Q. Some more, please.
A. "The Higher Eugenics Court with the Court of Appeals at Frankfurt-on-the-Main has, in consequence of the complaint of the county docotr, for the counties Limburg and Unterlahn, contrary to the findings of the Eugenics Court with the Lower Court in Limburg-on-theLahn of 21 June 1934, in a session of the 10th of September 1934 in which participated President of the Senate (Senatspraesident) Dr. Fuehr, Professor Dr. med. Fuenfgeld, Director Dr. med Hinsen, they decided as follows: The worker Rudolf Klees, resident Diez-on-the-Lahn, Schlaeferweg 7, born 20 May 1914 at Limburg-on-the-Lahn, son of the retired railway employee Wilhelm Klees, and of Philippine Klees, nee Koehn, is to be sterilized."
Q. That's enough, Mr. Klees. Thank you. That's all right. Now, Mr. Klees, after this decision of the court was reached in this second trial that you have just described, did you ever see this piece of paper before?
I refer now, may it please the court, to page 50 of the same Document Book.
A. Yes, I have seen it.
Q. What is that, Mr. Klees; what is that piece of paper?
A. This is the forced sterilization. This went from Frankfurt to the county doctor, Dr. Lapp, and from Dr. Lapp it passed to the police authorities for Diez.
Q. What is the date on that... the date.. in the upper right hand corner?
A. On the 25th of September 1934.
Q. And by whom is it signed?
A. Dr. Lapp, Medizinalrat.
Q. Now, Mr. Klees, would you please read the last paragraph of that letter.
A. "You are therefore requested to present yourself within two weeks at one of the hospitals mentioned below, submitting this letter for sterilization.
In order to be sterilized, if you do not be take yourself voluntarily to a hospital you will be brought there by force."
Q. Thank you, Mr. Klees; that's all.
Now, Mr. Klees, after you received that letter from Dr. Lapp, which stated, as you have read, that if you do not report to a hospital voluntarily for sterilization you would be brought there by force... after you had received and read that letter, what did you do?
A. Thereupon, first of all I ran away. This Jewish cattle dealer, to the daughter of that man with whom I was working... I went to Kerr Stein, that was near Aschaffenburg. There I remained for some time, and thought that I would let the matter rest for a while, and after that I could return again. When, then, I came home after that period, the police immediately grabbed me and by force took me to the hospital in Bad Emns that was run by the Protestant Sisters.
Q. Now, Mr. Klees, when the police found you and took you forcibly to the hospital at Bad Ems, what happened to you there, at the hospital?
A. This physician who was supposed to sterilize me said immediately that it was a shame, a disgrace, but that he himself could not change anything in the matter.
Q. Were you, in fact, sterilized there at the hospital at Bad Ems?
A. Yes.
Q. Now, Mr. Klees, do you recognize this piece of paper?
MR. WOOLEYHAN: If it please the Court, I am referring now to page 52 of Document Book 8-B.
(To the witness) Do you recognize that piece of paper, Mr. Klees?
A. Yes.
Q. Would you please describe it?
A. This is the certificate of my behavior from 1915 until 1937 when I was living in Diez, and it is signed by a Commissar of the police authority.
Q. Would you please read the main paragraph beginning, "It is officially certified."
A. To Rudolf Klees, born on 20 May 1914, at Limburg, County Limburg. It is officially certified that he was registered here during the period from 1915 to 21 May 1937, and from 12 December 1937 until today, and that he has no conviction entered on the police records."
Q. What is the date of that letter, in the upper right hand corner?
A. 21 January 1941.
Q. Thank you, Mr. Klees.
Mr. Klees, after you were forcibly sterilized at Bad Ems, as you have described, can you describe briefly what work you have done since that time?
A. After I was sterilized I went back to the cattle dealer and still worked for him until 1937, until the time when the cattle dealer in 1937 emigrated to America. After that I had to go to the Labor Service for the Reichs Autobahn, and in 1935 the age group of 1914 was drafted for a two year period of service.
Q. Mr. Klees, when your age group was called up for the Army draft were you given a physical examination?
A. Yes, by five physicians in the Army, staff physicians.
Q. Now, after these five Army staff physicians examined you, in 19--- What year was it?
A. July 1935.
Q. After these Army physicians examined you, into what Army classification were you put?
A. 1-A-- for all kinds of service.
MR. WOOLEYHAN: May it please the Court, the Prosecution offers in evidence as Exhibit 442, the following pages of document 832: Pages 48, 49, 50 and 52, of the English document book VIII-B. These four pages have just been identified from the stand.
The Prosecution has no further direct examination.
THE PRESIDENT: Does defense counsel desire to cross-examine this witness?
CROSS-EXAMINATION BY DR. KUBUSCHOK:
Q. At the end, you were speaking about your physical examination for the Army, or your call-up for the Army, and you declared that you were considered fit for military service.
A. Yes.
Q. Were you then drafted?
A. No; I resisted against it.
Q. What did you point out in order not to be drafted?
A. During this call-up examination, before these gentlemen who considered me fit for all military service, I asked that my school friends should leave the room. I then unburdened my heart, and I told what had happened to me. The physicians told me that that was a terribly mean thing, and I was supposed to appeal and put in a formal complaint.
Q. Against what were you supposed to put in a complaint or an appeal?
A. Because it was an injustice that was done to me, and they could not declare me unfit for military duty because I was healthy and fit for everything.
I did this, and it was handed on to Berlin, to the Ministry. I received an answer back from Goebbels, in a letter which I do not have in my possession anymore. Mistakes had been committed, and their predecessors had also committed errors, but there was only one thing to be done, to put me out of any service because I was no longer fit for war service. And that is what happened.
My comrades who were in Diez -- one who was also actually sterilized was in the Volkssturm in the end, in the People's Resistance. He was drafted into that, and he was also drafted into Marsch Kompany Zwei. ****** They wanted to try that with me too, but I refused all of that. When the time came, the final result was that 28 of us were on a list of people who would be brought to a place where many others disappeared.
Q. I did not quite understand you. You stated that the staff physicians had said that it was a mean thing and that you should put in a complaint. Against what should you register a complaint? Against the opinion of the District Court of Appeals in Frankfurt, the Eugenics Court, or against the decision of the staff physicians that you were fit for military duty?
A. Once against the District Court of Appeals, and also against the fact that they had considered me fit for military duty. That would have to be corrected by higher authorities, because they could not change it. That is, once by Frankfurt, that it was a meanness that I had become sterilized; and, on the other hand, I was healthy outside of that.
Q. After that advice, what kind of complaints did you register, and to whom? First, against the decision in Frankfurt, and secondly, against the decision of the physicians?
A. Yes. From the neighborhood I called upon somebody who had even had an old fighter number in the Party from 1928. Personally one would not have been able to get through to the authorities. He said that such a thing had never happened, in the whole world, but he would like to help me, that it would go to the proper authorities. Thereupon I did that, and in 1935, during the summer, I went to Berlin to the Funk Radio Exhibition. I wanted to try to appear in person, but I was told that I would not be admitted.
Later on, when I had returned home, there was this decision, according to my application, in which they told me that a mistake had been committed and could just not be rectified any longer. There was only one thing, they could free me of every kind of service.
I later received a certificate from the Draft Board that I was unfit for every kind of military service.
Q. You still did not answer my question that I put to you before. To whom did you send these two complaints?
A. To Goebbels.
Q. To Goebbels? Why did you believe that Goebbels was the competent man for this?
A. Well, he was the Reich Propaganda Minister for everything, and this old SA-man who lived in my neighborhood told me that it had to be sent to the Ministry, to Dr. Josef Goebbels, and then the matter would be cleared up. That is how it came about.
Q. What is the name of this old SA-man who gave you this advice?
A. He is no longer in Diez; I don't remember his name any more. He moved to Diez. He had a Party number from 1928. Now I remember the name, Becke.
Q. And where did he go from Diez?
A. No, he had moved to Diez, and he was working at a local sickness insurance office.
Q. Who sent you the decision that a mistake had been made and that now you would not have to serve any more?
A. From Dr. Josef Goebbles, from the Reich Ministry.
Q. The Reich Propaganda Ministry?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you still have this letter from Goebbels?
A. No, I don't have it any more. When I received it I handed it over. When they returned it, that I was healthy on the one hand and not healthy on the other hand, that I was well on one hand, and not well on the other hand, I burned the whole thing.
Q. The other papers which you received from Frankfurt, and the decision from Limburg, did you burn those too?
A. No, those I saved.
Q. Would you not have reason in the same way to burn the decision from Frankfurt, which you considered as unjust, as the decision from Goebbels which, after all, said that you were right?
A. As regards the burning, because I was already a member of the Socialist Party and because they lied to me, that is why I destroyed it.
Q. Now, you got this decision from Goebbels. What did you do after that so that you would not be drafted?
A. The Wehrbezirkskommando, the local Draft Board, sent me a letter and I submitted Goebbel's letter to them. I guess they reported that to Berlin too. I then received a yellow certificate, "Unfit for all military service, and not to be used for German military service in the German Army."
Q. Thus, this letter which you received from Goebbels you submitted to this staff physician authority?
A. Yes, the office, yes, in 1935, at the moment when I was not drafted.
Q. And did you not keep this letter with you because it was the basis for your continuing to work?
A. I did not think that was necessary.
Q. No. You come to this Draft Board, Aushebungsbehoerde; you take with you the letter from Goebbels. That was the very thing on which you were basing your objection to their action. Now, if things were going normally, the Draft Board should have to keep this letter in order to continue to clarify matters.
A. They knew it themselves from the very first day that this was how it was: On the one hand I was told that I was dead, and on the other hand that I was alive.
Q. Yes, correct. You said that the Draft Board physicians were at that time of the opinion that the decision in Frankfurt was unjust. In spite of that you were classified 1-A, fit.
A. Yes.
Q. And that is how it remained. Now you come and register complaints, and you now submit to them the letter from Goebbels, which is in your favor.
I am asking you, did the Draft Board not keep this letter from Goebbels?
A. No.
Q. What did the local Draft Board say?
A. The man himself was also from Diez, and he was a noncom. He said to me, as a personal remark, "Rudolf, it is clear that this is what happened to you; we know it already from Berlin." Later on an order had been issued that those who had been sterilized were afterwards not to be drafted.
Q. Thus with the letter from Goebbels you went to a non-com who you knew?
A. Yes, to the Draft Board.
Q. Do you know that a non-com on the Wehrmeldeamt, on the Draft Board, could not change a decision of five staff physicians that you were fit?
A. Even Major Mueller, who was also iron Diez, who hasn't returned even to this day, also confirmed that to me.
Q. That you could do this against the staff physicians?
A. That I could not make any objection to this matter until a decision was made from Berlin, or was handed down from Berlin, and then I would be told what would happen to me.
Q. Witness, one thing is not clear to me yet. You were declared fit. You then received this letter from Goebbels. Now, you go to the Wehrmeldeamt, to a non-com, and you show him this letter. Now, this non-com must, somehow, go to the physicians, and for that purpose he needs this letter, does he not? What did the non-com actually do when you told him that?
DR. WOOLEYHAN: Your Honor, I object to that question on the ground that counsel has not laid a foundation whereby the witness could answer it.
THE PRESIDENT: This matter has been fully covered. You have all the information that this witness can possibly give you, and therefore the objection will be sustained. We will now take a recess for fifteen minutes.
(A recess was taken)
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.
DR. KUBOSCHOK: First, I consider it my duty to point out to the Tribunal one fact which is really of importance but cannot be helped technically. The witness speaks, and that is quite easily recognizable for every German, in a quite confused manner. That, of course, cannot came out clearly in the English translation, since the translator has to try to translate it in a correct sentence. I just want to point this out, I cannot help it.
MR. WOOLEYHAN: I object to this entire remark. If the witness speaks in a confused manner, surely we must strike that from the record, as far as counsel has spoken. If it cannot show on examination, then it cannot be established.
THE PRESIDENT: It is unfair to the witness to make the statement that is just now made by counsel. It is argumentive and has nothing to do with the cross examination. The remark will be stricken from the record.
BY DR. KUBOSCHOK:
Q. One last question, witness, concerning the separation from service. Did I understand you correctly, witness, that in the end you were not drafted because a decree of a general nature had come down from a central office according to which sterilized persons should not be drafted?
A. Yes, but there was no state of war at that time. That was only for those who were to be drafted for two years. Later when the war started, they took everything, regardless of whether they were fit or unfit. Even those who were sterilized, they crafted them and took them along into the front lines. As an example that could be found more than three or four times in Diez.
Q. Witness, you were asked about the disease of your mother. You answered your mother had come into the menopause, had been ill for a year and a half, and died at the age of 55. Couldn't you describe in more detail the illness of your mother?
A. Yes, my mother at all times throughout her life -- she bore eight children -- she had never been sick. In 1937-38, she started to come into the menopause and then that illness developed. It was a cancer of the stomach and she could not be cured. Apart from that, my mother had never been ill. From 1914-15 on, that is since my birth until 1934, until then when I was sterilized, I have never needed anything from a doctor; no prescription; nothing. That can be found out in Limburg; and it can be shown everywhere that I was never ill. From 1934 until today, I am half-paralyzed, half dead.
Q. During the last stages of her disease, did your mother show any mental peculiarities?
A. No.
Q. In the decision which came from Frankfurt, it was stated that your mother suffered from hereditary feeble-mindedness.
A. But then I would like to show today who it was who really suffered from feeble-mindedness. In this case where a mother had eight children, and gives lung normalities to two of these children and other gratifications for other children, and one picks out just one and says that he has a hereditary disease and he suffers from disease because of the mother --- I assume that either all brothers or sisters should have been sterilized or none of them. That has been found out by doctors that all children -- all of my sisters or brothers and their children--I can show photographs -- even my father, my mother -- that it has never been found out in any case that anything had to be done, but one had to go and pick on a woman who had always worked as a servant. My father was an official of the Reichsbahn and nobody could say that he had been feeble-minded or anything. If anybody had said that about my father, he would have strung him up, which probably would have been the right method.
Q. Could you give us some clarification as to how the Health Court in Frankfurt arrived at that decision about your mother? Has there any county doctor who had come into appearance, who might have given an expert opinion on your mother, or on any other questions?
A. No. But I hope to be in a position to bring all certificates from our doctor Fritz Petschuld -- our family physician who was always our family physician, and still is my doctor. He stood at my bed for two weeks when I had all these difficulties and said that it was the meanest thing, for my mother had been very healthy all the time, and he couldn't do anything about it.
Q. You had a younger brother by the name of Walter. He died?
A. Yes.
Q. The Health Court in Frankfurt stated that he had been feebleminded. What can you say about that?
A. My brother Walter, when he was four years old, fell from a wall and had suffered an injury to his brain, and he died in Frankfurt from a swelling at the place where he had the injury. Then when he was operated on, he died in the course of the operation. Here is his photograph.
THE PRESIDENT: At what age did he die?
THE WITNESS: He died at the age of 19 years in Frankfurt.
BY DR. KUBOSCHOK:
Q. He fell from a wall at the age of four?
A. Yes.
Q. You mentioned before that during the proceedings before the Eugenics Court at Frankfurt, the statement was made: "Progeny do not come out much different than their parents." Witness, will you tell us, whether various questions were put to you to the effect that you were told German proverbs and then you were asked to explain the meaning of these proverbs?
A. He only said that after he had made the decision. They were quite clear in their minds about the whole matter the moment I opened the door to get into the Courtroom. And then they put me behind the bars just like a criminal, and I couldn't even make any statements. I couldn't say anything. I stood there just like a criminal who may have murdered hundreds of thousands of people. One had to speak through the bars, and I wasn't used to that from home.
They asked me about that proverb, but the fact is that we all were healthy, and it would have been quite different if we had all been sick. As proof, I want to say that I had three brothers who were fit and taken into the infantry; one who was an aviator. And last week I adopted a child of my last sister. All my relatives -- everything can be shown here about them--and anybody can see whether that was a feebleminded family or not. I should like to present it to the Tribunal. I should like to submit these photographs to the Tribunal, if I may be permitted to do so. I also have one of my mother.
Q. Witness, did I understand you correctly to say that the judges at the Eugenics Court asked you what you had to say about the sentence: "Der Apfel Faellt Nicht Weit vom Stamm."--what meaning you found in that proverb?
A. Well, they said it that way and that is the way I expressed myself. They probably expected me to react to that proverb, to that sentence.
Q. For instance, you were correctly supposed to explain the meaning of that proverb?
A. Yes.
Q. Is it correct, at least that is the way I understood you before, that instead of answering you just laughed?
A. Yes, because it seemed ridiculous to me that a healthy person was brought there to be sterilized on the basis of purely political considerations. They only wanted to put me on the operation table. Even SA-Sturmbannfuehrer Dr. Seil, before '34, that was before the seizure of power, they said the Red trash would be exterminated to the last, and unfortunately today the man is still alive and he is in the Darmstadt Camp.
Q. While you were in Frankfurt, were other questions put to you of a similar nature as this question concerning the proverb, "Der apel faellt night weit vom stamm."?
A. No.
Q. What other questions were put to you?
A. These judges who conducted the proceedings, the session was closed already at the beginning and they said that as soon is the decision was rendered I could go home. They destroyed a Social Democrat, made a cripple out of him, and we should let that be done to as; and a Jew who is today in the States, I hope he will see what happened to me because he said: I hope these people will be hanged from the trees in twelve years and you will get your revenue; and that I hope to do.
Q. You said today the proceedings lasted about fifteen minutes. You also said--
A. Yes.
Q. You were asked about your data; then political questions were put to you, and then you mentioned the last question about that proverb. Daring these fifteen minutes you must have been asked some more questions. That is why I ask you to remember what else you were asked.
A. Nothing else.
MR. WOOLEYHAN: If the Court please, I object to that question because I think it constitutes argument, for the reason that the witness has already seated twice, once during the direct examination, and several times now, that no further questions were asked.
THE PRESIDENT: His answer to this question was:
"Nothing else." So that would seem to answer your objection and settle the matter completely; he answered before your objection was finished -- nothing else.
MR. WOOLEYHAN: I didn't hear it.
BY DR. KUBOSCHOK:
Q. You mentioned the question from the Eugenic Court, about the birthdays of Goering and Goebbels. Is it possible that your memory, your recollection, there may have been an inaccuracy to the effect that you may have been asked about the position of these two men, and not about the birthdays?
A. It was the birthday. I was asked about the birthdays, and I said afterwards I worked for a Jew whose bread I ate. I said that and I may repeat it today, and there was nothing else to be said about that.
Q. Of this sentence, which is peculiarly remarkable, you didn't mention anything about it at Frankfurt when you were interrogated a short time ago.
A. That wasn't it -- I didn't consider it necessary because I didn't think it was important, relevant, that it had any with, so that it should be mentioned; I just said it so.
Q. One more short question concerning the local conditions in the small town of Diez. You probably still remember the President of the Eugenic Court, Dannhausen, who pronounced the first decision. What was his political attitude toward National Socialism?
A. He was a German Nationalist -- Deutsch National.
Q. Now a Nazi?
A. No.
DR. KUBOSCHOK: I have no further questions.
THE PRESIDENT: Do any other Defense Counsel desire to cross examine this witness further? Apparently not.
MR. WOOLEYHAN: We have no redirect.
THE PRESIDENT: The witness may be excused.
MR. WOOLEYHAN: We ask the Tribunal's indulgence for a minute or two -- until we can proceed with some documentary evidence.
MR. KING: The Court will recall we had some discussion concerning Exhibit 393, which was Document 615--PS. This discussion can be found beginning on page 2710 of the transcript.
The photostatic copy of the document, which we offered, at that time was not clear, and Dr. Schilf objected to its admission for the reason that he personally could not read it. We now have a suitable photostatic copy, and I would like to Court to note that we are offering it to Dr. Schilf at this time for inspection; and following the noon recess we will offer it to the Court to clear up the condition which mas attached to its original admission. That document is in Book VIII-A, at page 64. In connection with Charge IV in the indictment, we would at this time like to read for judicial notice portions of the IMT transcript concerning the organizations specifically covering the leadership corps, the Gestapo, SD, and the SS.
THE PRESIDENT You said Charge IV; you mean Count IV.
MR. KING: Excuse me, your Honor, -- Count IV. The over-all portions from the IMT judgment extend from page 16, 932 through 16,959. We will not at this time read -
THE PRESIDENT: One moment, please. You nave given as the transcript pages. There is a bound volume containing that opinion of the IMT Tribunal. We have been looking at one that is an official volume, and one that would be so much better to refer to than the transcript. I wonder what objection could be made to make reference to the pages in that bound volume, rather than to the more difficult references to the transcript.
MR. KING: I wonder, Your Honor, you aren't referring to the mimeographed bound volume?
THE PRESIDENT: The printed volume; Volume I, they call it.
MR. KING: I think the suggestion is well taken, instead of referring to the transcript of the mimeographed pages, I think it would be better, as you suggest, to refer to the numbers of the printed volume; that was an inadvertence on my part.
THE PRESIDENT: The suggestion has been made from the bench that the German translations might be a matter that has to be taken into consideration. I am suggesting that for what it is worth. Are you now proposing to read from the transcript?
MR. KING: From the mimeographed transcript I have marked in the German version of the IMT judgment the corresponding portions.
THE PRESIDENT: If you desire to read that in evidence, I see no possible objection to that.
MR. KING: I think this might be a partial solution that I read at this time from the mimeographed official transcript, and then later supply the Bench with a keyed version referring to the printed text, so that you would know where in the printed text that portion I read may be found. Would that be satisfactory?
THE PRESIDENT: That would be satisfactory. It is a matter of convenience more than anything else.
MR. KING: I appreciate that; I will do it.
Turning first to the judgment at page 16936 in the English and 16508 in the German, and this is a portion of some length relating to the leadership Corps. May I again recapitulate as to what I am doing, I am offering for judicial notice the entire portion of the pages 16932 through 16969, and will read only certain portions of that entire series.
"Under Sauckel's directive, the Leadership Corps was directly concerned with the treatment given foreign workers, and the Gauleiters were specifically instructed to prevent 'politically inept factory heads' from giving 'too much consideration to the care of eastern workers.' The type of question which was considered in their treatment included reports by the Kreisleiters on pregnacies among the female slave laborers, which would result in an abortion if the child's parentage would not meet the facial standards laid down by the SS and usually detention in a concentration camp for the female slave laborer. The evidence has established that under the supervision of the Leadership Corps the industrial workers were housed in camps under atrocious sanitary conditions, worked long hours, and were inadequately fed. Under similar supervision, the agricultural workers, who were somewhat better treated, were prohibited transportation, entertainment, and religious worship, and were worked without any time limit of their working hours and under regulations which gave the employer the right to inflict corporal punishment. The political leaders, at least down to the Ortsgruppenleiters, were responsible for this supervision. On May 5, 1943, a memorandum of Bormann instructing that mistreatment of slave laborers cease was distributed down to the Ortsgruppenleiters. Similarly, on November 10, 1944, a Speer circular transmitted a Himmler directive which provided that all members of the Nazi Party, in accordance with instructions from the Kreisleiter, would be warned by the Ortsgruppenleiters of their duty to keep foreign workers under careful observation.
"The Leadership Corps was directly concerned with the treatment of prisoners of war. On November 5, 1941, Bormann transmitted a directive down to the level of Kreisleiter instructing them to insure compliance by the army with the recent directives of the Department of the Interior ordering that dead Russian prisoners of war should be buried wrapped in tar paper in a remote place without any ceremony or any decorations of their graves.
On November 25, 1943, Bormann sent a circular instructing the Gauleiters to report any lenient treatment of prisoners of war. On September 13, 1944, Bormann sent a directive down to the level of Kreisleiter ordering that liaison be established between the Kreisleiters and the guards of the prisoners of war in order 'better to assimilate the commitment of the prisoners of war to the political and economic demands.' On October 17, 1944, and OKW directive instructed the officer in charge of the prisoners of war to confer with the Kreisleiters on questions of the productivity of labor. The use of prisoners of war, particularly those from the east, was accompanied by a widespread violation of the rules of land warfare. This evidence establishes that the Leadership Corps down to the level of Kreisleiter was a participant in this illegal treatment.
"The machinery of the Leadership Corps was also utilized in attempts made to deprive Allied airmen of the protection to which they were entitled under the Geneva Convention. On March 13, 1940, a directive of Hess transmitted in tructions through the Leadership Corps down to the Blockleiter for the guidance of the civilian population in case of the landing of enemy planes or parachutists, which stated that enemy parachutists were to be immediately arrested or 'made harmless'. On May 30, 1944, Bormann sent a circular letter to all Gauland Kreisleiters reporting instances of lynchings of Allied low level fliers in which no police action was taken. It was requested that Ortsgruppenleiters be informed orally of the contents of this letter. This letter accompanied a propaganda drive which had been instituted by Goebbels to induce such lynchings and clearly amounted to instructions to induce such lynchings, or at least to violate the Geneva Convention by withdrawing any police protection. Some lynchings were carried out pursuant to this program, but it does not appear that they were carried out throughout all of Germany.
Nevertheless, the existence of this circular letter shows that the heads of the Leadership Corps were utilizing it for a purpose which was patently illegal and which involved the use of the machinery of the Leadership Corps at least through the Ortsgruppenleiter.
"CONCLUSION - The Leadership Corps was used for purposes which were criminal under the Charter and involved the Germanization of incorporated territory, the persecution of the Jews, the administration of the slave labor program, and the mistreatment of prisoners of war. The defendants Bormann and Sauckel, who were members cf this organization, were among those who used it for these purposes. The Gauleiters, the Kreisleiters, and the Ortsgruppenleiters participated, to one degree or another, in these criminal programs. The Reichsleitung as the staff organization of the party is also responsible for these criminal programs as well as the heads of the various staff organizations of the Gauleiters and Kreisleiters. The decision of the Tribunal on these staff organizations includes only the Amtsleiters who were heads of offices on the staffs of the Reichsleitung, Gauleitung, and Kreisleitung. With respect to other staff officers and party organizations attached to the Leadership Corps other than the Amtsleiters referred to above, the Tribunal will follow the suggestion of the prosecution in excluding them from the declaration.
"The Tribunal declares to be criminal within the meaning of the Charter the group composed of those members of the Leadership Corps holding the positions enumerated in the preceding paragraph who became or remained members of the organization with knowledge that it was being used for the commission of acts declared criminal by Article 6 of the Charter, or who were personally implicated as members of the organization in the commission of such crimes. The basis of this finding is the participation of the organization in war crimes and crimes against humanity connected with the war; the group declared criminal cannot include, therefore, persons who had ceased to hold the position see numerated in the preceding paragraph prior to 1 September 1939."