dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MR. ALBRECHT: The Reichstag presents an anomaly in this picture. Under the republic it had been the supreme law-making body of the Reich, subject only to a limited check by the Reichsrat (the Council of the Reich), by the President, and by the people themselves by way of initiative and referendum. Putting their opposition to all forms of Parliamentarianism into effect at once, the Nazis proceeded to curtail the powers of the Reichstag, to eliminate the Reichsrat, and to merge the Presidency with the Office of Chancellor occupied by the Fuehrer. By the Act of 24th of March 1933 the Cabinet was given unlimited legislative powers, including the right to deviate from the constitution. Subsequently, as I stated, the Reichsrat was abolished, and with that act the residuum of the power to legislate in the Reichstag was reduced to a minimum. I say the power was reduced to a minimum because the actual power to legislate was never taken away from the Reichstag, but certainly after the advent of the Party to power it was never permitted to exercise as a legislature. The Reichsregierung retained its legislative powers throughout, even though from time to time other agencies of the Reichsregierung, such as the Plenipotentiary for Administration, in the upper right of the chart, (the Generalbevollmächtigter fuer die Reichsverwaltung), the Plenipotentiary for Economy, also in the right-hand corner of the chart, (the Generalbevollmächtigter fuer die Wirtschaft), and the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich, were created. That is the big box to the right of the vertical line. And these agencies of the Reichsregierung received certain concurrent legislative powers. The development of the Reichstag into an emasculated legislative body was, however, only an intermediate step on the road to rule by Fuehrer decrees. That was the ultimate goal of the Party, and a goal which they achieved. The Nazis then proceeded to delegate some of the powers of the Reich Cabinet to all sorts of newly created agencies, some of which I have already mentioned.
MR. ALBRECHT: Cabinet functions were delegated first of all to the Reich Defense Council, the Reichsverteidigungsrat, possibly as early as the 4th of April 1933, but we believe certainly not later than 1935. I might say in this connection that with respect to a number of these agencies of the Reichsregierung which received delegated powers, we are moving in a somewhat shadowy land, because in developing this organization we are dealing-to some extent, at least-with decrees and actions that were secret, or secretive, in character. A number of these decrees were never definitely fixed in time. A number of them were never published and the German people themselves never became acquainted with them. And that is why I say that the Reich Defense Council may possibly have been created as early as two and one-half months after the advent of Hitler to power but we believe that we will be able to show to the satisfaction of the Tribunal that that important body in the Government of the Reich was created certainly not later than May 1935. I say it is an important body. This was the war-planning group, of which Hitler himself was chairman and the Defendant Goering the alternate. It was a large war-planning body, as Your Honors will note, that included many Cabinet members, and there was also a working committee-the true numerical size of which does not appear from the chart-which was presided over by the Defendant Keitel. That also was composed of Cabinet members and of Reich defense officials, the majority of whom were appointed by Cabinet officers and subject to their control. Other powers were delegated to the Plenipotentiary, whom I have named before, for Administration, appearing at the extreme right of the chart. That was the Defendant Frick, and later the notorious Himmler. Subordinate to Frick in his capacity as Plenipotentiary for Administration were complete ministries, the Ministry of the Interior (Frick's old ministry), Ministry of Justice, Education, Church Affairs, and Raumordnung (the Ministry for Special Planning).
MR. ALBRECHT: Other powers went to the delegate for the Four Year Plan, again the Defendant Goering, whose box appears to the left of the median line, half way to the edge. There were certain other powers that went to an organization within the shadow-land I mentioned, and which, unfortunately, does not have its name appear on this chart, the Dreierkollegium (the College of Three), which title should really be imposed over the last three boxes in the upper right hand corner; because the Dreierkollegium consisted not alone of the Plenipotentiary for Administration, but also the Plenipotentiary for War Economy, and the chairman of that group who, I believe, was the Defendant Keitel, as the head of the OKW, the Wehrmacht, all the armed forces. The duties of the Dreierkollegium would seem to have included the drafting of decrees in preparation of and for use during war. To the Secret Cabinet Council, the Geheimer Kabinettsrat, of which the Defendant Von Neurath was chairman,-or President, I believe, was his title, went other powers. That Secret Cabinet Council was created by a decree of the Fuehrer in 1938. Certain other delegation of power took place to the Ministerrat fuer die Reichsverteidigung (the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Realm), which is the smallest box appearing under the large box of the Reich Defense Council, to the right of the vertical line. The Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich was responsible to the Fuehrer alone. Its membership, as would seem to be indicated on the chart, was taken from the Reich Defense Council. It had broad powers to issue decrees with the force of law in so far as the Reichsregierung itself had not legislated on the subject. It should be stressed that this delegation of Cabinet functions to various groups, composed largely of its own members, helped to conceal some of the important policies of the Reichsregierung, namely, those relating to the preparation of war, which delegated the necessary authority to secret and semi-secret agencies.
MR. ALBRECHT: Thus in a general way, as I have outlined, did the National Socialist Party succeed in putting Nazi policies into effect through its dummy, through the machinery of the State, the Reichsregierung, in its revised form. I think it might be helpful if Your Honors will permit me to point out on this chart the large number of instances in which the defendants' names reappear in connection with the functions of the Government of the Reich. Now, first of all, the Reichsregierung itself. I am sorry to say in that connection that there is one omission, a very important omission. It is the name of the Vice Chancellor under Hitler, Von Papen, who was Vice Chancellor from the seizure of power until some time around the purge in June 1934. Your Honors will see a grouping of Reich Ministers with portfolio, and under it of Ministers without portfolio, in which mostly the names of the defendants in court are listed. There are State Ministers listed acting as Reich Ministers, and you will note the name of the Defendant Frank. There are other participants in Cabinet meetings, among which you will notice the name of the Defendant Von Schirach. Now, this whole line on which the Cabinet hangs is the level of the Reich Cabinet, and as I have stated, organizations that grew out of this maternal organism, the Reichsregierung. To the left the Secret Cabinet Council includes the names of the defendants. Still further to the left is the delegate for the Four Year Plan. And over to the very end is the Reichstag, of which the President was the Defendant Goering, and the leader of the Reichstagsfraktion, the Defendant Frick. If we proceed to the right of the median line, we have the Reich Defense Council, with Hitler himself as chairman, the Reich Defense Committee under it, and the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Realm, which grew out of the Reich Defense Council. And we see mostly the names of Cabinet ministers, including, if I may advert to that fact, particularly the names of purely military leaders, such as the Defendant Raeder and the Defendant Keitel.
MR. ALBRECHT: And farther to the right, all names mentioned as defendants in these proceedings, Schacht, the first Plenipotentiary for War Economy, later succeeded by Funk; Field Marshal Keitel as the Chief of the OKW, and the Defendant Frick again as Plenipotentiary for Administration, in the triangle which became known as the "Dreierkollegium." If we descend the vertical line to the horizontal line in the middle, we have the various ministries over which these Cabinet ministers, this Reichsregierung, presided. We have also at the extreme left and the extreme right, very important and special offices that were set up at the instigation of the Party, and those offices reported directly to the Fuehrer himself. If I may start at the extreme left, I will point out that as the civil government moved after the military machine into the lowlands, the Defendant Seyss-Inquart became the Reichskommissar for the Netherlands. A few names below that of Seyss-Inquart is the name of the Defendant Von Neurath, the Reichsprotektor for Bohemia and Moravia, who was later succeeded by the Defendant Frick; and under those names, the name of the Defendant Frank, the Generalgouverneur of Poland. Adjoining the box of these administrators who reported directly to the Reich Chancellor and President was the Foreign Office, presided over first by the Defendant Von Neurath, and subsequently by the Defendant Von Ribbentrop. If we proceed down below the elongation under the smaller box dealing with German legations, there should, of course, in any itemized, detailed treatment of that box appear the name of the Defendant Von Papen, the representative of the Reich in Austria for a time, and later in Turkey. The next box on the horizontal line is the Ministry of Economics, (the Reichswirtschaftsministerium). First is the name of the Defendant Schacht, followed by the name of the Defendant Goering, and by the name of the Defendant Funk.
MR. ALBRECHT: The next box, the Ministry for Armament and War Production (the Reichsministerium fur Rustung und Kriegsproduktion), was presided over by the Defendant Speer. And out of this organization, and subordinate to it, in the box devoted to the Organization Todt, again the name of the Defendant Speer, who succeeded Todt to the leadership of that organization upon the death of Todt. Two boxes over, the Ministry of Justice, if Your Honors will follow me, down close to the bottom of the page to the last left-hand box, appearing under the Ministry of Justice, is the Reichsrechtsanwaltskammer-I am sorry, the box next to the bottom at the left which is devoted to the Academy for German Law (Die Akademie fur deutsches Recht), over which the Defendant Frank presided for a time. Almost at the vertical line, the Air Ministry, of which the Defendant Goering was Oberkommandant; and next to it again the Ministry of the Interior, presided over by the Defendant Frick. If Your Honors will follow me again to the bottom of all the squares to the small horizontal line at the bottom of the Ministry of the Interior, we come to certain state officials, called "Reich Governors" (Reichsstatthalter). And if those boxes were sufficiently detailed there would appear thereon the names, among others, of the Defendant Sauckel, who besides being the Gauleiter of Thuringia, was also the Reichsstatthalter or Governor there. There would also appear the name of the Defendant Von Schirach, who was not only the Gauleiter of Vienna, but also the State representative there-the Governor-the Reichsstatthalter of Vienna. And springing out of the Ministry of the Interior is the box or boxes devoted to the German police, and in the first sub-division appearing to the right, the Chief of the Security Police and SD, the name of the Defendant Kaltenbrunner.
MR. ALBRECHT: In the Ministry of Propaganda, about midway down in this box, appears the name of the Defendant Fritzsche, who, although as the chart is drawn, would not appear in the position of one of the chief directing heads of the Ministry, actually was very much more important than his position there will indicate; and proof will be submitted to Your Honors in support of that contention. At the end of the horizontal line is the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (the Reichsministerium fuer die Besetzten Ostgebiete) of which the Defendant Rosenberg was the head. And to the right of that box, among the agencies immediately subordinate to Hitler as Reichskanzler and President, there is the office of General Inspector for Highways, with the name of the Defendant Speer associated with it; the General Inspector for Water and Energy, again with the name of the Defendant Speer associated with it. There follows the Reich Office for Forestry (the Reichsforstamt) under the Defendant Goering; the Reichsjugendfuehrer (the leader of the Reich Youth), The Defendant Von Schirach; the Reich Housing Commissioner (Reichswohnungskommissar), the late Defendant Robert Ley; and among the subsequent agencies, that of the important Reichsbank, over which the Defendant Schacht presided, to be succeeded subsequently by the Defendant Funk; the General Inspector for the Reich Capital (Generalbauinspekteur fuer die Reichshauptstadt), the Defendant Speer. I think I have named all of the defendants as they appear on this chart, and of those now before Your Honors in this cause I think they all appear on this chart in one capacity or another, in one or more capacities,-all, I might add, except the Defendant Jodl. Jodl was the Chief of Staff of all the Armed Forces. He was the head of the Wehrmacht Fuehrungsstab, and in the chart as evidential material which will be subsequently brought before Your Honors, the name Jodl will figure prominently in connection with the organization of the Armed Forces.
MR. ALBRECHT: If I may make one correction at this point, a slip of the tongue that was called to my attention, in discussing the chart of the Party, in the small box to the left containing the designates of the Fuehrer to succeed him to the Party leadership, I made the statement that Goering succeeded Hess as Fuehrer-designate. Actually, when the designations were announced by the Fuehrer, Goering was always the first designate, and the Defendant Hess the second. In Annex A of the Indictment the various offices, Party functions, and State offices which these defendants held in the course of the period under discussion, these various offices are mentioned. And we would like to submit at this time and offer into evidence as exhibits proof of the offices that were occupied by these defendants. This proof consists of 17 statements, more or less, signed by the defendants themselves and/or their counsel, certifying to the Party and State offices that they have held from time to time. Some of these statements were not as complete as we desired to have them, and we have appended thereto a statement showing such additional offices or proof of Party membership as was available to us. I would like to offer those into evidence.
MR. ALBRECHT: And now, if Your Honors please, I offer into evidence the two charts to which my remarks have been addressed in the course of the morning.
THE PRESIDENT: Will counsel for the United States continue the evidence until half past 12?
COL. STOREY: If Your Honor please, it lacks 2 minutes until half past 12. Mr. Albrecht has finished, and will it be convenient for Your Honors for Major Wallis to start at 2 o'clock?
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, [The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours.] Afternoon Session
COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, Major Frank Wallis will now present the briefs and documents supporting the briefs in behalf of the phase of the case known as the Common Plan or Conspiracy, up through 1939. Major Wallis.
MAJOR FRANK B. WALLIS (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): Mr. President, members of the Tribunal: It will be my purpose to establish most of the material allegations of the Indictment running from Paragraph IV on Page 3, to Subparagraph E on Page 6. The subjects involved are: The aims of the Nazi Party, their doctrinal techniques, their rise to power, and the consolidation of control over Germany between 1933 and 1939 in preparation for aggressive war. This story has already been sketched by the American Chief Prosecutor. Moreover, it is history, beyond challenge by the defendants. For the most part, we rely upon the Tribunal to take judicial notice of it. What we offer is merely illustrative material-including statements by the defendants and other Nazi leaders-laws, decrees, and the like. We do not need to rest upon captured documents or other special sources, although some have been used. For the convenience of the court and Defense counsel, the illustrative material has been put together in document books, and the arguments derived from them have been set out in trial briefs. I intend only to comment briefly on some of the materials and to summarize the main lines of the briefs. What is the charge in Count One? The charge in Count One is that the defendants, with divers other persons, participated in the formulation or execution of a Common Plan or Conspiracy to commit, or which involved the commission of Crimes against Humanity (both within and without Germany), War Crimes, and Crimes against Peace. The charge is, further, that the instrument of cohesion among the defendants, as well as an instrument for the execution of the purposes of the conspiracy, was the Nazi Party, of which each defendant was a member or to which he became an adherent. The scope of the proof which I shall offer is: First, that the Nazi Party set for itself certain aims and objectives, involving basically the acquisition of "Lebensraum", or living space, for all "racial" Germans.
MAJOR FRANK B. WALLIS (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): Second, that it was committed to the use of any methods, whether or not legal, in attaining these objectives, and that it did in fact use illegal methods. Third, that it put forward and disseminated various lines of propaganda, and used various propaganda techniques to assist it in its unprincipled rise to power. Fourth, that it ultimately did seize all governmental power in Germany. Fifth, that it used this power to complete the political conquest of the State, to crush all opposition, and to prepare the nation psychologically and otherwise for the foreign aggression upon which it was bent from the outset. In general we undertake to outline, so far as relevant to the charge, what happened in Germany during the pre-war period, leaving it to others to carry the story and proof through the war years. The aims of this conspiracy were open and notorious. It was far different from any other conspiracy ever unfolded before a court of justice, not only because of the gigantic number of people involved, the period of time covered, the magnitude and audacity of it, but because, unlike other criminal conspirators, these conspirators often boastfully proclaimed to the world what they planned to do, before they did it. As an illustration, Hitler, in his speech of 30 January 1941, said: "My program was to abolish the Versailles Treaty. It is futile nonsense for the rest of the world to pretend today that I did not reveal this program until 1933 or 1935 or 1937. Instead of listening to the foolish chatter of emigres, these gentlemen would have been wiser to read what I have written thousands of times. No human being has declared or recorded what he wanted more than I. Again and again I wrote these words, 'The abolition of the Treaty of Versailles'." First, a brief reference to the history of the Nazi Party. The Court will no doubt recollect that the National Socialist Party had its origin in the German Labor Party, which was founded on 5 January 1919 in Munich. It was this organization which Hitler joined as seventh member on 12 September 1919.
MAJOR FRANK B. WALLIS (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): At a meeting of the German Labor Party held on 24 February 1920, Hitler announced to the world the "25 Theses" that subsequently became known as the "unalterable" program of the National Socialist German Workers Party. A few days later, on 4 March 1920, the name of the German Labor Party was changed to the "National Socialist German Workers Party," frequently referred to as the NSDAP, or Nazi Party. It is under that name that the Nazi Party continued to exist until its dissolution after the collapse and unconditional surrender of Germany in 1945. The disagreements and intrigues within the Party between Hitler's followers and those who opposed him were finally resolved on 29 July 1921, when Hitler became "First Chairman" and was invested with extraordinary powers. Hitler immediately reorganized the Party and imposed upon it the Fuehrerprinzip-the leadership principle-of which you will hear more later. Thereafter Hitler, the Fuehrer, determined all questions and made all decisions for the Party. The main objectives of the Party, which are fastened upon the defendants and their co-conspirators by reason of their membership in, or knowing adherence to the Party, were openly and notoriously avowed. They were set out in the Party program of 1920, were publicized in Mein Kampf and in Nazi literature generally, and were obvious from the continuous pattern of public action of the Party from the date of its founding. Now two consequences, of importance in the Trial of this case, derive from the fact that the major objectives of the Party were publicly and repeatedly proclaimed: First, the Court may take judicial notice of them. Second, the defendants and their co-conspirators cannot be heard to deny them or to assert that they were ignorant of them. The Prosecution offers proof of the major objectives of the Party-and hence of the objectives of the conspiracy-only to refresh or implement judicial recollection.
MAJOR FRANK B. WALLIS (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): The main objectives were: First, to overthrow the Treaty of Versailles and its restrictions on military armament and activity in Germany; Second, to acquire territories lost by Germany in World War I; Third, to acquire other territories inhabited by so-called "racial Germans"; and Fourth, to acquire still further territories said to be needed as living space by the racial Germans so incorporated-all at the expense of neighboring and other countries. In speaking of the first aim, Hitler made an admission which applied equally to the other aims, namely, that he had stated and written a thousand times or more that he demanded the abolition of the Versailles Treaty. These aims are fully documented in the evidence offered by the Prosecution on this phase of the case, and it is not my purpose at this time to recite to the Court numerous declarations made by the defendants and others with respect to these aims. Moreover, these conspirators again and again publicly announced to the still unbelieving world that they proposed to accomplish these objectives by any means found opportune, including illegal means and resort to threat of force, force, and aggressive war. The use of force was distinctly sanctioned, in fact guaranteed, by official statements and directives of the conspirators which made activism and aggressiveness a political quality obligatory for Party members. As Hitler stated in Mein Kampf : "What we needed and still need are not a hundred or two hundred reckless conspirators, but a hundred thousand and a second hundred thousand fighters for our philosophy of life." In 1929 Hitler stated: "We confess further that we will tear anyone to pieces who would dare hinder us in this undertaking. Our rights will be protected only when the German Reich is again supported by the point of the German dagger." Hitler, in 1934, addressing the Party Congress at Nuremberg, stated the duties of Party members in the following terms: "Only a part of the people will consist of really active fighters.