This is what the official Nazi Party publication said the SS was:
"Selection of Members.
"For the fulfillment of these missions a homogenous firmly welded fighting force has been created bound by ideological oaths, whose fighters are selected out of the best Aryan humanity.
"The conception of the value of the blood and soil serves as directive for the selection into the SS. Every SS man must be deeply imbued with the sense and essence of the National Socialist Movement. He will be ideologically and physically trained so that he can be employed individually or in groups in the decisive battle for the National Socialist ideology.
"Only the best and thoroughbred Germans are suited for commitment in this battle. Therefore it is necessary that an uninterrupted selection is retained within the ranks of the SS, first superficially, then constantly more thoroughly." three paragraphs down, with respect to obedience. It appears on page 418 of the original, second paragraph. I quote:
"Obedience is unconditionally demanded; arises from the conviction that the National Socialist ideology must rule. He who possesses it and passionately supports it, submits himself voluntarily to the compulsion of obedience. Therefore, the SS man is prepared to carry out blindly every order which comes from the Fuehrer or is given by one of his superiors even if it demands the greatest sacrifice of him."
There are stated the two fundamental principles of the SS: (1) Racial selection; (2) Blind obedience. be used for. I quote from his address to the officers of the SS Leibstandarte "Adolph Hitler" on the "Day of Metz", our document No. 1918-PS, U.S. Exhibit 304. I quote from page 12 of the original document, the middle of thepage; from the translation, page 3, last paragraph. I will begin the translation with the third sentence of that paragraph.
"The ultimate aim for these 11 years during which I have been the Reichsfuehrer SS has been invariably the same:
To create an order of good blood which is able to serve Germany. Which unfailingly and without sparing itself can be made use of because the greatest losses can do no harm to the vitality of this order, the vitality of these men, because they will always be replaced. To create an order which will spread the idea of nordic blood so far that we will attract all nordic blood in the world, take away the blood from our adversaries, absorb it so that never again, looking at it from the viewpoint of grand policy, nordic blood in great quantities and to an extent worth mentioning will fight against us. We must get it and the others cannot have it.
We never gave up the ideas and the aim conceived so many years ago. Everything we did has taken us some distance further on the way. Everything we are going to do will lead us further on the way." explicitly why there was the building up of this order of nordic blood appears on page 3 of the translation, the same document from which I have just quoted, about the middle of the first paragraph. It appears on page 11 of the original speech, about the middle of the page. That is the speech to the officers of the SS Leibstandarte "Adolph Hitler".
"Please understand we would not be able to hold the great Germanic Reich which is about to take shape. I am convinced that we can hold it, but we had to prepare for that. If we once had not enough sons, those who will come after us will have to become cowards. A nation which has an average of four sons per family can venture a war; if two of them die, two transmit the name. The leadership of a nation having one son or two sons per family will have to be faint-hearted at any decision on account of their own experience because they will have to tell themselves; We cannot afford it. Look at France, which is the best example. France had to accept from us a dictate." a positive side of racism -
THE TRIBUNAL (MR BIDDLE) (Interposing): Is that one of the crimes you allege, domination of Europe through an Elite?
MAJOR FARR: One of the crimes alleged is a conspiracy to dominate Europe, preparation for aggressive war, leading to the ultimate colonization of Europe for the benefit of the conspirators. One of the instruments, we submit, used for that policy, and carried out, was the SS. The conspriators began, at the very beginning, the creation of the SS, to build it up so that it would be the elite through which Germany would be able to dominate and rule the conquered territories. conspiracy. It has bearing on the whole program of the conspirators. Now, certainly, in and of itself -
THE PRESIDENT (Interposing): Yes, but, Major Farr, what you have to show is not the criminality of the people who used the weapon; the criminality of the people who composed the weapon.
MAJOR FARR: I think I have to show two things, certainly the criminality of the persons who composed the weapon, but it seems to me I must also show that that weapon played a part in the conspiracy because the indictment alleges -
THE PRESIDENT (interposing): I should have thought you had shown that over and over again, that the SS were a part of the weapon. If there was a criminal conspiracy, then the SS were one of the weapons which were used by the conspirators. But what you have got to show in this part of the case is that the persons who formed that weapon were criminal and knew of the criminal objects of the SS.
MAJOR FARR: I quite agree I have to show that. I suppose I have to show, before showing that the persons involved knew of the criminal aims of the organization, what those criminal aims were. I was simply attempting to show the Tribunal that one of those aims which I submit is criminal was a plan to dominate Europe, and that the SS was one of the means by which that was to be done.
Now, this is Just one aspect of the SS criminality. I am quite ready not to proceed any further with the point if the Court already has the point, and thinks that the evidence of that aspect of its criminality is sufficient. I certainly don't want to labor the point too hard. SS as a racial elite to take over, but I do think no other thing is important, and that is the negative side of that racisim, the hatred for other races, and Himmler made some very striking points along that line as to what the SS was to be to it. I quote from his Posen speech, that is, our Document 1919-PS. The passage in question appears on page 23 of the speech, the original speech, middle of the page, and will be found on page 1 of the English translation, third paragraph.
I quote:
"One, basic principle must be the absolute rule for the SS man. We must be honesty, decent, loyal, and comradely to members of our own blood and to nobody else. What happens to a Russian, to a Czech, does not interest me in the slightest." into evidence, and I shall not repeat them. However, I do want to quote, in the same paragraph, the conclusion that Himmler draws from what he has just said. This sentence is about seven lines from the bottom of the paragraph beginning:
"That is what I want to Instill into this SS and what I believe I have instilled in them as one of the most sacred laws of the future." which was to take over Europe, and the conception of hatred toward inferior races, which was instilled in the SS--these principles were principles which were publicly reiterated over and over again so that the newest recruit was thoroughly steeped in them.
I quote from Himmler's Kharkov speech, which appears in the same document 1919-PS.
MR. BIDDLE: Can't you just give us the meaning of the speech without quoting from it; can you just refer to it?
MAJOR FARR: I will be very glad to do that, if the Court will take judicial notice of it. I will refer you to the passage I have in mind. The passage in question appears on page 14 of the translation, about 15 lines from the bottom of the page; it appears on page 17 of the original, at about the middle of the page. racial struggle, Himmler tells his commanding officers - and he is making this speech to the commanding officers of three divisions of the Waffen SS- he tells his officersthat the thing that he wants to thoroughly instil into every recruit in the organization, so that he becomes saturated with it, is the necessity of the SS standing firm and carrying on the racial struggle without mercy. bear with me - and I think this is important because this, again, is a public quotation, found in the Organization Book of the Party. That is our Document 2640-PS. It is a very short passage, appearing on page 418 of the original, and page 1 of the English translation, the third paragraph from the end of the page in the translation:
"He openly and unrelentingly fights the most dangerous enemies of the State: Jews, Freemasons, Jesuits, and political clergymen." superiority and blind obedience. A necessary corollary of these two principles was ruthlessness. The evidence that we will introduce on these activities will show how successfully the SS learned the lesson it was taught. was carefully cultivated. Himmler himself publicly attested to it as early as 1936 in has pamphlet, "The SS as an anti-Bolshevist Fighting Organization"- our document 1851-PS, which, has already been introduced into evidence as US Exhibit 440. I quote two sentences which appear at page 29 of the original pamphlet, and on page 4 of the translation, the first two sentences:
"I know that there are some people in Germany who become sick when they see these black coats. We understand the reason for this and do not expect that we shall be loved by too many."
remain constantly the essence of Naziism and that its elite quality should never be diluted. maintained, I offer in evidence a letter written to the Defendant Kaltenbrunner by Himmler. This letter is our Document 2768-PS. It is a letter from the Reichsfuehrer SS, written at his field command post and bearing the date 24 April 1943. I offer it as US Exhibit 447. I quote from the first paragraph of that letter:
"Referring again to the matter which we discussed some time ago that is, the admission of SIPO officials into the SS - I wish to clarify again: I want an admission only if the following conditions are fulfilled:
"1. If the man applies freely and voluntarily.
"2. If, by applying strict and peace-time standards, the applicant fits racially and ideologically into the SS, guarantees according to the number of his children a really healthy SS stock, and is neither ill, degenerate, nor worthless."
Then, continuing with the third paragraph:
"I beg you not only to act accordingly in the future, but especially also that numerous admissions into the ranks of the SS in the past be re-examined and revised according to these instructions." manner in which a man became a member of the SS. This is discussed by Himmler in our Document 1992A-PS, at page 142 of the original and page 5 of the translation. If the Court thinks that it can take judicial notice of that passage, I shall not venture to read it. What it does is to describe how a young man comes into the SS normally, at the age of 18, serves an apprenticeship and receives his instructions in SS ideology, takes the SS oath, receives the SS dagger, and how long he remains in the general, active SS. Court will take judicial notice of it.
the SS man takes. That oath is quoted in the Waffen SS recruiting pamphlet, entitled, "The SS Calls You", our Document 3429-PS, which I offer in evidence as US Exhibit 446. The oath appears at page 18 of that pamphlet, and on page 2 of the translation, in the middle of the page. I quote the oath:
"The Oath of the SS Man:
"I swear to you, Adolf Hitler, as Fuehrer and Reichschancellor, loyalty and bravery, I vow to you, and to those you have named to command me, obedience unto death, so help me God."
regime. The proof of the elite Nazi quality and thorough reliability opponents or potential opponents of the Nazi regime.
That was the It is our document 2950-PS.
I offer it as US Exhibit 448. I shall "Many people were killed--I don't know how many--who actually did not have anything to do with the putsch.
People who just weren't liked very well, as, for instance, Schleicher, the former Reich Chancellor, were killed.
Schleicher's wife was also killed, and second man in the Party after Hitler.
Strasser, at the time he December of 1932.
The SS was used by Himmler for the execution of these orders to suppress the putsch."
equal in rank to the SA, and other similar ranking. I ask the Court Voelkischer Beobachter of July 26th, 1934.
It is our document No. 1857-PS.
I shall read the translation of that passage, which "The Reich Press Office announces the following Order of Munich, 20th July, 1934."
"The Reichfuehrer SS like the Chief of Staff is, theory."
By its action on June 30th, the SS proved this. It was, to the security of any regime is control of the police.
The aim the SS and the police became intermingled.
Shortly after the in the case against the Gestapo.
By 1934, Himmler, the Reichsfuehrer SS, had become the chief of these secret political police forces in each of the States in Germany, except Prussia and deputy chief of the Prussian Gestapo. In that capacity he infiltrated these forces with members of the SS until a virtual identity of the membership of the SS and the Gestapo were achieved. German Police, published in the Reichsgesetzblatt for 1936, Part I, pages 487 and 488, our Document No. 2073-PS, I assume the Court will take judicial notice of it, the new post of Chief of the German Police was created in the Ministry of the Interior. Under the terms of the decree, Himmler was appointed to this post with the title of "Reichsfuehrer SS, and Chief of the German Police in the Ministry of the Interior." SS, and head of all the police forces in the Reich, was no accident, but was intended to establish a permanent relation between the two bodies, and not a mere "transitory fusion of personnel." The significance of this combination of these two positions was referred to by Hitler in his secret order of 17 August 1938 on the organization and mobilization of the SS, our document No. 647-PS, which I introduce in evidence as USA Exhibit No 443, from which I now quote the preamble found on the first page of our document No. 647-PS, and at the beginning of the original order. I quote:
"By means of the nomination of the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of 1936, (Reichsgesetzblatt I, page 487), I have created the basis "With this step, the Schutzstaffeln of the NSDAP, which were under German Police."
the entire police force, designating two separate branches. (1) the regular uniformed police force (Ordnungspelizei, or Orpo) as they were called by their abbreviated title, and (2) the so-called Security Police, or as they became to be known for short under their abbreviated title of "Sipo". The Security Police were composed of all the criminal police in the Reich, and all the Gestapo.
This reorganization was achieved by the Decree assigning functions in the Office of the Chief of the German Police, published in the Reichsministerialblatt for 1936, pages 946-948, our Document No. 1551-PS, Of the Decree I assume the Court will take judicial notice. Gestapo, Himmler appointed Reinhard Heydrich who was at that time the Chief of the SD, and the SS Intelligence agency already referred to. Thus, through Himmler's dual capacity as leader of the SS, and as Chief of the Police, and through Heydrich's dual capacity as head of the SD and Security Police, a unified personal command of the SS and Security Police Forces was achieved.
But further steps toward unification were later taken. In 1939 the Security Police and the SD were combined in a single department, The Reich Main Security Office, commonly referred to as RSHA. The important point to be observed is this: The newly created Reich Security Office, the RSHA, was not a mere department of the government. It was simultaneously an agency of the government; organizationally placed in the Department of the Interior, and at the same time one of the principal departments of the SS, organizationally placed in the Supreme Command of the SS. This division of the SS is shown by the chart before you, RSHA being indicated by the sixth block from the left on the chart, but it was not merely the Gestapo and the Criminal Police which came under the sway of the SS. The regular uniformed police as well were effected. For, like the RSHA, the department of the Regular Police, the Ordnungspolizei, was also not merely a department in the Ministry of the Interior, but also simultaneously in the Supreme Command of the SS. Its position in the SS is indicated by the seventh block on the chart, on the left.
matter of the highest headquarters. It extended, down to the operating level. The Court will observe from the chart that the Higher SS and Police Leader in each region, who was directly subordinate to Himmler, had under his command both the Security police, SIPO, and the regular uniformed police, Ordnungspolizei, Also that these forces, the SIPO and the Ordnungspolizei, were not only under the command of the Higher SS and the Police Leader, but indicated by the blue line, were also under command of the RSHA, and the Department of the Regular Police. Thus, you have organizationally a unit of command over the SS and the Police. This organization was not the only way by which the unity was achieved. Unity of personnel was also achieved. Vacancies occuring in the police forces were filled by SS members. Police officials in the forces were able to join the SS, and schools were operated by the SS for the police, as well as for the SS officials.
These measures are described in Himmler's article "Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police", our Document No. 1992-A-PS. They are also described in an authoritative book on the Police, entitled, "The German Police," the book published in 1940, written by Dr. Werner Best, a Ministerial Director in the Ministry of the Interior, and a department head in the Security Police. It bears on its fly-leaf the impramatur of the Nazi Party, and is listed in the official list of National Socialist Party bibliography, chapter 7 from that book is our Document No. 1852-PS. I offer this book in evidence as USA Exhibit No.449. the Police became identified in structure and in activity. The resulting situation was described in Dr. Werner' Best's book, which I have just offered in evidence, our Document No. 1852-PS, as follows. I quote from page 7 of that document, paragraph 5, from the original book, page 95, paragraph 3.
"Thus the SS and the Police form a unit, both in their structure and points of view".part of the functions assigned to it.
The working partnership between the activity.
That will be dealt with in the case against the Gestapo. In whole criminal SS scheme.
I shall not, therefore, consider here evidence Control over the police was not enought.
Potential sources of opposition could be tracked down by the SD.
Suspects could be seized by regime.
For this purpose, the concentration camps were invented. The illustrated in the moving pictures displayed about ten days ago.
The personnel.
Part time volunteer members of the Allgemeine SS were original have already described, were organized.
During the war, members of the initially undertaken when the camps were created.
The Tribunal will recal of mobilization.
It is unnecessary to repeat the evidence of wholesale brutality, torture and murder committed by SS guards.
They were not the his article, "Organization and Obligations of the SS and the Police, US Exhibit 139, our document 1992A-PS.
I quote from Page 7 of the transla tion, last paragraph; from page 148 of the original, third paragraph.
THE PRESIDENT: Did you say 439?
MAJOR FARR: It was Exhibit 439. It is our document 1992A-PS. I quote from page 7 of the translation, last paragraph:
"It would be extremely instructive for everyone, some members of the camp.
Once they have seen it, they are convinced of the fact that no one had been sent there unjustly; that it is the offal of criminals and freaks by Doctor Guett, exists than such a concentration camp.
There you can Jewish, and a number of racially inferior products.
All that is assembled there.
Of course, we distinguish between those inmates who are only there for a very long time.
On the whole, education consists of discipline, have, for the most part, slave-like souls; and only very few people of real character can be found there."
remark:
"The discipline thus means order. The order begins with these people living in clean barracks.
Such a thing can really only be accomplished by us Germans, hardly another nation would be as human as we are.
The laundry is frequently changed.
The people are taught to wash themselves been unfamiliar."
that callous jest was. He made no such pretense in his speech to his own Gruppenfuehrers at Posen, our document 1919-PS, US Exhibit No. 170.
I quote from Page 43 of the original, last paragraph; from Page 2 of the translation, the first full paragraph.
That is 1919-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: 1990?
MAJOR FARR: 1919.
THE PRESIDENT: Page 2?
MAJOR FARR: Page 2 of the translation, the first full paragraph, headed, "The Communists in the Reich":"I don't believe the Communists could attempt any action, for their German people in concentration camps:
I'll answer for that."
Certainly there was no "silly humanitarianism" in the manner in which the SS men performed their tasks.
Just as an illustration, I should like to examine their conduct, not in 1944 or 1945, but 1933.
I have four tion camp Dachau between May 16 and May 27, 1933.
Each report is signed the Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court in Munich.
These four report:
Now, I don't want to take the time of the Tribunal to read that evidence if it feels that it is a minor point. The significance of it is this: It is just an illustration of the sort of thing that happened in the concentration camp at the earliest possible date, in 1933. I am prepared to offer these four reports in evidence and to quote from them, if the Tribunal thinks that the point is not insignificant.
THE PRESIDENT: Where are they
MAJOR FARR: They are right here. I will offer them in evidence. The first is our document 641-PS. It is a report dated 1 June 1933, and relates to the death of Dr. Alfred Strauss, a prisoner in protective custody in Dachau. I offer it in evidence as US Exhibit 450. I shall read a few paragraphs from that report, beginning with paragraph one:
"On May 24, 1933 the 30 year old, single, attorney at law, Dr. Alfred Strauss from Munich who was in the concentration camp Dachau as a prisoner under protective custody was killed by two pistol shots from SS man Johann Kantschuster who escorted him on a walk outside the fence part of the camp prescribed to him by the camp doctor.
"Kantschuster gives the following report: He himself had to urinate; Strauss proceded on his way. Suddenly Strauss broke away towards the schrub located at a distance of about 6 m. from the line. When he noticed it, he fired two shots at the fugitive from a distance of about 8 m. whereupon Strauss collapsed dead.
"On the same day, May 24, 1933, a judicial inspection of the locality took place. The corpse of Strauss was lying at the edge of the wood. Leather slippers were on his feet. He were a sock on one foot, while the other foot was bare, obviously because of an injury to this foot. Subsequent] an autopsy was performed. Two bullets had entered the back of the head. Besides, the body showed several black and blue spots and also open wounds."
Skipping now to the last paragraph of the report:
"I have charged Kantschuster today with murder and have made application for opening and execution of the judicial preliminary investigation as well as for a warrant of arrest against him."
That is the first of the four reports. The significance is that you have one after the other, committed within a short space of time, and in each instance an official report by the camp commander or the guard as to the cause of death, which was completely disproved by the facts.
Leonhard Hausmann, another prisoner in Dachau. It is our Document 6428-F and I offer it in evidence as U.S. Exhibit No. 451.
THE PRESIDENT: I don't think you need read the details.
MAJOR FARR: I will offer it without reading it.
The third report which I shall offer is dated 22 May 1933. It relates to the death of Louis Schloss, an inmate of Dachau and is our Document 644-PS. I offer it in evidence as USA Exhibit 452.
The fourth document, our No. 645-PS, dated 1 June 1933, relates to the death of Sebastian Nefzger, another Dachau prisoner. I offer this letter in evidence as U.S. Exhibit No. 453.
in the Spring of 1933, each by different SS guards, are but a few examples of SS activities in the camps even as early as 1933. Many similar examples from that period and later periods could be produced.
Indeed, that sort of thing was officially encouraged. I call the Tribunals attention to the Disciplinary Regulations for the Dachau Concentration Camp, car document 778-PS, which has already been introduced in evidence as U.S.A. Exhibit 247. I want to read the fourth paragraph of the introduction to those rules, a passage which was not read when the document was originally introduced. The fourth paragraph on the first page of the translation of the original is as follows:
"Tolerance means weakness. In the light of this conception, punishment will be mercilessly handed out whenever the interests of the Fatherland warrant it. The fellow countryman who is decent but misled will never be affected by these regulations. But let it be a warning to the agitating politicians and intellectual provocators - regardless of which kind - be on your guard not to be caught, for otherwise it will be your neck and you will be shut up according to your own methods." is to be noted, was the commandant of the SS Totenkopfverbaende. of the SS with relation to the camps. The entire internal management of the camps, including the use of prisoners, their housing, clothing, sanitary conditions, the determination of their right to live and the disposal of their remains, was controlled by the SS. Such management was first vested in the leader of the SS Death Head Units who also had the title of Inspector of the Concentration Camps. This official was originally a part of the SS Main Office (SS Hau*---* - represented on the chart by the second box from the left. camps was transferred to another of the departments of the SS Supreme Command - the SS Economic and Administration Department - commonly known as WVHA. That department is indicated on the chart by the 3rd box from "Concentration Camps" which in turn is broken down into "Prison, Labor, the left.