dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MR. DODD: More than that, individual prosecutions are going on, going forward before other courts which will record these outrages in detail. Therefore, we do not propose to present a catalogue of individual brutalities but, rather, to submit evidence showing the fundamental purposes for which the camps were used, the techniques of terror which were employed, the large number of victims, and the death and the anguish which they caused. The evidence relating to concentration camps has been assembled in a document book bearing the letter "S." I might say that the documents in this book have been arranged in the order of presentation, rather than, as we have been doing, numerically. In this book we have put them in as they occur in the presentation. One document in this book, 2309-PS, is cited several times, so we have marked it with a tab with a view to facilitating reference back to it. It will be referred to more than once. The Nazis realized early that without the most drastic repression of actual and potential opposition they could not consolidate their power over the German people. We have seen that, immediately after Hitler became Chancellor, the conspirators promptly destroyed civil liberties by issuing the Presidential Emergency Decree of February 28, 1933. It is Document 1390-PS of the document book; and it sets forth that decree which has already been introduced in evidence before the Tribunal and is included in USA Exhibit B. It was this decree which was the basis for the so-called "Schutzhaft," that is, protective custody-the terrible power to imprison people without judicial proceedings. This is made clear by Document Number 2499-PS, which is a typical order for protective custody. We offer it for that purpose, as a typical order for protective custody which has come into the possession of the Prosecution. It bears Exhibit Number USA-232. I should like to quote from the body of that order: "Order of Protective Custody.
MR. DODD: "Based on Article 1 of the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State of 28 February 1933 ( Reichgesetzblatt I, Page 83), you are taken into protective custody in the interest of public and order. "Reason: Suspicion of activities inimical toward the State." The Defendant Goering in a book entitled Aufbau einer Nation , published in 1934, sought to give the impression, it appears, that the camps were originally directed at those whom the Nazis considered Communists and Social Democrats. We refer to Document 232-PS, Exhibit USA-233. This document is an excerpt from Page 89 of the German book. We refer to the third and fourth paragraphs of the document, which I read as follows: "We had to deal ruthlessly with these enemies of the State. It must not be forgotten that at the moment of our seizure of power, over 6 million people officially voted for communism and about 8 million for Marxism in the Reichstag elections in March. "Thus the concentration camps were created to which we had to send first thousands of functionaries of the Communist and Social Democratic Parties." In practical operation the power to order confinement in these camps was almost without limit. The Defendant Frick, in an order which he issued on the 25th day of January 1938 as Minister of the Interior, made this quite clear. An extract from this order is set forth in Document 1723-PS, to which we make reference. It bears Exhibit Number USA-206. I wish to read Article 1, beginning at the bottom of Page 5 of the English translation of this order: "Protective custody can be decreed as a coercive measure of the Secret State Police to counter all hostile efforts of persons who endanger the existence and security of the people and the State through their attitude." I wish also to read into the record the first two paragraphs of that order, which are found at the top of Page 1 of the English translation: "In a summary of all the previously issued decrees on the co-operation between the Party and the Gestapo I refer to the following and ordain: "1.
MR. DODD: To the Gestapo has been entrusted the mission by the Fuehrer to watch over and to eliminate all enemies of the Party and the National State, as well as all disintegrating forces of all kinds directed against both. The successful solution of this mission forms one of the most essential prerequisites for the unhampered and frictionless work of the Party. The Gestapo, in its extremely difficult task, is to be granted support and assistance in every possible way by the NSDAP." The conspirators then were directing their apparatus of terror against the "enemies of the State," against "disintegrating forces," against those people who endangered the State "through their attitude."." Whom did they consider as belonging in these broad categories? Well, first, there were the men in Germany who wanted peace. We refer to Document L-83 (Exhibit USA-234).
THE PRESIDENT: What was the date of that document that you have been referring to, Number 1723-PS?
MR. DODD: January 25, 1938. It has already been introduced and is included in USA Exhibit B. This document consists of an affidavit of Gerhart H. Seger, and I wish only to read from Page 1, Paragraph 2 of that affidavit: "2. During the period after World War I, until I was committed to the Leipzig jail and Oranienburg Concentration Camp, in the spring of 1933 following the Nazi accession to power in January of that year, my business and political affiliations exposed me to the full impact of the Nazi theories and practice of violent regimentation and terroristic tactics. My conflict with the Nazis by virtue of my identification with the peace movement and as duly elected member of the .Reichstag representing a political faith Social Democratic Party) hostile to National Socialism clearly demonstrated that even in the period prior to 1933 the Nazis considered crimes and terrorism a necessary and desirable weapon in overcoming democratic opposition.'' Passing to Page 5 of the same document and the paragraph marked "(e)": "That the Nazis had already conceived the device of the concentration camp as a means of suppressing and regimenting opposition elements was forcefully brought to my attention during the course of a conversation which I had with Dr. Wilhelm Frick in December 1932. Frick at that time was chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Reichstag of which I was a member. When I gave an emphatic answer to Frick concerning the particular matter discussed, he replied, 'Don't worry, when we are in power we shall put all of you guys into concentration camps.' When the Nazis came into power, Frick was appointed Reich Minister of Interior and promptly carried out his threat in collaboration with Goering, as Chief of the Prussian State Police, and Himmler." This paragraph shows that even before the Nazis had seized power in Germany they had conceived the plan to repress any potential oppositions by terror, and Frick's statement to Seger is completely consistent with an earlier statement which he made on the 18th of October 1929.
MR. DODD: We refer to Document Number 2513-PS (Exhibit USA-235), which has also been received in evidence and has been included in USA Exhibit B. We refer to the first page of the English translation, Page 48 of the German text. On Page 1 the quotation begins: "This fateful struggle will first be taken up with the ballot; but this cannot continue indefinitely, for history has taught us that in a battle blood must be shed and iron broken. The ballot is the beginning of the fateful struggle. We are determined to promulgate by force that which we preach. Just as Mussolini exterminated the Marxists in Italy, so must we also succeed in accomplishing the same through dictatorship and terror."
THE PRESIDENT: This is the defendant, is it?
MR. DODD: Yes, the Defendant Frick. There are many additional cases of the use of the concentration camp against the men who wanted peace. There was, for example, a group called the Bibelforscher, that is, Bible research workers, most of whom were known as Jehovah's Witnesses. They were pacifists, and so the conspirators provided not only for their prosecution in the regular courts but also for their confinement in concentration camps after they had served the judicial sentenced and we refer to Document Number D-84, :Exhibit USA-236. This document is dated the 8th day of August 1937; and it is an order by the Secret State Police at Berlin, and I refer particularly to the first and last paragraphs of this order, as follows: "The Reich Minister of Justice had informed me that he does not share the opinion voiced by subordinate departments on various occasions according to which the arrest of the Bibelforscher after they have served a sentence is supposed to jeopardize the authority of the law courts. He is fully aware of the necessity for measures by the State Police after the sentence has been served. He asks, however, not to bring the Bibelforscher into Protective custody under circumstances detrimental to the respect of the law courts." And then, the Paragraph numbered "(2)": "If information regarding the impending release of a Bibelforscher from arrest is received from the authorities carrying out me sentence, my decision regarding the ordering of measures by the State Police will be asked for without delay in accordance with my circular decree dated 22. 4. 3Y, so that transfer to a concentration camp can take place immediately after the sentence has been served. Should a transfer into concentration camp immediately after the serving of the sentence not be possible, Bibelforseher will be detained in police prisons." The labor unions, of which I think it is safe to say the majority are traditionally opposed to wars of aggression, also felt the full force of Nazi terror.
MR. DODD: A member of the American staff, Major Willis, has already submitted evidence before this Tribunal concerning the conspirators' campaign against the trade unions. But the concentration camp was an important weapon in this campaign; and the Tribunal will recall that in Document Number 2324-PS, to which I made reference this morning, the Defendant Goering made it plain that members of the Social Democratic Party were to be confined in concentration camps. Now labor leaders were very largely members of that party, and they soon learned the horrors of protective custody. We refer to Document Number 2330-PS (Exhibit USA-237), which has already been received as part of USA Exhibit G. which consists of an order that one Joseph Simon should be placed in protective custody. We refer to the middle of the first page of the English translation of that order, beginning with the material under the word "reasons."
THE PRESIDENT: I think you should read the sentence before that-the two lines before it. The words are, "The arrestee has no right to appeal against the decree of protective custody."
MR. DODD: "The arrested has no right to appeal against the application of protective custody." Then comes a title: "Reasons": "Simon was for many years a member of the Socialist Party and temporarily a member of the Union Socialiste Populaire. From 1907 to 1918 he was Landtag deputy of the Socialist Party; from 1908 to 1930 Social Democratic City Counsellor (Stadtrat) in Nuremberg. In view of the decisive role which Simon played in the international trade unions and in regard to his connection with international Marxist leaders and central agencies, which he continued after the national recovery, he was placed under protective custody on the 3rd day of May 1933 and was kept, until 25 January 1934, in the Dachau Concentration Camp. Simon is under the grave suspicion that even after this date he played an active part in the illegal continuation of the Socialist Party. He took part in meetings which aimed at the illegal continuation of the Socialist Party and propagation of illegal Marxist printed matter in Germany. Through this radical attitude, which is hostile to the State, Simon directly endangers public security and order." We do not wish to burden these proceedings with a multiplication of such instances, but we refer the Tribunal to documents which have already been offered in connection with the presentation of the evidence concerning the destruction of the trade unions. In particular, we wish to refer to Document Number 2334-PS and Document Number 2928-PS, (Exhibits USA-238 and 239) both of which are included within USA Exhibit G. Thousands of Jews, as the world so well knows, were, of course, confined in these concentration camps. The evidence on this point will be developed in a later presentation by another member of the prosecuting staff of the United States. But among the wealth of evidence available on this point showing the confinement of Germans only because they were Jews, we wish to offer a document, Number 3051-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-240.
MR. DODD: This is a copy of a teletype from SS Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich, and it is dated the 10th of November 1938. It was sent to all headquarters of the State Police and all districts and subdistricts of the SD. We refer to Paragraph 5 of this teletype. Paragraph 5 is found on Page 3 of the English translation. It begins at the bottom of Page 2 and runs over to Page 3. Quoting from Paragraph 5: "As soon as the course of events of this night allows the use of The officials employed for this purpose, as many Jews, especially rich ones, as can be accommodated in the existing prisons are to be arrested in all districts. For the time being only healthy men, not too old, are to be arrested. Upon their arrest, the appropriate concentration camps should be contacted immediately, in order to confine them in these camps as fast as possible. "Special care should be taken that the Jews arrested in accordance with these instructions are not ill-treated." Himmler in 1943 indicated that use of the concentration camp against the Jews had been motivated not simply by Nazi racialism. Himmler indicated that this policy had been motivated by a fear that the Jews might have been an obstacle to aggression. There is no necessity to consider whether this fear was justified. The important consideration is that the fear existed; and with reference to it we refer to Document 1919-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-170. The document is a speech delivered by Himmler at the meeting of the SS major generals at Posen on 4 October 1943, in the course of which he sought to justify the Nazi anti-Jewish policy. We refer to a portion of this document or this speech, which is found on Page I, Paragraph 3, of the English translation, starting with the Words, "I mean the clearing out of the Jews": "I mean the clearing out of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish race. It's one of those things it is easy to talk about.
MR. DODD: 'The Jewish race is being exterminated', says one Party member, 'that's quite clear; it's in our program; elimination of the 500 Jews, and we're doing it, exterminating them.' And then there come 80 million worthy Germans and each one has his decent Jew. Of course, the others are vermin, but this one is an A-1 Jew. Not one of all those who talk this way has witnessed it, not one of them has been through it. Most of you must know what it means when 100 corpses are lying side by side, or 500 or 1,000. To have stuck it out and at the same time-apart from exceptions caused by human weakness-to have remained decent fellows, that is what has made us hard. This is a page of glory in our history which has never been written and is never to be written, for we know how difficult we should have made it for ourselves, if-with bombing raids, the burden and deprivations of war-we still had Jews today in every town as secret saboteurs, agitators, and trouble mongers." It is clear, we say, from the foregoing that prior to the launching of the aggression, the concentration camp had been one of the principal weapons by which the conspirators achieved the social cohesion which was needed for the execution of their plans for aggression. After they launched their aggression and their armies swept over Europe, they brought the concentration camp to occupied countries; and they also brought the citizens of the occupied countries to Germany and subjected them to the whole apparatus of Nazi brutality. Document Number R-91 is Exhibit USA-241. This document consists of a communication dated the 16th day of December 1942 sent by Muller to Himmler, for the Chief of the Security Police and SD, and deals with the seizure of Polish Jews for deportation to concentration camps in Germany. I am beginning with the first paragraph. It says, quoting directly: "In connection with the increase in the transfer of labor to the concentration camps ordered to be completed by 30 January 1943, the following procedure may be applied in the Jewish section: "1.
MR. DODD: Total number: 45,000 Jews. "2. Start of transportation 11 January 1943. And of transportation: 31 January 1943. (The Reich railroads are unable to provide special trains for the evacuation during the period from 15 December 1942 to 10 January 1943 because of the increased traffic of Armed Forces leave trains.) "3. Composition: The 45,000 Jews are to consist of 30,000 Jews from the district of Bialystok; 10,000 Jews from the Ghetto of Theresienstadt, 5,000 of whom are Jews fit for work who heretofore had been used for smaller jobs required for the ghetto and 5,000 Jews who are generally incapable of working, also Jews over 60-years old." l3 Dec. 45 And passing the next sentence: "As heretofore only such Jews would be taken for the evacuation who do not have any particular connections and who are not in possession of any high decorations. Three thousand Jews from the occupied Dutch territories, 2,000 Jews from Berlin-45,000. The figure of 45,000 includes those unfit for work (old Jews and children). By use of a practical standard, the screening of the arriving Jews in Auschwitz should yield at least 10,000 to 45,000 people fit for work." The Jews of Hungary suffered the same tragic fate. Between 19 March 1944 and the 1st of August 1944, more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews were rounded up. Many of these were put in wagons and sent to extermination camps, and we refer to :Document Number 2605-PS, Exhibit USA-242. This document is an affidavit made in London by Dr. Rudolph Kastner, a former official of the Hungarian Zionist Organization. We refer to Page 3 of the document, the third full paragraph. In March 1944, quoting: "Together with the German military occupation, there arrived in Budapest a 'Special Section Commando' of the German Secret Police with the sole object of liquidating the Hungarian Jews. It was headed by Adolf Eichmann, SS Obersturmbanfuehrer, Chief of Section IV B of the Reich Security Head Office. His immediate collaborators were: SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Hermann Krumey, Hauptsturmfuehrer Wisliczeny, Hunsche, Novak, Dr. Seidl, and later Danegger, Wrtok.
MR. DODD: They arrested and later deported to Mauthausen all the leaders of Jewish political and business life and journalists, together with the Hungarian democratic and anti-fascist politicians; taking advantage of the 'interregnum' following upon the German occupation lasting 4 days, they have placed their Quislings in the Ministry of the Interior." On Page 7 of that same document, the 8th paragraph, beginning with the words "Commanders of the death camps" and quoting: "Commanders of the death camps gassed only on direct or indirect instructions of Eichmann. The particular officer of IV B who directed the deportations from some particular country had the authority to indicate whether the train should go to a death camp or not and what should happen to the passengers. The instructions were usually carried by the SS non-commissioned officers escorting the train. The letters 'A' or 'M' "capital letters "A" or "M" on the escorting instruction documents indicated Auschwitz (Oswieczim) or Maidanek; it meant that the passengers were to be gassed." And passing over the next sentence, we come to these words: "Regarding Hungarian Jews the following general ruling was laid down in Auschwitz: up to the age of 12 or 14, older people over 50, as well as the sick, or people with criminal records (who were transported in specially marked wagons) were taken immediately on their arrival to the gas chambers. "The others passed before an SS doctor who, on sight, indicated who was fit for work and who was not. Those unfit were sent to the gas chambers, while the others were distributed in various labor camps." In the so-called "Eastern Territories" these victims were apprehended for extermination...
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, don't you want Page 5 for the numbers which you have stated "up to the 27th of June 1944"? You haven't yet given us any authority for the numbers that you have stated.
MR. DODD: Oh, yes. On Page 5 of that same document, 2605-PS, quoting: "Up to the 27th of June 1944, 475,000 Jews were deported." In the so-called "Eastern Territories" these victims were apprehended for extermination in concentration camps without any charges having been made against them. In the western occupied territories charges seemed to have been made against some of the victims. Some of the charges which the Nazi conspirators considered sufficient basis for confinement to the concentration camps are shown by reference to Document Number L-215, which bears Exhibit Number USA-243. This document is the summary of the file, the dossier, of 25 persons arrested in Luxembourg for commitment to various concentration camps and sets forth the charges made against each person. Beginning with the paragraph after the name "Henricy," at the bottom of the first page, and quoting: "Name: Henricy; charge:... by associating with members of illegal resistance movements and making money for them, violating legal foreign exchange rates, by harming the interests of the Reich and being expected in the future to disobey official administrative regulations and act as an enemy of the Reich; place of confinement-Natzweiler." Next comes the name of "Krier" and the charge: ". . . by being responsible for continuous sabotage of labor and causing fear because- of his political and criminal past- freedom would only further his anti-social urge; place of confinement-Buchenwald." Passing to the middle of Page 2, after the name "Monti": "Charge:...by being strongly suspected of aiding desertion; place of confinement Sachsenhausen." Next, after the name "Junker": "Charge: . . . because as a relative of a deserter he is expected to endanger the interests of the Greater German Reich if allowed to go free; place of confinement-Sachsenhausen." "Jaeger" is the next name and the charge against Jaeger, quoting: ". . .