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.”