dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
DR. PANNENBECKER: It has been made clear by abundant evidence in this Trial how far Hitler kept his true aggressive intentions secret, and how well he knew how to cover up the true aim of all his political measures for years with thousands of convincing reasons to justify the individual measures of his policy of aggression There was a very small circle of collaborators whom Hitler informed about his war plans, but this circle was not selected according to the position of the person concerned in the Cabinet, or according to his position in the Party hierarchy, but exclusively from the point of view of whether it was necessary for the person concerned, with respect to his own tasks in the field of preparations for the war, to know the aggressive character of Hitler's general policy or even his detailed plans of aggression. Document 386-PS, Exhibit Number USA-25, shows how systematically the principle of secrecy was kept, even as regards the older members of the Party and the administrators of important departments in the Reich Cabinet. Whoever, such as the Minister of the Interior, had merely to carry out measures within the framework of preparations for war which could well be similar to tasks of a purely defensive character was, in accordance with Hitler's principle, not informed of the latter's aggressive intentions. For this reason, the presence of the Defendant Frick is not shown in even a single one of these secret conferences in which Hitler informed a circle of selected men about his plans for foreign policy and his war aims. In the Document 386-PS just mentioned, Hitler especially emphasized and gave reasons for the exclusion of the Reich Cabinet as a body to which such plans should be made known. In another record concerning a similar conference-Document L-79, Exhibit Number USA-27-the additional principle is laid down that no one should be told anything concerning the war plans who does not need to know these plans for his actual work.
DR. PANNENBECKER: Frick's name is not only missing from the list of those present at Hitler's conferences on his policy of aggression which took place before the war, but the same applies also to the numerous con ferences concerning Hitler's further war aims and aggressive intentions which were held during the war. The Defendant Frick was no more informed of the later attacks or included in their preparation, as is shown by the list of those present at Hitler's lectures concerning his plans, which have in part been submitted here. Frick, purely an expert in domestic administration who was not considered competent for military questions and questions of foreign policy, was deemed good enough to organize the civilian administration for the eventuality of any possible war, but in Hitler's opinion, his foreign policy and military plans were none of Frick's business. However, the Prosecution asserts further that after the conquest of foreign territories and their occupation, the Defendant Frick regulated the administrative policy in those territories and that he is responsible for it. The Prosecution considers this activity, of the defendant, according to Article 6, Letter (a) of the Charter, as "participation in the execution of wars of aggression." According to the submission of the Prosecution, Frick exercised an over-all control of the occupied territories, especially in his capacity as chief of the Central Office for the occupied territories. On the basis of the same function, he is deemed to be responsible for all War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity which were committed in the occupied and incorporated territories before and during the war, up to his dismissal as Reich Minister of the Interior on 20 August 1943.
DR. PANNENBECKER: It is a question of legal interpretation whether the activity in the administration of occupied territories, pursuant to Article 6, Letter (a) of the Charter, is to be considered as the "execution of wars of aggression," or whether criminality comes into consideration only under the point of view of crimes against the rules of war or against humanity. In deciding this question it appears important to me that it is not one of the tasks of an official of a civil administration to examine, after the conclusion of military operations, whether it is a case of legal or illegal occupation according to the standards of international law. An obligation for such an examination would be an exaggerated demand to make of the department of the civil administration or the administrative chief, whose activity cannot be described as illegal on the grounds that the territory administered by him had been annexed a short or even long time ago in violation of the regulations of international law. There is no obligation for such examination in the practice of civil administration. The Charter moreover does not demand such an interpretation because, when naturally construed, the military operations themselves might be understood to constitute an execution of wars of aggression, but not the later civil administration of conquered territories. The punishment of crimes which occurred in the administration of the occupied territories would not be made impossible through such an interpretation. In any case these crimes are subject to punishment as Crimes against Humanity or against the rules of war according to the Charter. And now mention must be made of those territories in particular for which the Defendant Frick bears a responsibility.
DR. PANNENBECKER: First of all there are the territories which were incorporated in accordance with constitutional law into the commonwealth of the German Reich, which are therefore called "incorporated territories." By their constitutional incorporation these territories came under the administration of the Reich, but only to that extent did they come under the authority of the Reich Minister of the Interior, in that the Defendant Frick bears the constitutional responsibility of a minister for the internal administration of these territories up to 20 August 1943. In the East, this mainly concerned the territories of West Prussia, Posen, and Danzig, in other words, the so-called returned Eastern territories which belonged, until the Versailles Treaty, to the commonwealth of the German Reich. In the East, the Memel district received the same constitutional treatment; in the West, the Eupen-Malmedy district; and in the Southeast, the Sudetenland. Furthermore the country of Austria was incorporated into the commonwealth of the German Reich. For all those territories Frick has a share in the laws and administrative measures brought about by the incorporation. He bears the usual responsibility of a Minister of the Interior for the domestic administration of these territories up to the time of his dismissal in August 1943. For the territory of Bohemia and Moravia on the other hand there existed a special Protectorate Government, which was described as autonomous in the decree concerning the establishment of the Protectorate-Document 2119-PS-and was therefore not controlled by the Reich Ministry of the Interior.
DR. PANNENBECKER: In a similar way, an administration not dependent on the Reich Ministry of the Interior existed in the Polish territories, which were collectively designated "Government General" and were put under the jurisdiction of a "Governor General." In contrast to the so-called "incorporated Eastern territories," the Reich Ministry of the Interior had no right to issue orders or to handle administrative matters in the Government General, as can be seen from Document 3079-PS which contains Hitler's decree concerning the administration of the occupied Polish territories. The same appears from numerous other documents, among them Document USSR-223, the Frank diary, in which he states that no Reich central offices are authorized to intervene in the government of his territory. The same applied to all other occupied territories for which a special administration was established under any legal form. These separate administrations were not dependent on the corresponding departmental ministries in the Reich, but were under the jurisdiction of the administrative chief for the corresponding territories, who was himself directly subordinate to Hitler. This applies to the occupied Soviet Russian territories, the entire administration of which was under the jurisdiction of a Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories. The same applies to Norway, where a Reich Commissioner was appointed. In a similar way, a Reich Commissioner was appointed for the Netherlands, who was also independent of the Reich Ministry of the Interior and was directly subordinate to Hitler. In Luxembourg, Alsace, and Lorraine, there were chiefs of civil administrations who were also not dependent on the Reich Ministry of the Interior, while in Belgium and northern France there was a military administration of which the same was true. In the same way the administrative chiefs of the territories which were occupied in the Southeast of Europe were completely independent of the Reich Ministry of the Interior.
DR. PANNENBECKER: For part of the occupied territories there exists, in the decrees issued at the time concerning the creation of a separate civil administration, a stipulation that the Reich Minister of the Interior was designated the central agency, and from this formulation the Prosecution has deduced a responsibility of the Defendant Frick for the administration of all the territories, as is stated in the Indictment. The actual tasks of the central agency can be seen from the order concerning the establishment of a central agency for Norway- Document 3082-PS, or Number 24 in the Frick document book. The witness Dr. Lammers has given a further explanation of the tasks. At that time it was the primary task of the central agency to put personnel at the disposal of the chiefs of the civil administrations in the occupied territories on request. Therefore, if a civil official was needed for any district, the administration of the district concerned applied to the central agency in the Reich Ministry of the Interior, which then put some official from the Reich at the disposal of the chief of the civil administration. The Reich Ministry of the Interior was especially fitted for this, as it had at its disposal numerous officials of the domestic administration in Germany. But the transfer of an official from his own department to another office, which will alone give orders to that official from that moment on, does not establish responsibility for the further activity of that official in his new department, to whom the Reich Ministry of the Interior could issue no orders whatsoever. To take as an example: If the Minister of Justice transfers one of his officials to the Foreign Minister, naturally only the Foreign Minister is responsible for the further activity of this official. This activity of the central agency therefore does not justify the assumption of responsibility by Frick for the administration of the occupied territories. The requisitioning of officials for the occupied territories was concentrated in the Reich Ministry of the Interior.
DR. PANNENBECKER: That is, as the examination of the-witness Lammers indicated-and I quote from the above-mentioned Document 3082-PS-"the unified co-operation adapted to the needs of Norway, of the supreme Reich authorities with one another and with the Reich Commissioner." In like manner, the hearing of evidence for the Defendants Rosenberg, Frank, and Seyss-Inquart, who functioned as chiefs of civil administrations in the occupied territories, has on no occasion revealed any co-operation of any kind with the Defendant Frick either in his capacity of Reich Minister of the Interior or Director of the Central Agency in this Ministry. Now, the Prosecution has referred to several documents in order to prove that the Defendant Frick exercised extensive control over all occupied territories. Actually, however, those documents do not reveal an administrative activity of any greater extent than I have just stated. Document 3304-PS gives proof of an administrative activity for the incorporated Eastern Territories. This coincides with my statement that the incorporated Eastern Territories, in their internal administration, were subject to the Reich Ministry of the Interior by virtue of their constitutional incorporation into the German Reich. The document, however, bears no reference to the administration of the Occupied Eastern Territories, that is, the Government General or to the occupied Soviet Russian territories. The other document submitted, 1039-PS, Exhibit Number USA-146, proves the transfer of administrative personnel from the department of the Reich Ministry of the Interior to the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, a typical task of the Central Agency which I have already discussed. The Prosecution has submitted further documents which reveal that the Reich Ministry of the Interior had a hand in the bestowal of German citizenship.
DR. PANNENBECKER: Even this does not, however, prove any administrative authority of the Defendant Frick for the occupied territories, but merely a typical activity of a Minister of the Interior whose department is competent for the general regulations concerning German citizenship, including cases where persons living outside the Reich territory are involved. This activity of the Minister of the Interior can also furnish no proof of an extensive administrative policy and a general responsibility of the Defendant Frick for the administration of the occupied territories. In particular, in the occupied territories which were not incorporated into the Reich territory, Frick had no authority or competence whatsoever as far as the tasks of the Police were concerned. Hitler directly commissioned Himmler to carry out police work in the occupied territories-see Document 1997-PS, Exhibit Number USA-319, Hitler's decree concerning police security measures for the Eastern Territories, for which Himmler was directly responsible. The same is revealed by Document 447-PS, Exhibit Number USA-315, a directive of the OKW dated 13 March 1941, to the effect that the Reichsfuehrer SS in the Occupied Eastern Territories is charged with special duties in the execution of which he will act independently and on his own responsibility. The same applies to the police tasks in the other occupied territories, which were assigned either to the Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler or to the SS and police leaders who took their orders only from Himmler, although in many cases they were ostensibly assigned to the civil administrative chief in question, such as for example the Governor General in Poland (see excerpt from Frank's diary in the Frick document book under Number 25, also USSR-223). In no case, therefore, were police tasks in the occupied territories under the Defendant Frick's jurisdiction.
DR. PANNENBECKER: Consequently, the Defendant Frick bears no responsibility for crimes against the laws of war and against humanity in the occupied territories, since in these territories he could neither order crimes nor prevent them. Concerning the territory of the German Reich I must now examine the claim of the Prosecution as to the responsibility of the Defendant Frick for all the police measures, including the Gestapo, as well as for the establishment and administration of concentration camps. May I first refer to the documents submitted by me in evidence, which reveal that the Police, including the political police, was in 1933 still the concern of the individual states within the Reich, such as Prussia, Bavaria, et cetera. In Prussia, the Secret State Police (Gestapo) and the concentration camps were established and administered by Goering in his capacity as Prussian Minister of the Interior. The tasks of the political police were then transferred by a Prussian law, dated 30 November 1933, to the office of the Prussian Prime Minister, which was also administered by Goering. So when the offices of the Reich and the Prussian Minister of the Interior were merged, in the spring of 1934, Frick did not assume the tasks of the political police which still remained incumbent upon Goering in his capacity as Prime Minister. A similar regulation prevailed in the other states, where Himmler was gradually given the duties of special deputy for the political police. During this period, the Reich Minister of the Interior had only the right of so-called "Reich supervision" over the states, which Frick made use of for the enactment of general instructions and legal ordinances; and this is the only point where Frick, as Minister of the Reich, could exercise any influence on the affairs of the political police and concentration camps.
DR. PANNENBECKER: Frick made use of this possibility, in accordance with his basic attitude as confirmed by the witness Gisevius, to prevent and repress arbitrary actions by the political police as far as was in his power in the circumstances then prevailing. He endeavored, by the enactment of provisions of law and procedure, to restrict the arbitrary practices of the political police in the states. I refer to Document 779-PS, submitted by me as Exhibit Number Frick-6. This is a decree dated 12 April 1934, containing restrictive provisions of this sort under a significant preamble-which I quote: "In order to remedy abuses occurring in the infliction of protective custody." This is followed by directives to the governments of the states forbidding the application of preventive custody in numerous cases where it had previously been improperly ordered by the Gestapo. In this struggle of Frick against arbitrary actions by the political police in the states, the police had, it is true, ultimately come out better because they were under the direction of Goering and Himmler, with whom the "bureaucrat" Frick-as Hitler disdainfully called him-could not compare as regards influence in the Party and State. For that reason the political police in the states in practice frequently disregarded Frick's ordinances. But Frick did not stand by idly as long as there was reason to hope that through his intervention the unrestrained practices of the political police in the states could be directed into orderly and legally regulated channels. I refer to Document 775-PS, Exhibit Number Frick-9, a memorandum from Frick to Hitler which clearly and unequivocally calls a spade a spade, mentioning legal insecurity, unrest, and embitterment, and severely criticizing individual cases of misuse of the right to order protective custody by the political police of the states. Here I would insert that the same document also proves that in the struggle over the churches, the defendant clearly took their side. This is also proved by Exhibit Number Neurath-1.
DR. PANNENBECKER: In his testimony the witness Gisevius refers to an additional memorandum which he himself drew up for Frick as a further attempt to restrain through severe criticism and by suggestions for legal control the arbitrary practices of the political police in the states. All of these attempts failed because Frick's political influence was too insignificant and he could not assert himself against Goering and Himmler, and because at the time Frick himself could not yet see that the practices of Goering and Himmler were essentially in harmony with what Hitler actually wanted himself. Thus the documents submitted by the Prosecution, taken in conjunction with the evidence offered by the Defense, show that in the domain of the political police and in ordering protective custody, Frick had a certain competency at a time when the police was still a service administered by the individual states. This evidence also shows that during that time Frick's jurisdiction was very limited and it further shows that Frick, acting within the bounds of his competency, took action solely in order to intervene against the terror and arbitrary actions of the Gestapo through general instructions and through repeated complaints in individual cases, so that the conclusion is not justified that Frick in any way actively participated in the Gestapo's measures of terror and violence. At a later period the legal situation changed. With Hitler's decree of 17 June 1936-Document 2073-PS, Document Book Frick Number 35-police tasks for the entire Reich were combined and uniformly transferred to Himmler, whose department was formally made a part of the Ministry of the Interior under the title "Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior." The question now is whether this new regulation conferred on Frick, in his capacity as Reich Minister of the Interior, any authority of command or any right to issue instructions which could be enforced with regard to the political police, its offices and its functionaries.
DR. PANNENBECKER: When Himmler, in accordance with his own wish, which he could gratify because of his influence on Hitler, was appointed Police Chief for the entire Reich, there did not exist in Germany a police or security ministry, properly speaking. This is the reason why the uniform direction of the police through Himmler in person was formally attached to the Reich Ministry t>f the Interior. But Himmler wanted to be more than a department chief in the Ministry of the Interior. Therefore a position entirely novel in German administrative law was created for him and his purposes. The entire sphere of the police was separated from the rest of the activities of the Ministry of the Interior and placed under Himmler's special jurisdiction under a newly created title of office which, as a government office, contained the words "Reichsfuehrer SS," thereby making it possible for Himmler to carry out political police tasks under a title of office characterizing him as Reichsfuehrer SS and in that capacity giving him independence from any instructions issued by a minister of state. In order to accentuate further the independence of his office within the bureaucratic hierarchy as well, Himmler was given the additional right from the very beginning to represent police matters before the Cabinet independently and on his own responsibility, like any Reich minister; this is also shown in the decree concerning his appointment, Document 2073-PS. This decree is a typical example of the overlapping of competencies which Hitler favored to excess in his government system. Himmler became part of the Ministry of the Interior and, as an official of the Ministry of the Interior, was formally bound to abide by instructions of the Minister. However, he was also an independent Chief of Police with the-right to represent before the Cabinet on his own responsibility matters pertaining to the Police, thus excluding Frick in that respect. In addition to that, his orders simultaneously carried the authority of the Reichsfuehrer SS, in which Frick had no authority at all to interfere.