Thus in those territories of the occupied countries where the SS followed in the footsteps of the aggressors’ troops, the peaceful population was abandoned to the arbitrary will of the specially trained and fierce representatives of the police forces of German fascism.
I shall take the liberty, while presenting the photostat of the document previously submitted to the Tribunal as Document Number 447-PS, to quote only one line of this document, which the Tribunal will find on Page 197 of the document book, fifth paragraph, after the heading, “The Region of the Operations.” It deals with the special powers of the Reichsführer SS and indicates that “within the scope of these assignments the Reichsführer SS shall act independently and under his own responsibility.”
It is well known what the Reichsführer SS really was. Of the many statements of Himmler, I shall limit myself to only one quotation which is, however, rather characteristic as a leading directive to the responsible officials of the SS who were subordinated to Himmler. On 4 October 1943 at the conference of the SS Gruppenführer at Posen, Himmler said—this document was submitted to the Tribunal by the United States Prosecution as Document Number 1919-PS and was read into the record on 19 December 1945. I shall quote six lines from Page 23 of the photostat of this document. The Tribunal will find the document on Page 201 in the document book. There figures a short quotation.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal feels that if a document has already been read, it should not be read again.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: It seems to me that this particular excerpt was not read into the record. The document was submitted on 19 December 1945 as Document Number 1919-PS. But this particular excerpt which I wish to quote now, was not read into the record of the Tribunal. It contains only six lines.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, of course, if you have verified that and can state that with certainty, then you can certainly read it.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I perused the transcript and could not find this excerpt. Therefore it seems to me that it was not read into the record. I shall confine myself literally to six lines. The question at present is only a matter of six lines.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you better go on and quote it then because these interruptions take up a very long time.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I begin the quotation:
“Whether other nations live in prosperity or starve to death interests me only insofar as we need them as slaves for our culture. Otherwise I am not interested. I am not interested whether 10,000 Russian females die of exhaustion while digging an antitank ditch, as long as the antitank ditch for Germany is finished.”