Taking into consideration that among political leaders of Hitlerite Germany Hess was third in significance and played a decisive role in the crimes of the Nazi regime, I consider the only justified sentence in his case can be death.
V. Incorrect Judgment with regard to the Reich Cabinet
The Prosecution has posed before the Tribunal the question of declaring the Reich Cabinet a criminal organization. The verdict rejects the claim of the Prosecution, unfoundedly refusing to declare the Hitler Government a criminal organization.
With such a decision I cannot agree.
The Tribunal considers it proven that the Hitlerites have committed innumerable and monstrous crimes.
The Tribunal also considers it proven that these crimes were as a rule committed intentionally and on an organized scale, according to previously prepared plans and directives (“Plan Barbarossa”, “Night and Fog”, “Bullet”, etc.).
The Tribunal has declared criminal several of the Nazi mass organizations founded for the realization and putting into practice the plans of the Hitler Government.
In view of this it appears particularly untenable and rationally incorrect to refuse to declare the Reich Cabinet the directing organ of the State with a direct and active role in the working out of the criminal enterprises, a criminal organization. The members of this directing staff had great power, each headed an appropriate Government agency, each participated in preparing and realizing the Nazi program.
In confirmation it is deemed proper to cite several facts:
1. Immediately after the Nazi accession to power—on 24 March 1933—there was a law passed entitled “The Law of Defense of the People and the State” whereby the Reich Cabinet, besides the Reichstag, was empowered to enact new laws.