Afternoon Session
MAJOR WARREN F. FARR (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): May it please the Tribunal, the next organization to be dealt with is the SS. The document books in this case are lettered “Z.” For convenience in handling the book because of the bulk of documents, we have divided them into two volumes. I shall in referring to a document number refer to the volume in which that document appears.
About a week or 10 days ago there appeared in a newspaper circulated in Nuremberg, an account of a visit by that paper’s correspondent to a camp in which SS prisoners of war were confined. The thing which particularly struck the correspondent was the one question asked by the SS prisoners. Why are we charged as war criminals? What have we done except our normal duty?
The evidence now to be presented to the Tribunal will, we expect, answer that question. It will show that just as the Nazi Party was the very heart—the core—of the conspiracy, so the SS was the very essence of Nazism. For the SS was the elite group of the Party, composed of the most thorough-going adherents of the Nazi cause, pledged to blind devotion to Nazi principles, and prepared to carry them out without any question and—at any cost—a group in which every ordinary value has been so subverted that its members can ask, “What is there unlawful about the things we have done?”
During the past weeks the Tribunal has heard evidence of the conspirators’ criminal program for aggressive war, for concentration camps, for the extermination of the Jews, for enslavement of foreign labor and illegal use of prisoners of war, for deportation and Germanization of inhabitants of conquered territories. Through all this evidence the name of the SS ran like a thread. Again and again that organization and its components were referred to. It is my purpose to show why it performed a responsible role in every one of these criminal activities, why it was—and, indeed, had to be—a criminal organization.
The creation and development of such an organization was, indeed, essential for the execution of the conspirators’ plans. Their sweeping program and the measures they were prepared to use, and did use, could be fully accomplished neither through the machinery of the Government nor of the Party. Things had to be done for which no agency of Government and no political party, even the Nazi Party, would openly take full responsibility. A specialized type of apparatus was needed, an apparatus which was to some extent connected with the Government and given official support but which, at the same time, could maintain a quasi-independent status, so that all its acts could be attributed neither to the Government nor to the Party as a whole. The SS was that apparatus.
Like the SA, it was one of the seven components or formations of the Nazi Party referred to in the “Decree on the Enforcement of the Law for Securing the Unity of Party and State” of 29 March 1935, published in the Reichsgesetzblatt for that year, Part I, Page 503. That decree will be found in our Document 1725-PS. I shall not read it. I assume that the Court will take judicial notice of it. The status of the SS, however, was above that of the other formations. As the plans of the conspirators progressed, it acquired new functions, new responsibilities, and an increasingly more important place in the regime. It developed during the course of the conspiracy into a highly complex machine, the most powerful in the Nazi State, spreading its tentacles into every field of Nazi activity.
The evidence which I shall present will be directed, first, towards showing very briefly the origin and early development of the SS; second, how it was organized, that is, its structure and its component parts; third, the basic principles governing the selection of its members and the obligations they undertook; and finally, its aims and the means used to accomplish them, the manner in which it carried out the purposes of the conspirators, and thus is a responsible participant in the crimes alleged in the Indictment.
The history, organization, and publicly announced functions of the SS are not controversial matters. They are not matters to be learned only from secret files and captured documents. They were recounted in many publications circulated widely throughout Germany and the world, official books of the Nazi Party itself and books, pamphlets, and speeches by SS and State officials published with SS and Party approval. Throughout the presentation of the case I shall frequently refer to five or six such publications, translations of which—in whole or in part—appear in the document books. Although I shall quote portions of them, I shall not attempt to read them all in full, since I assume that the contents of such authoritative publications may be judicially noticed by the Tribunal.
Now to take up the origin of the SS. The first aim of the conspirators—as the evidence already presented to the Court has shown—was to gain a foothold in politically hostile territory, to acquire mastery of the streets, and to combat any and all opponents with force. For that purpose they needed their own private, personal police organization. Evidence has just been introduced in the case against the SA, showing how that organization was created to fill such a role. But the SA was outlawed in 1923. When Nazi Party activity was again resumed in 1925, the SA remained outlawed. To fill its place and to play the part of Hitler’s own personal police, small mobile groups known as protective squadrons (Schutzstaffeln) were created. This was the origin of the SS in 1925. With the reinstatement of the SA in 1926, the SS for the next few years ceased to play a major role. But it continued to exist as an organization within the SA, under its own leader, however, the Reichsführer SS. This early history of the SS is related in two of the authoritative publications to which I have referred: The first is a book by SS Standartenführer Gunter d’Alquen, entitled Die SS. This book, a pamphlet of some 30 pages, is an authoritative account of the history, mission, and organization of the SS, published in 1939. As indicated on its frontispiece, it was written at the direction of the Reichsführer SS, Heinrich Himmler. Its author, SS Standartenführer Gunter d’Alquen was the editor of the official SS publication Das Schwarze Korps. This book is our Document Number 2284-PS. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-438. The passage to which I refer will be found on Pages 6 and 7 of the original and on Page 1 of the translation.
I shall not now read that passage.
The second publication is an article by Himmler entitled, “Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police.” It was published in 1937 in a booklet containing a series of speeches or essays by important officials of the Party and the State—known as National Political Course for the Armed Forces from 15 to 23 January 1937. The article by Himmler, to which I refer, appears on Pages 137-161 of that pamphlet. Large extracts from it make up our Document Number 1992(a)-PS. I offer the essay by Himmler as Exhibit Number USA-439. The passage to which I referred appears on Page 137 of the original and Page 1 of the translation, our Document 1992(a)-PS. I shall have occasion to quote from both these publications, but with respect to this matter of history, I assume that these references to the pertinent passages in them are enough.
As early as 1929 the conspirators recognized that their plans required an organization in which the main principles of the Nazi system, specifically the racial principles, would not only be jealously guarded but would be carried to such extreme as to inspire or intimidate the rest of the population—an organization in which, also, there would be assured complete freedom on the part of the leaders and blind obedience on the part of the members. The SS was built up to meet this need. I quote from D’Alquen’s book, Die SS, at Page 7; this passage appears in our Document Number 2284-PS at Page 4 of the translation, Paragraph 4:
“On the 6th of January 1929 Adolf Hitler appointed his tested comrade of long standing, Heinrich Himmler, as Reichsführer SS. Heinrich Himmler assumed charge therewith of the entire Schutzstaffel totalling at that time 280 men with the express and particular order of the Führer to form this organization into an elite troop of the Party, a troop dependable in every circumstance.
“With this day the real history of the SS begins as it stands before us today in all its deeper essential features, firmly anchored in the National Socialist movement. For the SS and its Reichsführer, Heinrich Himmler, its first SS man, have both become inseparable in the course of these battle-filled years.”
Carrying out Hitler’s directive, Himmler proceeded to build up out of this small force of men an elite organization—to use D’Alquen’s words—composed of “the best physically . . . the most dependable, and the most faithful . . . men” in the Nazi movement. I read another passage from D’Alquen at Page 12 of the original, Page 6 of the translation, Paragraph 5:
“When the day of seizure of power had finally come, there were 52,000 SS men, who in this spirit bore the revolution in the van, marched into the new state which they began helping to form everywhere, in their stations and positions, in profession and in service, and in all their essential tasks.”
The conspirators now had the machinery of government in their hands. The initial function of the SS—that of acting as private army and personal police force—was thus completed. But its mission had in fact really just begun. That mission is described in the Organization Book of the NSDAP for 1943. The pages from that book dealing with the SS—Pages 417 to 428—are translated in our Document Number 2640-PS. The organization’s book has already been offered in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-323. The passage to which I refer appears on Page 417 of the original and on Page 1, Paragraph 2, of the translation:
“Missions. The original and most eminent duty of the SS is to serve as the protectors of the Führer. By decree of the Führer the sphere of duties has been enlarged to include the internal security of the Reich.”
This new mission—protecting the internal security of the regime—was somewhat more colorfully defined by Himmler in his pamphlet The SS as an Anti-Bolshevist Fighting Organization, published in 1936. It is our Document Number 1851-PS. I offer this document in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-440. The definition to which I refer appears in the original at the bottom of Page 29 of the original, on the third page of the translation, middle of the paragraph:
“We shall unremittingly fulfill our task, the guaranty of the security of Germany from the interior, just as the Wehrmacht guarantees the safety of the honor, the greatness, and the peace of the Reich from the exterior. We shall take care that never again in Germany, the heart of Europe, will the Jewish-Bolshevistic revolution of sub-humans be able to be kindled either from within or through emissaries from without. Without pity we shall be a merciless sword of justice for all those forces whose existence and activity we know, on the day of the slightest attempt, may it be today, may it be in decades or may it be in centuries.”
This conception necessarily required an extension of the duties of the SS into many fields. It involved, of course, the performance of police functions. But it involved more. It required participation in the suppression and extermination of all internal opponents of the regime. It meant participation in extending the regime beyond the borders of Germany; and therefore came to mean eventually participation in every type of activity designed to secure a hold over those territories and populations which, through military conquest, had come under German domination.
The expansion of SS duties and activities resulted in the creation of several branches and numerous departments and the eventual development of a highly complex machinery. Those various branches and departments cannot be adequately described out of the context of their history. That description I hope will emerge fully as evidence of the activities of the SS is presented. But it may be appropriate to anticipate; and at this point, to say a word about the structure of the SS.
For this purpose, a glance at a chart depicting the organization of the SS as it appeared in 1945 may be helpful. There are being handed to the Tribunal small copies of this chart, two in English, one in French and one in Russian. In addition, there are handed eight larger copies of the chart in the original German, bearing on it the photostat of the affidavit of Gottlob Berger, formerly Chief of the SS Main Office, who examined the chart and stated that it correctly represented the organization of the SS.
I now offer in evidence the chart of the Supreme and Regional Command of the SS, as Exhibit Number USA-445.
At the very top of the chart is Himmler, the Reichsführer SS, who commanded the entire organization. Immediately below—running across the chart and down the right hand side, embraced within the heavy line—are the 12 main departments constituting the Supreme Command of the SS. Some of these departments have been broken down into the several offices of which they were composed, as indicated by the boxes beneath them. Other departments have not been so broken down. It is not intended to indicate that there were not subdivisions of these latter departments as well. The breakdown is shown only in those cases where the constituent offices of some department may have a particular significance in this case.
These departments and their functions are described in two official Nazi publications. The first is the Organization Book of the NSDAP for 1943, our Document Number 2640-PS, already introduced in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-323. The description, which I shall not read now, appears on Pages 419-422 of the original and Pages 2 to 4 of the translation. The second is an SS manual, which bears the title, The Soldier Friend-Pocket Diary for the German Armed Forces—Edition D, Waffen-SS. It was prepared at the direction of the Reichsführer SS and issued by the SS Main Office for the year ending 1942. It is our Document Number 2825-PS. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-441. The description to which I refer appears on Pages 20 to 22 of the original and Pages 1 and 2 of the translation. I will later have occasion to read the description of the functions of some of the departments in full. But I assume that the Court will take judicial notice of the entire passages to which I have referred. In addition, the departments are listed in a directory of the SS, published by one of the main departments of the SS. This document was found in the files of the Personal Staff of the Reichsführer SS, the first department from the left of the chart. It is entitled Directory for the Schutzstaffel of the NSDAP, 1 November 1944. It is marked “restricted” and bears the notation “Published by SS Führungshauptamt,” (Command Office of the General SS), which is the fifth box from the left. It is our Document Number 2769-PS. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-442. It is simply a list of the names of the departments and offices with their addresses and telephone numbers, and corroborates the statements in the two earlier publications to which I referred.
Returning now to the chart—following down the central spine from the Reichsführer SS to the regional level—we come to the Higher SS and Police Leader, commonly known as HSSPF, the Supreme SS Commander in each region. I shall refer to his functions at a later point. Immediately below him is the breakdown of the organization of the Allgemeine or General SS. To the left are indicated two other branches of the SS—the Death’s-Head Units (Totenkopf Verbände) and the Waffen-SS. To the right, under the HSSPF, is the SD. All of these components, together with the SS Police regiments, are specifically named in the Indictment—Appendix B, Page 36—as being included in the SS.
Now a word as to these components. Up to 1933 there were no such specially designated branches. The SS was a single group—a group of “volunteer political soldiers.” It was out of this original nucleus that the new units developed.
The Allgemeine, that is, General SS, was the common basis, the main stem, out of which the various branches grew. It was composed of all members of the SS who did not belong to any of the special branches.
It was the backbone of the entire organization. The personnel and officers of the main departments of the SS Supreme Command were members of this branch. Except for high ranking officers and those in staff capacities in the main offices of the SS Supreme Command, its members were part-time volunteers. As the evidence will show, its members were utilized in about every phase of SS activity. They were called upon in the anti-Jewish pogroms of 1938; they took over the task of guarding concentration camps during the war; they participated in the colonization and resettlement program. In short, the term “SS” normally meant the General SS.
It was organized on military lines as will be seen from the chart, ranging from district (Oberabschnitt) and sub-district (Abschnitt) down through the regiment, battalion, company, to the platoon. Until after the beginning of the war it constituted numerically the largest branch of the SS. In 1939 D’Alquen, the official SS spokesman, said, and I quote from his book, our Document Number 2284-PS, Page 9, Paragraph 3, of the English translation, and Page 18 of the original document:
“The strength of the General SS, 240,000 men, is subdivided today into 14 corps, 38 divisions, 104 infantry regiments, 19 mounted regiments, 14 communication battalions, and 9 engineer battalions, as well as motorized and medical units. This General SS stands fully and wholly on call as in the fighting years. . . .”
Similar reference to the military organization of the General SS will be found in Himmler’s speech, “Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police,” our Document Number 1992(a)-PS, at Page 4 of the translation, and in the Organization Book of the NSDAP for 1943, our Document Number 2640-PS, at Pages 4 and 5 of the translation.
Members of this branch, however, with the exception of certain staff personnel, were subject to compulsory military service. As the result of the draft of members of the General SS of military age into the Army, the numerical strength of presently active members considerably declined during the war. Older SS men and those working in or holding high positions in the main departments of the Supreme Command of the SS remained. Its entire strength during the war was probably not in excess of 40,000 men.
The second component to be mentioned is the Security Service of the Reichsführer SS, almost always referred to as the SD. Himmler described it in his speech, “Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police”—our Document Number 1992(a)-PS. I quote a passage from Page 8, last paragraph of the translation, Page 151 of the original, Paragraph 3:
“I now come to the Security Service (SD); it is the great ideological intelligence service of the Party and, in the long run, also that of the State. During the time of struggle for power it was only the intelligence service of the SS. At that time we had, for quite natural reasons, an intelligence service with the regiments, battalions and companies.”—I interpolate; he refers there to the regiments, battalions and companies of the General SS.—“We had to know what was going on on the opponent’s side, whether the Communists intended to hold up a meeting today or not, whether our people were to be suddenly attacked or not, and similar things. I separated this service already in 1931 from the troops—”
I note that it appears in the mimeographed translation as 1941; but, as will appear from a passage on the next pages of the translation, it was 1931 to which he was referring.
“. . . from the units of the General SS, because I considered it to be wrong. For one thing, secrecy is endangered, then the individual men, or even the companies, are too likely to discuss everyday political problems.”
Although, as Himmler put it, the SD was only the intelligence service of the SS during the years preceding the accession of the Nazis to power, it became a much more important organization promptly thereafter. It had been developed into such a powerful scientific espionage system under its chief, Reinhard Heydrich, that on 9 June 1934, just a few weeks before the bloody purge of the SA, it was made by decree of the Defendant Hess, the sole intelligence and counter-intelligence agency of the entire Nazi Party. I refer in support of that statement to D’Alquen’s book, Die SS, our Document Number 2284-PS, at Page 11 of the translation. I shall not pause to quote that passage. The organization and numbers of the SD, as they stood in 1937, were thus described by Himmler—I quote again from his article, “Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police,” our Document Number 1992(a)-PS, at Page 9 of the translation, second paragraph, Page 151 of the original, Paragraph 4:
“The Security Service was already separated from the troop in 1931 and separately organized. Its higher headquarters coincide today with the Oberabschnitte and Abschnitte”—I refer to the Abschnitte and Oberabschnitte indicated on the chart—“and it has also field offices, its own organization of officials, and a great many command posts, approximately 3,000 to 4,000 men strong, at least when it is built up.”
Up to 1939 its headquarters was the SS Main Security Office (Sicherheitshauptamt) which, as I shall shortly show, became amalgamated in 1939 in the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) one of the SS main departments shown on the chart before you—the sixth box from the left.
The closer and closer collaboration of the SD with the Gestapo and Criminal Police—which eventually resulted in the creation of this RSHA—and the activities in which the SD engaged in partnership with the Gestapo will be taken up in the presentation of the case against the Gestapo. The SD was, of course, at all times an integral and important component of the SS. But it is more practicable to deal with it in connection with the activities of the whole repressive police system with which it functioned.
The third component to be mentioned is the Waffen-SS—the combat arm of the SS—created, trained, and finally utilized for purposes of aggressive war. The reason underlying the creation of this combat branch was described in our Document Number 2640-PS, the Organization Book of the Nazi Party for 1943. It appears on Page 427a of the original, Page 5, Paragraph 7 of the translation:
“The armed SS originated out of the thought: to create for the Führer a selected, long-service troop for the fulfillment of special missions. It should make it possible for members of the General SS, as well as for volunteers who fulfill the special requirements of the SS, to fight in the battle for the realization of the National Socialist idea with weapon in hand in unified groups partly within the framework of the Army.”
The term “Waffen-SS” did not come into use until after the beginning of the war. Up to that time there were two branches of the SS composed of full-time, well-trained, professional soldiers: The so-called SS Verfügungstruppe, translatable perhaps as SS Emergency Troops, and the SS Totenkopf Verbände (the Death’s-Head Units). After the beginning of the war, the units of the SS Verfügungstruppe were brought up to division strength, and new divisions were added to them. Parts of the SS Death’s-Head Units were formed into a division, the SS Totenkopf Division. All these divisions then came to be known collectively as the Waffen-SS.
Let me now trace that development. I quote again from the Organization Book of the Nazi Party for 1943, our Document Number 2640-PS, Page 427b of the original, Page 5, last paragraph of the translation:
“The origin of the Waffen-SS goes back to the decree of 17 March 1933 establishing the Stabswache with the original strength of 120 men. Out of this small group developed the later-called SS Verfügungstruppe,”—SS Emergency Force—
“the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. In the course of the war, these groups grew into divisions.”
THE PRESIDENT: Major Farr, is it necessary to go into this degree of detail about the organization of the SS?
MAJOR FARR: Sir, it seemed to me that it is highly important to know exactly what the organization with which we are dealing is. There has been, I understand, a suggestion made to the Court that certain portions of this organization are not criminal. It is contended by some that the part they played was a perfectly innocuous one; and it seems to me that before we can determine whether the organization as a whole is criminal, whether any portion of it is severable, then we must know what the organization is.
THE PRESIDENT: Wouldn’t it be possible to leave that question to evidence in rebuttal, if the defendants are setting up that any particular branch of the SS is not criminal?
MAJOR FARR: If we adequately lay the basis for our case now, it may not be necessary for us to make any rebuttal. We may satisfy the defendants that there is nothing to the contention that any portion of the SS is a lawful portion. The point I am particularly trying to make now is: There has been a good deal of contention that the Waffen-SS is severable; that whatever may be said, for example, about the SD or the Death’s-Head Units, the Waffen-SS is something different, the Waffen-SS is part of the Army. I think it is important to establish at the outset that the Waffen-SS is as much a part of the SS, as integral a part of the whole organization, as any of the other branches. I propose, therefore, to show the development of the Waffen-SS, growing out of the SS Emergency Troops, and to call to the attention of the Tribunal evidence showing how the Waffen-SS is an integral part of the SS as a whole.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you must take your own course.
MAJOR FARR: The Verfügungstruppe were described in a top-secret Hitler order dated the 17th of August 1938. It is our Document Number 647-PS. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-443. That document will be found in Volume I of the document book. I quote from Section II of that order, which appears on Page 2 of the translation at the top the page and also on Page 2 of the original:
“II. The Armed Units of the SS.
“A. The SS Verfügungstruppe.
“1. The SS Verfügungstruppe is neither a part of the Wehrmacht nor a part of the police. It is a standing armed unit exclusively at my disposal. As such and as a unit of the NSDAP, its members are to be selected by the Reichsführer SS according to the ideological and political standards which I have ordered for the NSDAP and for the Schutzstaffeln. Its members are to be trained and its ranks filled with volunteers from those who are subject to military service, having finished their duties in the obligatory labor service. The service period for volunteers is 4 years. It may be prolonged for SS Unterführer. Special regulations are in force for SS leaders. The regular compulsory military service (Paragraph 8 of the law relating to military service) is fulfilled by service of the same duration in the SS Verfügungstruppe.”
I want to quote a further short passage from that decree which will be found on Page 3 of the translation in the middle of the page and on Page 5 of the original order:
“III. Orders in case of Mobilization.
“A. The employment of the SS Verfügungstruppe in case of mobilization is a double one.
“1. By the Supreme Commander of the Army within the wartime army. In that case it comes completely under military laws and regulations, but remains a unit of the NSDAP politically.
“2. In case of necessity in the interior according to my orders; in that case it is under the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police.
“In case of mobilization I myself will make the decision about the time, strength, and manner of the incorporation of the SS Verfügungstruppe into the wartime army; these things will depend on the internal political situation at that time.”
Immediately after the issuance of this decree—and the Court will recall it was issued in August of 1938—this militarized force was employed with the Army for aggressive purposes—the taking over of the Sudetenland. Following this action feverish preparation to motorize the force and to organize new units such as antitank, machine gun, and reconnaissance battalions were undertaken pursuant to further directives of the Führer. By September 1939 the force was fully motorized; its units had been increased to division strength and it was prepared for combat. These steps are described in the National Socialist Yearbook for the years 1940 and 1941. I offer in evidence Pages 365 to 371 of the 1940 yearbook. It is our Document Number 2164-PS. It bears Exhibit Number USA-255. I offer Pages 191 to 193 of the 1941 yearbook, which is our Document Number 2163-PS, as Exhibit Number USA-444. Since the yearbook is an official publication of the Nazi Party, edited by Reichsleiter Robert Ley and published by the Nazi Party publishing company, I assume that the Court will take judicial notice of the contents of these exhibits.
After the launching of the Polish invasion and as the war progressed, still further divisions were added. The Organization Book of the Nazi Party for 1943, our Document Number 2640-PS, lists some eight divisions and two infantry brigades as existing at the end of 1942. I refer to Page 427b of the original, Page 5, last paragraph of the translation. This was no longer an emergency force. It was an SS army and hence came to be designated as the Waffen-SS. Himmler referred to this spectacular development of this SS combat branch in his speech at Posen on 4 October 1943 to SS Gruppenführer. That speech has already been introduced in evidence at an earlier stage in the case, as Exhibit Number USA-170. It is our Document Number 1919-PS.
I shall quote from that speech, Page 51 of the original, Page 2 of the translation, second paragraph, headed “The SS in Wartime.” I quote:
“Now I come to our own development, to that of the SS in the past months. Looking back on the whole war, this development was fantastic. It took place at an absolutely terrific speed. Let us look back a little to 1939. At that time we were a few regiments, guard units, 8,000 to 9,000 strong—that is, not even a division, all in all 25,000 to 28,000 men at the outside. True, we were armed, but we really only got our artillery regiment as our heavy arm 2 months before the war began.”
I continue, quoting from the same speech a passage found on Page 8 of the English translation and on Page 104 of the original. The passage in the translation appears at about the middle of the page.
“In the hard battles of this year, the Waffen-SS has been welded together in the bitterest hours from the most varied divisions and sections out of which it was formed: Bodyguard units”—Leibstandarte—“military SS”—Verfügungstruppe—“Death’s-Head Units, and then the Germanic SS. Now when our Divisions ‘Reich,’ ‘Death’s-Head,’ the Cavalry Division, and ‘Viking’ were together, everyone knew in these last weeks: ‘Viking’ is at my side, ‘Reich’ is at my side, ‘Death’s-Head’ is at my side. Thank God, now nothing can happen to us.”
The transformation of small emergency forces into a combat army did not result in a separation of this branch from the SS.
Although tactically under the command of the Wehrmacht while in the field, it remained as much a part of the SS as any other branch of the organization. Throughout the war it was recruited, trained, administered, and supplied by the main offices of the SS Supreme Command. Ideologically and racially its members were selected in conformity with SS standards.
I shall read a passage relating to the recruiting standards of the Waffen-SS published in the SS Manual, The Soldier Friend, our Document Number 2825-PS, which appears on Page 7 of the English translation, first paragraph on Page 36, Paragraph 2 of the original. I quote:
“Today at last is the longed-for day of the entrance examinations where the examiners and physicians decide whether or not the candidate is ideologically and physically qualified to do service in the Waffen-SS. Everyone has acquainted himself with the comprehensive Manual for the Waffen-SS . . . the principal points are as follows: ‘1. Service in the Waffen-SS counts as military service. Only volunteers are accepted.’ ”
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): What is the purpose of reading all this evidence? What has what you just read got to do with what you are presenting?
MAJOR FARR: Sir, I want to prove, as I said a moment ago, one thing first: that the Waffen-SS is an integral, component part of the SS. I want to establish that it is completely administered and controlled by the Supreme Command of the SS. That is one thing.
The second thing I want to prove is this: that service in the Waffen-SS is voluntary service just as membership in the Allgemeine SS or Death’s-Head Units is voluntary service. It is true that there were some instances towards the close of the war when a few men were conscripted into the Waffen-SS but that was the exception and not the rule. In quoting from the recruiting standards of the Waffen-SS appearing in this booklet, which was published in 1942 and which indicate that at that time service in the Waffen-SS was open only to volunteers, I think I am serving the purpose of proving one of the two points which I think ought to be established.
I want to read, if I may, one further paragraph from that translation. I shall read the paragraph indicating that service is voluntary. Now I want to read the third requirement, which shows that service was open only to persons who could meet the ideological and other standards of the SS as a whole.
If the Tribunal is satisfied on the point that service in the Waffen-SS is essentially voluntary and that the Waffen-SS is an integral part of the SS, I do not want to impose further by reading further evidence.
THE PRESIDENT: I think the Tribunal is satisfied on both those points, up to the present time, that it is voluntary and is an integral part of the SS.
MAJOR FARR: If the Court is satisfied on both those points, I shall not pursue, any further, the introduction of this particular evidence.
THE PRESIDENT: It may, as you say, be possible to show that there were some members conscripted into it at a later date, but we have not had that evidence yet.
MAJOR FARR: No, Your Honor, you have not.
All I want to show is that the normal thing is that it is voluntary and that the Waffen-SS is an integral part of the whole organization. If the Court is completely satisfied on that point I shall proceed no further with the description of the Waffen-SS.
I shall pass on now then, to a description of the SS Totenkopf Verbände (the Death’s-Head Units), which are the fourth component to be mentioned.
The origin and purpose of the Totenkopf-Verbände were succinctly described by D’Alquen in his book, Die SS, our Document Number 2284-PS. I shall read from Page 10 of the English translation, Paragraph 5, a passage that appears on Page 20 of the original, Paragraph 3:
“The SS Death’s-Head Units form one part of the garrisoned SS. They arose from volunteers of the General SS who were recruited for the guarding of concentration camps in 1933. Their mission, aside from the indoctrination of the armed political soldier, is the guarding of enemies of the state who are held in concentration camps. The SS Death’s-Head Units obligate their members to 12 years’ service. They are composed mainly of men who have already fulfilled their duty to serve in the Wehrmacht. This time of service is counted toward the service obligation in the SS Death’s-Head Units.”
Since the Death’s-Head Units—like the SS Verfügungstruppe—were composed of well-trained professional soldiers, they were also a valuable nucleus for the Waffen-SS. The secret Hitler order of 17 August 1938, Document Number 647-PS, which has already been introduced in evidence, provided for the tasks of the SS Totenkopf Verbände in the event of mobilization. The Totenkopf Verbände were to be relieved from the duty of guarding concentration camps and transferred as a skeleton corps to the SS Verfügungstruppe. I quote from that order, a passage found on Page 5 of the translation, Paragraph 4; Page 9 of the original. I quote:
“5) Regulations for the case of the Mobilization.
“The SS Totenkopf Verbände form the skeleton corps for the reinforcement of the SS Totenkopf Verbände (Polizeiverstärkung) and will be replaced in the guarding of concentration camps by members of the General SS who are over 45 years of age and have had military training.”
If I may point out to the Court, the purpose in offering that bit of evidence is to show that the foundation was laid for having the Allgemeine SS (the General SS) take over the duties of guarding concentration camps after the war had started. The Totenkopf Verbände were originally created for that purpose. When the war came they went into the Waffen-SS and their duties were taken over by members of the General SS.
The final component which was specifically referred to in the Indictment is the SS police regiments. I shall very shortly turn to the steps by which the SS assumed control over the entire Reich police. Out of the police special militarized forces were formed originally known as SS police battalions and later expanded to SS Police Regiments.
I shall quote from Himmler’s Posen speech, our Document Number 1919-PS, Page 3 of the translation, next to the last paragraph; Page 59 of the original. I quote:
“Now to deal briefly with the tasks of the regular uniformed police and the Sipo—they still cover the same field. I can see that great things have been achieved. We have formed roughly 30 police regiments from police reservists and former members of the police—police officials, as they used to be called. The average age in our police battalions is not lower than that of the security battalions of the Armed Forces. Their achievements are beyond all praise. In addition, we have formed police rifle regiments by merging the police battalions previously drawn up of the ‘savage peoples.’ Thus, we did not leave these police battalions untouched but blended them in the ratio of about 1 to 3.”
The results of this blend of militarized SS police and “savage peoples” will be seen in the evidence which I shall later introduce relating to extermination actions conducted by them in the Eastern Territories—exterminations which were so eminently successful and ruthlessly conducted that even Himmler could find no words adequate for their eulogy.
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now for 10 minutes.
[A recess was taken.]
MAJOR FARR: Each of the various components which I have described played its part in carrying out one or more functions of the SS. The personnel composing each differed. Some were part-time volunteers; others professionals enlisted for different periods of time. But every branch, every department, every member, was an integral part of the whole organization. Each performed his assigned role in the manifold tasks for which the organization had been created. No better witness to this fact could be called upon than the Reichsführer SS whose every endeavor was to insure the complete unity of the organization. I quote his words, taken from his Posen speech, our Document 1919-PS, Exhibit Number USA-170. I read from Page 103 of the original, third line from the bottom of the page, from the English translation, Page 8:
“It would be an evil day if the main offices, in performing their tasks with the best, but mistaken, intentions made themselves independent by each having a downward chain of command. I really think that the day of my overthrow would be the end of the SS. It must be, and so come about, that this SS organization with all its branches—the General SS which is the common basis of all of them, the Waffen-SS, the regular uniformed police, the Sipo, with the whole economic administration, schooling, ideological training, the whole question of kindred is, even under the 10th Reichsführer SS, one bloc, one body, one organization.”
And continuing about the middle of Page 8 of the translation and at the bottom of Page 104 of the original speech:
“The regular uniformed police and Sipo, General SS and Waffen-SS, must now gradually amalgamate, too, just as this is and must be the case within the Waffen-SS. This applies to matters concerning filling of posts, recruiting, schooling, economic organization, and medical services. I am always doing something towards this end, a bond is constantly being drawn around these sections of the whole to cause them to grow together. Alas, if these bonds should ever be loosened, then everything—you may be sure of this—would sink back quickly into its old insignificance within one generation.”
I now turn to the underlying philosophy of the SS, the principles by which its members were selected and the obligations imposed upon them. To understand this organization the theories upon which it was based must be kept clearly in mind. They furnish the key to all its activities. It is necessary, therefore, to consider them in some detail.
The fundamental principle of selection was what Himmler called that of blood and elite. The SS was to be the living embodiment of the Nazi doctrine of the superiority of Nordic blood—the carrying into effect of the Nazi conception of a master race. To put it in Himmler’s own words the SS was to be a “National Socialist Soldier Order of Nordic Men.” In describing to the Wehrmacht the reasons behind his emphasis on racial standards of selection and the manner in which they were carried out he said—and I quote from our Document 1992(a)-PS, Page 1 of the translation, last paragraph, Page 138, Paragraph 1 of the original:
“Accordingly, only good blood, blood which history has proved to be leading and creative and the foundation of every state and of all military activities, only Nordic blood, can be considered. I said to myself that should I succeed in selecting from the German people for this organization as many people as possible, a majority of whom possess this desired blood, in teaching them military discipline and, in time, the understanding of the value of blood and the entire ideology which results from it, then it will be possible actually to create such an elite organization which would successfully hold its own in all cases of emergency.”
Further on, on Page 5 of the translation—I beg your pardon, on Page 4 of the translation, first line, Page 140 of the original, bottom paragraph, he says, referring to the method by which applicants were selected:
“They are very thoroughly examined and checked. Of 100 men we can use on the average 10 or 15, no more. We ask for the political record of his parents, brothers and sisters, the record of his ancestry as far back as 1750, and naturally the physical examination and his record from the Hitler Youth. Further, we ask for a eugenic record showing that no hereditary disease exists in his parents and in his family.”
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t seem to get the point of this. We have already been told that the SS was a corps d’elite, and all this is showing the details of the choice.
MAJOR FARR: That is correct; it is showing the details of the choice.
THE PRESIDENT: But that has nothing to do with its being a criminal organization, has it?
MAJOR FARR: I think it has, Your Honor. I want to make again, if I may, two points. The very essence of this organization was that of race. Its racial standards of selection had two purposes: One, making it an organization which would be an aristocracy not only for Germany, but which would be in a position to dominate all of Europe. For that purpose, not only were strict racial standards imposed for selection, but a great drive was made to perpetuate the SS stock, to build up a group of men who would be in a position to take over Europe when it was conquered.
There was nothing questionable about that aim. Himmler explicitly said time and time again: “What we are after is making ourselves the superclass which will be able to dominate Europe for centuries.” That was one of the fundamental purposes of the SS, and it was a purpose which was not kept by Himmler to himself, but a purpose which was explained and publicly announced again and again.
THE PRESIDENT: You haven’t yet shown us where it was announced, have you?
MAJOR FARR: I have not, Sir, and I am coming to that very shortly; but I wanted first to show Your Honor what the racial basis of selection was. That is, one aspect of the racial selective process. The second is this: The negative side of the racism. Not only did Himmler intend to build up an elite which would be able to take over Europe, but he indoctrinated that elite with hatred for all “inferior,” to use his word, races.
Now, I think unless it is clearly understood that that is the basis of the SS, we cannot understand the organization. I am quite prepared, if the Tribunal desires, not to go further into a discussion of the detail of the process of selection. I do think it important that I quote Himmler’s own statement—what his aims were. And also I quote to the Tribunal the publicly announced basis for selection.
With the Tribunal’s permission then, I would like to quote one passage from the Organization Book for the Nazi Party, which explains the racial basis on which the SS was founded. That is our Document Number 2640-PS, which has already been introduced in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-323. I quote from Page 417 of the German text and from Page 1 of the translation, fourth paragraph, entitled “Selection of Members.” And I quote this because this is not a hidden pronouncement. This is what the official Nazi Party publication said the SS was:
“Selection of members.
“For the fulfillment of these missions a homogeneous, firmly welded fighting force has been created, bound by ideological oaths, whose fighters are selected out of the best Aryan humanity.
“The conception of the value of the blood and soil serves as directive for the selection into the SS. Every SS man must be deeply imbued with the sense and essence of the National Socialist movement. He will be ideologically and physically trained so that he can be employed individually or in groups in the decisive battle for the National Socialist ideology.
“Only the best and thoroughbred Germans are suited for commitment in this battle. Therefore it is necessary that an uninterrupted selection is maintained within the ranks of the SS, first roughly, then with more and more scrutiny.”
Now I would like to proceed to quote a paragraph on the same page, three paragraphs down, with respect to obedience. It appears on Page 418 of the original, second paragraph. I quote:
“Obedience is unconditionally demanded. It arises from the conviction that the National Socialist ideology must reign. He who possesses it and passionately supports it, submits himself voluntarily to the compulsion of obedience. Therefore, the SS man is prepared to carry out blindly every order which comes from the Führer or is given by one of his superiors even if it demands the greatest sacrifice of himself.”
There are stated the two fundamental principles of the SS: (1) racial selection, (2) blind obedience.
Now, let me state what Himmler conceived that this organization was to be used for. I quote from his address to the officers of the SS Leibstandarte “Adolf Hitler” on the Day of Metz, our Document Number 1918-PS, Exhibit Number USA-304. I quote from Page 12 of the original document, the middle of the page, from the translation Page 3, last paragraph. I will begin the translation with the third sentence of that paragraph:
“The ultimate aim for these 11 years during which I have been the Reichsführer SS has invariably been the same: To create an order of good blood which is able to serve Germany, which unfailingly and without sparing itself can be made use of because the greatest losses can do no harm to the vitality of this order, the vitality of these men, because they will always be replaced; to create an order which will spread the idea of Nordic blood so far that we will attract all Nordic blood in the world, take away the blood from our adversaries, absorb it so that never again—looking at it from the viewpoint of the grand policy—will Nordic Germanic blood in great quantities and to an extent worth mentioning fight against us. We must get it and the others cannot have it. We never gave up the ideas and the aim conceived so many years ago. Everything we have done has taken us some distance further on the way. Everything we are going to do will lead us further on the way.”
Now, one further quotation from the same document, which shows very explicitly why there was the building up of this order of Nordic blood, appears on Page 3 of the translation, the same document from which I have just quoted, about the middle of the first paragraph. It appears on Page 11 of the original speech, about the middle of the page. That is the speech to the officers of the SS Leibstandarte “Adolf Hitler”:
“Please understand we would not be able to hold the great Germanic Reich which is about to take shape. I am convinced that we can hold it, but we have to prepare for that. If once we have not enough sons, those who come after us will have to become cowards. A nation which has an average of four sons per family can venture a war; if two of them die, two transmit the name. The leadership of a nation having one or two sons per family will have to be faint-hearted in any decision, on account of their own experience, because they will have to tell themselves: We cannot afford it. Look at France, which is the best example. France had to have her line of action dictated by us.”
Domination of Europe through a Nazi elite required more, however, than a positive side of racism . . .
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Is that one of the crimes you allege, domination of Europe through an elite?
MAJOR FARR: One of the crimes alleged is a conspiracy to dominate Europe, preparation for aggressive war, leading to the ultimate colonization of Europe for the benefit of the conspirators. One of the instruments, we submit, used for carrying out that policy was the SS. The conspirators began at the very beginning the creation of the SS, to build it up so that it would be the elite through which Germany would be able to dominate and rule the conquered territories.
We think that this conception of the SS has played a vital part in the conspiracy. It has bearing on the whole program of the conspirators. Now, this certainly, in itself . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but, Major Farr, what you have to show is not the criminality of the people who used the weapon but the criminality of the people who composed the weapon.
MAJOR FARR: I think I have to show two things, certainly the criminality of the persons who composed the weapons, but it seems to me I must also show that that weapon played a part in the conspiracy because the Indictment alleges . . .
THE PRESIDENT: I should have thought you had shown that over and over again, that the SS were a part of the weapon. If there was a criminal conspiracy, then the SS were one of the weapons which were used by the conspirators. But what you have got to show in this part of the case is that the persons who formed that weapon were criminal and knew of the criminal objects of the SS.
MAJOR FARR: I quite agree I have to show that. I suppose I have to show, before showing that the persons involved knew of the criminal aims of the organization, what those criminal aims were. I was simply attempting to show the Tribunal that one of those aims which I submit as criminal was a plan to dominate Europe, and that the SS was one of the means by which that was to be done.
Now, this is just one aspect of the SS criminality. I am quite ready not to proceed any further with the point if the Court already has the point, and thinks that the evidence of that aspect of its criminality is sufficient. I certainly do not want to labor the point too hard.
I now proceed further with the point as to the building up of the SS as a racial elite to take over; but I do think one other thing is important, and that is the negative side of that racism: the hatred for other races. And Himmler made some very striking points along that line as to what the SS was to be taught. I quote from his Posen speech, that is, our Document 1919-PS. The passage in question appears on Page 23 of the original speech, middle of the page, and will be found on Page 1 of the English translation, third paragraph. I quote:
“One basic principle must be the absolute rule for the SS man. We must be honest, decent, loyal, and comradely to members of our own blood and to nobody else. What happens to a Russian, to a Czech, does not interest me in the slightest.”
The next few sentences from that same paragraph have already been read into evidence, and I shall not repeat them. But I do want to quote, in the same paragraph, the conclusion that Himmler draws from what he just said. This sentence is about seven lines from the bottom of the paragraph, beginning:
“That is what I want to instill into this SS and what I believe I have instilled in them as one of the most sacred laws of the future.”
Now these principles—that is, the conception of being an elite which was to take over Europe and the conception of hatred towards inferior races, which was instilled in the SS—these were principles which were publicly reiterated over and over again so that the newest recruit was thoroughly steeped in them.
I quote from Himmler’s Kharkov speech, which appears in the same Document 1919-PS.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Can’t you just give us the meaning of the speech without quoting from it; can you just refer to it?
MAJOR FARR: I will be very glad to do that, if the Court will take judicial notice of it. I will refer you to the passage I have in mind. The passage in question appears on Page 14 of the translation, about 15 lines from the bottom of the page; it appears on Page 17 of the original, at about the middle of the page.
In that passage, after having talked at great length about the racial struggle, Himmler tells his commanding officers—and he is making this speech to the commanding officers of three divisions of the Waffen-SS—he tells his officers that the thing which he wants so thoroughly instilled into every recruit in the organization that he becomes saturated with it, is the necessity of the SS standing firm and carrying on the racial struggle without mercy.
On the same point one further quotation—if the Tribunal will bear with me—and I think this is important because this, again, is a public quotation, found in the Organization Book of the Party. That is our Document Number 2640-PS. It is a very short passage, appearing on Page 418 of the original and Page 1 of the English translation, the third paragraph from the end of the page in the translation:
“He openly and unrelentingly fights the most dangerous enemies of the State: Jews, Freemasons, Jesuits, and political clergymen.”
Now these were the fundamental principles of the SS: racial superiority and blind obedience. A necessary corollary of these two principles was ruthlessness. The evidence that we will introduce on these activities will show how successfully the SS learned the lesson it was taught.
The SS had to, and did, develop a reputation for terror which was carefully cultivated. Himmler himself publicly attested it as early as 1936 in his pamphlet, The SS as an Anti-Bolshevist Fighting Organization, our Document 1851-PS, which has already been introduced into evidence as Exhibit Number USA-440. I quote two sentences which appear at Page 29 of the original pamphlet and on Page 4 of the translation, the first two sentences:
“I know that there are some people in Germany who become sick when they see these black coats. We understand the reason for this and do not expect that we shall be loved by too many.”
The role which the SS was required to play demanded that it remain constantly the essence of Nazism and that its elite quality should never be diluted.
As evidence that even in 1943 the SS standards were still being maintained, I offer in evidence a letter written to the Defendant Kaltenbrunner by Himmler. This letter is our Document Number 2768-PS. It is a letter from the Reichsführer SS, written at his field command post and bearing the date 24 April 1943. I offer it as Exhibit Number USA-447. I quote from the first paragraph of that letter:
“Referring again to the matter which we discussed some time ago—that is, the admission of Sipo officials into the SS—I wish to clarify again: I want an admission only if the following conditions, are fulfilled:
“1. If the man applies freely and voluntarily;
“2. If, by applying strict and peace-time standards, the applicant fits racially and ideologically into the SS, guarantees according to the number of his children a really healthy SS stock, and is neither ill, degenerate, nor worthless.”
Then, continuing with the third paragraph:
“I beg you not only to act accordingly in the future, but especially also that numerous admissions into the ranks of the SS in the past be re-examined and revised according to these instructions.”
Now I have appended this to indicate to the Tribunal the normal manner in which a man became a member of the SS. That is discussed by Himmler in our Document 1992(a)-PS, at Page 142 of the original and Page 5 of the translation. If the Court thinks that it can take judicial notice of that passage, I shall not venture to read it. What it does is to describe how a young man comes into the SS normally, at the age of 18, serves an apprenticeship and receives his instructions in SS ideology, takes the SS oath, receives the SS dagger, and how long he remains in the General SS. I will not venture to read that paragraph, since I assume that the Court will take judicial notice of it.
I do think it may be worth quoting the very brief oath which the SS man takes. That oath is quoted in the Waffen-SS recruiting pamphlet, entitled The SS Calls You, our Document Number 3429-PS, which I offer in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-446. The oath appears on Page 18 of that pamphlet, and on Page 2 of the translation, in the middle of the page. I quote the oath:
“The Oath of the SS Man:
“I swear to you, Adolf Hitler, as Führer and Reich Chancellor, loyalty and bravery; I vow to you, and to those you have named to command me, obedience unto death, so help me God.”
I turn now to a consideration of the activities of the SS, the manner in which it carried out the purposes of the conspirators and performed its function of guarding the internal security of the Nazi regime. The proof of the elite Nazi quality and thorough reliability of the SS—the test by which it won its spurs—occurred on June 30, 1934, when it participated in the purge of the SA and other opponents or potential opponents of the Nazi regime. That was the first real occasion for the use of this specialized organization which could operate with the blessing of the Nazi State, but outside the law.
I offer in evidence an affidavit by the Defendant Wilhelm Frick, signed and sworn to here in Nuremberg on 19 November 1945. It is our Document Number 2950-PS. I offer it as Exhibit Number USA-448. I shall quote a portion of that affidavit, beginning about the middle of the first paragraph of the affidavit, the 10th line in the original. I quote:
“Many people were killed—I don’t know how many—who actually did not have anything to do with the Putsch. People who just weren’t liked very well were killed, as for instance, Schleicher, the former Reich Chancellor. Schleicher’s wife was also killed; as was Gregor Strasser, who had been the Reichsleiter and second man in the Party after Hitler. Strasser, at the time he was murdered, was not active in political affairs any more. However, he was against the Führer in the elections of November 1932. The SS was used by Himmler for the execution of these orders to suppress the Putsch.”
It was in recognition of its services in this respect that the SS was elevated to the status of being a component of the Party equal in rank to the SA, and other similar ranking. I ask the Court to take judicial notice of a passage which appears on Page 1 of the Völkischer Beobachter of July 26, 1934. It is our Document Number 1857-PS, Exhibit USA-412. I shall read the translation of that passage, which is very brief:
“The Reich Press office of the NSDAP announces the following order of the Führer:
“In consideration of the great meritorious service of the SS, especially in connection with the events of 30 June 1934, I elevate it to the standing of an independent organization within the NSDAP. The Reichsführer SS, like the Chief of Staff, is, therefore, directly subordinate to the highest SA leader.”
By its action on June 30th, the SS proved itself. It was, therefore, the type of organization which the conspirators wanted for the first necessary step in their program, the acquisition of control over the police, because one of the first steps essential to the security of any regime is control of the police. The aim of the conspirators was to fuse the SS and the police; to merge them into a single, unified, repressive force.
I turn now to the consideration of the development whereby the SS and the police became intermingled. Shortly after the seizure of power the conspirators began to develop, as a part of the State machinery, secret political police forces, originating in Prussia in the Gestapo established by decree of the Defendant Göring in 1933; and this development will be dealt with in the case against the Gestapo. By 1934 the Reichsführer SS had become the chief of these secret political police forces in all the states of Germany except Prussia, and deputy chief of the Prussian Gestapo. In that capacity he infiltrated these forces with members of the SS until a virtual identity of membership of the SS and the Gestapo was achieved.
On 17 June 1936, by the “Decree on the Establishment of a Chief of the German Police,” published in the Reichsgesetzblatt for 1936, Part I, Pages 487 and 488, our Document Number 2073-PS, of which I assume the Court will take judicial notice, the new post of Chief of the German Police was created in the Ministry of the Interior. Under the terms of the decree Himmler was appointed to this post with the title of “Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police in the Ministry of the Interior.”
The combination of these two positions, that of leadership of the SS and head of all the police forces in the Reich, was no accident but was intended to establish a permanent relation between the two bodies and not a mere transitory fusion of personnel. The significance of this combination of these two positions was referred to by Hitler in his secret order of 17 August 1938 on the organization and mobilization of the SS, our Document Number 647-PS, which I introduce in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-443 and from which I will now quote just the preamble, which will be found on the first page of our Document Number 647-PS and at the beginning of the original order. I quote:
“By means of the nomination of the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police in the Ministry of the Interior on June 17, 1936 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, Page 487), I have created the basis for the unification and reorganization of the German Police. With this step the Schutzstaffeln of the NSDAP, which were under the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police even up to now, have entered into close connection with the duties of the German Police.”
Upon his appointment Himmler immediately proceeded to reorganize the entire police force, designating two separate branches: (1) The regular uniformed police force (Ordnungspolizei, or Orpo, as they were called by their abbreviated title); and (2) the so-called Security Police, or as they came to be known by their abbreviated title, Sipo. The Security Police was composed of all the criminal police in the Reich and all the Gestapo. This reorganization was achieved by the decree assigning functions to the Office of the Chief of the German Police, published in the Reichsministerialblatt for 1936, Pages 946-948, our Document Number 1551-PS. Of that decree I assume the Court will take judicial notice.
To be head of the Sipo, that is, of the Criminal Police and the Gestapo, Himmler appointed Reinhard Heydrich, who was at that time the Chief of the SD, the SS intelligence agency to which I have already referred. Thus, through Himmler’s dual capacity as Reichsführer SS, and as Chief of the German Police, and through Heydrich’s dual capacity as head of the SD and of the Security Police, a unified personal command of the SS and Security Police Forces was achieved.
But further steps towards unification were taken. In 1939 the Security Police and the SD, which up to that time was only an agency of the SS, were both combined in a single department: the Reich Security Main Office, commonly referred to as RSHA. An important point to be observed is this: This newly created department, RSHA, was not a mere department of the Government. It was a dual thing. It was simultaneously an agency of the Government, organizationally placed in the Ministry of the Interior, and at the same time, one of the principal departments of the SS, organizationally placed in the Supreme Command of the SS. This division in the SS is shown by the chart before you; RSHA being indicated by the sixth block from the left of the chart. But it was not merely the Gestapo and Criminal Police which came under the sway of the SS; the regular uniformed police as well were affected. Like the RSHA, the department of the Regular Police (the Ordnungspolizei) was also not merely a department in the Ministry of the Interior, but also simultaneously in the Supreme Command of the SS. Its position in the SS is indicated by the seventh block on the chart, on the left.
Now this unity of command between SS and Police was not a mere matter of the highest headquarters. It extended down to the operating level. The Court will observe from the chart that the Higher SS and Police Leader in each region, who was directly subordinate to Himmler, had under his command both the Security Police (Sipo) and the regular uniformed police (Ordnungspolizei); and also that these forces, Sipo and Orpo, were not only under command of the Higher SS and Police Leader, but as indicated by the blue line, were also under command of the RSHA, and the Department of the Ordnungspolizei, and the SS. Thus you have organizationally a unity of command over the SS and the police. This organization was not the only way by which unity was achieved. Unity of personnel was also achieved. Vacancies occurring in the police forces were filled by SS members. Police officials who were in the force were able to join the SS; and schools were operated by the SS for the police, as well as for the SS officials.
These measures are described in Himmler’s article “Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police,” our Document Number 1992(a)-PS. They are also described in an authoritative book on the police, entitled The German Police, the book published in 1940, written by Dr. Werner Best, a ministerial director in the Ministry of the Interior, and a department head in the Security Police. It bears on its fly-leaf the imprimatur of the Nazi Party, and the book is listed in the official list of National Socialist bibliography. Chapter 7 from that book is our Document Number 1852-PS. I offer this book in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-449.
Through this unity of organization and personnel, the SS and the police became identified in structure and in activity. The resulting situation was described in Best’s book, which I have just offered in evidence, our Document Number 1852-PS, as follows. I quote from Page 7 of that document, Paragraph 5; from the original book, Page 95, Paragraph 3:
“Thus the SS and the police form one unit, both in their structure and in their activity, although their individual organizations have not lost their true individuality and their position in the larger units of the Party and State administration which are concerned with other points of view.”
Through the police, the SS was in a position to carry out a large part of the functions assigned to it. The working partnership between the Gestapo, the Criminal Police, and the SD under the direction of the Reichsführer SS resulted in the end in repressive and unrestained police activity. That will be dealt with in the case against the Gestapo. In considering that evidence, the Tribunal will bear in mind that the police activities there shown were one aspect of SS functions, one part of the whole criminal SS scheme. I shall not, therefore, consider here evidence relating strictly to the police functions of the SS.
Control over the police was not enough. Potential sources of opposition could be tracked down by the SD. Suspects could be seized by the Criminal Police and the Gestapo, but these means alone would not assure the complete suppression of all opponents and potential opponents of the regime. For this purpose concentration camps were invented. The evidence already presented to the Tribunal has shown what the concentration camp system involved, and the end result of that system was graphically illustrated in the moving pictures displayed about 10 days ago. The responsibility of the SS in that system is a topic to which I now turn.
The first requirement for the camps was guard and administrative personnel. Part-time volunteer members of the Allgemeine SS were originally utilized as guards; but part-time volunteers could not adequately serve the needs of the extensive and long-range program that was planned. So beginning in 1933 full-time professional guards units, the Death’s-Head Units, which I have already described, were organized. During the war, members of the General SS resumed the function of guarding camps, which they had initially undertaken when the camps were created. The Tribunal will recall the provisions of the Hitler order which I read a few moments ago, directing the substitution of General SS members to the Death’s-Head Units in the event of mobilization. It is unnecessary to repeat the evidence of wholesale brutality, torture, and murder committed by SS guards. They were not the sporadic crimes committed by irresponsible individuals but a part of a definite and calculated policy, a policy necessarily resulting from SS philosophy, a policy which was carried out from the initial creation of the camps.
Himmler bluntly stated the SS view as to the inmates of the camps in his article, “Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police,” Exhibit Number USA-439, our Document 1992(a)-PS. I quote from Page 7 of the translation, last paragraph; from Page 148 of the original, third paragraph:
“It would be extremely instructive for everyone—to some members of the Wehrmacht I could give the opportunity—to inspect such a concentration camp. Once you have seen it, you are convinced of the fact that no one has been sent there unjustly; that it is the offal of criminals and freaks. No better demonstration of the laws of inheritance and race, as set forth by Dr. Guett, exists than such a concentration camp. There you can find people with hydrocephalus, people who are cross-eyed, deformed, half Jewish, and a number of racially inferior products. All that is assembled there. Of course, we distinguish between those inmates who are only there for a few months for the purpose of education and those who are to stay for a long time. On the whole, education consists only of discipline, never of any kind of instruction on an ideological basis, for the prisoners have, for the most part, slave-like souls and only very few people of real character can be found there.”
Then, omitting the next two sentences, he continues with this striking remark:
“Education thus means order. The order begins with these people living in clean barracks. Such a thing can really be accomplished only by Germans; hardly another nation would be as humane as we are. The laundry is frequently changed. The people are taught to wash themselves twice daily and to use a toothbrush, a thing with which most of them have been unfamiliar.”
Having heard the evidence and seen the pictures as to conditions in concentration camps, this Tribunal can appreciate how grim and savage that callous jest was. He made no such pretense in his speech to his own Gruppenführer at Posen, our Document 1919-PS, Exhibit Number USA-170. I quote from Page 43 of the original, last paragraph; from Page 2 of the translation, the first full paragraph.
“I don’t believe the Communists could attempt any action, for their leading elements, like most criminals, are in our concentration camps. And here I must say this: We shall be able to see after the war what a blessing it was for Germany that, in spite of all the silly talk about humanitarianism, we imprisoned all this criminal sub-stratum of the German people in concentration camps. I’ll answer for that.”
But he is not here to answer.
Certainly there was no “silly humanitarianism” in the manner in which SS men performed their tasks. Just as an illustration, I should like to examine their conduct, not in 1944 or 1945, but 1933. I have four reports relating to the deaths of four different inmates of the concentration camp Dachau between May 16 and May 27, 1933. Each report is signed by the Public Prosecutor of the District Court in Munich and is addressed to the Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court in Munich. These four reports show that during that 2-week period in 1933, at the time when the concentration camps had barely started, that SS men had murdered—a different guard each time—an inmate of the camp.
Now I don’t want to take the time of the Tribunal to read that evidence if it feels that it is a minor point. The significance of it is this: It is just an illustration of the sort of thing that happened in the concentration camps at the earliest possible date, in 1933. I am prepared to offer those four reports in evidence and to quote from them, if the Tribunal thinks that the point is not too insignificant.
THE PRESIDENT: Where are they?
MAJOR FARR: They are right here. I will offer them in evidence. The first is our Document Number 641-PS. It is a report dated 1 June 1933 and relates the death of Dr. Alfred Strauss, a prisoner in protective custody in Dachau. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-450. I shall read a few paragraphs from that report, beginning with Paragraph 1:
“On May 24, 1933, the 30-year-old, single, attorney-at-law, Dr. Alfred Strauss from Munich, who was in the concentration camp Dachau as a prisoner under protective custody, was killed by two pistol shots from SS Man Johann Kantschuster who escorted him on a walk, prescribed for him by the camp doctor, outside the fenced part of the camp.
“Kantschuster gives the following report: He himself had to urinate; Strauss proceeded on his way. Suddenly Strauss broke away towards the bushes located at a distance of about 6 meters from the line. When Kantschuster noticed it, he fired two shots at the fugitive from a distance of about 8 meters; whereupon Strauss collapsed dead.
“On the same day, May 24, 1933, a judicial inspection of the locality took place. The corpse of Strauss was lying at the edge of the wood. Leather slippers were on his feet. He wore a sock on one foot, while the other foot was bare, obviously because of an injury to this foot. Subsequently an autopsy was performed. Two bullets had entered the back of the head. Besides, the body showed several black and blue spots and also open wounds.”
Skipping now to the last paragraph of the report:
“I have charged Kantschuster today with murder and have made application for the opening and execution of a judicial preliminary investigation as well as for the issuance of a warrant of arrest against him.”
That is the first of the four reports. The significance is that you have, one after the other, murders committed within a short space of time. And, in each instance, an official report by the camp commander or the guard as to the cause of death which was completely disproved by the facts.
The second report, a report dated 1 June 1933, relates to the death of Leonhard Hausmann, another prisoner in Dachau. It is our Document 642-PS and I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-451.
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think you need read the details.
MAJOR FARR: I will offer it without reading it.
The third report which I shall offer is dated 22 May 1933. It relates to the death of Louis Schloss, an inmate of Dachau, and is our Document 644-PS. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-452.
The fourth document, our Number 645-PS, dated 1 June 1933, relates to the death of Sebastian Nefzger, another Dachau prisoner. I offer this in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-453.
These four murders committed within the short space of 2 weeks in the spring of 1933, each by different SS guards, are but a few examples of SS activities in the camps at that very early date. Many similar examples from that period and later periods could be produced.
Indeed, that sort of thing was officially encouraged. I call the Tribunal’s attention to the disciplinary Regulation for the Dachau Concentration Camp, our Document 778-PS, which has already been introduced in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-247. I want to read the fourth paragraph of the introduction to those rules, a passage which was not read when the document was originally introduced. The fourth paragraph on the first page of the translation and of the original is as follows:
“Tolerance means weakness. In the light of this conception, punishment will be mercilessly handed out whenever the interests of the Fatherland warrant it. The fellow countryman who is decent but misled will never be affected by these regulations. But let it be a warning to the agitating politicians and intellectual provocateurs, regardless of which kind: Be on guard not to be caught, for otherwise it will be your neck and you will be silenced according to your own methods.”
Those regulations were issued in 1933 by SS Führer Eicke, who, it is to be noted, was the commandant of the SS Totenkopf Verbände.
Furnishing guard and administrative personnel was not the only function of the SS with relation to the camps. The entire internal management of the camps, including the use of prisoners, their housing, clothing, sanitary conditions, the determination of their very right to live, and the disposal of their remains, was controlled by the SS. Such management was first vested in the Leader of the SS Death’s-Head Units who had the title of Inspector of Concentration Camps. This official was originally in the SS Hauptamt—represented on the chart by the second box from the left.
During the course of the war, in March 1942, control of concentration camps was transferred to another of the departments of the SS Supreme Command, the SS Economic and Administration Department, commonly known as WVHA. That department is indicated on the chart by the 3rd box from the left. And the Court will note under the top box the breakdown “Concentration Camps” which in turn is broken down into “Prison,” “Labor,” “Medical,” and “Administration.”
That change was announced in a letter to Himmler, dated 30 April 1942, from the Chief of WVHA. The letter is our Document Number R-129 and it has already been received in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-217. I shall not quote from that letter now.
This shift of control to WVHA, the economic department of the SS, coincided with a change in the basic purposes of the concentration camps. Political and security reasons, which previously had been the ground for confinement, were abandoned; and the camps were frankly made to serve the slave-labor program. The Tribunal will recall the evidence relating to that program which was presented last week by Mr. Dodd. I shall not deal at any length with the matter again, except to summarize the principal facts bearing on SS responsibility which were demonstrated by that evidence.
To satisfy the increased demands for manpower it was not enough to work the inmates of the camp harder. More inmates had to be obtained. The SS, through its police arm, was prepared to satisfy this demand, as through the WVHA it was prepared to work those who were already in the camp.
THE PRESIDENT: Have you got any figures you can give the Tribunal as to the total numbers in the SS and the total numbers who were employed on concentration camps? If you gave us the total number of the SS and the total number employed in concentration camps, we should see what the proportion was.
MAJOR FARR: I think I can only give you these figures: I earlier quoted some figures from D’Alquen in his book published in 1939, in which he said that the total strength of the General SS was about 240,000. That is the General SS, which was not at that time engaged in the guarding of concentration camps. The Totenkopf Verbände (the Death’s-Head Units) at that time consisted of some three or four regiments at the most. They were the guards; so that of the personnel who were employed in actual guard duty there were, in 1939, about three or four regiments.
The Court will recall that after the war had started, the Totenkopf Verbände were no longer employed in that duty and that the members of the General SS took it up. How many were employed is something that is difficult to estimate. The concentration camp program was constantly expanding; and of course, as more camps were added more personnel was needed. I can’t give the Tribunal figures on the number of persons involved in guarding the camps, but one of the matters I think significant is this: We have not only guards, we have administrative personnel; we have the whole of the WVHA which, as I want to show by evidence, had complete control of the management of the concentration camps. The members of the staff office, WVHA, were derived from the General SS; so you have on the one hand the guard personnel, Death’s-Head Units up to 1939, and then you have after 1939 more guards from the Allgemeine SS. You have, after 1939, more guards from the General SS and also administrative personnel from WVHA.
I do not have figures on how many persons were engaged in one or another phase of the concentration camp activities. You have, of course, the SD and Security Police involved in it, insofar as they went out and seized victims. You have WVHA, the entire administrative personnel of that section involved in it, insofar as they handled administrative matters.
Some conception of the number of persons who must have been engaged in the activity may be gained from noting the number of persons involved in a camp. I have a document, a report by WVHA in August 1944, which reports the number of prisoners who were then on hand in the camps and the new arrivals who were expected. That document is our Document Number 1166-PS, which I will now offer in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-458.
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think we had better go into that tonight. What will you be dealing with tomorrow?
MAJOR FARR: Tomorrow, Sir, I intend to offer evidence showing how WVHA and other SS personnel were involved in the control of every phase of the concentration camp program. That is the first thing. The second thing is to point out the role that the SS played in the persecution of the Jews and their extermination; not with a view to repeating the substantive evidence to show that such acts took place, but to show how many components, how many parts, of the organization were involved in that program.
Then I shall consider the role of the SS with respect to preparations for aggressive war and the Crimes against Peace—a relatively brief discussion—and then pass on to the role that the SS played in War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, set out in Counts Three and Four of the Indictment; and finally, the role of the SS in the colonization program.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonization?
MAJOR FARR: That may be an unfortunate word. Perhaps I should have said Germanization program, a program of resettlement, evacuation, colonization, and exploitation of the conquered territories.
Those, I think, are the four main functions of the SS which remain to be considered; and I shall endeavor not to go again into the substantive crimes which have already been shown to the Tribunal, but to try to show how almost every department—in fact, every department of the SS and every component—was involved in one or more—and mostly more—of these crimes.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal hopes that you will be able to confine yourself to the reading of evidence which is not cumulative.
MAJOR FARR: I have that in mind and I don’t intend to do that except to show the figures and components of the SS which were involved in various programs.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.