dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
DR. KEMPNER: 1 ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of Frick's jurisdiction mentioned in this document. The names of the men who, according to this document, worked under Frick's supervision, and I stress this point "worked under Frick's supervision," are symbolic. They are listed on Page 1 of the English translation. Here we find among the subordinates of Frick: Reich Health Leader, Dr. Conti; Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police, Heinrich Himmler; and Reich Labor Service leader, Hierl. This document shows Frick as supreme commander of three important pillars of the Nazi State: the Nazi health service, the Nazi police system, and the Nazi labor service. The wide variety of Frick's activities as Reich Minister of the Interior can be judged from the following catalogue of his functions, enumerated on the following pages of the manual. He had final authority over constitutional questions, drafted legislation, had jurisdiction over governmental administration and civil defense, and was final arbiter in all questions concerning race and citizenship. The manual also lists sections of the Ministry concerned with administrative problems for the. occupied territories and annexed territories, the "New Order" in the Southeast, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the "New Order" in the East. He also had full jurisdiction in the field of civil service, including such matters as appointment, tenure, promotion, and dismissal. The Defendant Frick used his wide powers as Reich Minister of the Interior to advance the cause of the Nazi conspiracy. To accomplish this purpose, he drafted and signed the laws and decrees which abolished the autonomous state governments, the autonomous local governments, and the political parties in Germany other than the Nazi Party. In 1933 and 1934, the first 2 years of the Nazi regime, Frick signed about 235 laws or -decrees, all of which are published in the Reichsgesetzblatt.
DR. KEMPNER: I should like to refer briefly to a few of the more important laws and decrees, such as the law of 14 July 1933 outlawing all political parties other than the Nazi Party, Reichsgesetzblatt, 1933, Part I, Page 479, Document 1388(a)-PS; then the law of I December 1933 securing the unity of Party and State, Reichsgesetzblatt, 1933, Part I, Page 1016, Document 1395-PS; the law of 30 January 1934 transferring the sovereignty of the German states to the Reich, Reichsgesetzblatt, 1934, Part I, Page 75, Document 3068-PS; the German Municipality Act of 30 January 1935, which gave Frick's Ministry of the Interior final authority to appoint and dismiss all mayors of municipalities throughout Germany, Reichsgesetzblatt, 1935, Part I, Page 49, Document 2008-PS; and, finally, the Nazi Civil Service Act of 7 April 1933 which provided that all civil servants must be trustworthy as defined by Nazi standards and also must meet the Nazi racial requirements, published in Reichsgesetzblatt, 1933, Part I, Page 175, Document 1397-PS. One category of Frick's activities, however, deserves special notice; that is, the crushing of opposition by legally camouflaged police terror. This is shown by the book Dr. Wilhelm Frick and His Ministry, our Document 3119-PS, which is in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-711, written by Frick's undersecretary and co-conspirator, Hans Pfundtner, apparently written to establish Frick's eternal contribution to the creation of the Nazis' thousand-year Reich. It states, and I quote briefly from Page 4, paragraph 4, of the English translation: "While Marxism in Prussia was crushed by the hard fist of the Prussian Prime Minister Hermann Goering and a gigantic wave of propaganda was initiated for the Reichstag elections 19 of 5 March 1933, Dr. Frick prepared the complete seizure of power in all states of the Reich. Ail at once the political opposition disappeared. All at once the Main"-River-"line was eliminated; from this time on only one will and one leadership reigned in the German Reich." How was this done?
DR. KEMPNER: On February 28, 1933, the day after the Reichstag fire, civil rights in Germany were abolished. This decree was published in the Reichsgesetzblatt, 1933, Page 83; and an English translation of it appears in the document book as 1390-PS. I refer to this decree at this time because it carries the signature of the Reich Minister of the Interior Frick, And now something important. It is stated at the beginning of the decree, which was published on the morning after the Reichstag fire, that the suspension of, civil rights is decreed as a defense measure against Communist acts of violence endangering the State. At the time of publication of this decree, the Nazi Government announced that a thorough investigation had proven that the Communists had set fire to the Reichstag building. I do not intend to go into the controversial issue of who set fire to the Reichstag, but I should like to offer proof that the official Nazi statement that the Communists were responsible for the fire was issued without any investigation and that the preamble of the decree which had Frick's signature was a mere subterfuge. I offer in evidence a very short excerpt of an interrogation of Defendant Goering dated October 13, 1945, our Document 3593-PS, Exhibit -Number USA-712, and I should like to read the following brief portion, beginning on Page 4: "My question to Goering 'How could you tell your press agent, 1 hour after the Reichstag caught fire, that the Communists did it, without investigation?' "Goering's answer: 'Did the public relations officer say that at that time?' "My answer: 'Yes. He said you said it.' "Goering: 'It is possible when I came to the Reichstag the Fuehrer and his gentlemen were there. I was doubtful at that time, but it was their opinion that the Communists had started the fire.' "My question: 'But you were the highest law enforcement official in a certain sense'. Daluege was your subordinate.
DR. KEMPNER: Looking back at it now, and not in the excitement that was there once, wasn't it too early to say without any investigation that the Communists had started the fire?' Goering 'Yes, that is possible, but the Fuehrer wanted it this way.' "Question: 'Why did the Fuehrer want to issue at once a statement that the Communists had started the fire?' "Answer: 'He was convinced of it.' "Question: 'It is right when I say he was convinced without having any evidence or any proof of that at this moment?' "Goering: 'That is right, but you must take into account that at that time the Communist activity was extremely strong, that our new government as such was not very secure."'
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Kempner, what has that got to do with Frick?
DR. KEMPNER: He signed the decree, as I said before, abolishing civil liberties on the morning after, pointing out that there was a Communist danger. On the other side, this Communist danger was a mere subterfuge and was one of the things which finally led to the second World War. The Defendant Frick not only abolished civil liberties within Germany, but he also became the organizer of the huge police network of the Nazi Reich. Parenthetically, I may state that before this time there was no unified Reich police system; the individual German states had police forces of their own, I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of the decree of June 17, 1936, signed by Frick and published in the Reichsgesetzblatt, 1936, Page 487. An English translation of this decree is in the document book under Document Number 2073-PS. Section 1 of this Frick decree reads as follows: "For the unification of police duties in the Reich, a Chief of German Police is appointed in the Reich Ministry of the Interior, to whom is assigned the direction and conduct of all police affairs ...... And from Section 2 we learn that it was the Defendant Frick and Hitler, the signers of the decree, who appointed Himmler as Chief of the German Police. Paragraph 2 of Section 2 of the decree states that Himmler was, and I quote, "subordinated individually and directly to the Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior." And of course that is Frick. The official chart of the German Police system, Document 1852-PS, which has already been introduced into evidence as Exhibit Number USA- 449, clearly shows the position of the Reich Minister of the Interior, Frick, as the supreme commander of the entire German Police system, including the notorious RSHA, of which the Defendant Kaltenbrunner became chief, under Frick, in January 1943. The Defendant Frick used his authority over the newly centralized police system for the promotion of the Nazi conspiracy.
DR. KEMPNER: The Tribunal may take judicial not-ice of Frick's decree of September 20, 1936, published in the Ministerial Gazette of the Reich (Ministerialblatt des Reichs- und Preussischen Ministeriums des Innern), 1936, Page 1343, Document 2245-PS. In this decree Frick reserved for himself the authority to appoint inspectors of the security police, subordinated them to his district governors, the Oberprasidenten, and ordered -them to have a close co-operation with the Party and the Armed Forces. Another example of the use of his activities in the police sphere is in his ordinance of March 18, 1938, concerning the Austrian Anschluss, in which Frick authorized the Reichsfuehrer of the SS and Police, Himmler, to take security measures in Austria without regard to previous legal limitations. This decree is published in the Reichsgesetzblatt, 1938, Page 262, and appears in the document book as Document Number 1437-PS. I shall not here repeat the evidence concerning the criminal activities of the German police, over which the Defendant Frick had supreme authority. I should simply like to refer the Tribunal to the presentations already made on the subject of concentration camps and the Gestapo, two of the police institutions under Frick's jurisdiction. But I should like to show that not only Himmler's subordinate machine but also Frick's ministry itself was familiar with these institutions. Therefore, I now offer into evidence Document 1643-PS, as Exhibit Number USA-713. This document is a synopsis of correspondence between the Reich Ministry of the Interior and its field offices, from November 1942 through August 1943, on the subject of the legal aspects of the confiscation of property by the SS for the enlargement of the concentration camp at Auschwitz. At the bottom of Page 1 and the top of Page 2 of the English translation there appears a synopsis of the minutes of a meeting held on December 17 and 18, 1942, concerning the confiscation of this property.
DR. KEMPNER: These minutes indicate that a further discussion was to be held on the subject on 21 December 1942, between the representatives of the Reich Minister of the Interior and the Reichsfuehrer SS. On Page 2 there appears also a summary of a teletype letter dated January 22, 1943 from Dr. Hoffmann, representing the Reich Minister of the Interior, to the District Governor in Katowice. The summary begins as follows, and I quote: "The territory of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp will be changed into an independent estate"-which means an administrative territory of itself. The fact that the Defendant Frick demonstrated personal interest in a concentration camp became known through the testimony of Dr. Blaha, to which I should like to refer the Tribunal, in which he testified that Frick visited the Dachau Camp in 1943. The next aspect of the participation of the Defendant Frick in the Nazi conspiracy concerns his promotion of racial persecution and racism, involving the wiping out of the Jews. In addition to the many other responsibilities of Frick, this vast administrative empire covered the entire area of the enactment and administration of racial legislation. I refer again to Document 3475-PS, The, Manual for German Administrative Officials, previously introduced, and I refer to Pages 2 and 4, showing that Frick was administrative and legislative guardian and protector of the German race. In order to avoid any repetition, I shall not quote the various acts drafted by Frick's ministry against the Jews. The presentation concerning persecution of the Jews made by Major Walsh before the Christmas recess listed a number of decrees signed by Frick, including the infamous Nuremberg Laws and the laws depriving Jews of their property, their rights of citizenship and stigmatizing them with the Yellow Star. But the activities of Frick's ministry were not restricted to the commission of such crimes, camouflaged in the form of legislation.
DR. KEMPNER: The police field offices, subordinate to Frick, participated in the organization of such terroristic activities as the pogrom of November 9, 1938. I refer to a series of Heydrich's orders and reports concerning the organization of these pogroms or, as they were termed by Heydrich, "spontaneous riots," Documents 3051-PS and 3058-PS, which are already in evidence as Exhibit Numbers USA-240 and 508. Three days after this pogrom of 9 November 1638 Frick, his undersecretary Stuckart, and his subordinates, Heydrich and Daluege, participated in a conference on the Jewish question under the chairmanship of the Defendant Goering At this meeting were discussed the various measures which the individual governmental departments should initiate against the Jews. A stenographic record of this meeting, Document 1816-PS, is already in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-261. May I briefly refer to the bottom of Page 23 of the English translation, where we find Goering's concluding remarks: "Also the Ministry of the Interior and the Police will have to think over what measures have to be taken," This remark shows that Goering regarded it as Frick's duty to follow up by administrative devices the pogrom, organized by Frick's own subordinates. In the foregoing presentation we have shown that the Defendant Frick, as a member of the conspiracy, devised the 'machinery of the State for Nazism. In the following presentation we will show that Frick actively supported the preparation of the Nazi State for war. May we begin this portion by showing that Frick was in sympathy with the flagrant violations by Germany of her treaties of non- aggression. This is clearly shown by the affidavit of Ambassador Messersmith, Document 2385-PS, previously introduced as Exhibit Number USA-68. I shall quote only one sentence from this affidavit, Page 4, line 10.
DR. KEMPNER: It reads as follows: "High-ranking Nazis with whom I had to maintain official contact, particularly men such as Goering Goebbels, Ley, Frick, Frank, Darre, and others repeatedly scoffed at my position ,as to the binding character of treaties and openly stated to me that Germany would observe her international und undertakings only so long as it suited Germany's interests to do so." In May 1935, by his appointment as Plenipotentiary General for the administration of the Reich, Frick became one of the big three in charge of preparing Germany for war. The other two members of the triumvirate were the Chief of the OKW and the Plenipotentiary General for War Economy, at that time the Defendant Schacht. Frick has admitted that he held the position of Plenipotentiary General since 21 May 1935, the date of the original secret Reich Defense Law., I refer to his statement of positions, Document 2978-PS, Exhibit Number USA-8. His functions as Plenipotentiary General are outlined in the Reich Defense Law of 4 September* 1938, which was classified- top military secret and appears in our document book as 2194-PS, Exhibit Number USA-36. Under this law of 1938, Paragraph 3, tremendous power was concentrated in the hands of Frick as Plenipotentiary General for Administration. In addition to the offices under his supervision as Minister of the Interior, the law made the following offices subordinate to Frick for the purpose of carrying out the directives of the law: Reich Minister of Justice, Reich Minister of Education, Reich Minister for Religious Matters, and the Reich Minister for Planning. Frick admitted the significant part he played in the preparations for war as a member of the triumvirate in a speech made on 7 March 1940 at the University of Freiburg, Excerpts appear in the document book as Document Number 2608-PS, which I offer in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-714.
DR. KEMPNER: I think it would be helpful if the Tribunal would allow me to read two short paragraphs, beginning at the top of Page I of the English translation: "The organization of the non-military national defense fits organically into the entire structure of the National Socialist Government and administration. This state of affairs is not exceptional, but a necessary and planned part of the National Socialist order. Thus, the conversion of our administration and economy to wartime conditions has been accomplished very quickly and without any friction-avoiding the otherwise very dangerous change of the entire structure of the State., "The planned preparation of the administration for the possibility of a war has already been carried out during peacetime. For this purpose the Fuehrer appointed a Plenipotentiary General for the Reich Administration and a Plenipotentiary General for War Economy." Many of Frick's contributions to the preparation of the German State for war are outlined in detail in the book Dr. Wilhelm Frick and His Ministry, which is already in evidence as Document 3119-PS. May I quote two short sentences from the top of Page 3 of the English translation: "Besides, the leading co-operation of the Reich Minister of the Interior in the important field of 'military legislation,' and thus in the establishment of our Armed Forces, has to be particularly emphasized. After all, the Reich Minister of the Interior is the civilian minister of the defense of the country, who in this capacity, together with the Reich War Minister, not only signed the military law of 21 May 1935 but, in his capacity as Supreme Chief of the General and Inner Administration as well as of the Police, has also received from the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor important powers in the fields of the recruitment system and of military supervision." I have previously mentioned that as Minister of the Interior Frick was responsible for the administrative policy in occupied and annexed territories.
DR. KEMPNER: It was his ministry which introduced the new German order throughout the vast territory of Europe occupied by the German Armed Forces, and the Defendant Frick exercised these powers. I request that the Tribunal take judicial notice of three decrees signed by Frick, introducing German law into Austria, the Sudetenland, and the Government General of Poland respectively: Decree of 13 March 1938, Reichsgesetzblatt, 1938, Part I, Page 237, Article 8, Document 2307-PS; decree of 1 October 1938, Reichsgesetzblatt, 1938, Part I, Page 1331, Paragraph 8, Document 3073-PS; decree of 12 October 1939, Reichsgesetzblatt, 1939, Part I, Page 2077, Paragraph 8 (1), Document 3079-PS. Frick's ministry also arranged the selection and assignment of hundreds of occupation officials for the Soviet territory even before the invasion. This fact appears in a report by the Defendant Rosenberg of April 1941 on preparations for the administration of occupied territory in the East. May I refer to Page 2, Paragraph 2, of Document 1039-PS, which has previously been introduced as Exhibit Number USA-146. One category of Frick's contribution to the planning of, and preparation for, aggressive war deserves special notice. This is the systematic killing of persons regarded as useless to the German war machine, such as the insane, the crippled, and aged, and foreign laborers who were no longer able to work. These killings were carried out in nursing homes, hospitals, and asylums. The Tribunal will recall that the Defendant Frick, in his capacity as Reich Minister of the Interior, had jurisdiction over public health and all institutions. May I refer again briefly to the Manual for German Administrative Officials, Document 3475-PS, this time to Pages 3, 4, and 7 of the English partial translation. There the following are mentioned as Frick's jurisdictional areas: "Health Administration ... .. Social Hygiene," "Racial Improvement and Eugenics ... ..
DR. KEMPNER: Reich Plenipotentiary for Sanatoria and Nursing Homes." As proof that Frick's jurisdiction covered the death cases in these institutions, I now offer in evidence Document 621-PS, Exhibit Number USA- 715. This is a letter of 2 October 1940 from the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr., Lammers, to the Reich Minister of Justice, informing the latter that material concerning the death of inmates of nursing homes had been transmitted to the Reich Minister of -the Interior for further action. In fact, the Defendant Frick not only had jurisdiction of these establishments, but he was one of the originators of a secret law organizing the murdering. I now offer Document 1556-PS, Exhibit Number USA-716. This is an official report, dated December 1941, of the Czechoslovak War Crimes Commission entitled, "Detailed Statement on the Murdering of Ill and Aged People in Germany." I should like to quote very brief excerpts from this report. Paragraphs 1, 2, and 3 read as follows: "1) The murdering can be traced back to a secret law which was released some time in the summer of 1940. "2) Besides the Chief Physician of the Reich, Dr. L. Conti, the Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler, the Reich Minister of the Interior Dr. Frick, as well as other men, the following participated in the introduction of this secret law:.. ."-Other names listed. "3) As I have already stated, there were-after careful calculation -at least 200,000, mainly mentally deficient, imbeciles, besides neurological cases and medically unfit people-these not only were incurable cases-and at least 75,000 aged people." The most striking example of the continued killings in these institutions, which were under Frick's jurisdiction and operated under the order of which Frick was a co-author, is the famous Hadamar case. Your Honor, may I ask you whether I may have 10-more minutes to end this presentation, because the Chief Prosecutors agreed, as I understood, to start tomorrow morning the case of the French, and I have just 10 more minutes.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, very well.
DR. KEMPNER: Thank you, Your Lordship. I refer to the Hadamar case. I now offer in evidence Document Number 615-PS, Exhibit Number USA-717.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): What is this last report that you spoke about? Whose is it?