dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, there has been some misunderstanding and the briefs were delivered to the Defendants' Document Room. We have sent for some of them and they should be here shortly. However, Sir, in all fairness the briefs themselves are not in the German language, because we had intended to take the trial brief and the lawyers follow it over the translating system and thus, when it was finished, it would be translated into all languages. However, in order to shorten the proceeding, Major Wallis has made a summary, and he is giving the summary and will offer the documents in evidence and later the briefs, as needed, to the Tribunal, and to Defense Counsel, and unfortunately, in the rush of time, they have been put down in the Defendants' Document Room and we have sent for some of them. We understand, also, if the Tribunal please, that Dr. Kempner approached some of the distinguished counsel for the Defense, and learned that a great many of them not only speak English, but understand it when they read it, and to save the tremendous physical burden on facilities, the briefs have not, as yet, been translated into German. If there is objection, the only thing we can do is to withhold them at this time, but we understood it would be agreeable to pass them to them in English, and that is what we propose to do at the present moment, and have German speaking officers in the Document Room who will translate for any of them who may not be able to read German-pardon me, to read English.
DR. DIX: I have one request. We are here, as German Defense Counsel, and in face of great difficulties. These proceedings are conducted according to Anglo-American customs. We are doing our best to make our way through these principles, and would be very grateful if the President would take into consideration our difficult situation. I have heard-I am not quite sure if it was right-that according to these Anglo-American principles, it is necessary to prepare objections immediately, if one has any objections to the contents of a document, and that this is not possible unless one does it at once. This is a point on which I would like to make my request. I am convinced that both the trial brief and the documents will be made available to us, and we will see if we can have a German translation of one or the other. If this trouble can be spared, if the Defense Counsel needs a translation, we shall have it, but I should like-I have one request-that we have leisure to raise an objection later when we have had a chance to discuss it. I think in that way we shall easily overcome the difficulties raised by the present situation, and we are trying to cooperate in order to overcome any difficulties.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal is glad that defendants' counsel are making efforts to cooperate in the Trial. After the adjournment, the Tribunal will consider the best method of providing defendants' counsel with as many translations as possible, and you are right in thinking that you will be able to make objections to any document after you have had time to consider it.
DR. DIX: Thank you, Sir.
MAJOR WALLIS: Having acquired full political control, the Nazi conspirators now proceeded to consolidate their power, and at this point I would like to impress upon the Tribunal once again that with the exception of a very few documents, the subject matter of my remarks is within the purview of judicial notice of the Court, a matter of history well known to these defendants and their counsel Their first step in the consolidation of power was ruthlessly to purge their political opponents by confining them to concentration camps or by murder. Concentration camps made their first appearance in 1933 and were first used as means of putting political opponents out of circulation by confining them to a so-called "protective custody." This system of concentration camps grew and expanded within Germany. At a subsequent stage in these proceedings full and complete evidence of the concentration camp system and the atrocities committed therein will be presented to the Court, both by documents and films. Illustrative documentary evidence of the arrest, mistreatment, and murder by the Nazi conspirators of their political opponents is contained in the documentary evidence offered by the United States. As an illustration, affidavit of Raymond H. Geist, former American Consul and First Secretary of the Embassy in Berlin from 1929 to 1938, states (which will be offered): "Immediately in 1933, the concentration camps were established and put under charge of the Gestapo. Only political prisoners were held in concentration camps. "The first wave of terroristic acts began in March 1933, more particularly from March 6 to 13, 1933, accompanied by unusual mob violence. When the Nazi Party won the elections in March 1933, the accumulated passion blew off in wholesale attacks on the Communists, Jews, and others suspected of being either. Mobs of SA men roamed the streets, beating up, looting and even killing persons. "For Germans taken into custody by the Gestapo there was a regular pattern of brutality and terror.
MAJOR WALLIS: All over Germany victims were numbered by the hundred thousand." On the 30th of June and 1 and 2 July 1934 the conspirators proceeded to destroy opposition within their own ranks by wholesale murder. In discussing this purge, the Defendant Frick stated, in an affidavit under oath, signed on the 19th day of November 1945, in the presence of his Defense Counsel, as follows. His is document number 2950-PS. It has not yet been introduced in evidence, Sir: "Himmler, in June of 1934, was able to convince Hitler that Röhm wanted to start a Putsch. The Fuehrer ordered Himmler to suppress the Putsch which was supposed to take place at the Tegernsee, where all of the SA leaders were coming together. For northern Germany, the Fuehrer gave the order to suppress the Putsch to Goering." Frick goes on to say: "Pursuant to this order, a great many people were arrested and something like a hundred, and possibly more, were even put to death, accused of high treason; all this was done without judicial process." They were just killed on the spot. Many people were killed-I don't know how many-who actually did not have anything to do with the Putsch. People who just weren't liked very well as, for instance, Schleicher, the former Reich Chancellor, were killed. Schleicher's wife was also killed. Also Gregor Strasser, who had been the Reich Organization Leader and second man in the Party after Hitler. Strasser, at the time he was murdered, was not active in political affairs any more; he had however separated himself from the Fuehrer in November or December of 1932. Frick goes on to say: "The SS was used by Himmler for the execution of these orders to suppress the Putsch." During this period the conspirators created, by a series of decrees of the Reich Cabinet, a number of new political crimes. Any act or statement contrary to the Nazi Party was deemed to be treason and punished accordingly. The formations of the Party, the SA, SS, as well as the SD and the Gestapo, were the vicious tools used in the extermination of all opposition, real or potential.
MAJOR WALLIS: As the Defendant Goering said on July 24th, 1933-I refer to Document Number 2494-PS, which will be introduced in evidence: "Whoever in the future raises a hand against a representative of the National Socialist movement or of the State, must know that he will lose his life in a very short while. Furthermore, it will be entirely sufficient, if he is proven to have intended the act, or, if the act results not in a death, but only in an injury." The Defendant Frank stated, in a magazine of the Academy for German Law, 1936, which will be introduced as Document Number 2533-PS, as follows: "By the world we are blamed again and again because of the concentration camps. We are asked, Why do you arrest without a warrant of arrest?" I say, "Put yourself into the position of our nation." Don't forget that the very great and still un- touched world of Bolshevism cannot forget that we have made final victory for them impossible in Europe, right here on German soil." And Raymond Geist, whose affidavit I previously referred to, being Document Number 1759-PS, states: "The German people were well-acquainted with what was happening in concentration camps, and it was well known that the fate of anyone too actively opposed to any part of the Nazi program was liable to be one of great suffering. Indeed, before the Hitler regime was many months old, almost every family in Germany had received first-hand accounts of the brutalities inflicted in the concentration camps from someone, either in the family circle or in the circle of friends who had served a sentence, and consequently the fear of such camps was a very effective brake on any possible opposition."." And as the Defendant Goering said in 1934, and I refer to Document Number 2344-PS, which will be offered in evidence: "Against the enemies of the State, we must proceed ruthlessly...
MAJOR WALLIS: therefore the concentration camps have been created, where we have first confined thousands of Communist and Socialist Democrat functionaries." In addition to ruthlessly purging all political opponents, the Nazi conspirators further consolidated their position by promptly proceeding to eliminate all other political parties. On 21 March 1933, the Defendant Frick announced that the Communists would be prevented from taking part in the Reichstag proceedings. This was accomplished, as has been pointed out, by placing them in "protective custody in concentration camps." On the 26th May 1933 a Reich Cabinet decree, signed by Hitler and the Defendant Frick, provided for the confiscation of the Communist property. On 22 June 1933 the Social Democratic Party was suppressed in Prussia, it previously having been seriously weakened by placing a number of its members in concentration camps. On the 7th of July 1933 a Reich decree eliminated Social Democrats from the Reichstag and from the governing bodies of the provinces and municipalities. On the 14 of July 1933, by a decree of the Reich Cabinet, the property of the Social Democrats was confiscated, and the Nazi Party was constituted as the sole political party in Germany, and thereupon it became illegal to maintain or to form any other political party. Thus, Hitler was able to say within hardly more than 5 months after becoming Chancellor, I quote: "The Party has become the State." The Nazi conspirators immediately proceeded to make that statement a recorded fact, for on the 1st of December 1933 the Reich Cabinet issued a law for "Securing the Unity of Parlor and State." This law was signed by Hitler and the Defendant Frick. Article 1 provided that the Nazi Party: "...is the bearer of the concept of the State and is inseparably the State. It will be a part of the public law.
MAJOR WALLIS: Its organization will be determined by the Fuehrer." Article 2 provided: "The Deputy of the Fuehrer and the Chief of Staff of the SA will become members of the Reich Cabinet in order to insure close cooperation of the offices of the Party and SA with public authorities." Article 3 provided: "The members of the National Socialist German Workers Party and the SA (including their subordinate organizations) as the leading and driving force of the National Socialist State will bear greater responsibility toward Fuehrer, People, and State." [A recess was taken.]
COL. STOREY: During the recess defendants' counsel and the Prosecution arrived at an agreement for the furnishing of briefs to the defendants, which I understand to be this: Copies of the documents offered in evidence in German will be delivered in the Defendants' Information Center, with the understanding that if any Defense Counsel needs to show the German photostatic copy to his client he may do so in the defendants' counsel room adjacent thereto; that the briefs which we are passing to the Tribunal as an aid will likewise be passed to defendants' counsel in English, and that if any of them have trouble in the translation of any portion of the briefs, we have German-speaking officers in the Defendants' Information Center who will assist counsel I understand that all of these defendants' counsel have so agreed.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Now, Major Wallis.
MAJOR WALLIS: May it please the Court, at the moment of recess I was referring to the law which was passed on 1 December 1933, for securing the unity of Party and State. Article 6 of that law provided: "The public authorities have to grant legal and administrative assistance to the offices of the Party and the SA which are entrusted with the execution of the jurisdiction of the Party and SA. Article 8 provided: "The Reich Chancellor as Fuehrer of the National Socialistic German Workers Party and, as the supreme commander of the SA, will issue the regulations necessary for the execution and augmentation of this law, particularly with respect to the organization and procedure of the jurisdiction of the Party and SA." Thus by this law the Nazi Party became a para-governmental organization in Germany. The further merger of the Party and State occurred on the death of Hindenburg. Instead of holding an election to fill the office of President, the merger of the offices of President and Chancellor, in the person of Hitler, was accomplished by the law of 1 August 1934, signed by the entire Reich Cabinet. One of the significant consequences of this law was to give to Hitler the supreme command of the German Armed Forces, always a prerequisite of the presidency, and every soldier was immediately required to take an oath of loyalty and unconditional obedience to Hitler. On 4 February 1938 Hitler issued a decree which stated in part-and I quote from Document Number 1915-PS, which will be offered in the document book at the close of my remarks as follows: "From now on, I take over directly the command of the whole Armed Forces." As a further step in the consolidation of their political control, the Nazi conspirators reduced national elections to mere formalities devoid of the element of freedom of choice. Elections, properly speaking, could not take place under the Nazi system. In the first place, the basic doctrine of the Fuehrerprinzip dictated that all subordinates must be appointed by their superiors in the Government hierarchy.
MAJOR WALLIS: Although it had already become the practice, in 1938 it was specifically provided by law that only one list of candidates was to be submitted to the people. By the end of this pre-war period little of substance remained in the election law. The majority of the substantive provisions had become obsolete. By a series of laws and decrees the Nazi conspirators reduced the powers of regional and local governments and substantially transformed them into territorial subdivisions of the Reich Government. With the abolition of representative assemblies and elective officials in the Lander and the municipalities, regional and local elections ceased to exist. On 31 January 1934 the last vestiges of Land independence was destroyed by the Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich. The Defendant Frick, Minister of the Interior throughout this period, has written of this Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich as follows: "The reconstruction law abolished the sovereign rights and executive powers of the Länder and made the Reich the sole bearer of the rights of sovereignty. The supreme powers of the Länder do not exist any longer. The natural result of this was the subordination of the Land government to the Reich Government and the Land ministers to the corresponding Reich ministers. On 30 January, 1934 the German Reich became one state." Another step taken by the Nazi conspirators in consolidating their political power was the purge of civil servants on racial and political grounds and their replacement by Party members and supporters. This purge was accomplished through a series of Nazi laws and decrees. The first was on 7 April 1933, entitled: "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil service." Article 3 of the law applied the Nazi blood and master race theories in providing that officials who were not of Aryan descent were to be retired.
MAJOR WALLIS: The political purge provision of the law is contained in Article 4, and I quote: "Officials who, because of their previous political activities, do not offer security that they will assert themselves for the National State without reservations may be dismissed." The effect of this law and the decrees and regulations issued thereunder was to fill every responsible position in the Government with a Nazi and to prevent the appointment of any applicant opposed, or suspected of being opposed, to the Nazi program and policy. Even the judiciary did not escape the purge of the Nazi conspirators. All judges who failed to fulfill the racial and political requirements of the conspirators were quickly removed. In addition, the Nazis set up a new system of special criminal courts independent of the regular judiciary and directly subservient to the Party program. Moreover, the Nazis controlled all judges through special directives and orders from the central Government, their aim being, as expressed by one Gerland, one of the leading Nazi lawyers of that time: "...to make the word 'terrorization' in the penal law respectable again." As their control was consolidated, the conspirators greatly enlarged existing State and Party organizations and established an elaborate network of new formations and agencies. The Party spread octopus-like throughout all of Germany. This process of growth was summed up late in 1937 in an official statement of the Party Chancellery as follows: "In order to control the whole German nation in all spheres of life"-and I repeat, in order to control the whole German nation in all spheres of life-"the NSDAP, after assuming power, set up under its leadership, the new Party formations and affiliated organizations." At this point I would like to offer to the Court the document book which contains the laws and conditions which I have referred to in this part of my presentation together with the briefs covering this part of it.
MAJOR WALLIS: Labor unions: I would like to direct the Tribunal's attention to some case histories in the consolidation of control by the conspirators. The first case history in the consolidation of the Nazi conspirators' control of Germany is the destruction of the free trade unions and the obtaining of control over the productive labor capacity of the German nation. The position of organized labor in Germany, at the time of the Nazi seizure of power, the obstacles they afforded to the Nazi plans, the speed with which they were destroyed, the terror and maltreatment ranging from assault to murder of union leaders, were fully outlined in the opening address of the Chief Prosecutor of the United States, and are fully set forth in the document book which I will present to the Court on this phase of the case. The result achieved by the Nazi conspirators is best expressed in the words of Robert Ley. Ley's confidence in the Nazis' effective control over the productive labor capacity of Germany in peace or in war was declared as early as 1936 to the Nuremberg Party Congress. I refer to Document 2283-PS which is included in the document book which will be presented on this phase of the case. He stated: "The idea of the factory troops is making good progress in the plants, and I am able to report to you, my Fuehrer, that security and peace in the factories has been guaranteed, not only in normal times, but also in times of the most serious crisis. Disturbances, such as the munitions strikes of the traitor Ebert and confederates, are out of the question. National Socialism has conquered the factories. Factory troops are the National Socialist shock troops within the factory, and their motto is: The Fuehrer is always right." At this time I would like to offer to the Court the document book containing the documents on this phase of the case, namely, "The destruction of labor unions and the gaining of control of all productive labor in Germany," together with the brief on that subject.
MAJOR WALLIS: At the same time, if it please the Court, I would like to offer the document book concerning the consolidation of control with respect to the utilization and molding of political machinery, which is, in law, a decree which I referred to just prior to my discussion of the destruction of labor unions. I would now direct your attention to the second case history in the consolidation of control. The Nazi conspirators early realized that the influence of the Christian churches in Germany was an obstacle to their complete domination of the German people and contrary to their master race dogma. As the Defendant Martin Bormann stated in a secret decree of the Party Chancellery signed by him and distributed to all Gauleiter on 7 June 1941-it is identified as Document Number D-75 and will be included in the document book which will be presented to the Court-he stated as follows: "More and more must the people be separated from the churches and their organizations and pastors .... Not until this has happened does the State leadership have influence on the individual citizens." Accordingly, the Nazi conspirators, seeking to subvert the influence of the churches over the people of Germany, proceeded to attempt to eliminate these churches: 1. By promoting beliefs and practices incompatible with Christian teachings. 2. By persecuting priests, clergy, and members of monastic orders. This persecution, as the documentary evidence will show, ran the gauntlet of insults and indignities, physical assault, confinement in concentration camps, and murder. 3. By the confiscation of church properties. 4. By suppressing religious publications. 5. By the suppression of religious organizations. In addition, they also suppressed religious education. This is illustrated by the secret decree of the Party Chancellery which I just referred to in Document D-75, when the Defendant Bormann stated: "No human being would know anything of Christianity if it had not been drilled into him in his childhood by his pastors.
MAJOR WALLIS: The so-called "dear God" in no wise gives knowledge of His existence to young people in advance, but in an astonishing manner, in spite of His omnipotence, leaves this to the efforts of the pastors. If, therefore, in the future our youth learns nothing more of this Christianity, whose doctrines are far below ours, Christianity will disappear by itself." At a subsequent stage in these proceedings, additional documentary evidence of the acts of the conspirators in their attempt to subvert the influence of the Christian churches will be offered. At this time I offer the document book in support of this phase of the case together with the accompanying brief. We now come to what might be called the third case history, the persecution of the Jews. The Nazi conspirators adopted and publicized a program of ruthless persecution of Jews. It is not our purpose at this time to present to the Court a full and complete story, in all its sickening details, of the Nazi conspirators' plans and acts for the elimination and liquidation of the Jewish population of Europe. This will be done in due course, at a subsequent stage of these proceedings, but it is our purpose at this time to bring before you, as one of the elements in the Nazi scheme for the consolidation of their control of Germany, the action which was planned and taken with respect to the Jews within Germany during the pre-war period. As a means of implementing their master race policy and as a means of rallying otherwise discordant elements behind the Nazi banner, the conspirators adopted and publicized a program of relentless persecution of Jews. This program was contained in the official, unalterable 25 points of the Nazi Party, of which 6 were devoted to the master race doctrine. The Defendants Goering, Hess, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Funk, Schirach, Bormann, and others, all took prominent parts in publicizing this program. Upon the Nazis coming into power, this Party program became the official State program.