CAPT. SPRECHER: May it please the Tribunal, it is my responsibility and my privilege to present today the case on the individual responsibility of the Defendant Hans Fritzsche for Crimes against Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity as they relate directly to the Common Plan or Conspiracy.
With the permission of the Tribunal, it is planned to make this presentation in three principal divisions:
First, a short listing of the various positions held by the Defendant Fritzsche in the Nazi State.
Second, a discussion of Fritzsche’s conspiratorial activities within the Propaganda Ministry from 1933 through the attack on the Soviet Union.
Third, a discussion of Fritzsche’s connection, as a Nazi propagandist, to the atrocities and the ruthless occupation policy which formed a part of the Common Plan or Conspiracy.
In listing Fritzsche’s positions, it is not intended at first to describe the functions of these positions. Later on, in describing some of Fritzsche’s conspiratorial acts, I shall take up a discussion of some of these positions which he held.
Fritzsche’s Party membership and his various positions in the propaganda apparatus of the Nazi State are shown by two affidavits by Fritzsche himself: Document Number 2976-PS, which is already in evidence as Exhibit USA-20; and Document Number 3469-PS, which I offer in evidence as Exhibit USA-721. Both of these affidavits have been put into the four working languages of this Tribunal.
Fritzsche became a member of the Nazi Party on the 1st of May 1933, and he continued to be a member until the collapse in 1945. Fritzsche began his services with the staff of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, hereinafter referred to as the Propaganda Ministry, on the 1st of May 1933; and he remained within the Propaganda Ministry until the Nazi downfall.
Before the Nazis seized political power in Germany and beginning in September 1932, Fritzsche was head of the Wireless News Service (Drahtloser Dienst), an agency of the Reich Government at that time under the Defendant Von Papen. After the Wireless News Service was incorporated into the Propaganda Ministry of Dr. Goebbels in May 1933, Fritzsche continued as its head until the year 1938. Upon entering the Propaganda Ministry in May 1933, Fritzsche also became head of the news section of the Press Division of the Propaganda Ministry. He continued in this position until 1937. In the summer of 1938, Fritzsche was appointed deputy to one Alfred Ingemar Berndt, who was then head of the German Press Division.
The German Press Division, in the Indictment, is called the Home Press Division. Since “German Press Division” seems to be a more literal translation, we have called it the German Press Division throughout this presentation. It is sometimes otherwise known as the Domestic Press Division. We shall show later that this division was the major section of the Press Division of the Reich Cabinet.