dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MAJOR WARREN F. FARR (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): As indicated on its frontispiece, it was written at the direction of the Reichsfuehrer SS, Heinrich Himmler. Its author, SS Standartenfuehrer Gunter d'Alquen was the editor of the official SS publication Das Schwarze Korps . This book is our Document Number 2284-PS. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-438. The passage to which I refer will be found on Pages 6 and 7 of the original and on Page 1 of the translation. I shall not now read that passage. The second publication is an article by Himmler entitled, "Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police." It was published in 1937 in a booklet containing a series of speeches or essays by important officials of the Party and the State-known as National Political Course for the Armed Forces from 15 to 23 January 1937. The article by Himmler, to which I refer, appears on Pages 137-161 of that pamphlet. Large extracts from it make up our Document Number 1992(a)-PS. I offer the essay by Himmler as Exhibit Number USA-439. The passage to which I referred appears on Page 137 of the original and Page 1 of the translation, our Document 1992(a)-PS. I shall have occasion to quote from both these publications, but with respect to this matter of history, I assume that these references to the pertinent passages in them are enough. As early as 1929 the conspirators recognized that their plans required an organization in which the main principles of the Nazi system, specifically the racial principles, would not only be jealously guarded but would be carried to such extreme as to inspire or intimidate the rest of the population-an organization in which, also, there would be assured complete freedom on the part of the leaders and blind obedience on the part of the members. The SS was built up to meet this need. I quote from D'Alquen's book, Die SS , at Page 7; this passage appears in our Document Number 2284-PS at Page 4 of the translation, Paragraph 4: "On the 6th of January 1929 Adolf Hitler appointed his tested comrade of long standing, Heinrich Himmler, as Reichsfuehrer SS.
MAJOR WARREN F. FARR (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): Heinrich Himmler assumed charge therewith of the entire Schutzstaffel totalling at that time 280 men with the express and particular order of the Fuehrer to form this organization into an elite troop of the Party, a troop dependable in every circumstance. "With this day the real history of the SS begins as it stands before us today in all its deeper essential features, firmly anchored in the National Socialist movement. For the SS and its Reichsfuehrer, Heinrich Himmler, its first SS man, have both become inseparable in the course of these battle-filled years." Carrying out Hitler's directive, Himmler proceeded to build up out of this small force of men an elite organization-to use D'Alquen's words-composed of "the best physically . . . the most dependable, and the most faithful . . . men" in the Nazi movement. I read another passage from D'Alquen at Page 12 of the original, Page 6 of the translation, Paragraph 5: "When the day of seizure of power had finally come, there were 52,000 SS men, who in this spirit bore the revolution in the van, marched into the new state which they began helping to form everywhere, in their stations and positions, in profession and in service, and in all their essential tasks." The conspirators now had the machinery of government in their hands. The initial function of the SS-that of acting as private army and personal police force-was thus completed. But its mission had in fact really just begun. That mission is described in the Organization Book of the NSDAP for 1943. The p ages from that book dealing with the SS-Pages 417 to 428-are translated in our Document Number 2640-PS. The organization's book has already been offered in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-323. The passage to which I refer appears on Page 417 of the original and on Page 1, Paragraph 2, of the translation: "Missions. The original and most eminent duty of the SS is to serve as the protectors of the Fuehrer.
MAJOR WARREN F. FARR (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): By decree of the Fuehrer the sphere of duties has been enlarged to include the internal security of the Reich." This new mission-protecting the internal security of the regime- was somewhat more colorfully defined by Himmler in his pamphlet The SS as an Anti-Bolshevist Fighting Organization, published in 1936. It is our Document Number 1851-PS. I offer this document in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-440. The definition to which I refer appears in the original at the bottom of Page 29 of the original, on the third page of the translation, middle of the paragraph: "We shall unremittingly fulfill our task, the guaranty of the security of Germany from the interior, just as the Wehrmacht guarantees the safety of the honor, the greatness, and the peace of the Reich from the exterior. We shall take care that never again in Germany, the heart of Europe, will the Jewish Bolshevistic revolution of sub-humans be able to be kindled either from within or through emissaries from without. Without pity we shall be a merciless sword of justice for all those forces whose existence and activity we know, on the day of the slightest attempt, may it be today, may it be in decades or may it be in centuries." This conception necessarily required an extension of the duties of the SS into many fields. It involved, of course, the performance of police functions. But it involved more. It required participation in the suppression and extermination of all internal opponents of the regime. It meant participation in extending the regime beyond the borders of Germany; and therefore came to mean eventually participation in every type of activity designed to secure a hold over those territories and populations which, through military conquest, had come under German domination. The expansion of SS duties and activities resulted in the creation of several branches and numerous departments and the eventual development of a highly complex machinery. Those various branches and departments cannot be adequately described out of the context of their history.
MAJOR WARREN F. FARR (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): That description I hope will emerge fully as evidence of the activities of the SS is presented. But it may be appropriate to anticipate; and at this point, to say a word about the structure of the SS. For this purpose, a glance at a chart depicting the organization of the SS as it appeared in 1945 may be helpful. There are being handed to the Tribunal small copies of this chart, two in English, one in French and one in Russian. In addition, there are handed eight larger copies of the chart in the original German, bearing on it the photostat of the affidavit of Gottlob Berger, formerly Chief of the SS Main Office, who examined the chart and stated that it correctly represented the organization of the SS. I now offer in evidence the chart of the Supreme and Regional Command of the SS, as Exhibit Number USA-445. At the very top of the chart is Himmler, the Reichsfuehrer SS, who commanded the entire organization. Immediately below-running across the chart and down the right hand side, embraced within the heavy line-are the 12 main departments constituting the Supreme Command of the SS. Some of these departments have been broken down into the several offices of which they were composed, as indicated by the boxes beneath them. Other departments have not been so broken down. It is not intended to indicate that there were not subdivisions of these latter departments as well. The breakdown is shown only in those cases where the constituent offices of some department may have a particular significance in this case. These departments and their functions are described in two official Nazi publications. The first is the Organization Book of the NSDAP for 1943, our Document Number 2640-PS, already introduced in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-323. The description, which I shall not read now, appears on Pages 419-422 of the original and Pages 2 to 4 of the translation. The is an SS manual, which bears the title, The Soldier Friend-Pocket Diary for the German Armed Forces-Edition D, Waffen-SS .
MAJOR WARREN F. FARR (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): It was prepared at the direction of the Reichsfuehrer SS and issued by the SS Main Office for the year ending 1942. It is our Document Number 2825-PS. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-441. The description to which I refer appears on Pages 20 to 22 of the original and Pages 1 and 2 of the translation. I will later have occasion to read the description of the functions of some of the departments in full But I assume that the Court will take judicial notice of the entire passages to which I have referred. In addition, the departments are listed in a directory of the SS, published by one of the main departments of the SS. This document was found in the files of the Personal Staff of the Reichsfuehrer SS, the first department from the left of the chart. It is entitled Directory for the Schutzstaffel of the NSDAP, 1 November 1944. It is marked "restricted" and bears the notation "Published by SS Fuehrungshauptamt," (Command Office of the General SS), which is the fifth box from the left. It is our Document Number 2769-PS. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-442. It is simply a list of the names of the departments and of flees with their addresses and telephone numbers, and corroborates the statements in the two earlier publications to which I referred. Returning now to the chart-following down the central spine from the Reichsfuehrer SS to the regional level-we come to the Higher SS and Police Leader, commonly known as HSSPF, the Supreme SS Commander in each region. I shall refer to his functions at a later point. Immediately below him is the breakdown of the organization of the Allgemeine or General SS. To the left are indicated two other branches of the SS-the Death's-Head Units (Totenkopf Verbande) and the Waffen-SS. To the right, under the HSSPF, is the SD. All of these components, together with the SS Police regiments, are specifically named in the Indictment- Appendix B . Page 36-as being included in the SS. Now a word as to these components. Up to 1933 there were no such specially designated branches.
MAJOR WARREN F. FARR (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): The SS was a single group-a group of "volunteer political soldiers." It was out of this original nucleus that the new units developed. The Allgemeine, that is, General SS, was the common basis, the main stem, out of which the various branches grew. It was composed of all members of the SS who did not belong to any of the special branches. It was the backbone of the entire organization. The personnel and officers of the main departments of the SS Supreme Command were members of this branch. Except for high ranking officers and those in staff capacities in the main offices of the SS Supreme Command, its members were part-time volunteers. As the evidence will show, its members were utilized in about every phase of SS activity. They were called upon in the anti-Jewish pogroms of 1938; they took over the task of guarding concentration camps during the war; they participated in the colonization and resettlement program. In short, the term "SS" normally meant the General SS. It was organized on military lines as will be seen from the chart, ranging from district (Oberabschnitt) and sub-district (Abschnitt) down through the regiment, battalion, company, to the platoon. Until after the beginning of the war it constituted numerically the largest branch of the SS. In 1939 D'Alquen, the official SS spokesman, said, and I quote from his book, our Document Number 2284-PS, Page 9, Paragraph 3, of the English translation, and Page 18 of the original document: "The strength of the General SS, 240,000 men, is subdivided today into 14 corps, 38 divisions, 104 infantry regiments, 19 mounted regiments, 14 communication battalions, and 9 engineer battalions, as well as motorized and medical units.
MAJOR WARREN F. FARR (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): This General SS stands fully and wholly on call as in the fighting years...." Similar reference to the military organization of the General SS will be found in Himmler's speech, "Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police," our Document Number 1992(a)-PS, at Page 4 of the translation, and in the Organization Book of the NSDAP for' 1943, our Document Number 2640-PS, at Pages 4 and 5 of the translation. Members of this branch, however, with the exception of certain staff personnel, were subject to compulsory military service. As the result of the draft of members of the General SS of military age into the Army, the numerical strength of presently active members considerably declined during the war. Older SS men and those working in or holding high positions in the main departments of the Supreme Command of the SS remained. Its entire strength during the war was probably not in excess of 40,000 men. The second component to be mentioned is the Security Service of the Reichsfuehrer SS, almost always referred to as the SD. Himmler described it in his speech, "Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police"-our Document Number 1992(a)-PS. I quote a passage from Page 8, last paragraph of the translation, Page 151 of the original, Paragraph 3: "I now come to the Security Service (SD); it is the great ideological intelligence service of the Party and, in the long run, also that of the State. During the time of struggle for power it was only the intelligence service of the SS. At that time we had, for quite natural reasons, an intelligence service with the regiments, battalions and companies."-I interpolate; he refers there to the regiments, battalions and companies of the General SS.-"We had to know what was going on on the opponent's side, whether the Communists intended to hold up a meeting today or not, whether our people were to be suddenly attacked or not, and similar things.
MAJOR WARREN F. FARR (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): I separated this service already in 1931 from the troops-" I note that it appears in the mimeographed translation as 1941; but, as will appear from a passage on the next pages of the translation, it was 1931 to which he was referring. ". . . from the units of the General SS, because I considered it to be wrong. For one thing, secrecy is endangered, then the individual men, or even the companies, are too likely to discuss everyday political problems." Although, as Himmler put it, the SD was only the intelligence service of the SS during the years preceding the accession of the Nazis to power, it became a much more important organization promptly thereafter. It had been developed into such a powerful scientific espionage system under its chief, Reinhard Heydrich, that on 9 June 1934, just a few weeks before the bloody purge of the SA, it was made by decree of the Defendant Hess, the sole intelligence and counter-intelligence agency of the entire Nazi Party. I refer in support of that statement to D'Alquen's book, Die SS , our Document Number 2284-PS, at Page 11 of the translation. I shall not pause to quote that passage. The organization and numbers of the SD, as they stood in 1937, were thus described by Himmler-I quote again from his article, "Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police," our Document Number 1992(a)-PS, at Page 9 of the translation, second paragraph, Page 151 of the original, Paragraph4: "The Security Service was already separated from the troop in 1931 and separately organized.
MAJOR WARREN F. FARR (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): Its higher headquarters coincide today with the Oberabschnitte and Abschnitte"-I refer to the Abschnitte and Oberabschnitte indicated on the chart-"and it has also field offices, its own organization of officials, and a great many command posts, approximately 3,000 to 4,000 men strong, at least when it is built up." Up to 1939 its headquarters was the SS Main Security Office (Sicherheitshauptamt) which, as I shall show, became amalgamated in 1939 in the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) one of the SS main departments shown on the chart before you-the sixth box from the left. The closer and closer collaboration of the SD with the Gestapo and Criminal Police-which eventually resulted in the creation of this RSHA-and the activities in which the SD engaged in partnership with the Gestapo will be taken up in the presentation of the case against the Gestapo. The SD was, of course, at all times an integral and important component of the SS. But it is more practicable to deal with it in connection with the activities of the whole repressive police system with which it functioned. The third component to be mentioned is the Waffen-SS-the combat arm of the SS-created, trained, and finally utilized for purposes of aggressive war. The reason underlying the creation of this combat branch was described in our Document Number 2640-PS, the Organization Book of the Nazi Party for 1943. It appears on Page 427a of the original, Page 5, Paragraph 7 of the translation: "The armed SS originated out of the thought: to create for the Fuehrer a selected, long-service troop for the fulfillment of special missions. It should make it possible for members of the General SS, as well as for volunteers who fulfill the special requirements of the SS, to fight in the battle for the realization of the National Socialist idea with weapon in hand in unified groups partly within the framework of the Army." The term "Waffen-SS" did not come into use until after the beginning of the war.
MAJOR WARREN F. FARR (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): Up to that time there were two branches of the SS composed of full-time, well-trained, professional soldiers: The so-called SS Verfugungstruppe, translatable perhaps as SS Emergency Troops, and the SS Totenkopf Verbande (the Death's Head Units). After the beginning of the war, the units of the SS Verfugungstruppe were brought up to division strength, and new divisions were added to them. Parts of the SS Death's-Head Units were formed into a division, the SS Totenkopf Division. All these divisions then came to be known collectively as the Waffen-SS. Let me now trace that development. I quote again from the Organization Book of the Nazi Party for 1943, our Document Number 2640-PS, Page 427b of the original, Page 5, last paragraph of the translation: "The origin of the Waffen-SS goes back to the decree of 17 March 1933 establishing the Stabswache with the original strength of 120 men. Out of this small group developed the later-called SS Verfugungstruppe,"-SS Emergency Force- "the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. In the course of the war, these groups grew into divisions."
THE PRESIDENT: Major Farr, to go into this degree of detail about the organization of the SS?
MAJOR FARR: Sir, it seemed to me that it is highly important to know exactly what the organization with which we are dealing is. There has been, I understand, a suggestion made to the Court that certain portions of this organization are not criminal. It is contended by some that the part they played was a perfectly innocuous one; and it seems to me that before we can determine whether the organization as a whole is criminal, whether any portion of it is severable, then we must know what the organization is.
THE PRESIDENT: Wouldn't it be possible to leave that question to evidence in rebuttal, if the defendants are setting up that any particular branch of the SS is not criminal?
MAJOR FARR: If we adequately lay the basis for our case now, it may not be necessary for us to make any rebuttal. We may satisfy the defendants that there is nothing to the contention that any portion of the SS is a lawful portion. The point I am particularly trying to make now is: There has been a good deal of contention that the Waffen-SS is severable; that whatever may be said, for example, about the SD or the Death's-Head Units, the Waffen-SS is something different, the Waffen-SS is part of the Army. I think it is important to establish at the outset that the Waffen-SS is as much a part of the SS, as integral a part of the whole organization, as any of the other branches. I propose, therefore, to show the development of the Waffen-SS, growing out of the SS Emergency Troops, and to call to the attention of the Tribunal evidence showing how the Waffen-SS is an integral part of the SS as a whole.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you must take your own course.
MAJOR FARR: The Verfugungstruppe were described in a top-secret Hitler order dated the 17th of August 1938. It is our Document Number 647-PS. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-443. That document will be found in Volume I of the document book. I quote from Section II of that order, which appears on Page 2 of the translation at the top the page and also on Page 2 of the original: "II. The Armed Units of the SS. "A. The SS Verfugungstruppe. "1. The SS Verfugungstruppe is neither a part of the Wehrmacht nor a part of the police. It is a standing armed unit exclusively at my disposal. As such and as a unit of the NSDAP, its members are to be selected by the Reichsfuehrer SS according to the ideological and political standards which I have ordered for the NSDAP and for the Schutzstaffeln. Its members are to be trained and its ranks filled with volunteers from those who are subject to military service, having finished their duties in the obligatory labor service. The service period for volunteers is 4 years. It may be prolonged for SS Unterfuehrer. Special regulations are in force for SS leaders. The regular compulsory military service (Paragraph 8 of the law relating to military service) is fulfilled by service of the same duration in the SS Verfugungstruppe." I want to quote a further short passage from that decree which will be found on Page 3 of the translation in the middle of the page and on Page 5 of the original order: "III. Orders in case of Mobilization. "A. The employment of the SS Verfugungstruppe in case of mobilization is a double one. "1. By the Supreme Commander of the Army within the wartime army. In that case it comes completely under military laws and regulations, but remains a unit of the NSDAP politically. "2. In case of necessity in the interior according to my orders; in that case it is under the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police.