dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
COL. STOREY: In this letter the Chief of Staff, Main Office, reports to Himmler concerning the policy of the SS in suspending all payment of rent to monasteries and other church institutions whose property had been expropriated. The letter discusses a proposal made by the Reich Minister of the Interior, in which the Party Chancellery prominently participated, to the effect that the church institutions should be paid amounts corresponding to current mortgage charges on the premises without realizing any profit. The writer further suggests that such payments should never be made directly to the ecclesiastical institutions but rather should be made to the creditors of the institutions. I now quote from the fourth sentence on Page 3 of that document, the English translation, whereby such an arrangement would be in dine with "the basic idea of the settlement originally worked out between the Party Chancellery and the Reich Minister of the Interior." I understand the Reich Minister of Interior for 1933-1944 was the Defendant Frick. The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party participated in the suppression of religious publications and interfered with free religious education. In a letter dated 27 September 1940 Reichsleiter and Deputy of the Fuehrer Bormann transmitted to the Defendant Rosenberg a photostatic copy of a letter from Gauleiter Florian dated 23 September 1940, which expresses the Gauleiter's intense disapproval, on Nazi ideological grounds, of a religious pamphlet entitled, The Spirit and Soul of the Soldier , written by a Major General Von Rabenau. I now offer in evidence Document 064-PS, Exhibit Number USA-359. It is an original letter signed by Rosenberg attaching the copy of that matter. It contains Defendant Bormann's letter to Rosenberg, dated 27 September 1940, transmitting the Gauleiter's letter of 23 September 1940 to the Defendant Hess, in which the Gauleiter urges that the religious writings of General Von Rabenau be suppressed.
COL. STOREY: In his letter to the Defendant Hess, Gauleiter Florian discusses a conversation he had with General Von Rabenau at the close of a lecture delivered by the General to a group of younger Army officers at Aachen. This conversation illumines the hostile attitude of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party towards the Christian Churches. I quote from the second sentence of the second paragraph of the second page of the Gauleiter's letter to the Defendant Hess, which appears on Page 2 of the English translation-the second paragraph-and I quote: "After he had affirmed the necessity of the churches, Rabenau said, with emphasized self-assurance, something like the following: " 'Dear Gauleiter, the Party is making mistake after mistake in the treatment of the churches. Obtain for me the necessary powers from the Fuehrer and I guarantee that I shall succeed in a few months in establishing peace with the churches for all time.' "After this catastrophic ignorance, I gave up the conversation.... "Dear Party Member Hess, the reading of Von Rabenau's pamphlet, The Spirit and Soul of the Soldier , has reminded me again of this. In this brochure Rabenau affirms as before the necessity of the Church straightforwardly and clearly, even though he is shrewdly careful. He writes on Page 28: 'There could be more examples; they would suffice to show that a soldier in this world can scarcely get along without thoughts about the next one.' Because Von Rabenau has a false spiritual basis, I consider his activities as an educator in spiritual affairs dangerous; and I am of the opinion that his educational writings are to be dispensed with, by all means, and that the publication section of the NSDAP can and must forgo these writings...
COL. STOREY: "The churches with their Christianity constitute a danger against which a struggle absolutely must be carried on." That the Party Chancellery shared with the Gauleiter hostility to the Christian Churches is further revealed by the Defendant Bormann's instruction to the Defendant Rosenberg, set forth in Bormann's letter of transmittal, that Rosenberg take action on the Gauleiter's recommendation that the General's writings be suppressed. I now offer in evidence Document 089-PS, Exhibit Number USA-360, which is a letter from the Defendant Bormann, as Deputy of the Fuehrer, to the Defendant Rosenberg, dated 8 March 1940, enclosing a copy of Bormann's letter of the same date to Reichsleiter Amann. Amann was a top-member of the Leadership Corps by virtue of his position as Reichsleiter for the Press and Leader of the Party publishing company. In this letter to Amann Bormann expresses his dismay and dissatisfaction that only 10 percent of the 3,000 Protestant periodicals in Germany have ceased publication for whet are described as "papersaving" reasons. Bormann then advises Reichsleiter Amann that "the allocation of any paper whatsoever for such periodicals is blocked." I now refer to this Document 089-PS; and I quote the second paragraph of Bormann's letter to Amann, which appears on the first page-the second paragraph-of the English translation: "I urge you to see to it, in any re-allocation of paper to be considered later, that religious writings, which according to experiences so far gathered, possess very doubtful value for strengthening the power of resistance on the part of the people toward the external foe, receive still sharper restrictions in favor of literature politically and ideologically more valuable." I next offer in evidence Document 101-PS, Exhibit Number USA-361, which is a letter from the Defendant Bormann, again to Reichsleiter Rosenberg, dated the 17th January 1940, expressing the Party's opposition to the circulation of religious literature to the members of the German Armed Forces.
COL. STOREY: Among the soldiers of the United Nations the proposition that there are no atheists in the fox- . holes received a wide and reverent acceptation. However, in this document there is a contrary meaning, and I quote from Page 1 of the English translation, which reads: "Nearly all the districts"-that is Gaue-"report to me regularly that the churches of both confessions are as active as ever in ministering spiritually to members of the Armed Forces. This finds expression especially in the fact that soldiers are being sent religious publications by the pastors of their home parishes. These publications are, in part, very well written. I have repeated reports that these publications are being read by the troops and thereby exercise a certain influence on their morale. "I have at that time sought, by contacting at once the General Field Marshal, the High Command of the Armed Forces, and Party Member Reichsleiter Amann, to restrict considerably the production and shipment of publications of this type. The result of these efforts remained unsatisfactory. As Reichsleiter Amann has repeatedly informed me, the restriction of these pamphlets by means of the paper rationing cannot be achieved because the paper used for the pamphlets is being purchased on the open market.... "If the influencing of the soldiers by the Church is to be effectively combatted, this will be accomplished only by producing many good publications in the shortest possible time under the supervision of the Party.... "Also, at the last meeting of the Deputy Gauleiter comments were made on this matter to the effect that such publications are not available in sufficient quantities.... "I maintain that it is necessary that in the very near future we transmit to the Party Service Offices, down to the Ortsgruppenleiter, a list of additional publications of this sort which should be sent to our soldiers by the Ortsgruppen...." The Leadership Corps also participated in measures leading to the closing and dissolution of theological schools and other religious institutions.
COL. STOREY: I now offer in evidence Document Number 122-PS, Exhibit Number USA-362, which, again, is a letter from the Defendant Bormann to the Defendant Rosenberg in his capacity as the Fuehrer's Representative for the Supervision of Spiritual and Ideological Schooling and Education of the NSDAP. This letter is dated 17 April 1939 and transmits to Rosenberg an enclosed photostatic copy of a plan suggested by the Reich Minister for Science, Education, and Popular Culture for the combining and closing of certain specially listed theological faculties. In his letter of transmittal the Defendant Bormann requested Reichsleiter Rosenberg to take cognizance and prompt action with respect to proposed suppression of religious institutions. I now quote from the next to the last paragraph on Page 2 of the English translation, in which the plan to suppress the religious institutions is summarized, and which reads: "To recapitulate, this plan would mean, in addition to the closing of the theological faculties at Innsbruck, Salzburg, and Munich, which has already taken place, and the contemplated transfer of the faculty of Graz to Vienna, the elimination of four Catholic theological faculties: "a) The abolition of three more Catholic theological faculties or higher schools and of four evangelical theological faculties in the winter semester 1939-1940; "b) the abolition of one more Catholic and of three more evangelical theological faculties in the near future." From the foregoing evidence the inference is irresistible that the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party shares a responsibility for the measures taken to subvert the Christian Churches and persecute the Christian clergy, both in Germany and in German-occupied territories of Europe. The evidence just offered, together with that previously presented by the Prosecution, demonstrates that there was a general participation by the Leadership Corps, ranging from the Reichsleiter to the Gauleiter, adhered to by the rank and file, in the deliberate program undertaken to undermine Christian religion.
COL. STOREY: We stress the significance of the appointment of the Defendant Rosenberg, whose anti-Christian views are open and notorious, as the Fuehrer's "delegate" or "representative" for the whole spiritual and philosophical education of the Nazi Party. It was precisely this position which gave Rosenberg his seat in the Reichsleitung (the general staff of the Party), comprising all the Reichsleiter. But emphasis is placed, not merely upon the fact that anti-Christs such as the Defendants Bormann and Rosenberg held directive positions within the Leadership Corps, but upon the further fact that their directives and orders were passed down the chain of command of the Leadership Corps and caused the participation of its membership in acts subversive to the Christian Church. In Document Number D-75, which I believe has been introduced previously-and I am just going to quote one line from it-the Defendant Bormann stated, "Nazism and Christianity are irreconcilable concepts." The defendant was never more right, but he erred grievously by his prophecy as to which of the two would first pass away. I next turn to the responsibility of the Leadership Corps for the destruction of free trade unions and the imposition of the conspiratorial control over the productive labor capacity of the German nation. The evidence relating to the responsibility of the Nazi conspirators for the destruction of the independent trade unions has been previously introduced in evidence in the U.S. Exhibit G. which was the document book containing the evidentiary materials relating to the destruction of the trade unions. The brief evidence which I shall now present is offered to prove the responsibility of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party for the smashing of the independent unions and the imposition of conspiratorial control over the productive labor capacity of the German nation. Soon after the seizure of power, prominent members of the Leadership Corps participated in the smashing and dissolution of the independent trade unions of Germany.
COL. STOREY: The Defendant Robert Ley, precisely by virtue of his office as Reich Organization Leader and Reichsleiter in the Leadership Corps, was directed by Hitler, in mid-April 1939, to smash the independent unions. I will pass on now to Document 392-PS, Exhibit Number USA326; and I quote, beginning at the top of Page 1 of the English translation: "On Tuesday, 2 May 1933 . . . the co-ordination action against the free trade unions begins.... "The essential part of the action is to be directed against the General German Trade Union League (ADGB) and the General Independent Employees' Federation (AFA:Bund). Anything beyond that which is dependent upon the free trade unions is left to the Gauleiter's judgment. "The Gauleiter are responsible for the execution of the co-ordination action in their individual areas. The action will be carried out by the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization.... "The Gauleiter is to proceed with his measures on the basis of the closest agreement with competent Gau or regional factory cell directors.... "In the Reich, the following will be occupied: "The headquarters of the unions...." Then it lists a number of offices, and I previously quoted who was to be taken into protective custody. The next provision: "Exceptions are granted only with the permission of the Gauleiter.... "It is understood that this action is to proceed in a strongly disciplined fashion. The Gauleiter are responsible for holding the direction of the action firmly in hand. Heil Hitler!"- signed-"Dr. Robert Ley." The Defendant Ley's order for the dissolution of the independent trade unions was carried out as planned and directed. Trade union premises all over Germany were occupied by the SA and the unions dissolved. On the 2d of May 1933 the official NSDAP press service reported that the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization (NSBO) had "eliminated the old leadership of. free trade unions" and taken over their leadership.
COL. STOREY: I now offer in evidence Document 2224-PS, Exhibit Number USA-364, which is Pages 1 and 2 of the 2d of May 1933 issues of the National Socialist Party Press Agency. I quote from Paragraph 5 of Page 1 of the English translation: "National Socialism, which today has assumed leadership of German labor, can no longer bear the responsibility for leaving the men and women of the German working class, the members of the largest trade Organization in the world, the German trade union movement, in the hands of people who do not know a fatherland called Germany. Because of that, the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization has taken over the leadership of the trade unions. The NSBO has eliminated the former leadership of the free trade unions of the General German Trade Unions League, and of the General Independent Employees' Federation.... "On 2 May 1933 the NSBO took over the leadership of all trade unions; all trade-union buildings were occupied and most stringent control of financial and personnel matters of the organizations has been set up." As shown by this evidence, the assault on the independent unions was directed by the Defendant Ley, in his capacity as Reichsleiter in charge of Party organization, assisted by the Gauleiter and Party formations, and included the seizure of trade-union funds and property. In this connection I offer in evidence Document 1678-PS, Exhibit Number USA-365. This document is a report of a speech by Reichsleiter Ley on the 11th of September 1937 to the fifth annual session of the German Labor Front. In this speech Ley shamelessly corroborates the confiscation of the trade-union funds. I quote from Paragraph 4 of Page 1 of the English translation:. "Once I said to the Fuehrer: 'My Fuehrer, actually I am standing with one foot in jail, for today I am still the trustee of the comrades Leipart and Imbusch; and should they some day ask me to return their money, then it will be found that I have put it into buildings or otherwise spent it.
COL. STOREY: But they shall never again find their property in the condition in which they handed it over to me. Therefore I should have to be convicted.' "The Fuehrer laughed then and remarked that apparently I felt extremely well in this condition. "It was very difficult for us all. Today we laugh about it. . ." The plan of the Nazi conspirators to eliminate the free trade unions was advanced by the enactment, on 19th May 1933, of a law which abolished collective bargaining between workers and employers and replaced it with a regulation of working conditions by labor trustees appointed by Hitler. I refer to Document 405-PS, which is the text of the law, 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt I, Page 285. After providing in Section 1 for the appointment by Hitler of trustees of labor, this law provides, and I quote from Section 2 of the English translation of Document 405-PS: "Until a new revision of the social constitution, the labor trustees are to regulate the conditions for the conclusion of labor contracts. This practice is to be legally binding for all persons and replaces the system founded on combinations of workers, of individual employers, or of combinations of employers...." Having destroyed the independent unions and collective bargaining, the next step of the Nazi conspirators was to secure the Nazification in the field of industrial relations. I refer to Document Number 1861-PS, which is the text of the law of 20 January 1934, 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt I, Page 45. This law was entitled the "Law Regulating National Labor"; and it imposed the leadership principle upon industrial enterprisers and provided, in Section I, Paragraph 1, that the enterprises should be the leader of the plant and the workers would constitute his followers. I now quote from Section I, Paragraph 2, of the first page of Document Number 1861-PS: "The leader of the plant has full authority over the employees in all matters concerning the enterprise, as far as they are covered by this law. "He is responsible for the well-being of the employees.
COL. STOREY: The employees owe him loyalty in keeping with the principles of factory solidarity." The trade unions having been dissolved and the leadership principle superimposed upon the relationship of management and labor, the members of the Leadership Corps joined in and directed measures designed to replace the independent unions by the German Labor Front, the DAF, an affiliated Party organization. On the very day the Nazi conspirators seized and dissolved the free trade unions, the 2d of May 1933, they publicly proclaimed that a "United Front of German Workers" would be formed with Hitler as honorary patron at a workers' congress on the 10th of May 1933. I quote from the next to the last paragraph of Page 2 of Document 2224-PS, which was a release of the Nazi Party Press Agency: "The National Socialist Party Press Agency is informed that a great Workers' Congress will take place on Wednesday, 10 May, in the Prussian House of Lords in Berlin. The United Front of German Workers will be formed there. Adolf Hitler will be asked to assume the position of honorary patron." The Nazi conspirators employed the German Labor Front, the DAF, as an instrument for propagandizing its millions of compulsory members with Nazi ideology. The control of the Leadership Corps over the German Labor Front was assured not only by the designation of Reichsleiter of the Party Organization Ley as head of the DAF, but by the employment of a large number of Politische Leiter, or political leaders, charged with disseminating and imposing Nazi ideology upon the large membership of the DAF. I now cite Document 2271-PS, Exhibit Number USA-328, which is the Party Organization Book referred to yesterday, Pages 185-187; and I quote from the first page of the English translation, the first paragraph: "The NSBO is a union of the political leaders of the NSDAP in the German Labor Front. "The NSBO is to undertake the organization of the German Labor Front. "The duties and responsibilities of the NSBO have passed over to the German Labor Front.
COL. STOREY: "The political leaders who have been transferred from the NSBO to the German Labor Front guarantee the ideological education of the DAF in the spirit of the National Socialistic idea." Now, if Your Honors please, in addition to the evidence heretofore presented, the Prosecution submits that it is another evidence of crime that the Leadership Corps of the NSDAP was responsible for the plundering of art treasures by the Defendant Reichsleiter Rosenberg's "Einsatzstab Rosenberg." The definition of "Einsatzstab" is a "special staff," and I am told that the word "Einsatz" means "to give action to." In other words, it was a task force, a special staff: This subject, diverting from the text, had been prepared in connection with the general subject of "Plundering of Art Treasures"; and I shall now turn to the document books of the "Plundering of Art Treasures," because the citations now will be in this small book. I now pass to Your Honors Document Book W; and, may I say, diverting from the text, that the trial address, which is very brief, has, as I have been told by the Translating Division, been translated into all four languages; and, as I understand, Colonel Dostert will distribute it to all parties in their native languages. Also by way of explanation, in the beginning there is one reference here to the plundering of art treasures in the occupied portion of Poland which does not bear directly upon this subject but does on the general conspiracy; and I thought, in the. interest of time, that we might follow the presentation, because it is very brief. May it please the Tribunal, the sections of the Indictment which are to be proved at this point are those dealing with the plunder of public and private property under Count One, the Common Plan or Conspiracy. It is not my purpose to explore all phases of the ordinary plunder in which the Germans engaged.
COL. STOREY: However, I would bring to the attention of the Tribunal and of the world the defendants' vast, organized, systematic program for the cultural impoverishment of virtually every community of Europe and for the enrichment of Germany thereby. Special emphasis will be placed on the activities of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg; and the responsibility of the Leadership Corps in this regard is a responsibility that is shared by the Defendants Rosenberg, Goering, and Keitel, and by the defendant organizations; the General Staff, High Command, Gestapo, the Security Service, and the SS. Before I deal with the plunder of the cultural treasures by the Einsatzstab Rosenberg, I wish to reveal briefly the independent plundering operations conducted in the Government General of Occupied Poland by authority of the Defendant Goering and under the supervision of the Defendant Frank, the Governor General. In October 1939 Goering issued a verbal order to a Dr. Muhlmann asking him to undertake the immediate securing of all Polish art treasures. Dr. Muhlmann himself gives evidence of this order in Document Number 3042-PS found in the document book last introduced as Exhibit USA-375. THE; PRESIDENT: Are the documents in Book W?
COL. STOREY: Book W; yes, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: I was asking whether the documents in Book W are placed in or der of number in PS?
COL. STOREY: They are; yes, Sir; and the first one is found on the first page. I beg your pardon; 3042 would be in numerical order toward the end, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: I have it. I was merely asking for general information.