Then there was a group, III-S, which had special tasks in the cultural field.
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Q. Witness, you have now listed the individual groups, seven, as you stated. I now ask you to make a statement as to how the individual groups of the Party Chancellery were in contact with each other or how they worked together.
A. In my description I omit Division I, because it only dealt with technical matters of the management of the office, administrative details within the Party Chancellery. I can limit myself to the relationship of Division II, that is the purely Party political division, and Division III. These two divisions worked not with each other but against each other. Already this structure was quite arbitrary and unorganized. For example there were fields of work which had the same name in both divisions. In the course of time Division II arrogated this to itself. This battle between the two divisions was not based only on purely factual reasons in the fields of work but also had other deeper reasons. In Division III officials were working who had almost exclusively been detailed by their ministries for such work. In Division II only political leaders were working whole time who, for the most part, looked down upon the jurists with contempt. The word “jurist” was a kind of epithet, and they saw in the people of Division III only civil servants and deputies of the ministries. They did not concede that we did any political work at all, and especially not work of a party political nature. They did not acknowledge us as political leaders at all. We in Division III were only a necessary evil in the Party Chancellery; that is how they saw things, because without the experts they could not get along. This disrespect—I cannot call it anything else—this disrespect on the part of Division II was especially strengthened by the attitude of Bormann toward Division III. He had approximately the same attitude. The result was that between Divisions II and III there was a constant malicious fight for competency. Division II constantly tried to arrogate to itself matters which could have something remotely to do with Party matters. These attempts took place also when State matters were predominantly or exclusively concerned; that is, if the effects would take place in the State sector. This situation was favored by the unbelievable conditions that existed in the registry. This registry had been built up by laymen. In 1933 Germany had several million unemployed, and an effort was made to find a place for these people and again give them an opportunity to make a living. The result was that people were put in such positions only to find a place for them, people who had no idea about an organizational structure. In this registry, former streetcar conductors and violinists were employed, people who knew nothing about it. Therefore, the entries were constantly directed to wrong places and then the other division did not let them go out. Whether a letter went to Division II, or Division III, or directly to Bormann was in many cases just a question of luck.
Q. I wanted to ask you also, in Division III was there also a financially worse position compared with the people in Division II?
A. We were paid the same way as we were paid when we were in the employ of the State, while the political leaders, the Main Office political leaders, had their own salary scale; and I do not want to repeat here; I can refer to what the witness Anker stated who explained that a political leader of Division II in the same position as Anker got about double the amount of salary than an official.
Q. I want to demonstrate to the Tribunal the borderline of competency between Divisions II and III. I have here a document which the prosecution believed they could bring into some kind of connection with your case. It is Document NG-364, Prosecution Exhibit 108.[411] This is the infamous letter about the lynching of Allied airmen who had bailed out. The letterhead is the NSDAP, Party Chancellery. Further, the leader of the Party Chancellery and the place from which it was sent is the Fuehrer Headquarters. The date is 30 May 1944.
A. Even though this is a circular from the Party Chancellery at a time at which I had been out of the Party Chancellery already for 5 months, I do know that such circular letters in principle were not submitted by Division II to Division III when they were in a draft form or for cooperation, even if the police, the Wehrmacht, and the administration of justice and their spheres of work were discussed in it.
Q. The letter is signed by Bormann. In the same document, that is Exhibit 108, there is contained another letter which also has the date 30 May 1944. It is addressed to all Gau leaders and Kreis leaders, and refers to Bormann’s circular letter. It is signed by Friedrichs. Is Friedrichs the chief?
A. Friedrichs is the chief of Department II.