dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
COL. STOREY: And I next offer in evidence Document 674-PS, Exhibit Number USA-505. The Gestapo arrested, placed in protective custody, and executed civilians of occupied countries under certain circumstances. Even where there were courts capable of handling emergency cases the Gestapo conducted its own proceedings without regard to normal judicial processes. This document, 674-PS, Exhibit Number USA-505, is a letter from the Chief Public Prosecutor at Katowice, dated the 3rd of December 1941; and it is addressed to the Reich Minister of Justice, attention Chief Councillor to the Government Stadermann or representative in office, Berlin. The subject is "Executions by the Police and Expediting of Penal Procedure; without order; enclosure: 1 copy of report." I quote from the beginning: "About 3 weeks ago, six ringleaders (some of them German) were hanged by the police in connection with the destruction of a treasonable organization of 350 members in Tarnowskie Gory without notification of the competent court. Such executions of criminals have previously taken place in the Bielsko district, too, without the Public Prosecutor having knowledge of them. On 2 December 1941 the head of the State Police at Katowice, Oberregierungsrat Mildner, reported orally to the undersigned that he had ordered, with authority from the Reichsfuehrer of the SS as necessary immediate action, these executions by public hanging at the place of the crime and that deterrents would also have to be continued in the future until the criminal and actively anti-German elements-in the Occupied Eastern Territories have been destroyed or until other immediate actions, perhaps by the courts, would guarantee equally deterrent effect. Accordingly, six leaders of another Polish organization guilty of high treason in the district in and around Sosnowiec were to be hanged publicly today as an example. "About this procedure the undersigned expressed considerable scruples.
COL. STOREY: "Besides the fact that such measures have been withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts and are contradictory to laws still in force, a justified emergency for the exceptional proceedings by the police alone cannot, in our opinion, be lawfully recognized. "The penal justice in our district within the limits of its competence is quite capable of fulfilling its duty of immediate penal retribution by means of a special form of special judicial activity (establishment of a so-called Rapid Special Court). Indictment and trial could be speeded up in such a way that between turning the case over to the public prosecutor and the execution no more than 3 days would elapse, if the practice of reprieve is simplified and if the decision, where necessary, can be obtained by telephone. This was expressed yesterday to the head of the State Police at Katowice by the undersigned. "We cannot believe that execution by the police of criminals, especially German criminals, can be considered more effective in view of the shaken sense of justice of many Germans. In the long run they might, in spite of public deterrent, lead to even further brutality of minds, which is contrary to the intended purpose of pacifying. These deliberations, however, do not apply to future legal competence of a court-martial for Poles and Jews." I next refer to Document 654-PS, Exhibit Number USA-218, which has previously been introduced in evidence but bears on this subject; and I will simply summarize, in a word, what it provided. It states that on the 18th of September 1942 Thierack, the Reich Minister of Justice, and Himmler came to an understanding by which antisocial elements were to be turned over to Himmler to be worked to death. . That is in Document 654-PS, and a special criminal procedure was to be applied by the police to the Jews, Poles, Gypsies, Russians, and Ukrainians, who were not to be tried in ordinary criminal courts. I simply refer to that document as bearing on the same subject.
COL. STOREY: 2 Jan.46 Another document, which I will not quote from but cite to Your Honors, is the order of November 5, 1942 issued by the RSHA; and that is Document L-316, Exhibit Number USA-346. I don't think it is necessary to quote from that except to state that that letter provides that the administration-in fact, the last statement in it just before the signature provides: "The administration of penal law for persons of alien race must be transferred from the hands of the administrators of justice into the hands of the police." That is the part that connects the police with it, and I will not quote from the document otherwise. Now I next come to the subject where the Gestapo and the SD executed or confined persons in concentration camps for crimes allegedly committed by their relatives; and in that connection I offer Document L-37 in the first volume, Exhibit Number USA-506. That is a letter dated the 19th of July 1944-I call Your Honor's attention to the fact that it is dated in 194~sent by the commander of the Sipo and SD for the district of Radom to the foreign service office in Tomaszow. Parenthetically, that big Haftbuch that we introduced in evidence has a number of cases in connection with the district of Radom, and Your Honors will remember that it is a list of the people in the district of Tomaszow. The subject of this letter is "Collective Responsibility of Members of Families of Assassins and Saboteurs." I will read after the word "precedents": "The Higher SS and Police Leader East has issued on 28 June 1944 the following order: "The security situation in the Government General has in the last 9 months grown worse to such an extent that from now on the most radical means and the harshest measures must be applied to the alien assassins and saboteurs.
COL. STOREY: The Reichsfuehrer SS, in agreement with the Governor General, has ordered that in all cases where assassinations of Germans, or such attempts, have occurred or where saboteurs have destroyed vital installations, not only the culprits be shot but that also all of the kinsmen are to be executed and their female relatives who are above 16 years old are to be put into concentration camps. It is strictly presupposed, of course, that if the culprit or culprits are not apprehended, their names and addresses be correctly ascertained. Male members of kin include, for example: the father, sons (insofar as they are above 16 years of age), brothers, brothers-in-law, cousins, and uncles of the culprit. The same ruling applies to the women. The aim of this procedure is to secure joint responsibility of all men and women of the kin of the culprit. It furthermore hits most severely the family circle of the political criminal. For example, this practice has already shown, at the end of 1939, the best results in the new Eastern territories, especially in the Warta district. Experience shows that as soon as this new method for combatting assassins and saboteurs becomes known to these foreign people-this may be achieved by oral propaganda- the female members of a kin to which members of the resistance movement or bands belong will exert a curbing influence." Now the SD and Gestapo also conducted third-degree interrogations of prisoners of war; and I refer to Document 1531-PS, Exhibit Number USA-248. This document contains an order of 12 June 1942, signed by Muller, which authorized the use of third degree methods in interrogations where preliminary investigation indicated that the prisoners could give information on important facts such as subversive activities but not to extort confessions of prisoners' own crimes.
COL. STOREY: Now I quote from Page 2 of the English translation, Paragraph 2: "Third degree may, under this supposition, only be employed against Communists, Marxists, Jehovah's Witnesses, saboteurs, terrorists, members of resistance movements, parachute agents, asocial elements, Polish or Soviet Russian loafers, or tramps. In all other cases, my permission must first be obtained." Then I pass to Paragraph 4 at the end: "Third degree can, according to the circumstances, consist amongst other methods, of: "Very simple diet (bread and water); hard bunk; dark cent; deprivation of sleep; exhaustive drilling; also in flogging (for more than 20 strokes a doctor must be consulted)." On the 24th of February 1944 the commander of the Sipo and the SD for the district of Radom published an order issued by the Befehlshaber of the Sipo and the SD at Krakow, which is Document L-89, Exhibit Number USA-507, in the first volume. This followed closely the provisions of the previous decree that I have just quoted from; and I quote the first paragraph after the list of offices on the first page: "In view of the variety of methods used to date in intensified interrogations and in order to avoid excesses, also to protect officials against eventual criminal proceedings, the Befehlshaber of the Security Police and of the SD in Krak6w has issued the following order for the Security Police in the Government General, which is based on the regulations in force for the Reich." And then the regulations are quoted. The significance of this document is that it proves that as late as 1944 third-degree interrogations were still being conducted by the Gestapo. I next pass to the activity of the Gestapo and the SD as being primary agencies for the persecution of the Jews; and I do not intend to go into any of the evidence previously introduced, except to refer to the participation of these organizations.
COL. STOREY: The responsibility of the Gestapo and SD for the mass extermination program carried out by the Einsatz groups of the Sipo and SD, in the annihilation camps to which Jews were sent by the Sipo and SD, has already been considered; and I simply cite to the Tribunal the Document 2615-PS, which has previously been introduced and in which the number of Jews executed was referred to by Eichmann. I simply call attention that Eichmann was head of Section B IV of the Gestapo. That section of the Gestapo dealt with Jewish affairs, including matters of evacuation, means of suppressing enemies of the people and the State, and the dispossession of rights of German citizenship. The Gestapo was also charged with the enforcement of discriminatory laws, which heretofore have been introduced. I now invite Your Honors' attention to Document 3058-PS, Exhibit Number USA-508. I would like to exhibit to Your Honors that it is a red-bordered document signed by Heydrich himself and addressed to the Defendant Goering. It is dated the 11th of November 1938. I pass this to the reporter-and before it is passed to the reporter-there is an appendix attached to it to the effect that the matter had been called to the attention of the Defendant Goering. Now this concerns a report of activities of the Gestapo in connection with the anti-Jewish demonstrations, you will recall, in the fall of 1938. This is a report from Heydrich personally to the Defendant Goering. It is addressed to the Prime Minister, General Field Marshal Goering and is dated the 11th of November 1938. The previous documents showed that that activity occurred just before-and the order for it in connection with the Jewish uprooting or extermination: "The extent of the destruction of Jewish shops and houses cannot yet be verified by figures. The figures given in the reports-815 shops destroyed, 29 department stores set on fire or destroyed, 171 dwelling houses set on fire or destroyed -indicate only a fraction of the actual damage caused, as far as arson is concerned.
COL. STOREY: Due to the urgency of the reporting, the reports received to date are entirely limited to general statements such as 'numerous' or 'most shops destroyed.' Therefore the figures given will be considerably augmented. "One hundred and ninety-one synagogues were set on fire and another 76 completely destroyed. In addition, 11 parish halls, cemetery chapels, and similar buildings were set on fire and three more completely destroyed. "Twenty thousand Jews were arrested, also seven Aryans and three foreigners. The latter were arrested for their own safety. "Thirty-six deaths were reported and those seriously injured were also numbered at 36. Those killed and injured are Jews. One Jew is still missing. The Jews killed include one Polish national, and those injured include two Poles." I want to call Your Honors' special attention to the paper appended to that document: "The General Field Marshal"-that is Goering-"has been informed. No steps are to be taken. By order." It is dated the 15th of November 1938 and signed. The signature is illegible. Now in that same connection Heydrich was charged by the Defendant Goering with this entire program; and we next offer in evidence the original of that order, 710-PS, Exhibit Number USA-509. That is an order dated the 31st of July 1941. It is written on the stationery of the Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich, Commissioner for the Four Year Plan, Chairman of the Ministerial Council for National Defense; and it is dated at Berlin, the 31st of July 1941, and directed to the Chief of the Security Police and the Security Service, SS Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich: "Complementing the task that was assigned to you on 24 January 1939, which dealt with arriving at-through furtherance of emigration and evacuation-a solution of the Jewish problem as favorable as possible, I hereby charge you with making all necessary preparations in regard to organizational and financial matters for bringing about a complete solution of the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence in Europe.
COL. STOREY: "Wherever other Government agencies are involved, these are to co-operate with you. "I charge you furthermore, to send me before long an overall plan concerning the organizational, factual, and material measures necessary for the accomplishment of the desired final solution of the Jewish question."-signed-"Goering." The Tribunal has already received the evidence as to what the final solution of the Jewish problem was as conceived by Heydrich and executed by the Security Police and SD under him and under the Defendant Kaltenbrunner, which was enslavement and mass murder. Now, finally, in this presentation, the last activity of the Gestapo and SD to which I will refer is that these organizations were the primary agencies for the persecution of the churches. Already evidence has been received concerning the persecution of the churches. In this struggle the Gestapo and the SD played a secret but very highly significant part. Section C2 of the SD dealt with education and religious life. Section B1 of the Gestapo dealt with political Catholicism, Section B2 with political Protestantism, and Section B3 with other churches and Freemasonry. The Church was one of the enemies of the Nazi State, and it was a peculiar function of the Gestapo to combat it. It issued restrictions against church activities, dissolved church organizations, and placed clergymen in protective custody. I now want to offer in evidence Document 1815-PS, Exhibit Number USA-510. This is a very large file-this original document -and I want to quote only portions of it. This was a file of the Gestapo regional office at Aachen. It discloses that the purpose Of the Gestapo in combatting the churches was to destroy them, and I want to read the first page of the English translation from the beginning. This is dated the "12th of May 1941, at Berlin, from the RSHA, Section IV B 1, to all Staatspolizeileitstellen. For information: The SD Leit-Abschnitte; the inspectors of the Sipo and SD." I understand this word "Abschnitte" means sub-divisions.
COL. STOREY: The subject is "Concerning the Study and Treatment of Political Churches": "The chief of the RSHA has ordered that the tasks assigned to the SD and Sipo regarding control of the political churches, which have hitherto been carried out jointly by the SD Abschnitte and Stapostellen, shall now be solely performed by the Stapostellen"-which I understand means regional offices of the Gestapo. Then it refers to the plan for the division of work issued by the RSHA on March 1, 1941: "In addition to combatting opposition, the Stapostellen thus take over the entire Gegnernachrichtendienst"-I understand that word means counter-intelligence-"in this sphere. "In order that the Stapostellen should be in a position to take over this work, the Chief of the Sipo and SD has ordered that the church specialists, hitherto employed in the SD-Abschnitten, shall be temporarily detailed in equal rank to the Stapo offices and operate the 'Nachrichtendienstliche Arbeit"'-which means intelligence service in regard to the Church-"On the orders of the Chief of the RSHA and in agreement with the heads of Amt III, II, and I, those church specialists specified in the attached list..."
THE PRESIDENT: Is it necessary to give us the details of this?
COL. STOREY: No, Sir, I don't think so. At any rate, if Your Honors please, we quote from it; and it is simply a direction as to how they will proceed. Now then, later, on the 22d and 23rd of September 1941, they called a conference of these so-called church specialists attached to the Gestapo regional offices that I have mentioned. That was held in the lecture hall of the RSHA in Berlin. Notes were taken, and this same document contains notes of that conference. The program is shown; the plan is worked out in connection with the churches. I will just read the closing statement to these so-called church specialists; it is very short: "Each one of you must go to work with your whole heart and a true fanaticism. Should a mistake or two be made in the execution of this work, this should in no way discourage you, since mistakes are made everywhere. The main thing is that the adversary"-meaning the church-"should be constantly opposed with determination, will, and effective initiative." And then, finally, the last thing I would like to refer to in this document is on the eighth page of the English translation, which sets out their immediate aim and their ultimate aim: "The immediate aim: The Church must not regain 1 inch of the ground it has lost. "The ultimate aim: Destruction of the confessional churches to be brought about by the collection of all material obtained through Nachrichtendienst activities, which will, at a given time, be produced as evidence against the church of its treasonable activities during the German fight for existence." I understand that long German word means intelligence activities. Now, if Your Honors please, this concludes the factual, documentary presentation which I shall make in connection with the SD and Gestapo. Closely allied with it is the case against Kaltenbrunner, as the representative of these organizations, which will be presented immediately after lunch by Lieutenant Whitney Harris.
COL. STOREY: Also, there will be one or two witnesses who will be introduced in connection with these organizations and in connection with Kaltenbrunner. With that I should like to conclude, with just these remarks: The evidence shows that the Gestapo was created by the Defendant Goering in Prussia in April 1933 for the specific purpose of serving as a police agency to strike down the actual and ideological enemies of the Nazi regime and that henceforward the Gestapo in Prussia and in the other states of the Reich carried out a program of terror against all who were thought to be dangerous to the domination of the conspirators over the people of Germany. Its methods were utterly ruthless. It operated outside the law and sent its victims to the concentration camps. The term "Gestapo" became the symbol of the Nazi regime of force and terror. Behind the scenes operating secretly, the SD, through its vast network of informants, spied upon the German people in their daily lives, on the streets, in the shops, and even within the sanctity of the churches. The most casual remark of the German citizen might bring him before the Gestapo where his fate and freedom were decided without recourse to law. In this government, in which the rule of law was replaced by a tyrannical rule of men, the Gestapo was the primary instrumentality of oppression. The Gestapo and the SD played an important part in almost every criminal act of the conspiracy. The category of these crimes, apart from the thousands of specific instances of torture and cruelty in policing Germany for the benefit of the conspirators, reads like a page from the devil's notebook: They fabricated the border incidents which Hitler used as an excuse for attacking Poland. They murdered hundreds of thousands of defenseless men, women, and children by the infamous Einsatz groups. They removed Jews, political leaders, and scientists from prisoner-of-war camps and murdered them. They took recaptured prisoners of war to concentration camps and murdered them.
COL. STOREY: They established and classified the concentration camps and sent thousands of people into them for extermination and slave labor. They cleared Europe of the Jews and were responsible for sending hundreds of thousands to their deaths in annihilation camps. They rounded up hundreds of thousands of citizens of occupied countries and shipped them to Germany for forced labor and sent slave laborers to labor reformatory camps. They executed captured commandos and paratroopers and protected civilians who lynched allied filers. They took civilians of occupied countries to Germany for secret trial and punishment. They arrested, tried, and punished citizens of occupied countries under special criminal procedures, which did not accord fair trials, and by summary methods. They murdered or sent to concentration camps the relatives of persons who had allegedly committed crimes. They ordered the murder of prisoners in Sipo and SD prisons to prevent their release by Allied armies. They participated in the seizure and spoliation of public and private property. They were primary agencies for the persecution of the Jews and churches. In carrying out these crimes the Gestapo operated as an organization closely centralized and controlled from Berlin headquarters. Reports were submitted to Berlin and all important decisions emanated from Berlin. The regional offices had only limited power to commit persons to concentration camps. All cases, other than short of duration, had to be submitted to Berlin for approval. The Gestapo was organized on a functional basis. Its principal divisions dealt with groups and institutions against which it committed the worst crimes-which I have enumerated. Thus, in perpetrating these crimes, the Gestapo acted as an entity, each section performing its parts in the general criminal enterprises ordered by Berlin. The Secret State Police should be held responsible as an organization for the vast crimes in which it participated. The SD was at all times a department of the SS. Its criminality directly concerns and contributes to the criminality of the SS.
COL. STOREY: And as to the Gestapo, it is submitted that it was an organization in the sense in which that term is used in Article 9 of the Charter , that the Defendants Goering and Kaltenbrunner committed the crimes defined in Article 6 of the Charter in their capacity as members and leaders of the Gestapo, and that the Gestapo, as an organization, participated in and aided the conspiracy which contemplated and involved the commission of the crimes defined in Article 6 of the Charter . And finally, I have in my hand here a brochure published in honor of the famous Heydrich, the former Chief of the Security Police and SD; and I quote from a speech delivered by Heydrich on German Police Day, 1941, of which I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice: "Secret State Police, Criminal Police, and SD are still adorned with the furtive and whispered secrecy of a political detective story. In a mixture of fear and shuddering-and yet at home with a certain feeling of security because of their presence-brutality, inhumanity bordering on the sadistic, and ruthlessness are attributed abroad to the men of this profession." Those are the words of Heydrich, who was the former head of this organization. Does Your Honor want to go ahead?