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.
episodes of the SS brutalities on the territory temporarily occupied by the SS, but to road a quotation in which typical warning of responsibility for perjury is given prior to the interrogation by the investigating SS men.
It states:
"... I have been notified of the substance of the forthcoming interrogation It has been pointed out to me, that false evidence on my part will result in punishment and expulsion from the SS."
Upon entering the "General SS" the future member of this criminal organization took an oath, which included the following words:
"...I take an oath before you, Adolf Hitler, Fuehrer and Reichskanzler, to obey unto death you and all these whom you have appointed to command me."
And no matter where the SS man was in service, whether he was *---* people in Treblinka and Auschwitz or tortured them during the interrogations in the torture-chambers of the Gestapo, first of all he continued to be himself - a stupid, ruthless member of the "General SS" and know only two duties blind obedience to the "Fuehrer and Reichskanzler" and unconditional enforcement of any criminal order.
Hitler's body guard, and the division "Dead Head" which was active mostly in concentration camps. the so-called "Camp Commands" which carded out directly the external millions of people and the realization of the regime of exhaustion of the inm*t before extermination, as well as the police divisions and units. to their criminal character. Tribunal of the Fourth Ukranian Front and a port of the Extraordinary State Commission concerning the atrocities of the German Fascist invaders in Kharkoff and in the Kharkoff area, from which it is evident that the units of the SS-particularly the SS Division of Adolf Hitler under the leadership of the Obergrup penfuehrer Dietrich and the division "Dead Head" under the leadership the Obergruppenfuehrer SS Simen are responsible for the extermination of more than 20,000 peaceful citizens of Kharkoff, for shooting and burning alive of prisoners of war. 195,000 peaceful citizens tortured to death, shot and poisoned in the "dead vans" most of them being exterminated by the units of the SS; for which according to the reports of the Extraordinary State Commission, the former Chief of the SS Troop in Southern Russia, and in the Ukraine Major General Torenfield, SS Lieutenant General Juettner, and ither Commanders of the SS Troops are responsible. 102,000 persons. Among many others, a soldier of the Fourth squadron of the Sever teenth Cavalry Division of SS. Adolf Mitz testified, how the SS men carried out these crimes; on the order of his regiment Commander Adolf Mitzke, together with the other soldiers of his regiment, carried out the shooting of peaceful citizens (among them women), and set villages on fire.
In the official note of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the UUSB, W.*. Molotoffm dated 27 April 1942 and presented to the Tribunal under USSR-51 a description of atrocities committed by the SS Cavalry Brigade in the Region of Yoropots is reported.
I read into the record; "In January 1942, when Red Army troops smashed the German SS Cavalry Brigade in the district of Toropets, among the captured documents was found the report of the 1st Cavalry Regiment of the above-mentioned brigade on the "pacification" of the Stary Binsk District in Byelorussia. The regimental commander reports thatin addition to the 259 war prisoners shot by a detachment of his regiment, 6,504 peaceful inhabitants were executed. The report states that the detachment operated in accordance with regimental Order No.42 of July, 1941. The commander of the 2nd Regiment of the and same brigade, von Magill, states in his "Report on the conduct of the Pacification Operations in the District of the Pripet Marshes from July 27 to August 11, 1941": We drove the women and children into a swamp, but this did not have the necessary effect as the swamp was not deep enough for them to drown. At a depth of 1 metre it was possible in most cases to reach firm ground (possibly sand)." In the sane headquarters, telegram No. 37 was found, sent by the Standartenfuehrer, commander of the SS Cavalry Brigade, to a horse detachment of the above mentioned 2nd Cavalry Brigade, dated August 2, 1941, which announces that the Reichsfuehrer of the SS and Police, Himmler, considers the number of peaceful inhabitants who are being exterminated "too negligible," points out that "it is necessary to act radically," that "the commanders of the formations are too lenient in their conduct of operations," and orders that the number of parsons shot be reported daily," Poland and other temporarily occupied, countries of eastern Europe followed the same pattern. sented to the Tribunal by the Soviet and British Prosecution, in which the crimes committed in the territory of Yugoslavia by the SS division "Prince Eugene" are illustrated.
In particular I wish to remind the Tribunal of the communication No. 9 of the Yugoslave State Commission concerning the atrocities committed by the aforesaid SS Division. This Communication describes how the SS soldiers, members of the Waffen SS who called themselves "the German Guard", have burned alive the population of entire villages, including women and children. I will remind you as well of the deposition given by the SS Major General August Schmidthuber describing how, on the order of the commander of the first Battalion SS Kaasarer, peaceful citizens were locked up in a church in Krivaya Reka, and then the church building was blown up.
I refer the Tribunal to the well-known statement of the Officers of that sane division concentration the mass shooting of hostages and murdering of prisoners of war.
A secret directive of Himmler's was read, before the Tribunal- by which it was shown that SS units were instructed to annihilate thousands of inhabited localities, towns and villages in the temporarily occupied regions of the Soviet Union. In this directive Himmler wrote as follows: "The aim to be achieved is that when areas in the Ukraine are evacuated, not a human being, not a single head of cattle, not a hundredweight of cereals and not a railway line remain behind; that not a house remain statnding, not a mine is available which is not destroyed for years to come. that there is not a well which is not poisoned. The enemy must really find completely burnt and destroyed land." In carrying out the criminal orders of the SS Reichsfuehrer (Himmler's order of 10 July 1943), the Waffen-SS deported for German slavery the populations of entire regions - driving the Ukranian and Russian children into special concentration camps. main of volunteers, as well as members of the General SS called upon to carry out the criminal plans of Hitler and his clique. clare the SS kind of "German Guard", having nothing to do with any kind of police function and whose hands are unstained with the blood if innocent people, are in full contradiction with the ruthless and irrefutable facts. Nevertheless, we do not deny that among the soldiers of the Waffen-SS were some who were compelled to serve. However, the question of the degree of responsibility of any particular person is a question of competence for the national Tribunals. Nevertheless, the SS troops as a whole are an essential part of the system and the SS organization is therefore undoubtedly criminal.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn.
(A recess was taken.)
30 Aug A LJG 18-1 Perrin
MR. DODD: Mr. President, I am prepared to make a report on the attitude of the Prosecution concerning the application of the Defendant Seyss-Inquart to submit an affidavit. We are all in agreement in opposing the affidavit of Seyss-Inquart. It is really argumentative as we read it. We have had it translated, and it doesn't raise anything new, and it does express the Defendant's attitude toward a number of documents that were in evidence as early as last January, have been in evidence as early as last January, various documents about evidence said so on. It seems improper that the defense would make such an offer. Counsel made his argument, and indeed, he will have another opportunity himself to address the Tribunal. None of these matters in our judgment, in our opinion, are proper, nor should they be admitted by the Tribunal at this time. There is one matter raised in this affidavit, the matter of two documents 3640 PS and 3645 PS in which the Defendant Seyss-Inquart says they were not introduced in evidence. They were referred to by the French Prosecutor, M. Champetier de Ribes, that's all. Of course, M. Champetier de Ribes and the other gentleman of the French Prosecution with us agree that it was inadvertent, and we would like to state before the court for the court to understand that these two documents were not actually admitted inevidence; and, of course, we should not have referred to them in our argument. Other than that one matter that was raised, we can see nothing that would be helpful to the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: Is it in German?
MR. DODD: Yes, Your Honor, it is in German. Our translation is not complete. It was done by one of our people hurridly and is in outline form and for my own information. I can go through paragraph by paragraph if the Tribunal would care to have me.
TEE PRESIDENT: It is very long?
MR. DODD: No, it isn't. My outline is one page and a little more than a half. The affidavit itself is six pages. Our analysis of it is a page and a half.
30 Aug A LJG 18-2 Perrin
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, if the only objection to the affidavit is that it is argumentative, is that really a very serious objection when there are so many documents?
MR. DODD: Well, no, sir, I expect It is not.
THE PRESIDENT: It is a case of difficulty, and we want to have the case after it is finished -
MR. DODD: Yes, I understand.
THE PRESIDENT: -- and the translation is the matter of difficulty in the circumstances.
MR. DODD: Yes. Well, our objection is just what I have stated, and no more than that. I don't want to press it too much. If the Tribunal feels it would be better to have it in and have it translated, there is nothing on the affidavit that we need make any reply to. I feel perfectly sure of that, and I don't think it is worth pressing, really.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the Tribunal thinks that in the circumstances, it will be better if you allow the affidavit to be offered in evidence. The Tribunal notes that 3640 PS nad 3645 PS have not been offered in evidence.
MR. DODD: Yes, Mr. President, 3640 and 3645 PS were not offered in evidence.
THE PRESIDENT: We will not regard any reference to them.
MR. DODD: I wish to inform the Tribunal that the letter of Dr. Laternser's, we have no objection to this letter. We are all in agreement about it.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Mr. Dodd said they had no objection to the letter. It will be -
DR. LATERNSER: Mr. President, there is a small paragraph in this letter that I should like very much to read into the record, two sentences of it.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, if the letter is in evidence, it is not necessary to take time by reading it into the record. The Prosecution have agreed that the letter may be treated as a part of the evidence of the record.
30 Aug A LJG 18-3 Perrin
DR. LATERNSER: But since the Witness Schreiber has made his testimony, I should attach value to it, and that one very brief paragraph consisting of two sentences should be read into the record if possible.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, wait a minute. No, Dr. Laternser, the letter will be admitted as part of the evidence of the record. We do not desire that further time should be taken up by the matter.
DR. LATERNSER: Mr. President, with reference to this subject I received another exhibit which may -- I received it during the recess -- but, of course, I don't know if the Tribunal is willing to receive it in evidence. In order to complete this subject of the evidence, may I beg the Tribunal, to allow me to present it. It is a document which would, if possible that I be permitted to show, that in the case of one of the Allied Nations, too, bacterial warfare of the defensive and offensive type has been prepared, and that four thousand people were occupied with it. I should merely like to present it for that one reason that I shall be able to submit a fact to the Tribunal which would be useful for the proper judgment of this particular subject.
THE PRESIDENT: No, that falls within the principle that we have decided over end over again, that such evidence is not admissible.
DR. LATERNSER: But since we are here concerned with a now subject, Mr. President -
THE PRESIDENT: We are well aware of the argument you have presented to us that any investigations which were taken in bacterial warfare was done solely for defensive purposes. That argument is perfectly clear and any other argument based upon allegations as to what Allied Nations may have done is irrelevant.
GENERAL RUDENKO: On 4 October 1943 in his speech addressed to the SS Gruppenfuehrers in Poznan, Himmler stated:
"We want a complete unity with the Party and all its organi zations.
It is very fortunate that we are completely united with the 'SA'. The new Chief of Staff Scheimann considers his most essential task that of creating peace and accord among the old Party groups."
heads of the SA Putsch -- in 1943 confirmed the full unity of the SS with the SA and emphasized the importance of this Hitlerite criminal organization for the general conspiracy. party and of the Hitlerite State, the "SA" was the criminal organization to which the ringleaders of German fascism attached special importance considering it one of the main weapons for terrorizing and feeling their own nation and for laying ground for aggression against other nations. about the part played by this criminal organization in the common plan of the Fascist Conspiracy. Boehm, was, generally speaking, devoid of any legal argumentation that would render it worthy of attention. This was a statement made from the view point of the convinced Nazi, repeating, in a number of cases, the worst instances of Hitlerite propaganda, which the Counsel for the Defense had carefully extracted from the Press of the SA.
DR. LOEFFLER (Counsel for the SA): Mr. President, will you permit me to briefly object to this very severe personal attack? Unfortunately Dr. Boehm is unable to appear in the session today, but I have been able to ascertain in the interval in which he was admitted to the defense, it has been proved that attorney Dr. Boehm has never been a member of the National-Socialist German Party. The accusation, therefore, before this court, that he had viewed National-Socialist propaganda with his press is with out my background. Insofar as the whole of Germany is concerned, there would not be a single normal person who, during the time of the Nazi regime, has refused to join the National-Socialist Party. This fact in this particular trial -
30 Aug A LJG 18-5 Perrin
THE PRESIDENT: But we are not considering whether defense counsel belonged to the Party or not, and this observation of the Soviet Prosecutor doesn't say that Dr. Boehm was a member of the Party. It may be rather strongly expressed, but what he says is Nazi. He doesn't think that Dr. Boehm was a Nazi.
DR. LOEFFLER: Mr. President, I have nothing to add to the statement except that I am asking the Tribunal to take cognizance of the very difficult position in which the defense find themselves and consider that it is impossible to represent the organizations of the Party without representing also the attitude, the point of view, of the Party. That is all I had to say but if the Russiar Prosecutor is not finding any legal argument in Dr. Boehm's final plea, then he must examine the memorandum of Dr. Klefitsch in great detail, and there it was said that there should be a reply to that statement, a reply which so far has not been made or received.
THE PRESIDENT: General Rudenko, the translation which we hare got of your statement is possibly ambiguous, and therefore the Tribunal would like to be assured that what I said about it was accurate and that you were not suggesting that -
GEN. RUDENKO: Quite right, Mr. President. You very precisely said that I am asserting here that the speech was simply made from the view point, from the position of a Nazi, but I have no confirmation of the fact that Boehm himself did belong to the party, and I think that such polemics are admissible.
THE PRESIDENT: I think perhaps, General Rudenko. that it would be proper for you to withdraw any suggestion that Dr. Boehm himself was a convinced Nazi.
GEN. RUDENKO: But I never did affirm that Dr. Boehm was a convinced Nazi. I am simply assorting that, judging by his speech, he might possibly belong to the Nazi point of view.
THE PRESIDENT: What you mean is that Dr. Boehm was representing a certain point of view, and, of course, as counsel he doesn't represent his own point of view; he merely represents the point of view of the case which he is presenting. Is that what you meant?
GEN. RUDEKNO: Yes, of course, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Go on.
GEN. RUDENKO: The "Sturmabteilungen" or "SA" were the first striking force in the hands of the conspirators, the first mass, and military organization founded by them. Reichswohr, who was hoping for revenge.
The nucleus of the "SA was made up of men such as Streicher and Roehm, "zoological" anti-semites, chauvinists, supporters of the idea of the conquest of "living space", officers having left the army and soldiers of the defeated Kaiser's army. revenge, and to the "SA" entered adventurers, tempted by the decorative side of this criminal organization and seeing in it a possibility of participating in "pogroms" and plunder.