For example, the Gauleiter was bound to confer with his staff officers (such as his deputy, and so forth, which included the school leader, propaganda leader, press leader, his Gau Party judge, and so on) every 8 to 14 days. Furthermore, the Gauleiter was obligated to meet with the various Gauleiters subordinate to him once every 3 months for a 3-day convention, for the purpose of discussing and clarifying Nazi Party policies and directives, for hearing basic lectures on Party policy, and for the mutual exchange of information pertinent to the Party's current program. The Gauleiter was also obligated to meet at least once a month with the leaders of the Party formations and affiliated organizations within his Gau area, such as the leaders of the SA, the SS, Hitler Youth and others. In support of these statements, I quote from page 8 of Document 1893-PS. I don't think it is necessary to read all of that.
"Leader conferences in the district: reading of that because it was really summarized in my previous statement. I will quote sub-paragraph (d):
(d) The bearer of sovereignty will meet at purpose of mutual orientation."
of regular and periodical conferences and meetings upon all the other Hoheitstrager, including the Kreisleiter, Ortsgruppenleiter, Zellenleiter and Blockleiter. conferences and meetings by all the Hoheitstrager, both with their own staff officers and with the political leaders and staff officers subordinate to them, was that basic Nazi policies and directives issued by Hitler and the leader of the Party Chancellery, the Defendant Bormann, directly through the chain of command of the Hoheitstrager, and functional policies issued by the various Reichsleiter and Reich office holders down functional and technical channels, were certain to be notified to, received, and understood by the bulk of the membership of the Leadership Corps. chart, you will see the dotted lines connecting down from the Party level, Gau level, to similar offices in the lower level. Corps of the Nazi Party. The evidence relating to the size of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, and as previously shown, the Leadership Corps comprised the sum of officials of the Nazi Party, including, in addition to Hitler and the members of the Reichsleitung, such as the Reichsleiter and the Reich office holders, a hierarchy of Hoheitstrager, which I have described, as well as the staff officers attached to the Hoheitstrager. I now offer in evidence Document 2958-PS, USA Exhibit No. 325, and this is issue No. 8, 1939, of the official Leadership Corps organ, "Der Hoheitstrager," similar to the one I exhibited a moment ago, and this is for the year 1939. This shows that there were:
40 Gaue and 1 Foreign Gau, each led by a Gauleiter;
that is 41:
808 Kreiseleiters:
28,376 Ortsgruppenleiters: Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party was composed not only of the Hoheitstrager, but also of the staff officers or office holders attached to the Hoheitstrager. The Gauleiter, for example, was assisted by a deputy Gauleiter, several Gau inspectors, and a staff which was divided into main offices (Hauptamter) and offices (Amter), including such departments as the Gau Staff Office, Treasury, Education Office, Propaganda Office, Press Office, University Teachers, Communal Policy, etc. As previously shown, the staff office structure of the Gau was substantially represented in the lower levels of the Leadership Corps organization such as the Kreise, the Ortsgruppen, and so on. The Kreise and the smaller territorial areas of the Party were also organized into staff offices dealing with the various activities of the Leadership Corps. But, of course, the importance and the number of such staff officers diminished as the unit dropped in the hierarchy; so that, while the Kreisleiter staff contained all or most of the departments mentioned for the Gau, the Ortsgruppe had fewer departments and the lower ones fewer still. staff officers, as distinguished from the Hoheitstrager or political commanders themselves included within the Leadership Corps. Corps of the Nazi Party, the Prosecution adopts the view, and respectfully submits to this Tribunal that, in defining the limits of the Leadership Corps, staff officers should only be included down to and including the Kreise.
Upon this basis, the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party did constitute the Fuehrer, the members of the Reichsleitung, the five levels of the Hoheitstrager, and the staff officers attached to the forty odd Gauleiters and the eight or nine hundred Kreisleiters. Adopting this definition of the Leadership Corps, it will be seen that the total figure for the membership of that organization, based upon the statistics cited from the basic handbook for Germany, amounts to around 600,000. By accepting the staff officers of the lower levels, as provided in the indictment, and as just defined, and without prejudice to any later individual action against those accepted, we think the figure of around 600,000 is approximately correct. view of the size of the membership of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, for the evidence has shown that the Leadership Corps, in effect, embraced staff officers attached to the subordinate Hoheitstrager, and the inclusion of such staff officers in the estimation of the size of the Leadership Corps if we had so recommended would have considerably enlarged the final figure if you had included staff officers to the Blockleiters so that it would have been 2,000,000, in round numbers.
MR. BIDDLE: What reason did you have for excluding them?
COLONEL STOREY: For this reason, your Honor, down in the Blockleiter, he might have called on an individual laborer that might have been on his staff, but he certainly didn't have the discretion that a staff leader did, for example, to the Gauleiter, say, as a propaganda man who disseminated, information down, as well as help participate in plans and policies of the upper organization. functionally to the higher staff officers with respect to their particular speciality, such as propaganda. Party organization, and "The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party joined and participated in the common plan or conspiracy" is the next title.
February, 1920, contained the chief elements of the Nazi plan for domination and conquest. I now quote from document 1708-PS, which is the Year Book for 1941, published by the Party, and edited by the late Robert Ley. This book contains the famous 25 points of the Party, which I now offer in evidence as USA Exhibit No. 324. Diverting from the text, I don't intend to quote these 25 Party objectives, but only refer to a few of them, and I quote from page 1 of the English translation of document 1708-PS.
"We demand the unification of all Germans in of self-determination of peoples."
Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain, which I quote.
"We demand equality of rights for the German people in respect to the other nations;and St. Germain."
Point 3: quoting.
"We demand land and territory (colonies) for for our surplus population."
Point 4:
"Only a member of the race can be a citizen.
confession. Consequently, no Jew can be a member of the race."
Point 6:
"We demand that every public office, of any citizens.
We combat the corrupting parliamentary character or abilities."
Point 22: (which is from page 2 of the English translation of document 1708-PS) "We demand the abolition of the mercenary troops and formation of a National Army."
Back to page 1 - another quotation:
"The program is the political foundation of unaltered.
....The National Socialist philosophy is summarized in 25 points."
the Political Leaders and they were under a duty to support and carry out that Program. page 1 of Document 1893-PS:
"The Commandments of the National Socialists:
Right is what serves the Movement and thus Germany."
On page two of the same document another brief quotation:
"....Leader Corps is responsible for the complete penetration of the German Nation with the National Socialist spirit.
..." mentioned. In this connection the Party Manual provides, and I quote from the second paragraph on page 3 of the same document:
"The Political Leader is inseparably tied to the ideology and the organization of the NSDAP.
His oath only ends with community."
While the "leadership principle" assured the binding nature of Hitler's statements, program and policies upon the entire Party and the Leadership Corps thereof, the leadership principle also established the full responsibility of the individual Political Leader within the province and jurisdiction of his office or position.
leader, but also to the Political Leaders under him and thus permeated the entire Leadership Corps. I quote from the middle of page 2 of Doc. 1893-PS:
"The basis of the Party Organization is the Fuehrer thought...
are responsible to him. They possess full authority toward the lower echelons.
..." respective areas, themselves Fuehrer. I quote from the third paragraph of page 9 of this same document:
"Within their sector of sovereignty, the Hoheitstrager (Gauleiter, Kreisleiter, Ortsgruppenleiter, Zellenleiter, Blockleiter) have sovereign political rights . . .within their sector.
.."
I again refer and quote from Document 1814-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit No.328, which is the Party Book. It is just a one-sentence quotation, and it states:
"The Party is an order of 'Fuehrer'. (End of quotation). to the fiat of the Fuehrer Principle is clearly shown in the following passage from the Party Manual; and it is this same document on page 3:
"....a solid anchorage for all the organizations within the the Fuehrer principle."
(End of quotation).
Next is the subject:
"The Nazi Party, directed by the leadership Corps, dominated and controlled the German State and Government."
sets forth the evidence as to the identity of various ministers comprising the Cabinet, and I shall not deal with that subject. The presence of the Reichsleiter and other prominent members of the Leadership Corps in the Cabinet facilitated the domination of the Cabinet by the Nazi Party and the Leadership Corps. political parties other than the Nazi Party and made offenses against this a punishable crime, thereby establishing the one-party State and rendering the Leadership Corps immune from the opposition of organized political groups. I now quote from Document 1388-PS, that being the English translation of the Law against the Formation of New Political Parties, stated in 14 July 1933, 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 479, and I now quote the first two articles of this law, which read as follows:
"The National Socialist German Workers' Party constitutes the only political party in Germany.
Whoever undertakes greater penalty according to other regulations."
of Law to Supplement the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, dated 20 July 1933, 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 518.
On 13 October 1933: "law to guarantee public peace" was enacted which provided, inter alia, that the death penalty or other severe punishment should be imposed upon any person who "...undertakes to kill a member of the SA or the SS, a trustee or agent of the NSDAP..... out of political motives or on account of their official activity." Law on Security and The Unity of the Party and State.
On 1 December 1933, the law was enacted "to secure the unity of Party and State." This law provided that the Nazi Party was the pillar of the German State, and was linked to it indissolubly; it also made the Deputy of the Fuehrer (then Hess) and the Chief of Staff of the SA (then Rohm) members of the Reich Cabinet. I quote:
"After the victory of the National Socialist Revolution, separably the State.
It will be a part of the public law.
Its organization will be determined by the and SA with the public authorities.
..." position of supreme political power in Germany. For it laid down that the Party, directed by the Leadership Corps, was the embodiment of the State and, in fact, was the State. Moreover, this, law made both the Fuehrer's Deputy and the Chief of Staff of the SA, which was a Party formation subject to the call of the Hoheitstraeger, cabinet members, thus further solidifying the Leadership Corps' control of the cabinet. The dominant position of the Leadership Corps is further revealed by the provision that the Reichschancellor would issue the carrying-out regulations of this law in his capacity as Fuehrer of the Nazi Party. The fact that Hitler, as Fuehrer of the Leadership Corps, could promulgate rules which would have statutory force and be published in the Reichsgesetzblatt, the proper compilation for State enactments, is but a further reflection of the reality of the Party's domination of the German State.
I now refer to Document 2775-PS, which is No. 330--USA Exhibit No. 330-which is the English translation of certain extracts from Hitler's speeches to the 1934 and 1935 Party Congress at Nurnberg. I quote from the second extract in Document 2775, which is a declaration by Hitler to the 1935 Party Congress, and which reads--just one sentence:
"It is not the State which gives orders to us, it is we who give orders to the State." Leadership Corps, affirming the dominance of the Party over the State, cannot be refuted. massacre of hundreds of SA men and other political opponents. Hitler sought to justify these mass murders by declaring to the Reichstag that "at that hour I was responsible for the fate of the German nation and the supreme judge of the German people." The evidence relating to these events will be presented at a later stage in connection with the case against the SA. murders and the massacre of 30 June 1934, in effect as legitimate, selfdefense by the State. By this law the Reich Cabinet moved to make themselves accessories after the fact of these murders. The domination by the Party, however, makes the cabinet's characterization of these criminal acts by Hitler and his top Party leaders as state measures consistent with political reality. I refer now to Document 2057-PS, which is the English translation of the law Relating to the National Emergency Defense Measures of 3 July 1934, in the Reichsgesetzblatt of that year, Part I, page 529, and I quote the single article of that law, which reads as follows: That is Document 2057. This still has reference to the blood purge:
"The measures taken on 30 June and 1 and 2 July 1934 to counteract attempt at treason and high treason shall be considered as national emergency defense. Academy for German law. I refer to Document 1391-PS, which is an English translation of the Statute of the Academy for German Law, 12 July 1934, 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, pages 605 and 6.
THE PRESIDENT: I don't think we caught what number you said.
COL. STOREY: Yes, sir; 1391.
THE PRESIDENT: I beg your pardon?
COL. STOREY: The first paragraph of 1391.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
"Closely connected with the agencies competent for legislation, it (the Academy) shall further the realization of the National Socialist program in the realm of the law." the Leadership Corps, was appointed Chancellor of the Reich. When President von Hindenburg died in 1934, the Fuehrer amalgamated to his person the offices of Chancellor and Reich President. I refer to Document 2003-PS, which establishes the fact, and I don't quote. It is Reichsgesetzblatt 1934, Part I, page 747. were granted the same protection as those of the State. This law was entitled "Law Concerning Treacherous Acts Against the State and Party and for the Protection of Party Uniforms." This law imposed heavy penalties upon any person making false statements injuring the welfare or prestige of the Nazi Party or its agencies. It authorized the imprisonment of persons making or circulating malicious or baiting statements against leading personalities of the Nazi Party, and it provided punishment by forced labor for the unauthorized wearing of Party uniforms or symbols. I again refer to Document 1393, not quoting, which is the English translation and gives the authority. was made the official flag of the Reich. I refer to Document 2079, which is the English translation of the Reich Flag Law, found in Reichsgesetzblatt 1935, Part I, page 1145. Just the one sentence-- the quotation:
"The Reich and National flag is the swastika flag."
Nazi Party. By law it was made the flag of the State, a recognition that the Party and its corps of political leaders were the sovereign powers in Germany.
the offender had committed "in his eagerness to fight for the National Socialist ideal." I cite Document 1386, which is the English translation of the law concerning amnesty, Reichsgesetzblatt 1936, Part I, page 378. the German people, a law was enacted on 1 December 1936 which incorporated the entire German youth within the Hitler Youth, thereby achieving a total mobilization of the German youth. And I cite Document 1392, containing that law, 1936 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 993. The law further provided that the task of educating the German youth through the Hitler Youth was entrusted to the Reichsleiter of the German youth in the NSDAP. By this law a monopoly control over the entire German youth was placed in the hands of the top official, a Reichsleiter, of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, the Defendant von Schirach. Party, Hitler, issued a decree in which he took over direct command of the whole German armed forces. I cite Document 1915-PS, 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 111. Hitler says:
"From now on, I take over directly the command of the whole Armed Forces." offices of the Reich President and Chancellorship. In the final result, therefore, Hitler was Supreme Commander of the Armed Farces, the Head of the German State, and the Fuehrer of the Nazi Party. from page 19 of Document 1893-PS:
"The Fuehrer created the National Socialist German Workers' Party. He filled it with his spirit and his will, and with it he conquered the power of the State on 30 January 1933. The Fuehrer's will is supreme in the Party.
"By authority of the law about the Chief of State of the German Reich, dated 1 August 1934, the office of the Reich President has been combined with that of the Reich Chancellery, Consequently, the powers heretofore possessed by the Reich President were transferred to the Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler. Through this law, the conduct of the Party and State has been combined in one hand.
By desire of the Fuehrer, a plebiscite was conducted on this law on 19 August 1934. On this day, the German people chose Adolf Hitler to be their sole leader. He is responsible only to his conscience and to the German nation." in legislation and official appointments and promotions. I cite as proof Document 2100-PS, which is the English translation of a directive concerning the application of the Fuehrer decree relating to the Chief of the Party Chancellery, 1942 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 35. The decree further provided that such participation should be undertaken exclusively by the Defendant Bormann, Chief of the Party Chancellery and Reichsleiter of the Leadership Corps. The decree provided that the Chief of the Party Chancellery was to take part in the preparation of all laws and decrees issued by Reich authorities, including those issued by the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich, and to give his assent to those of the Lander and of the Reich, the Lander being the German State. All communications between the State and Party authorities, unless within one Gau only, were to pass through Bormann's hands. This decree is of crucial importance in demonstrating the ultimate control and responsibility imputable to the Leadership Corps for governmental policy and actions taken in furtherance of the conspiracy. in his capacity as leader of the nation, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Supreme Head of the Government, and as Fuehrer of the Party, his right must be recognized to compel with all means at his disposal, every German, whether soldier, judge, state official, or party official, to fulfill his desire. He demanded that the Reichstag officially recognize this asserted right, and on the 26th of April 1942, the Reichstag issued a decision in which full recognition was given to the rights of the Fuehrer which I have just asserted. I cite Document 1961-PS, which is the English translation of that decision, found in 1942 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 247. I quote:
"At the proposal of the President of the Reichstag, on its session of 26 April 1942, the greater German Reichstag has approved of the rights which the Fuehrer has postulated in his speech with the following decision:
"There can be no doubt that in the present war, in which the German people is faced with a struggle for its existence or annihilation, the Fuehrer must have all the rights postulated by him which serve to further or achieve victory. Therefore, without being bound by existing legal regulations, in his capacity as Leader of the Nation, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Governmental Chief and Supreme Executive Chief, as Supreme Justice and as Leader of the Party, the Fuehrer must be in a position to force with all means at his disposal every German, if necessary, whether he be a common soldier or officer, low or high, official or judge, leading or subordinate official of the Party, worker or employee, to fulfill his duties. In case of violation of these duties, the Fuehrer is entitled, after conscientious examination, regardless of so-called well-deserved rights, to mete out due punishment and to remove the offender from his post, rank and position without introducing prescribed procedures.
"At the order of the Fuehrer, this decision is hereby made public. Berlin, 26 April 1942." his Germany which constituted the basis for the Prosecution submission that the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party and its following effectively dominated the State and Government. The core and crux of the matter was stated by Hitler in his speech to the Reichstag on 20 February 1938, when he declared in effect that every institution in Germany was under the direction of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party.
I cite as the Prosecution's final exhibit in support of the proposition that the Leadership Corps dominated the German State, with resulting responsibility, Document 2715-PS, which is the book containing Hitler's speech to the Reichstag on the 20th of February, 1938, as reported in "Das Archiv", Volume 47, February 1938, pages 1441 and 1442, and I quote a brief excerpt from Document 2715-PS:
"National Socialism has given the German people that leadership which as Party not only mobilizes the nation but also organizes it, so that on the basis of the natural principle of selection, the continuance of a stable political leadership is safeguarded forever. National Socialism possesses Germany entirely and completely since the day when, five years ago, I left the house in Wilhelmsplatz as Reich Chancellor. There is no institution in this state which is not National Socialist. Above all, however, the National Socialist Party in these five years not only has made the nation National Socialist, but also has given itself that perfect organizational structure which guarantees its performance for all the future. The greatest guarantee of the National Socialist revolution lies in the complete domination of the Reich and all of its institutions and organizations, internally and externally, by the National Socialist Party. Its protection against the world abroad, however, lies in the new National Socialist armed forces. In this Reich, anybody who has a responsible position is a National Socialist. Every institution of this Reich is under the orders of the supreme political leadership. The Party leads the Reich politically, the armed forces defend it militarily. There is nobody in any responsible position in this state who doubts that I am the authorized leader of this Reich."
German State and Government is pointed out by an article published in this same authoritative magazine, "Der Hoheitstrager", in February, 1939. In this article, which was addressed to all Hoheitstrager, the Leadership Corps is reminded that it has conquered the State and it possesses absolute and total power in Germany. I cite Document 3230-PS, which is the English translation of an article entitled "Fight and Order", and I quote from this article, which trumpets forth in what we might term as accents of Caesarism, the battle call of the Leadership Corps of German life. I quote:
The first word is "Fight? Why do you always talk of fighting? You have conquered the State, and if something does hot please you, then just make a law and regulate if differently. Why must you always talk of fighting? For you have every power. Over what do you fight Outer politically? You have the Wehrmacht. It will wage the fight if fight is required. Inner-politically? You have the law and the police which can change everything which does not agree with you."
THE PRESIDENT: Is this a good time to break off?
COL. STOREY: Yes, sir.
(A recess was taken from 1520-1535)
COLONEL STOREY: In view of the domination of the German State and Government by the Nazi Party and the Leadership Corps thereof, as established by the foregoing and other evidence heretofore recited in the previous trial briefs, it is submitted that the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party is responsible for the measures, including the legislative enactments, taken by the German State and Government in furtherance of the conspiracy formulated and carried out by the co-conspirators and the organizations charged with the criminality in the present case. Corps. The evidence now to be presented will establish that the membership of the Leadership Corps by their activities entered into a wide variety of acts and measures designed to advance the course of the conspiracy.
The evidence will show that such participation by the Leadership Corps in the conspiracy embraces such measures as anti-Semitic activities, war crimes committed against members of the Allied forces, participation in the forced-labor program, measures to subvert and undermine the Christian religion and persecute the Christian clergy; the plundering and spoliation of cultural and other property in other occupied territories in Europe, participation in plans and measures leading to the initiation and prosecution of aggressive war, and, in general, the wide variety of measures embracing the crimes against the peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, as defined and denounced by the Charter.
tion with the participation of the gauleiter and kreisleiter, in what the Nazis describe as the "spontaneous uprising of the people" against the Jews throughout Germany on 9 and 10 November 1938. We did not intend to introduce by diverting from the text any evidence formerly introduced by Major Walsh on the persecution of the Jews, but only to show the connection of a few of the Party officials, in connection with the assassination of an official of the German Embassy in Paris on the 7th of November. presented in connection with the prosecution's evidence and other phases of the case, particularly the persecution of the Jews. I shall therefore limit myself to two documents, and will request the Tribunal to recall that in the teletyped directive from SS-Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich, issued the 10th of November 1938 to all police headquarters and SD districts, all chiefs of the State Police were ordered to contact the political leaders in the Gaue and the Kreiseand to arrange with these high officials in the Leadership Corps the organization of the so-called spontaneous demonstrations against the Jews. this directive a large number of the Jewish shops and business were pillaged and wrecked, synagogues were set on fire, individual Jews were beaten up, and large numbers were taken off to concentration camps. This evidence forcibly illustrates the employment and participation of all the Kreisleiter and Gauleiter in illegal and inhumane measures designed to further the anti-Semitic program which was an original and continuing objective of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party. I simply refer again to Exhibit 3051-PS, U. S. Exhibit No. 240, and simply call your Honor's attention to the different political leaders that were named in that document, and I will not attempt to read nor refer to it again.