Q Then it was just a matter of carrying out practical work? come? people, from the working classes. They were taken from among manual laborers and people who had rather insignificant positions. according to which these people were chosen? for money matters were involved. These people had to collect dues, and the honesty of the person had to be beyond doubt. would designate the importance of their work as Hoheitstraeger? conversations that I had with other block and cell leaders, people who were active in former years, that there were block helpers where there were large blocks involved. I myself did not have a helper of that kind in my block.
Q And how about the title "Hoheitstraeger"? What did it mean? a Hoheitstraeger, for he had no authority to lead politically or to give directions. In our opinion, a Hoheitstraeger started with the Ortsgruppenleiter.
Q There were conversations among the Ortsgruppenleiters. Did the block leaders receive directives dealing with political opponents?
A We had these conversational evenings. Never at any time was a task like that -- the combatting of political opponents -- in any way ever given. you probably looked at these things very critically.
into concentration camps? Did you conceive directions in that line?
AAt no time did a directive like that ever go out. In my opinion, a block or zellenleiter could not in seriousness -
Q Witness, please pause longer; otherwise the interpreters will not be able to keep up with you very well.
A I shall repeat. A directive of that sort never went out to us. of spying on the population or on individuals for purposes of denunciation. presupposed and necessitated a relationship of confidence, his position from that point on would have been completely impossible. of detrimental rumors was to be reported to the Ortsgruppe so that the competent authorities could be advised and informed. Did you not act according to this book? by, and it was unknown to the other block and cell leaders as well.
THE RESIDENT: Dr. Servatius, you realize that the Tribunal has got a very full summary of the evidence which this witness gave to the Commission. In addition to the actual evidence, we have got a summary, which consists of six pages of folio, and therefore I think it would be convenient to the Tribunal if you could summarize the evidence as much as possible and take it as shortly as you can, as we have the opportunity of seeing the witness and forming our opinion on the credence to be attached to him.
DR. SERVATIUS: Mr. President, my examination will not take very long. BY DR. SERVATIUS: the names of those who were politically suspicious? lived there, with a column for people who might be politically suspicious, but that is a matter about which I know absolutely nothing.
Q Did the block leaders have police functions and authority?
Party? unemployment in Germany, which could be alleviated only in the course of years, but different individuals had different needs, and most of the block and cell leaders with whom I had contact hoped by entering the Party to receive general support in their efforts to do away with the German emergency. Prosecution were wars of aggression. The persecution of the Jews is well know. The trade unions were dissolved. Did not the block and cell leaders know about those incidents, and could they not have recognized that these were the aims of the Party which we set down in the Party program and in the book "Mein Kampf"?
A I consider that impossible. I personally was mere critical of all of these things than many others, but the Party program, as well as the propaganda which was very strong in the press and over the radio, these things could not show to the people what aims and intentions Hitler had at the time he took over power and the aims he followed. were they not well known and publicly known, so that each block and cell leader would of necessity have to know them? simple German or member of the Party. They heard announcements over the radio and the press, Fuehrer speeches, radio reports, and they could not gather any more than anybody else could.
Q You saw a series of faults, and you rejected them. You saw the practices followed by the Party. Why did you remain in office? take over the office nor later could I lay down my office. I could not seriously consider either possibility, for, as sufficient examples have already shown, that would have meant for me the loss of my profession, would have meant the destruction of my existence, and possibly it might have meant even more dire circumstances.
DR. SERVATIUS: Then, Mr. President, I have no further questions to put to this witness.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn.
(A recess was taken until 1400 hours.)
(The hearing reconvened at 1400 hours, 31 July 1916)
THE PRESIDENT: In accordance with the Tribunal order on procedure for the organizations entered on the 25th of July, several applications have been made to the Tribunal for an extention of time for the closing speeches by counsel for the organization. These applications are made, the Tribunal thinks, under some misapprehension as to the meaning of the order of July 25. It is not intended that the closing speeches should deal at length with the documents. When offering the documents, or during the examination of witnesses, or at the conclusion of the evidence, as counsel prefers, he may make brief references to the documents to explain their nature and the points to which they refer. All the material matters will thus be before the Tribunal. This will enable the closing speeches to be devoted to summarizing the evidence and commenting on any matters of law, and one-half day will be ample for that purpose. That is all.
DR. SERVATIUS: I have a question on the decision which was announced. My documents and the legal evidence I submitted to the Court without comment, according to the ruling as I understood it. At the end of the total evidence may I comment on this written evidence, and will the Court look through the documents? It was not possible, because they were not at hand.
THE PRESIDENT: Certainly, Dr. Servatius.
DR. ERNST HIRT -- Resumed BY IT COL. GRIFFITH JONES:
Q. Witness, I want to ask you one or two questions on a general matter. Am I right in saying that in towns and villages in many parts of the country there were vast cases exhibiting "Der Stuermer" set up?
A. In many towns there were so-called "Stuermer" cases.
Q. Were they set up by the party?
A. I know nothing whatever about that.
Q. You cannot tell me, can you, whether those "Stuermer" cases were set up on the instruction of either the Kreis or Ortsgruppenleiter?
A. For my own person, I had the impression that the local SA was responsible for setting up the "Stuermer" cases.
Q. There were also, were there not, both in towns -- particularly holidy reports -- and all over the countrysides, notices saying that Jews were undesirable? "Juden sind unerwuenscht"?
A. I saw such signs in various parts of Germany.
Q. Do you know whether they were set up on the instructions and by the authority of the local political leader?
A. I do not know.
LT COL GRIFFITH JONES: Very well. a commission. Perhaps I might draw the Tribunal's attention to it now and to the relevant parts. It is document D-901A, which will become GB 546 Cologne-Aachen on the 31st of January 1941 and it contains instructions to all Kreis and Ortsgruppen organisationsleiters regarding the installing and keeping of card indexes of households.
Under paragraph 1, "The sense and purpose of card indexing households" it is stated that the purpose is as a basis for statistical inquiries and, combined with the entries on the back of the card index of households, for the political judgment of the members of a household. enable the Ortsgruppenleiter to give at any moment a judgment of the household member concerned which is sufficient in all respects.
Then, My Lord, under Paragraph 5, "The Blockleiter must be in possession of lists which contain the same printed text as the household card index, and which are to be provided with the necessary entries by the Blcokleiters : family status, Party membership, membership of an organization affiliated body, etc. Nothing is to be mentioned in these lists about a political judgment."
On the next page, the second paragraph in No. 10 sets out the information which is to be obtained. Halfway down that paragraph:" It is thus to be recorded since when the "Voelkischer Beobachter" was subscribed to, whether the family already possessed a swastika flag before the 1935 flag law, and what wireless apparatus is available in the household. It is easy to obtain this data from a conversation by Blockleiters with the German concerned." I quote the last three lines:"The political judgment of every German is to be carried out by the Ortsgruppe n Organisationsleiter in cooperation with the competent Block and Zelleleiter, as well as in agreement with the Ortsgruppenleiter".
Then in the last paragraph, No. 14 on the next page, it describes how this information can be obtained. "It is prohibited on principle to give Germans and Party members lists or index cards to fill in themselves. Owing to their frequent visits to the individual households, the Blockleiters have sufficient opporutnity to obtain the required data for the index by means of conversations with the Germans. The Blockleiter must make sure of the accuracy of the data supplied, to him by looking through membership papers and such like. The Blockleiter is responsible for the accuracy of the data supplied to the Ortsruppen-organisationsleiters. in.
GEN. RAGINSKY: Mr. President, with your permission I would like to submit three documents which characterize the role of a Kreisleiter and a Blockleiter who committed such crimes as the Germanization of occupied territories, and of the occupied peoples.
The first document I am submitting is document USSR 143. This document was discovered in the archives of the Kreisfuehrer of the town of Pettau in Yugoslavia in May 1945. I would ask the Tribunal to make a note of the fact that the document begins with the phrase, it is indispensable immediately to make all the Blockfuehrers up to the last acquainted with the contents of this document, and the document is signed by a Kreisleiter.
"During my inspection tours through the various local chapters, I ascertained that there are still Slovenian inscriptions. I repeatedly requested the Blockfuehrer to immediately see to it that all these Slovenian inscriptions, billboards, posters, etc., be removed. I therefore ordered the chief of the local chapter to see to it, through personal conversation with a competent priest, that the Slovenian inscriptions will also immediately without exception, disappear from all statues, chapels, and churches."
Point 3 of this document is as follows: "The chiefs of the local chapters are responsible as before that every officeholder down to the last block leader learns to speak and write German.
31 July A LJG 13-1 The next document which I am presenting under No. USSR 449 is an excerpt from the speech of Reich Minister of the Interior Dr. Frick, dated the 16th of December, 1941, in connection with the appointment of a Gauleiter, Dr. Friedrich Rainer.
This document was seized in the archives of the Kreisleiter of the War the Gau by the Yugoslavian army in may, 1945. In the speech it is said:
"Dear Party Comrade Rainer:
"The Fuehrer has appointed you to be a Gauleiter"-
THE PRESIDENT: General Raginsky, have you got the original of this document?
GENERAL RAGINSKY: I beg you to forgive me, Mr. President; I did not get your remark.
THE PRESIDENT: It is all right. We have the original of the document now. Now can you explain to us what the document is; I mean, how it is certified, how it is proved?
GENERAL RAGINSKY: This document has been authenticated by the Yugoslav Government Committee on the Investigation of Crimes of the Germans Occupying the South of Yugoslavia. The original of this document is to be found in the archives of this committee. The copy which I am submitting to this Tribunal has been authenticated by the president of the Government Commission, Dr. Giedlkovitch.
"Dear Party Comrade Rainer:
"The duty of Party Comrade Rainer is that this entire district is to be made entirely and totally German. The German language must more and more receive a priority. It is the only language of authority and the only one which can be used officially. The youth in the schools must immediately be educated in the German spirit. This must be introduced immediately and all educational institutions must be exclusively in German.
"As to the rest of the population, they must be taught the German language at an increased tempo. This must not only be the external picture.
The professional language will be 31 July A LJG 13-2 generally German, and all official matters will be in German.
And only when the entire youth will be speaking German and only when the German language will have been introduced into daily life and will replace the Yugoslavian language --only then will we be able to speak about the Germanization of our district." No. USSR 191. This document is also an excerpt from the minutes of a conference of the staff of the Gauleiter of Lower Styria, and the original of this document was seized by units of the Yugoslav Army in the archives of the Gauleiter of the town of Marbov in May, 1935.
On the first page of this excerpt, Mr. President, we can see that on the 12th of November 1941, the Gauleiter was having a conference with who Security Department, and at this conference were present members of the SS and Standardenfuehrer Lurdent informed the Gauleiter that approximately 2,000 people had been transferred to Serbia and 1,200 people had been put into concentration comps. As a retaliatory measure for the last incident, about 30 people have been shot.
The last paragraph on the first page reads: -- This is an excerpt from the minutes of the conference of the 6th of January 1932, and this also states that on the 27th of December 1941, in answer to an attack, 40 people were shot, and further the representative of the Styrian Gauleitung said: "There is settlement into Germany proper. The movement is almost completed. About 10,000 people are still to be resettled." excerpts of a similar kind. BY DA. SERVATIUS: I shall ask you a few questions briefly about them. The first is the letter of the document D-901.
That was a circular letter 31 July A LJG 13-3 of the Gau Cologne-Aachen, 1941.
That was the speech in which a card index of households was mentioned. Do you know whether in your sphere such card indexes of households were kept of the some content that was mentioned here?
A I know only card indexes of all inhabitants. And inhabitants were listed according to name, family status, birth, profession, and membership in the Party or branch. Other essential questions were not asked and not answered on these cards. exaggeration?
A Up to now, I have no knowledge of this order. If it had been general for all Ortsgruppen in Germany, it would have had to be announced and carried out by us, too. As such an excessive order was issued in the Gau of Cologne-Aachen, it was only the Gauleiter or the Gau organizational leader who was responsible for that, and it was certainly an exaggerated interpretation of the situation on his part. of Pettau of the 30 the of April, 1942. It was addressed to all Ortsgruppenleiters and came from the Kreisfuehrer. It concerns the removal of Yugoslavian signs. Did you have any knowledge of such things abroad? city, and only after 1918 became part of Yugoslavia?
Q Pottau. You cannot answer?
Q Then there is a speech by Dr. Prick to Reichstatthalter Rainer. It refers to conditions in the now border Gau. Were you informed about these circumstances:
of Gauleiter Ueberreither, which also refer to the border Gau 31 July A LJG 13-4 and Yugoslavia which borders on it.
What can you testify on these things?
DR. SERVATIUS: I have no more questions to put to this witness. BY THE PRESIDENT: foreign labor?
Q Who did?
Q Did you not know anybody who was employing slave labor? Germany, was there not?
A Certainly. There were many foreign workers in Germany who were occupied in factories.
Q And also in private houses? homes as maids.
Q. What I asked you was, did you have anything to do with the placing of that foreign labor within factories, or in offices, or in workshops, or in private home?
A. I had nothing to do with it in any sense.
Q. Do you know what officials did have to do with the placing of such labor
A. I do not know that. I was never interested in it.
THE PRESIDENT: The witness can retire.
DR. SERVATIUS: With the permission of the Court, I will call the last witness Hupfauer. He is for the technical offices, especially the German Labor Front.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you state your full name, please?
WITNESS: Dr. Thee Hupfauer.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat this oath after me. pur turth, and will with hold and add nothing.
(The witness repeated the oath.)
THE PRESIDENT: You may sit down. BY DR. SERVATIUS
Q. Witness, when were you born?
A. On July 17, 1906
Q. You were, for 8 years, from 1936 to 1944, a political leader in the Supreme office of the D.A.F., the German Labor Front, the Central Bureau with Dr. Ley, and after that, up to 1945 you were liaison man between the Armament Ministry of Minister Speer and the German Labor Front, is that correct? lated the question.
A. Up to 1944, I was Office Chief Am*---*ter for the German Labor Front.
Q. And as such a political leader?
A. As such a position leader up to by appointment.
From 1942 on, I was liaison man of the German Labor Front to the armament ministry and from the end of 1944, I was chief of the Central Bureau in the Armament industry.
Q. Was the German Labor Front an organization affiliated to the Party for the political leadership was through the Party itself, wasn't it?
A. The German Labor Front was an organization with organizational, financial, and personnel, independence. It was annexed to the Party. The tasks of the Political Leadership were up to the Party itself.
Q. Did the leaders of the D.A.F. who were political leaders have political tasks and were they Political leaders for that reason?
A. The leaders of the D.A.F. had purely political tasks. Those leaders of the D.A.F. were political leaders who were appointed as such.
Q. The German Labor Front was represented in the Gau. Kreis, and Ortsgruppen by so-called Obmaenner. Were these Obmaenner connected with the Party Staff Political Leaders?
A. These Obmaenner were political leaders only insofar as they were appointed as such.
Q. Were there, in the German Labor Front, political leaders who were not active in the Party staff?
A. In the Party Staff only the local Obmaenner were active. All functionaries of the D.A.F. who were political leaders had no office in the Party.
Q. Was the number of those who had no office but were nevertheless political leaders in the D.A.F. very great?
A. The majority of the functionaries who were political leaders held no office in the party/
Q. Can you estimate approximately how many people there were?
A. I cannot give a figure nor can I give a percentage, but in the office which I had charge of, it was by far the majority.
Q. What was the activity and the task of these political leaders who were on the staff?
A. The political leaders who were not on the Party Staff had the same tasks as these who were on the Party Staff, especially these with the socially political technical tasks.
Q. Persons who had an office in the D.A.F. were called Amtswalter, is that correct?
A. Yes.
Q. Were all of these Amtswalter at the same time appointed as political leaders?
A. No, only part of the Amtswalter were appointed. For example, it could happen and it did happen that if there were two functionaries who directed equally important offices, one was a political leader and the other was not. It also happened that the superior did not have a rank of a political leader and his subordinate was a political leader.
Q. What was the purpose of the appointment as political leaders of such officials? Did they receive special tasks and special rights?
A. With the appointment as political leader special tasks and special rights were not connected.
Q. What was the sense of appointing them?
A. That was essentially for representational purposes and, in effect, it was connected with the authority of the Party toward the economy and the State but was not connected with the office, as such.
Q. What was the activity of the political leaders as Obmaenner in the Party staff?
A. The Obmaenner who were political leaders in the Party staff, in their own specialized fields, had to advise the Hoheitstraeger.
Q. What was the numerical relationship of the political leaders of the D.A.F. to the total number of all political leaders. Did the constitute a considerable part?
A. The D.A.F. was an organization including about 20,000,000 people. The organization, therefore, went down to the Ortsgruppen and to the factories and therefore it had a large number of functionaries and therefore a large part of these functionaries were political leaders. This explains the fact that the majority of all the political leaders belonged to the D.A.F.
Q. The D.A.F. was a so-called affiliated formation. Are you in a position to give information on the position of the political leaders in other organizations in other groups?
A. As Amtsleiter to the D.A.F., I of course was in contact with the functionaries of other organizations. I can therefore, not in detail but basically, give information on these organizations.
Q. Was the position of the political leaders in these professional and technical organizations and in the social organizations regulated in the same way as in the D.A.F.?
A. It was essentially organized in the same way; that is, the local leaders of these formations were also anchored in the Party. They had no tasks of political leadership, but as leaders of organizations they had to represent the interests of their members.
Q. Within this specialized formation, were there political leaders who were not active in the Party agencies, for example, in the N.S.V.?
A. There also there were political leaders who were not on the Party staff.
Q. Can you give the most important of these specialized formations, professional organizations, and the corresponding offices in the Gau, Kreis and Ortsgruppenleitung?
A. The following formations and their corresponding offices I recall: The N.S.V. was the office for Peoples' Welfare; the League of Teachers was the office for education; the League of German Technicians was the office for technique; the League of Lawyers was the legal office.
Q. These offices which you have added in each case are established in the Party Staff?
A. These offices are established in the I Party staff and were, as a result, directed by the local leader of the organization as the attached organization.
Q. What were the tasks of these political leaders?
A. The tasks of these political leaders were also specialized tasks and not political leadership tasks. They were to represent the interests of their members.
Q. What was the numerical relationship of these politicsl leaders of the specialized groups, those who sat on the Party staff as heads of these offices, including those who were in theformation? Was that also a great number?
A. The number depended essentially on the size of the organization.
Q. What was probably the greatest of those mentioned?
A. Of the organizations which I mentioned, a section of D.A.F. the greatest was the N.S.V.
Q. Did the German Labor Front, in the year 1933, destroy the trade unions?
A. On the 2nd of May, 1933, the German Labor Grant did not exist at all. There were functionaries of the National Socialist, Betriebszellen, organization called N.S.B.O., which did not destroy the unions at that time but took over the leadership of the unions and continued their work.
Q. What was the purpose of this measure, to break the resistance of the workers against the Party and to remove internal opposition to the policy of a war of aggression?
A. In May, 1933, the first visible effects for the German worker were felt in the removal of the unemployment of millions. The situation was that the German workers were again sure of getting work and broad. Therefore, there can be no question of any resistance of these workers against the party. The foundation of the D.A.F. was for the following purpose: In the first place, it was necessary to be able to carry out economic reconstruction without interference and to regulate the labor market and interference by the labor struggles which interfered with social economy, such as strikes and shutouts. Therefore, it was necessary to adjust the interests of employees and employers. This was best done in a joint organization of employers and employees. time?
A. The employers' organizations were also dissolved with the purpose of the creation of a joint organization to remove the class struggle and best to create the essential prerequisites for the establishment of a really socialistic order.
Q. Were not the unions taken over by force with the use of the SA, SS and Police, and were not the union leaders arrested?
A. On the 2nd of May, through Police, or auxiliary police measure in which SA and SS men and Stahlhelm men participated, for a short time union leaders were arrested. This measure was for the purpose, at this moment, of preventing misuse of the still existing union funds, so that work could be carried on in these organization.
Q. Did the National Socialist N.S.B.O. organization then claim the funds which were confiscated for itself and what did it do with it?
A. These union funds were not confiscated for purposes of the N.S.B.O. This organization financed itself from the dues of its members. The funds of the unions were used in order to carry on the social work, and it was furthermore used in order to preserve the long-standing legal claims of the union members; that is the invalids, sick, deaths, support, and so forth, it continued to be paid to these union members.
Q. Did the unions have extensive funds at that time?
A. In '33 was the end of the economic crisis which began in 1930. This economic crisis, of course, had a negative effect on the unions. It is certain that, because of the unemployment of millions, the recruitment of union members was constantly becoming loss and old members of these unions were becoming unemployed in greater numbers so that a great percentage of them could no longer pay their dues; also, a great percentage of them had to draw upon the funds of the union, which depleted the funds.
Q. Did not Dr. Ley himself admit that he used the funds of the unions illegally and had one foot in prison if the ?Fuehrer did not give legal sanction to the confiscation of the funds?
A. If I recall correctly, Dr. Ley made the statement at a Party rally here in Nurnberg, in a report on the achievement of the German Labor Front. He wanted to express it by saying this, that he was interested in having this confiscation of the funds, which took place in the course of a political action, sanctioned legally.
In the same speach, he speaks of the recruitment of the German Labor Front which had already bear shown and proved that these funds were used in the interest of the German workers. Front not to obtain an instrument to fight against the peace will of the workers?
THE PRESIDENT: Isn't this all contained in the summary?
Dr. SERVATIUS: I did not see this summary; I do not know it.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it extends over six or seven pages.
Dr. SERVATIUS: I did not see it.
THE PRESIDENT: No, but at any rate, isn't it all gone into in the evidence the witness gave before the Commission?
DR. SERVATIUS: Only partially; it is unavoidable that certain things had to be brought out here again. I have endeavored to summarize them, to give an overall picture. In a few more minutes I will be through with the union and then I will come to the subject of the care for foreign workers. BY DR . SARVATIUS: through the DAF; did they not protest against the change? that the German Labor Front worked in the interest of its members and of German workers as a whole. a war of aggression?
DR. SERVATIUS: The witness cannot hear.
THE WITNESS: I did not hear the question. BY DR. SERVATIUS: a a war of aggression?