dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MAJOR FARR: I quite agree I have to show that. I suppose I have to show, before showing that the persons involved knew of the criminal aims of the organization, what those criminal aims were. I was simply attempting to show the Tribunal that one of those aims which I submit as criminal was a plan to dominate Europe, and that the SS was one of the means by which that was to be done. Now, this is just one aspect of the SS criminality. I am quite ready not to proceed any further with the point if the Court already has the point, and thinks that the evidence of that aspect of its criminality is sufficient. I certainly do not want to labor the point too hard. I now proceed further with the point as to the building up of the SS as a racial elite to take over; but I do think one other thing is important, and that is the negative side of that racism: the hatred for other races. And Himmler made some very striking points along that line as to what the SS was to be taught. I quote from his Posen speech, that is, our Document 1919-PS. The passage in question appears on Page 23 of the original speech, middle of the page, and will be found on Page 1 of the English translation, third paragraph. I quote: "One basic principle must be the absolute rule for the SS men. We must be honest, decent, loyal, and comradely to members of our own blood and to nobody else. What happens to a Russian, to a Czech, does not interest me in the slightest." The next few sentences from that same paragraph have already been read into evidence, and I shall not repeat them. But I do want to quote, in the same paragraph, the conclusion that Himmler draws from what he just said.
MAJOR FARR: This sentence is about seven lines from the bottom of the paragraph, beginning: "That is what I want to instill into this SS and what I believe I have instilled in them as one of the most sacred laws of the future." Now these principles-that is, the conception of being an elite which was to take over Europe and the conception of hatred towards inferior races, which was instilled in the SS-these were principles which were publicly reiterated over and over again so that the newest recruit was thoroughly steeped in them. I quote from Himmler's Kharkov speech, which appears in the same Document 1919-PS.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Can't you just give us the meaning of the speech without quoting from it; can you just refer to it?
MAJOR FARR: I will be very glad to do that, if the Court will take judicial notice of it. I will refer you to the passage I have in mind. The passage in question appears on Page 14 of the translation, about 15 lines from the bottom of the page; it appears on Page 17 of the original, at about the middle of the page. In that passage, after having talked at great length about the racial struggle, Himmler tells his commanding officers-and he is making this speech to the commanding officers of three divisions of the Waffen-SS-he tells his officers that the thing which he wants so thoroughly instilled into every recruit in the organization that he becomes saturated with it, is the necessity of the SS standing firm and carrying on the racial struggle without mercy. On the same point one further quotation-if the Tribunal will bear with me-and I think this is important because this, again, is a public quotation, found in the Organization Book of the Party. That is our Document Number 2640-PS. It is a very short passage, appearing on Page 418 of the original and Page 1 of the English translation, the third paragraph from the end of the page in the translation: "He openly and unrelentingly fights the most dangerous enemies of the State: Jews, Freemasons, Jesuits, and political clergymen." Now these were the fundamental principles of the SS: racial superiority and blind obedience. A necessary corollary of these two principles was ruthlessness. The evidence that we will introduce on these activities will show how successfully the SS learned the lesson it was taught. The SS had to, and did, develop a reputation for terror which was carefully cultivated. Himmler himself publicly attested it as early as 1936 in his pamphlet, The SS as an Anti-Bolshevist Fighting Organization, our Document 1851-PS, which has already been introduced into evidence as Exhibit Number USA-440.
MAJOR FARR: I quote two sentences which appear at Page 29 of the original pamphlet and on Page 4 of the translation, the first two sentences: "I know that there are some people in Germany who become sick when they see these black coats. We understand the reason for this and do not expect that we shall be loved by too many." The role which the SS was required to play demanded that it remain constantly the essence of Nazism and that its elite quality should never be diluted. As evidence that even in 1943 the SS standards were still being maintained, I offer in evidence a letter written to the Defendant Kaltenbrunner by Himmler. This letter is our Document Number 2768-PS. It is a letter from the Reichsfuehrer SS, written at his field command post and bearing the date 24 April 1943. I offer it as Exhibit Number USA-447. I quote from the first paragraph of that letter: "Referring again to the matter which we discussed some time ago-that is, the admission of Sipo officials into the SS-I wish to clarify again: I want an admission only if the following conditions, are fulfilled: "1. If the man applies freely and voluntarily; . "2. If, by applying strict and peace-time standards, the applicant fits racially and ideologically into the SS, guarantees according to the number of his children a really healthy SS stock, and is neither ill, degenerate, nor worthless." Then, continuing with the third paragraph: "I beg you not only to act accordingly in the future, but especially also that numerous admissions into the ranks of the SS in the past be re-examined and revised according to these instructions." Now I have appended this to indicate to the Tribunal the normal manner in which a man became a member of the SS. That is discussed by Himmler in our Document 1992(a)-PS, at Page 142 of the original and Page 5 of the translation. If the Court thinks that it can take judicial notice of that passage, I shall not venture to read it.
MAJOR FARR: What it does is to describe how a young man comes into the SS normally, at the age of 18, serves an apprenticeship and receives his instructions in SS ideology, takes the SS oath, receives the SS dagger, and how long he remains in the General SS. I Will not venture to read that paragraph, since I assume that the Court will take judicial notice of it. I do think it may be worth quoting the very brief oath which the SS man takes. That oath is quoted in the Waffen-SS recruiting pamphlet, entitled The SS Calls You, our Document Number 3429-PS, which I offer in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-446. The oath appears on Page 18 of that pamphlet, and on Page 2 of the translation, in the middle of the page. I quote the oath: "The Oath of the SS Man: "I swear to you, Adolf Hitler, as Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor, loyalty and bravery; I vow to you, and to those you have named to command me, obedience unto death, so help me God." I turn now to a consideration of the activities of the SS, the manner in which it carried out the purposes of the conspirators and performed its function of guarding the internal security of the Nazi regime. The proof of the elite Nazi quality and thorough reliability of the SS the test by which it won its spurs-occurred on June 30, 1934, when it participated in the purge of the SA and other opponents or potential opponents of the Nazi regime. That was the first real occasion for the use of this specialized organization which could operate with the blessing of the Nazi State, but outside the law. I offer in evidence an affidavit by the Defendant Wilhelm Frick, signed and sworn to here in Nuremberg on 19 November 1945. It is our Document Number 2950-PS. I offer it as Exhibit Number USA - 48. I shall quote a portion of that affidavit, beginning about the middle of the first paragraph of the affidavit, the 10th line in the original. I quote: "Many people were killed-I don't know how many-who actually did not have anything to do with the Putsch.
MAJOR FARR: People who just weren't liked very well were killed, as for instance, Schleicher, the former Reich Chancellor. Schleicher's wife was also killed; as was Gregor Strasser, who had been the Reichsleiter and second man in the Party after Hitler. Strasser, at the time he was murdered, was not active in political affairs any more. However, he was against the Fuehrer in the elections of November 1932. The SS was used by Himmler for the execution of these orders to suppress the Putsch." It was in recognition of its services in this respect that the SS was elevated to the status of being a component of the Party equal in rank to the SA, and other similar ranking. I ask the Court to take judicial notice of a passage which appears on Page 1 of the Volkischer Beobachter of July 26, 1934. It is our Document Number 1857-PS, Exhibit USA-412. I shall read the translation of that passage, which is very brief: "The Reich Press office of the NSDAP announces the following order of the Fuehrer: "In consideration of the great meritorious service of the SS, especially in connection with the events of 30 June 1934, I elevate it to the standing of an independent organization within the NSDAP. The Reichsfuehrer SS, like the Chief of Staff, is, therefore, directly subordinate to the highest SA leader." By its action on June 30th, the SS proved itself. It was, therefore, the type of organization which the conspirators wanted for the first necessary step in their program, the acquisition of control over the police, because one of the first steps essential to the security of any regime is control of the police. The aim of the conspirators was to fuse the SS and the police; to merge them into a single, unified, repressive force. I turn now to the consideration of the development whereby the SS and the police became intermingled.
MAJOR FARR: Shortly after the seizure of power the conspirators began to develop, as a part of the State machinery, secret political police forces, originating in Prussia in the Gestapo established by decree of the Defendant Goering in 1933; and this development will be dealt with in the case against the Gestapo. By 1934 the Reichsfuehrer SS had become the chief of these secret political police forces in all the states of Germany except Prussia, and deputy chief of the Prussian Gestapo. In that capacity he infiltrated these forces with members of the SS until a virtual identity of membership of the SS and the Gestapo was achieved. On 17 June 1936, by the "Decree on the Establishment of a Chief of the German Police," published in the Reichsgesetzblatt for 1936, Part I, Pages 487 and 488, our Document Number 2073-PS, of which I assume the Court will take judicial notice, the new post of Chief of the German Police was created in the Ministry of the Interior. Under the terms of the decree Himmler was appointed to this post with the title of "Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police in the Ministry of the Interior." The combination of these two positions, that of leadership of the SS and head of all the police forces in the Reich, was no accident but was intended to establish a permanent relation between the two bodies and not a mere transitory fusion of personnel. The significance of this combination of these two positions was referred to by Hitler in his secret order of 17 August 1938 on the organization and mobilization of the SS, our Document Number 647-PS, which I introduce in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-443 and from which I will now quote just the preamble, which will be found on the first page of our Document Number 647-PS and at the beginning of the original order. I quote: "By means of the nomination of the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police in {he Ministry of the Interior on June 17, 1936 ( Reichsgesetzblatt I, Page 487), I have created the basis for the unification and reorganization of the German Police.
MAJOR FARR: With this step the Schutzstaffeln of the NSDAP, which were under the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police even up to now, have entered into close connection with the duties of the German Police." Upon his appointment Himmler immediately proceeded to reorganize the entire police force, designating two separate branches: (1) The regular uniformed police force (Ordnungspolizei, or Orpo, as they were called by their abbreviated title); and (2) the so-called Security Police, or as they came to be known by their abbreviated title, Sipo. The Security Police was composed of all the criminal police in the Reich and all the Gestapo. This reorganization was achieved by the decree assigning functions to the Office of the Chief of the German Police, published in the Reichsministerialblatt for 1936, Pages 946-948, our Document Number 1551-PS. Of that decree I assume the Court will take judicial notice. ' To be head of the Sipo, that is, of the Criminal Police and the Gestapo, Himmler appointed Reinhard Heydrich, who was at that time the Chief of the SD, the SS intelligence agency to which I have already referred. Thus, through Himmler's dual capacity as Reichsfuehrer SS, and as Chief of the German Police, and through Heydrich's dual capacity as head of the SD and of the Security Police, a unified personal command of the SS and Security Police Forces was achieved. But further steps towards unification were taken. In 1939 the Security Police and the SD, which up to that time was only an agency of the SS, were both combined in a single department: the Reich Security Main Office, commonly referred to as RSHA. An important point to be observed is this: This newly created department, RSHA, was not a mere department of the Government. It was a dual thing. It was simultaneously an agency of the Government, organizationally placed in the Ministry of the Interior, and at the same time, one of the principal departments of the SS, organizationally placed in the Supreme Command of the SS.
MAJOR FARR: This division in the SS is shown by the chart before you; RSHA being indicated by the sixth block from the left of the chart. But it was not merely the Gestapo and Criminal Police which came under the sway of the SS; the regular uniformed police as well were affected. Like the RSHA, the department of the Regular Police (the Ordnungspolizei) was also not merely a department in the Ministry of the Interior, but also simultaneously in the Supreme Command of the SS. Its position in the SS is indicated by the seventh block on the chart, on the left. Now this unity of command between SS and Police was not a mere matter of the highest headquarters. It extended down to the operating level. The Court will observe from the chart that the Higher SS and Police Leader in each region, who was directly subordinate to Himmler, had under his command both the Security Police (Sipo) and the regular uniformed police (Ordnungspolizei); and also that these forces, Sipo and Orpo, were not only under command of the Higher SS and Police Leader, but as indicated by the blue line, were also under command of the RSHA, and the Department of the Ordnungspolizei, and the SS. Thus you have organizationally a unity of command over the SS and the police. This organization was not the only way by which unity was achieved. Unity of personnel was also achieved. Vacancies occurring in the police forces were filled by SS members. Police officials who were in the force were able to join the SS; and schools were operated by the SS for the police, as well as for the SS officials. These measures are described in Himmler's article "Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police," our Document Number 1992(a)-PS. They are also described in an authoritative book on the police, entitled The German Police , the book published in 1940, written by Dr. Werner Best, a ministerial director in the Ministry of the Interior, and a department head in the Security Police. It bears on its fly-leaf the imprimatur of the Nazi Party, and the book is listed in the official list of National Socialist bibliography.
MAJOR FARR: Chapter 7 from that book is our Document Number 1852-PS. I offer this book in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-449. Through this unity of organization and personnel, the SS and the police became identified in structure and in activity. The resulting situation was described in Best's book, which I have just offered in evidence, our Document Number 1852-PS, as follows. I quote from Page 7 of that document, Paragraph 5; from the original book, Page 95, Paragraph 3: "Thus the SS and the police form one unit, both in their structure and in their activity, although their individual organizations have not lost their true individuality and their position in the larger units of the Party and State administration which are concerned with other points of view." Through the police, the SS was in a position to carry out a large part of the functions assigned to it. The working partnership between the Gestapo, the Criminal Police, and the SD under the direction of the Reichsfuehrer SS resulted in the end in repressive and unrestained police activity. That will be dealt with in the case against the Gestapo. In considering that evidence, the Tribunal will bear in mind that the police activities there shown were one aspect of SS functions, one part of the whole criminal SS scheme. I shall not, therefore, consider here evidence relating strictly to the police functions of the SS. Control over the police was not enough. Potential sources of opposition could be tracked down by the SD. Suspects could be seized by the Criminal Police and the Gestapo, but these means alone would not assure the complete suppression of all opponents and potential opponents of the regime. For this purpose concentration camps were invented. The evidence already presented to the Tribunal has shown what the concentration camp system involved, and the end result of that system was graphically illustrated in the moving pictures displayed about 10 days ago. The responsibility of the SS in that system is a topic to which I now turn. The first requirement for the camps was guard and administrative personnel.
MAJOR FARR: Part-time volunteer members of the Allgemeine SS were originally utilized as guards; but part-time volunteers could not adequately serve the needs of the extensive and longrange program that was planned. So beginning in 1933 full-time professional guards units, the Death's-Head Units, which I have already described, were organized. During the war, members of the General SS resumed the function of guarding camps, which they had initially undertaken when the camps were created. The Tribunal will recall the provisions of the Hitler order which I read a few moments ago, directing the substitution of General SS members to the Death's-Head Units in the event of mobilization. It is unnecessary to repeat the evidence of wholesale brutality, torture, and murder committed by SS guards. They were not the sporadic crimes committed by irresponsible individuals but a part of a definite and calculated policy, a policy necessarily resulting from SS philosophy, a policy which was carried out from the initial creation of the camps. Himmler bluntly stated the SS view as to the inmates of the camps in his article, "Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police," Exhibit Number USA-439, our Document 1992(a)-PS. I quote from Page 7 of the translation, last paragraph; from Page 148 of the original, third paragraph: "It would be extremely instructive for everyone-to some members of the Wehrmacht I could give the opportunity-to inspect such a concentration camp. Once you have seen it, you are convinced of the fact that no one has been sent there unjustly; that it is the offal of criminals and freaks. No better demonstration of the laws of inheritance and race, as set forth by Dr. Guett, exists than such a concentration camp. There you can find people with hydrocephalus, people who are cross-eyed, deformed, half Jewish, and a number of racially inferior products. All that is assembled there. Of course, we distinguish between those inmates who are only there for a few months for the purpose of education and those who are to stay for a long time.
MAJOR FARR: On the whole, education consists only of discipline, never of any kind of instruction on an ideological basis, for the prisoners have, for the most part, slave-like souls and only very few people of real character can be found there." Then, omitting the next two sentences, he continues with this striking remark: "Education thus means order. The order begins with these people living in clean barracks. Such a thing can really be accomplished only by Germans; hardly another nation would be as humane as we are. The laundry is frequently changed. The people are taught to wash themselves twice daily and to use a toothbrush, a thing with which most of them have been unfamiliar." Having heard the evidence and seen the pictures as to conditions in concentration camps, this Tribunal can appreciate how grim and savage that callous jest was. He made no such pretense in his speech to his own Gruppenfuehrer at Posen, our Document 1919-PS, Exhibit Number USA-170. I quote from Page 43 of the original, last paragraph; from Page 2 of the translation, the first full paragraph. "I don't believe the Communists could attempt any action, for their leading elements, like most criminals, are in our concentration camps. And here I must say this: We shall be able to see after the war what a blessing it was for Germany that, in spite of all the silly talk about humanitarianism, we imprisoned all this criminal sub-stratum of the German people in concentration camps. I'll answer for that." But he is not here to answer. Certainly there was no "silly humanitarianism" in the manner in which SS men performed their tasks. Just as an illustration, I should like to examine their conduct, not in 1944 or 1945, but 1933. I have four reports relating to the deaths of four different inmates of the concentration camp Dachau between May 16 and May 27, 1933. Each report is signed by the Public Prosecutor of the District Court in Munich and is addressed to the Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court in Munich.
MAJOR FARR: These four reports show that during that 2-week period in 1933, at the time when the concentration camps had barely started, that SS men had murdered -a different guard each time-an inmate of the camp. Now I don't want to take the time of the Tribunal to read that evidence if it feels that it is a minor point. The significance of it is this: It is just an illustration of the sort of thing that happened in the concentration camps at the earliest possible date, in 1933. I am prepared to offer those four reports in evidence and to quote from them, if the Tribunal thinks that the point is not too insignificant.
THE PRESIDENT: Where are they?