AFFIDAVIT
I, Rudolf Diels, being duly sworn, declared:
When Hitler came into power on 30 January 1933 I was chief of the political police at Berlin. On 26 April 1933 Goering founded the secret state police, and I was nominated as deputy leader of the Gestapo. Most of my orders were given to me personally by Goering. Goering told me my main task was to eliminate political opponents of national socialism and Hitler. The most important task was the fight against communism. Because of the interference of the SA and because of the whole revolutionary development during the course of 1933, all police forces including the Gestapo had to work mostly as a normalizing and legalizing agent, and had to fight more strongly against SA excesses than against the communists themselves. This condition changed completely at the beginning of 1934. The .wild arrests of the SA were annulled again toward the end of 1933, and the Gestapo started to investigate the cases of people still in prison under protective custody to see if they could be accused of high treason. These intentions were interrupted when Himmler was made the chief of the entire Prussian police and Heydrich Chief of the Gestapo. Himmler immediately started the reorganization of the police as he had already done in the other states. In the field of the political police he introduced the SD in Prussia, a purely SS organization which Goering had not permitted so far. The Gestapo was now extended over all of Germany, and Heydrich discharged radically the old officials and replaced them with reliable Nazis and SS, officers. He started immediately to make up for what in his opinion had been neglected; he again filled up the jails and concentration camps and organized the purge of 30 June 1934. From now on the Gestapo is responsible for all deprivations of freedom and breaches of law and killings in the political field which took place without court verdict. Of primary importance among these was the shooting of numerous persons who had been committed to jails by the courts and then shot supposedly
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because of resistance. Many such cases were at that time published in the papers. For people guilty of immorality such illegal shootings became the rule. As for deprivation of freedom, there was no legal reason anymore for protective custody orders after 1934, which had still been the case before that date, since from 1934 on the power of the totalitarian state was so stablized that the arrest of a person for his own protection was only an excuse for arbitrary arrest—without court verdict and without legal measures for him. The terroristic measures, which led to the development of the pure force system and punished to an increasing degree each critical remark and each impulse of freedom with the concentration camp, took on more and more arbitrary and cruel forms. The Gestapo became the symbol of the regime of force. Fear of it ruled everybody, especially because of the tortures connected with the arrests. From the events which caused me to tender my resignation I recognized that the Gestapo was developing as the willing executor not only of Hitler's orders but also of his wishes. Hitler had ordered me to the Obersalzberg in January 1934 and told me in the presence of Goer-ing that some "traitors" had to disappear. From his words I had to infer the order to remove Strasser (Gregor), Schleicher, and other persons. Since I had not done anything to execute this order about a week, Goering informed me that he would accept my resignation, which had already been tendered earlier, and that he wanted to subject the Prussian police to Himmler and Heyd-rich. The above named persons and many others were killed on 30 June 1934.
Affidavit concerning the creation and development of the Gestapo as Hitler's "willing executor" of political violence
Authors
Rudolf Diels (chief of political police, Berlin; deputy leader of Gestapo (1933))
Rudolf Diels
German lawyer and civil servant, first Gestapo chief and protege of Gestapo founder Hermann Göring (1900-1957)
- Born: 1900-12-16 (Berghausen)
- Died: 1957-11-18 (Katzenelnbogen)
- Country of citizenship: Germany
- Occupation: administrative lawyer; civil servant
- Member of political party: Nazi Party
- Member of: Schutzstaffel
- Participant in: Judges' Trial (date: 1947-05-09; role: affiant)
- Significant person: Günther Joël
Date: 31 October 1945
Literal Title: Affidavit.
Total Pages: 1
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-2460
Citation: IMT (page 255)
HLSL Item No.: 450359
Notes:The affidavit is not dated, but the Blue Set gives the date as 31 October 1945 (vol. 30, p. 549); a copy of PS 2460 was entered as US exhibit 751.
Trial Issues
Conspiracy (and Common plan, in IMT) (IMT, NMT 1, 3, 4) IMT count 1: common plan or conspiracy (IMT) Nazi regime (rise, consolidation, economic control, and militarization) (I… Persecution of political, religious, and ethnic ("racial") groups (IMT, NM…
Document Summary
PS-2460: Affidavit of Rudolf Diels re: founding and development of the Gestapo, concentration camps and excesses of the SA
PS-2460: Affidavit of Rudolf Diels, former chief of the political police of Berlin, 31 October 1935, concerning the Gestapo: its foundation by Goring 26 April 1933 with the object of "eliminating enemies of national socialism and of Hitler"; the parts played by Himmler and Heyd-rich; the murders, June 30 1934; the responsibility of the Gestapo for atrocities in concentration camps and for illegal shootings