Two Hundred and Sixth Day:
Monday, 19th August, 1946 [Page 259]
LT.-COLONEL GRIFFITH-JONES: My Lord, yes, except simply to
explain what the document is, which will take two minutes. I
think it will be of assistance to the Tribunal.
[Page 260]
LT.-COLONEL GRIFFITH-JONES: They are figures taken from the
organization book. On Page 1 the Tribunal will see the total
numbers set out of all the political leaders whom the
prosecution are including in the organizations; the
Hoheitstrager, the staff of the Reichsleiter, the staff of
the Gauleiter, the staff of the Kreisleiter. For the
information of the Tribunal I have also included the staff
of the Ortsgruppenleiter of 340,000, which makes the total
940,000. By deducting the Ortsgruppen staff, you get your
figure of 600,000.
My Lord, in the subsequent pages particulars will be found
of the office holders on the Reichsleiter, Gauleiter and
Kreisleiter staffs. The Reichsleiter, I think, speaks for
itself. The Tribunal perhaps will look at Appendix "C."
There it will be seen that the offices on the Gauleiter
staff are set out.
My Lord, those are all taken from the organization book, and
I would only say that those show the maximum establishment
of the Gau and Kreis staffs and they were not by any means
always up to strength so that the figure, the total figure
600,000, is to be the maximum that is possible.
THE PRESIDENT: Now we will deal with the Gestapo.
DR. MERKEL (counsel for the Gestapo): Mr. President, first
of all I should like to have permission to discuss my
document book. I have already introduced the various
documents with the exception of Gestapo Exhibit No. 31,
which I submit at this point.
Gestapo Exhibits 1 and 2 deal with the concept and the aims
of a political police system in general. I ask the Tribunal
to take judicial notice of both these documents and I ask
the same with reference to Gestapo Exhibits Nos. 3 to 8.
They contain the basic laws and directives dealing with the
origin, the development and the aims and purposes of the
Gestapo, first taking into account Prussia and finally the
entire Reich.
Gestapo Exhibit No. 9 is a copy in extract of the law
dealing with German police officials dated 24th June, 1937.
I shall read paragraph I from it. This is found on Page 28
of Document Book 1.
Gestapo Exhibit No. 10 contains the temporary provision for
execution of this law which we have just mentioned. It gives
a definition of the executive police officials. I quote from
Part I, concerning paragraph 1 of the law; and this may be
found on Page 33 of the document:
(2) Officials of the Security Police (Gestapo and
Criminal Police), but not the administrative police
officials serving the Criminal Police in the State police
administrations." [Page 261]
Gestapo Exhibit 14 has already been submitted as Exhibit USA
266 as evidence that the Party was prohibited from taking
action in matters which were a concern of the Gestapo. I
quote from Figure 1, second paragraph, which is at Page 42
of the first document book:
DR. MERKEL: Page 43, Mr. President, of the German document
book.
THE PRESIDENT: May I have the heading?
DR. MERKEL: Yes, the heading is "Reporting of Treasonable
Activities to the Gestapo," and from that I read the third
paragraph, starting with the words:
DR. MERKEL: That the assumption of political offices by
officials and employees of the Gestapo was not desired, may
be seen from Page 3 of this document, which is Page 44 of
the document book, the last paragraph:
[Page 262]
The responsibility for intelligence protection of the
armament industry as well as of all other war plants and
vital industries is henceforth the responsibility of the
Chief of the Security Police and of the SD and the
offices of the Gestapo subordinate to him.
The carrying out of intelligence protection as well as
the direction and employment of the counter-intelligence
organs within the plants are now exclusively the task of
the Gestapo offices, in keeping with the instructions
given by the Reich Security Main Office."
I also ask that judicial notice be taken of Gestapo Exhibit
21. It concerns directives for qualification tests for
applicants for service in the Security Police. I make the
same request with reference to Gestapo Exhibit No. 22, which
is a directive of 14th December, 1936. It says that
candidates for Criminal Police service will have to meet the
same tests as candidates for the regular Criminal Police.
Then I ask that Gestapo Exhibit 23 should be given judicial
notice, which is a decree of 2nd June, 193'7, which says
that civil police and military police officials were
detailed for service in the Gestapo, and therefore, they did
not come to the Gestapo voluntarily.
THE PRESIDENT: What you are doing now is not assisting the
Tribunal in the very least. Would it not be better to submit
all these documents, that is to say, to put them in, and ask
us to take judicial notice of them, which we shall do,
because they are decrees, and then to refer to any
particular paragraphs in them when you come to make your
argument? I say that because this 1s meaningless to us to
read excerpts; and it is confusing to read a number of them
without making any submissions at all about them. When you
come to make your argument, you can draw our attention to
any particular passage you want to in order to explain the
arguments, but this is not doing you any good at all.
DR. MERKEL: Yes, Mr. President, I have made provisions for
that in my final summary. However, there I have naturally
tried to be very brief, and only to refer to these
documents, on the assumption that I might read them during
the submission of documents. However, it will suffice if the
High Tribunal wishes merely to take judicial notice of these
documents.
[Page 263]
Dr. Merkel, if there are any special passages in these
decrees or documents which you wish to draw our attention to
now, in order that we may read them carefully before you
make your speech, well and good; but it is no good going
through one after the other like this without making any
comment at all. Do you follow what I mean?
DR. MERKEL: For that reason I only read brief sentences from
the most important of these documents and asked that
judicial notice be taken of the rest.
THE PRESIDENT: I do not know what you call a very few brief
ones, but we have had about fifteen or twenty already. That
does not seem to me to be very few.
DR. MERKEL: Of course we must take into consideration that
we have only three hours at our disposal for the final
speech. For that reason it seemed suitable, first of all, to
submit my documentary evidence in such a way that the
documents could, as far as possible, be read to the
Tribunal, and then, m the final speech, be referred to in a
brief way. For this documentary material must at some time
be submitted to the High Tribunal in some form or another,
and we considered it more suitable to separate the two, to
submit the documentary material now, briefly, and in our
final speech to restrict ourselves to an evaluation only of
the evidence which had been submitted.
Apart from that, I have almost concluded my submission of
these individual documents. In the second volume of my
document book there are but a few documents from which I
wish to quote a few brief passages -
THE PRESIDENT: Go on, then.
DR. MERKEL: Gestapo Exhibit 32, the first one in Document
Book 2, shows that the combating of partisan bands was not
the concern of the Party or of Himmler, but of the Army. I
refer in this connection to an affidavit deposed by a
certain Rode, which has already been submitted as Exhibit
USA 562.
Gestapo Exhibit 33 shows that the orders regarding the
execution of Russian prisoners of war in the concentration
camps came from the Inspector of Concentration Camps and not
from Department IV of the RSHA.
Gestapo Exhibits 35, 36 and 37 deal with protective custody,
and I ask that judicial notice be taken of them.
Gestapo Exhibit 38 is a copy of a letter of the Inspector of
Concentration Camps dated I 5th October, 1936. I quote from
paragraph 2, on Page 101 of the document book:
(a) The Chiefs of the three SS main offices,
(b) The administrative Chief of the SS,
(c) The Chief of Personnel of the Reichsfuehrer SS,
(d) The SS Gruppenfuehrer."
I submit Gestapo Exhibits 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 and 45, as
proof of the fact that concentration camps were not under
the Gestapo but under the SS Economic and Administrative
Main Office.
[Page 264]
Numbers 48 and 52 deal with the recruitment of foreign
workers for the Reich area, and show that this was the sole
responsibility of the General Plenipotentiary for Labour
Mobilization.
The setting up of labour training camps may be seen from
Gestapo Exhibits 54 to 57.
The seizing and securing of cultural articles in the
occupied territories are matters contained in 58 and 59.
Gestapo Exhibit 6o is the well-known decree about
intensified interrogations.
Number 61 is a copy, in excerpt form, of a letter from
Heydrich to Goering dated 11th November, 1938, and shows
that the Gestapo took steps against the excesses of the
night of 9th to 10th November, 1938.
Gestapo Exhibit 62 is a copy, in excerpt form, of testimony
given by Dr. Mildner on 22nd June, 1945. It refers to the
deportation of the Jews, and the subordination of the
concentration camps under the SS Administrative and Economic
Main Office.
This concludes my documentary evidence.
As far as the affidavits are concerned, I submit to the
Tribunal first of all the German copies of the transcripts
taken before the Commission, which I did not have till now.
They are copies of the transcript of 9th, 19th and 27th July
and 3rd August. They are contained, in summary form, in
Gestapo Affidavits 1 to 91.
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(Part 2 of 4)
"This law affects the executive officials of the Civil
Police, the Criminal Police of the Reich and of the
communities, the Military Police, and the Gestapo, as
well as other executive officials of the Security
Police."
From this we can see that police executive officials had a
special position in that they alone were subordinate to the
law affecting police officials, which was not the case with
regard to the other branches, such as, for instance, the
administrative officials.
"Police executive officials are, in the Reich Criminal
Police, the Gestapo, and also in other branches of the
Security Police: Criminal Assistants
(Kriminalassistenten), Criminal Senior Assistants
(Kriminaloberassistenten), Criminal Secretaries
(Kriminalsekretaere)" and so forth.
By the law of 19th March, 1937, the officials of the Gestapo
became direct Reich officials. I quote from Gestapo Exhibit
No. 11, Page 36 of the document book, paragraph 1:
"The following become direct officials of the Reich:
I ask that judicial notice be taken of Gestapo Exhibit 12.
It is a copy of the law of 17th June, 1936, dealing with the
assignment of the Chief of the German police to the Reich
Ministry of the Interior.
"I forbid all offices of the Party, its branches and
affiliated associations to undertake investigations and
interrogations in matters which are the concern of the
Gestapo. All occurrences of a political-police character,
without prejudice to their being further reported along
Party channels, are to be brought immediately to the
knowledge of the competent offices of the Gestapo, now as
before."
From Page 2 of the same document, Page 43 of my document
book, I quote the third paragraph:
"I particularly emphasize that all treasonable activities
against the State coming to the knowledge of the Party
are to be reported to the Gestapo without delay. It is in
no way a task of the Party to make investigations or
inquiries of any kind in these matters on its own
initiative."
THE PRESIDENT: From which page was it that you were reading
then?
"I particularly emphasize that - "
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I see.
"Since it," that is, the Gestapo, "is still in the
process of organization and the available officials and
employees are very much in demand, they are only to take
over positions in the Party to the extent that this is
compatible with their official duties in the Gestapo."
From Gestapo Exhibit I5, which is an excerpt from the Reich
administrative gazette Of 1935, I quote evidence of the fact
that it was possible to enter a complaint against measures
of the Gestapo through inspection channels. This is the
first paragraph, Page 46 of the document book:
"Since the Law on the Gestapo of 30th November, 1933,
became effective, orders of the Gestapo office can no
longer be contested according to the provisions of the
Law on Police Administration. The only remedy against
them is a complaint through investigation channels."
Further, to clarify the legal status of the Gestapo and of
the Gestapo office, I should like to quote Page 3 of this
same document, which is Page 48 of the document book. I
shall quote paragraph 2:
"In accordance with all this, the legal status of the
office of the Gestapo, since the law of 30th November,
1933, became effective, is the following: The office is
part of a special governmental organization, the 'Secret
State Police,' which forms an independent branch of the
Administration of the Prussian State. It has, like the
Secret State Police as a whole, a special field of
duties: the management of affairs of the political
police."
Of Gestapo Exhibits 16 and 17, I ask that judicial notice be
taken. They deal with the introduction of the laws
establishing the Gestapo in non-German areas. Gestapo
Exhibit 18 deals with the Border Police as a part of the
Gestapo. It is the copy of a circular by the Reich and
Prussian Ministry of the Interior dated
"The execution of police tasks at the Reich frontier is
entrusted to the Border Police offices."
I shall omit the next sentence.
"The Border Police Commissioners' offices, including the
Border Police posts established by them, are, as
previously, the border stations in Prussia and Baden,
branch offices of the State Police offices competent for
their district."
Gestapo Exhibit 19 is a copy of a circular issued by the
Chief of the Security Police and the Security Service, dated
30th June, 1944, in which the unification of the military
and political police counter intelligence machinery is
ordered. I quote from the text, the first three paragraphs,
at Page 56 of the document book:
"The result of the transfer of the special department
'Economy III' existing within the former
counterintelligence agencies to the agencies of the State
Police, is the union of the military and political police
counterespionage in industry and economy.
I ask that judicial notice be taken of Gestapo Exhibit 2o.
It contains a directive issued by Himmler on 25th October,
1938, dealing with the erection of a central office for
registration for police service. Through the setting up of
this office it was possible to order candidates to do
service in the Gestapo against their will.
"Besides the Chief of the German Police, the following
are authorized to enter concentration camps:
Then also 4:
"All other SS members, representatives of offices, and
civilians, desiring to enter premises in which prisoners
are lodged or engaged in work, for the purpose of
visiting, require my express written authorisation."
Gestapo Exhibit 39 deals with the same topic.