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.
I now pass to that second and well-known phase of the Defendant Frank's official life - wherein he, for five years as chief Party agent, was bent upon the elimination of a whole people.
He was appointed Governor General of the Occupied Polish Territories by a decree signed by his then Fuehrer, on October 12, 1939. The decree defined the scope of Franks' executive power and is contained in our Document 2537-PS, at page 66 in the Document Book. I shall ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice thereof, since it appears in Reichsgesetzblatt, 1939, Part I, page 2077.
It merely states that Dr. Frank is appointed Governor-General of the Occupied Polish Territories; that Dr. Seyss-Inquart is appointed Deputy Governor General and that "the Governor-General shall be directly responsible to me", meaning Hitler, he having signed the decree. at the apparent efficiency of Nazi administration, we now know that it was often riddled with the petty jealousies of small men in positions of some authority and with jurisdictional fractiousness. No such difficulty exist with the Defendant Frank, however, for though he was not without the threat of divided authority, he insisted upon, and was granted, the favor of supreme command within the territorial confines of the General Government. Two references from his Diary, one in 1940 and one in 1942 are necessary to show the all-inclusiveness of his direction and authority. March 1940, in the Bergakademie, the Defendant Frank clarified his status as Governor General of Occupied Poland, and these remarks appear in the Diary and in our Document 2233-PS, at page 42 in the Document Book, the original of which I offer into evidence as USA Exhibit 173. Meetings, Volume for 1939-1940, at pages 6, 7 and 8. I now quote:
"Frank: One thing is certain. The authority of General Government that I would not tolerate the misuse of this authority.
I have especially after Herr Field Marshall Goering on 12.
2.1940 Government.
.."
He goes on to say:
"There is no authority here in General Government which is higher as to rank, influence, and authority than that of the Governor General, Even the Wehrmacht has no governmental or official functions of any kind in this connection; it has only security functions and general military duties -- it has no political power whatsoever. The same applies here to the Police and SS, There is here no state within a state, but we are the representatives of the Fuehrer and of the Reich." of the NSDAP in Cracow on 18 March, Defendant Frank further explained the relationship between his administration and the Reichsfuehrer SS, Himmler, These remarks appear in the Diary and in our document 2233-PS R and at page 48 of the Document Book, the original of which I offer into evidence as USA Exhibit 608. In the German text, the extract to be quoted appears at page 185, and at page 186, of Diary Volume 1912, Part I. I now quote:
"As you know, I am a fanatic as to unity in administration . . .
command over the gendarmerie in his district. This the Reichs fuehrer SS has recognised; in the written agreement all these can be treated in the traditional manner of small states".
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Do you think all this has to be read?
LT. COLONEL BALDWIN: It is considered important, sir, by the United States Prosecution, in view of the fact that this is the later extract from the Diary and indicates that two years later, even Frank considered himself to be the supreme authority in the General Government. This is a point which we conceive to be of importance sir.
May I proceed?
"It would, for instance, be ridiculous if we would build up here a security policy of our own against our Poles in the country, while knowing that the Poles in West Prussia, in Posen, in Wartheland and in Silesia have one and the same movement of resistance. The Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police thus must be able to carry out with the aid of his agencies, his police measures concerning the interests of the Reich as a whole. This, however, will be done in such a way that the measures to be adopted will first be submitted to me and carried out only when I give my consent. In the General Government, the Police is the armed forces. As a result of this, the Leader of the Police system will be called by me into the Government of the General Government; he is subordinate to me, or to my deputy, as a State Secretary for the Security System."
the man who filled the position of State Secretary for Security in the General Government was Frank's Higher SS and Police Leader Krueger.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you read the next page?
LT. COLONEL BALDWIN: May it please the Tribunal: I shall come to that excerpt later.
THE PRESIDENT: In the same document?
LT. COLONEL BALDWIN: Yes, sir. It seems more appropriate at another point. Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were made in the Spring of 1943 by SS Leader Stroop, who immediately supervised the operation -- to this same Krueger, who was still at that time one of the two most influential members of Frank's Cabinet, as State Secretary for Security. have as its component parts a host of small plans, each dealing with a particular sphere of activity. These plans, differing from the master plan only in size, are the blueprints for specific action drawn from the broad policies. Occupied Poland was no exception to this rule. The plan for the administration of Poland was contained in a top secret memorandum of a conference between Hitler and Chief of the OKW, Defendant Keitel, entitled, "Regarding Future Relations of Poland to Germany" and dated 20 October, 1939. This report was initialled by General Warlimont. It is our Document 964-PS and may be found at page 3 of the Document Book and I shall offer it into evidence as U.S.A. Exhibit 609. and 6.
"1) The Armed Forces will welcome it if they can dispose of administrative questions in Poland.
"On principle, there cannot be two administrations.
"3) It is not the task of the Administration to make Poland into a model province or a model state of the German order or to put her economically or financially on a sound basis.
"The polish intelligentsia must be prevented from forming a ruling class.
The standard of living in the country is to remain low; we only want to draw labor forces from there. Poles are also to be used for the administration of the country. However, the forming of national political groups may not be allowed.
"4) The Administration has to work on its own responsibility and must not be dependent on Berlin, We don't want to do there what we do in the Reich. The responsibility does not rest with the Berlin Ministries since there is no German administrative unit concerned.
"The accomplishment of this task will involve a hard racial struggle which will not allow any legal restrictions. The methods will be incompatible with the principles otherwise adhered to by us.
"The Governor General is to give the Polish nation only bare living conditions and is to maintain the basis for military security.
"6) Any tendencies towards the consolidation of conditions in Poland are to be suppressed. The "Polish muddle" must be allowed to develop. The government of the territory must make it possible for us to purify the Reich territory from Jews and Poles too. Collaboration with new Reich provinces (Posen and West Prussia) only for resettlements (Compare Mission Himmler).
Purpose: Shrewdness and severity must be the maxims in this racial struggle in order to spare us from going to battle on account of this country again."
The Defendant Frank was the chosen executor of this program. He knew its aims, approved of them, and actively carried out the scheme. The Tribunal's attention has already been invited to USA. Exhibit 297 wherein -- this may be found at page 1512 of the English text of the official transcript the Defendant Frank expounded the mission which has Fuehrer assigned to him and according to which he intended to administer in Poland, It contemplated, in brief, ruthless exploitation, deportation of all supplies and workers, reduction of the entire Polish economy to absolute minimum necessary for bare existence of the population, and the closing of all schools. No more callous statement exists than one Frank made in this report, wherein he said, "Poland shall be treated as a colony; the Poles shall be the slaves of the Greater German World Empire."
task of administering Poland did truly involve a hard racial struggle which would not allow any legal restrictions, I refer to our document 2233-PS-O, which may be found at page has in the document book. It is taken from the Frank Diary, and I offer it into evidence as USA Exhibit 173. In the German text the extract to be quoted appears in the volume of the Diary entitled "Department Heads Meetings 1939-1940" on pages 12 and 13. I now quote:
"In this country the force of a determined leadership must rule. The Pole must feel here that we are not building him a legal state, but that for him there is only one duty, namely to work and to behave himself. It is clear that this leads sometimes to difficulties, but you must in your own interest see that all measures are ruthlessly carried out in order to become master of the situation. You can rely on me absolutely in this."
As for the Poles and Ukrainians, Defendant Frank's attitude was clear. They were to be permitted to slave for the German economy as long as the war emergency continued. Once the war was won, even this cynical interest would cease. I refer to a speech before German political leaders at Cracow on 12 January 1944. It appears in the Frank Diary and as our document 2233-PS-B at page 60 in the document book. It is the first passage on that page. I offer it in evidence as USA Exhibit 295. In the Diary, the German text will be found in the looseleaf volume covering the period from 1 January to 28 February 1944, at the entry for 14 January 1944 at page 24 "Once the war is won", Frank tells these leaders -- and here we have, may it please the Court, the classic example of the completely brutal statement -"Once the war is won, then for all I care mincemeat can be made of the Poles and the Ukrainians and all the others who run around here -- it doesn't matter what happens."
Defendant Frank makes it quite clear in his diary that the complete annihilate of Jews was one of his cherished objectives. In USA Exhibit 271, Frank stated in late 1940 in his diary that he could not eliminate all lice and Jews in a year's time. In USA Exhibit 281, he notes in his Diary in the year 1942 that a program of starvation rations sentencing, in effect, 1,200,000 Jews to die of hunger, should be noted only marginally. In USA Exhibit 295, he confided to a secret press conference that in the year 1944 -- and this, too, is from the Diary -- there were still in the General Government perhaps 100,000 Jews. himself. We do no more here than to tabulate the results. The supreme authority within a certain geographic area admits that in a period of four years' time up to 3,400,000 persons from that area have been annihilated pursuant to an official policy and for no crime, but only because of having been born a Jew. No words could possibly reveal the inferences of death and suffering which must needs be drawn from these stark facts. endure terror, oppression, impoverishment and starvation. The Defendant Frank succeeded so well in thisregard that he was forced to report to his Fuehrer in 1943 that in effect Poles did not regard the General Government with affection.
This report to Hitler was a summarization of the first three and one-half years of the Defendant Frank's administration. It, better than anything else, can show the conditions as they then existed as a result of the conspiratorial efforts of the Defendants. document book, and I now offer the original into evidence as USA Exhibit 610. In the German text, the extract to be quoted appears at pages 10 and 11 of this report by Frank to Hitler dated 19 June 1943, regarding the situation in Poland. I now quote. Frank says:
"In the course of time, a series of measures or of consequences of the German rule have led to a substantial deterioration of the attitude of the entire Polish people to the General Government. These measures have affected either individual professions or the entire population and frequently also -- often with crushing severity - the fate of individuals."
He goes on:
"Among these are in particular:
"1. The entirely insufficient nourishment of the population, mainly of the working classes in the cities, whose majority is working for German interests.
"Until the war of 1939, its food supplies, though not varied, were sufficient and generally secure, due to the agrarian surplus of the former Polish state and in spite of the negligence on the part of their former political leadership.
"2. The confiscation of a great part of the Polish estates and the expropriation without compensation and resettlement of Polish peasants from maneuver areas and from German settlements.
"3. Encroachments and confiscations in the industries, in commerce and trade and in the field of private property.
"4. Mass arrests and mass shootings by the German police who applied the system of collective responsibility.
"5. The rigorous methods of recruiting workers.
"6. The extensive paralyzation of cultural life.
"7. The closing of high schools, junior colleges, aid universities.
"8. The limitation, indeed the complete elimination, of Polish influence from all spheres of State administration.
"9. Curtailment of the influence of the Catholic Church, limiting its extensive influence -- an undoubtedly necessary move -- and, in addition, until quite recently, the closing and confiscation of monasteries, schools, and charitable institutions."
THE PRESIDENT: This in only an extract here. Was he saying that these measures were inevitable or that he justified them, or what was he saying in the report?
COLONEL BALDWIN: He was saying that the Polish people's attitude to the General Government had substantially deteriorated. The reasons for the deterioration are the listings I gave to the court.
THE PRESIDENT: Is that all he said?
COLONEL BALDWIN: No, sir, that is just taken from pages 10 and 11 of the report. The report is an extremely long one.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I suppose you know what the general tenor of the report was.
COLONEL BALDWIN: The general tenor of the report, Sir, was in the natu of a complaint to Hitler, that he, Frank, was having an extremely difficult time in the General Government because of these measures and because of these happenings in the General Government.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
COLONEL BALDWIN: In order to illustrate how completely the Defendant Frank is identified with the policies -
DR. SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank)(Interposing): After the Tribunal has already asked the Prosecutor what would be the aim of presenting this document, I would like to emphasize here that this is a document of 40 typewritten pages addressed to Hitler and that Frank just criticizes the conditions which the prosecution has pointed out, that in this document he makes large and wide propositions in order to remedy the situation to which he severely objects.
THE PRESIDENT: Exactly. You will have full opportunity, when it is your turn, to explain this document, but it is not your turn at the moment.
DR. SEIDL: I only mention that now because the Tribunal itself drew my attention to this point.
THE PRESIDENT: One moment. Would you kindly state, for the purpose of the stenographers and the shorthand notes, your name and for whom you appear.