dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: When you examine the evidence you find them implicated in criminal activities of many kinds. I would ask you particularly to bear this in mind--that it was the normal procedure in the Corps of Political Leaders to pass nothing in writing below the rank of Ortsgruppenleiter. The Organization Book of the Party prescribed, I quote: "In principle, the Blockleiter will settle his official business verbally, and he will receive messages verbally, and pass them on in the same way. Correspondence will only be used in cases of absolute necessity and practicality." The witness Meyer-Wendeborn confirmed that this was so in practice: "Between the Blockleiter and the Zellenleiter on one side, and the Ortsgruppenleiter and the staff on the other, there was supposed to be no written instruction in order not to give these people of lower rank or lower position too much work." In view of that, you may well think it remarkable that we have happened to find so many written documents as we have which directly implicate the Zellen- and Blockleiter. In dealing with the evidence I shall draw your attention to these documents. But I would also emphasize the other evidence you have of the vitally important role the Zellen- and Blockleiter played. It has been argued that they were not Hoheitstraeger, as the Prosecution suggest, and various documents have been submitted by the Defense Counsel to establish this contention. Be it right or wrong, it matters little. You will remember that they were included as Hoheitstraeger in the Party's Organization Book, which states: "Among the Politische Leiter, the Hoheitstraeger assume a special position." It is answered that the Organization Book is inaccurate. The same is said of the SA-Mann --an equally inconvenient publication for the members of the SA. Is there any official publication issued by the official Party publishers which is accurate? The fact is that by whatever title they may have been known, the Zellen- and Blockleiter formed the essential basis of the whole Party system.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Gauleiter Kaufmann admitted: "Blockleiter and Zellerileiter were the executive organs of the Ortsgrupperileiter." Zellenleiter Schneider was asked: "Would you agree with me that without the Zellenleiter and Blockleiter, the Ortsgruppenleiter could never have carried on the tasks they had to perform?" and answered: "Yes, that is correct." They were much more than the messenger boys they are now made out to have been. Hirt stated that only persons who were "completely politically reliable" were appointed either as staff officers in the Gaue, Kreise, and Orte or as Zellen- and Blockleiter, and that the people who held the positions of Zellen- and Blockleiter appeared to be supporters of the Nazi Party. The evidence shows the kind of tasks with which they were entrusted, which included the responsibility of "assisting in forming the political judgment" on the members of their area. It has been suggested that Political Leaders--particularly in war time--were compelled against their will to assume their appointments. But the whole basis of the system was voluntary service, paid or unpaid, and it is confirmed by their own witness Meyer-Wendeborn. Let me quote from his cross-examination before the Commission: "Question: 'May I take it that Political Leaders were all voluntarily occupying their offices?' "Answer: 'Yes.' "Question: 'And that also applies, does it not, to the Zellenleiter and Blockleiter?' "Answer: 'The Zellenleiter and Blockleiter were appointed through the Ortsgruppenleiter after he had had a discussion with the staff. However, if a person considered himself not up to the part, or that he was unable to do the job, or that he did not have the time, we looked for another one.' "Question: 'And it was decidedly voluntary on the part of the Zellenleiter or Blockleiter whether or not they accepted the position?' "Answer: 'Yes.'" If pressure was brought to bear on some, as the witness Hirt suggested, it could only have happened in the most exceptional cases.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: If the holders of these offices were required to be "completely politically reliable" it would be remarkable to find among them many opponents of the Party forced unwillingly to act. It is said also that because, as in peace time, their appointments were not confirmed, their oath taken only at irregular intervals, and because they were given no uniform they were not, in the words of the Indictment, "according to common Nazi terminology Politische Leiter of any grade or rank." I submit that there can be no substance in such an argument. They performed the same tasks, were regarded as the same officials and held the same authority and influence as those whom they replaced. Again, it is suggested that there was no "Corps" or organization of Political Leaders; but the evidence shows that Politische Leiter of all classes formed a close and well-defined corps. They are described as a "Corps" in the Organization Book. Together they had a common purpose, I quote, "the complete penetration of the German nation with the National Socialist spirit." They wore a common uniform. They were issued with a common identity card--common to themselves but distinct from the rest of the population. Yearly they took their common oath to their Fuehrer: "I pledge eternal allegiance to Adolf Hitler. I pledge unconditional obedience to him and the leaders appointed by him." And, as the Organization Book says of each one of them: "The Political Leader is inseparably tied to the ideology and the organization of the NSDAP." there is one further matter upon which I ought to say a word of explanation. It has been argued by the Defense that a great number of the Amtsleiter on the staffs of the various Hoheitstraeger ought not to be included in any declaration of criminality that you make against the Corps of Political Leaders. In the same way as the Blockleiter were said to be innocent, harmless messenger boys, so, too, it is said that these Amtsleiter were harmless and innocent expert advisers to their repective Gau-, Kreis-, or Ortsgruppenleiter.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: They may have been expert advisers, but they were much more besides, and they certainly were neither innocent nor harmless. They were properly appointed Political Leaders--persons who were "completely politically reliable" and supporters of the Nazi Party. All of them, just as the Hoheitstraeger themselves, took their annual oath of allegiance binding them in blind obedience to their Fuehrer. All of them, although they naturally received their instructions concerning their particular fields of activity from the State Department to which they belonged, nevertheless were subject to the orders of their Hoheitstraeger upon all political matters and in all matters of Party discipline. You may think that these men exercised as dangerous an influence as any other Political Leader because between them they were in closest contact with all grades of society and with all professions and trades. We have not documents directly implicating every class of these so-called nonpolitical Political Leaders, but a great many are directly involved by the documents you have seen. I will not enumerate them now. I shall draw your attention to them as I discuss the evidence. It is the submission of the Prosecution that from that evidence, and from the general evidence of the conditions in Germany and of the influence of the Political Leaders, you are entitled and, indeed, compelled to draw the inference that if the purpose and activity of that organization was criminal, then every member of the staffs of the Gau, Kreis, and Ortsgruppen ought to be included. Let it not be thought that because we have all deliberately excluded those members of the Ortsgruppenleiter staffs, we have done so on account of their innocence. That decision was taken for practical rather than any other reasons, and it may well be that that decision was wrong. It has been suggested by the Defense that there were officers in the various Party organizations such as the DAF, NSV, labor welfare, students' and womens' organizations who were also known as Politische Leiter.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Their numbers are given as one and a half million. Let me once again make it clear that if such Political Leaders existed the Prosecution do not seek a declaration of criminality against them. We include only Reichsleiter, Gauleiter, Kreisleiter, Ortsgruppenleiter, Zellenleiter, and Blockleiter and the Amtsleiter or heads of offices on the staffs of the Reichsleitung, Gauleitung, and Kreisleitung--those Political Leaders who, organized on a geographical basis, were responsible for the political control of the people and the execution and administration of Nazi policy. All others are excluded. You have had a schedule showing the numbers that are thus involved. According to the Party Organization Book for 1943 they number 600,000. It is said by the Defense that that figure allows for no replacements and that the total figure of all who have at any time held these positions is much greater. Upon that I make two points. First, the figures given in the Organization Book show the maximum establishment allowed for each Gau and Kreis. In practice not all these offices were filled-in urban districts there would be no agricultural Amt; in Gaue where there were no universities there would be no political Amtsleiter for university teachers. Secondly, the 1943 figure of 600,000 includes the Political Leaders of nine foreign Gau--six Austrian, two Polish and one in the Sudetenland--none of which had existed before 1938, so that during the first 5 years of the Nazi regime the total possible number of Political Leaders must have been considerably less than 600,000. The extract submitted by the Defense from the pamphlet Der Hoheitstraeger illustrates the increase which took place in the Hoheitstraeger alone between 1935 and 1939: the figure rose from 291,671 to 581,650.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: In view of these considerations it is submitted that, allowing for replacements, the total number of persons, who at any time held those positions in the Corps of Political Leaders which we include for the purposes of a declaration of criminality, cannot have greatly exceeded the figure of 600,000 which we have submitted. And I add that ample allowance must be made for decease, not only through natural causes, but through active service and bombings. It was these men and women who constituted the very core of the National Socialism which led the 48 million voters of Germany in the way and to the end which we have seen. Let us consider the evidence against them under its main headings. We will see not only how they themselves directly participated in crime, but also how they actively and knowingly assisted and co-operated with the other organizations in the execution of their common criminal purpose. With regard to the control of the State, Bormann, writing to the Gauleiter in June 1941, stated: "For the first time in German history the Fuehrer consciously and completely has the leadership of the people in his own hand..." (D-75, USA-348). We see one of the ways in which the Leadership Corps assisted in putting the leadership of the people into the Fuehrer's own hand from the evidence of the Political Leaders' activity during the voting in 1936 and 1938, and we see here the participation of all ranks of Political Leaders. We have a complete file from the Kreis of Erfurt, Thuringia, in connection with the plebiscite of 1938. Stuetzpunktleiter were to report beforehand all persons in their district whom they might assume with certainty would vote "no" (D-897, GB-541). The orders were issued by the SD jointly to the Stuetzpunktleiter and to all heads of sections of the Security Service. The heads of sections were to support the Stuetzpunktleiter locally as much as possible. It was said by the Defense that the Stuetzpunktleiter referred to in that file were Stuetzpunktleiter of the SD and not of the Political Leadership.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Even if you accept that explanation it makes no difference, for it was expressly stated that the whole matter was to be "carried out in the closest collaboration with the Ortsgruppenleiter of the Party" (D-897, GB-541). The Political Leaders could hardly have had any doubts as to what was in store for the people whom they reported when the orders contain the significant paragraph: "The tremendous responsibility which the Stuetzpunktleiter have, in particular with regard to this report, is stressed once more. The Stuetzpunktleiter must clearly understand the potential consequences for the persons contained in their report." The Tribunal will remember the reports that were rendered by the SD after the plebiscite had taken place, showing the means by which the voting papers of suspected persons were checked by the use of skimmed milk and colorless typewriters. You will remember also the methods employed to force doubtful supporters of the Party to vote, I quote: "The wife of the Jew Bielschowski, who was dragged along just before closing time, voted 'no,' as can be proved. "The laborer Otto Wiegand had to be requested four times to record his vote on the day of the election and finally only voted under force.... "The husband... recorded his vote. To be sure this was probably exclusively for fear of renewed arrest" (D-902). And yet again in what must be, perhaps, one of the most dreadful documents in all this Trial: "The Jehovah's witness Robert Siering and his wife ... deposited their vote after both had been advised of their duty to vote by the police in Griefstedt and had been threatened with the removal of their child in case of non-participation" (D-897). No one can pretend that these things were happening only in Erfurt. In the Gau Coblenz the Kreisgeschaeftsfuehrer of Kochem, "where supervisory control was ordered in several Ortsgruppen," assured the SD that it was mostly women who voted "no" or invalidly (R-142, USA-481). In Rothenburg the Party carried out demonstrations against the Bishop who had refused to vote, demonstrations which Mr.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Justice Jackson so vividly described in his opening speech. Nor was it only in the 1938 plebiscite that the Political Leadership was active. It will be remembered that in Bremen Kreisleiter, Ortsgruppenleiter, and Stuetzpunktleiter were concerned in reporting all civil servants who did not vote in the election which took place on 29 March 1936. Dr. Servatius brushes this evidence aside with a comment for which there is no scrap of evidence in support. He says: "It is shown that the commanding agency of the Party in no way enters into action. These are merely individual measures of other agencies. No general practice or knowledge can be deduced from that." It is unnecessary for me to say more. The control and supervision of the German people was as much the task of the Political, Leaders as of the SD and Gestapo. Of all the Political Leaders the Blockleiter were the most essential for this purpose. They kept their index cards of every householder, index cards which formed the basis of the "political judgment," which the Blockleiter, Zellenleiter, and Ortsgruppenleiter, in co-operation with each other, were to pronounce (D-901 A, GB-546). Again and again the Defense, both before the Commission and before the Tribunal, have bridled at and denied the suggestion that Blockleiter were used as spies. But what else were they when their index cards were to be completed from information which they would, I quote: "have sufficient opportunity ... to obtain by means of conversations ... with the Germans"? They too were urged to make certain of the accuracy of their reports (D-901 A, GB-546). There is other evidence to show this wretched role the Blockleiter played. In the Party Organization Book the Blockleiter is directed that: "It is his duty to find people disseminating damaging rumors and to report them to the Ortsgruppe so that they may be reported to the respective State authorities" (1893-PS, USA-323). We see him spying again when we review the evidence of the part played by Political Leaders in the persecution of the Churches.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: In co-operation with the Gestapo and the SD the Political Leaders, from the highest to the lowest, took active part in suppressing the influence of the Churches. Your Lordship, I think I can omit the rest of Page 17 and the first 8 lines of Page 18, which deals with Bormann's decree, which is well known to the Tribunal, and I can go on at the words on Page 18. How can we doubt that it was the generally accepted policy of all Political Leaders when, whatever Hitler may have said in the Party Program about a "positive Christianity," Bormann was writing to the Gauleiter in 1941 after his notorious denunciation of Christianity: "National Socialist and Christian concepts are irreconcilable." Gauleiter Kaufmann was at pains to explain that that directive had been withdrawn a week later. But there is no mention of such withdrawal in the letter from the SD concerning it, written 6 months later in December 1941. And you may think that it is remarkably similar to the policy of the Fuehrer's Deputy Hess, as it was explained to Rosenberg 2 months earlier in April 1941: "We are inducing schools more and more to reduce and abolish religious morning services. Similarly the confessional and general prayers in several parts of the Reich have already been replaced by National Socialist mottoes." There is abundant other evidence of the policy being pursued by the higher ranks of the Political Leaders in regard to the Church, with which I need not worry the Tribunal. Let me confine myself to the lowest ranks, the Ortsgruppenleiter, Blockleiter, and Zellenleiter. You will remember the file of reports for February 1939 of the Ortsgruppenleiter in Darmstadt on ecclesiastical questions. "Blockleiter and Party member Kiel informs me ... that meetings of the Confessional Front... are again taking place" (D-901, GB-536). And another in connection with a Pastor Strack: "This gentleman should really be rapped on the knuckles seriously for once." You will remember also the action taken by the Kreisleiter on these reports.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: The SD and the Gestapo were informed about the Confessional Front meetings reported by the Blockleiter. So also was the unfortunate Pastor Strack, the priest who was "sufficiently well known and ripe for the concentration camp or special court." Can you doubt that it was also the Blockleiter and Zellenleiter in Thuringia who would have to make the reports required on the way in which the results of the 1938 plebiscite were received by the people "particularly in small towns and villages"? (D-897). Who else but Blockleiter and Zellenleiter could be employed to find out what the Catholic and Protestant clergy were saying about the Anschluss during their services? Who else but they were in a position to report whether the church bells were rung in the evening after the Anschluss speech in Vienna? (D-897). Lastly, upon this subject you have the evidence of demonstrations being organized to disrupt the service in Freising Church in 1935, in which the Kreisleiterin of the Nazi Party women's organization was taking a leading part (1507-PS, GB-535). It was only by acquiring complete control of the State and of the people that the Nazi Government were enabled to carry out their criminal aims. The Political Leaders were an essential element in the acquisition of this control. They supported and executed the orders of a Government which they knew from the first pursued policies which were wrong by methods which were criminal. All knew of their avowed purpose to persecute the Jews. All knew of the Gestapo, the concentration camps, and the Nazi practice of arrest and incarceration without trial. Yet they continued actively to support that Government and to tighten its stranglehold upon the German people. The whole of Dr. Servatius' argument as to the position of the Political Leaders after 1933 shows the grip in which Germany was held by the iron framework of the Party--a political "Iron Maiden" squeezing a people to their death.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: With regard to the Jews, when the persecution of the Jews was an openly recognized policy and practice of the Nazi Party, the fact that men voluntarily served their Party in an executive position is in itself sufficient to prove their participation in criminal activity. But we have concrete evidence of the direct participation in the persecution of the Jews by Political Leaders--and again by Political Leaders of all ranks. Within less than a year of the Nazi Government coming to power there is evidence that the Corps of Political Leaders were inciting the people of Germany to persecute the Jews. It is hardly possible to imagine that in a civilized State in the year 1933 instructions should be issued to the Political Leaders under the title "Jew Baiting." Yet that was happening. Kreisleiter in the Gau Coblenz were to check lists of Jewish firms and businesses in their district. Once again the importance of accuracy is emphasized. Committees were to be set up within the various Kreise, Ortsgruppen, and Stuetzpunkte which had, I quote, "the task of directing and supervising the communities" in Jew baiting (374-PS). They were to continue the policy which had been inaugurated by the Party with the boycott in April of that year. I quote: "The Kreisleiter will point out in all gatherings of members or in all public gatherings that the Jew in all countries is again carrying out a low attack which is greatly harmful to Germany. It must be made clear to the masses that no German may buy from a Jew" (374-PS). In view of this evidence; in view of Dr. Servatius' admission that there was no objection on the part of the Political Leaders to the Nuremberg Decrees, and that they welcomed measures which tended to restrict the influence of the Jews; in view of the part we know they played in the 1938 demonstrations--can there be any doubt that throughout these years they were actively participating in the continuous slander and persecution of the Jewish people?
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: It would be strange indeed if it were not so, when we see Heydrich's order to the SD issued on the night of 9 to 10 November 1938: "The Chiefs of the State Police Offices or their deputies must immediately get in telephonic contact with the Political Leaders--Gauleitung or Kreisleitung--who have jurisdiction over their districts and arrange a joint meeting with the appropriate inspector or commander of the Ordnungspolizei to discuss the organization of the demonstration. At these discussions the Political Leaders will be informed that the German Police have received from the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police the following instructions, in accordance with which the Political Leaders should adjust their own measures" (351-PS, USA-240). It is indeed curious that these instructions should have been issued if all the Gauleiter had been so strongly opposed to such measures as Gauleiter Kaufmann, Streicher, Sauckel, and Wahl say that they were. Whatever these witnesses you have heard may say of the attitude of the Political Leaders at these demonstrations, we know that 36 Jews were killed (358-PS, USA-508). Of those 36 killed, 4 were murdered either by Ortsgruppenleiter or Blockleiter. It was a court composed of Gauleiter and other Political Leaders who saw fit to suspend or pronounce only minor punishments in the case of all the murders committed during these demonstrations by members of the Party, the SS, the SA, and of the Corps of Political Leaders. And for what reasons? I quote: "In such cases as when Jews were killed without an order or contrary to orders, ignoble motives could not be determined. At heart the men were convinced that they had done a service to their Fuehrer and to the Party" (3063-PS, USA-332). If these witnesses for the Defense that you have heard here did not understand who was responsible for these demonstrations, it was perfectly clear to the members of the Supreme Party Court.