Afternoon Session
MR. DODD: May it please the Tribunal, the deterrent effect of the concentration camps was based on the promise of brutal treatment. Once in the custody of the SS guards, the victim was beaten, tortured, starved, and often murdered through the so-called “extermination through work” program which I described the other day or through the mass execution gas chambers and furnaces of the camps, which were shown several days ago on the moving picture screen in this courtroom.
The reports of official government investigations furnish additional evidence of the conditions within the concentration camps.
Document 2309-PS, which has already been referred to and of which the Tribunal has taken judicial notice, I now refer to again, particularly to the second page of the English text, beginning with the second sentence of the second paragraph:
“The work at these camps mainly consisted of underground labor, the purpose being the construction of large underground factories, storage rooms, et cetera. This labor was performed completely underground and as a result of the brutal treatment, working and living conditions, a daily average of 100 prisoners died. To the one camp Oberstaubling 700 prisoners were transported in February 1945, and on the 15th of April 1945 only 405 of these men were living. During the 12 months preceding the liberation, Flossenbürg and the branch camps under its control accounted for the death of 14,739 male inmates and 1,300 women. These figures represent the deaths as obtained from the available records in the camp. However, they are in no way complete, as many secret mass executions and deaths took place. In 1941 an additional stockade was added at the Flossenbürg camp to hold 2,000 Russian prisoners. From these 2,000 prisoners only 102 survived.
“Flossenbürg Concentration Camp can best be described as a factory dealing in death. Although this camp had in view the primary object of putting to work the mass slave labor, another of its primary objectives was the elimination of human lives by the methods employed in handling the prisoners.
“Hunger and starvation rations, sadism, housing facilities, inadequate clothing, medical neglect, disease, beatings, hangings, freezing, forced hand hanging, forced suicides, shooting, all played a major role in obtaining their objective. Prisoners were murdered at random; spite killings against Jews were common. Injections of poison and shooting in the neck were everyday occurrences. Epidemics of typhus and spotted fever were permitted to run rampant as a means of eliminating prisoners. Life in this camp meant nothing. Killing became a common thing, so common that a quick death was welcomed by the unfortunate ones.”
Passing to the next to the last sentence of this same paragraph, quoting directly . . .
THE PRESIDENT: What are those exhibits that are referred to?
MR. DODD: They are in evidence with the affidavit. They are attached to it.
THE PRESIDENT: They are not, I suppose, mimeographed in our copy?
MR. DODD: No, we have not had an opportunity to mimeograph each one of them.
THE PRESIDENT: Are they documents or photographs or what?
MR. DODD: They are principally documents. There are some few plans and photographs, and so on.
THE PRESIDENT: Are they affidavits or what? There seem to be instances of . . .
MR. DODD: Well, some of them are in the form of affidavits taken at the time of the liberation of the camp from persons who were there, and others are pictures of writings that were found there and of the plans and so on—such sort of thing.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Well the Tribunal will take judicial notice of those exhibits as well.
MR. DODD: Very well, Your Honor.
Reading from the last sentence of this same paragraph on the same page and quoting:
“On Christmas, 1944, a number of prisoners were hanged at one time. The prisoners were forced to view this hanging. By the side of the gallows was a decorated Christmas tree; and as expressed by one prisoner, ‘It was a terrible sight, that combination of prisoners hanging in the air and the glistening Christmas tree.’ ”
“In March or April, 13 American or British parachutists were hanged. They had been delivered to this camp some time before and had been captured while trying to blow up bridges.”
We will not burden the Tribunal with a recital of all of these reports. We wish, however, to make reference to the Concentration Camp Mauthausen, one of the most notorious extermination centers; and I refer particularly to Document Number 2176-PS, which I have already placed in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-249. This is also an official report of the office of the Judge Advocate General of the United States 3rd Army, dated 17 June 1945. I wish to refer to the conclusions on Page 3 of the English text, at paragraph numbered Roman V, beginning with the second sentence as follows:
“V. Conclusions. There is no doubt that Mauthausen was the basis for long-term planning. It was constructed as a gigantic stone fortress on top of a mountain flanked by small barracks. Mauthausen, in addition to its permanency of construction, had facilities for a large garrison of officers and men and had large dining rooms and toilet facilities for the staff. It was conducted with the sole purpose in mind of exterminating any so-called prisoner who entered within its walls. The so-called branches of Mauthausen were under direct command of the SS officials located there. All records, orders, and administrative facilities were handled for these branches through Mauthausen. The other camps, including Gusen and Ebensee, its two most notorious and largest branches, were not exclusively used for extermination; but prisoners were used as tools in construction and production until they were beaten or starved into uselessness, whereupon they were customarily sent to Mauthausen for final disposal.”
Both from the showing of the moving picture and from these careful reports, which were made by the 3rd Army of the United States on their arrival at those centers, we say it is clear that the conditions in those concentration camps over Germany—and in a few instances outside of the actual borders of the Old Reich—followed the same general pattern. The wide-spread incidence of these conditions makes it clear that they were not the result of sporadic excesses on the part of individual jailers, but were the result of policies deliberately imposed from above. The crimes committed in these camps were on so vast a scale that individual atrocities pale into insignificance.
We have had turned over to us two exhibits which we are prepared to show to this Tribunal only because they illustrate the depths to which the administration of these camps had sunk shortly before, at least, the time that they were liberated by the Allied Army. The Tribunal will recall that in the showing of the moving picture, with respect to one of the camps, there was a showing of sections of human skin taken from human bodies in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp and preserved as ornaments. They were selected, these particular hapless victims, because of the tattooing which appeared on the skin. This exhibit, which we have here, is Exhibit Number USA-252. Attached to the exhibit is an extract of an official United States Army report describing the circumstances under which this exhibit was obtained; and that extract is set forth in Document 3420-PS, which I refer to in part. It is entitled:
“Mobile Field Interrogation Unit Number 2; PW Intelligence Bulletin; 13. Concentration Camp, Buchenwald.
“Preamble. The author of this account is PW Andreas Pfaffenberger, 1 Coy, 9 Landesschützen Bn., 43 years old and of limited education. He is a butcher by trade. The substantial agreement of the details of his story with those found in PWIB (H) /LF/36 establishes the validity of his testimony. PW has not been questioned on statements which, in the light of what is known, are apparently erroneous in certain details, nor has any effort been made to alter the subjective character of the PW’s account, which he wrote without being told anything of the intelligence already known. The results of interrogation on personalities at Buchenwald have already been published (PWIB Number 2/12, item 31.).
“ ‘In 1939 all prisoners with tattooing on them were ordered to report to the dispensary.’ ”
THE PRESIDENT: Is this what Pfaffenberger said?
MR. DODD: Yes, Sir.
“ ‘No one knew what the purpose was; but after the tattooed prisoners had been examined, the ones with the best and most artistic specimens were kept in the dispensary and then killed by injections administered by Karl Beigs, a criminal prisoner. The corpses were then turned over to the pathological department where the desired pieces of tattooed skin were detached from the bodies and treated. The finished products were turned over to SS Standartenführer Koch’s wife, who had them fashioned into lamp shades and other ornamental household articles. I myself saw such tattooed skins with various designs and legends on them, such as “Hänsel and Gretel,” which one prisoner had on his knee, and designs of ships from prisoners’ chests. This work was done by a prisoner named Wernerbach.”
I also refer to Document 3421-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-253.
“I, George C. Demas, Lieutenant, USNR, associated with the United States Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality, hereby certify that the attached exhibit, consisting of parchment, was delivered by the War Crimes Section, Judge Advocate General, United States Army, to me in my above capacity, in the usual course of business, as an exhibit found in Buchenwald Camp and captured by military forces under the command of the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces.”
And the last paragraph of Document 3423-PS (Exhibit USA-252) is a conclusion reached in a United States Army report, and I quote it:
“Based on the findings in Paragraph 2, all three specimens are tattooed human skin.”
This document is also attached to this exhibit on the board. We do not wish to dwell on this pathological phase of the Nazi culture; but we do feel compelled to offer one additional exhibit, which we offer as Exhibit Number USA-254. This exhibit, which is on the table, is a human head with the skull bone removed, shrunken, stuffed, and preserved. The Nazis had one of their many victims decapitated, after having had him hanged, apparently for fraternizing with a German woman, and fashioned this terrible ornament from his head.
The last paragraph of the official United States Army report from which I have just read deals with the manner in which this exhibit was acquired. It reads as follows:
“There I also saw the shrunken heads of two young Poles who had been hanged for having relations with German girls. The heads were the size of a fist, and the hair and the marks of the rope were still there.”
Another certificate by Lieutenant Demas is set forth in Document 3422-PS (Exhibit USA-254) and is similar to the one which I have read a few minutes ago with relation to the human skin, excepting that it applies to this second exhibit. We have no accurate estimate of how many persons died in these concentration camps and perhaps none will ever be made; but as the evidence already introduced before this Tribunal indicates, the Nazi conspirators were generally meticulous record keepers. But the records which they kept about concentration camps appear to have been quite incomplete. Perhaps the character of the records resulted from the indifference which the Nazis felt for the lives of their victims. But occasionally we find a death book or a set of index cards. For the most part, nevertheless, the victims apparently faded into an unrecorded death. Reference to a set of death books suggests at once the scale of the concentration camp operations, and we refer now and offer Document Number 493-PS as Exhibit Number USA-251. This exhibit is a set of seven books, the death ledger of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Each book has on its cover the word “Totenbuch” (or Death Book)—Mauthausen.
In these books were recorded the names of some of the inmates who died or were murdered in this camp, and the books cover the period from January of 1939 to April of 1945. They give the name, the place of birth, the assigned cause of death, and time of death of each individual recorded. In addition each corpse is assigned a serial number, and adding up the total serial numbers for the 5-year period one arrives at the figure of 35,318.
An examination of the books is very revealing insofar as the camp’s routine of death is concerned; and I invite the attention of the Tribunal to Volume 5 from Pages 568 to 582, a photostatic copy of which has been passed to the Tribunal. These pages cover death entries made for the 19th day of March 1945 between 15 minutes past 1 in the morning until 2 o’clock in the afternoon. In this space of 12 and three-quarter hours, on these records, 203 persons are reported as having died. They were assigned serial numbers running from 8390 to 8593. The names of the dead are listed. And interestingly enough the victims are all recorded as having died of the same ailment—heart trouble. They died at brief intervals. They died in alphabetical order. The first who died was a man named Ackermann, who died at 1:15 a.m., and the last was a man named Zynger, who died at 2 o’clock in the afternoon.
At 20 minutes past 2 o’clock of that same afternoon, according to these records, on the 19th of March 1945, the fatal roll call began again and continued until 4:30 p.m. In a space of 2 hours 75 more persons died, and once again they died all from heart failure and in alphabetical order. We find the entries recorded in the same volume, from Pages 582 through 586.
There was another death book found at Camp Mauthausen. It is our Document Number 495-PS and bears Exhibit Number USA-250. This is a single volume, and again has on its cover the words “Death Book—Prisoners of War.” And I invite the attention of the Tribunal in particular to Pages 234 through 246. Here the entries record the names of 208 prisoners of war, apparently Russians, who at 15 minutes past midnight on the 10th day of May 1942 were executed at the same time. The book notes that the execution was directed by the chief of the SD and the Sipo, at that time Heydrich.
It was called to my attention as late as this morning—a publication of a New York newspaper published in the United States, part of which is made up of three or more pages consisting of advertisements from the families, the relatives of people who once resided in Germany or in Europe, asking for some advice about them. Most of the advertisements refer to one of these concentration camps or another. The paper is called Der Aufbau. It is a German-language newspaper in New York City, published on the 23rd day—this particular issue—on the 23rd day of November 1945. I do not propose to burden the record of this Tribunal with the list of the names of all of these unfortunate individuals; but we refer to it as a publication in the City of New York, a German-language newspaper of recent date which illustrates the horrible extent of this terrible tragedy which has affected so many people as a result of this concentration-camp institution. We feel that no argument, no particular argument, is necessary to support our statement that the Nazi conspirators used these concentration camps and the related instruments of terror in them to commit Crimes against Humanity and to commit War Crimes.
More about concentration camps will of necessity be involved in the presentation concerning the persecution of the Jews, but this concludes our presentation with respect to the concentration camps as a specific entity of proof.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, speaking for myself, I should like to know what these headings mean.
MR. DODD: Yes, I have them here.
THE PRESIDENT: Document 495-PS?
MR. DODD: Yes, Document 495-PS. Column 1 is the serial number assigned to the prisoners in the order of their deaths.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. DODD: Column 2, prisoners-of-war serial number. Column 3 is the last name, Column 4 is the first name.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. DODD: Column 5 is the date of birth. Column 6, the place of birth. Column 7, cause of death. In these cases their cause of death is stated as follows: “Execution pursuant to order of the Chief of the Sipo and SD dated 30th April 1942,” and the ditto marks beneath indicate that the same cause of death was assigned to the names which come beneath it. In the eighth column is the date of death and the hour of death. The first one being 9.5.42 at 2335 hours. In the ninth column there is a space which says it is reserved for comments.
THE PRESIDENT: There are numbers there too—M1681 is the first one.
MR. DODD: Well, the German word, I am told, means that it confirms the death with that number. Apparently the number of the . . .
THE PRESIDENT: I think you said the number of the corpse.
MR. DODD: The number of the corpse, I think that is what it is as distinguished from the number of the prisoner. Each corpse was given a number as well after the individual died.
COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, the next phase of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, the Persecution of the Jews, will be presented by Major Walsh.
THE PRESIDENT: Major Walsh.
MAJOR WILLIAM F. WALSH (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): If the Tribunal please, on behalf of the United States Counsel, I now present to this august Tribunal the evidence to establish certain phases of the Indictment alleged in Count One under War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, and by agreement between the prosecutors the allegations in Count Four, Paragraph X(B), Crimes against Humanity. The topical title of this presentation is “The Persecution of the Jews.”
At this time I offer in evidence a Document Book of translations, lettered “T.” These documents contained in the books are arranged according to the D-, L-, PS-, and R-series; and under the series the translations are listed numerically. This title, “The Persecution of the Jews,” is singularly inappropriate when weighed in the light of the evidence to follow. Academically, I am told, to persecute is to afflict, harass, and annoy. The term used does not convey, and indeed I cannot conjure a term that does convey the ultimate aim, the avowed purpose to obliterate the Jewish race.
This presentation is not intended to be a complete recital of all the crimes committed against the Jews. The extent and the scope of the crimes was so great that it permeated the entire German nation, its people and its organizations.
I am informed that others to follow me will offer additional evidence under other phases of the Prosecution’s case. Evidence relating to the Party organizations and state organizations, whose criminality the Prosecution will seek to establish, will disclose and emphasize the part that these organizations played in the pattern and plan for annihilation.
The French and the Soviet Prosecutors, too, have a volume of evidence all related to this subject, which will be submitted in the course of the Trial.
Before I begin a recital of the overt acts leading to the elimination of the Jews, I am prepared to show that these acts and policies within Germany from the year 1933 to the end of the war related to the planning, preparation, initiation, and waging of aggressive wars, thus falling within the definition of Crimes against Humanity as defined in Article 6(c) of the Charter.
It had long been a German theory that the first World War ended in Germany’s defeat because of a collapse in the zone of the interior. In planning for future wars it was determined that the home front must be secure to prevent a repetition of this 1918 debacle. Unification of the German people was essential to successful planning and waging of war, and the Nazi political premise must be established—“One race, one state, one Führer.”
Free trade unions must be abolished, political parties (other than the National Socialist Party) must be outlawed, civil liberties must be suspended, and opposition of every kind must be swept away. Loyalty to God, church, and scientific truth was declared to be incompatible with the Nazi regime. The anti-Jewish policy was part of this plan for unification because it was the conviction of the Nazis that the Jews would not contribute to Germany’s military program, but on the contrary would hamper it. The Jew must therefore be eliminated.
This view is clearly borne out by a statement contained in Document 1919-PS, Exhibit USA-170. This document is a transcript of a Himmler speech at a meeting of the SS major generals on 4 October 1943, and from Page 4, Paragraph 3, of the translation before the Court, I read a very short passage:
“We know how difficult we should have made it for ourselves if with the bombing raids, the burdens and deprivations of war, we still had Jews today in every town as secret saboteurs, agitators, and trouble mongers; we would now probably have reached the 1916-17 stage when the Jews were still in the German national body.”
The treatment of the Jews within Germany was therefore as much of a plan for aggressive war as was the building of armaments and the conscription of manpower. It falls within the jurisdiction of this Tribunal as an integral part of the planning and preparation to wage a war of aggression.
It is obvious that the persecution and murder of Jews throughout the conquered territories of Europe following 1939 are War Crimes as defined by Article 6(b) of the Charter. It further violates Article 46 of the Regulations of the Hague Convention of 1907, to which Germany was a signatory. I quote Article 46 and ask the Court to take judicial notice thereof:
“Family honor and rights, the lives of persons, and private property, as well as religious convictions and practices, must be respected.”
I know of no crime in the history of mankind more horrible in its details than the treatment of the Jews. It is intended to establish that the Nazi Party precepts, later incorporated within the policies of the German State, often expressed by the defendants at bar, were to annihilate the Jewish people. I shall seek to avoid the temptation to editorialize or to draw inferences from the documents, however great the provocation; rather I shall let the documentary evidence speak for itself—its stark realism will be unvarnished. Blood lust may have played some part in these savage crimes, but the underlying purpose and objective to annihilate the Jewish race was one of the fundamental principles of the Nazi plan to prepare for and to wage aggressive war. I shall from this point limit my proof to the overt acts committed; but I dare to request the Court’s indulgence, if it is necessary in weaving the pattern of evidence, to make reference to certain documents and evidence previously submitted.
Now this ultimate objective, that is, the elimination and extermination of the Jews, could not be accomplished without preliminary steps and measures. The German State must first be seized by the Nazi Party, the force of world opinion must be faced, and even the regimented German people must be indoctrinated with hatred against the Jews.
The first clear-cut evidence of the Party policies concerning the Jews was expressed in the Party program in February 1920. I offer in evidence Document 1708-PS, “Program of the National Socialist Party,” Exhibit USA-255. With the Court’s permission, I would like to quote the relevant part of that program, Paragraph (4):
“Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood without consideration of confession. . . .”
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): May I interrupt a minute. It is a little hard to know where these exhibits are or what volume you are now quoting from.
MAJOR WALSH: This, Sir, is 1708-PS.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Volume 2?
MAJOR WALSH: Volume 2.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): And what page of that exhibit?
MAJOR WALSH: That is Paragraph (4) and Paragraph (6), Sir, on the first page.
Paragraph (4):
“Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of confession. Consequently, no Jew can be a member of the race.”
And again, in Paragraph (6):
“The right to determine matters concerning administration and law belongs only to the citizen; therefore, we demand that every public office of any sort whatsoever, whether in the Reich, the county, or municipality, be filled only by citizens.”
I now offer Document 2662-PS, Mein Kampf, Exhibit Number USA-256. On Pages 724-725, Hitler, in this book, speaking of the Jew, said that if the National Socialist movement was to fulfill its task—and I quote:
“It must open the eyes of the people with regard to foreign nations and must remind them again and again of the true enemy of our present-day world. In the place of hate against Aryans—from whom we may be separated by almost everything but to whom, however, we are tied by common blood or the great tie of a common culture—it must dedicate to the general anger the evil enemy of mankind as the true cause of all suffering.
“It must see to it, however, that at least in our country he be recognized as the most mortal enemy and that the struggle against him may show, like a flaming beacon of a better era, to other nations, too, the road to salvation for a struggling Aryan mankind.”
A flood of abusive literature of all types and for all age groups was published and circulated throughout Germany. Illustrative of this type of publication is the book entitled Der Giftpilz. I offer in evidence Document 1778-PS, Exhibit Number USA-257. This book brands the Jew as a persecutor of the labor class, as a race defiler, devil in human form, a poisonous mushroom, and a murderer. This particular book instructed school children to recognize the Jew by caricature of his physical features, shown on Pages 6 and 7; taught them that the Jew abuses little boys and girls, on Page 30; and that the Jewish Bible permits all crimes, Pages 13-17. The Defendant Streicher’s periodical Der Stürmer, Number 14, April 1937, in particular, went to such extremes as to publish the statement that Jews at the ritual celebration of their Passover slaughtered Christians.
I offer Document 2699-PS, Exhibit Number USA-258. On Page 2, Column 1, Paragraphs 6 to 9, I quote:
“Also the numerous confessions made by the Jews show that the execution of ritual murders is a law of the Talmud Jew. The former chief Rabbi (and later monk) Teofiti declares that the ritual murders take place especially on the Jewish Purim (in memory of the Persian murders) and Passover (in memory of the murder of Christ). The rules are as follows:
“The blood of the victims is to be tapped by force. On Passover it is to be used in wine and matzos. Thus a small part of the blood is to be poured into the dough of the matzos and into the wine. The mixing is done by the head of the Jewish family.
“The procedure is as follows: The family head empties a few drops of the fresh and powdered blood into a glass, wets the fingers of the left hand with it and sprays (blesses) with it everything on the table. The head of the family then says, ‘Thus we ask God to send the 10 plagues to all enemies of the Jewish faith.’ Then they eat, and at the end the head of the family exclaims, ‘May all Gentiles perish, as the child whose blood is contained in the bread and wine.’
“The fresh (or dried and powdered) blood of the slaughtered is further used by young married Jewish couples, by pregnant Jewesses, for circumcision and so on. Ritual murder is recognized by all Talmud Jews. The Jew believes he absolves himself thus of his sins.”
It is difficult for our minds to grasp that falsehoods such as these could fall on fertile soil, that a literate nation could read, digest, or believe these doctrines. We must realize, however, that with a rigidly controlled press which precluded an exposé of such lying propaganda, some of the ignorant and gullible would be led to believe.
I now offer in evidence Document 2697-PS, a copy of Der Stürmer, Exhibit Number USA-259. This publication, Der Stürmer, was published by the Defendant Streicher’s publishing firm. In this publication, Streicher, speaking of the Jewish faith, said, “The Holy Scripture is a horrible criminal romance abounding with murder, incest, fraud, and indecency.”
And again he said, “The Talmud is the great Jewish book of criminal instructions that the Jew practices in his daily life.” This is contained in Document 2698-PS, Der Stürmer, which I now offer in evidence, Exhibit Number USA-260.
This propaganda campaign of hate was too widespread and notorious to require further elaboration. Within the documents offered in evidence in this and in other phases of the case will be found similar and even more scurrilous statements, many by the defendants themselves and others by their accomplices.
When the Nazi Party gained control of the German State, a new and terrible weapon against the Jews was placed within their grasp, the power to apply the force of the state against them. This was done by the issuance of decrees.
Jewish immigrants were denaturalized: 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 480, signed by Defendants Frick and Neurath.
Native Jews were precluded from citizenship: 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 1146, signed by Defendant Frick.
Jews were forbidden to live in marriage or to have extramarital relations with persons of German blood: 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 1146, signed by Frick and Hess.
Jews were denied the right to vote: 1936 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 133, signed by Defendant Frick.
Jews were denied the right to hold public office or civil service positions: Reichsgesetzblatt 1933, Part I, Page 277, signed by Defendant Frick.
It was determined to relegate the Jews to an inferior status by denying them common privileges and freedoms. Thus, they were denied access to certain city areas, sidewalks, transportation, places, of amusement, restaurants: 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 1676.
Progressively more and still more stringent measures were applied, even to the denial of private pursuits. They were excluded from the practice of dentistry: 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 47, signed by Defendant Hess.
The practice of law was denied: 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 1403, signed by Defendants Frick and Hess.
The practice of medicine was denied: 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 969, signed by Defendants Frick and Hess.
They were denied employment by press and radio: 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 661.
From stock exchanges and stock brokerage: 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 169.
And even from farming: 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 685.
In 1938 they were excluded from business in general and from the economic life of Germany: 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 1580, signed by the Defendant Göring.
The Jews were forced to pay discriminatory taxes and huge atonement fines. Their homes, bank accounts, real estate, and intangibles were expropriated.
To digress for a moment from a recital of decrees and to refer specifically to the atonement fines, I wish to offer Document 1816-PS, Exhibit Number USA-261. This exhibit is a stenographic report of a conference under the chairmanship of the Defendant Göring, attended by the Defendant Funk among others, held at 11 o’clock on 12 November 1938 at the Reich Ministry for Air. From Pages 8 and 9 of Section 7, I quote the Defendant Göring:
“One more question, gentlemen, what would you think the situation would be if I announced today that Jewry shall have to contribute this 1,000,000,000 as a punishment.”
And then the last paragraph on Page 22 of the translation before the Court—I quote:
“I shall choose the wording this way—that German Jewry shall, as punishment for their abominable crimes, et cetera, et cetera, have to make a contribution of 1,000,000,000. That will work. The pigs won’t commit another murder in a hurry. I should like to say again that I would not like to be a Jew in Germany.”
It was whimsical remarks such as these that originated decrees, for following this meeting a decree was issued placing upon the German Jews the burden of 1,000,000,000 Reichsmark fine: 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 1579, date 12 November 1938, signed by the Defendant Göring.
Similar decrees are contained in 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 282, signed by Defendant Göring, and 1941 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 722, signed by Defendants Frick and Bormann.
Finally, in the year 1943, the Jews were placed beyond the protection of any judicial process by a decree signed by the Defendants Bormann and Frick and others; and the police became the sole arbiters of punishment and death: 1943 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 372, signed by Frick and Bormann.
I ask the Court to take judicial notice of the Reichsgesetzblatt decrees cited.
Side by side with the passage of these decrees and their execution went still another weapon, wielded by the Party and the Party-controlled state. These were the openly sponsored and official anti-Jewish boycotts against Jews. I now offer Document 2409-PS, the published diary of Joseph Goebbels, Exhibit Number USA-262, and I invite the Court’s attention to Page 290 where, under date of 29 March 1933—the Court will find the quotation on the top of Page 1 of the translation of 2409-PS—“The boycott appeal is approved by the entire Cabinet.” And again on the 31st of March 1933 he wrote, on Page 1, first sentence of Paragraph 2, “We are having a last discussion among a very small circle and decide that the boycott is to start tomorrow with all severity.”
The Defendant Streicher and the Defendant Frank, together with Himmler, Ley, and others, were members of a central committee who conducted the 1933 boycott against the Jews. Their names are listed in Document 2156-PS, National Socialist Party Correspondence, 29 March 1933, Exhibit Number USA-263.
As early as 1933 violence against the Jews was undertaken. Raids were conducted, by uniformed Nazis, on services within synagogues. Attending members of the synagogues were assaulted and religious insignia and emblems were desecrated. A report of such an occurrence is contained in the official dispatch from the American Consul General in Leipzig, dated 5 April 1933.
I offer in evidence Document 2709-PS . . .
THE PRESIDENT: What do you refer to 2156 for?
MAJOR. WALSH: Only, Sir, to show the names of the Defendants Streicher and Frank as members of the boycott committee.
THE PRESIDENT: I see.
MAJOR WALSH: Document 2709 has been given Exhibit Number USA-265. From Paragraph 1 of Page 1, I quote:
“In Dresden, several weeks ago, uniformed Nazis raided the Jewish prayer house, interrupted the evening religious service, arrested 25 worshippers, and tore the holy insignia or emblems from their headcovering worn while praying.”
At a meeting here in Nuremberg, before the representatives of the German press, the Defendant Streicher and Mayor Liebel of Nuremberg revealed in advance to the gathered members of the press that the Nuremberg synagogue was to be destroyed.
I offer in evidence Document 1724-PS, Exhibit Number USA-266, which is minutes of this meeting, dated 4 August 1938. From Page 1, Paragraph 4 of the original, I quote the translation before the Court:
“The breaking up of the synagogue (information must still be secret). On August 10, 1938, at 10 o’clock a.m., the breakup of the synagogue will commence. Gauleiter Julius Streicher will personally set the crane into motion with which the Jewish symbols, Star of David, et cetera, will be torn down. This should be arranged in a big way. Closer details are still unknown.”
The Defendant Streicher himself supervised the demolition.
In support of this, I offer Document 2711-PS, a newspaper account of 11 August 1938, Exhibit Number USA-267, Paragraph 1 of the translation before the Court:
“In Nuremberg the synagogue is being demolished; Julius Streicher himself inaugurates the work by a speech lasting more than an hour and a half. By his order then—so to speak as a prelude of the demolition—the tremendous Star of David came off the cupola.”
These accounts of violence were not localized anti-Semitic demonstrations but were directed and ordered from a centralized headquarters in Berlin. This is established by a series of teletype messages sent by the Berlin Secret State Police headquarters to chiefs of police throughout Germany on 10 November 1938, which contained instructions pertaining to the pre-arranged demonstration.
I now refer to Document 3051-PS, previously offered in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-240. I shall quote the relevant part of one of these confidential orders signed by Heydrich, the translation before the Court, the last half on Page 2:
“Because of the attempt on the life of the Secretary of the Legation, Von Rath, in Paris tonight, 9-10 November 1938, demonstrations against Jews are to be expected throughout the Reich. The following instructions are given on how to treat these events:
“1) The Chiefs of the State Police or their deputies must get in telephonic contact with the political leaders who have jurisdiction over their districts and must arrange a joint meeting with the appropriate inspector or commander of the Order Police to discuss the organization of the demonstrations. At these discussions the political leaders have to be informed that the German Police has received from the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police the following instructions, in accordance with which the political leaders should adjust their own measures.
“a) Only such measures should be taken which do not involve danger to German life or property. (For instance synagogues are to be burned down only when there is no danger of fire to the surroundings.)
“b) Business and private apartments of Jews may be destroyed but not looted. The police is instructed to supervise the execution of this order and to arrest looters.”
To this point we have found a gradual and a mounting emphasis in the campaign against the Jews, one of the basic tenets of the Nazi Party and of the state. The flame of prejudice has now been lighted and fanned. The German people have been to a large degree indoctrinated, and the seeds of hatred have been sown. The German State is now armed and is prepared for conquest and the force of world opinion can now safely be ignored. Already they have forced out of Germany 200,000 of its original 500,000 Jews. The Nazi-controlled German State is therefore emboldened; and Hitler, in anticipation of the aggressive wars already planned, casts about for a “whipping boy” upon whose shoulders can be placed the blame for the world catastrophe yet to come. The speech before the Reichstag on 30 January 1939 is set forth in Document Number 2663-PS, which I now offer in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-268. I quote:
“If the international Jewish financiers within and without Europe succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, the result will not be the Bolshevization of the world and the victory of Jewry, but the obliteration of the Jewish race in Europe.”
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn for 10 minutes.
[A recess was taken.]
THE PRESIDENT: Major Walsh, it would, I think, assist the Tribunal if you were careful to state the PS number which we have rather more clearly and slowly. You see, the United States Exhibit number we do not have and I do not know whether it would be better to state the United States Exhibit number first and then give us the PS number; I am not sure it would. Anyhow, if you would go a little more slowly and make certain we get the PS number, it would be helpful.
MAJOR WALSH: Yes, Your Honor.
The Chief Editor of the official organ of the SS, the Schwarze Korps, expressed similar sentiments on August 8, 1940.
I offer in evidence Document 2668-PS; this is Exhibit Number USA-269, Page 2 of the original and the full excerpt before the Court in translation, as follows:
“Just as the Jewish question will be solved for Germany only when the last Jew has been deported, so the rest of Europe should also realize that the German peace which awaits it must be a peace without Jews.”
These were not the only officials of the Party and of the State to voice the same views. The Defendant Rosenberg wrote for the publication World Struggle. I offer in evidence Document 2665-PS, Exhibit Number USA-270. This publication, Volumes 1 and 2, April and September 1941, Page 71 of the original, reads, “The Jewish question will be solved only when the last Jew has left the European continent.”
The Court will recall Mr. Justice Jackson’s reference to the apologetic note contained in the diary of Hans Frank when he wrote, and I quote from Document 2233(c)-PS, Exhibit Number USA-271, bottom of Page 1 of the translation:
“Of course, I could neither eliminate all lice nor all Jews in only 1 year’s time. But in the course of time and, above all, if you will help me, this end will be attained.”
THE PRESIDENT: I forgot to say, Major Walsh, it would help us too, when you do not begin at the beginning of a paragraph, if you would indicate about where it is.
MAJOR WALSH: Yes, Sir; I shall do that.
While this presentation is not necessarily intended to be a chronological narrative of events in the treatment of the Jewish people, it would appear at this point that we should pause to examine the record to date. We find that the Nazi Party and the Nazi-dominated State have, by writings and by utterances, by decrees and by official acts, clearly expressed their intent: the Jew must be eliminated.
How do they now progress to the accomplishment of this purpose? The first requirement was a complete registration of all Jews; and inasmuch as the policy relating to the Jews followed on the heels of German aggression, such registration was required not only within the Reich but successively within the conquered territories. For example, within Germany registration was required by decree (Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, 1938, Page 922, 23 July, signed by the Defendant Frick); within Austria (Reichsgesetzblatt, Volume 1, 1940, Page 694, 29 April); within Poland (Kurjer Krakowski, 5 October 1939); in France (Journal Officiel Number 9, Page 92, 30 September 1940); in Holland (Verordnungsblatt, Number 6, 10 January 1941, signed by the Defendant Seyss-Inquart).
The second step was to segregate and concentrate the Jews within restricted areas called ghettos. This policy was carefully worked out, and perhaps the confidential statement taken from the files of the Defendant Rosenberg will best serve as an illustration.
I offer in evidence a copy of a memorandum from Defendant Rosenberg’s file entitled, “Directions for Handling of the Jewish Question,” Document 212-PS, Exhibit Number USA-272. I quote from the top of Page 2 of the translation before the Court:
“The first main goal of the German measures must be strict segregation of Jewry from the rest of the population. The presupposition of this is, first of all, the registration of the Jewish population by the introduction of a compulsory registration order and similar appropriate measures. . . .”
And then, in the second sentence, in the second paragraph, on Page 2, I continue:
“. . . all rights of freedom for Jews are to be withdrawn. They are to be placed in ghettos and at the same time are to be separated according to sexes. The presence of many more or less closed Jewish settlements in White Ruthenia and in the Ukraine makes this mission easier. Moreover, places are to be chosen which make possible the full use of the Jewish manpower as a consequence of present labor programs. These ghettos can be placed under the supervision of a Jewish self-government with Jewish officials. The guarding of the boundaries between the ghettos and the outer world is, however, the duty of the police.
“Also, in the case in which a ghetto could not yet be established, care is to be taken through strict prohibition and similar suitable measures that a further intermingling of blood of the Jews and the rest of the populace does not continue.”
In May 1941 Rosenberg, as the Reich Minister for the Eastern regions, issued directions confining the Jews to ghettos in the Ukraine.
I offer in evidence Document 1028-PS, Exhibit Number USA-273, and from the first sentence of the translation before the Court, I read:
“After the customary removal of Jews from all public offices, the Jewish question will have to be solved conclusively through the institution of ghettos.”
The policies expressed in the quoted Rosenberg memoranda were not isolated instances nor the acts of one individual. It was the expressed state policy. Defendant Von Schirach played his part in the program of “ghettoization.” I offer in evidence Document 3048-PS, Exhibit Number USA-274. Before the Court is a full translation of that which I wish to quote. The Defendant Von Schirach spoke before the European Youth Congress held in Vienna on 14 September 1942, and from Page 2, Column 2, of the Vienna edition of the Völkischer Beobachter of 15 September, I quote:
“Every Jew who exerts influence in Europe is a danger to European culture. If anyone reproaches me with having driven from this city, which was once the European metropolis of Jewry, tens of thousands upon tens of thousands of Jews into the ghetto of the East, I feel myself compelled to reply, ‘I see in this an action contributing to European culture.’ ”
One of the largest ghettos was within the City of Warsaw. The original report made by SS Major General Stroop concerning this ghetto is entitled, “The Warsaw Ghetto is no more.” I now offer this in evidence at this time, if the Court please, and request leave to refer to it later on in this presentation—Exhibit Number USA-275, 1061-PS, top of Page 3 of the translation, Document 1061-PS:
“The Ghetto thus established in Warsaw was inhabited by about 400,000 Jews.
“It contained 27,000 apartments with an average of two and a half rooms each. It was separated from the rest of the city by partitions and other walls and by walling-up of thoroughfares, windows, doors, open spaces, et cetera.”
Some idea of the conditions within this ghetto can be gathered from the fact that an average of six persons lived in every room. Himmler received a report from the SS Brigadeführer Group A, dated 15 October 1941 which further illustrates the establishment and operation of the ghettos. I offer Document L-180 in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-276. The translation, if the Tribunal please, is from the second paragraph from the bottom of Page 9:
“Apart from organizing and carrying out measures of execution, the creation of ghettos was begun in the larger towns at once during the first days of operations. This was especially urgent in Kovno because there were 30,000 Jews in a total population of 152,400.”
And from the last paragraph on Page 9 continuing to page 10 I quote:
“In Riga the so-called ‘Moscow suburb’ was designated as a ghetto. This is the worst dwelling district of Riga, already now mostly inhabited by Jews. The transfer of the Jews into the ghetto district proved rather difficult because the Latvian dwellings in that district had to be evacuated and residential space in Riga is very crowded. Of the 28,000 Jews living in Riga 24,000 have been transferred into the ghetto so far. In creating the ghetto the Security Police restricted themselves to mere policing duties, while the establishment and administration of the ghetto as well as the regulation of the food supply for the inmates of the ghetto was left to civil administration; the Labor Offices were left in charge of labor allocation. In the other towns with a larger Jewish population ghettos shall be established likewise.”
Jews were also forced into ghettos in the Polish Province of Galicia. No words in my vocabulary could describe quite so adequately the conditions as those contained in the report from Katzmann, Lieutenant General of Police, to Krüger, General of the Police East, dated 3 June 1943, entitled “Solution of Jewish Question in Galicia.” I offer Document L-18 in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-277. From the translation, if the Court please, we will begin with the last three sentences on Page 11, that is, the last three sentences prior to the word “nothing” which is there on that page: “Nothing but catastrophical conditions were found in the ghettos of Rawa-Ruska and Rohatyn.”
“The Jews of Rawa-Ruska, fearing the evacuation, had concealed those who suffered from spotted fever in underground holes. When evacuation was to start it was found that 3,000 Jews suffering from spotted fever lay about in this ghetto. In order to destroy this center of pestilence at once, every police officer inoculated against spotted fever was called into action. Thus we succeeded in destroying this plague-boil, losing thereby only one officer. Almost the same conditions were found in Rohatyn.”
On Page 19 of this same document, L-18, the last paragraph, I wish to quote further.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MAJOR WALSH: “Since we received more and more alarming reports on the Jews becoming armed in an ever-increasing manner, we started, during the last fortnight in June 1943, an action throughout the whole of the District of Galicia with the intent to use strongest measures to destroy the Jewish gangsterdom. Special measures were found necessary during the action to dissolve the living quarters in Lvov where the dug-out mentioned above had been established. Here we had to act brutally from the beginning in order to avoid losses on our side; we had to blow up or to burn down several houses. On this occasion the surprising fact arose that we were able to catch about 20,000 Jews instead of 12,000 Jews who had registered. We had to pull at least 3,000 Jewish corpses out of every kind of hiding place; they had committed suicide by taking poison.”
On Page 20 of this document, the third paragraph I read:
“Despite the extraordinary burden heaped upon every single SS and Police member during these actions, the mood and spirit of the men were extraordinarily good and praiseworthy from the first to the last day.”
These acts and actions of removal and slaughter were not entirely without profit. The author of this report, on the ninth page of this translated copy stated, and I quote the last paragraph:
“Together with the evacuation action we executed the confiscation of Jewish property. Very high values were confiscated and handed over to the Special Staff ‘Reinhard.’ Apart from furniture and many textile goods, the following amounts were confiscated and turned over to Special Staff ‘Reinhard.’ ”
I would like to read a few of the many and assorted items listed under this confiscation:
“20.952 kilograms of golden wedding rings; 7 stamp collections, complete; 1 suitcase with pocket knives; 1 basket of fountain pens and propelling pencils; 3 bags filled with rings—not genuine; 35 wagons of furs.”
I will not burden the Court with the detailed lists of objects of value and of the money confiscated; but the foregoing is cited to illustrate the thoroughness of the looting of a defenseless people, even to the 11.73 kilograms of gold teeth and inlays.
By the end of 1942 Jews in the Government General of Poland had been crowded into 55 localities whereas before the German invasion there had been approximately 1,000 Jewish settlements within this same area. This is reported in the 1942 official gazette for the Government General, Number 94, Page 665, 1 November 1942.
The Jews having been registered and confined within the ghettos, they now furnished a reservoir for slave labor. It is believed pertinent at this time to point out the difference between the slave labor and labor duty. The latter group were entitled to reasonable compensation, stated work hours, medical care and attention, and other social security measures, while the former were granted none of these advantages, being in fact on a level below a slave.
Defendant Rosenberg, as Reich Minister for the Eastern Occupied Territories, set up within his organization a department which, among other things, was to seek a solution for the Jewish problem by means of forced labor. His plans are contained in another document, 1024-PS, which I now offer in evidence, Exhibit Number USA-278.
I quote the first part of Paragraph 3 of Page 1 of the document entitled, “General Organization and Tasks of Our Office for the General Handling of Problems in the Eastern Territory.” This is dated 29 April 1941. This brief excerpt reads as follows:
“A general treatment is required for the Jewish problem for which a temporary solution will have to be determined (forced labor for the Jews, creation of ghettos, et cetera).”
Thereafter he issued instructions that Jewish forced labor should be effected and utilized for every manual labor; and I refer to Document 212-PS, already in evidence, Exhibit Number USA-272. From Page 3 of this document, Paragraph 5 and Paragraph 7, I quote Paragraph 5:
“The standing rule for the Jewish labor employment is the complete and unyielding use of Jewish manpower regardless of age in the reconstruction of the Eastern Occupied Territories.”
And from Paragraph 7 of the same page I read:
“Violations of German measures, especially evasions of the forced labor regulations, are to be punished by death in the case of the Jews.”
From the ghettos Jewish labor was selected and sent to a concentration area. Here the usable Jews were screened from those considered worthless. For example, a contingent of 45,000 Jews would be expected to yield 10,000 to 15,000 usable laborers. My authority for this statement is contained in a RSHA telegram to Himmler, marked “urgent” and “secret,” dated 16 December 1942.
I offer this document, 1472-PS, in evidence, Exhibit Number USA-279; and from the translation before the Court I read the last four lines:
“In the total of 45,000 are included physically handicapped and others (old Jews and children). In making a distribution for this purpose, at least 10,000 to 15,000 laborers will be available when the Jews arriving at Auschwitz are assigned.”
From Document L-18, a report from the Lieutenant General of the Police, Katzmann, to General of the Police East, Krüger, already in evidence, Exhibit Number USA-277, we find the clearly outlined nature of the forced labor situation for the Jews. On Page 2 of the translation, starting with Paragraph 6, I read:
“The best remedy consisted in the formation of forced labor camps by the SS and Police Leader. The best opportunity for labor was offered by the necessity to complete the ‘Dg. 4’ road which was extremely important and necessary for the whole of the southern part of the front and which was in a catastrophically bad condition. On October 15, 1941, the establishment of camps along the road was commenced; and despite considerable difficulties there existed, after a few weeks only, seven camps containing 4,000 Jews.”
From Page 2, Paragraph 7, I read:
“Soon more camps followed these first ones, so that after a very short time the completion of 15 camps of this kind could be reported to the superior leader of SS and police. In the course of time about 20,000 Jewish laborers passed through these camps. Despite the hardly imaginable difficulties arising from this problem I can report today that about 160 kilometers of the road are completed.”
And from Page 2, Paragraph 8, I read:
“At the same time all other Jews fit for work were registered and distributed for useful work by the labor agencies.”
And on Page 5, last part of Paragraph 1 . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Don’t you want the remainder of that paragraph on Page 2?
MAJOR WALSH: It is such a lengthy document, I hesitated to burden the record with so much of it, and had extracted certain portions therefrom, but I shall be very glad to read it into the record.
THE PRESIDENT: “Then, for instance, the Municipal Administration at Lvov had no success in their attempts to house the Jews within a closed district which would be inhabited only by Jews. This question, too, was solved quickly by the SS and Police Leader through his subordinate officials.”
MAJOR WALSH: With the Court’s permission, I add that to the record.
Reading the last paragraph of Page 2:
“When the Jews were marked by the Star of David, as well as when they were registered by the labor agencies, the first symptoms appeared in their attempts to dodge the order of the authorities. The measures which were introduced thereupon led to thousands of arrests. It became more and more apparent that the civil administration was not in a position to solve the Jewish problem in an approximately satisfactory manner. Then, for instance, the municipal administration at Lvov had no success in their attempts to house the Jews within a closed district which would be inhabited only by Jews. This question, too, was solved quickly by the SS and Police Leader through his subordinate officials. This measure became the more urgent as in the winter of 1941 big centers of spotted fever were noted in many parts of the town . . . .”
And on Page 5 of this document, L-18, last half of Paragraph 1, I read:
“During the removal of the Jews into a certain quarter of the town several sluices were erected at which all the work-shy and asocial Jewish rabble were caught during the screening and treated in a special way. Owing to the peculiar fact that almost 90 percent of artisans working in Galicia were Jews, the task to be solved could be fulfilled only step by step, since an immediate evacuation would not have served the interest of war economy.”
And again, on Page 5, Paragraph 2, the latter part, beginning with “cases were discovered”:
“Cases were discovered where Jews, in order to acquire any certificate of labor, not only renounced all wages but even paid money themselves. Moreover, the organizing of Jews for the benefit of their employers grew to such catastrophical extent that it was deemed necessary to interfere in the most energetic manner for the benefit of the German name.
“Since the administration was not in a position and showed itself too weak to master this chaos, the SS and Police leader simply took over the entire disposition of labor for Jews. The Jewish labor agencies, which were manned by hundreds of Jews, were dissolved. All certificates of labor given by firms or administrative offices were declared invalid, and the cards given to the Jews by the labor agencies were validated by the police offices by stamping them. In the course of this action, again, thousands of Jews were caught who were in possession of forged certificates or who had obtained, surreptitiously, certificates of labor by all kinds of pretexts. These Jews also were exposed to special treatment.”
If the Court please, at this time I would like to arrange for the showing of a very short motion picture, perhaps one of the most unusual exhibits that will be presented during the Trial. With the Court’s permission I would like to call upon Commander Donovan to assist.
THE PRESIDENT: Need we adjourn for it or not?
MAJOR WALSH: No, Sir. The movie itself is very, very short, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
COMMANDER DONOVAN: May it please the Tribunal, the United States now offers in evidence Document Number 3052-PS, Exhibit Number USA-280, entitled “Original German 8-millimeter Film of Atrocities against Jews.”
This is a strip of motion pictures taken, we believe, by a member of the SS and captured by the United States military forces in an SS barracks near Augsburg, Germany, as described in the affidavits now before the Tribunal.
We have not been able to establish beyond doubt in which area these films were made, but we believe that to be immaterial.
The film offers undeniable evidence, made by Germans themselves, of almost incredible brutality to Jewish people in the custody of the Nazis, including German military units.
It is believed by the Prosecution that the scene is the extermination of a ghetto by Gestapo agents, assisted by military units. And, as the other evidence to be presented by the Prosecution will indicate, the scene presented to the Tribunal is probably one which occurred a thousand times all over Europe under the Nazi rule of terror.
This film was made on an 8-millimeter home camera. We have not wished even to reprint it, and so shall present the original, untouched film captured by our troops. The pictures obviously were taken by an amateur photographer. Because of this, because of the fact that part of it is burned, because of the fact that it runs for only 1½ minutes, and because of the confusion on every hand shown on this film, we do not believe that the Tribunal can properly view the evidence if it is shown only once. We therefore ask the Tribunal’s permission to project the film twice as we did before the Defense Counsel.
This is a silent film. The film has been made available to all Defense Counsel, and they have a copy of the supporting affidavits, duly translated.
[The film was shown.]
COMMANDER DONOVAN: [Continuing.] May it please the Tribunal, while the film is being rewound I wish to say that attached to the affidavits offered in evidence is a description of every picture shown in this film. And, with the Tribunal’s permission, I wish to read a few selections from that at this time, before again projecting the film, in order to direct the Tribunal’s attention to certain of the scenes:
Scene 2—A naked girl running across the courtyard.
Scene 3—An older woman being pushed past the camera, and a man in SS uniform standing at the right of the scene.
Scene 5—A man with a skullcap and a woman are manhandled.
Number 14—A half-naked woman runs through the crowd.
Number 15—Another half-naked woman runs out of the house.
Number 16—Two men drag an old man out.
Number 18—A man in German military uniform, with his back to the camera, watches.
Number 24—A general shot of the street, showing fallen bodies and naked women running.
Number 32—A shot of the street, showing five fallen bodies.
Number 37—A man with a bleeding head is hit again.
Number 39—A soldier in German military uniform, with a rifle, stands by as a crowd centers on a man coming out of the house.
Number 44—A soldier with a rifle, in German military uniform, walks past a woman clinging to a torn blouse.
Number 45—A woman is dragged by her hair across the street.
[The film was shown again.]
COMMANDER DONOVAN: [Continuing.] We submit to the Tribunal for its permanent records this strip of 8-millimeter film.
MAJOR WALSH: It is difficult from this point to follow the thread of chronological order or a topical outline. So numerous are the documents and so appalling the contents that in this brief recital the Prosecution will make no effort to itemize the criminal acts. Selected documents, however, will unfold the crimes in full detail.
Before launching a discussion of the means utilized to accomplish the ultimate aim, that is the extermination of the Jewish people, I now turn to that fertile source of evidence, the diary of Hans Frank, then Governor General of occupied Poland. In a cabinet session on Tuesday, 16 December 1941, in the government building at Kraków, the Defendant Frank made a closing address to the session. I offer now in evidence that part of the document, Number 2233(d)-PS, Exhibit Number USA-281, identified CV 1941, October to December, and from Page 76, line 10, to Page 77, line 33, of the original and of the entire translation before the Court. I quote:
“As far as the Jews are concerned, I want to tell you quite frankly that they must be done away with in one way or another. The Führer said once: ‘Should united Jewry again succeed in provoking a world war, the blood of not only the nations which have been forced into the war by them will be shed, but the Jew will have found his end in Europe.’ I know that many of the measures carried out against the Jews in the Reich at present are being criticized. It is being tried intentionally, as is obvious from the reports on the morale, to talk about cruelty, harshness, et cetera. Before I continue, I would beg you to agree with me on the following formula: We will principally have pity on the German people only and nobody else in the whole world. The others, too, had no pity on us. As an old National Socialist I must also say: This war would be only a partial success if the whole lot of Jewry would survive it, while we would have shed our best blood in order to save Europe. My attitude towards the Jews will, therefore, be based only on the expectation that they must disappear. They must be done away with. I have entered negotiations to have them deported to the East. A large conference concerning that question, to which I am going to delegate the State Secretary Dr. Bühler, will take place in Berlin in January. That discussion is to take place in the Reich Security Main Office with SS Lieutenant General Heydrich. A great Jewish migration will begin, in any case. “But what should be done with the Jews? Do you think they will be settled down in the ‘Ostland’ in villages? This is what we were told in Berlin: Why all this bother? We can do nothing with them either in the ‘Ostland’ or in the ‘Reichskommissariat.’ So liquidate them yourselves.
“Gentlemen, I must ask you to arm yourselves against all feeling of pity. We must annihilate the Jews, wherever we find them and wherever it is possible, in order to maintain there the structure of the Reich as a whole. This will, naturally, be achieved by other methods than those pointed out by Bureau Chief Dr. Hummel. Nor can the judges of the Special Courts be made responsible for it because of the limitations of the frame work of the legal procedure. Such outdated views cannot be applied to such gigantic and unique events. We must find at any rate a way which leads to the goal, and my thoughts are working in that direction.
“The Jews represent for us also extraordinarily malignant gluttons. We have now approximately, 2,500,000 of them in the Government General, perhaps with the Jewish mixtures and everything that goes with it, 3,500,000 Jews. We cannot shoot or poison those 3,500,000 Jews; but we shall nevertheless be able to take measures which will lead, somehow, to their annihilation, and this in connection with the gigantic measures to be determined in discussions with the Reich. The Government General must become free of Jews, the same as the Reich. Where and how this is to be achieved is a matter for the offices which we must appoint and create here. Their activities will be brought to your attention in due course.”
This, if the Tribunal please, is not the planning and scheming of an individual, but is the expression of the official of the German State, the appointed Governor General of occupied Poland. The methods used to accomplish the annihilation of the Jewish people were varied and, although not subtle, were highly successful.
I have from time to time made reference to certain utterances and actions of the Defendant Rosenberg as one of the leaders and policy makers of the Nazi Party and German State. It is perhaps reasonable to assume that the Defendant Rosenberg will claim for many of his actions that he pursued them pursuant to superior orders. I have before me, however, a captured document, Number 001-PS, marked “secret,” dated 18 December 1941, entitled “Documentary Memorandum for the Führer—Concerning Jewish Possessions in France,” Exhibit Number USA-282. I dare say that no document before this Tribunal will more clearly evidence the Defendant Rosenberg’s personal attitude, his temperament, and convictions toward the Jews more strongly than this memorandum, wherein he, in his own initiative, urges plundering and death. I offer in evidence Document Number 001-PS. The body of the memorandum reads as follows:
“In compliance with the order of the Führer for protection of Jewish cultural possessions, a great number of Jewish dwellings remained unguarded. Consequently, many furnishings have disappeared because a guard could, naturally, not be posted. In the whole East the administration has found terrible conditions of living quarters, and the chances of procurement are so limited that it is not possible to procure any more. Therefore, I beg the Führer to permit the seizure of all Jewish home furnishings of Jews in Paris who have fled or will leave shortly and those of Jews living in all parts of the occupied West to relieve the shortage of furnishings in the administration in the East.
“2. A great number of leading Jews were, after a short examination in Paris, again released. The attempts on the lives of members of the Forces have not stopped; on the contrary they continue. This reveals an unmistakable plan to disrupt the German-French co-operation, to force Germany to retaliate and, with this, evoke a new defense on the part of the French against Germany. I suggest to the Führer that, instead of executing 100 Frenchmen, we shoot in their place 100 Jewish bankers, lawyers, et cetera. It is the Jews in London and New York who incite the French Communists to commit acts of violence, and it seems only fair that the members of this race should pay for this. It is not the little Jews but the leading Jews in France who should be held responsible. That would tend to awaken the anti-Jewish sentiment.”—Sighed—“A. Rosenberg.”
[Dr. Thoma approached the lectern.]
THE PRESIDENT: May I ask you to speak slowly so that your application will come to me through the earphones correctly.
DR. THOMA: Since the Prosecutor is now dealing with the case against my client, Rosenberg, may I be permitted to voice an objection to Document 212-PS, Exhibit Number USA-272. The Prosecutor claims that this document was a directive issued by the Minister for the East. It begins with the words . . .
THE PRESIDENT: None of that has come through on the earphones. I don’t understand you. You had better begin again.
DR. THOMA: The Prosecutor presented earlier today Document Number 212-PS, Exhibit Number USA-272, claiming that its content was a directive issued by the Minister for the East on the treatment of Jews. In this document he is said to have given instructions that violations of German regulations by Jews, especially violations of the compulsory labor laws, could only be punished by death. This document does not originate with the Defendant Rosenberg; nor did it by mistake . . .
THE PRESIDENT: More slowly, please.
DR. THOMA: This document does not originate with the Defendant Rosenberg. It bears neither a date nor an address, nor his signature. I, therefore, object to the assertion that this document originated with the Defendant Rosenberg.
THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute. I don’t think that Counsel for the Prosecution said that, that Document 212-PS emanated from Rosenberg. I didn’t so understand him.
DR. THOMA: I understood him to say that it was a directive issued by the Minister for the East; and if I am not mistaken, he also said it was dated April 1941. At that time there was no Ministry for the East. Rosenberg was only named Minister for the East in July 1941.
THE PRESIDENT: I will ask the Counsel for the Prosecution.
MAJOR WALSH: It is my understanding, Sir, that that document, 212-PS, was taken from the captured files of Rosenberg.
DR. THOMA: That is true, it was found among the papers of the Defendant Rosenberg; the Defendant Rosenberg claims, however, that he has never seen this document, that he knows nothing about it, and that it has never passed through his hands.
THE PRESIDENT: Rosenberg, when he is called as a witness or when you appear to speak for him, will be able to say that he has never seen the document before. All that Counsel, for the Prosecution has said—and it appears to be true—is that the document was found in Rosenberg’s file. You can say or prove by Rosenberg’s evidence when you call Rosenberg—if you do call him—that he never saw the document. Do you understand?
DR. THOMA: Yes, thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: It is 5 o’clock now, so we will adjourn.