Thus as a result of complicated preliminary work the group of witnesses selected by the Defense Counsel appeared before the Tribunal. Not being able to deny the irrefutable force of the documental proofs submitted by the Prosecution, the Defense Counsel decided to summon its own witnesses in contrast to them.
Your Honors, we remember those witnesses and their testimonies. If more evidence is required to prove that falsehood is a constant and imariable companion of crime among the Hitlerites, the false testimonies of Kaufman, Sievers, Manstein, Reinecke, Besta and others can serve as convincing illustrations. These "witnesses" in their effort to whitewash the criminal organizations, of which they were the loading members, reached absurdity. SS and the Gestapo are found to be a society of the elect, a club of noble men, order of Knights. It is not without reason that the Counsel for the defense included Rosenberg among the Knights. All of them sparkle with moral purity and all of them are filled with Pity towards their neighbours. The Obergruppenfuehrer of professional henchmen of SS worked to save Jews from the pogroms while General Brauchitsch was a zealous pacifist. It is instructive that all the organizations without any exception, which are considered as criminal by the Indictment, are pure and immaculate according to the testimonies of the witnesses, Who then murdered the 12 million peaceful citizens. Who tortured the prisoners of war and deported millions of people for slave labour in Germany from the occupied territories? No defendants are to be found! hestiate before murder, where honor did not keep them from perjury, do not deserve to be refuted. prosecution submitted supplementary striking documents testifying to new atrocities of the criminal organizations of the Hitlerites.
Facts, irrefutable facts have been established. The inflexible will of the law is clear. The time has come to draw conclusions.
At the congress of the Nazi Party in 1934 Hitler declared: "It is not the state that has created us, but we have created the state. It is possible that we are considered by some as a party - by others as an organization, by others as something else, but in reality we are what we are." tion of who the Hitlerites were. The Fuehrer at the head of a criminal gang of conspirators, appearing in different roles and nominations (Ministers, Gauleiters, Obergruppenfuehrers, etc.) surrounded by a network of criminal organizations created by him, who had seized in their grip millions of German citizens - this was the outline of the political structure of Hitler's Germany. the Indictment, as well as the acknowledgment of the existence of the conspiracy, are therefore the necessary conditions for the triumph of Justice, the triumph longed for by all freedom loving nations. sidered as criminal by the Prosecution, I find it necessary to mention the following in addition to the convincing arguments expressed by my honorable colleagues:
In Count I paragraph 4, art. "A" of the Indictment, entitled "Nazi Party as the central core of the common plan or conspiracy," it says:
"In 1921 Adolf Hitler became the supreme leader or Fuehrer of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party), known as the Nazi Party, which was founded in Germany in 1920.
The Nazi Party, together with for the carrying out of the aims and purposes of their conspiracy."
The numerous crimes of Hitler's clique were inspired and directed by theNazi Party - the motive power of the Fascistconspiracy. that they werenationalists, who had protected Germany from other countries attempting her existence. This is evident falsehood. Only imposters can assert that Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and other free loving countries made attempts against the integrity and independence of Germany.
In reality the German Fascists are not nationalists but imperialists whose main and decisive purpose was the seizure of foreign land in order to secure the expansion of militant German capitalism. They shamelessly called themselves socialists. Only insolent demagogues can assert that German Fascists, who have eliminated all the democratic freedom of the people substituting it by concentration camps, who have introduced slave labor at works and factories and restored serfdom in the villages of Germany and in the countries occupied by than - are defenders of the interests of the workers and peasants. the garments of "nationalists" and "socialists", they did it exclusively to deceive the nation. plan for domination, seizure of foreign territories and the principles of human hatred. it was said:
"The program - is the political foundation of NSDAP and, con sequently, the fundamental political law of the state.
All program.
After seizing power the Fuehrer managed to realize basic principles up to the details."
Hitler's party is inseparable from Hitler's government, from the SS, Gestapo and other criminal organizations of Hitler's regime, as the Nazi leaders in the dock are inseparable from the henchmen of Auschwitz and Majdanek, Baby-Yar and Treblinka.
"What I have achieved," said Hitler, "is known to the party thanks to which I became great and which was in turn glorified by me."
And indeed; Soon after the Hitlerites seized power the decree of 14 VII 1933 forbade the creation of any other political parties besides the the Nazi Party.
The NSDAP became the only political party in Germany. A little later on 1. XII 1933 the law was issued "Concerning the unity of the party and state", in which it was mentioned:
"After the victory of the national socialist revolution, "To ensure close collaboration of the party organizations with the offices of the state, the deputy Fuehrer is appointed member of the Government of the Reich."
Paragr. 3 of this law proclaimed the members of NSDAP and the shock detachments (including the organizations subordinated to them) as "the loaders and motive power of the national socialist government."
The law of 1. XII 1933 was the fundamental measure, which provided the loaders of the criminal Nazi Party with full political power in Germany, as this law established the Nazi Party as the embodiment of the state. the Hitlerites introduced the most shameless social bribery besides speculating upon the national feelings and the unheard of social demagogy. Major organizations were created: The Union of Hitler's Youth, "Labor Front", SA men, SS men etc. Numerous members of these organizations were connected with the Fascist regime, not only through various privileges and material advantages, but also by mutual responsibility for committing common crimes. The overwhelming machine of terror with its ramified network of detection, provocation, perfidy, concentration camps, summary justice operated against all discontented with the regime. leading posts of the terroristic organizations - SS, SD, Gestapo, - and of the government, promoted the realization of the plans of the Fascist conspirators, relieved the realization of the plans of subordination and control ever the German nation and German State. the deputy Fuehrer Hess was simultaneously - Reichsminister.
of the Leaders of Gestapo -- Best was Kreisleiter of the Nazi party etc. Germany, Hitler's conspirators began the realizations of their aggressive plans. In his speech at the Reichstag on 20th February 1938, Hitler said:
"The greatest guarantee of the National Socialist revolution consists Germany . . . All Offices are under control of the supreme political leadership."
under the leadership of Bormann in political organization, which was in close interaction with the German secret police and SS; that the entire party machinery was drawn in for the realization of the aggressive plans of the leaders of Hitlerite Germany; that the party machinery took an active part in the measures of the German military and civil authorities for the inhuman allocation of prisoners of was and the population of the territories occupied by the Germans deported for slavery.
When we speak here at the trial about Goebbels' lies, Himmler's terror and Ribbentrop's perfidy -- this refers fully to the Nazi party. When the Prosecution submitted proofs of the criminal activity of Goering and Hess, Rosenberg and Streicher, von Schirach and Frank, Spoor and Sauckel, these were simultaneous proofs of chars against the Party, at the head of which were the defendants. Those proofs were quite sufficient to consider the entire Nazi party as a criminal organization, as it is understood in Art. 9 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal. However, the Prosecution does not put the question of the responsibility of the rank and file members of the party, many of when became the victims of their confidence. declaring it as a criminal organization, only as far as it concerns the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, which was the brain, the backbone and the impelling paver of the party, without which the Hitlerite conspirators could not be able to carry out their criminal plans.
party, and as such was endowed with extraordinary prerogatives. Political Leaders were organized according to principles ox leadership, which was applied not only to Hitler, but to the entire Leadership Corps.
"The basis of the party organization is the principle of leadership" -is written in the charter of the Nazi Party.
Each political leader was sworn in. According to the party charter the wording of the oath was as follows:
"I pledge eternal allegiance to Adolf Hitler: I pledge unconditional obedience to him and to the leaders appointed by him."
All political leaders were appointed by a special selection. The only difference was, that some of them, as Reichsleiters, Gauleiters and Kreisleiters, were appointed by Hitler himself, and the others by department and division Chiefs in Gau and Kreis, as well as Ortsgruppenleiters -- by Gauleiters. Such political leaders as Block and Cell leaders were appointed by Kreisleiters. Honor. In the defendant's dock are Reichsleiters Rosenberg, Schirach, Frick, together with the missing Reichsleiters Bormann, Himmler, Ley and Goebbels they represented the leading group of the Nazi party and they were leaders of the fascist conspiracy as well.
Here is Gauleiter of Franconia -- Streicher. There is slave trader Sauckel -- Gauleiter of Thuringia. You have heard of the Erich Koch's henchman activity in Ukraine. Erich Koch was a Geuleiter too. shooting and executions in Yugoslavia. I will quote sonic short extracts concerning his activity:
"20/6/1942. Within the reporting period in the district of Celje, 105 people were shot end 362 arrested . . . The chief of the security police will empty the prison in two weeks' time.
A part of the imprisoned Thus we shall prepare enough room for the next large scale action."
"30/6/1942. 67 persons were shot in Celje. Among them 6 women" etc.
Gauleiter Wagner terrorized people in Alsace, Gauleiter Terboven - in Norway. Gauleiter Bohle, leader of the organization of the NSDAP abroad, set up and directed a widely ramified terroristic net-work for espionage and diversionist activities abroad and created the so-called "fifth columns" in different countries.
According to the decree of the 1/9/1939 sixteen gauleiters were appointee Reichs Plenipotentiaries for the Defense of the Reich. Later, in connection with the necessity of the utilization of the military resources, the Gauleiters carried out even more and more important tasks. became commissars of these areas. According to the decree of the Cabinet's Council of 16/11/1942, it was ascertained that "in war time, Gauleiters are charged with extraordinary tasks". During the war, Gauleiters had carried out the tasks of billeting; they were charged with the important military functions, and all branches of German war economy were coordinated by them. in appropriate areas.
We should remember that when in March, 1945, Speer was appointed Hitler's plenipotentiary for the total destruction of industrial objectives, railways and other means of communications -- he sent his telegraph-order to Gauleiters for they had personally directed the carrying out of destructions of the important objectives on the spot. Hitler's party as a kind of welfare society, and its leaders as lady patroness it is trying to embroil a quite clear matter with a heap of written documentary evidence collected in various prisons and camps where the arrested fascists have been kept. of this mass of written evidence is highly dubious, and he resorts to the last argument, stating that; "Counsel for the Defense was unable to visit the camps in Austria, no claims having been received from the Soviet Zone". But did the testimony of the witnesses for the Defense become more convincing in consequence Does the fact that Servatius did not visit Austria change the situation in the very least?
Servatius was given unlimited possibilities for visiting the camps in the Soviet Zone of occupation. He visited certain camps. He knew that the right of the members of the organizations to submit declarations, and to make statements before the Tribunal, had been repeatedly announced in the newspapers published in the Soviet Zone and broadcast by radio. Servatius know all this, but nevertheless he still endeavoured to deceive the Tribunal. He attempted to do this in other cases as well.
When Servatius refers to Hess' directive of the 27 July, 1935, in order to confirm the fact that the Corps of the Political Leaders never existed, and that allegedly the title of "Political Leader" was not an official one -he passes over in silence that it was indicated, in this very same directive, that "it stands to reason that the term "Political Leaders' remains in use". NSDAP to 2,100,000, persons, in order demagogically to impute to the Prosecution, a tendency to punish millions of Germans. At the same time, and in order to shelter outstanding fascist leaders from all legal responsibil he, without any proof whatsoever, affirms that, of the workers of the Gauleite organizations, only 140,000 were "honorary workers".
The ill-famed fascist, Kaufmann, summoned by the Defense to the witness stand being member of the Nazi Party since 1921, and Gauleiter for 20 years, - did not knew anything about crimes of Hitlerite conspirators He was a "socialist", and was taking care only of the welfare of the population. or a period of 12 years, went even further in his testimonies. He declared that during these 12 years, he did not get enough time to read over "Mein Kampf". even Kaufmann by trying to hlep his accomplices. When the latter gave an affirmative answer to the questions: "Were Black - and Zellenleiters a kind of political loaders?"- Meier Wendeborn answered to the question in the negative. of the defense standpoint, but I consider it useless to enter into a discus ion with the Defense summoning such witnesses as Kaufmann, Wendeborn and similar.
Among the politicical leaders of Hitlerite Germany (this title was legalized by Hess' decree of 27/7/1935, as shown in the defense document 12) there was within the party hierarchy a separate group of so-called "Hoheitstrager" (bearers of sovereignty) which occupied a special position.
Together with the Gauleiters and Kreisleiters, the group of "Hoheitstraeger" included the Ortsgruppenleiters, Zellenleiters and Blockleiters also.
The special character of political leaders called "Hoheitstraeger" is described in the party Manual of NSDAP, and in the periodical called "Der Hoheitstraeger" which was strictly confidential to everybody except a certain group of the Leadership Corps of the Party SS and SA. Leadership Corps of the Nazi party, paid continual attention to the measures and doctrines, carried out as the fascist conspiracy was being realized. In 1937/38, the following problems were treated in the mentioned periodical; Ley, the attacks on the church, the substantiated necessity of increasing the Lebensraum and seizing colonies; the motorization of the armed forces; the utilization of the Nazi Party cells and blocks to gain favorable vote for the Hitlerites in the plebiscite; the cult of leadership race-theory etc.
These problems were treated in each copy of the periodical. And even after this evidence, the Defense is trying to assert that the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party was not acquainted with the plans of the Hitlerite conspirators. with Gestapo and SD, but these connections are indisputable.
As early as on the 26. VI, 1935, Bormann had issued an order which reads:
"In order to ef ect a cleoser content between the Party offices and its organizations."
In another regulation issued on the 14.2. 1935, end signed by Bormann to, it was stated:
"Because the work of the Party, is primarily benefited by the work prejudiced attacks when individuals fail.
On the contrary, it must be who leheartedly assisted."
the entire leadership Corps of the Nazi party participated from Reichsleiter t Blockleiter included. I will mention here only a few of them. ment of the Yugoslav people, the Kreisleiter of the Pettau district, helped by Ortsgruppenleiter and Blockleiter, destroyed all inscriptions, posters, and announcements written in the Slovene language. This fascist ruler went even so far asto order the Gruppenleiter "to take care that 11 Slovene inscriptions on the saint images (icons), chapels and churches should be immediately and completely removed."
In the letter of 13.11. 1944, addressed to all Reichsleiters, Gauleiters OKW concerning the "cooperation of the Party in the commitment of prisoners on War.
Therefore, the officers assigned to the prisoners of war system have been instructed to cooperate most closely with the bearers of sovereignt the commandants of the prisoner of war Camps have to detail immediately liais officers to the Kreisleiter." war were utilized in Germany - iswell known.
In Goering's decree of 27/3/1942 issued in connection with the appointment of Sauckel Plenipotentiary General for the Labor Commitment, was stated that Sauckel is authorized to issue orders" .... to the party officials, party agencies andits adjoining organizations."
And Sauckel did take advantage of this authorization. As he wrote in his "programme issued for the Fuehrer's birthday", he " with the Fuehrer's and Reichsmarshal's consent, as well as with the consent of the Head of the party Office" appointed all Gauleiters of the German Reich his plenipotentiaries. Sauckel's decree formulated the Gauleiters' tasks as follows:
the field of allocation of labor."
On 25/9/1944, Himmler issued a top-secret directive concerning "the strengthening of discipline and efficiency of foreign workers." In this directive, Himmler warned" ... the party leaders in all enterprises to observe closely the frame of mind of the foreign workers. For this purpose the close cooperation of the party, state and economic authorities with the Gestapo is of the greatest importance." NSDAP working in enterprises, subject to instructions given them by the Kreisleiter and through the Ortsgruppenleiter are obliged "most carefully to watch the foreign workers and notify, by all means, theparty leader in the enterprise about the information received in order to commitment such to "Abwehr" officials," Where there was no permanent official of the Abwehr, the information was delivered to the Ortsgruppenleiter.
Himmler's directive prescribed, that "in the interest of the unified politic leadership, the Abwehr officials should coordinate their work with the Gestapo lenders, who, in the case of need, are to be summoned by the Kreisleiter."
That is exactly what was meant by "political leadership" of Kreisleiters and Ortsgruppenleiters. Similar espionage functions were carried out by Blockleiters, too, and this was clearly indicated in the "Organization Book of the NSDAP" (the Party Manual).
"A Blockleiter should expose all persons spreading pernicious authorities."
A Blockleiter had the task "to propagate the nationa-socialistic ideal among members of the Socialist Party and the population entrusted to him". He recruited members into the organizations of Hitler Youth, SA, SS, DAF (German Labor Front), that is he secured the attendance of the party rallies, the participation in demonstrations, etc.
"A Blockleiter has to carry out a continual national-socialistic propaganda."
"We want arms again, -- wrote Hitler. Therefore, all disposable means starting from the child's abc-book d up to the latest news-paper, every theater, and cinema, every sign-post and signboard should be put in to the service of this great mission." Blockleiter of his Block, and this man was continuously spreading the fascist contagion, poisoning the people's mids, thus assisting in the realization of of the general plans of the Hitlerite conspirators. very positive powers over the population, living in the regions entrusted to them. but they did contribute very much to the realization of these plans. centre of the fascist conspiracy. of the Nazi Party as a criminal organization, together with all big and little Feuhrers, Reichsleiters, Gauleiters, Kreisleiters, Ortsgruppenleiters, Cellenleiters, and Blockleiters, -- that is to say the whole Leadership Corps of the monstrous machinery of fascist dictatorship. attention should be paid to the so-called "Schutzstaffel" of the Hitlerite party, abbreviated into the"SS".
"SS": mass murder carried out in concentration camps, merciless butchery of the civilian population and of the prisoners of war, fanatical large scale massacres.
Generally speaking, the "SS" men were supposed to carry out the plans of genocide of Hitler and his clique.
The Reichsfuehrer "SS" Himmler often called "SS" the "Black Corps". "I as Schwarze Korps" - "Black Corps" was also the title of the official "SS" newspaper, the organ "of the Reichsfuehrer of the SS."
It was not a name picked up at random. The whole system applied by "SS" starting from the so-called "Allegemeine SS", that is the "General SS" and up to the Camp Guards and SS Armed Forces was actually built up as a special "Corps" of criminals convinced of their own impunity, and purposely trained and educated in the sense of the most cruel and inhuman theories" of the Hitlerites. The chief fascist conspirators needed the mass cadres for carrying out the murder of millions of enslaved people, for the seizure of territories and the realization of the so-called program of "Germanization". All these tasks were carried out by the "SS" men.
The "SS" organization was created and became famous as the pretorian guard of Hitler, the organization of pogrom-makers and murderers. During the whole period of its existence, it remained the same. newspaper of "Das Schwarze Korps" issued on 20 August 1942 with the leading article published in it entitled "Should we germanize?". of such importance for a correct illustration of the "SS" substance, that I am going to quote a small extract:
"... The following slogan has been given by the Reichsfuehrer SS: "It is our task, not to Germanize the East in the old sense, that is, to teach the people living there the German language and German Laws, but to see to it the only people with the German, that is, Germanic blood, should live in the East This article was published for the information of the "SS" men at a time where criminal German fascism was still sure of its victory and had already started to carry out the extermination of millions of people.
1943, making a speech concerning the extermination of European Jews, the creator of SS, Himmler stated as follows:
"Among ourselves it should be mentioned quite frankly, and yet we will never speak of it publicly. Just as we did not, hesitate on June 30th 1934, to do the duty we were bidden, and stand comrades who had lapsed, up against the wall and sheet them, so we have never spoken about it and will never speak of it... I mean here the clearing out of the Jews, the extermination the Jewish race. It's one of those things it is easy to talk about -- "The Jewish race is being exterminated", nays every party member, "that's quite clear, it's in our program -- elimination of the Jews, and we're doing it, exterminating them" ... Most of you know what it means when 100 corpses are lying side by side, or 500 or 1000... Altogether however, we can say, that we have fulfilled this most difficult duty for the love of our people. And our spirit, our soul, cur character has rot suffered injury from it".
I do not want to dwell upon the history of "SS". One may add only to what has already been said, that the Schutzstaffeln SS, created early in 1925 became according to the Hitler's special decree of the 20/7/1934 an in dependent organization of the Hitlerite party, just after political murders committe by the "SS" men on the 30th June 1934.
Hitler's decree states as follows:
"In consideration of the great meritorious service of the SS, especially in connection with the events of 30 June 1943, I elevate it to the standing of an independent organization within the NSDAP." The process of development of the SS in the Hitler's State, testifies clearly to the steadily increasing consolidation of SS -- the so-called General "SS" as well as "Armed SS Forces" with the police organization of Gestapo, SD, Einsatzgruppe and Sonderkommandos carrying out large scale "actions" that is, massacres and "filtrations" in the camps, etc. secret decree of Hitler, in which, explaining the reasons compelling him to unite on the 17 June 1936 the offices of the Chief of the German Police and the Reichsfuehrer SS -- Hitler stated:
"By appointing the Reichsfuehrer of the SS, and the Chief of the German Police at the Ministry of the Interior of the 17 June 1936 I have created a foundation for the consolidation and reorganization of the German Police."
In accordance with this measure the "Schutzstaffeln" of the Nazi Party, directed by theReichsfuehrer of the SS and the Chief of the German Police, entered into close collaboration with the German police. And only in this, most close collaboration with the most cruel members of the police, created by German fascism and especially appointed to carry out tortures and extermination, could the exact task of to "SS" be understood.
The defense unsuccessfully tried to refute this evidence. It has tried to present this organization before the Tribunal, as composed of a number of absolutely independent cells separated by means of innumerable partitions, as: "Allgemeine SS", "Waffen SS", "Special SS Unites", the "Totenkopf" division.
It appears, that outside of a small section of "Toten-Kopf" not one of the units or sections of the SS had by connection with the police and the concentration camps, anymore than with the police activities conducted by Hitler, Himmler, Heydrich and Kaltegrunner, or for that matter with the other grave crimes committed by the Hitlerites. As a result, in the opinion of the Defense, the only participants in the crimes perpetrated by these executioners were the Gestapo members Muller and Eichmann and the chief of the "D"-administration of the SS - Paul. people. for the Defense of the SS as the former supreme Fuehrer of the SS and Police of the Oberabschnitt in Munich, the SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Baron von Eberstein, coloner-general of the SS-troups Himmler, the chief of the SS recruiting section Brill, or the SS judges Reinich and Mohr should by all rights take one of the first, if not the first place, in the shamelessness of the lies to which they resorted in order to justify the SS and its members.
instead, served to expose them. of judge Mohr of the SS, who describes one of the most brutal SS-concentration camps, Buchenwald, as practically a sanatorium for the internees abounding in good feed and playgrounds, in easy work in the open air and a large library.
In complete contradiction to the unintelligent lies of the "witnesses" for the Defense of the SS are the documents which expose this criminal organization. These lies are also contradicted by the irrefutable logic of facts -- facts of the gravest crimes the organizers and perpetrators of which were members of all chief links an organizations of the SS. ing main links:
1. The so-called Allgemeine SS where the SS member received general training before being assigned to the SS troups or to one or another of the police organizations. The "General SS" served as a reservoir from which reinforcements were drawn for special fascist organizations -- such as the Gestapo, "SD" the administration of the concentration camps, that is "Group D", and others.
2. The SS troops, whose activities the Defense and the defendants have so insistently tried to present as the "units of the guard" of the former German army, were nowhere remote from police activities. The SS troops included among other emits those organizations, the criminal character of which even the Defense for the SS did not dare challenge. These were the camp commands of the SS-troops, who conducted mass extermination of the peaceful population and of the prisoners of war in the concentration camps. It was the "Waffen-SS" which also included the SS police regiments, that made up the units responsible for the destruction of populated centers and villages, and the perpetration of innumerable crimes on the occupied territories of Soviet Union and in the countries of Eastern Europe.
3. The system of SS included the SS economic administration in charge of concentration camps, the administration for the consolidation of the German nation, which put into practice the infamous doctrines of racialism, and all this Hitleirite police organizations, among them such agencies as Einsatzgruppen and Sonder-Kommando. relation of the SS to the police was "purely external" and to be explained simply by Himmler's "personal union". the officials of the police had to be members of the "general SS", which served as the reservoir and the cementing nucleus of the entire SS Police system of German fascism. Amongst other evidence submitted to the Tribunal, there is a letter from Himmler to Kaltenbrunner dated 24 April 1943, in which he speaks of "the order of the enrolment of the Sipo officials (security police) into SS membership in cases where "the applicant is eligible both racially and ideologically, if he can provide guarantees as to the number of children, the health of his entire stock, and proof that he is personally in good health and is not a degenerate".
To this dishonorable "black corps" of German fascism was given a special role in the realization of the fascist criminal plans. human morality, were not only assured of impunity for their crimes, but they were daily indoctrinated with the idea that they There the "most valuable racial class", which would form the foundation of the future great German Empire ". Gauleiters, who were raised by Himmler to the high ranks in the SS and dependent upon the evaluation of their activities by the "SS - Reichsfuehrer", promoted up the ladder of the SS hierarchy. Germany, was not only ashamed of being compared as a member of SS to the murdered Paul or plunderer and executioner Globoschnik, but he was exceedingly proud of it.
"I shall always consider it a social honor to belong to this proud corps of the Fuehrer, the corps which has a decisive importance for the future of our great German empire, "wrote Ribbentrop in his letter to Himmler, when he was promoted from Gruppenfuehrer to Obergruppenfuehrer of the SS. Unterscharfuehrer Kurt Frank, the inventor of the "dead-vans", Untersturmfuehrer Becker, the SS experimented of live persons, Dr. Rascher, and the Reich Minister and SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Ribbentrop. unity of the SS and the police, Himmler stated: "Iam always doing Something towards this end, a bond is constantly being cast around these sections of the whole to cause them to grow together. Alas, if these bends were ever loosenedthen everything - you may be sure of this - would sink back into old insignificance in one generation, and in a short space of time.... I think that we are responsible for it to Germany, for the German Reich needs the SA organization. She needs it at least for the next few centuries."
In concluding his speech, he said:
".. When the war is won, -- then, as I have already told you, our work mil start."
"... the most copious breeding should be far from this racial superstructure of the Germanic people. for 20 to 30 years we must really be able to present the whole of Europe with its leading class. If the SS, together with the farmers, -- we together with cur friend Backs, then run the colony in the East on a grand scale, without and restraint, without any question about any kind of tradition but with nerve and revolutionary impetus, we shall in 20 years push the national boundary 300 kilometers Eastwards ...
... We shall impose our laws on the East. We will charge ahead, push our way forward little by little to the Urals." committed by the members of the SS, Nor is it necessary, since the evidence submitted to the Tribunal is too recent and vivid in our minds. I shall dwell briefly upon some questions, dealing with the responsibility of separate SSGroups in connection with the objection raised by the Defense Counsel.
first and foremost he was a member of the "Gneral SS". His expulsion from such membership signified loss of his position and all the privileges related thereto. Prosecution on the subject of the Hitlerites" criminal acts against Soviet Prisoners of war. officials in relation to an "incident", as it is called in these documents, which occured during the performances of a "special regime operation".
The Tribunal well knows the significance of this last term. In those particular case, a certain SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer Kallbach, who investigated the so-called "educational labor camp" for Soviet prisoners of war in Beroichev, decided to put to death 78 Soviet prisoners whose conditions is described in records of the interrogation by the commander of the Camp They were very seriously wounded. Some were without legs, some without arms and others had lost at least one of their extremities. Only a few had no injured limbs, but these were so crippled as a result of other kinds of wounds, that they were unable to work." The fact that the Soviet prisoners of war could not utilized for work was the only reason for their murder. fuehrer Palano, SS Rettenfuehrer Hesselbau and SS Sturmfuehrer Volpracht. These three SS men are characterized in the evidence as follows:"... I know that the three above mentioned persons, whom I assigned to shoot the prisoners of war, had participated in mass executions of many thousands of persons in Kiev. And the local administration, even since my arrival, had given them the task of shooting many hundreds of persons. to the place of execution they put up heroic resistance against the executioners, killed two of then and managed to escape.
It was in connection with this then the investigation was ordered. The commander of the SS detachments in Berdichev was prosecuted not for his orders to murder 78 sick innocent people, but for allowing the possiblity for escape.