The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

Fifty-Fourth Day: Friday, 8th February, 1946
(Part 20 of 22)


COLONEL Y. V. POKROVSKY: Mr. President. The opening statements of the Chief Prosecutors have enlightened us as to how Fascist Germany pursued the ideological preparation for aggressive war.

The connection between Hitlerite propaganda and acts of aggression against peace was also revealed in the statement of the U.S.S.R. chief of counsel. Therefore, may I be allowed to quote just one short extract from Horst von Metzsch's book entitled "Krieg als Saat" (War as Seed), which was published in Breslau in 1934. It reads as follows:

"It is impossible to conceive of the National Socialist movement without war: German martial glory is its father; its finest musketeer is its leader; and war's hardy spirit is its soul."
That is not just a phrase dropped by a garrulous Fascist penman; that is a programme which is blurted out. War, and only war, was considered by the Hitlerite conspirators as the most effective means of attaining the objectives of their foreign policy. It is, therefore, only natural that Germany was turned into an armed camp and became a constant menace to her neighbours after the Fascists had seized power in the country.

The East was the first objective of the Fascist conspirators.

I am now going to quote a passage from "Mein Kampf." This passage can be found in Volume I, Page 1, of the document book now being handed to the Tribunal, and is marked in red. Hitler wrote, as far back as 1930, in "Mein Kampf":

"The movement Eastwards is continuing, even though Russia must be erased from the list of European powers." (Page 732 of "Mein Kampf," 1930 edition).
Hypocritically proclaiming her love of peace and giving her neighbours assurances of her intention to live in peace with them, Hitlerite Germany merely strove to conceal her real, her ever-present aggressive intentions.

The conspirators gladly concluded any agreement on arbitration, non- aggression, etc. They did it, not because they were really striving for peace, but with the sole intention of waiting for a suitable moment to strike the next treacherous blow and of lulling to the nations of the world into a sense of false security. Having committed one of their scheduled aggressive acts, they strove with still greater energy to convince everybody that from now on they had no further aggressive plans. A combination of hypocrisy and fraud, of treason and aggression, ruled the entire system of German foreign policy.

With incredible insolence the Fascist conspirators violated any of their international obligations or agreements, including those which directly prohibited the use of war as a solution of international disputes. Not one of the wars provided by the Hitlerites can be classified under the concept of "defensive wars." In every instance the German Fascists acted as aggressors. They admitted, themselves, that they did not hesitate to resort to provocation in order to have an excuse for attacking their next victim at the most propitious moment.

I believe I should present to the Tribunal certain facts about the Hitlerite organisations established for the purpose of subversive activity, and also about the part played by the official S.S., Lorenz, whose name I shall mention later on in connection with the action against Czechoslovakia.

Himmler, the holder of several offices, combined in one person the position of Reichsleiter of the Security Units (SS) and of Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of Germanism (Reichskommissar fuer die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums). As such, he was charged with the leadership of all State and Party organs within Germany, which, in turn, controlled the German settlements, the work among the German Fascist minorities in other countries and the re-immigration of Germans into Germany.

In this field his executive apparatus was the so-called "Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle."

The leader of this organisation, and therefore the actual deputy of Himmler, in this special sphere was Obergruppenfuehrer S.S. Lorenz who will be discussed later.

There was also another criminal organisation. I have in mind the Foreign Organisation of the N.S.D.A.P. (Auslandsorganisation der N.S.D.A.P.), abbreviated to A.O. It played an important part in creating the Fifth Column in countries which were later subjected to Hitlerite aggression.

A.O. united such Germans who were members of the Fascist Party living outside Germany. Apart from the wide propaganda of Fascism, A.O. was engaged in political and other kinds of espionage. Germans living in other countries received material help through A.O. and maintained contact with various pro-German and espionage groups of the country in which they lived.

The sub-branches of the Hitlerite party abroad were under the guidance of German diplomatic missions. For this purpose the leader of A.O., Gauleiter Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, was installed in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the rank of a Secretary of State.

There are several appendices to the official Czechoslovak report. One of them is registered under document number 3061-PS. It represents excerpts from the testimony of Karl Hermann Frank, former deputy of the Reich Protector. I submit this document to the Tribunal and, without reading it in its entirety, I wish to refer briefly to the contents of those parts of the document which deal with question of the Fifth Column.

At the interrogation of 9th October, 1945 (the Tribunal will find the passage quoted in Volume I, Part 1, Page 185 of the document book) Frank declared that, in his opinion ,the Henlein Party received money from Germany from 1936 onwards. In 1938 it received funds from the so- called Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle in Berlin, through the German Minister in Prague. Frank confirmed that, together with Henlein, he several times visited the German Ambassador in Prague, who handed him and Henlein money for the Party. Frank admits that the acceptance of this money was incompatible with his duty as a Czechoslovak citizen. Frank further admitted that he visited the German Embassy in Prague many times alone, informed the German Ambassador of the inner political situation in Czechoslovakia and, considering the character of the information communicated, committed high treason.

Frank testifies (what I am now quoting will be found in Volume I, Part 1, Page 187):

[Page 204]

"All negotiations in the summer of 1938 between Henlein and myself on the one hand, and the Reich authorities, in particular Adolf Hitler, Hess and Ribbentrop on the other hand, were conducted for the purpose of providing the Reich authorities with information on the development of the political situation in Czechoslovakia. These discussions took place on the initiative of the Reich authorities."
I have quoted this excerpt from Page 5 of the Russian translation, Document No. 3061-PS. On Page 188 of your document book you will find another excerpt which I shall now submit to you. Frank confesses that he was aware of "the treason committed by the Party and its central leadership corps by receiving money from abroad for effecting measures inimical to the State."


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