The courts are to be presided over by a police officer or an SS Leader, who have authority to order the death sentence or confiscation of property, and those decisions are not subject to appeal.
THE PRESIDENT: Just one moment, please. It is coming through to the French now?
(The answer was "Yes".)
MR. BRUDNO: Thus, the determination of the SS, of these summary courts, is made subordinate to the authority of a representative of the Rosenberg Ministry. General Commissar is defined. It is stated here that:
"The General Commissar forms the administrative office of intermediate appeal."
Three paragraphs down it is stated, and I quote:
"The SS-and Police Leader assigned to the General Commissar is directly subordinated to him. However, the Chief of Staff has the general right of requiring information from him." subdivisions of the Ministry, concluding with Regional Commissars who preside over the local administrative districts. They too have police units assigned to them and directly subordinated to them.
THE PRESIDENT: Well. Mr. Brudno, surely that could have been stated in a sentence without referring us to all these passages in this document. I mean, Rosenberg was the Minister for the Eastern territories. He had under him Reich Commissars and SS units, who had the full administration--civil administration--of the Eastern territories.
MR. BRUDNO: Very well, your Honor. the economic exploitation of the territory was undertaken in the fullest cooperation with the Commissioner of the Four Year Plan, as shown by paragraph 2 of page 7 of the translation. It is stated there that the economic inspectorates of the Commissioner of the Four Year Plan will be substantially absorbed in the agencies of the civil administration after the establishment of the civil administration.
I also wish to call your Honors' attention to the first paragraph on page 6, which reads as follows.
"The various commissars," it says, "are, aside from the military agencies, the only Reich authorities in the Occupied Eastern territories. Other Reich authorities may not be established alongside them. They handle all questions of administration of the area which is subordinate to their sovereignty and all affairs which concern the organization and activity of the administration. including those of the police, in the supervision of the native agencies and organizations and of the population."
is entitled, "Working Directives for the Civil Administration."
as part of document EC-347, USA Exhibit 320. I call particular attention to the statement that the "Hague Rules of Land Warfare, armed power, are not valid."
"The handling of cases of sabotage is a concern of the Senior Leaders of the lower echelon.
Insofar as collective measures against "The assessment of fines of money or goods, as well as the not intervene."
"The District Commissar is responsible for the supervision of all prisons, insofar as the Reich Commissar does not intervene."
with a detailed account of the manner in which Rosenberg's plenary authority and power were wielded.
There is evidence in the record, R-135, which was previously introduced as USA Exhibit 289.
In this document the prison warden of Minsk reports that 516 German and Russian Jews had been killed, and called attention to the fact that valuable gold had been lost due to the failure to knock out the fillings of the victims before they were done away with. Your Honors will recall, from Document 1056, was directly under the supervision of the Ministry for the Occupied East.
For my next illustration I wish to offer Document 018-PS. This document has already been introduced as USA Exhibit 186, but the first paragraph -
THE PRESIDENT (interposing): What was that last document you referred us to, R-135?
MR. BRUDNO:R-135, I believe you will find it the last in the document book, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh yes, I see; thank you.
MR. BRUDNO: I would like to read to the Tribunal the first paragraph of Document 018-PS, which has not yet been read into the record. The document reveals that Rosenberg wrote Sauckel on 21 November 1942, in the following terms:
"I thank you very much for your report on the execution of the great task given to you, and I am glad to hear that in carrying out your mission you have always found the necessary support, even on the part of the civilian authorities in the occupied Eastern territories. For myself and the officials under my command, this collaboration was and is self-evident, especially since both you and I have, with regard to the solution of the labor problem in the East, represented the same points of view from the beginning." with the continuation of the forced labor program, in spite of the retreat from the East.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): After making this generality, Rosenberg goes on to object, at the last here, to the methods used. You haven't mentioned that.
MR. BRUDNO: Quite right, Your Honor. Those objections are already in Rosenberg favored recruitment from the East, that his civilian administrators the record, sir, and I was merely referring to this document to show that cooperated with the recruitment in spite of the methods used, the methods which were known to Rosenberg as he reports in the letter himself.
DR. ALFRED THOMA (Counsel for the Defendant Rosenberg) -- (interposing): High Tribunal. I must, in this connection protest that the Prosecution, as to paragraph 1, which he just read, did not finish reading it. In the following paragraph it is declared that an agreement of Sauckel and Rosenberg on this point existed.
THE PRESIDENT: I don't think you can have heard that the United States Member of the Tribunal has just made this very point which you are now making to counsel for the United States, and has pointed out to him that he ought to have read there, or drawn attention, at any rate, to the other paragraphs in this document which showed that Rosenberg was objecting to the methods used.
DR. THOMA: High Tribunal. I would like to point to the fact that the Prosecution quoted just the first two sentences from a paragraph -- the same paragraph -- to the effect that it declares that there was an agreement between him and Sauckel that the workers were to be treated well in Germany, and for this purpose welfare organizations were to be created. The way it was presented by the prosecution, the appearance is created as though Sauckel and Rosenberg were, concerned only with the deportation of these workers, whereas it was concerned with these phases.
THE PRESIDENT: As counsel for the United States has pointed out, the other passages in the document have already been read. And, naturally, the whole document will be treated as being in evidence. Did you hear that
DR. THOMA: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal fully realizes the point you are making, that it is not fair be read one passage of a document when there are other passages in the document which show that the passage read is not a full or proper statement of the document.
MR. BRUDNO: If Your Honor please, I was not attempting to delude the balance.
The rest is in the record.
Tribunal; it was merely in the interests of time that I did not read the
THE PRESIDENT: I realize that.
(Whereupon at 1700 hours the hearing of the Tribunal adjourned, to reconvene on 10 January 1945, at 1000 hours.)
Official transcript of the Inter-
1 0 Jan-M-MB-4
MR. BRUDNO: May it please the Tribunal when the Tribunal rose yesterday I finished the submission of proof as to Rosenberg's responsibility and authority in the occupied Eastern territories, and was about to conclude my presentation with four brief examples as to the manner in which his authority was exercised. I was in the middle of the third example, which your Honors will recall dealt with Rosenberg's participation in the forced labor program. I wish to conclude that illustration with reference to Document 199-PS, which we offer as U.S. Exhibit 606. This document is a letter from Alfred Meier, Rosenberg's deputy, addressed to Sauckel, dated July 11, 1944. This time, your Honors will note, it is Rosenberg's ministry that is urging action. I wish to quote item number 1 of this letter, which reads as follows "The war employment command formerly stationed in Minsk must continue under all circumstances the call in of your white Ruthenian and Russian manpower for military employment in the Reich.
In addition, the command has the mission to bring your boys of 10-14 years of 10-14 years of age to the Reich."
My third illustration deals with Rosenberg's exercise of his legislative power, and I ask the Court to take judicial notice of the decree signed by Lohse, who was Reich Commissar for the Ausland. This decree is published in the Verordnungs Blatt for the Ausland, 1942, No. 38, pages 158 and 159. It provides for the seizure of the entire property of the Jewish population in the Ausland, including the claims of Jews against third parties. The seizure is made retroactive to the day of occupation of the territory by German troops. This sweeping decree was issued and published by Rosenberg's immediate subordinate and it must be assumed that Rosenberg knew of it and acquiesced in it.
I now come to my final illustration. This illustration is derived from Document 327-PS, which is already in evidence as U.S.A. Exhibit 338.
dated October 17, 1944. It furnishes a graphic account of Rosenberg's activities in the economic exploitation of the Occupied East. I quote from the first paragraph on page 1, which has not been read into the record:
"In order not to delay the liquidation of companies under to the highest authorities of the Reich.
I supervise the following companies:"
agricultural development company, a supply company, a pharmaceutical company and five banking concerns. On page three of the translation at item la, the mission of the trading company is stated to be:
"Collection of all agricultural predicts as well as com mercial marketing and transportation thereof.
(Delivery to armed forces and the Reich)." Item five reads as follows:
"During this period, the Z.O. (Central Trading Corporation) together with its subsidiaries has collected:
Meat and meat products 622,000 " Lindseed 950,000 " Butter 208,000 " Sugar 400,000 " Fodder 2,500,000 " Potatoes 3,200,000 " Seeds 141,000 " Other agricultural products 1,200,000 " The following was required for Transportation:
Farbon shipping space."
played a leading role in the Nazi party's rise to power by molding German thought so as to promote the conspirators' ambitions; that he played a leading role in spreading propaganda and intrigue and in instigating treason in foreign countries so as to pave the way for the waging of wars of aggression; and that he bears full responsibility for the war crimes and crimes against humanity which were perpetrated in the Occupied Eastern Territories, which will be farther developed by the Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R. Rosenberg.
The next presentation will be that of the case against the defendant Frank, which will be presented by Lt. Col. Baldwin.
LT. COL. BALDWIN: May it please the Tribunal, we wish now to deal with the individual responsibility of the defendant Frank. In accordance with the expressed desire of the Tribunal, the presentation has been strictly limited, and I welcome any direction from the Tribunal as to method or length as I proceed. of our legal staff, and to Doctor Pietrowski, of the Polish delegation for their invaluable work, Doctor Pietrowski naturally having a special interest in the defendant Frank. Count I of the Indictment have been placed before this Tribunal on several occasions. There remain, however, certain matters for discussion -- either novel in presentation or development -- concerning this Defendant as an individual before the United States portion of the Prosecution's case against him is completed. Needless to state, our Soviet colleagues will carry further and heavy complaint against the Defendant Frank in their treatment of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in the East. We wish here merely to touch upon that evidence which, we believe, irrefutably discloses Frank to have been a tremendously important cog in the machine which conceived, promoted and executed the Nazi Command Plan or Conspiracy. Documents relating to this point have been assembled in a document book bearing the letter "FF". I am informed that these books, as well as explanatory briefs, have been distributed for the use of the members of the Tribunal.
"Frank Diary", portions of which have already been brought to the attention of this Tribunal. It seems appropriate that brief mention be made here of the content and source of this Diary. It is a set of 42 volumes detailing the activities of the Defendant Frank from 1939 to the end of the war in his capacity as General Governor of Occupied Poland. It is a record, in short, of each day's business -- hour by hour, appointment by appointment, conference by conference, speech by speech, and, in truth we believe, crime by crime. Each volume, excepting the last few, is handsomely bound and in those volumes, which deal with the conferences of Frank and his underlings in the General Government, the name of each person attending the meeting is inscribed in his own handwriting on a page preceeding the minutes of the conference itself. It is incredibly shocking to the normal conscience that such a neat history of murder, starvation and extermination should have been maintained by the individual responsible for such deeds but by now the Tribunal is well aware that the Nazi leaders were sentimentally fond of elaborately documenting their exploits, as witness the Rosenberg volumes displaying the looted art treasures and the album reporting on the extermination of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. The complete set of the Frank Diary was found in Bavaria, near Neuhaus, on 18 May 1945, by the 7th American Army. It was taken to the 7th Army Document Center at Heidelberg and on or about 20 September 1945, the collection was sent to the Office of U. S. Chief of Counsel here at Nurnberg. It is here in Court in its entirety, and now its tones we submit, are those of accusation, rather than boastful narration. Party and in the German Government is undeniable. Even, presumably, it would be unfair to the Defendant Frank to underestimate his importance in the Nazi hierarchy and the Third Reich. Like theother Defendants in this case, he was a man of far-reaching influence and position, and his office holding record is already before this Court.
It is an affidavit signed by the Defendant Frank and identified as USA Exhibit #7. This document contains a listing of eleven important positions held by Frank in the Party and in the government and supports the assertion of influence and position which I have just made, especially since this Tribunal has been fully apprised of the criminal activities of the Nazi organizations and formations.
In the one -- from 1920 to 1939 -- he was, by his own admission, the leading Nazi jurist, although parenthetically the word "jurist" loses its reputable content when modified by the word "Nazi." In the other period -- extending from October 1939 until the end of the war -- he was the Governor General of Occupied Poland. While he is most notorious for his persecutions and carrying out of the conspiracy in the latter capacity, it is the opinion of the U.S. Prosecution that the Defendant Frank's contributions to the Nazi rise in power as the leading "Nazi jurist" should not pass without mention. It is with this aspect that I shall first deal -- the Defendant Frank's furtherance of the realization of the conspirators' program in the field of law, his knowledge of the criminal purpose of the program and his active participation therein. for power in the following words in the course of his closing remarks at a conference held on 28 August 1942 at Kressendorf. The remarks appear in the Diary and are translated in our document 2233-PS which, if the Court please, is at page 54 in the Document Book before it. The numbers of the pages of the document book will be found in the upper right-hand corner in colored pencil, red or blue. The original of this document I now offer in evidence as U.S.A. Exhibit 607. In the German texts these extracts appear in Part 3 in the 1942 diary volume on pages 968, 969, and 983, and I now quote. Frank says:
"I have since 1920 continually dedicated my work to the NSDAP. As a National Socialist I was a participant in the events of November 1923 for which I received the Blutorden. After the resurrection of the movement in the year 1925, my real greater activity in the movement began, which made me, first gradually, later almost exclusively, the legal adviser of the Fuehrer and of the Reich leadership of the NSDAP.
I thus was the representative of legal interests of the growing Third Reich in a legal ideological as well as practical legal way. He goes on to say: "The culmination of this work I see in the big Leipzig Army Trial in which I succeeded in having the Fuehrer admitted to the famous oath of legality, a circumstance which gave the Movement the legal grounds to expand generously. The Fuehrer indeed recognized this achievement and in 1926 made me leader of the National Socialist Lawyers' League; in 1929, Reich Leader of the Reich Legal Office of the NSDAP: in 1933, Bavarian Minister of Justice; in 1934, President of the Academy of German Law founded by me; in December 1934, Reich Minister without portfolio; and in 1939, I was finally appointed to Governor General for the occupied Polish territories, "So I was, am, and will remain the representative jurist of the struggle period of National Socialism.
"I profess myself now, and always, as a National Socialist and a faithful follower of the Fuehrer Adolf Hitler, whom I have now served since 1919."
THE PRESIDENT (interposing): Is this an extract from his diary?
LT. COL. BALDWIN: Yes, it is.
THE PRESIDENT: Are the words "Present: Doctor Hans Frank and others" written by him in his diary?
LT. COL. BALDWIN: Yes; sir, they are. Before each of these excerpts, if your Honor please, if it was a conference it was indicated which members of the government generally were present or who made the address.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
LT. COL. BALDWIN: It is indeed significant and worth mentioning to the Court that the defendant Frank assumes responsibility for the so-called oath of legality at the Leipzig army trial. At that trial, in 1930, three army officers were accused of, curiously enough, conspiracy to high treason. The charge was that the defendants in that trial in their capacity as members of the German Army tried to form National Socialist cells in the German Army and to influence the German Army to such an extent that in the case of a Putsch by the National Socialists the army would not fire at the National Socialists but would stand at ease instead.
All three of the officers were found guilty and sentenced to eighteen months' confinement. At that trial, however, Hitler was a witness and during the course of the trial testified under oath that the term "revolution" used by him only meant spiritual revolution in Germany, and the expression "Heads would roll in the sand" meant only that they would do so as a result of legal procedure through State Tribunals if the National Socialists came to power. This, if the Court please, was the so-called oath of legality, the lie that the defendant Frank provided his Fuehrer as a facade for the conspiracy of which he, at least in 1942, considered the culmination of his efforts.
As the "representative jurist of the struggle period of National Socialism" and in the various juridical capacities listed in his affidavit of positions held, Defendant Frank was between 1933 and 1939 the most prominent policy maker in the field of German legal theory. For example, Defendant Frank founded the Academy of German Law in 1934 and he was president of this once-potent body until 1942. The statute defining the functions of the academy conferred on it wide power to initiate and coordinate juridical policies.
book, as our document 1391-PS, and appears in the 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt at page 605. We ask the Court to take judicial notice of it. I now quote briefly from the decree.
"It is the task of the Academy for German Law to further the rejuvenation of the Law in Germany. Closely connected with the agencies competent for legislation it shall further the realization of the National Socialist program in the realm of the Law. This task shall be carried out through well-fixed scientific methods.
"The Academy's task shall cover primarily:
"1. The composition, the initiation, judging and preparing of drafts of law.
"2. The collaboration in rejuvenating and unifying the training in jurisprudence and political science.
"3. The editing and supporting of scientific publications.
"4. The financial assistance for research and work in specific fields of law and Political Economy.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Do you have to read all this? We will take judicial notice of it.
LT. COLONEL BALDWIN: Among the early tasks which Defendant Frank set for himself, as policy maker in the field of law, were the unification of the German State, the promotion of racial legislation and the elimination of political organizations other than the Nazi Party. In a radio address given on 20 March, 1934, he announced success in these matters. Our partial English translation of this speech appears as document 2536-PS, page 64 in the document book. The official text of this speech appears in Dokumente der Deutschen Politik, Volume II, page 294-298. In the German text the extracts which I shall quote appear at pages 296 and 298, and I will ask the Court to take judicial notice of these passages.
"The first task was that of establishing a unified German State. It was an outstanding historical juristic-political accomplishment on German States.
At last we have now, after 1000 years, again a unified German State in every respect.
It is no longer possible detriment of the German people.
That is a thing of the past and for all times to come."
"The second fundamental law of the Hitler Reich is racial legislation.
The National Socialists were the first ones in the status of a legal term.
The German Nation , unified racially and further disintegration of the German race stock."
"The sixth fundamental law was the legal elimination of those This elimination has taken place entirely legally.
It is not the legal consequence of a clear political result of the 14 years' "In accordance with these unified legal aims," Frank continues, "in all spheres, particular efforts have for months now been made as "As a leader of the German jurists, I am convinced that, to dare to attack this legal State as regards its laws."
Professors of the National Socialist L awyers' League on 3 November, 1936, Defendant Frank explained to the gathering of professions, the elimination of Jews from the legal field, in accordance with the Nazi plan. Our partial translation of this speech appears as Document 2536-PS, at page 26 of the Document Book, The official text appears likewise in Dokumente der Deutschen Politik, in Volume IV, pages 225 to 230. I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of this. It deals, to summarize -
THE PRESIDENT: I don't think you need it because we have already had documents of the same sort.
LT. COLONEL BALDWIN: As the leading Nazi jurist, the Defendant Frank accepted, condoned and promoted the system of concentration camps and of arrest without warrant. He apparently had no hesitancy in subverting the legal framework of the German State to Nazi ends. He explains the outradeous departure from civilization that were concentration camps in an article on "Legislation and Judiciary in the Third Reich", published in 1936 in the official journal of the Academy, of which, of course, he was the editor. The partial translation of this article appears an our Document 2533-PS, at page 61 of the Document Book. The official German text of the extract appears in Zeitschrift der Akademie fuer Deutsches Recht, 1936, at page 141 and I will ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of this. Since the extract is short, I will ask permission to read it. Frank said:
"To the world we are blamed again and again because of the concentration camps. We are asked, 'Why do you arrest without a warrant of arrest'? I say, put yourselves into the position of our nation. Don't forget that the very great and still untouched world of Bolshevism csnnot forget that we have made final victory for them impossible, in Europe, right here on our German soil." the military, economic and diplomatic resources for aggressive war, the Defendant Frank, in the field of legal policy, geared the German juridical machine for a war of aggression, which war of aggression, as he explained in 1942 to the NSDAP Political Leaders of Galicia at a mass meeting in Lemberg, and I now quote from the Frank Diary, our Document 2233-PS-S, at page 50 in the Document Book, the original of which I offer into evidence as U.S.A. Exhibit 607--which war of aggression had for its purpose and I quote:
"to expand the living; pace for our people in a natural manner."
THE PRESIDENT: Is that page 50?
LT. COLONEL BALDWIN: Yes, sir. It is a very short quote, sir. Frank engineered for the Party gave him, if not the world, vast satisfaction. He reported this to the powerful Academy for German Law in November, 1939, one month after becoming Governor General of Occupied Poland. This speech is partially translated in our document 3445-PS, at page 73 in the Document Book. The official text of the speech appears in Deutsches Recht (Edition A), 1939 Volume 2, the week of 23-30 December 1939, beginning at page 2121 and we ask the Court to take judicial notice of this, but would ask permission to read the excerpt, as it is very short.
"Today we are proud to have formulated our legal principles from the very beginning in such a way that they need not be changed in the case of war. For the rule, right is that which is useful to the nation, and wrong is that which harms it, which stood at the beginning of our legal work, and which established this collective term of nation as the only standard of value of the law -- this rule dominates also the law of these times." a restatement of a Party commandment, refurbished and tailored by the Party lawyer to fit the Party's concept of law. I allude, of course, to the Party commandment, commented upon on page 1608 of the official English transcript of this proceedings in the treatment of the Leadership Corps, which commandment stated and I quote, "Right is that which serves the movement and thus Germany."
Frank to be jointly responsible for all those cruel and discriminatory enabling acts and decrees through which the Nazis crushed minorities in Germany and consolidated their control over the German State and prepared it for its early entry upon aggression. It matters not, in our view, that the signature of this lawyer does not appear at the foot of every decree. Enough has been shown, in cur submission, to show culpability in this regard. There is sufficient, we believe, now in this record -- and I refer to decrees cited by Major Walsh in his treatment of the persecution of the Jews and by Col. Storey in his treatment of the Reich Cabinet, to demonstrate that type of enactment and the consequences thereof, for which we hold the Defendant Frank liable. In following this theory, may it please the Tribunal, we are only arriving at conclusions already arrived at for us by the Defendant Frank himself.