“Very frequently the member of the Waffen-SS thinks about the deportation of these people here. These thoughts came to me today when watching the very difficult work out there performed by the Security Police, supported by your men, who help them a great deal. Exactly the same thing happened in Poland in weather 40 degrees below zero, where we had to haul away thousands, ten thousands, a hundred thousand; where we had to have the toughness—you should hear this but also forget it again—to shoot thousands of leading Poles.”
I repeat the latter statement:
“Where we had to have the toughness . . . to shoot thousands of leading Poles.”
Such Poles from the incorporated area as managed to survive the journey to the Government General could look forward, at best, to extreme hardship and exposure to every form of degradation and brutality. Your Honors will recall Defendant Frank’s statement contained in Document Number EC-344(16), now Exhibit Number USA-297, which was introduced a short while ago, that the Polish economy would be reduced to the absolute minimum necessary for the bare existence of the population.
Your Honors Will also recall Defendant Göring’s directive in Document Number EC-410, now Exhibit Number USA-298, also introduced a few moments ago, that all industrial enterprises in the Government General not absolutely necessary for the maintenance of the naked existence of the Polish population must be removed to Germany. A bare and naked existence, by the precepts of the conspirators, meant virtual starvation.
For the Jews who were forcibly deported to the Government General there was, of course, absolutely no hope. They were, in effect, deported to their graves. The Defendant Frank, by his own admissions, had dedicated himself to their complete annihilation. I refer Your Honors to the Frank diaries, conference volume, 1941, October to December, which is Document Number 2233(d)-PS, which was introduced by Major Walsh earlier as Exhibit Number USA-281. The particular statement that I want to quote appears on Page 4, Your Honor, of Document Number 2233-PS. I believe it appears at Page 77, lines 9 and 10 of the German text. I quote—this is what Defendant Frank stated, “We must annihilate the Jews, wherever we find them, and wherever it is possible. . . .”
I turn next to that aspect of the conspirators’ program which involved the forcible Germanization of persons in the incorporated area who were deemed to possess German blood. I refer you now, Your Honors, to the incorporated area, to persons who were deemed to possess German blood. Such persons, the evidence will show, were given the choice of the concentration camp or submission to Germanization. Himmler was the chief executioner of this program; and initially I should like to introduce a few documents which disclose the powers bestowed upon him and his conception of his task.
First, I offer in evidence Document Number 686-PS. This is Exhibit Number USA-305. This is a copy of a secret decree signed by Hitler and Defendants Göring and Keitel, dated 7 October 1939, entrusting Himmler with the task of executing the conspirators’ Germanization program. This particular document came from the ministerial collection center at Kassel, Germany. I quote from Page 1, lines 9 to 21 of the English text. In the German text these extracts appear at Page 1, lines 13 to 25:
“The Reichsführer SS”—that was Himmler—“has the obligation in accordance, with my directives: