“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.