dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
COL.WHEELER: It was the Defendant Von Ribbentrop. I turn to Page 4, the 10th paragraph of the English text, Page 5, 4th paragraph of the German text: "The use of the Polish language in sacred functions, and even in the Sacrament of Penance, was forbidden. Moreover-and this is a matter worthy of special mention and is at variance with the natural law and with the dispositions accepted by the legal systems of all nations-for the celebration of marriage between Poles the minimum age limit was fixed at 28 years for men and 25 years for women. "Catholic Action was so badly hit as to be completely destroyed. The National Institute, which was at the head of the whole Catholic Action movement in Poland, was suppressed; as a result all the associations belonging to it, which were flourishing, as well as all Catholic cultural, charity, and social service institutions, were abolished. "In the whole of the 'Warthegau' there is no longer any Catholic press and not even a Catholic bookshop. "Grave measures were repeatedly taken with regard to ecclesiastical property. "Many of the churches closed to public worship were turned over to profane uses. From such an insult not even the Cathedrals of Gniezno, Poznan, Wloclawek, and Lodz were spared. Episcopal residences were confiscated, the real estate belonging to the seminaries, convents, diocesan museums, libraries, and church funds were confiscated or sequestered." I pass now to the third full paragraph on Page 5, a two-line paragraph: "Even before ecclesiastical property was affected, the allowances to the clergy had been abolished." Now, reading from Page 6, the fourth full paragraph of the English text: "The administrative regulations published by the lieutenant's of lice for the application of the ordinance of September 13th, 1941 made the situation of the Catholics in that region still more difficult.
COL.WHEELER: "For example, on November 19, 1941 came a decree of the Reich lieutenant by which among other things it was set forth that, as from the previous September 13th, the property of the former juridical persons of the Roman Catholic Church should pass over to the 'Romisch-katholische Kirche deutscher Nationalitat im Reichsgau Wartheland' insofar as, on the request of the above-mentioned 'Religionsgesellschaft' such property shall be recognized by the Reich lieutenant as 'nonPolish property.' In virtue of this decree practically all the goods of the Catholic Church in the 'Warthegau' were lost." Now I pass to Page 7, the second full paragraph: "If we pass from the 'Warthegau' to the other territories in the East, we unfortunately find there, toot acts and measures against the rights of the Church and of the Catholic faithful, though they vary in gravity and extension from one place to another. "In the provinces which were declared annexed to the German Reich and joined up with the Gaue of East Prussia, of Danzig West Prussia and of Upper Silesia, the situation is very like that described above in regard to seminaries, the use of the Polish mother-tongue in sacred functions, charitable works, associations of Catholic Action, the separation of the faithful according to nationality. There, too, one must deplore the closing of churches to public worship, the exile, deportation, the violent death of not a few of the clergy (reduced by two-thirds in the diocese of Culma and by at least a third in the diocese of Katowice), the suppression of religious instruction in the schools, and above all the complete suppression in fact of the Episcopate.
COL.WHEELER: Actually, after the Bishop of Culma, who had left during the military operations, had been refused permission to return to his diocese, there followed in February 1941 the expulsion of the Bishop of Plock and his auxiliary, who both died later in captivity; the Bishop, the venerable octogenarian Monseigneur Julian Anthony Nowowiejski, died at Dzialdowo on May 28th, 1941, and the auxiliary, Monseigneur Leo Wetmanski, 'in a transit camp' on October 10th of the same year. "In the territory called the 'Generalgouvernement,' as in the Polish provinces which had been occupied by Soviet troops in the period between September 1939 and June 1941, the religious situation is such as to cause the Holy See lively apprehension and serious preoccupation. Without pausing to describe the treatment meted out in many cases to the clergy (priest" imprisoned, deported, and even put to death), the confiscation of ecclesiastical property, the closing of churches, the suppression even of associations and publications of simply and exclusively religious character, the closing of the Catholic secondary and higher schools and of the Catholic University of Lublin, let it suffice to recall two series of specially grave measures: those which affect the seminaries and those which weigh on the Episcopate. "When the buildings of the various seminaries had been completely or in part occupied, the intention for some time (November 1940-February 1941) was to reduce these institutions for the training of priests to two-those of Krakow and Sandomierz; then the others revere permitted to reopen, but only on condition that no new students were admitted, which in practice inevitably means that all these institutions will soon be closed." I skip one paragraph here. "Mention has several times been made of ecclesiastics deported or confined in concentration camps. The majority of them were transferred to the Altreich, where their number already exceeds a thousand."
THE PRESIDENT: What was the "Altreich"?
COL. WHEELER: The Altreich is the Old Reich of Germany.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COL. WHEELER: "When the Holy See asked that they should be liberated and be permitted to emigrate to neutral countries of Europe or America (1940), the petition was refused; it was only promised that they should all be collected in the concentration camp at Dachau, that they should be dispensed from too hard labor, and that some should be permitted to say Mass, which the others could hear. "The treatment of the ecclesiastics interned at Dachau, which, for a certain time in 1941 was in fact somewhat mitigated, worsened again at the end of that year. Particularly sorrowful were the announcements which for many months in 1942 came from that camp of the frequent deaths of priests, even of some young priests among them." I pass by two paragraphs. "Polish Catholics are not allowed to contract marriage in the territory of the Altreich; just as requests for religious instruction or instruction in preparation for confession and Holy Communion for the children of these workers are, in principle, not accepted." What happened to complaints-even from the Vatican-as to religious affairs in the overrun territories is disclosed in Document Number 3266-PS, Exhibit Number USA-573, which I now offer in evidence. This is a letter from the Cardinal Archbishop of Breslau to the Papal Secretary of State, dated December 7, 1942. It bears a Vatican authentication similar to those already read. This letter lays at the door of the Party Chancellery the responsibility for determining the policy and exercising final authority on religious questions in the occupied territories. I quote from Page 1, the first paragraph of this letter, and remind the Court that the Defendant Bormann was at that time Chief of the Nazi Party Chancellery and that the Defendant Kaltenbrunner was the Chief of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, the RSHA.
COL. WHEELER: I quote from Document 3266-PS, beginning with the sixth line: "About some of the gravest injuries inflicted on the Church, I not only protested on each occasion as the individual incident occurred, but I also made a most formal protest about them in globe in a document which, as spokesman of the Hierarchy, I sent to the supreme ruler of the State and to the ministries of the Reich on December 10th, 1941. Not a word by way of answer has been sent to us. "Your Eminence knows very well the greatest difficulty in the way of opening negotiations comes from the overruling authority which the 'National Socialist Party Chancery' exercises in relation to the Chancery of the Reich and to the single Reich ministries. This 'Parteikanzlei' directs the course to be followed by the State, whereas the ministries and the Chancellery of the Reich are obliged and compelled to adjust their decrees to these directions. Besides, there is the fact that the 'supreme office for the security of the Reich,' called the 'Reichssicherheitshauptamt' enjoys an authority which precludes all legal action and all appeals. Under it are the 'secret offices for public security,' called 'Geheime Staatspolizei' (a title shortened usually to Gestapo), of which there is one for each province. Against the decrees of this central office and of the secret of flees there is no appeal through the courts, and no complaint made to the ministries has any effect. Not infrequently the councillors of the ministries suggest that they have not been able to do as they would wish to because of the opposition of these Party offices. As far as the executive power is concerned, the organization called the SS, that is, 'The Schutzstaffeln der Partei,' is in practice supreme.... "On a number of very grave and fundamental issues we have also presented our complaints to the supreme leader of the Reich, the Fuehrer.
COL. WHEELER: Either no answer is given, or it is apparently edited by the above-mentioned Party Chancery, which does not consider itself bound by the Concordat made with the Holy See." I now offer in evidence Document Number 3279-PS, Exhibit Number USA-574. This is an excerpt from Charge Number 17 against the Defendant Hans Frank, Governor General of Poland, entitled, "Maltreatment and Persecution of the Catholic Clergy in the Western Provinces," submitted by the Polish Government under the terms of Article 21 of the Four-Power-Agreement of August 8, 1945. This gives further figures indicating the extent of the persecution of priests. I quote: "The extract attached hereto and dealing with the 'General Conditions and Results of the Persecution' is taken from the text of Charge 17, Page 5, paragraph IV, of the Polish Government against the defendants named in the Indictment before the International Military Tribunal, subject: 'Maltreatment and Persecution of the Catholic Clergy in the Incorporated Western Provinces of Poland.' It is a true translation into English of the original Polish. "It is submitted herewith to the International Military Tribunal in accordance with Article 21 of the Charter of the Court." Signed: "Dr. Tadeusz Cyprian, Polish Deputy Representative on the United Nations War Crimes Commission in London, signing on behalf of the Polish Government and of the Main Commission for Investigation of German War Crimes in Poland, whose seal I hereby attach."
THE PRESIDENT: I don't think you need read such certificates as that.
COL. WHEELER: This is the only one; Sir, that I have. I now read from this extract: "General Conditions and Results of the Persecution: "11. The general situation of the clergy in the Archdiocese of Poznan in the beginning of April 1940 is summarized in the following words of Cardinal Hlond's second report: "Five priests shot; 27 priests confined in harsh concentration camps at Stutthof and in other camps; 190 priests in prison or in concentration camps at Bruczkow, Chludowo, Goruszki, Kazimierz, Biskupi, Lad, Lubin, and Puszczykowo; 35 priests seriously ill in consequence of ill-treatment; 122 parishes entirely left without priests. "12. In the Diocese of Chelmno, where about 650 priests were installed before the war, only 3 percent were allowed to stay, the 97 percent of them were imprisoned, executed, or put into concentration camps. "13. By January 1941 about 700 priests were killed, 3,000 were in. prison or concentration camps." I refer also to Document Number 3268(a)-PS, Exhibit Number USA-356, excerpts from the allocution of Pope Pius XII to the Sacred College June 2, 1945, which has already been introduced into evidence and read from extensively. I shall not read from that again. This gives some very revealing figures concerning the priests and lay brothers confined in the concentration camp at Dachau. The Tribunal will recall, from the previous reading of this document, the imprisonment of 2,800 priests and lay brothers in Dachau alone from 1940 to 1945, of whom all but about 800 were dead by April 1945, including an auxiliary bishop. This document presents a forceful summary of the principal steps in the struggle of the Nazi conspirators against the Catholic Church.
COL. WHEELER: In summation the Prosecution submits that the evidence presented to the Court proves that the attempted suppression of the Christian churches in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland was an integral part of the defendants' conspiracy to eliminate internal opposition and otherwise to prepare for and wage aggressive war and shows the same conspiratorial pattern as their other War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.
COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, before we present the subject of individual defendants, by agreement with our British colleagues, Major Elwyn Jones will now present a brief subject entitled, "Aggression as a Basic Nazi Idea."
MAJOR F. ELWYN JONES (Junior Counsel for the United Kingdom): May it please the Tribunal, it is now my duty to draw to the Tribunal's attention a document which became the statement of faith of these defendants. I refer to Hitler's Mein Kampf. It is perhaps appropriate that this should be considered at this stage of the Trial just before the Prosecution presents to the Tribunal the evidence against the individual defendants under Counts One and Two of the Indictment, for this book, Mein Kampf, gave to the defendants adequate foreknowledge of the unlawful aims of the Nazi leadership. It was not only Hitler's political testament; by adoption it became theirs. This book, Mein Kampf, might be described as the blueprint of Nazi aggression. Its whole tenor and content enforce the Prosecution's submission that the Nazi pursuit of aggressive designs was no mere accident arising out of the immediate political situation in Europe and the world which existed during the period of Nazi power. Mein Kampf establishes unequivocally that the use of aggressive war to serve their aims in foreign policy was part of the very creed of the Nazi Party. A great German philosopher has said that "ideas have hands and feet." It became the deliberate aim of these defendants to see to it that the ideas, doctrines, and policies of Mein Kampf should become the active faith and guide for action of the German nation, and particularly of its malleable youth. As my American colleagues have already submitted to the Tribunal, from 1933 to 1939 an extensive indoctrination in the ideas of Mein Kampf was pursued in the schools and universities of Germany, as well as in the Hitler Youth under the direction of the Defendant Baldur van Schirach and in the SA and SS and amongst the German population as a whole by the agency of the Defendant Rosenberg. A copy of this book Mein Kampf was officially presented to all newly married couples in Germany, and I now hand to the Tribunal such a wedding present from the Nazis to the newlyweds of Germany and for the purposes of the record it will be Exhibit GB-128 (Document Number D-660).
MAJOR F. ELWYN JONES (Junior Counsel for the United Kingdom): The Tribunal will see that the dedication on the flyleaf of that copy reads: "To the newly-married couple, Friedrich Rosebrock and Else nee zum Beck, with best wishes for a happy and blessed marriage. Presented by the Communal Administration on the occasion of their marriage on the 14th of November 1940. For the Mayor, the Registrar." The Tribunal will see, at the bottom of the page opposite to the contents page, that that edition of Mein Kampf, which was the 1940 edition, brought the number of copies of Mein Kampf published to 6,250,000. This was the scale upon which this book was distributed. It was blasphemously called "the bible of the German people". As a result of the efforts of the defendants and their confederates, this book poisoned a generation and distorted the outlook of a whole people. As the SS General Von dem Bach-Zelewski indicated yesterday, if you preach for years, as long as 10 years, that the Slav peoples are inferior races and that the Jews are subhuman, then it must logically follow that the killing of millions of these human beings is accepted as a natural phenomenon. From Mein Kampf the my leads directly to the furnaces of Auschwitz and the gas chambers of Maidanek. What the commandments of Mein Kampf were I shall seek to indicate to the Tribunal by quotations from the book, which are set out in the extracts which I trust are now before the Tribunal. Those extracts are set out in the order in which I shall, with the Tribunal's permission, refer to them. Now these quotations fall into two main categories. The first category is that of general expression of Hitler's belief in the necessity of force as the means of solving international problems. The second category is that of Hitler's more explicit declarations on the policy which Germany must pursue. Most of the quotations in the second category come from the last three Chapters, 13, 14, and 15 of Part II of Mein Kampf, in which Hitler's views on foreign policy were expounded.
MAJOR F. ELWYN JONES (Junior Counsel for the United Kingdom): The significance of that fact will be realized if the Tribunal looks at the German edition of Mein Kampf. The Tribunal will observe that Part II of Mein Kampf was first published in 1927, that is to say, less than 2 years after the Locarno Pact and within a few months of Germany's entry into the League of Nations. The date of the publication of these passages, therefore, brands them as a repudiation of the policy of international co-operation embarked upon by Stresemann and as a deliberate defiance of the attempt to establish, through the League of Nations, the rule of law in international affairs. First I place before the Tribunal some quotations showing the general views held by Hitler and accepted and propagated by the defendants about war and aggression generally. The first quotation, from Page 556 of Mein Kampf, reads: "The soil on which we now live was not a gift bestowed by Heaven on our forefathers. But they had to conquer it by risking their lives. So also in the future our people will not obtain territory and therewith the means of existence as a favor from any other people, but will have to win it by the power of a triumphant sword." On Page 145 Hitler revealed his own personal attitude to war. Of the years of peace before 1914 he wrote: "Thus I used to think it an ill-deserved stroke of bad luck that I had arrived too late on this terrestrial globe, and I felt chagrined at the idea that my life would have to run its course along peaceful and orderly lines. As a boy I was anything but a pacifist and all attempts to make me so proved futile." Generally, Hitler wrote of war in this way. On Page 162 we find: "In regard to the part played by humane feeling, Moltke stated that in time of war the essential thing is to get a decision as quickly as possible and that the most ruthless methods of fighting are at the same time the most humane. When people attempt to answer this reasoning by 'highfalutin' talk about aesthetics, et cetera, only one answer can be given.
MAJOR F. ELWYN JONES (Junior Counsel for the United Kingdom): It is that the vital questions involved in the struggle of a nation for its existence must not be subordinated to any aesthetic consideration." How faithfully these precepts of ruthlessness were followed by the defendants the Prosecution will prove in the course of this Trial. Hitler's assumption of an inevitable law of struggle for survival linked up in Chapter 11 of Book I of Mein Kampf, with the doctrine of Aryan superiority over other races and the right of Germans, in virtue of this superiority, to dominate and use other peoples as instruments for their own ends. The whole of Chapter 11 of Mein Kampf is dedicated to this master race theory, and, indeed, many of the later speeches of Hitler, his addresses to his generals and so forth, were mainly repetitive of Chapter 11. If the Court will look at the extract from Page 256, it reads as follows: "Had it not been possible for them to employ members of the inferior race which they conquered, the Aryans would never have been in a position to take the first steps on the road which led them to a later type of culture; just as, without the help of certain suitable animals which they were able to tame, they would never have come to the invention of mechanical power, which has subsequently enabled them to do without these beasts.... "For the establishment of superior types of civilization the members of inferior races formed one of the most essential prerequisites ...." And in a later passage in Mein Kampf, at Page 344, Hitler applies these general ideas to Germany: "If in its historical development the German people had possessed the unity of the herd by which other people have so much benefited, then the German Reich would probably be mistress of the globe today.
MAJOR F. ELWYN JONES (Junior Counsel for the United Kingdom): World history would have taken another course, and in this case no man can tell if what many blinded pacifists hope to attain by petitioning, whining, and crying may not have been reached in this way: namely, a peace which would not be based upon the waving of olive branches by tearful misery-mongering of pacifist old women, but a peace that would be guaranteed by the triumphant sword of a people endowed with the power to master the world and administer it in the service of a higher civilization." In these passages which I have quoted, the Tribunal will have noticed Hitler's love of war and scorn of those whom he described as pacifists. The underlying message of the whole of this book, - which appears again and again, is: Firstly, that the struggle for existence requires the organization and use of force; secondly, that the Aryan German is superior to other races and has the right to conquer and rule them; thirdly, that all doctrines which preach peaceable solutions of international problems represent a disastrous weakness in the nation that adopts them. Implicit in the whole of the argument is a fundamental and arrogant denial of the possibility of any rule of lava in international affairs. It is in the light of the general doctrines of Mein Kampf that I invite the Tribunal to consider the more definite passages in which Hitler deals with specific problems of German foreign policy. The very first page of the book contains a remarkable forecast of Nazi policy. It reads-Page 1, Column 1: "German Austria must be restored to the great German motherland; and not, indeed, on any grounds of economic calculation whatsoever. No, no. Even if the union were a matter of economic indifference, and even if it were to be disadvantageous from the economic standpoint, still it ought to take place. People of the same blood should be in the same Reich. The German people will have no right to engage in a colonial policy until they shall have brought all their children together in one state.