dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: In France lists of Jews for "collective expatriation"--which meant, of course, deportation to the East--were made out in agreement with the Hoheitstraeger (EC-265, RF-1504). But knowledge of these deportations and of the treatment of Jews in the occupied territories was not confined to the Political Leaders in France. The August 1944 edition of the information circular, Die Lage , contained exact particulars of what was happening in Hungary. I quote: "It was a matter of course that the German offices in Hungary did everything possible after 19 March to eliminate the Jewish element as rapidly and as completely as was at all possible. In view of the proximity of the Russian front, they commenced with the cleaning up of the Northeastern area, (Northern Transylvania and Carpathian territory) where the Jewish element was the strongest numerically. Then the Jews were collected in the remaining Hungarian provinces and transported to Germany or German-controlled territories.... 100,000 Jews remained in the hands of the Hungarians to be employed in labor battalions. By the appointed day, 19 July, the Hungarian province was without any Jew. Here remarkable consistency and severity were used in the shortest possible time" (D 908, GB-534). We do not know who received copies of that paper, but we do know that the Defendant Doenitz contributed and that Gauleiter Kaufmann "might have received it." Moreover, it appears from what has been written on the copy we possess that that copy found its way to the NSDAP in the village of Hoechen near Aachen. Doenitz must have known what it contained; so must every other high-ranking Nazi official. Did Kaufmann and all his fellow Gauleiter know nothing of this hideous policy that their Government was pursuing? They say so, but they lie. Will you look at Document 49 of the document book which has been submitted in defense of the Corps of Political Leaders? It is a confidential information bulletin issued by the Nazi Party from the Party Chancellery on 9 October 1942.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: It deals with the preparatory measures for the final solution of the Jewish question in Europe and rumors concerning the conditions of the Jews in the East. It is a document which bears in the margin the remark "Open only for G and K," which may mean for Gau and Kreis. But it shows beyond all question that knowledge of these things went far below Kreis. Listen to what it says: "While the final solution of the Jewish question is being worked out, discussions are lately going on among the population of various parts of the Reich territory concerning 'very severe measures' against the Jews, particularly those in the Eastern territories. Investigations have shown that such statements-mostly in distorted or exaggerated form-were passed on by men on leave from various armies employed in the East who personally had the opportunity to observe such measures." You may think after what you have heard that it was not possible to exaggerate the "very severe measures" which the soldiers on leave from the East were discussing--and must have been discussing ever since September 1941 in every village and homestead throughout Germany. But even if they were exaggerated they are not denied. The article, which I append as a footnote, makes five main points: "a) The measures carried out up to that date, namely, elimination of Jews from the various walks of the German people, and expelling the Jews completely from Reich territory, were no longer possible by emigration. "b) The next generation will no longer consider this question as so vital. Therefore the problem must be solved by this generation. "c) The complete segregation and elimination of the millions of Jews residing in the European economic sphere remains a compelling necessity in the German people's struggle for existence. "d) Starting with the Reich territory and then going over to the other European countries included in the final solution, the Jews will in a steady plan be shipped to the East into large camps ... from where they will be either used for labor or sent still further to the East.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: "e) These very difficult problems will only be solved with ruthless severity." If they still deny knowledge of the real fate that awaited these Jews, not one of these defendants, not one of the witnesses who have given evidence before you or before your Commissioners, not one of the members of these organizations can deny knowledge of their deportation. And what could they have thought was the meaning of the phrase: "Their complete elimination is no longer possible by emigration"? On the mildest interpretation, this treatment of Jews in occupied territory is a war crime. The Leadership Corps is being mobilized to ensure that public opinion will not only condone, but support and encourage this war crime. If there were nothing else, this would stamp it as criminal. But it does not stop there. In the occupied territories the Corps of Political Leaders were as responsible as any others for the crimes committed against the local population. Frick on 16 December 1941, in giving Rainer his instructions on his appointment as Gauleiter of Carinthia, urged him in the strongest terms to germanize the Slovenes in the incorporated territory and eradicate the Slovenic language (USSR-449). My Lord, we strongly contest the suggestion of Dr. Servatius that it was admissible to germanize former German nations. The claim to germanize any Slav who was held in the old Empire has only to be stated, we submit, for its preposterous character to be seen. Gauleiter by themselves could not execute such orders. Their subordinates had to play their part. You will remember the instructions of 30 April 1942, issued by the Kreisleiter in Pettau to all Ortsgruppenleiter, for the removal of all Slovenian inscriptions from all religious and lay sites (USSR-143). We know that the business discussed at the Gauleiter Staff Conference at Marburg included the transfer to Serbia of 2,000, the placing of hundreds in concentration camps, and retaliatory shootings.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: In June of 1942, when the subject was the evacuation of the prison of Cilli, it is stated that the prisoners were to be transferred or shot to create the necessary space for a large-scale operation. On 13 July half of the 400 arrested are to be rendered harmless through delivery to a concentration camp or shooting. A similar incident, including this time the shooting of a priest, is told in the minutes for March. In Poland, too, the Political Leaders are co-operating in the appalling treatment of the local people. A letter from the Reich Security Headquarters in November 1942 to the directors of the SD Sections informs them of the iniquitous agreement between Himmler and Thierack by which a trial is to be denied to Poles, Eastern Nationals, Jews, and Gypsies (US-346). It is based on the impudent theory that they are inferior people living in the German Reich's territory. What is interesting in this argument is that there is to be no hesitation in informing the Gauleiter. What possible need could there be to inform the latter unless it was that his assistance and co-operation might be required? I pass to consider the evidence in connection with slave labor, which shows perhaps more clearly than the evidence we have in respect of any other particular crime, how deeply every branch of the Corps of Political Leaders was involved. Every witness that has been called by the Defense has denied all knowledge of or participation in the mistreatment of foreign laborers; but what is such evidence worth when you consider the documents which have been presented? The treatment of Polish agricultural workers, for whose care the Bauernfuehrer on the staffs of the Gau-, Kreis-, and Ortsgruppenleiter were particularly responsible, can be seen from the instructions issued to the Kreisbauernschaften in Karlsruhe in March 1941.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: They were instructions which were issued as a result of' negotiations between the State Peasant Association of Baden and the Higher SS and Police Leader in Stuttgart, and they were received with, I quote, "great satisfaction." The Polish laborer was no longer to have any right to complain. He was prohibited transport, entertainment, and religious worship; he was forbidden to change his employment; there were to be no time Emits to his working hours. I quote: "Every employer has the right to give corporal punishment to farm workers of Polish nationality.... The employer may not be held accountable in any such case by an official agency. Farm workers of Polish nationality should, if possible, be removed from the community of the home and can be quartered in stables, et cetera . No remorse whatever should restrict such action" (EC-68, USA-205). We ask: can it really be possible that instructions of that nature were issued in Karlsruhe and nowhere else? Is it possible that while the Poles in Baden were being treated like animals, in the next-door Gau they were being accepted as members of the family? This is the evidence of the witness Mohr, called on behalf of the Bauernfuehrer before the Commission. I quote: "In practically all cases, I think with very few exceptions, the foreign laborer was accepted in the farmer's family unit. He ate with the family and moved around in the circle of the farmer's family." In the industrial areas the responsibility for the care of foreign workers was in the hands of the DAF (Labor Front) Political Leaders. Sauckel had decreed in March 1942: "The food supply for the industrial workers in transit within the Reich is the duty of the DAF.... The care for the foreign workers employed in the Reich will be carried out... by the DAF in the case of non-farm laborers... All camps with foreign non-agrarian workers, regardless of who furnishes or maintains the camps, will be cared for by the DAP.... In the German Gaue, the Gauleiter will have the rights of inspection and control of the execution of these orders" (3044-PS, US-206).
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: It is unnecessary to remind you of the appalling conditions in which the workers of Essen barely existed (D-382, US-897). Once again I ask: is it possible that the Gauleiter, Kreisleiter, Ortsgruppenleiter, Zellen- and Blockleiter, and the Political Leaders of the DAF in Essen were unaware of these conditions, when the hutments in which the workers lived and the punishment cells in which they were confined and tortured are situated, as the photographs show, in the very grounds of the Krupp foundries and workshops, with the works railway running within a few feet of their doors, and with the Krupp cranes stretching almost above their roofs? It is said that if indeed any such conditions did exist in Essen, they were exceptional and due only to the chaos caused by Allied bombing. But it is not so. Before the bombing of Essen had started, the office chief of Krupp's Locomotive Construction Works was complaining that "the people came in the morning without bread and tools. During both breaks the prisoners of war crept up to the German workers and begged for bread, pitifully pointing out their hunger." (D-361, US-893). He went to the kitchens to try and find them food: "Since a few Russians had collapsed already, I telephoned Fraeulein Block and asked for an increase In the food as the special ration had ceased from the second day onwards. As my telephone conversations were unsuccessful, I again visited Fraeulein Block personally. Fraeulein Block refused in a very abrupt manner to give any further special ration." Fraeulein Block did not let the matter rest there. She reported it to the DAF, who requested Krupp's office chief to go and see them. The DAF representative "accused me, gesticulating in a very insulting manner, saying that I had taken the part of the Bolsheviks in too apparent a way. He referred to the law paragraphs of the Reich Government which spoke against it.... I then tried to make it clear with special emphasis that the Russian prisoners of war were assigned to us as workers and not as Bolsheviks.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: The people were starved and were not in a position to perform the heavy work in boiler-making which they were supposed to do." My Lord, I have stated, and Your Lordship can see, the fun story of how the manager tried to get bread for his workers, and I ask Your Lordship to pass on to the top of Page 29 and just look at the last sentence of the quotation; the last is typical of all I have said. The last two sentences of that paragraph: "Sick people are a liability to us and not a help to production. To this remark Herr Prior stated that if one was worth nothing then another was, that the Bolsheviks were soulless people, and if 100,000 of them died, another 100,000 would replace them" (D-361, USA-893). Nor can it be true that these conditions and this treatment were confined only to Essen. In March 1943 Goebbels found it necessary to hold a conference on the question of increasing production. The minutes of that conference report: "The hitherto prevailing treatment of the Eastern Workers has led not only to diminished production but has also most disadvantageously influenced the political orientation of the people in conquered Eastern territories and has resulted in the well-known difficulties for our troops.... The treatment of foreigners which, until now, was markedly different for subjects of Western and Eastern countries, will be put on a uniform basis as much as possible, particularly the living standards of the Eastern Workers will be raised" (315-PS, GB-537). We see from these minutes the attitude of the Party Chancellery-the Party Chancellery from which the Corps of Political Leaders received their orders. Its representative--I quote: "pointed out the controversies which are already appearing and which would result for the German population if more freedom were granted for the foreigners" (315-PS).
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: But the need for increased war production was all-important and, notwithstanding the fears his representative had expressed at the meeting in March, on 5 May 1943 Bormann issued from the Party Chancellery a memorandum to all Reichsleiter, Gauleiter, Verbandsfuehrer, Kreisleiter and Ortsgruppenleiter. They were instructed that the treatment of foreign laborers should become more humane, although at the same time it was "demanded by members of the German race that they observe the difference between themselves and foreign nationals as a patriotic duty.... Injustices, insults, trickery, mistreatment, and so forth must be discontinued. Punishment by beating is forbidden" (205-PS). Does not that document illustrate the utter lie that every one of these witnesses for the Defense has told? Does it not show more clearly than any other document the savage brutality with which the Political Leaders of the National Socialist Party were encouraging the people of Germany? Is it not almost beyond our comprehension that in these days of enlightenment in a great and civilized country orders should have been necessary from the Government to its Political Leaders to discontinue the mistreatment of men and women that they had deported into slavery? I pass on to the next paragraph. Lastly, upon this aspect of the case, you will remember the instructions issued by the Gauamtsleiter from Strasbourg in the Gau Baden-Alsace. Foreign women workers induced to sexual intercourse by Germans were to be taken temporarily into protective custody and then sent to another place of work. "In other cases the foreign female worker will be sent to a concentration camp for women" (D-884A).
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Their children, if they were racially satisfactory and hereditarily healthy, were to be seized from them immediately after birth to "go to homes for foreign children to be looked after by, the National Socialist welfare organization." The provisions of that order do little more than add a detail to the evidence we already have of the callous brutality which was prescribed by the Party for the treatment of foreign workers. But it is an important document because it shows how many branches of the Political Leaders were involved in this trafficking in slaves. Kreisleiter and the Kreisobmann of the German Labor Front were to report cases of pregnancy. In fact, as one might expect, it was the Ortsgruppenleiter that made the necessary enquiries. As well as to the DAF and NSV, the order was circulated to the Gau Propaganda Leiter, the Gau Press Leiter, the Gauamtsleiter for Racial Policy, for National Health, for Peasantry, for National Welfare, for Questions of Race, the Gau Political Leader of the National Socialist women's organization, and to similar staff officers on the Kreisleiters' staff. It is perhaps worth noting the action--or as it might more accurately be described, as a lack of action--which the National Socialist welfare organization took ... THE PRESIDENT [Interposing] : Sir David, could you tell us what the word "Kreisobmann" means?
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: It is the representative of the Labor Front on the Kreisleiter Staff, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Go on.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: I quote: "As far as I can find out up to now"--reports the Kreisleiter of Villingen--"there have been about 21 pregnancies; of these four abortions are said to have been carried out, during which two of the women died. Of the remaining 17 births, five were still-born. Welfare by the NSV has not taken place anywhere" (D-884A). You see again the Corps of Political Leaders working hand in hand with the Security Police and the SD and the Reich Commissar for the Consolidation of the German Race, another institution over which Himmler reigned supreme. On this subject it would almost be enough to say: It is admitted by Dr. Servatius, that the Political Leaders knew that the majority of the workers were forced. It is admitted that they supervised the condition of that labor. Thereafter res ipsa loquitur . Now the Attorney General has already addressed you upon the vast scale on which the murder of sick and aged persons was carried out. That "action" commenced some time in the summer of 1940, but long before, in pursuance of their racial policy, the Nazi Government were taking steps to improve the German race. One document we have, dated January 1937, is illuminating upon the part the Political Leaders were expected to take. It is a letter from the Gauleiter of Southern Westfalen setting out Hess's decree of 14 January 1937--I add: the eugenics--given by him and appropriated for the Party record; no other words can describe it; here is the quotation: "The question whether the person is an imbecile cannot be ascertained solely by carrying out an intelligence test, but requires detailed evaluation of the whole personality of the human being. This review shall not only take into consideration the knowledge and intellectual abilities of the supposed imbecile, but also his ethical, moral, and political attitude. A number of civil service doctors have, up to date, attached little importance to the reviewing of the personality as a whole. They have, up to now, hardly ever called for or used information regarding the political conduct of the supposed patient.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Now that the Party, by virtue of the decree of the Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior, is consulted in the proceedings on matters of hereditary diseases against Party members, it is the task of all Gauleiter to ascertain that the law regarding hereditary health will in future be used in the sense in which it was designed.... He must investigate whether the person about to be sterilized has achieved very outstanding merits for the National Socialist Movement. If the Gauleiter reaches this conviction and feels that he must use his influence to prevent the sterilization, he will report to this department" (D-181, GB-528). It needs little imagination to see the abuses to which a decree such as this might be put, abuses which might well prove a convenient weapon for the Nazi Party. That letter from a Gauleiter went to all Gauamtsleiter, Gau Inspectors, and Kreisleiter in his Gau. From the fact that it is stated that the Department for National Health was to carry out preparations for cases to be put before the- Gauleiter, it is clear that the Amtsleiter for that Department of National Health were also closely involved. My Lord, I have then collected the evidence on euthanasia, as the Tribunal was addressed by- the Attorney General and the evidence was being called to their attention by my learned friend Colonel Griffith-Jones. May I summarize what the pages contain in the interest of time? My Lord, the remainder of Pages 32 and 33 show the Church opposition to euthanasia and the Party support, and the addition at the foot of Page 33, and from there Pages 33a and 34 deal with the question of whether euthanasia is a war crime, and show the evidence that it was deliberately used in order to organize the population for war and restrict the number of useless mouths in the country during the war. You will remember the evidence of the extent to which mercy killing became general knowledge within a few months of its commencement. By July 1940 Bishop Wurm was writing to Frick. In August he was writing to the Minister of Justice.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: In September, having attained no satisfaction, he was writing again both to Frick and to the Minister of Justice. Bishop Wurm was talking about events in Wuerttemberg. They were not confined to Wuerttemberg, to Stuttgart, and Naumburg. several hundred miles away the same thing was happening in Stettin, as the letters of the Stettin supervisor to the Ministry of Justice and to Lammers of 6 September 1940 (M-151, GB-529), and Lammers' letter to the Minister of Justice of 2 October 1940 (M-621, 715-PIS) indicate. By August of next year the same thing was happening around Wiesbaden, as we see from the Bishop of Limburg's letter (615-PS, USA-717) to Frick, the Minister of Justice, and the Minister for Church Affairs. It was happening in Franconia also, and we happen to have a file which shows the part the Political Leaders of Franconia were taking. Can one doubt, when one reads those letters, that the same thing must have been happening in every other area in Germany where these murderous commissions were at work? Bormann writes to the Gauleiter of Franconia and one of his Kreisleiter on 24 September 1940: "It is natural that the representatives of Christian ideology speak against the Commission's measures: It must be equally natural that all Party offices should, as far as necessary, support the work of the Commission" (D-906). How can Dr. Servatius say of this evidence that it shows the Political Leaders had no part in the carrying out of these measures and that they had no knowledge of them? That one sentence from Bormann's letter is alone sufficient to justify a declaration of criminality against the Corps of Political Leaders, the corps which provided the heads of the Party offices which were to support those commissions. It was questioned during the cross-examination of the Defense witnesses for the Corps of Political Leaders as to whether this crime of euthanasia came within the jurisdiction of this Tribunal under Paragraph 6 of the Charter.