dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
COL. STOREY: For example, as shown in Document 2903-PS, Goebbels was Reichsleiter in charge of Party propaganda, but he was also a cabinet minister in charge of propaganda and public enlightenment. Himmler held office within the Reichsleitung as head of the Main Office for Folkdom and also was Reichsfuehrer of the SS. At the same time, Himmler held the governmental position of the Reich commissioner for the consolidation of Germandom, and was the governmental head of the German police system. As will be shown, this personal union of high of lice in the Leadership Corps and high governmental position in the same Nazi leaders greatly accommodated the plan of the Leadership Corps to dominate and control the German State and Government. In addition to the Reichsleiter the Party Directorate included about 11 Hauptamter, or main offices, and about four Amter, or offices. As set forth in the exhibit, the Hauptamter of the Party included such main organizations as those for personnel, training, technology, headed by the Defendant Speer; folkdom, headed by Himmler; civil servants, communal policy, and the like. The Amter, or offices, of the Party within the Reichsleitung included the office for foreign policy under the Defendant Rosenberg which, the evidence will show, actively participated in plans for the launching of the war of aggression against Norway, the Office for Colonial Policy, the Office for Genealogy, and the Office of Racial Policy. As will be shown by the chart of the Leadership Corps in the folder which Your Honors have, certain of the main offices and offices within the Reichsleitung would appear again within the Gauleitung, or Gau Party Directorate, and the Kreisleitung, or Party county directorate. It is thus shown that the Reichsleiter and the main office and officeholders within the Reichsleitung exercised, through functional channels through the subordinate of flees lower regional levels, a total control over the various sectors of the national life of Germany. I shall next take up the Gauleiter.
COL. STOREY: As will be seen from this organizational chart of the Nazi Party now before the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USA-2, for Party purposes Germany was divided into major administrative regions, Gau, which in turn were subdivided into Kreise (counties), Ortsgruppen (local chapters), Zellen (cells), and in Blocks (blocks). A Gauleiter, who was the political leader of the Gau, was in charge of each Gau or district. Each Gauleiter was appointed by and was directly responsible to Hitler. I quote from Page 18 of this same document, 1893-PS, the Organization Book of the NSDAP: "The Gau represents the concentration of a number of Party counties"-or Kreise-"The Gauleiter is directly subordinate to the Fuehrer...." "The Gauleiter bears over-all responsibility to the Fuehrer for the sector of sovereignty entrusted to him. The rights, duties, and jurisdiction of the Gauleiter result primarily from the mission assigned by the Fuehrer, and apart from that, from detailed directives." The responsibility and function of the Gauleiter and his staff officers or officeholders were essentially political, namely, to insure the authority of the Nazi Party within his area, to co-ordinate the activities of the Party and all its affiliated and supervised organizations, and to enlarge the influence of the Party over the people and life in his Gau generally. Following the outbreak of the war, when it became imperative to co-ordinate the various phases of the German war effort, the Gauleiter were given additional important responsibilities. The Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich, which was a sort of general staff for civilian defense and the mobilization of the German war economy, by a decree of 1 September 1939, 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt , Part I, page 1565, appointed about 16 Gauleiter as Reich Defense Commissars, concerning which I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice. Later, under the impact of mounting military reverses and an increasingly strained war economy, more and more important administrative functions were put on a Gau basis.
COL. STOREY: The Party Gaue became the basic defense areas of the Reich, and each Gauleiter became a Reich Defense Commissar by a decree of the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich of 16 November 1942, 1942 Reichsgesetzblatt , Part I, page 649, of which I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice. In the course of the war additional functions were entrusted to the Gauleiter, so that at the end, with the exception of certain special matters such as police affairs, almost all phases of the German war economy were co-ordinated and supervised by them. For instance, regional authority over price control was put under the Gauleiter as Reich Defense Commissars, and housing administration was placed under the Gauleiter as Gau Housing Commissars. Toward the end of the war the Gauleiter were charged even with the military and quasi-military tasks. They were made commanders of the Volkssturm in their areas and were entrusted with such important functions as the evacuation of civilian population in the path of the advancing Allied armies as well as measures for the destruction of vital installations. The structure and organization of the Party Gaue were substantially repeated in the lower levels of the Reich Party organization such as the Kreise, Ortsgruppen, Zellen, and Blocks. Each of these was headed by a political leader who, subject to the Fuehrer principle and the orders of superior political leaders, was a sovereign within his sphere. The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party was in effect a "hierarchy of descending Caesars." Each of the subordinate Party levels, such as the Kreise, Ortsgruppen, and so on, was organized into offices, or Amter, dealing with the various specialized functions of the Party.
COL. STOREY: But the number of such departments and offices diminished as the Party unit dropped in the hierarchy, so that, while the Kreis office contained all or almost all of the offices in the Gau (such as the deputy, the staff office leader, an organization leader, school leader, propaganda leader, press office leader, treasurer, judge of the Party court, inspector, and the like), the Ortsgruppe had less, and the Zellen and Blocks still fewer. The Kreisleiter was appointed and dismissed by Hitler upon the nomination of the Gauleiter and directly subordinate to the Gauleiter in the Party hierarchy. The Kreis usually consisted of a single county. The Kreisleiter, within the Kreis, had in general the same position, powers, and prerogatives granted the Gauleiter in the Gaul In cities they constituted the very core of Party power and organization. I quote again from Page 17 of Document 1893-PS, Page 17 of the English translation: "The Kreisleiter carries over-all responsibility towards the Gauleiter within his zone of sovereignty for the political and ideological training and organization of the Political Leaders, the Party members, as well as the population". The Ortsgruppenleiter was the local chapter leader. The area of the Ortsgruppenleiter was comprised of one or more communes, or, in a town, a certain district. The Ortsgruppe was composed of a combination of blocks and cells according to local circumstances, and contained up to 1,500 households. The Ortsgruppenleiter also had a staff of office leaders to assist him in the various functional activities of the Party. All other Political Leaders in his area of responsibility were subordinate to and under the direction of the Ortsgruppenleiter. For example, the leaders of the various affiliated organizations of the Party, within his area, such as the German Labor Front and the Nazi organizations for lawyers, students, and civil servants, were all subordinate to the Ortsgruppenleiter.
COL. STOREY: In accordance with the Fuehrerprinzip, the Ortsgruppenleiter, or local chapter leaders, were appointed by the Gauleiter and were directly under and subordinate to the Kreisleiter. The Party manual provides as follows with reference to the Ortsgruppenleiter, and I quote from Pages 16 and 17 of Document 1893-PS: "As Hoheitstrager"-bearer of sovereignty-"he is competent for all expressions of the Party will; he is responsible for the political and ideological leadership and organization within his zone of sovereignty. "The Ortsgruppenleiter carries the over-all responsibility for the political results of all measures initiated by the offices, organizations, and affiliated association of the Party.... "The Ortsgruppenleiter has the right to protest to the Kreisleiter against any measures contrary to the interests of the Party with regard to a united political appearance in public." The Zellenleiter was responsible for from four to eight blocks. He was the immediate superior of, and had control and supervision over, the Blockleiter. His mission and duties, according to the Party manual, corresponded to the missions of the Blockleiter. I quote from the last paragraph of Page 15, just one line of that same document: "The missions of the cell-leader correspond to the missions of the block-leader." The Blockleiter was the one Party official who was peculiarly in a position to have continuous contact with the German people. The block was the lowest unit in the Party pyramidal organization. The block of the Party comprised 40 to 60 households and was regarded by the Party as the focal point upon which to press the weight of its propaganda. I quote from Pages 13 and 14 of this same document: "The household is the basic community upon which the block and cell system is built. The household is the organizational focal point of all Germans united in an apartment, and includes roomers, domestic help, et cetera....
COL. STOREY: The Blockleiter has jurisdiction over all matters within his zone relating to the Movement, and is fully responsible to the Zellenleiter." The Blockleiter, as in the case of other Political Leaders, was charged with planning, disseminating, and developing a receptivity to the policies of the Nazi Party among the population in his area of responsibility. It was also the expressed duty of the Blockleiter to spy on the population. I quote from Pages 14 and 15 of this same document: "It is the duty of the Blockleiter to find people disseminating damaging rumors and to report them to the Ortsgruppe, so that they may be reported to the respective State authorities. "The Blockleiter must not only be a preacher and defender of the National Socialist ideology towards the member of the Nation and Party entrusted to his political care, but he must also strive to achieve practical collaboration of the Party members within his block zone.... "The Blockleiter shall continuously remind the Party members of their particular duties towards the people and the state. The Blockleiter keeps a list (card file) about the households.... In principle, the Blockleiter will settle his official business verbally, and he will receive messages verbally and pass them on in the same way. Correspondence will only be used in cases of absolute necessity.... The Blockleiter conducts National Socialist propaganda from mouth to mouth. He will eventually awaken the understanding of the eternally dissatisfied as regards the frequently misunderstood or wrongly interpreted measures and laws of the National Socialist Government.... It is not necessary for him to fall in with complaints and gripes about possibly obvious shortcomings of any kind in order to demonstrate solidarity.... A condition to gain the confidence of all people is to maintain absolute secrecy in all matters." It will be shown that there were in Germany nearly half a million Blockleiter. Large though this figure may appear, there can be no doubt that these officials were in and of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party.
COL. STOREY: Though they stood at the broad base of the Party pyramid rather than at its summit, where rested the Reichsleiter, by virtue of this fact they were stationed at close intervals throughout the German civil population.
THE PRESIDENT: I think, Colonel Storey, it would be an assistance to the Tribunal if you could tell us, that is, at some time convenient to yourself, approximately how many there were of each of these ranks in the corps.
COL. STOREY: If Your Honor please, that is the next subject.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
COL. STOREY: It may be doubted that the average German ever looked upon the face of Heinrich Himmler. But the man in the street in Nazi Germany could not have avoided an uneasy acquaintance with the Blockleiter in his own neighborhood. As it is the "cop on the beat" rather than the chief magistrate of the nation who symbolizes law enforcement to the average man and woman, so it was the Blockleiter who represented to the people of Germany the police state of Hitler's Germany. In fact, as may be inferred from the evidence, the Blockleiter were "little Fuehrers" with real and literal power over the civilians in their domains. As proof of the authority of the Blockleiter to exercise coercion and the threat of force upon the civil population, I quote from Document 2833-PS, which is an excerpt from Page 7 of the magazine entitled The Face of the Party, Document 2833-PS. It is just a line of quotation: "Advice and sometimes also the harsher form of education is employed if the faulty conduct of an individual harms this individual himself, and thus also the community." Before I get to the numbers, I wanted to deal with the Hoheitstrager.
THE PRESIDENT: Don't you think it is time to break off? . COL. STOREY: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Until 2 o'clock. Afternoon Session
COL. STOREY: Your Honors will notice that we have substituted an enlarged chart for the photostatic copy that was introduced in evidence this morning. Another thing I would like to call Your Honors' attention to is the fact that the other chart, the big one, was dated 1945 and therefore did not show the Defendant Hess because of his flight to England in 1941, and it will be recalled that the Defendant Hess occupied the position before Bormann directly under the Fuehrer in the Party organization. We now take up the Hoheitstrager. The Hoheitstrager, diverting from the text, is shown on this chart very well; and all of those shown in black blocks constitute the Hoheitstrager, beginning with the Fuehrer and going down the vertical column clear down to the Blockleiter. Within the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party certain of the political leaders possessed a higher degree of responsibility than others, were vested with special prerogatives, and constituted a distinctive and elite group within the Party hierarchy. Those were the so-called Hoheitstrager, or bearers of sovereignty, who represented the Party within the area of jurisdiction, which is a section of Germany, the so-called "Hoheitsgebiet." I now quote from Page 9 of the English translation of Document 1893-PS: "Among the political leaders, the Hoheitstrager assume a special position. Contrary to the other political leaders who have departmental missions... the Hoheitstrager themselves are in charge of a geographical sector known as the Hoheitsgebiet"- sectors of sovereignty. "The Hoheitstrager are: "The Fuehrer, the Gauleiter, the Kreisleiter, the Ortsgruppenleiter, the Zellenleiter, and the Blockleiter. "Hoheitsgebiete are: "The Reich, the Gau, the Kreis, the Ortsgruppe, the Zelle, the Block. "Within their sector of sovereignty the Hoheitstrager have sovereign political rights. They represent the Party within their sector.
COL. STOREY: The Hoheitstrager supervise all Party offices within their jurisdiction and are responsible for the maintenance of discipline." If Your Honors please, that is Page 9 of the English translation, if you find it, of 1893.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COL. STOREY: "The directors of offices, et cetera , anal of the affiliated organizations are responsible to their respective Hoheitstrager ... as regards their special missions. The Hoheitstrager are superior to all political leaders, managers, and so forth, within their sector. As regards personal consideration, Hoheitstrager are endowed with special rights.... "The Hoheitstrager of the Party are not to be administrative officials . . . but are to move in a continuous vital contact with the political leaders of the population within their sector. The Hoheitstrager are responsible for the proper and good supervision of all members of the nation within their sector .... "The Party intends to achieve a state of affairs in which the individual German will find his way to the Party...." The distinctive character of the Politische Leiter constituting the Hoheitstrager and their existence and operation as an identifiable group are indicated by the publication of a magazine entitled Der Hoheitstrager whose distribution was limited by regulation of the Reich Organization Leader to the Hoheitstrager and certain other designated Politische Leiter. I now refer to Document 2660-PS, which I offer in evidence; and I would like to digress from the published manuscript and call Number 2660-PS Exhibit Number USA-325. I would like to exhibit this book to Your Honors. This is the book itself and it is for the Hoheitstrager, with a very limited distribution, and I quote from the inside cover of this magazine which reads as follows-it is right in the beginning: "Der Hoheitstrager, the contents of which is to be handled confidentially, serves only for the orientation of the competent leaders. It may not be loaned out to other persons." Then follows a list of the Hoheitstrager and other political leaders authorized to receive the magazine.
COL. STOREY: The magazine states, in addition, that the following are entitled to receive it-I would like to emphasize the ones to receive it: "Commandants, unit commanders, and 'Ordensburg' members; The Reich, Shock Troop, and Gau speakers of the NSDAP; the Obergruppenfuehrer and Gruppenfuehrer of the SA, the SS, the NSFK"-which is the Flying Corps-"and the NSKK"- the Party Motor Corps-"Obergebietsfuehrer and Gebietsfuehrer of the HJ"-that is the Hitler Jugend. The fact that this magazine existed, that it derived its name from the commanding officers of the Leadership Corps, that it was distributed to the elite of the Leadership Corps, in other words, that a house bulletin was circulated down the command channels of the Leadership Corps is probative of the fact that the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party was a group or an organization within the meaning of Article 9 of the Charter . An examination of the contents of the magazine Der Hoheitstrager reveals a continuing concern by the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party in measures and doctrines which were employed throughout the course of the conspiracy charged in the Indictment .
COL. STOREY: I shall not trouble the Tribunal nor encumber the record by offering in evidence exhaustive enumeration of these matters; but it may serve to clarify the plans and policies of the inner elite of the Leadership Corps by indicating that a random sampling of articles published and policies advocated in the various issues of the magazine from February 1937 to October 1938 included the following: Slanderous anti-Semitic articles, attacks on Catholicism and the Christian religion and the clergy; the need for motorized armament; the urgent need for expanded Lebensraum and colonies; persistent attacks on the League of Nations; the use of the block and cell in achieving favorable Party votes, the intimate association between the Wehrmacht and the political leadership; the racial doctrines of Fascism, the cult of leadership; the role of the Gaue, Ortsgruppen, and Zellen in the expansion of Germany; and related matters all of which constituted elements and doctrinal techniques in the carrying out of the conspiracy charged in the Indictment. The political leaders were organized according to the leadership principle. I quote from the fourth paragraph of Page 2 of Document 1893-PS, at the bottom of the page, and top of Page 3: "The basis of the Party organization is the Fuehrer idea. The public is unable to rule itself either directly or indirectly.... All political leaders stand as appointed by the Fuehrer and are responsible to him. They possess full authority toward the lower echelons.... Only a man who has gone through the school of subordinate functions within the Party has a claim to the higher Fuehrer offices. We can only use 'Fuehrer' who have served from the ground up. Any political leader who does not conform to these principles is to be dismissed or to. be sent back to the lower offices, as Blockleiter, Zellenleiter, for further training. The political leader is not an office worker but the political deputy of the Fuehrer....With the political leader we are building the political leadership of the State ....
COL. STOREY: The type of the political leader is not characterized by the of lice which he represents. There is no such thing as a political leader of the NSBO, et cetera, but there is only the political leader of the NSDAP." Each political leader was sworn in yearly. According to the Party manual the wording of the oath was as follows; and I quote from the second paragraph on Page 3, Document 1893-PS: "I pledge eternal allegiance to Adolf Hitler; I pledge unconditional obedience to him and the Fuehrer appointed by him." The Organization Book of the NSDAP also provides, and I quote from Page 3, Paragraph 4, of the same document: "The political leader is inseparably tied to the ideology and the organization of the NSDAP. His oath only ends with his death or with his expulsion from the National Socialist community." Appointment of political leaders: With respect to the appointment of the political leaders constituting the Leadership Corps of the Party, I quote from Page 4 of the Organization Book, which is Document 1893-PS: "1. The Fuehrer appoints the following political leaders: "a) Reichsleiter and all political leaders within the Reichsleitung"-Reich Party Directorate-"including women's leaders; b) Gauleiter, including the political leaders holding of flees in the Gauleitung"-Gau Party Directorate-"including Gau women's leaders; c) Kreisleiter.... "2. The Gauleiter appoints: "a) The political leaders and women's leaders within the Gau Party Directorate... b) the political leaders and the directors of women's leagues in the Kreis Party Directorate; c) Ortsgruppenleiter. "3. The Kreisleiter appoints the political leaders and the directors of the women's leagues of the Ortsgruppen including the block and cell leaders...." - The power of Hoheitstrager to call upon other Party formations: The Hoheitstrager among the Leadership Corps were entitled to call upon and utilize the various Party formations as necessary for the execution of the Nazi Party policies.