Having gone as far as they could on rearmament and the secret training of personnel, the next step necessary to the program for aggressive war was a large-scale increase in military strength. This could no longer be done under disguise and camouflage, and would have to be known to the world. Accordingly, on 16 March 1935, there was promulgated a law for universal military service, in violation of Article 173 of the Versailles Treaty.
I ask the Court to take judicial notice of that law as it appears in the Reichsgesetzblatt, which is the official compilation of laws, in the Title I of Volume I, yearly volume 1935, or Jahrgang, at Page 369 and I think I need not offer the book or the law in evidence.
The text of the law itself is very brief and I might read that. It is right at the end of the article. I should refer to that as our Document Number 1654-PS, so as to identify it:
“In this spirit the German Reich Cabinet has today passed the following law:
“Law for the Organization of the Armed Forces of March 16, 1935.
“The Reich Cabinet has passed the following law which is herewith promulgated:
“Paragraph 1. Service in the Armed Forces is based upon compulsory military duty.
“Paragraph 2. In peace time, the German Army, including the police troops transferred to it, is organized into 12 corps and 36 divisions.”—There is a typographical error in the English version of that. It says “16 divisions”, but the original German says 36 divisions.—
“Paragraph 3. The Reich Minister of War is charged with the duty of submitting immediately to the Reich Ministry detailed laws on compulsory military duty.”
Signed: “Berlin, 16 March 1935.”