"...in contrast to the Germanic peoples of the West, military enlistments but through legal conscription.
The camps in Estonia and Latvia.
..will have to be under German Leadership must be a symbol of our educational mission beyond Germany's borders.
..I consider the execution of the military education especially.
I would be thankful to you, Party member Axmann, in the Baltic area."
22 October 1938, which is Document 1438-PS, of which I ask the Court to take judicial notice, provided as follows:
"The Reichsfuehrer SS and the Chief of the German Police...
limits otherwise set on such measures." German territory.
In a letter dated 23 June 1943, our document No. 407-PS VI, already in evidence as U.S.A. Exhibit No. 209, Gauleiter and Plenipotentiary for the Direction of Labor, Fritz Sauckel, wrote to Hitler advising him of the success of the forced labor program as of that date and stating that, and I quote, as follows:
"You can be assured that the District of Thueringen (Gau) ment of all strength.
.."
I now offer in evidence Document 630-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit 342. If your Honor please, I call attention that this is on the personal stationery of Adolph Hitler. It is dated 1 September 1939. It is addressed to Reichsleiter Bouhler and Doctor of Medicine Brandt, it looks like, and it is signed by Adolph Hitler, I quote:
"Reichsleiter Bouhler and Dr. Brandt, M.D., are charged with Signed.
A. Hitler."
A handwritten note on the face of the document states:
"Given to me by Bouhler on 27 August 1940, signed:
Dr. Guertner." Himmler, the Minister of Justice Thierack stated that, on the suggestion of Reichsleiter Bormann, an agreement had been reached between Himmler and himself with respect to "special treatment at the hands of the police in cases where judicial sentences are not severe enough."
I will offer Document 654-PS, U.S. Exhibit 218, which had been previously introduced, and I want to quote a portion of it:
"The Reich Minister for Justice will decide whether and be applied.
The Reich Fuehrer of SS will send the reports, Reich Minister for Justice."
(Underlining supplied) for Justice disagreed, "the opinion of Reichsleiter Bormann will be brought to bear on the case, and he will possibly inform the Fuehrer.
.."
for Justice disagreed.
"the opinion of Reichsleiter Bormann will be brought to bear on the case, and he will possibly inform the Fuehrer."
In the above note it is further stated:
"The delivery of anti-social elements from execution of their sentence to the Reich Fuehrer of SS to be worked to death. Persons under protective arrest, Jews, Gypsies, Russians and Ukrainians, Poles with more than three-year sentences, Czechs and Germans with more than eight-year stentences, according to the decision of the Reich Minister of Justice. First of all the worst anti-social elements amongst those just mentioned are to be handed over. I shall inform the Fuehrer of this through Reichsleiter Bormann."
With respect to the "administration of justice by the people", the writer states:
"This is to be carried out step by step as soon as possible, I shall rouse the Party particularly to cooperate in this scheme by an article in the Hoheitstrager." I will now skip paragraphs 16 and 17.
A letter from RSHA, (Reich Security Main Office) to police chiefs, dated 5 November 1942, recites an agreement between the Reich Fuehrer SS and the Reich Minister of Justice, approved by Hitler -- I call attention of Your Honors to the red border around this original and then having the Party seal on it -- providing that ordinary criminal procedure was no long to be applied to Poles and members of the Eastern populations. The agreement provided that such people, including Jews and Gypsies, should henceforth be turned over to the police. The principles applicable to a determination of the punishment of German offenders, including appraisal of the motives of the offender, were not to be applied to Foreign offenders. I quote from page 2 of the document:
"The offense committed by a person of foreign extraction is not to be regarded from the view of legal retribution by way of justice, but from the point of view of preventing dangers through police action.
persons of foreign extraction must he transferred from Justice to the Police. The preceding statements serve for personal information. There are no objections if the Gauleiter are informed in the usual form should the need arise."
I now skip paragraphs 19 and 20 of the text. I next refer to document 1059-PS, previously introduced in evidence as U.S.A. Exhibit 147. with the Eastern problem on 20 June 1941, Reichsleiter Rosenberg stated that the Southern Russian territories and the Northern Caucasus would have to provide food for the German people. I quote Rosenberg's words:
"We see absolutely no obligation on our part to feed also the Russian people with the products of that surplus territory. We know that this is a harsh necessity, bare of any feelings."
THE PRESIDENT: We've already had that read to us twice.
COLONEL STOREY; I'm sorry sir, I did'nt hear it. Strike it from the record.
I now refer to document R-114. I believe it's the last one in the book. U.S. Exhibit 314.
pared plans and took measures leading to the expulsion and deportation of certain groups within the Alsation civil population. His plans called for the forcible expulsion of certain categories of socalled undesirable persons, as a means of punishment and compulsory Germanization. The Gauleiter supervised deportation measures in Alsace from July to December, 1940, in the course of which 105,000 persons were either expelled, or prevented from returning. A memorandum dated 4. August 1942 of a meeting of high SS and police officials, convened to receive the reports and plans of the Gauleiter relating to the Alsation evacuations, states that the persons deported were mainly "Jews, Gypsies and other foreign racial elements, criminals, asocial and incurably insane persons, as well as Frenchmen and Francophiles." The memorandum further states the Gauleiter stated that the Fuehrer had given him permission "to cleanse Alsace of all foreign, sick, or unreliable elements"; and that the Gauleiter emphasized the political necessity for further deportations. The memorandum further records that the SS and police officials present at the above conference approve the Gauleiter's proposals for further evacuation. Hitler at his headquarters, 16 July 1941, which I now offer in evidence as Document L-221, U.S.A. Exhibit No. 317. I'm sorry. That one was quoted this morning. The only purpose in referring to it is in connection with the Reichleiter. I believe Mr. Harris quoted from that document this morning, and. I'll not read the quotation. by Reichleiter Rosenberg, Reich Minister Lammers, Field Marshall Keitel, the Reich Marshall, and Bormann, and lasted about 20 hours. The memorandum states that the discussion occurred with respect to the annexation by Germany of various parts of conquered Europe. The memorandum also states that a long discussion took place with respect to the qualifications of other Gauleiter and commissioners for the administration of various areas of occupied Russia, Goering stated, according to the memorandum, that he intended to appoint Gauleiter Terboven for the "exploitation of the Kola Peninsula; the Fuehrer agrees."
I believe the next portion has been quoted, too. I now pass to the participation of Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party in subversion of the Christian Church and persecution of the clergy and cite some illustrative crimes. and co-conspirators to eliminate the Christian churches in Germany has been previously introduced in U.S.A. Exhibit "H", which is a document book containing the proofs with respect to the Nazi efforts to eliminate the Christian church. The evidence now to be presented is limited to proving and pointing up the responsibility of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party and the members thereof for illegal activities against the Christian church and clergy. Nazi Party Chancellery, issued a secret decree addressed to all Gauleiter, entitled "Relationship of National Socialism and Christianity." and that's Document B-73, U.S.A. Exhibit 348. In this decree Reichletier Bormann flatly declares that National Socialism and Christianity are incompatible and that the influence of the churches in Germany must be eliminated. I quote from pertinent portions of this decree beginning with the first paragraph thereof, top of page 3, which reads as follows:
"National Socialist and Christian concepts are irreconcilable. Our National Socialist ideology is far loftier than the concepts of Christianity, which, in their essential points, have been taken over from Jewry. For this reason, also, we do not need Christianity. If, therefore, in the future, your youth learns nothing more of this Christianity, whose doctrines are far below ours, Christianity will disappear by itself.
It follows from the irreconcilability of National Socialist and Christian concepts that a strengthening of existing confessions and every demand of originating Christian confessions is to be rejected by us. A differentiation between the various Christian confessions is not to be made here. For this reason, also, the thought of an erection of an Evangelical National Church by merger of the various Evangelical Church has been definitely given up, because the Evangelical Church is just as inimicable to us as the Catholic Church. Any strengthening of the Evangelical Church would merely react against us.
"For the first time in German History, the Fuehrer consciously and completely has the leadership of the people in his own hand. With the Party, its components, and attached units, the Fuehrer has created for himself, and thereby the German Reich Leadership, an instrument which makes him independent of the Church.
All influences which might impair or damage the leadership of the people exercised by the Fuehrer, with the help of the NSDAP, must be eliminated. More and more the people must be separated from the churches and their organs, the pastors. Of course, the churches must and will, seen from their viewpoint, defend themselves against this loss of power. But never again must an influence on leadership of the people be yielded to the churches. This influence must be broken completely and finally.
"Only the Reich Government and, by its direction, the Party, its components and attached units have a right to leadership of the people. Just as the deleterious influences of astrologers, seers and other fakirs are eliminated an suppressed by the State, so must the possibility of Church influence also be totally removed. Not until this has happened, does the State leadership have influence on the individual citizens. Not until then are people and Reich secure in their existence for all the future." Exhibit 349, which is a copy of a letter issued from Bormann's office, dated 23 April 1941, to the defendant Rosenberg, in his capacity as the Fuehrer's Representative for the supervision of the entire mental and ideological training and education of the NSDAP. In this letter Bormann's office states that measures have been taker leading to the progressive cancellation of morning prayers and other religious services and their substitution by Nazi mottos and slogans. I quote from the first paragraph of document 070-PS, which reads as follows:
"We are inducing schools more and more to reduce and abolish religious morning services.
Similarly the confessional and been replaced by national socialist mottos.
I would be services which are usually conducted once per week ....." 22 February 1940, Document 098-PS, USA Exhibit 350, which I offer in evidence, Bormann declares to Rosenberg that the Christian religion and National Socialism are incompatible.
Bormann cites, as examples of hostile divergence between Naziism and the churches, the attitude of the latter on the racial question, celibacy of the priests, monasteries and nunneries, etc. Bormann further declares that the churches could not be subjugated through compromise, but only through a new philosophy of life as prophesied in Rosenberg's writings. In the above letter, Bormann proposes the creation of a National Socialist Catechis in order to give that part of the German youth which declines to practice confessional religion, a moral foundation, and to lay a moral basis for National Socialist doctrines which are gradually to supplant the Christian religions. Bormann suggests that some of the Ten Commandments could be merged with the National Socialist Catechism and states that a few new Commandments should be added, such as: Thou shalt be courageous; Thou shalt not be cowardly; Thou shalt believe in God's presence in the living nature, animals, and plants; Thou shalt keep your blood pure; etc. Deputy of the Fuehrer Bormann concludes that he considers the problem so important that it should be discussed with the members of the Reich Directorate as soon as possible. of document 098-PS, which reads as follows:
"Christianity and National Socialism are phenomena which originated from entirely different basic causes.
Both differ fundamentally so National Socialist ideology; just as the communications of Christian in its entirety.
..." And then I quote from the last paragraph on page 5 of that document:
"The Fuehrer's deputy finds it necessary that all these questions should leaders (Reichsleiter) who are especially effected by them.
...."
(End of quotation.)
THE PRESIDENT: Do you suggest that the Blockleiters would have to be present for that discussion?
COLONEL STOREY: Your Honor, in connection with the policy directives, the security of the sect goes from the top to the bottom and if that policy is adopted, they may by directive start at the Blockleiter. He says to discuss it in connection with the Reichsleiters who are the Party Directors, and I assume that if the Party Directors establish it as a policy, then they were to issue appropriate directives to the other subordinate members. Mr. Lambert has suggested also that it wouldn't be possible to discuss this matter with all the leadership corps and therefore they discussed it with Party Directors.
MR. BIDDLE: Does that show that he discussed it with the Directors?
COLONEL STOREY: No, that doesn't follow, but it shows that it was a subject of discussion for the Board of Directors of the Nazi Party.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but the question is, who are the Directors?
COLONEL STOREY: Five or six of them sit here, a total of sixteen.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but I thought that you were asking us to declare the whole of the organization down to the Blockleiters as criminal.
COLONEL STOREY: That is true, your Honor, but this is one instance of criminality of the organization and we can't prove at each state that all of them knew about it. We are trying to select different offenses and different crimes that were committed within the Party.
I next offer in evidence document 107-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit 351, which is a circular letter, dated 17 June 1938, addressed by the defendant Bormann, as Reichsleiter and deputy of the Fuehrer, to all Reichsleiter and Gauleiter. Bormann's letter encloses a copy of rules, prepared by Reichleiter Hierl, setting forth certain restrictive regulations with respect to participation of the Reich Labor Service in religious celebrations. I quote pertinent portions of the directions issued by Reichsleiter Hierl, beginning with the first paragraph in Hierl's list of 107-PS, which read as follows:
"The Reich Labor Service is a training school in which the German "What religious beliefs a person has is not a decisive factor, "Every religious practice is forbidden in the Reich Labor Service "On this basis, every participation of the Reich Labor Service in possible."
Bormann as deputy of the Fuehrer of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party and chief of the Nazi Party Chancellery, and the position of the defendant Rosenberg as the Fuehrer's Representative, for the whole spiritual and philosophical education of the Nazi Party give to the views of these defendants on religion and religious policy the highest official backing. The anti-Christian utterance and policies of these two defendants reveal a community of mind and intention amongst the most powerful leaders of the party which was amply confirmed, as the evidence will show, by the actual treatment of the churches since 1933 and throughout the course of the conspiracy. I now offer in evidence document 2349-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit No. 352, which is an excerpt from the book "The Myth of the 20th Century", written by the defendant Rosenberg. I quote from that document:
"The idea of honor - national honor - is for us and doing.
It does not admit of any equal-valued Masonic humanity, nor the Roman philosophy."
I now offer in evidence document 848-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit No. 353, which is a Gestapo telegram, dated 24 July 1938, dispatched from Berlin to Nurnberg, dealing with demonstrations and acts of violence against Bishop Sproll in Rottenburg. The Gestapo office in Berlin wired its Nurnberg office a teletype account received from its Stuttgart office of against Bishop Sproll.
I quote from the 4th paragraph of page one of the English translation of document 848-PS, which reads as follows:
"The Party on 23 July 1939 from 2100 on carried out the third demonstration against Bishop Sproll. Participants, about 2500-3000 were brought from outside by bus, etc. The Rottenburg populace again did not participate in the demonstration. This town took a rather hostile attitude toward the demonstrations. The action got completely out of hand of the Party member responsible for it. The demonstrators stormed the palace, beat in the gates and doors. About 150 to 200 people forced their way into the palace, searched through the rooms, threw files out of the windows and rummaged through the beds in the rooms of the palace. One bed was ignited. The Bishop was with Archbishop Groeber of Freiburg and the ladies and gentlemen of his menage in the chapel at prayer. About 25 to 30 people pressed into this chapel and molested those present. Bishop Groeber was taken for Bishop Sproll. He was grabbed by the robe and dragged back and forth." to turn to the Fuehrer and Reich minister of the Interior, Dr. Frick, anew," and the Gestapo official added that he had found a full report of the demonstration after "suppressing counter mass meetings." letter to the Minister of State and Chief of the Praesidium Chancellery, Berlin, stating that Bishop Sproll had angered the population by abstaining from the plebiscite of 10 April. I now offer in evidence document No. 849-PS, USA Exhibit No. 354. In this letter Kerrl stated that the Gauleiter and Governor of Wuettemberg had decided that in the interest of preserving the State's authority and in the interest of quiet and order, Bishop Sproll could no longer remain in office. I quote from the third paragraph of the first page of the document, No. 849-PS:
"The Reich Governor had explained to the Ecclesiastical Board that he would no longer regard Bishop Sproll as Head of the Diocese of Rottenburg on account of his refraining from the election in the office and that he desired Bishop Sproll to leave the Gau area because he could assume no guarantee for his personal safety; that in the case of the return of the Bishop of Rottenburg he would see to it that all personal and official intercourse with him on the part of State offices as well as Party offices and the Armed Forces would be denied."
Foreign Office, through the German Embassy at the Vatican, to urge the Holy See to persuade Bishop Sproll to resign his Bish pric. Kerrl concludes by stating that should the effort to procure the Bishop's resignation prove unsuccessful, "the Bishop would have to be exiled from the land or there would have to be a complete boycott of the Bishop by the authorities."
THE PRESIDENT: Where is that that you are reading now?
COLONEL STOREY: Second page, war the end--second page of the English translation, about six lines from the bottom.
THE PRESIDENT: All right.
COLONEL STOREY: On 14 July 1939 the defendant Bormann in his capacity as deputy of the Fuehrer, issued a Party regulation which provided that Party members entering the clergy or undertaking the study of theology would have to leave the Party. I now offer in evidence Document 840-PS, USA Exhibit 355, and this is a copy of a regulation of Bormann, dated 14 July 1939, relating to the admission of clergy and students of theology into the NS DAP. I quote from the last paragraph of the English translation of Document 840-PS, which reads as follows:
"I decree that in the future Party members who enter the clergy or who turn in the study of theology have to leave the Party." 9 February 1937, in which he had ruled that the admission of members of the clergy into the Party was to be avoided. In this decree also Borman refers with approval to a regulation of the Reich Treasurer of the Party, dated 10 May 1939, providing that "clergymen, as well as other fellow Germans, who are also closely connected with the church, cannot be admitted into the Party." from the Allocution of His Holiness Pope Pius XII, to the Sacred College, June 1945. In this address His Holiness, after declaring that he had acquired an appreciation of the great qualities of the German people in the course of 12 years of residence in their midst, expressed the hope that Germany Could rise to new dignity and new life once it had laid the satanic specter raised by National Socialism and the guilty have expiated the crimes they have committed.
After referring to repeated violations by the German government of the Concordat concluded in 1933, His Holiness declared as follows, and I quote from the last paragraph of Page One of the English translation of Document 3268-PS:
"The struggle against the Church did, in fact, become ever more bitter; there was the dissolution of Catholic organizations; the gradual suppression of the flourishin Catholic schools, both public and private; the enforced weaning of youth from family and Church; the pressure brought to bear on the conscience of citizens, and especially of civil servants; the systematic defamation, by means of a clover, closely-organized propaganda, of the Church, the clergy, the faithful, the Church's institutions, teachings and history; the closing, dissolution, confiscation of religious houses and other ecclesiastical institutions; the complete suppression of the Catholic press and publishing houses.
"In the meantime the Holy See itself multiplied its representations and protests to governing authorities in Germany, reminding them, in clear and energetic language, of their duty to respect and fulfill the obligations of the natural law itself that were confined by the Concordat. long-suffering patience of a father Our great Predecessor, Pius XI, fulfilled his mission as Supreme Pontiff with intrepid courage.
"But when, after he had tried all means of persuasion in vain, he saw himself clearly faced with deliberate violations of a solemn pact, with a religious persecution masked or open, but always rigorously organized, he proclaimed to the world on Passion Sunday 1937, in his Encyclical 'Mit brennender Sorge,' what National-Socialism really was: the arrogant apostasy from Jesus Christ, the denial of His doctrine and of His work of redemption, the cult of violence, the idolatry of race and blood, the overthrow of human liberty and dignity.
"From the prisons, concentration camps and fortresses are now pouring out, together with the political prisoners, also the crowds of those, whether clergy or laymen, whose only crime was their fidelity to Christ and to the faith of their fathers or the dauntless fulfillment of their duties as priests.
"In the forefront, the number and harshness of the treatment meted out to them, were the Polish priests. From 1940 to 1945, 2,800 Polish ecclesiastica and religious were imprisoned in that camp; among them was the Auxiliary bishop of Wloclawek, who died there of typhus. In April last there were left only 816, all the others being dead except for two or three transferred to another camp. In the summer of 1942, 480 Germanspeaking ministers of religion were known to be gathered there; of these, 45 were Protestants, all the others Catholic priests. In spite of the continuous inflow of now internees, especially from some diseases of Bavaria, Rhenania and Westphalia, their number, as a result of the high rate of mortality, at the beginning of this year, did not surpass 350. Nor should we pass over in silence those belonging to occupied territories, Holland, Belgium, France (among whom the Bishop of Clermont), Luxembourg, Slovenia, Italy. Many of those priests and laymen endured indescribable sufferings for their faith and for their vocation. In one case the hatred of the impious against Christ reached the point of parodying on the person of an interned priest, with barbed wire, the scourging and crowning with thorns of our Redeemer."
Are you ready for another document?
THE PRESIDENT: I think perhaps it would be time now to adjourn.
(Whereupon at 1700 hours the hearing of the Tribunal adjourned to reconvene at 1000 hours, 18 December 1945.)
Tribunal, in the matter of: The United States of 12:
45 Lord Justice Lawrence, presiding.
COLONEL STOREY: If the Tribunal please, before adjourning yesterday afternoon your Honors properly asked a question or two about documents 3051 and 3063, to which I think I have an answer that will help the Tribunal. I believe it might be of assistance to turn to that document.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COLONEL STOREY: Your Honors asked yesterday afternoon, since this had to do with the SD and the SS, how the Party was involved, and I should like to quote paragraph numbered 1 on page 2 of the English translation, which answers this question. tion, and I am quoting: The Chiefs of the State Police, or their deputies, must get in telephonic contact with the political leaders (Gauleitung odor Kreisleitung) who have jurisdiction over their districts, and have to arrange a joint meeting with the appropriate inspector or commander of the Order Police to discuss the organization of the demonstrations. At these discussions the political leaders have to be informed that the German Police has received from the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police the following instructions, in accordance with which the political leaders should adjust their own measures." two documents below -
THE PRESIDENT (Interposing): What was the document?
COLONEL STOREY: Number 3036 was the next, just below that one, if Your Honor please.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
COLONEL STOREY: That, if you recall, Your Honor, was a report from the Supreme Court Justice Buch to the Defendant Goering concerning punishment for the uprisings that followed the 9th and 10th of November demonstration. I should like to quote the portion signed by the Defendant Goering. It is, I believe, the second page of the English translation.
It is dated: "Berlin, 22 February, 1939."
"Dear Party Member Buch:
"I thank you for forwarding the report of your special senate about the procedure hitherto concluded concerning the excesses on the occasion of the anti-Jewish operations of 9 and 10 November 1938, of which I have taken cognizance.
"Heil Hitler, yours, Goering." following, of the English translation, I think the next two paragraphs will answer Your Honor's question. I quote:
"On the evening of 9 November 1938, Reich propaganda director Party Member Dr. Goebbels told the Party leaders assembled at a social evening in the old town hall in Munich, that in the districts (Gauen) of Kurhessen and Magdeburg-Anhalt it had come to hostile Jewish demonstrations, during which Jewish shops were demolished and synagogues were set on fire. The Fuehrer, at Goebbels' suggestion, had decided that such demonstrations were not to be prepared or organized by the Party, but so far as they originated spontaneously, they were not to be discouraged either. In other respects, Party Member Dr. Goebbels carried out the purport of what was prescribed in the teletype of the Reich propaganda administration of 10 November, 1938.
"It was probably understood by all of the Party leaders present" -
THE PRESIDENT (Interposing): What does "12:30 to 1 o'clock" mean there? COLONEL STOREY: That is the time of the teletype message, I assume, your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COLONEL STOREY: "It was probably understood by all the Party leaders present, from the oral instructions of the Reich propaganda director, that the Party should not appear outwardly as the originator of the demonstrations but in reality should organize and execute them. Instructions in this sense were telephoned immediately -- thus a considerable time before transmission of the first teletype -- to the bureaux of their districts (Gaue) by a large part of the Party members present." Blockleiter would be affected. Your Honors will recall that in the instructions to the Blockleiter defining his offices it was stated that his instructions would be received orally and they would be transmitted orally, and never to use writing except in extreme cases. Therefore, I say that these quoted portions clearly indicate that the Party was in fact used in connection with these famous 9 and 10 November, 1938, anti-Jewish demonstrations. afternoon: confiscation of church and religious property.
I offer in evidence Document 072-PS, which is U.S. Exhibit 357, which is a letter dated 19 April 1941, from Reichsleiter Bormann to Reichsleiter Rosenberg. This letter exposes the participation of the Gauleiter in measures relating to the confiscation of religious property. translation of Document 072-PS, which reads:
"The libraries and art objects of the monasteries confiscated in the Reich were to remain for the time being in these monasteries, insofar as the Gauleiter had not determined otherwise." Heydrich, wrote a letter to Reichsfuehrer SS, Himmler, proposing that certain listed churches and monasteries be confiscated for the accommodation of so-called racial Germans.