MR. DODD: This witness would have been called at the time that we presented the other proof, except for the fact that he was before the military court at Dachau at that time and was not available.
THE PRESIDENT: I see; thank you.
LT. MELTZER: May it please the Tribunal, before we adjourned we were dealing with Defendant Funk’s role in the economic persecution of the Jews. As Your Honors will recall, in November of 1938 the death of Vom Rath in Paris was exploited by the Nazis as a pretext for intensifying the persecution of the Jews. The new policy was directed at the complete elimination of the Jews from the economic life of Germany. The evidence we will offer will show that Defendant Funk took a significant part in both the formulation and execution of that policy. In this connection I would refer the Tribunal to Document Number 1816-PS which is already in the Record. This document is a report of the meeting on the Jewish question. It will be found, Your Honor, on Page 52 of the document book. This meeting was held under Göring’s chairmanship on 12 November 1938. In opening the meeting, Defendant Göring stated—and I quote now from Page 1, Paragraph 1, of the translation; the corresponding page of the German document is also Page 1:
“. . . today’s meeting is of a decisive nature. I have received a letter written by the chief of staff of the Führer’s Deputy, Bormann, on the Führer’s orders directing that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, co-ordinated and solved one way or another.”
Defendant Funk came to this meeting well prepared. He had a law already drafted which he submitted with the following explanation—I quote again from Document 1816-PS, Page 15:
“I have prepared a law for this case which provides that as from 1 January 1939 Jews shall be prohibited from operating retail stores and mail-order establishments as well as independent workshops. They shall be further prohibited from hiring employees for that purpose or offering any goods on the market. Wherever a Jewish shop is operated, it is to be closed by the police. From 1 January 1939 a Jew can no longer operate a business in the sense of the law for the regulation of national labor of 20 January 1934.”
I believe we may omit the rest. It is all in the same tenor.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
LT. MELTZER: The substance of Defendant Funk’s draft law promptly found its way into the Reichsgesetzblatt. On 12 November 1938 Defendant Göring signed a decree entitled, and I quote, “. . . for the Elimination of Jews from German Economic Life,” and in Section 4 he authorized Defendant Funk to implement the provisions of the decree by issuing the necessary rules and regulations. An examination of the provisions of this decree, which is set forth in the Reichsgesetzblatt 1938, Part I, Page 1580, will reveal how well it deserved its title “. . . for the Elimination of the Jews from German Economic Life.”
Soon after the passage of the decree of 12 November, Defendant Funk delivered a speech on the Jewish question. He made it clear that the program of economic persecution was part of the larger program of extermination and he boasted of the fact that the new program insured the complete elimination of Jews from the German economy. I offer into evidence Document Number 3545-PS as Exhibit USA-659. This document, which is found on Page 76 of the document book, is a certified photostatic copy of Page 2 of the Frankfurter Zeitung of 17 November 1938. I quote a very brief portion of that speech: