dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
GENERAL RUDENKO: We must give credit where it is due: As a lawyer he was far more correct in his depiction and formulation of the concepts of a criminal conspiracy than certain lawyers at this Trial who, basing themselves on obsolete ideas, endeavor to dispute the foundation for a conspiracy put forward by the Prosecution. It was at this government meeting, held jointly with the Police on 25 January 1943, that the then Governor General declared to Himmler's hyenas: ". . . I should like to state one thing: We must not be squeamish when we learn that a total of 17,000 people have been shot. After all, these people who were shot are also war victims . . . We must remember that all of us who are gathered together here figure on Mr. Roosevelt's list of war criminals. I have the honor of being Number One. We have therefore become, so to speak, accomplices in the sense of world history. For this very reason we must get together, we must feel together, and it would be ridiculous if we were to let ourselves get involved in any squabbles over methods." This appeal to murder is very far from the "interminable quarrels with the Police" which Frank's counsel has mentioned here. The defendant made a mistake about one thing: He was incorrect in defining his place in the dock. But he was not mistaken about the fundamental facts: He took his place in the dock as a "criminal in the sense of world history." Frick. The history of the development of the Nazi movement in Germany and the numerous crimes of the Hitlerites is indissolubly connected with the name of the Defendant Wilhelm Frick. As Minister of the Interior of the Hitlerite Government, Frick participated in the promulgation of numerous laws, decrees and other acts directed at the destruction of democracy in Germany, the persecution of the Church, the discrimination against the Jews, et cetera. Ida this capacity the Defendant Frick contributed actively to the creation in Germany of the Hitlerite totalitarian State.
GENERAL RUDENKO: Over a period of many years the German Secret State Police- Gestapo-which was to acquire a grim and ill-famed reputation was subordinated to the Defendant Frick. The directive concerning the extermination of old people and of the insane was issued in 1940 by none other than the Defendant Frick. In his function of Minister of the Interior in Hitlerite Germany, as testified by the witness Gisevius in this Court, Frick was fully cognizant of the vast system of concentration camps spread throughout the Reich, as well as of the existence in these camps of an inhuman regime. The part played by the Defendant Frick in the preparation and realization of the Hitlerite Government's aggressive plans was very considerable. He was a member of the Reich Defense Council as well as Plenipotentiary General for Administration. All the documents by which the Hitlerite conspirators legalized the incorporation by Germany of the territories seized were signed, among the other Hitlerite ringleaders, also by the Defendant Frick. In his capacity of Protector of Bohemia and Moravia the Defendant Frick bears personal responsibility for all the crimes committed on that territory by the Hitlerites. After the treacherous attack of Hitlerite Germany on the Soviet Union, the Defendant Frick's Ministry of the Interior participated. actively in creating the administration of the territories seized in the U.S.S.R. The administrative machinery of the German occupational authorities in the East was mainly staffed by officials of the Ministry of the Interior. There is no need to dwell once again on the part played by this administrative machinery, which had been created with the most active co-operation of the Defendant Frick, for the extermination, enslavement and the other inhuman actions carried out against the civilian population of the occupied territories. Frick bears full and direct responsibility for all these crimes, inasmuch as he was an active participant in the Nazi conspiracy. Streicher.
GENERAL RUDENKO: Notwithstanding the fact that during the war years the Defendant Julius Streicher did not formally hold functions directly connected with the perpetration of murders and mass executions, it is hard to overestimate the crimes committed by this man. Together with Himmler, Kaltenbrunner, Pohl, and those who conceived, constructed and brought into action the gas chambers and gas wagons; together with those who personally committed mass actions, Streicher must bear responsibility for the "monstrous crimes of German fascism. The incitement to national and racial dissension, the cultivation of perverted cruelty and the call to murder-all these not only represented the Party duties of this man for many years, they were also the source of his income. And it is not by accident that in his greeting to Streicher of April 1937, which is already known to the Tribunal, Himmler expressed his high esteem for the merits of the Sturmer and of its editor-in-chief. One can consider Streicher as the actual "spiritual father" of those who quartered the children of Treblinka. Had it not been for the Sturmer and its editor German fascism would not have been able to educate, at such short notice, those mass murder gangs who put into effect the criminal plans of Hitler and his thugs by murdering over 6 million European Jews. Over a period of many years Streicher spiritually corrupted the children and the youth of Germany. The detestable "children's editions" of Der Sturmer have been submitted to the Tribunal. And therefore, together with Baldur van Schirach, Streicher must bear responsibility for the selection of Jewish children from the Lvov ghetto for target practice by the morally perverted Hitlerjugend. It is not by accident that Von Schirach held Streicher's "historical merits" in so high esteem. The fanatical Nuremberg Laws were only the "beginning of the struggle" for this "Judophobe Number 1," as he called himself, who was also the organizer of the first anti-Jewish pogroms.
GENERAL RUDENKO: As the Tribunal will recall, after these laws were issued, Streicher called for the actual extermination of the Jews in Europe and wrote: "This problem will only be solved when world Jewry is exterminated." I will not dwell on the shameless and mendacious "ritual murder numbers" of Der Sturmer, intended to incite the SS men to the killing of millions of innocent persons and to justify any atrocity directed against the Jews. These proofs of Streicher's guilt, which were inter alia submitted to the Tribunal, are indisputable and of common knowledge. In 1939 he anticipated Maidanek and Treblinka and wrote that "perhaps graves alone will testify to the previous existence of Jews in Europe." In 1943, when the gas chambers of Treblinka and Auschwitz were already engulfing millions of victims, Der Sturmer published articles inciting to the liquidation of the "ghetto," articles full of lies and malice; and finally Der Sturmer could state with sadistical satisfaction, that "the Jews of Europe have disappeared." Streicher lied all his life. He attempted to lie here in Court. I do not know whether he believed he would be able to deceive anybody by these lies, or whether he lied from habit or from fear. But it seems to me that it must be apparent, even to the defendant himself, that his last lie will not deceive anybody and will never bring him salvation. Schacht. In carrying out a vast and complicated task, the Defendant Hjalmar Schacht played a prominent part in the preparation and realization of the criminal plans of the Nazi conspirators. Schacht's position, where his defense is concerned, is extremely simple. If he is to be believed, purely patriotic motives attracted him to Hitlerism. He was against aggressive wars but in favor of rearmament for Germany in order to maintain peace. He was all for the return. of Germany's colonies in view of establishing economic stability in Europe.
GENERAL RUDENKO: Having come to the conviction that the policy of the Nazi Government was directed toward excessive armament and thereby threatened with another world war, Schacht went over to the opposition. He sabotaged the measures taken by the Hitlerite Government and, as a result, he was persecuted as a participant in the plot against Hitler. Defendant Schacht now strives to depict the enthusiastic letters, full of expressions of loyalty, which he addressed to Hitler, as a method of camouflaging his true feeling of opposition toward the Hitlerite regime. Actually, Schacht's connection with the Nazi movement dates back to 1930. Schacht gravitated toward National Socialism, and both Hitler and Goering sought Schacht's support. Indeed the latter, with his vast connections in Germany's industrial and financial spheres, could, better than anyone else, render invaluable services to the Nazi movement. And this he did. As far back as 29 August 1932, in a letter addressed to Hitler, Schacht assured the latter of his loyalty. These were not mere words, for more than anybody Defendant Schacht played a decisive part in Hitler's advent to power. It was he, Schacht, who organized the demand formulated by the German industrialists for Hitler to be appointed Reich Chancellor. As early as 1932 he, Schacht, advised Von Papen, then Reich Chancellor of Germany, to hand over his post to Hitler. It was Schacht again who in 1933 on the eve of the Reichstag elections called a conference of industrialists who collected an election fund of several million marks for the Nazi Party. Hitler's closest follower, Goebbels, thus characterized the part played by Schacht and his importance in the creation of Nazi Germany. On 21 November 1932 he wrote down in his diary: "In a talk with Dr. Schacht I came to the conviction that he fully shares our point of view.
GENERAL RUDENKO: He is one of the few who absolutely agrees with the position of the Fuehrer." In his Leipzig spring fair speech on 4 March 1935 the Defendant Schacht himself defined his part in the Nazi State: "I can assure you that all that I do and say is in full agreement with the F0hrer and that I will do and say nothing that would not be approved by the Fuehrer. That is why it is with the Fuehrer, and not with me, that all decisions rest in economic matters." As expected by Schacht, Hitler appreciated his merits at their full value. On his advent to power in 1933 Hitler first appointed Schacht to the post of president of the Reichsbank then to that of Reich Minister of Economics and finally to the post of Plenipotentiary for War Economy. The Prosecution and the proceedings have clearly proved the extraordinary part played by Schacht in the preparation of Germany's armaments and, consequently, in the launching of aggressive wars. The former War Minister, Von Blomberg, testified that in 1937 the plans of the Armed Forces were nearing completion and that Schacht was informed of these plans and of their financing. Schacht was one of the most consistent supporters of the Nazi criminal plans. In a talk with the United States Ambassador Fuller on 23 September 1936 Schacht stated that: "Germany absolutely needs colonies. If it is possible, we shall acquire them by peaceful negotiations. If not we shall seize them." Speaking in Vienna in March 1938 Schacht declared: "Thank God, this could not hinder the great German people in its forward march because Adolf Hitler unified German will and German thought. He strengthened it with reborn 29 Juls'46 armed forces and in the end he gave an outer shape to the inner unity of Germany and Austria." Defendant Schacht was entrusted with extraordinary powers in the sphere of war economy. Over a period of many years Schacht cumulated the functions of president of the Reichsbank, Minister of Economics and Plenipotentiary for War Economy.
GENERAL RUDENKO: If only as a result of these important functions, the Defendant Schacht played an enormous and decisive part in the creation and resurrection of Nazi Germany's war economy and Armed Forces. This part of the Defendant Schacht is clearly described in the numerous laudatory letters which he received from Hitler. The Defendant Schacht, and no other, was the creator of the adventurous method of issuing so-called mefo bills, by which 12 billion Reichsmark were allotted, apart from budget allocations, to Germany's economy for purposes of rearmament. As mentioned before, the Defendant Schacht attempted, at various periods of his activities, to stress his alleged and everincreasing dissension with the Nazi regime. In reality Schacht was playing a double game. On the one hand he shielded himself from the responsibility for the criminal policy of the Nazi Government by flirting with persons who actually did strive to overthrow this regime; on the other hand he remained loyal to the regime to all intents and purposes. It was only in 1943, when the downfall of Nazi Germany became completely apparent to such a hard-boiled politician as Schacht, that he contacted more closely the circle of the opposition. However, true to himself, he took precautions for any event and did not actually do anything personally to overthrow the Nazi regime. That is why Hitler spared him. This is the portrait of the Defendant Schacht, and this is the part he played in Hitler's conspiracy and war crimes. It is the part of the creator of Nazi Germany's war economy and of an instigator of the second World War launched by the criminal Nazi Government. Funk. Walter Funk became a Nazi long before his official admission in 1931 into the membership of the NSDAP, and he remained a Nazi to the end. His economic knowledge, his experience as a journalist, and his extensive connections with the leaders of the German industry, trade, and finance were placed by him at the service of the Hitlerite conspirators.
GENERAL RUDENKO: An article published in the newspaper Das Reich on 13 August 1940, under the heading "Walter Funk-A Pioneer of National Socialist Economic Reasoning," read as follows: "Walter Funk remained true to his principles because he was, is, and always will be a true National Socialist, a champion devoting all his labors to the victory of the Fuehrer's ideals." The Fuehrer's ideals are only too well known. Funk devoted 15 years of his life to these "ideals." Funk declared that he had nothing in common with the SS but it was he, Funk, who transformed the vaults of the Reichsbank into depositories for the treasures plundered by the SS men in the eastern and other occupied territories. Funk personally gave the orders, after his negotiations with Himmler, to take into the Reichsbank the gold teeth and plates, the spectacle frames and other valuables belonging to the victims tortured to death in numerous concentration camps. The SS Gruppenfuehrer Hayler was Funk's deputy. Also under Funk's direction operated Ohlendorf, the murderer, with the death of 90,000 persons on his conscience. Funk, in supplement of Schacht's measures, placed the whole of Germany's economy at the service of Hitlerite plans for aggression and later on, the economy of the territories occupied by Germany. As early as May 1939 Funk, together with his deputy, Landfried, elaborated plans for financing the war and the utilizing of all economic resources of Germany and of occupied Czechoslovakia. On 23 June 1939, Funk took part in the conference of the Reich Defense Council which adopted detailed plans for the placing of all national economy on a war footing. Already at that time, Funk was not only informed of Germany's impending attack on Poland, was not only co-operating in the realization of this aggressive plan, but was also economically preparing new war and the seizure of new territories.
GENERAL RUDENKO: These were the "Fuehrer's great political aims" which were set out by Funk a few months later in his article entitled "Economic and financial mobilization." I shall mention one more document; on 25 August 1939, Funk wrote to Hitler: ' "Generalfeldmarschall Goering told me that you, my Fuehrer, yesterday evening approved the main points of the measures conceived by me for the financing of a war, stabilization of prices, fixation of wages, and the organization of an obligatory war contribution; this news made me profoundly happy." A long time before the treacherous attack of Germany against the U.S.S.R., Funk participated in the elaboration of plans for the spoliation of the riches of the Soviet Union. Funk attached his collaborators to Rosenberg's Ministry and to that predatory organization Economic Staff East. Funk's agents participated also in the plunder of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and other occupied countries. Funk was the president of the "Continental Oil Company," created for the exploitation by the Germans of the crude oil wells in the Occupied Eastern Territories, and especially, the oil fields of Grozny and Baku. Funk was in full agreement with the predatory aims of the war launched by Germany against the U.S.S.R. He made a speech on 17 December 1941 in Prague, to the erect that the East was the future German colony. Funk participated at the conference held on 6 August 1942 at Goering's office for the discussion of the most effective measures for the economic plunder of the occupied territories of the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, France, Norway and other countries. At this conference, as well as at the conference of the Central Planning Board, Funk participated in the drafting of plans for the deportation to slavery of millions of people from the occupied territories.
GENERAL RUDENKO: Such are the fundamental stages in the criminal activities of that Hitlerite conspirator, the Defendant Funk-Hitler's personal adviser on economic questions since 1931, Reich Minister and Plenipotentiary for Economy, president of the Reichsbank and member of the Reich Defense Council-during the period of the preparation and the realization of the criminal plan, the conspiracy. The guilt of Funk-this active participant of fascist conspiracy, for the crimes against individuals, for war crimes and crimes against humanity-has been fully proved and he must bear full responsibility for the evil deeds perpetrated by him. Schirach. Since 1931 and until the end of the war the Defendant Baldur van Schirach was at the head of the Nazi youth movement. After the publication on 1 December 1936 of a decree concerning the Hitler Youth, Von Schirach was, in his capacity as the Reich Youth Leader, directly subordinated to Hitler. In his deposition before the Court the Defendant Schirach, in his efforts to evade the responsibility for the education of German youth in the spirit of National Socialist ideas, made frequent references to the fact that the Hitlerjugend was a youth organization independent of the Nazi Party and the Hitlerite Government. To defend himself, the Defendant Schirach considered it both possible and relevant to refer to the great Goethe whose words-"youth itself educates young people"-he quoted with open cynicism. Goethe was, of course, right when he said that "youth itself educates young people." But he meant the healthy, normal, joyful youth, and not youth morally corrupted with the obscurantism of the Hitlerites, so clearly described by Hitler's words addressed to Rauschning: "We shall educate a youth before which the whole world shall tremble, rough, exacting, cruel youth. That is what I want. Our youth must possess all these qualities. It must be pitiless before the sight of suffering. It must be without weakness or softness.
GENERAL RUDENKO: I want to see the glint of the wild animal in their eyes." And the Defendant Schirach instilled systematically the ideas of Hitlerism in the conscience of German youth and educated the German youth in the spirit of Hitler's wishes, modeling them after the image of the arrant leaders of the Hitlerite gang. During cross-examination, the Defendant Schirach was finally forced to admit that the youth of Germany was brought up in the spirit of the National Socialist idea; that members of the SA, officers of the German Armed Forces and the SS participated in their education; and that intense military training of the youth was being carried out in Germany. For this purpose special agreements were made between the Reich leaders of Hitlerjugend and the OKW, as represented by the Defendant Keitel and the Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler, which provided for the education of youth in the spirit of aggressive militarism, and appropriate recruitment and the preparation of youth for the Armed Forces and the units of the SS. The part played by the Defendant Von Schirach and his participation in the common conspiracy, in war crimes and crimes against humanity, are characterized best of all by the behavior of German youth brought up in Hitlerjugend during the war. The Soviet Prosecution have presented to the Tribunal under Document Number USSR-6, in conformity with Article 21 of the Charter, a report of the Extraordinary State Commission about the crimes of the Germans on the territory of Lvov. This report records the declaration of the French citizen, Ida Vasseau, about the inhuman cruelty of the members of the Hitlerjugend against young children, whom they used as targets for shooting practice. In her written deposition of 16 May 1946, and also in her answers to the questionnaire of counsel for the Defendant Schirach, Ida Vasseau has fully confirmed this declaration.
GENERAL RUDENKO: Conclusive testimony about the actions of the members of the Hitlerjugend within the cadre of the Armed Forces was given by a German soldier, prisoner of war, Gert Knittel, himself a former member of the Hitlerjugend since 1938 on, who in 1942 at the age of 18 enlisted in German Army. Describing his participation in numerous crimes, Gert Knittel declared: "In the locality of Lishjask in June 1943 our company set fire to a house with a number of people in it. . . All who tried to jump out of the house, we shot down, excepting one old woman whom we did not shoot, as she lost her mind under our very eyes..." For all these crimes the Defendant Von Schirach bears full responsibility together with this Gert Knittel and tens of thousands of others. Schirach himself did not, of course, shoot, did not set on fire; but he did arm the German youth, morally corrupted them and prepared them for the perpetration of every atrocity. But the activities of the Hitlerjugend during the war and of the Defendant Schirach were not limited only to these crimes. The Hitlerjugend actively participated in the preparation of the war of aggression by creating fifth columns in Poland and Yugoslavia; the official reports of the Polish and the Yugoslav Governments testify to this fact. The Hitlerjugend organization took an active part in the execution of all the measures undertaken by the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, and this is proved by the report of the Defendant Rosenberg, presented to the Tribunal as Document Number 1039-PS; it also actively participated in the deportation for slavery, from the occupied territories, of children between the ages of 10 and 14, which fact is proved by a document presented to the Tribunal under Document Number 031-PS. In his capacity of Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter of Vienna, Schirach personally directed the eviction from Vienna of 60,000 Jews, who subsequently were exterminated in the concentration camps of Poland.
GENERAL RUDENKO: The documents presented by the Prosecution-weekly reports addressed to Schirach-prove the fact that he was informed of all the numerous crimes perpetrated by the German Armed Forces and the occupational authorities in the East and, in particular, about the tragic fate of the tens of thousands of Jews deported from Vienna. In 1940, the Defendant Schirach sent a telegram to Bormann, in which he demanded the destruction from the air of one of the cultural towns of Great Britain, as a reprisal for the murder of Heydrich, hangman of Bohemia and Moravia. This telegram is in itself a sufficiently vivid and convincing description of the moral aspect of Von Schirach's character. Faithful to the Hitlerite clique right until the end, aware of all its criminal deeds,' in which he himself had actively participated-the Defendant Von Schirach is one of the most sinister figures of the Third Reich.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn now. [The Tribunal adjourned until 30 July at 1000 hours.]