“High-ranking Nazis with whom I had to maintain official contact, particularly men such as Göring, Goebbels, Ley, Frick, Frank, Darré, and others repeatedly scoffed at my position as to the binding character of treaties and openly stated to me that Germany would observe her international undertakings only so long as it suited Germany’s interests to do so.”
In May 1935, by his appointment as Plenipotentiary General for the administration of the Reich, Frick became one of the big three in charge of preparing Germany for war. The other two members of the triumvirate were the Chief of the OKW and the Plenipotentiary General for War Economy, at that time the Defendant Schacht. Frick has admitted that he held the position of Plenipotentiary General since 21 May 1935, the date of the original secret Reich Defense Law. I refer to his statement of positions, Document 2978-PS, Exhibit Number USA-8.
His functions as Plenipotentiary General are outlined in the Reich Defense Law of 4 September 1938, which was classified top military secret and appears in our document book as 2194-PS, Exhibit Number USA-36. Under this law of 1938, Paragraph 3, tremendous power was concentrated in the hands of Frick as Plenipotentiary General for Administration. In addition to the offices under his supervision as Minister of the Interior, the law made the following offices subordinate to Frick for the purpose of carrying out the directives of the law: Reich Minister of Justice, Reich Minister of Education, Reich Minister for Religious Matters, and the Reich Minister for Planning.
Frick admitted the significant part he played in the preparations for war as a member of the triumvirate in a speech made on 7 March 1940 at the University of Freiburg. Excerpts appear in the document book as Document Number 2608-PS, which I offer in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-714. I think it would be helpful if the Tribunal would allow me to read two short paragraphs, beginning at the top of Page 1 of the English translation:
“The organization of the non-military national defense fits organically into the entire structure of the National Socialist Government and administration. This state of affairs is not exceptional, but a necessary and planned part of the National Socialist order. Thus, the conversion of our administration and economy to wartime conditions has been accomplished very quickly and without any friction—avoiding the otherwise very dangerous change of the entire structure of the State.
“The planned preparation of the administration for the possibility of a war has already been carried out during peacetime. For this purpose the Führer appointed a Plenipotentiary General for the Reich Administration and a Plenipotentiary General for War Economy.”
Many of Frick’s contributions to the preparation of the German State for war are outlined in detail in the book Dr. Wilhelm Frick and His Ministry, which is already in evidence as Document 3119-PS. May I quote two short sentences from the top of Page 3 of the English translation:
“Besides, the leading co-operation of the Reich Minister of the Interior in the important field of ‘military legislation,’ and thus in the establishment of our Armed Forces, has to be particularly emphasized. After all, the Reich Minister of the Interior is the civilian minister of the defense of the country, who in this capacity, together with the Reich War Minister, not only signed the military law of 21 May 1935 but, in his capacity as Supreme Chief of the General and Inner Administration as well as of the Police, has also received from the Führer and Reich Chancellor important powers in the fields of the recruitment system and of military supervision.”
I have previously mentioned that as Minister of the Interior Frick was responsible for the administrative policy in occupied and annexed territories. It was his ministry which introduced the new German order throughout the vast territory of Europe occupied by the German Armed Forces, and the Defendant Frick exercised these powers. I request that the Tribunal take judicial notice of three decrees signed by Frick, introducing German law into Austria, the Sudetenland, and the Government General of Poland respectively: