Two Hundred and Ninth Day:
Thursday, 22nd August, 1946 [Page 5]
DR. BOEHM: Yes, Mr. President.
I now refer to Document 6 which shows that the so-called
Junior Stahlhelm was put under the Supreme Command of the
SA. I turn to Document 7 which is a decisive order of
Hitler, from which I should like to quote towards the end,
Page 1, Paragraph 6:
I also refer to Document 9, decreeing that the incorporation
of the Stahlhelm be speeded up. Documents 10 and 12 show
that the members of the Wehrstahlhelm were to be given equal
rights, and a certain joint status, before their final
incorporation. Then there are Documents 13, 14, 15 and 17,
in connection with which I should like to refer particularly
to Hitler's decree of the 25th January, 1934. Then Document
17 and Document 18. In the latter the complete amalgamation
of the SA Reserve I, i.e., the former Stahlhelm, with the SA
is proclaimed.
Document 18-A states that all age-classes over 45 years will
be incorporated into the SA Reserve. Then I submit Document
19, and Document 21, from which I should like to quote
briefly Paragraph 2:
Document 23 deals with the dissolution of the National
Socialist German Veterans' Association in November, 1939.
Document 26 contains several quotations from the Stahlhelm
handbook published by Heinrich Hildebrandt and Walter
Kenner. I should like to quote one sentence on Page 17:
[Page 6]
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Boehm, could you not tell us what the
effect of all these documents is, rather than read them all
through - 30 documents? You have told us now, about the
Stahlhelm. Have you not any idea what you will come to?
DR. BOEHM: I submit these documents to show the High
Tribunal that the Stahlhelm was not at all in agreement with
the measures taken at the time when the organisation was
transferred to the SA; that members of the Stahlhelm tried
to leave the SA, that they met with difficulties in such
attempts, and that the ideology of the Stahlhelm was, in a
large measure, quite different from that of the S.A.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, go on.
DR. BOEHM: I should like to refer now to a series of
newspaper articles which are contained in Documents 32, 33,
35, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 and 49.
Document 34 is a report made by a Sturmbannfuehrer of the SA
about a conspiracy of the Stahlhelm against the SA in 1933
in Pomerania. Document 36 is a poster containing a warning
and threat by Gauleiter Loeper of Magdeburg-Anhalt against
the National Socialist Veterans' Association.
Document 33 states - I quote quite briefly:
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Boehm, you have given us a long list of
newspaper articles. Now, what is the object of them? Is
there anything which connects those together, makes them
into a group?
DR. BOEHM: There is a certain connection between all of
them, Mr. President, in so far as they are to prove that
units of the Stahlhelm were dissolved in various places,
that members of the Stahlhelm were arrested and that they
encountered difficulties because most of them disagreed with
their incorporation into the SA and with the political and
intellectual attitude of the SA.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, well, I understand then that they are
illustrations of the difficulties which the Stahlhelm
Organisation had with the SA, incidents.
DR. BOEHM: Yes, quite. I should like briefly -
THE PRESIDENT: The contention, I suppose, is that the
Stahlhelm were not really volunteers, into the SA; is that
it?
DR. BOEHM: Yes, Mr. President, they came into the SA on the
strength of an order.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. Then you can pass from that group,
I think.
DR. BOEHM: Yes. Now I should like to turn to Document Book
5, which contains documents relating to the Reiter Corps
(Mounted Corps). Documents 56 and 57 deal with the origin,
the development, and the organisation of the NS Mounted
Corps. Document 56 is an excerpt from the official pages of
the Reiter Corps, Deutsches Kaltblut of the year 1933. I
think it is important to mention here the statement of the
president of the rural riding associations, namely that
these associations were to be turned into a National
Socialist Reiter Corps, so that all rural riding interests
would remain embodied in a special organisation with its own
administration, without being permanently incorporated into
parts of the SA.
[Page 7]
The next documents deal with the tasks, aims and activities
of the NS Reiter Corps. Documents 59, 60 and 61 are extracts
from the regulations of rural riding clubs before 1933;
members of these clubs were not permitted to engage in
political activity within the clubs, and this rule was
retained after 1933.
Documents 62, 63, 65, 66 and 67 are official orders showing
the activity of the NS Reiter Corps.
Document 69 is an official brochure on the requirements for
obtaining the Reiter certificate. This document, too, has no
military or political character at all. Document 70 lists
the prerequisites for winning the German Reiter emblem, and
again in this connection military and political
considerations have no part. The emblem was a sport badge of
honour, and it was the highest aim of all members of the NS
Reiter Corps to win it. I submit this Reiter emblem - it is
made of silver - to the High Tribunal as Document 71, and
perhaps I might add that I think it is the only emblem which
bears no National Socialist insignia.
The last four Documents 101, 102, 103 and 124 have been
selected from a tremendous number of photographs typifying
the activities of the Reiter Corps.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Boehm, will you please continue.
DR. BOEHM: I shall now turn to the affidavits, Mr.
President, and deal with the first group of affidavits which
I have submitted. I should like to refer to the General SA
Affidavits 17, 74 and 81, which deal with coercion, legal
coercion, regarding entry into the formations. Affidavit
General SA I, deposed by Dr. Menge, also deals with the
problem of compulsory incorporation into the SA, in this
case, the incorporation of the Water Sport Clubs into the
Marine SA.
Affidavit General SA 60 deals with the compulsory
incorporation of sport clubs as separate units of the SA.
Affidavit 61 deals with the impossibility of leaving the SA.
That the SA did not assist the State Government in preparing
for war is stated in General SA Affidavits 38, 39, and 40,
which also show that preaching a war of revenge against
France resulted in expulsion from the SA, because the SA
Command had forbidden all discussion of the questions of
South Tyrol and Alsace-Lorraine.
Affidavit SA 38, deposed by Dr. Busse, characterises the
Chief of Staff Lutze as an opponent of warmongering. The
affidavit SA I of Dr. Menge deals with the agreement between
the Wehrmacht and the SA, that in the event of a conflict
between the SS and the Wehrmacht, the SA would side with the
Wehrmacht, and also shows that the Chief of Staff Lutze
strongly opposed a war against Poland during a conference
with Hitler and Goebbels in the autumn of 1939.
Affidavits General SA 5 and 6 deal with the preparations of
the SA for the Party Rally in 1939.
Affidavit 76, deposed by General von Hoerauf, deals with the
negotiations of Roehm in 1931 and 1932 and the agreements he
reached with English and French political circles on the
following points:
"(2) The Press of the NSDAP will come under British
influence.
"(3) The establishment of a foreign political and
military political bureau.
In connection with these negotiations - " [Page 8]
THE PRESIDENT: It is a great deal more difficult for the
Tribunal to follow.
DR. BOEHM: For instance, only one affidavit, namely 76,
deposed by General Hoerauf, deals with the aims of Roehm. If
all the affidavits -
THE PRESIDENT: Surely, Dr. Boehm, if you are going to
inflict upon us the whole of these two hundred affidavits,
you might at least do it in order.
DR. BOEHM: I turn then to No. 83, deposed by Adolf Freund -
THE PRESIDENT: I would think that if it is up to 83, we are
not going to hear any more about it or are we going to jump
back to 1, 2, 3 and 4?
DR. BOEHM: Mr. President, these affidavits have already been
grouped according to certain subjects, and I cannot
therefore present them in consecutive numerical order.
THE PRESIDENT: That is all I asked you ... I am afraid I
must not be speaking clearly or else the translation is not
coming through to you clearly. What I asked you to do was to
give us the topics on which ... with which these affidavits
deal, and then give us the numbers of the affidavits which
deal with each topic. Now you are telling me that there are
groups and that the affidavits are grouped with reference to
topics. Well, will you kindly give us the topics and the
numbers of the affidavits.
DR. BOEHM: Certainly, Mr. President. I told you, Mr.
President, that I was able to group the summaries of the
affidavits, but that it was very difficult to follow the
same procedure completely with regard to the individual
affidavits. That, at any rate, was my meaning.
THE PRESIDENT: Go on.
DR. BOEHM: But I shall try to adhere to this grouping as far
as possible.
I now turn to the group of affidavits which show that the SA
was not a military formation. This topic is dealt with in
Affidavits 25, 27, 28 and 30. That the schools set up by the
chief of training did not have a military character is
explain in Affidavits 32, 33 and 37. The sport emblem of the
SA and its significance is dealt with in Affidavit 8. The
question of whether and to what extent the "Feldherrnhalle"
Division was subordinate to the Wehrmacht or the SA is
clarified by General SA Affidavit 18, deposed by Major-
General Guenther Bade, the commander of the 1st Panzer
Division "Feldherrnhalle."
The next group of affidavits deals with the charge that the
SA was a terrorist organisation. Affidavit 15, deposed by
General Hoerauf, shows that it was Reich Minister Severing
who approved the SA service regulations. Affidavits 19, 20,
21,22 -
THE PRESIDENT: Well, now, Dr. Boehm, I do not know whether
you were in Court yesterday but I pointed out to the counsel
who was dealing with the matter then that it is utterly
useless to simply read over to us the summary which we have
before us. Now, you have just referred us to Affidavit 15
and the summary before us is this: "Franz von Hoerauf.
24.6.46. Former Reich Minister Severing's lack of objection
to the SA service regulations." That is to say practically
the identical words which you have just repeated to us. Now,
what is the good of that?
[Page 9]
THE PRESIDENT: You mean you have not got this summary?
DR. BOEHM: I received a book and I repeatedly asked that I
should also receive a translation of it, because since my
assistants are fully occupied I myself cannot have it
translated.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, if you were here yesterday, you must
have heard me say over and over again to counsel who was
presenting the documents, that we had before us a summary
and that it was useless for him to repeat the summary to us.
Now, what would be useful would be, as I have already
pointed out, if you would group these affidavits and tell us
what topics they relate to, and also tell us which of them
have been translated; and if there are any to which you
particularly desire to draw our attention, which have been
translated, then draw our attention to the passages in those
which you wish to draw our attention to.
DR. BOEHM: The last group which I compiled is to prove that
the SA was a protective organisation against terror, and in
this connection I mentioned Affidavits 19, 20, 21, 22, 23
and 24. The fact that excesses in Berlin were restricted to
a small circle of persons is proved by Affidavit 84.
THE PRESIDENT: Has any one which you have just given us,
which shows that the SA was not a terrorist organisation,
been translated?
DR. BOEHM: The translations of my affidavits have not yet
been returned to me, Mr. President, and I am not in a
position to check which have been translated and which have
not been translated.
THE PRESIDENT: But surely you must know which you have asked
to be translated.
DR. BOEHM: Yes, Mr. President, but I do not know whether
they have actually been translated, as I did not receive any
copies.
THE PRESIDENT: You can tell us which ones you wanted to have
translated, could you not, which were being translated?
DR. BOEHM: I applied to have 21 affidavits translated; they
are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,
18, 76, 79, 82 and 89.
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(Part 2 of 9)
"The entire Stahlhelm will be placed under the Supreme SA
Command and will be re-organised according to its
directives."
Then I should like to refer to Document 8, which shows that
the Wehrstahlhelm was also taken over by the SA and
especially that the members of the Wehrstahlhelm continued
also to remain members of the Stahlhelm.
"Members of the former Stahlhelm who have already been
transferred into SA Reserve I, cannot of their own
volition sever their connection with SA Reserve I for the
sole purpose of joining other associations. Anyone who,
because of a physical defect, cannot discharge his duties
or who, for other reasons, wishes to leave the SA
Reserve, must apply for his discharge, stating the
reasons for his request. Dual membership in the SA
Reserve I and in the NS Veterans' Association is
permitted, provided the individual joined the former
Stahlhelm before 30th January, 1933."
Now I should like to refer to Document 22, which shows how
in practice a member of the Stahlhelm in the Rhineland was
incorporated into SA Reserve I.
"The Stahlhelm has experienced war and therefore desires
peace."
Then I should like to refer to Documents 29 and 30, which
prove that members of the Stahlhelm attempted to leave the
SA Reserve I. The documents which follow deal with the
members of the Stahlhelm who did not agree with the
incorporation into the SA.
"The Stahlhelm in Brunswick has been dissolved. 1,350 men
were arrested and interned."
From the second paragraph in the centre -
"(1) Within a brief period of time Roehm will put himself
at the head of the NSDAP.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Boehm, the Tribunal is finding this very
difficult to follow. You have here, I suppose, about 200
affidavits, something like that. Now, would it not be the
best way to put them into groups, and tell us the numbers of
those which relate to some subject? Do they not relate to
any particular subject or are there 200 subjects that they
relate to? Have they no possibility of being grouped
together?