AFFIDAVIT RUDOLF DIELS
Immediately after the seizure of power, for several months Hitler stuck to the principle of legality. Also the SA, the fighting troop of the NSDAP, retained strict discipline in this span of time, although collisions with the Communists were a thing of the past. After the Reichstag fire and after the newly elected Reichstag had handed over the sole complete power to Hitler in the enabling act, the SA no longer recognized any limitations.
In conjunction with the prohibition of parties, especially of the Communist Party, Hitler gave the command for the arrest of lead-
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ing Communists; cases should be made against these Communists for high treason. The police, however, did not succeed in carrying out these arrests, for the SA in the whole country had gotten ahead of the police. It not only arrested these Communists but also, far and beyond this circle, dragged members of the Social Democratic, the Democratic and Central Parties into prison. Also thousands of harmless Communists were arrested. When the police dismissed those arrested after a short interrogation, the SA went, so far as to erect their own prisons and concentration camps. When the police proceeded against these arrests of the SA and lifted them by force in many cases, those who were let out were again robbed of their liberty by the SA and in many cases were hidden from the police. At this time there originated the "Heldenkeller," the secret dungeons of the SA. The prisoners were mistreated in many cases by whippings, a few were killed. The conduct of the SA forced the police in many cases to take the persons into protective custody [Schutzhaft]. In doing this there was no pretense of an arbitrary deprivation of liberty. But in the greatest quantity of the cases these measures served as a personal protection for the person aggrieved against the excesses of the SA. During these revolutionary months the SA leaders were more powerful than the Gau leaders. They also refused obedience to Goering who attempted to create order and as leader of the police proceeded against excesses and mistreatments. For the arbitrary arrests of the year 1933 the SA Fuehrers, who misled their SA men into this business, are responsible.
The arbitrary arrests by the SA lessened in number toward the end of the year 1933 because the police were able to carry on more strongly and because the SA itself had admitted many Communists, Social Democrats, and Democrats into its ranks.
In the course of the year 1933 the political police had more to do with the excesses of the SA than with the fighting of Communists. I can name numerous persons who as members of the political police at that time can testify to this. Because of their opposition to the SA, these persons were discharged from their offices when Heydrich and Himmler took over the Prussian police.
The political police of Prussia in January 1934 laid before Hitler a memorandum about the excesses of the SA in the year 1933 with the proposal that a case be made against the SA Fuehrers named therein. Hitler did not do that but charged Himmler, who had been employed as chief of the police by Goering, to kill these SA Fuehrers without legal procedure. That occurred on the 30th of June 1934.
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Because many people had been arbitrarily placed in prisons and concentration camps by the past acts of the SA, the Prussian political police at that time, which still had no national socialist garb and nothing to do with the SS, urged mass discharges. After long negotiations Hitler decided in December 1933 to decree an amnesty for such persons who could not be prosecuted for high treason. From about 30,000 persons around 25,000 were discharged. From about 30 concentration camps, so far as I remember, 2 remained—(Oranienburg und Papenburg).
[signed] R. DIELS
Before me, the undersigned authority, on this 31st day of October, 1945, personally appeared Rudolf Diels known to me, who on oath stated that he had written and carefully read the foregoing four pages signed by him and that the matters and facts therein stated are true and correct.
[signed] Robert G. Stephens, Jr.
ROBERT G. STEPHENS, JR.
Major, Infantry, U. S. Army Office of U.S. Chief of Counsel Nürnberg, Germany RGS Jr.
Affidavit concerning conflicts between the police and the SA in 1933-34, and the discharge of prisoners from the SA concentration camps
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: Rudolf Diels
Total Pages: 2
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-2472
Citation: IMT (page 255)
HLSL Item No.: 450360
Trial Issues
Concentration camp system (administration, forced labor, abuse of inmates)… 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…
Document Summary
PS-2472: Affidavit by RÜdolf Diels, concerning excesses committed by the Sa and differences between police and Sa' in connection with arrests of political opponents of national socialism in the years 1933 and 1934