every way by the Party offices. Any outward appearance
of connection with the Party is, however, to be
avoided."
Then it goes on to set up the activity of the B.D.O. and in
the last paragraph:
"The activity of the V.D.A. and the B.D.O. is to be
supported in every way by the Party offices. The
National Socialist leaders of both associations will
assure energetic co-operation, on their part, in all
tasks assigned to them by the N.S.D.A.P. Their nature
is determined by considerations of foreign policy and
the associations must bear this in mind when
representing them in public."
Now I come to the activity, therefore, of the Foreign
Organisation, which, as I say, was the basis of the Fifth
Column movement when war eventually broke out. I pass, then,
to consideration of Hess's part in the preliminary
occupations of Austria and Czechoslovakia, which led up to
the aggressive wars themselves.
"At the close of his talk Rudolf Hess recalls the days,
last year, in Stuttgart, when German men and women,
German boys and girls in their native costumes appeared
here in Stuttgart aglow with enthusiasm for the ideal
of Greater Germany, passionately moved by National
Socialism, but nevertheless outwardly 'Volksdeutsche'
Germans of foreign citizenship.
'To-day,' Rudolf Hess continued, 'they also stand
openly in our ranks. Proudly and happily they will
march in the formation of the National Socialist
movement past their Fuehrer in Nuremberg, this time
with German citizens. With all our hearts we rejoice as
we see them. They have fought a long and tough battle,
a battle against a treacherous and mendacious enemy'" -
--and so on.
"The German people look at the German racial comrades
in Czechoslovakia with the profoundest sympathy for
their suffering. No one in the world who loves his own
people and is proud of his own people will find fault
with us if from this place here we also turn our
thoughts to the Sudeten Germans. If we say to them
that, filled with admiration, we see how they are
maintaining an iron discipline, despite the worst
chicanery, despite terror and murder, if it had in
general required a proof---"
I don't think, perhaps, it is necessary for me to read any
more of that document, but it shows, as I say, his interest
in Czechoslovakia. By Document 3061-PS, which has already
been put in as Exhibit USA 126, it has been shown that
during the summer of 1938 -- that speech was made in August,
1938 -- continuous conversations were being held between
Henlein and Hitler, Hess and Ribbentrop, informing the Reich
Government of the general situation in Czechoslovakia. That
document has been read into the transcript (Part 2, Page 107
et seq.), but if anything condemns Hess as participating in
this action, it is a letter dated the 27th September, 1938,
which was a letter, it will be remembered, that the Tribunal
has already had before it. It was written by Keitel to Hess,
asking for the Party's participation in the secret
mobilisation, which was intended to take place without even
issuing the code word for mobilisation. It was on the 27th
September, 1938, that that letter was written. It is 388-PS,
and has been put in as Exhibit USA 26, and it appears on
Page 30 of the Tribunal's document book.
"If we had had to defend our rights, then they would
have really got to know us, we, the National Socialist
Germans. The Fuehrer," he declared amidst the ringing
cheers of the masses, "learned his lessons. He armed at
a speed that no one would have believed possible. When
the Fuehrer has gained the power and, especially, since
the Fuehrer has awakened the will of the German people
to put their strength behind their rights, then
Germany's right will be conceded!"
One might wonder what all those rights were at that time,
November, 1938, when already Hitler had said on the 26th of
September that he had no more territorial demands to make in
Europe, at any rate.