Afternoon Session
COL. STOREY: Your Honors will notice that we have substituted an enlarged chart for the photostatic copy that was introduced in evidence this morning. Another thing I would like to call Your Honors’ attention to is the fact that the other chart, the big one, was dated 1945 and therefore did not show the Defendant Hess because of his flight to England in 1941, and it will be recalled that the Defendant Hess occupied the position before Bormann directly under the Führer in the Party organization.
We now take up the Hoheitsträger. The Hoheitsträger, diverting from the text, is shown on this chart very well; and all of those shown in black blocks constitute the Hoheitsträger, beginning with the Führer and going down the vertical column clear down to the Blockleiter.
Within the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party certain of the political leaders possessed a higher degree of responsibility than others, were vested with special prerogatives, and constituted a distinctive and elite group within the Party hierarchy. Those were the so-called Hoheitsträger, or bearers of sovereignty, who represented the Party within the area of jurisdiction, which is a section of Germany, the so-called “Hoheitsgebiet.” I now quote from Page 9 of the English translation of Document 1893-PS:
“Among the political leaders, the Hoheitsträger assume a special position. Contrary to the other political leaders who have departmental missions . . . the Hoheitsträger themselves are in charge of a geographical sector known as the Hoheitsgebiet”—sectors of sovereignty.
“The Hoheitsträger are:
“The Führer, the Gauleiter, the Kreisleiter, the Ortsgruppenleiter, the Zellenleiter, and the Blockleiter.
“Hoheitsgebiete are:
“The Reich, the Gau, the Kreis, the Ortsgruppe, the Zelle, the Block.
“Within their sector of sovereignty the Hoheitsträger have sovereign political rights. They represent the Party within their sector. The Hoheitsträger supervise all Party offices within their jurisdiction and are responsible for the maintenance of discipline.”
If Your Honors please, that is Page 9 of the English translation, if you find it, of 1893.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COL. STOREY: “The directors of offices, et cetera, and of the affiliated organizations are responsible to their respective Hoheitsträger . . . as regards their special missions. The Hoheitsträger are superior to all political leaders, managers, and so forth, within their sector. As regards personal consideration, Hoheitsträger are endowed with special rights . . . .
“The Hoheitsträger of the Party are not to be administrative officials . . . but are to move in a continuous vital contact with the political leaders of the population within their sector. The Hoheitsträger are responsible for the proper and good supervision of all members of the nation within their sector . . . .
“The Party intends to achieve a state of affairs in which the individual German will find his way to the Party . . . .”
The distinctive character of the Politische Leiter constituting the Hoheitsträger and their existence and operation as an identifiable group are indicated by the publication of a magazine entitled Der Hoheitsträger whose distribution was limited by regulation of the Reich Organization Leader to the Hoheitsträger and certain other designated Politische Leiter. I now refer to Document 2660-PS, which I offer in evidence; and I would like to digress from the published manuscript and call Number 2660-PS Exhibit Number USA-325. I would like to exhibit this book to Your Honors. This is the book itself and it is for the Hoheitsträger, with a very limited distribution, and I quote from the inside cover of this magazine which reads as follows—it is right in the beginning:
“Der Hoheitsträger, the contents of which is to be handled confidentially, serves only for the orientation of the competent leaders. It may not be loaned out to other persons.”
Then follows a list of the Hoheitsträger and other political leaders authorized to receive the magazine. The magazine states, in addition, that the following are entitled to receive it—I would like to emphasize the ones to receive it:
“Commandants, unit commanders, and ‘Ordensburg’ members; The Reich, Shock Troop, and Gau speakers of the NSDAP; the Obergruppenführer and Gruppenführer of the SA, the SS, the NSFK”—which is the Flying Corps—“and the NSKK”—the Party Motor Corps—“Obergebietsführer and Gebietsführer of the HJ”—that is the Hitler Jugend.
The fact that this magazine existed, that it derived its name from the commanding officers of the Leadership Corps, that it was distributed to the elite of the Leadership Corps, in other words, that a house bulletin was circulated down the command channels of the Leadership Corps is probative of the fact that the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party was a group or an organization within the meaning of Article 9 of the Charter.
An examination of the contents of the magazine Der Hoheitsträger reveals a continuing concern by the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party in measures and doctrines which were employed throughout the course of the conspiracy charged in the Indictment. I shall not trouble the Tribunal nor encumber the record by offering in evidence exhaustive enumeration of these matters; but it may serve to clarify the plans and policies of the inner elite of the Leadership Corps by indicating that a random sampling of articles published and policies advocated in the various issues of the magazine from February 1937 to October 1938 included the following:
Slanderous anti-Semitic articles, attacks on Catholicism and the Christian religion and the clergy; the need for motorized armament; the urgent need for expanded Lebensraum and colonies; persistent attacks on the League of Nations; the use of the block and cell in achieving favorable Party votes, the intimate association between the Wehrmacht and the political leadership; the racial doctrines of Fascism, the cult of leadership; the role of the Gaue, Ortsgruppen, and Zellen in the expansion of Germany; and related matters all of which constituted elements and doctrinal techniques in the carrying out of the conspiracy charged in the Indictment.
The political leaders were organized according to the leadership principle. I quote from the fourth paragraph of Page 2 of Document 1893-PS, at the bottom of the page, and top of Page 3:
“The basis of the Party organization is the Führer idea. The public is unable to rule itself either directly or indirectly . . . . All political leaders stand as appointed by the Führer and are responsible to him. They possess full authority toward the lower echelons. . . . Only a man who has gone through the school of subordinate functions within the Party has a claim to the higher Führer offices. We can only use ‘Führer’ who have served from the ground up. Any political leader who does not conform to these principles is to be dismissed or to be sent back to the lower offices, as Blockleiter, Zellenleiter, for further training. The political leader is not an office worker but the political deputy of the Führer . . . . With the political leader we are building the political leadership of the State . . . . The type of the political leader is not characterized by the office which he represents. There is no such thing as a political leader of the NSBO, et cetera, but there is only the political leader of the NSDAP.”
Each political leader was sworn in yearly. According to the Party manual the wording of the oath was as follows; and I quote from the second paragraph on Page 3, Document 1893-PS:
“I pledge eternal allegiance to Adolf Hitler; I pledge unconditional obedience to him and the Führer appointed by him.”
The Organization Book of the NSDAP also provides, and I quote from Page 3, Paragraph 4, of the same document:
“The political leader is inseparably tied to the ideology and the organization of the NSDAP. His oath only ends with his death or with his expulsion from the National Socialist community.”
Appointment of political leaders:
With respect to the appointment of the political leaders constituting the Leadership Corps of the Party, I quote from Page 4 of the Organization Book, which is Document 1893-PS:
“1. The Führer appoints the following political leaders:
“a) Reichsleiter and all political leaders within the Reichsleitung”—Reich Party Directorate—“including women’s leaders; b) Gauleiter, including the political leaders holding offices in the Gauleitung”—Gau Party Directorate—“including Gau women’s leaders; c) Kreisleiter. . . .
“2. The Gauleiter appoints:
“a) The political leaders and women’s leaders within the Gau Party Directorate . . . b) the political leaders and the directors of women’s leagues in the Kreis Party Directorate; c) Ortsgruppenleiter.
“3. The Kreisleiter appoints the political leaders and the directors of the women’s leagues of the Ortsgruppen including the block and cell leaders . . . .”
The power of Hoheitsträger to call upon other Party formations:
The Hoheitsträger among the Leadership Corps were entitled to call upon and utilize the various Party formations as necessary for the execution of the Nazi Party policies.
The Party manual provides, with respect to the power and authority of the Hoheitsträger to requisition the services of the SA—and I quote from Page 11 of this same Document 1893-PS:
“The Hoheitsträger is responsible for the entire political appearance of the Movement within this zone. The SA leader of that zone is tied to the directives of the Hoheitsträger in that respect . . . . The Hoheitsträger is the ranking representative of the Party to include all organizations within his zone. He may requisition the SA located within his zone from the respective SA leader if they are needed for the execution of a political mission. The Hoheitsträger will then assign the mission to the SA . . . . Should the Hoheitsträger need more SA for the execution of a political mission than is locally available, he then applies to the next higher office of sovereignty which, in turn, requests the SA from the SA office in his sector.”
According to the Party manual, the Hoheitsträger had the same authority to call upon the services of the SS and NSKK as they possessed with respect to the SA.
With respect to the authority of the Hoheitsträger to call upon the services of the Hitler Youth (the HJ), the Party manual states, and I quote from Page 11, the last paragraph of that translation:
“The political leader has the right to requisition the HJ”—that is the Hitler Jugend—“in the same manner as the SA for the execution of a political action . . . .
“In appointing leaders of the HJ . . . the office of the HJ must procure the approval of the Hoheitsträger of its zone. This means that the Hoheitsträger can prevent the appointment of leaders unsuited for the leadership of youth. If his approval has not been procured, an appointment may be cancelled if he so requests.”
An example of the use of the Party formations at the call of the Leadership Corps of the Party is provided by the action taken by the Reichsleiter for Party Organization of the National Socialist Party, Dr. Robert Ley, leading to the deliberate dissolution of the Free Trade Unions on 2 May 1933. I quote from Document 392-PS, Exhibit Number USA-326, which is a copy of the directive issued by the Defendant Ley on 21 April 1933, reproduced on Pages 51-52 of the Social Life in New Germany by Professor Müller. In this directive the late Defendant Ley directed the employment of the SA and the SS in the occupation of trade unions and for taking trade union leaders into protective custody. I now quote from Paragraph 6 of Page 1 of Document 392-PS. It is the third and fourth paragraph from the bottom of the page:
“SA as well as SS are to be employed for the occupation of trade union properties and for the taking of personalities, who come into question, into protective custody.
“The Gauleiter is to proceed with his measures on a basis of the closest understanding with the competent regional cell director.”
I also quote from the second paragraph of Page 2 of that same document which reads, quoting:
“The following are to be taken into protective custody: All trade union chairmen, the district secretaries and the branch directors of the ‘Bank for Workers, Employees, and Officials, Incorporated,’ included.”
I now offer in evidence Document 2474-PS, Exhibit Number USA-327, which is a copy of a decree issued by the Defendant Hess as Deputy of the Führer, dated 25 October 1934, which underwrites the authority of the Hoheitsträger with respect to Party formations. I quote from the numbered Paragraphs 1, 5, and 6 of Page 1 of Document 2474-PS which reads as follows—Page 1 of the English translation:
“The political leadership within the Party and its political representation towards all offices, state or others which are outside of the Party, lie solely and exclusively with the Hoheitsträger”—bearers of sovereignty—“which is to say with me, the Gauleiter, Kreisleiter, and Ortsgruppenleiter. . . .
“The departmental workers of the Party organizations, such as Reichsleiter, office directors, et cetera, as well as the leaders of the SA, SS, HJ, and the subordinate affiliations, may not enter into binding agreements of a political nature with State and other offices except when so authorized by their Hoheitsträger.
“In places where the territories of the units of the SA, SS, HJ, and the subordinate affiliations do not coincide with the zones of the Hoheitsträger, the Hoheitsträger will give his political directives to the ranking leader of each unit within his zone of sovereignty.”
It was the official policy of the Leadership Corps to establish close and co-operative relations with the Gestapo. The Tribunal will recall that the head of the German Police and SS, Himmler, was a Reichsleiter on the top level of the Leadership Corps. Without offering in evidence a decree issued by the Defendant Bormann as Chief of Staff of the Deputy of the Führer, dated 26 June 1935, I ask the Court to take judicial knowledge; and I quote:
“In order to effect a closer contact between the offices of the Party and its organizations with the Directors of the Secret State Police,”—Gestapo—“the Deputy of the Führer requests that the directors of the Gestapo be invited to attend all the larger official rallies of the Party and its organizations.”
That is from the 1935 edition, Page 143, dated the 26th June 1935, The Decrees of the Deputy of the Führer.
With reference to the meetings and conferences among the Hoheitsträger of the Leadership Corps, it is the contention of the Prosecution that the members of the Leadership Corps constituted a distinctive and identifiable group or organization. It is strongly supported by the fact that the various Hoheitsträger were under an absolute obligation to meet and confer periodically, not only with the staff officers of their own staffs, but with the political leaders and staff officers immediately subordinate to them. For example, the Gauleiter was bound to confer with his staff officers (such as his deputy and so forth, which included the school leader, propaganda leader, press leader, his Gau Party judge, and so on) every 8 to 14 days. Furthermore, the Gauleiter was obligated to meet with the various Gauleaders subordinate to him once every 3 months for a 3-day convention for the purpose of discussing and clarifying Nazi Party policies and directives, for hearing basic lectures on Party policy, and for the mutual exchange of information pertinent to the Party’s current program. The Gauleiter was also obligated to meet at least once a month with the leaders of the Party formations and affiliated organizations within his Gau area, such as the leaders of the SA, and SS, Hitler Youth, and others. In support of these statements, I quote from Page 8 of Document 1893-PS. I don’t think it is necessary to read all of that:
“Leader conferences in the district:
“A. District Leaders.”
If Your Honor please, with your permission I will omit the reading of that because it was really summarized in my previous statement. I will quote Subparagraph (d):
“(d) The bearer of sovereignty will meet at least once a month with the leaders of the SA, SS, NSKK, HJ, as well as the RAD and the NSFK who are within the zone, for the purpose of mutual collaboration.”
The Organization Book of the Party imposes a similar requirement of regular and periodical conferences and meetings upon all the other Hoheitsträger, including the Kreisleiter, Ortsgruppenleiter, Zellenleiter, and Blockleiter.
The clear consequence of such regular and obligatory conferences and meetings by all the Hoheitsträger, both with their own staff officers and with the political leaders and staff officers subordinate to them, was that basic Nazi policies and directives issued by Hitler and the leader of the Party Chancellery, the Defendant Bormann, directly through the chain of command of the Hoheitsträger, and functional policies issued by the various Reichsleiter and Reich officeholders down functional and technical channels, were certain to be notified to, received, and understood by the bulk of the membership of the Leadership Corps.
If I may digress from my text and call attention to this chart, you will see the dotted lines connecting down from the Party level, Gau level, to similar offices in the lower level.
Now I next come to the statistics relating to the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party and the evidence relating to the size of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party. As previously shown, the Leadership Corps comprised the sum of officials of the Nazi Party including, in addition to Hitler and the members of the Reichsleitung, such as the Reichsleiter and the Reich officeholders, a hierarchy of Hoheitsträger, which I have described, as well as the staff officers attached to the Hoheitsträger. I now offer in evidence Document 2958-PS, Exhibit Number USA-325; and this is Issue Number 8, 1939, of the official Leadership Corps organ Der Hoheitsträger, similar to the one I exhibited a moment ago, and this is for the year 1939. This shows that there were: 40 Gaue and 1 Foreign Gau, each led by a Gauleiter—that is 41; 808 Kreisleiter; 28,376 Ortsgruppenleiter; 89,378 Zellenleiter; and 463,048 Blockleiter.
However, as shown by the evidence previously introduced, the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party was composed not only of the Hoheitsträger, but also of the staff officers or officeholders attached to the Hoheitsträger. The Gauleiter, for example, was assisted by a deputy Gauleiter, several Gau inspectors, and a staff which was divided into main offices (Hauptämter) and offices (Ämter) including such departments as the Gau staff office, treasury, education office, propaganda office, press office, university teachers, communal policy, and so forth. As previously shown, the staff office structure of the Gau was substantially represented in the lower levels of the Leadership Corps organization such as the Kreise, the Ortsgruppen, and so on. The Kreise and the smaller territorial areas of the Party were also organized into staff offices dealing with the various activities of the Leadership Corps. But, of course, the importance and the number of such staff offices diminished as the unit dropped in the hierarchy; so that, while the Kreisleiter staff contained all or most of the departments mentioned for the Gau, the Ortsgruppe had fewer departments and the lower ones fewer still.
Firm figures have not been found as to the total number of staff officers, as distinguished from the Hoheitsträger or political commanders themselves, included within the Leadership Corps.
With respect to the scope and composition of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, the Prosecution adopts the view and respectfully submits to this Tribunal, that in defining the limits of the Leadership Corps, staff officers should only be included down to and including the Kreis. Upon this basis, the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party did constitute the Führer, the members of the Reichsleitung, the five levels of the Hoheitsträger, and the staff officers attached to the 40-odd Gauleiter and the 800 or 900 Kreisleiter. Adopting this definition of the Leadership Corps, it will be seen that the total figure for the membership of that organization, based upon the statistics cited from the basic handbook for Germany, amounts to around 600,000. And by excepting the staff officers of the lower levels, as is provided in the Indictment, and as just defined, and without prejudice to any later individual action against those excepted, we think the figure of around 600,000 is approximately correct.
It is true that this figure is based upon an admittedly limited view of the size of the membership of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, for the evidence has shown that the Leadership Corps, in effect, embraced staff officers attached to the subordinate Hoheitsträger; and the inclusion of such staff officers in the estimation of the size of the Leadership Corps, if we had so recommended, would have been considerably enlarged so that the final figure, if we had included staff officers to the Blockleiter, would have been 2,000,000, in round numbers.
MR. FRANCIS BIDDLE (Member for the United States): What reason is there for excluding them?
COL. STOREY: For this reason, Your Honor, a person on the last level of Blockleiter might have called on an individual laborer who might have been on his staff; but he certainly did not have the discretion that a staff leader did, for example, or the Gauleiter, say, as a propaganda man who disseminated information down as well as helped participate in plans and policies of the upper organization.
The subordinate staff officers thus excluded were responsible functionally to the higher staff officers with respect to their particular specialty, such as propaganda, Party organization, and so on, and to their respective Hoheitsträger with respect to discipline and policy control and, as I mentioned, likewise such higher staff officers participated in planning and policy and passed those policies down through technical levels or technical channels as opposed to command channels.
“The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party joined and participated in the Common Plan or Conspiracy” is the next title.
The program of the Nazi Party, proclaimed by Hitler on 24 February 1920, contained the chief elements of the Nazi plan for domination and conquest. I now quote from Document 1708-PS, which is the Year Book for 1941, published by the Party, and edited by the late Robert Ley. This book contains the famous 25 points of the Party which I now offer in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-324. Diverting from the text—I don’t intend to quote these 25 Party objectives, but only refer to a few of them, and I quote from Page 1 of the English translation of Document 1708-PS:
Point 1:
“We demand the unification of all Germans in Greater Germany on the basis of the right of self-determination of peoples.”
Point 2 of that program which I quote demanded unilateral abolition of the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain:
“We demand equality of rights for the German people in respect to the other nations; abrogation of the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.”
Point 3:
“We demand land and territory (colonies) for the sustenance of our people and colonization by our surplus population.”
Point 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.”
Point 6:
“We demand that every public office, of any sort whatsoever, whether in the Reich, the county, or municipality, be filled by citizens only. We combat the corrupting parliamentary regime, office-holding only according to party inclinations without consideration of character or abilities.”
Point 22—this is from Page 2 of the English translation of Document 1708-PS:
“We demand the abolition of the mercenary troops and the formation of a National Army.”
Back to Page 1—another quotation:
“The program is the political foundation of the NSDAP and accordingly the primary political law of the State. . . .
“All legal precepts are to be applied in the spirit of the Party program.
“Since the taking over of power, the Führer has succeeded in the realization of the essential portions of the Party program from the fundamentals to the details.
“The Party program of the NSDAP was proclaimed on 24 February 1920 by Adolf Hitler at the first large Party gathering in Munich and since that day has remained unaltered. The National Socialist philosophy is summarized in 25 points.”
As previously mentioned, the Party program was binding upon the political leaders and they were under duty to support and carry out that program.
The Party manual states, and I quote again from the middle of Page 1 of Document 1893-PS:
“The Commandments of the National Socialists: The Führer is always right. . . . The program be your dogma; it demands your utter devotion to the Movement. . . . Right is what serves the Movement and thus Germany. . . .”
And on Page 2 of the same document another brief quotation:
“The Leadership Corps is responsible for the complete penetration of the German nation with the National Socialist spirit. . . .”
The oath of the political leaders to Hitler has been previously mentioned. In this connection the Party manual provides, and I quote from the second paragraph on Page 3 of the same document:
“The political leader is inseparably tied to the ideology and the organization of the NSDAP. His oath only ends with his death or with his expulsion from the National Socialist community.”
While the leadership principle assured the binding nature of Hitler’s statements, program, and policies upon the entire Party and the Leadership Corps thereof, the leadership principle also established the full responsibility of the individual political leader within the province and jurisdiction of his office or position.
The leadership principle applies not only to Hitler as the supreme leader but also to the political leaders under him and thus permeated the entire Leadership Corps. I quote from the middle of Page 2 of Document 1893-PS:
“The basis of the Party organization is the Führer idea. . . .
“All political leaders stand as appointed by the Führer and are responsible to him. They possess full authority toward the lower echelons. . . .”
The various Hoheitsträger of the Leadership Corps were, in their respective areas, themselves Führer. I quote from the third paragraph of Page 9 of this same document:
“Within their sector of sovereignty, the Hoheitsträger have sovereign political rights. . . . They are responsible for the entire political situation within their sector.”
I again refer to and quote from Document 1814-PS, Exhibit Number USA-328, which is the Party book. It is just a one-sentence quotation, and it states: “The Party is an Order of ‘Führer.’ ”
The subjugation of the entire membership of the Leadership Corps to the fiat of the leadership principle is clearly shown in the following passage from the Party manual; it is this same document on Page 3:
“A solid anchorage for all the organizations within the Party structure is provided and a firm connection with the sovereign leaders of the NSDAP is created in accordance with the leadership principle.”
Next is the subject, “The Nazi Party, directed by the Leadership Corps, dominated and controlled the German State and Government.”
The trial brief dealing with the criminality of the Reich Cabinet sets forth the evidence as to the identity of various ministers comprising the Cabinet, and I shall not deal with that subject. The presence of the Reichsleiter and other prominent members of the Leadership Corps in the Cabinet facilitated the domination of the Cabinet by the Nazi Party and the Leadership Corps.
And I omit the next paragraph down to the law of July 14, 1933.
A law of 14 July 1933 outlawed and forbade the formation of any political parties other than the Nazi Party and made offenses against this a punishable crime, thereby establishing the one-party state and rendering the Leadership Corps immune from the opposition of organized political groups. I now quote from Document 1388-PS, that being the English translation of the “Law against the Formation of New Political Parties” stated in Reichsgesetzblatt, 1933, Part I, Page 479; and I quote the first two articles of this law, which read as follows:
“The National Socialist German Workers’ Party constitutes the only political party in Germany. Whoever undertakes to maintain the organizational structure of another political party or to form a new political party will be punished with penal servitude up to 3 years or with imprisonment of from 6 months to 3 years, if the deed is not subject to a greater penalty according to other regulations.”
I will skip the next paragraph.
I now quote from Document 1398-PS, which is the English translation of “Law to Supplement the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service,” dated 20 July 1933—1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 518.
On 13 October 1933 “A Law to Guarantee Public Peace” was enacted which provided, inter alia, that the death penalty or other severe punishment should be imposed upon any person who “undertakes to kill . . . a member of the SA or the SS, a trustee or agent of the NSDAP . . . out of political motives or on account of their official activity.”
THE PRESIDENT: Where is that you were reading, 1398-PS?
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir; 1398-PS. I am in error, Sir, it is 1394-PS just previous.
THE PRESIDENT: Which article are you reading?
COL. STOREY: I am afraid I don’t have the reference, but here is the quotation, I think it is on that one page. “A Law to Guarantee Public Peace,” and then it has to do—it is Article 2, I believe—Paragraph 2, Article 1.
I next refer to Document 1395-PS, which is the English translation of the Law on Security and the Unity of Party and State of 1 December 1933, and it was enacted “to secure the unity of Party and state.” This law provided that the Nazi Party was the pillar of the German State and was linked to it indissolubly; it also made the Deputy of the Führer (then Hess) and the Chief of Staff of the SA (then Röhm) members of the Reich Cabinet. I quote:
“After the victory of the National Socialist revolution the National Socialistic German Labor Party is the bearer of the concept of the German State and is inseparably the State. It will be a part of the public law. Its organization will be determined by the Führer. . . .
“The Deputy of the Führer and the Chief of Staff of the SA will become members of the Reich Government in order to insure close co-operation of the offices of the Party and SA with the public authorities.”
This law was a basic measure in enthroning the Leadership Corps in a position of supreme political power in Germany. For it laid down that the Party, directed by the Leadership Corps, was the embodiment of the State and in fact was the State. Moreover, this law made both the Führer’s Deputy and the Chief of Staff of the SA, which was a Party formation subject to the call of the Hoheitsträger, Cabinet members, thus further solidifying the leadership control of the Cabinet. The dominant position of the Leadership Corps is further revealed by the provision that the Reich Chancellor would issue the carrying-out regulations of this law in his capacity as Führer of the Nazi Party. The fact that Hitler, as Führer of the Leadership Corps, could promulgate rules which would have statutory force and be published in the Reichsgesetzblatt, the proper compilation for State enactments, is but a further reflection of the reality of the Party’s domination of the German State.
I now refer to Document 2775-PS, which is Exhibit Number USA-330, which is the English translation of certain extracts from Hitler’s speeches to the 1934 and 1935 Party Congress at Nuremberg. I quote from the second extract in Document 2775-PS, which is a declaration by Hitler to the 1934 Party Congress and which reads—just one sentence, “It is not the State which gives orders to us, it is we who give orders to the State.”
Upon the evidence, that categorical statement of the Führer of the Leadership Corps, affirming the dominance of the Party over the State, cannot be refuted.
On the 30th of June 1934 Hitler, as head of the Nazi Party, directed the massacre of hundreds of SA men and other political opponents. Hitler sought to justify these mass murders by declaring to the Reichstag that “at that hour I was responsible for the fate of the German nation and the supreme judge of the German people.” The evidence relating to these events will be presented at a later stage in connection with the case against the SA.
On the 3rd of July 1934 the Cabinet issued a decree describing the murders and the massacre of 30 June 1934, in effect, as legitimate self-defense by the State. By this law the Reich Cabinet moved to make themselves accessories after the fact of these murders. The domination by the Party, however, makes the Cabinet’s characterization of these criminal acts by Hitler and his top Party leaders as state measures consistent with political reality. I refer now to Document 2057-PS, which is the English translation of the “Law Relating to the National Emergency Defense Measures” of 3 July 1934, in the Reichsgesetzblatt of that year, Part I, Page 529, and I quote the single article of that law, which reads as follows—this still has reference to the blood purge:
“The measures taken on 30 June and 1 and 2 July 1934 to counteract attempts at treason and high treason shall be considered as national emergency defense.”
On 12 July 1934 there was enacted a law defining the function of the Academy for German Law. I refer to Document 1391-PS, which is an English translation of the statute of the Academy for German Law, 12 July 1934, 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Pages 605 and 606:
“In constant, close connection with the agencies competent for legislation, it”—the academy—“shall further the realization of the National Socialist program in the realm of the law.”
On 30 January 1933, Hitler, the Leader of the Nazi Party and Führer of the Leadership Corps, was appointed Chancellor of the Reich. When President Von Hindenburg died in 1934, the Führer amalgamated into his person the offices of Chancellor and Reich President. I refer to Document 2003-PS, which establishes that fact, and I do not quote. It is Reichsgesetzblatt 1934, Part I, Page 747.
By decree of the 20th of December 1934 Party uniforms and institutions were granted the same protection as those of the State. This law was entitled, “Law Concerning Treacherous Acts against the State and Party and for the Protection of Party Uniforms.” This law imposed heavy penalties upon any person making false statements injuring the welfare or prestige of the Nazi Party or its agencies. It authorized the imprisonment of persons making or circulating malicious or baiting statements against leading personalities of the Nazi Party, and it provided punishment by forced labor for the unauthorized wearing of Party uniforms or symbols. I again refer to Document 1393-PS, not quoting, which is the English translation and gives the authority.
Finally, by the law of 15 September 1934 the swastika flag of the Party was made the official flag of the Reich. I refer to Document 2079-PS, which is the English translation of the Reich Flag Law found in Reichsgesetzblatt 1935, Part I, Page 1145. Just this one sentence—the quotation, “The Reich and national flag is the swastika flag.”
The swastika was the flag and symbol of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party. By law it was made the flag of the State; a recognition that the Party and its corps of political leaders were the sovereign powers in Germany.
On 23 April 1936 a law was enacted granting amnesty for crimes which the offender had committed “in his eagerness to fight for the National Socialist ideals.” I cite Document 1386-PS, which is the English translation of the “Law Concerning Amnesty,” Reichsgesetzblatt 1936, Part I, Page 378.
In furtherance of the conspiracy to acquire totalitarian control over the German people, a law was enacted on 1 December 1936 which incorporated the entire German youth within the Hitler Youth, thereby achieving total mobilization of the German youth. And I cite Document 1392-PS, containing that law, 1936 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 993. The law further provided that the task of educating the German youth through the Hitler Youth was entrusted to the Reichsleiter of the German youth in the NSDAP. By this law a monopoly control over the entire German youth was placed in the hands of the top official, a Reichsleiter of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, the Defendant Von Schirach.
On 4 February 1938 the Führer of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, Hitler, issued a decree in which he took over direct command of the whole German Armed Forces. I cite Document 1915-PS, 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 111. Hitler says, “From now on, I take over directly and personally the command of the whole Armed Forces.”
By virtue of the earlier law of 1 August 1934 Hitler combined the offices of the Reich President and the Chancellorship. In the final result, therefore, Hitler was Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, the Head of the German State, and the Führer of the Nazi Party. With respect to this, the Party manual states as follows, and I quote from Page 19 of Document 1893-PS:
“The Führer created the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. He filled it with his spirit and his will, and with it he conquered the power of the State on 30 January 1933. The Führer’s will is the supreme law in the Party. . . .
“By authority of the law about the Chief of State of the German Reich, dated 1 August 1934, the office of the Reich President has been combined with that of the Reich Chancellery. Consequently, the powers heretofore possessed by the Reich President were transferred to the Führer, Adolf Hitler. Through this law, the conduct of the Party and State has been combined in one hand. By desire of the Führer, a plebiscite was conducted on this law on 19 August 1934. On this day, the German people chose Adolf Hitler to be their sole leader. He is responsible only to his conscience and to the German nation.”
A decree of 16 January 1942 provided that the Party should participate in legislation and official appointments and promotions. I cite as proof Document 2100-PS, which is the English translation of a directive concerning the application of the Führer decree relating to the Chief of the Party Chancellery, 1942 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 35. The decree further provided that such participation should be undertaken exclusively by the Defendant Bormann, Chief of the Party Chancellery and Reichsleiter of the Leadership Corps. The decree provided that the Chief of the Party Chancellery was to take part in the preparation of all laws and decrees issued by Reich authorities, including those issued by the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich, and to give his assent to those of the Länder and of the Reich governors—the Länder being the German states. All communications between the State and Party authorities, unless within the Gau only, were to pass through Bormann’s hands. This decree is of crucial importance in demonstrating the ultimate control and responsibility imputable to the Leadership Corps for governmental policy and actions taken in furtherance of the conspiracy.
On or about the 26th of April 1942 Hitler declared in a speech that in his capacity as leader of the nation, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Supreme Head of the Government, and as Führer of the Party, his right must be recognized to compel with all means at his disposal every German, whether soldier, judge, State official, or Party official, to fulfill his desire. He demanded that the Reichstag officially recognize this asserted right; and on the 26th of April 1942 the Reichstag issued a decision in which full recognition was given to the rights of the Führer which I have just asserted. I cite Document 1961-PS, which is the English translation of that decision, found in 1942 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 247. I quote:
“At the proposal of the President of the Reichstag, on its session of 26 April 1942, the Greater German Reichstag has unanimously approved of the rights which the Führer has postulated in his speech with the following decision:
“There can be no doubt that in the present war, in which the German people is faced with a struggle for its existence or annihilation, the Führer must have all the rights postulated by him which serve to further or achieve victory. Therefore, without being bound by existing legal regulations, in his capacity as leader of the nation, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Governmental Chief and Supreme Executive Chief, as Supreme Justice and as leader of the Party, the Führer must be in the position to force with all means at his disposal every German, if necessary—whether he be a common soldier or officer, low or high, official or judge, leading or subordinate official of the Party, worker or employee—to fulfill his duties. In case of violation of these duties, the Führer is entitled, after conscientious examination, regardless of so-called well-deserved rights, to mete out due punishment and to remove the offender from his post, rank, and position without introducing prescribed procedures.
“At the order of the Führer, this decision is hereby made public. Berlin, 26 April 1942.”
Hitler, himself, perhaps, best summarized the political realities of his Germany which constituted the basis for the Prosecution’s submission that the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party and its following effectively dominated the State. The core and crux of the matter was stated by Hitler in his speech to the Reichstag on 20 February 1938, when he declared, in effect, that every institution in Germany was under the direction of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party.
I cite as the Prosecution’s final exhibit in support of the proposition that the Leadership Corps dominated the German State with resulting responsibility, Document 2715-PS, which is the book containing Hitler’s speech to the Reichstag on the 20th of February 1938, as reported in Das Archiv, Volume 47, February 1938, Pages 1441 and 1442. I quote a brief excerpt from Document 2715-PS; and I introduce it as Exhibit USA-331:
“National Socialism has given the German people that leadership which as Party not only mobilizes the nation but also organizes it, so that on the basis of the natural principle of selection, the continuance of a stable political leadership is safeguarded forever. . . . National Socialism . . . possesses Germany entirely and completely since the day when, 5 years ago, I left the house in Wilhelmsplatz as Reich Chancellor. There is no institution in this State which is not National Socialist. Above all, however, the National Socialist Party in these 5 years has not only made the nation National Socialist but also has given itself that perfect organizational structure which guarantees its preservation for all the future. The greatest guarantee of the National Socialist revolution lies in the complete domination of the Reich and all of its institutions and organizations, internally and externally, by the National Socialist Party. Its protection against the world abroad, however, lies in the new National Socialist Armed Forces. . . . In this Reich anybody who has a responsible position is a National Socialist. . . . Every institution of this Reich is under the command of the supreme political leadership. . . . The Party leads the Reich politically; the Armed Forces defend it militarily . . . . There is nobody in any responsible position in this state who doubts that I am the authorized leader of this Reich. . . .”
The supreme power which the Leadership Corps exercised over the German State and Government is pointed out by an article published in this same authoritative magazine Der Hoheitsträger, in February 1939. In this article, which was addressed to all Hoheitsträger, the Leadership Corps is reminded that it has conquered the state and possesses absolute and total power in Germany. I cite Document 3230-PS, which is the English translation of an article entitled “Fight and Order”; and I quote from this article, which trumpets forth in what we might term as accents of Caesarism, the battle call of the Leadership Corps in German life. I quote:
“Fight? Why do you always talk of fighting? You have conquered the state, and if something does not please you, then just make a law and regulate it differently. Why must you always talk of fighting? For you have every power. Over what do you fight? Foreign politics? You have the Wehrmacht—it will wage the fight if fight is required. Domestic politics? You have the law and the police which can change everything which does not agree with you.”
THE PRESIDENT: Is this a good time to break off?
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir.
[A recess was taken.]
COL. STOREY: In view of the domination of the German State and Government by the Nazi Party and the Leadership Corps thereof as established by the foregoing and other evidence heretofore recited in the previous trial briefs, it is submitted that the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party is responsible for the measures, including the legislative enactments, taken by the German State and Government in furtherance of the conspiracy formulated and carried out by the co-conspirators and the organizations charged with criminality in the present case.
I now skip and go to the overt acts and crimes of the Leadership Corps. The evidence now to be presented will establish that the membership of the Leadership Corps actively entered into a wide variety of acts and measures designed to advance the course of the conspiracy. The evidence will show that such participation by the Leadership Corps in the conspiracy embraces such measures as anti-Semitic activities, war crimes committed against members of the Allied Forces, participation in the forced-labor program, measures to subvert and undermine the Christian religion and persecute the Christian clergy, the plundering and spoliation of cultural and other property in German occupied territories in Europe, participation in plans and measures leading to the initiation and prosecution of aggressive war, and in general, the wide variety of measures embracing the Crimes against the Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity as defined and denounced by the Charter.
The first item of evidence we have to introduce is in connection with the participation of the Gauleiter and Kreisleiter in what the Nazis describe as the “spontaneous uprising of the people” against the Jews throughout Germany on 9 and 10 November 1938. We do not intend to introduce, by diverting from the text, any evidence formerly introduced by Major Walsh on the persecution of the Jews but only to show the connection of a few of the Party officials in connection with the assassination of an official of the German Embassy in Paris on the 7th of November.
The evidence relating to these pogroms has been thoroughly presented in connection with the Prosecution’s evidence in other phases of the case, particularly of the persecution of the Jews. I shall therefore limit myself to two documents and will request the Tribunal to recall that in the teletyped directive from SS Gruppenführer Heydrich, issued the 10th of November 1938 to all police headquarters and SD districts, all chiefs of the State Police were ordered to contact the political leaders in the Gaue and the Kreise and to arrange with these high officials in the Leadership Corps the organization of the so-called spontaneous demonstrations against the Jews.
The evidence previously presented shows that pursuant to this directive a large number of the Jewish shops and businesses were pillaged and wrecked, synagogues set on fire, individual Jews beaten up, and large numbers taken to concentration camps. This evidence forcibly illustrates the employment and participation of all the Kreisleiter and Gauleiter in illegal and inhuman measures designed to further the anti-Semitic program which was an original and continuous objective of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party. I simply refer again to Document 3051-PS, Exhibit Number USA-240, and simply call Your Honors’ attention to the different political leaders that were named in that document; and I will not attempt to read nor refer to it again.
Diverting again from the text, I want to offer at this time in evidence . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, is it addressed to these various ranks in the Leadership Corps?
COL. STOREY: Your Honor, I notice on the first page it is addressed—I am not good in German—but to the State Police, to the SD, and to some other SD officials.
THE PRESIDENT: What has that got to do with the Leadership Corps?
COL. STOREY: It has to do with directions to Party officials to take part in these demonstrations. In other words, through certain officials of the Leadership Corps this directive was dispatched and directed.
THE PRESIDENT: Are you sure the State Police and SD are any of these ranks in the Leadership Corps?
COL. STOREY: If Your Honors will refer to this original chart, this big one, you will notice that the SA, and SS, and several of the organizations are listed on the left-hand part of that big chart. I think it is in the folder there on Your Honors’ desk. In other words, the close examination of that directive will show that they were to contact different political leaders in connection with the carrying into effect of this demonstration of the 9th and 10th of November. That is the only purpose for which it is offered. It has been introduced in evidence, but the reason I mention it at this time . . .
THE PRESIDENT: I can’t see that it shows it. It seems to me to be a letter from the Chief of the Security Police to all headquarters and stations of the State Police.
COL. STOREY: I don’t have the English translation before me at this moment, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, go on.
COL. STOREY: I now offer in evidence Document 3063-PS, Exhibit USA-332. This was a report from the Chief Party Judge Buch to the Defendant Göring, dated the 13th of February 1939, concerning actions taken by the Supreme Party Court for excesses in connection with the demonstrations of 9 and 10 November 1938. I don’t believe this, if Your Honors please, is in the document book—3063-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, it is.
COL. STOREY: I beg your pardon. I had forgotten whether it is in here. I quote just a brief portion of it:
“When all the synagogues burned down in one night it must have been organized in some way and can only have been organized by the Party.”
It is a long document, and that is the only portion I quote. I don’t have the reference to it.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): What page?
COL. STOREY: I am sorry, Sir, I don’t have the reference book.
THE PRESIDENT: On Page 1. As you say you don’t have the document before you, there isn’t much use referring you to it.
COL. STOREY: I gave the German text over there, Sir.
“When all the synagogues burned down in one night it must have been organized in some way, and can only have been organized by the Party.”
The first paragraph, Page 7.
Now I turn to illustrate the crimes against the Allied airmen. The members of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party participated in and shared the responsibility for the murder, beating, and ill-treatment of Allied airmen who landed in German or German-controlled territory. Many Allied airmen who bailed out of disabled planes over Germany were not treated as prisoners of war but were beaten and murdered by German civilians with the active condonation, indeed at the instigation, of some of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party. Such a course of conduct by the Leadership Corps represented a flagrant and deliberate violation by the German Government of its obligations under the Geneva Convention to protect prisoners of war against acts of violence and ill-treatment.
As shown by Document 2473-PS—it is necessary to turn to that—which is a list of the Reichsleiter of the Nazi Party appearing in the National Socialist Yearbook of 1943 and by Document 2903-PS, which is this large chart, Heinrich Himmler was a Reichsleiter of the Nazi Party and thus a top official in the Leadership Corps by virtue of his positions as Reichsführer of the SS and Delegate for German Folkdom. I now offer in evidence an original order signed by Himmler, Document R-110 as Exhibit Number USA-333. It is dated 10 August 1943, and I quote:
“It is not the task of the police to interfere in clashes between Germans and English and American terror fliers who have bailed out.”
This order was transmitted in writing to all senior executive SS and Police officers, and orally to their subordinate officers and to all Gauleiter. As shown in Document 2473-PS and by the chart, Joseph Goebbels . . .
THE PRESIDENT: I was only thinking that the police are not part of the Leadership Corps, are they?
COL. STOREY: But Himmler, if Your Honor pleases, combined the offices himself of the Reichsführer of the SS and head of the German police. He was an officer of the State; he was an officer of the Party; and he issued this to officials of the Leadership Corps.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): And your point is, this order of Himmler’s would be proof against the 600,000 members that you have spoken of?
COL. STOREY: Not against the members, but I said against the organization as a criminal organization, because from the top it disseminated orders of this type through the channels of the Leadership Corps.
THE PRESIDENT: But that is what I was putting to you, that it was not through the channels of the Leadership Corps, but through the channels of the police.
COL. STOREY: But the police, if Your Honor pleases, were connected with the Leadership Corps; and Himmler stood at the top of both. It does not show on that chart; but it is shown on the other big chart, if Your Honors please, with reference to Goebbels, who was a top-flight official in the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, by virtue of his position as Propaganda Leader of the Party. In the issue of the Völkischer Beobachter of 29 May 1944 there appeared an article written by Goebbels, the Reichsleiter for Party Propaganda, in which he openly invited the German civilian population to punish Allied fliers shot down over Germany. I refer to Document 1676-PS, Exhibit USA-334, which is the issue of the Völkischer Beobachter containing this article inciting the people to the commission of War Crimes. I now quote:
“It is only possible with the aid of arms to secure the lives of enemy pilots who were shot down during such attacks, for they would otherwise be killed by the sorely tried population. Who is right here? The murderers who, after their cowardly misdeeds, await a humane treatment on the part of their victims, or the victims who wish to defend themselves according to the principle: ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’? This question is not hard to answer.”
Reichsleiter Goebbels then proceeds to answer this question in the following language, and still quoting:
“It seems to us hardly possible and tolerable to use German police and soldiers against the German people when it treats murderers of children as they deserve.”
On the 30th of May 1944 the Defendant Bormann, Reichsleiter and Chief of the Party Chancellery, issued a circular letter on the subject which furnishes indisputable proof that British and American fliers, who were shot down, were lynched by the German population. I offer this circular letter of the Defendant Bormann into evidence—Document 057-PS; it is up towards the top.
THE PRESIDENT: Have you got the original book?
COL. STOREY: Just a moment, Your Honor.
After alleging that in recent weeks English and American fliers had repeatedly shot children, women, peasants, and vehicles on the highways, Bormann then states as follows in the second paragraph of the English translation; I quote:
“Several instances have occurred where members of the crews of such aircraft, who have bailed out or who have made forced landings, were lynched on the spot immediately after capture by the populace, which was incensed to the highest degree. No police measures or criminal proceedings were invoked against the German civilians who participated in these incidents.”
The attention of the Tribunal is particularly invited to the fact that this letter of the Defendant Bormann is distributed through the chain of command of the Nazi Party, expressly mentioning on the distribution list Reichsleiter, Gauleiter, Kreisleiter, and leaders of the incorporated and affiliated organizations of the Party. The Defendant Bormann requested, in the first paragraph of the second page which is found in the English translation, that the local group leaders (Ortsgruppenleiter) be informed of the contents of his circular letter orally—only by oral means.
The effect of Reichsleiter Bormann’s circular letter may be seen in an order dated 25 February 1945 which I now offer in evidence; it is Document L-154, Exhibit Number USA-335. It is an order from Albert Hoffmann, an important member of the Leadership Corps by virtue of his position as Gauleiter and National Defense Commissioner of the Gau Westfalen-Sud. It is addressed to all county councillors, mayors, police officials, and to county leaders and county chiefs of the Volkssturm.
“Fighter-bomber pilots who are shot down are in principle not to be protected against the fury of the people. I expect from all police officers that they will refuse to lend their protection to these gangster types. Authorities acting in contradiction to the popular sentiment will have to account to me. All police and gendarmerie officials are to be informed immediately of this, my attitude.”
The obligations . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Who is Hoffmann?
COL. STOREY: Albert Hoffmann was a member of the Leadership Corps by virtue of his position as Gauleiter and National Defense Commissar of the Gau Westfalen-Sud. In this connection, if Your Honor pleases, I quote the provisions of the Geneva Convention, 27 July 1929, Article 2, which provides—and I simply ask the Court to take judicial knowledge:
“Prisoners of war are in the power of the hostile power, but not of the individuals or corps who have captured them. They must at all times be humanely treated and protected, particularly against acts of violence, insults, and public curiosity. Measures of reprisal against them are prohibited.”
THE PRESIDENT: Is that the 1907 . . .
COL. STOREY: 1929, the Geneva Convention dated 27 July 1929—Article 2—and it was also ratified by Germany and the United States. It is clear from the foregoing quoted provisions that the Geneva prisoners-of-war convention imposes upon its signatories the strictest obligations to protect its prisoners of war from violence. The evidence just presented shows that the German State violated this provision. The evidence also proves that members of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party participated in the conspiracy to incite the German civilian population to take part in these atrocities.
Now I next turn to some illustrative crimes against foreign labor.
On 13 September 1936 Reichsleiter of the Party Organization, Dr. Robert Ley, addressed 20,000 people attending a session of the Party Congress. The official account of the Party rally states that the Führer was received with “enthusiastic shouts of exaltation” when he strode through the hall with his deputy, his constant retinue, and several Reichsleiter and Gauleiter. I am referring to Document 2283-PS, and it is the Völkischer Beobachter of 14 September 1936, Page 11, which we offer as Exhibit Number USA-337. In his speech Reichsleiter Robert Ley states that he had been mystified when the Führer ordered him in “mid-April 1933 to take over the trade unions . . . since I could not see any connection between my task as organizational leader of the Party and my new task.” Ley continues by stating that very soon it became clear to him why his responsibilities as Reichsleiter of the Party Organization and Leader of the German Labor Front made logical his selection by the Führer as the man to direct the smashing and dissolution of the free trade unions; and I quote from that document:
“Very soon your decision, my Führer, became clear to me and I recognized that the organizational measures of the Party could only come to full fruition when supplemented by the organization of the people, that is to say by the mobilization of the energies of the people and by their concentration and alignment. . . . My tasks as Reichsleiter of the Party Organization and as Leader of the German Labor Front were a completely homogeneous task; in other words, in everything I did, I acted as Reichsleiter of the Party Organization. The German Labor Front was an institution of the Party and was led by it. The German Labor Front had to be organized regionally and technically—according to the same principles as the Party. That is why trade union and employee associations had to be smashed unrelentingly, and the basis of construction was formed, as in the Party, by the cell and the local section.”
On 17 October 1944 Reichsleiter Rosenberg sent a letter to Reichsleiter Bormann which I introduce as Document 327-PS, Exhibit Number USA-338, in which he informed the latter that he had sent a telegram to the Gauleiter urging them not to interfere in the liquidation of certain listed companies and banks under his supervision. Rosenberg emphasizes to Bormann that any “delay of liquidation or independent confiscation of the property by the Gauleiter would impair or destroy an organized plan” for the liquidation of a vast amount of property.
On 7 November 1943 the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces delivered a lecture at Munich to the Reichsleiter and the Gauleiter. I now refer to Document L-172, previously introduced in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-34. The Chief of Staff stated that his object was to give a review of the strategic position at the outset of the fifth year of war; and he stated that he realized that the political leaders in the Reich and Gau areas, in view of their burdensome tasks in supporting the German war effort, were in need of information he could give. He stated, in part, as follows:
“Reichsleiter Bormann has requested me to give you a review today of the strategic position in the beginning of the fifth year of war. . . . No one—the Führer has ordered—may know more or be told more than he needs for his immediate task; but I have no doubt at all in my mind, gentlemen, that you need a great deal in order to be able to cope with your tasks. It is in your Gaue, after all . . . that all the enemy propaganda, and the demoralization through malicious rumors that try to find themselves a place among our people concentrate . . . . Against this wave of enemy propaganda and cowardice . . . you need to know the true situation; and for this reason, I believe that I am justified in giving you a perfectly open and uncovered account of the state of affairs.”
Reichsleiter Bormann distributed to all Reichsleiter, Gauleiter, and leaders of Party-affiliated organizations an undated letter, which is Document 656-PS, Exhibit Number USA-339, on the National Socialist Party stationery, signed by Bormann, an order of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht relating to self-defense by German guard personnel and German contractors and workers against prisoners of war. The order of the Wehrmacht referred to states that the question of treatment of prisoners of war is continually being discussed by the Wehrmacht and Party bureaus. The order states that should prisoners of war refuse to obey orders to work, the guard has “in the case of the most pressing need and danger the right to force obedience with the weapon if he has no other means. He can use the weapon as much as is necessary to attain his goal.”
On 18 April 1944 Reich Commissar Lohse, Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, in a letter to Reich Youth Leader Axmann—I now offer in evidence Document 347-PS, Exhibit Number USA-340—proposed that the Hitler Youth participate in and supervise the military education of the Estonian and Latvian youth. Lohse states in the above letter that:
“In the military education camps the young Latvians are trained under Latvian leaders in the Latvian language, not because this is our ideal but because absolute military necessity demands this.”
Lohse further stated in the above letter, and I quote:
“. . . in contrast to the Germanic peoples of the West, military education is no longer to be carried out through voluntary, enlistments but through legal conscription. The camps in Estonia and Latvia will have to be under German leadership; and as military education camps of the Hitler Youth, they must be a symbol of our educational mission beyond Germany’s borders. I consider the execution of the military education of the Estonian and Latvian youth not only a military necessity but also a war mission of the Hitler Youth, especially. I would be thankful to you, Party Member Axmann, if the Hitler Youth would put itself at our disposal with the same readiness with which they have so far supported our work in the Baltic area.”
An order of the Reich Minister of the Interior, Frick, dated 22 October 1938, is Document 1438-PS, of which I ask the Court to take judicial notice, and I quote:
“The Reichsführer SS and the Chief of the German Police . . . can take the administrative measures necessary for the maintenance of security and order even beyond the legal limits otherwise set on such measures.”
The above order related to the administration of the Sudeten-German territory.
In a letter dated 15 April 1943, our Document Number 407-PS, already in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-209, Gauleiter and Plenipotentiary for the direction of labor Fritz Sauckel wrote to Hitler advising him of the success of the forced-labor program as of that date and stating that—and I quote:
“You can be assured that the District of Thuringia and I will serve you and our dear people with the employment of all our strength.”
I now offer in evidence Document 630-PS, Exhibit Number USA-342. If Your Honor pleases, I would like to call to your attention that this is on the personal stationery of Adolf Hitler, dated 1 September 1939. It is addressed to Reichsleiter Bouhler and Doctor of Medicine Brandt, and it is signed personally by Adolf Hitler. I want to quote all of that document; it is short:
“Reichsleiter Bouhler and Dr. Brandt are charged with the responsibility of enlarging the authority of certain physicians to be designated by name in such a manner that persons who, according to human judgment, are incurable can, upon a most careful diagnosis of their condition of sickness, be accorded a mercy death. Signed, A. Hitler.”
A handwritten note on the face of the document states: “Given to me by Bouhler on 27 August 1940. Signed, Dr. Gürtner.”
In a memorandum recording an agreement between himself and Himmler, the Minister of Justice Thierack stated that on the suggestion of Reichsleiter Bormann an agreement had been reached between Himmler and himself with respect to “special treatment at the hands of the police in cases where judicial sentences were not severe enough.”
I will offer Document 654-PS, Exhibit Number USA-218, which was previously introduced, and I want to quote one portion:
“The Reich Minister of Justice will decide whether and when special treatment at the hands of the police is to be applied. The Reich Führer SS will send the reports, which he sent hitherto to Reichsleiter Bormann, to the Reich Minister of Justice.”
If the views of the Reich Führer SS and the Reich Minister of Justice disagreed, “the opinion of Reichsleiter Bormann will be brought to bear upon the case, and he will possibly inform the Führer.”
In the above note it is further stated:
“The delivery of asocial elements from execution of their sentence to the Reich Führer of SS to be worked to death: Persons under preventative arrest, Jews, Gypsies, Russians and Ukrainians, Poles with more than 3-year sentences, Czechs and Germans with more than 8-year sentences, according to the decision of the Reich Minister of Justice. First of all the worst asocial elements amongst those just mentioned are to be handed over. I shall inform the Führer of this through Reichsleiter Bormann.”
With respect to the “administration of justice by the people,” he continues:
“This is to be carried out step by step . . . as soon as possible. . . . I shall rouse the Party particularly to co-operate in this scheme by an article in the ‘Hoheitsträger.’ ”
And Your Honors have already seen copies of that publication. I now skip Paragraphs 16 and 17.
A letter from RSHA (which is the Reich Security Main Office) to police chiefs, dated 5 November 1942, which is Document L-316, Exhibit Number USA-346—this was addressed to all police chiefs—recites an agreement between the Reich Führer SS and the Reich Minister of Justice, approved by Hitler—I call the attention of Your Honors to the red border around this original, and then having the Party seal on it—provides that the ordinary criminal procedure was no longer to be applied to Poles and members of the Eastern populations. The agreement provided that such people, including Jews and Gypsies, should henceforth be turned over to the police. The principles applicable to a determination of the punishment of German offenders, including appraisal of the motives of the offender, were not to be applied to foreign offenders. I quote from Page 2 of the document:
“The offense committed by a person of foreign extraction is not to be regarded from the view of legal retribution by way of justice but from the point of view of preventing dangers through police action.
“From this it follows that the criminal procedure against persons of foreign extraction must be transferred from justice to the police.
“The preceding statements serve for personal information. There are no objections if the Gauleiter are informed in the proper form, should the need arise.”
I now skip Paragraphs 19 and 20 of the text. I next refer to Document 1058-PS, previously introduced in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-147.
In a speech to a gathering of persons intimately concerned with the Eastern problem, on 20 June 1941, Reichsleiter Rosenberg stated that the southern Russian territories and the northern Caucasus would have to provide food for the German people. I quote Rosenberg’s words:
“We see absolutely no obligation on our part to feed the Russian people, also, with the products of that surplus territory. We know that this is a harsh necessity, bare of any feelings.”
THE PRESIDENT: We have already had that read to us twice.
COL. STOREY: I am sorry, Sir. I did not hear it. Strike it from the record.
I now refer to Document R-114. I believe it is the last one in the book, Exhibit Number USA-314.
Gauleiter Wagner, of the German-occupied areas of Alsace, prepared plans and took measures leading to the expulsion and deportation of certain groups within the Alsatian civilian population. His plans called for the forcible expulsion of certain categories of so-called undesirable persons as a means of punishment and compulsory Germanization. The Gauleiter supervised deportation measures in Alsace from July to December 1940 in the course of which 105,000 persons were either expelled or prevented from returning. A memorandum, dated 4 August 1942, of a meeting of high SS and police officials convened to receive the reports and plans of the Gauleiter relating to the Alsatian evacuations, states that the persons deported were mainly “Jews, Gypsies, and other foreign racial elements, criminals, asocial and incurably insane persons, as well as Frenchmen and Francophiles.” The memorandum further states the Gauleiter stated that the Führer had given him permission “to cleanse Alsace of all foreign, sick, or unreliable elements”; and that the Gauleiter emphasized the political necessity of further deportations. The memorandum further records that the SS and police officials present at the conference approve the Gauleiter’s proposals for further evacuation.
I now skip over to the next paragraph, 24.
A memorandum by Reichsleiter Bormann of a conference called by Hitler at his headquarters, 16 July 1941, which is Document L-221, Exhibit Number USA-317. I’m sorry, I believe that one was quoted this morning. The only purpose in referring to it is in connection with the Reichsleiter. I believe Captain Harris quoted from that document this morning, and I’ll not read the quotation.
I call attention to the fact, however, that this conference was attended by Reichsleiter Rosenberg, Reich Minister Lammers, Field Marshal Keitel, the Reich Marshal, and Bormann and lasted about 20 hours. The memorandum states that discussion occurred with respect to the annexation by Germany of various parts of conquered Europe. The memorandum also states that a long discussion took place with respect to the qualifications of Gauleiter Lohse, who was proposed by Rosenberg at this conference, as Governor of the Baltic States.
Discussion also occurred, according to the memo, with respect to the qualifications of other Gauleiter and commissioners for the administration of various areas of Occupied Russia. Göring stated, according to the memorandum, that he intended to appoint Gauleiter Terboven for “exploitation of the Kola Peninsula; the Führer agrees.”
I believe the next portion has been quoted, too. I now pass to the participation of the Leadership Corps in the suppression of the Christian Church and persecution of the clergy and cite some illustrative crimes.
The evidence relating to the systematic effort of the defendants and co-conspirators to eliminate the Christian churches in Germany has been previously introduced in U.S.A. Exhibit Book H by Major Wallis with respect to the Nazi efforts to eliminate the Christian Church. The evidence now to be presented is limited to proving and pointing out the responsibility of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party and the members thereof for illegal activities against the Christian Church and clergy.
The Defendant Bormann issued a secret decree to all Gauleiter entitled, “Relationship of National Socialism and Christianity.” And that is Document D-75—it is up toward the top, I believe, Your Honor—Exhibit Number USA-348. In this decree Reichsleiter Bormann flatly declares that National Socialism and Christianity are incompatible and that the influence of the churches in Germany must be eliminated. I quote from pertinent portions of this decree beginning with the first paragraph thereof, top of Page 3, which reads as follows:
“National Socialist and Christian concepts are irreconcilable. . . .
“Our National Socialist ideology is far loftier than the concepts of Christianity which, in their essential points, have been taken over from Jewry. For this reason, also, we do not need Christianity. . . . If, therefore, in the future our youth learn nothing more of this Christianity whose doctrines are far below ours, Christianity will disappear by itself. . . . It follows from the irreconcilability of National Socialist and Christian concepts that a strengthening of existing confessions and every assistance to originating Christian confessions is to be rejected by us. A differentiation between the various Christian confessions is not to be made here. For this reason, also, the thought of an erection of an Evangelical National Church by merger of the various Evangelical churches has been definitely given up, because the Evangelical Church is just as inimical to us as the Catholic Church. Any strengthening of the Evangelical Church would merely react against us. . . .
“For the first time in German history, the Führer consciously and completely has the leadership of the people in his own hand. With the Party, its components, and attached units, the Führer has created for himself and thereby the German Reich Leadership, an instrument which makes him independent of the Church. All influences which might impair or damage the leadership of the people, exercised by the Führer with the help of the NSDAP, must be eliminated. More and more the people must be separated from the churches and their organs, the pastors. Of course, the churches must and will, seen from their viewpoint, defend themselves against this loss of power. But never again must an influence on leadership of the people be yielded to the churches. This influence must be broken completely and finally.
“Only the Reich leadership and, by its direction, the Party, its components and attached units have a right to leadership of the people. Just as the deleterious influences of astrologers, seers, and other fakirs are eliminated and suppressed by the state, so must the possibility of Church influence also be totally removed. Not until this has happened does the state leadership have influence on the individual citizens. Not until then are people and Reich secure in their existence for all the future.”
I next offer in evidence Document 070-PS, towards the beginning, Exhibit Number USA-349, which is a copy of a letter issued from Bormann’s office, dated 25 April 1941, to the Defendant Rosenberg in his capacity as the Führer’s representative for the supervision of the entire mental and ideological training and education of the NSDAP. In this letter Bormann’s office states that the measures have been taken leading to the progressive cancellation of morning prayers and other religious services and their substitution by Nazi mottoes and slogans. I quote from the first paragraph of Document 070-PS:
“We are inducing schools more and more to reduce and abolish morning religious services. Similarly the confessional and general prayers in several parts of the Reich have already been replaced by National Socialist mottoes. I would be grateful to know your opinion on a future National Socialist morning service instead of the present confessional morning services which are usually conducted once per week.”
In a letter from Reichsleiter Bormann to Reichsleiter Rosenberg dated 22 February 1940, Document 098-PS, Exhibit Number USA-350, which I offer in evidence, Bormann declares to Rosenberg that the Christian religion and National Socialism are incompatible. Bormann cites, as examples of hostile . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Would you take care to give us the number of the document.
COL. STOREY: I beg pardon, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: This is 098-PS.
COL. STOREY: Document 098-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: The one before you referred to was 070-PS.
COL. STOREY: Yes—070-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: Before that, D-75?
COL. STOREY: That’s correct. With Your Honor’s permission, rather than to quote the whole document I have summarized it here. Bormann’s letter cites as examples the hostile divergence between Nazism and the churches, the attitude of the latter on the racial question, celibacy of the priests, monasteries and nunneries. Bormann further declares that the churches could not be subjugated through compromise but only through a new philosophy of life as prophesied in Rosenberg’s writings. Bormann proposes the creation of a National Socialist catechism in order to give that part of the German youth which declines to practice confessional religion a moral foundation and to lay a moral basis for National Socialist doctrines, which are gradually to supplant the Christian religions. Bormann suggests that some of the Ten Commandments could be merged with the National Socialist catechism and states that a few new commandments should be added, such as: “Thou shalt be courageous; Thou shalt not be cowardly; Thou shalt believe in God’s presence in the living nature, animals, and plants; Thou shalt keep thy blood pure;” et cetera. He concludes that he considers the problem so important that it should be discussed with the members of the Reich directorate as soon as possible.
And now one quotation from the fifth paragraph on the first page of that translation. I would like to quote Paragraph 5 of the first page:
“Christianity and National Socialism are phenomena which originated from entirely different basic causes. Both differ fundamentally so strongly that it will not be possible to construct a Christian teaching which would be completely compatible with the point of view of the National Socialist ideology; just as the communities of Christian faith would never be able to stand by the ideology of National Socialism in its entirety. . . .”
And then I quote from the last paragraph on Page 5 of that document:
“The Führer’s deputy finds it necessary that all these questions should be thoroughly discussed in the near future in the presence of the Reich leaders”—Reichsleiter—“who are especially affected by them. . . .”
I next offer in evidence Document 107-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you suggest that the Blockleiter would have to be present at that discussion?
COL. STOREY: Your Honor, in connection with the policy directives, the Führerprinzip goes from the top to the bottom; and if that policy is adopted, they may, by directive, send it as far as the Blockleiter. He says to discuss it in connection with the Reichsleiter, who are the Party directors; and I assume that, if the Party directors establish it as a policy, then they were to issue appropriate directives to the other subordinate members. Mr. Lambert has suggested also that it would not be possible to discuss this matter with all the Leadership Corps and therefore they discussed it with the Party directors.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Does that show they did discuss it with the directors?
COL. STOREY: No, Sir, that doesn’t follow; but it shows that it was a subject of discussion for the board of directors of the Nazi Party.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but the question is, who are the directors?
COL. STOREY: Five or six of them sit here; a total of 16.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but I thought that you were asking us to declare the whole of the organization down to the Blockleiter as criminal.
COL. STOREY: That is true, Your Honor, but this is one evidence, one instance of the criminality of the organization and we cannot prove at each stage that all of them knew about it. We are trying to select different offenses and different crimes that were committed within the Party.
Document 107-PS, Exhibit USA-351, which we now offer in evidence, is a circular letter, dated 17 June 1938, addressed by the Defendant Bormann as Reichsleiter and Deputy of the Führer to all Reichsleiter and Gauleiter. Bormann’s letter encloses a copy of rules, prepared by Reichsleiter Hierl, setting forth certain restrictive regulations with respect to participation of the Reich Labor Service in religious celebrations. I quote pertinent portions of the directions issued by Reichsleiter Hierl, beginning with the first paragraph in the list of directions in Document 107-PS, on Page 1 of the English translation:
“The Reich Labor Service is a training school in which the German youth should be educated to national unity in the spirit of National Socialism. . . .
“What religious beliefs a person has is not a decisive factor, but it is decisive that he first of all feels himself a German.
“All confessional discussions are forbidden in the Reich Labor Service because it disturbs the comrade-like harmony of all the Labor Service men and the Labor Service women.
“This is also the reason why all participation of the Reich Labor Service in revivals and other meetings and festivals of religious character are impossible.”
The Tribunal will appreciate that the position of the Defendant Bormann, as Deputy of the Führer of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party and Chief of the Nazi Party Chancellery, and the position of the Defendant Rosenberg, as the Führer’s representative for the whole spiritual and philosophical education of the Nazi Party, give to the views of these defendants on religion and religious policy the highest official backing. The anti-Christian utterances and policies of these two defendants reveal a community of mind and intention amongst the most powerful leaders of the Party which was amply confirmed, as the evidence will show, by the actual treatment of the churches since 1933 and throughout the course of the conspiracy. I now offer in evidence Document 2349-PS, Exhibit Number USA-352, which is an excerpt from the book The Myth of the 20th Century, written by the Defendant Rosenberg. I quote from that document:
“The idea of honor—national honor—is for us the beginning and the end of our entire thinking and doing. It does not admit of any equal-valued center of force alongside of it, no matter of what kind, neither Christian love, nor the Free-Masonic humanity, nor the Roman philosophy.”
I now offer in evidence Document 848-PS, Exhibit Number USA-353, which is a Gestapo telegram, dated 24 July 1938, dispatched from Berlin to Nuremberg, dealing with demonstrations and acts of violence against Bishop Sproll in Rottenburg. The Gestapo office in Berlin wired its Nuremberg office a teletype account received from its Stuttgart office of disorderly conduct and vandalism carried out by Nazi Party members against Bishop Sproll. I quote from the fourth paragraph of Page 1 of the English translation of Document 848-PS, which reads as follows:
“The Party, on 23 July 1938, from 2100 on, carried out the third demonstration against Bishop Sproll. Participants, about 2,500-3,000, were brought from outside by bus, et cetera. The Rottenburg populace again did not participate in the demonstration. This town took a rather hostile attitude toward the demonstrations. The action got completely out of hand of the Party member responsible for it. The demonstrators stormed the palace, beat in the gates and doors. About 150 to 200 people forced their way into the palace, searched through the rooms, threw files out of the windows, and rummaged through the beds in the rooms of the palace. One bed was ignited. . . . The Bishop was with Archbishop Gröber of Freiburg and the ladies and gentlemen of his menage in the chapel at prayer. About 25 to 30 people pressed into this chapel and molested those present. Bishop Gröber was taken for Bishop Sproll. He was grabbed by the robe and dragged back and forth.”
The Gestapo official in Stuttgart added that Bishop Gröber desired “to appeal to the Führer and to Reich Minister of the Interior Dr. Frick,” and the Gestapo official added that he had rendered a detailed report of the demonstration after suppressing counter mass meetings.
On 23 July 1938 the Reich Minister for Church Affairs, Kerrl, sent a letter to the Minister of State and Chief of the Präsidium Chancellery, Berlin, stating that Bishop Sproll had angered the population by abstaining from the plebiscite of 10 April. I now offer in evidence Document 849-PS, Exhibit Number USA-354. In this letter Kerrl stated that the Gauleiter and Governor of Württemberg had decided that in the interest of preserving the State’s authority and in the interest of quiet and order, Bishop Sproll could no longer remain in office. I quote from the third paragraph of the first page of the Document 849-PS:
“The Reich Governor had explained to the Ecclesiastical Authority that he would no longer regard Bishop Sproll as head of the Diocese of Rottenburg on account of his refraining from the election in the office and that he desired Bishop Sproll to leave the Gau Württemberg-Hohenzollern because he could assume no guarantee for his personal safety; that in the case of the return of the Bishop of Rottenburg he would see to it that all personal and official intercourse with him on the part of State offices as well as the Party offices and the Armed Forces would be denied.”
Kerrl further states in the above letter that his deputy had moved the Foreign Office, through the German Embassy at the Vatican, to urge the Holy See to persuade Bishop Sproll to resign his Bishopric. Kerrl concludes by stating that should the effort to procure the Bishop’s resignation prove unsuccessful, “the Bishop would have to be exiled from the land or there would have to be a complete boycott of the Bishop by the authorities.”
On 14 July 1939 the Defendant Bormann in his capacity as Deputy of the Führer issued a Party regulation which provided that Party members entering the clergy or undertaking the study of theology would have to leave the Party. I now offer in evidence Document 840-PS, Exhibit Number USA-355; and this is a copy of a regulation by Bormann, relating to the admission of the clergy and students of theology into the Party. I quote from the last paragraph of the English translation, which reads—I quote. “I decree that in the future Party members who enter the clergy or who turn to the study of theology have to leave the Party.”
In this directive Bormann also refers to an earlier decree, dated 9 February 1939, in which he had ruled that the admission of members of the clergy into the Party was to be avoided. In this decree, also, Bormann refers with approval to a regulation of the Reich Treasurer of the Party, dated 10 May 1939, providing that “clergymen as well as other fellow Germans who are also closely connected with the Church cannot be admitted into the Party.”
I now offer in evidence Document 3268-PS, Exhibit Number USA-356, which contains excerpts from the Allocution of His Holiness Pope Pius XII to the Sacred College, June 2d, 1945. In this address His Holiness, after declaring that he had acquired an appreciation of the great qualities of the German people in the course of 12 years of residence in their midst, expressed the hope that Germany could “rise to new dignity and a new life once it has laid the satanic specter raised by National Socialism and the guilty have expiated the crimes they have committed.” After referring to repeated violations by the German Government of the Concordat concluded in 1933, His Holiness declared; and I quote from the last paragraph of Page 1 of the English translation of Document 3268-PS:
“The struggle against the Church did, in fact, become ever more bitter; there was the dissolution of Catholic organizations; the gradual suppression of the flourishing Catholic schools, both public and private; the enforced weaning of youth from family and Church; the pressure brought to bear on the conscience of citizens, and especially of civil servants; the systematic defamation, by means of a clever, closely-organized propaganda, of the Church, the clergy, the faithful, the Church’s institutions, teachings, and history; the closing, dissolution, confiscation of religious houses and other ecclesiastical institutions; the complete suppression of the Catholic press and publishing houses . . . .
“In the meantime the Holy See itself multiplied its representations and protests to governing authorities in Germany, reminding them, in clear and energetic language, of their duty to respect and fulfill the obligations of the natural law itself that were confirmed by the Concordat. In these critical years, joining the alert vigilance of a pastor to the long-suffering patience of a father, our great predecessor, Pius XI, fulfilled his mission as Supreme Pontiff with intrepid courage.
“But when, after he had tried all means of persuasion in vain, he saw himself clearly faced with deliberate violations of a solemn pact, with a religious persecution masked or open but always rigorously organized, he proclaimed to the world on Passion Sunday 1937 in his Encyclical, Mit brennender Sorge, that National Socialism really was: the arrogant apostasy from Jesus Christ, the denial of His doctrine and of His work of redemption, the cult of violence, the idolatry of race and blood, the overthrow of human liberty and dignity . . . .
“From the prisons, concentration camps, and fortresses are now pouring out, together with the political prisoners, also the crowds of those, whether clergy or laymen, whose only crime was their fidelity to Christ and to the faith of their fathers or the dauntless fulfillment of their duties as priests.
“In the forefront, for the number and harshness of the treatment meted out to them, are the Polish priests. From 1940 to 1945, 2,800 Polish ecclesiastics and religious were imprisoned in that camp; among them was the Auxiliary Bishop of Wloclawek, who died there of typhus. In April last there were left only 816, all the others being dead except for two or three transferred to another camp. In the summer of 1942, 480 German-speaking ministers of religion were known to be gathered there; of these, 45 were Protestants, all the others Catholic priests. In spite of the continuous inflow of new internees, especially from dioceses of Bavaria, Rhenania and Westphalia, their number, as a result of the high rate of mortality, at the beginning of this year did not surpass 350. Nor should we pass over in silence those belonging to occupied territories, Holland, Belgium, France (among whom the Bishop of Clermont), Luxembourg, Slovenia, Italy. Many of those priests and laymen endured indescribable sufferings for their faith and for their vocation. In one case the hatred of the impious against Christ reached the point of parodying on the person of an interned priest, with barbed wire, the scourging and the crowning with thorns of our Redeemer.”
THE PRESIDENT: I think perhaps it would be time now to adjourn.